Greetings sports fans, and welcome to The Epoch Times Sports Brief for Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. I’m Bill Thomas, it’s a brand new month and we’ve got some brutally exciting stories to share with you right now, and here’s what’s happening in the thrilling world of sports.
A clash of Super Bowl contenders kicks off in a legendary stadium, a massive college football showdown explodes with huge playoff implications, and a very surprising NBA team is off to a scorching start to what’s gonna be a very long season.
Also, the richest race on four legs takes place tomorrow in California—we’ll tell you all about it, and we’ll take a final look at the epic meltdown that forced the biggest baseball bully on the block to go home with their tail between their legs and tears running down their cheeks.
Lions Battle Packers at Legendary Lambeau Field
One of the NFL’s oldest rivalries picks up again on Sunday when the Detroit Lions roar into Green Bay for an afternoon rumble with the rough and tough Packers.The hungry Lions have been pummeling their opponents, they’ve rattled off five wins in a row, and right now, they lead the league in scoring.
Quarterback Jared Goff has been spectacular, his passer rating during the winning streak has been phenomenal, and he’s a legitimate candidate for league MVP.
The Lions offense also spotlights All-Pro wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and a pair of bruising running backs, David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs, who are nearly impossible to take down one-on-one.
However, the Lions are gonna be missing one of their top receivers, Jameson Williams, who’s been suspended for PED violations. To make matters worse, he now faces some legal troubles involving a recent traffic stop, and during that stop, officers say they found a handgun under his seat. Outcome pending!
The big story in this one is whether or not Packers starting QB Jordan Love is going to play, and even if he does, how effective he’ll be.
So you know, last week against Jacksonville, Love suffered a strained groin, and yesterday, he practiced for the first time all week. If he can’t go, the team has plenty of confidence in his backup, the resurgent Malik Willis, who’s played extraordinarily well so far this season.
By the way, Green Bay’s leading rusher Josh Jacobs also missed some practice time this week with an ankle injury, but he says he’ll be good to go for the opening whistle.
The NFC North is the top division in football, and the Lions might be the best of the bunch in the entire NFC. However, the Pack is hot on their heels, and this week’s crucial showdown will give us all an early window into who’s the team to beat for the division crown.
Big Ten Rivals Brawl in Happy Valley
More than 100,000 die-hard Penn State fans are expected to pack Beaver Stadium and the metal stands will be absolutely quaking when the big bad Ohio State Buckeyes charge into Happy Valley.So you know, it’s been seven years since the third-ranked Nittany Lions have been positioned this high and they’ve been trying to claw their way back to the top ever since.
Unfortunately, head coach James Franklin has a reputation for stinking it up when the big game’s on the line, and for him personally, the stakes are huge. He’s only beaten the Buckeyes once in 10 tries, and if he stumbles again this week, he might just find himself looking for a new job at season’s end. Hey coach, I hear the Sports Brief is looking for a co-host—just sayin’.
It doesn’t help that Penn State’s offensive leader, junior quarterback Drew Allar, left last week’s game with a knee injury. It remains to be seen whether or not he’ll suit up tomorrow, and if he doesn’t, he’ll be replaced by some guy named Beau Pribula.
On the other side of the finely manicured green pasture, the visiting Buckeyes dropped a huge one last month to Oregon, and they simply cannot afford another loss. If they go down in this one, it’s bye-bye Buckeyes, and maybe even farewell to head coach Ryan Day, who’s 1–7 against top-five opponents.
By the way, the hometown fans are apparently furious about the game’s early start time and the fact that it won’t be Penn State’s annual “White Out” game, where everyone wears white clothes. Here’s what we suggest: First, win the ball game, then worry about fashion.
Oh, here’s something else that’s really interesting: former President Donald Trump is expected to be at the stadium to watch the contest, only three days before Election Day.
Cavs Off to a Blazing Start
The red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers are the talk of the NBA after bolting out to a 5–0 start, and tonight they welcome the Orlando Magic to the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.Superstar guard Donovan Mitchell leads the first-place Cavs in scoring, but he’s far from a one-man band. The front office has cobbled together a top-notch team, including a pair of dominant big men in former first-round pick Evan Mobley and center Jarrett Allen, along with a deep and scrappy bench.
Earlier this week, the Cavs knocked off both the Knicks and the Lakers, proving they’re definitely for real, and tonight, they’ll face another first-place team in Orlando.
Yesterday the Magic announced that their budding young superstar, Paolo Banchero, has suffered a torn right oblique muscle—that’s the one on your side near the rib cage—and he’s gonna be out indefinitely. That really hurts—both the injury and the loss.
Banchero was the number one overall draft pick back in 2022, and so far this season, he leads the team in scoring, assists, and minutes played.
Earlier this week, the blossoming power forward dropped a career-high 50 points on the Pacers, and that kind of productivity will be hard for the Magic to replace. So you know, the team says they aren’t even gonna reevaluate his injury for at least a month.
By the way, if the Cavs get by this one unscathed, tomorrow night they head to Milwaukee for a big-time showdown against the struggling Bucks.
Breeders’ Cup Classic Set for Tomorrow at Del Mar
The biggest thoroughbred horse racing event of the year is going on this weekend in San Diego County, where the turf meets the surf at the legendary Del Mar Racetrack.The 40th Breeders’ Cup features 14 races, a total purse worth $34 million, and jockeys, and trainers from all over the world will compete for some legendary cash prizes.
You should know that today’s races feature the younger 2-year-old horses, which are called juveniles, and tomorrow, all of the thoroughbreds will be at least 3 years old.
The Breeders’ Cup brags that “every horse, jockey, trainer, and owner across the globe” has this end-of-the-year gathering in their sights. The big race is the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, which takes place tomorrow afternoon and is the richest horse race in America.
So you know, the Classic will be run at a mile and a quarter on the dirt, it’s open to both male and female horses, and each year, it attracts both international champions and horses that have previously taken part in Triple Crown races.
Tomorrow, most of the horses in the big race are from the United States, but a number of top contenders are from Japan and even one from Ireland, a horse named City of Troy who’s actually the current favorite to win it all.
If you’re a fan of horse racing, this is the weekend for you. By the way, the big race will air live tomorrow afternoon on NBC TV.
Dodgers Win, Yankees Lose
This year’s World Series between the Dodgers and the Yankees certainly did not deliver the epic seven-game nailbiter we were all hoping for, but it did provide some absolutely unbelievable moments that we’ll remember for decades.Game 1 became an instant classic as soon as Freddie Freeman cleared the bases with the first walk-off Grand Slam in World Series history. If you’re not sick of seeing the replay yet, you will be soon.
In Game 2, the great Shohei Ohtani separated his shoulder, and from then on, he just wasn’t the same player. In Game 4, the Yankees woke up, they pounded out 11 runs, and finally gave their hometown fans something to cheer about.
A couple of days ago, the Bronx Bombers got off to a blistering start. They led 5–0, ace Gerrit Cole was in full control, and it was beginning to look like the Dodgers were in really big trouble.
Then came the humiliating fifth-inning meltdown that’s gonna haunt Yankees fans for ages.
With one out and a man on first, center fielder Aaron Judge uncharacteristically whiffed on a routine fly ball. My grandmother could have grabbed that one barehanded, while knitting and sipping tea. By the way, that play was Judge’s only error all year long; he says it will stay with him till he dies, and it opened the floodgates.
Later on in the inning, the rock-steady Cole inexplicably failed to cover the bag on a routine grounder to first and the Yankee nightmare continued.
It was all downhill from there. Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez each belted in a pair of runs, reliever Blake Treinen made the Yankees look silly with his sweeper, and Dodger starter Walker Buehler made a surprise visit to the mound in the ninth to close out the series by striking out Alex Verdugo.
In the end, the Dodgers overcame the largest deficit ever in a series-clinching game, the better team won, and looking back, the best fielder on the Yankees may have been that guy in the stands who tried to rip the ball out of Mookie Betts’s glove in Game 4.
By the way, the Dodgers victory parade was held today in Los Angeles, and this is their second championship in the last five years.
Hey, we’re just about out of time, but before we go, we’d like to warm up a bucket of hot oats in honor of an underdog racehorse named Seabiscuit and his jockey, George Wolfe. On this day back in 1938, Seabiscuit blew past the Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, by more than three lengths to win a celebrated one-on-one match race in Baltimore that’s still referred to as the “race of the century.”
The contest riveted tens of millions of people across the entire United States during the height of the Great Depression, and if you want to know more about the story, there’s an inspiring movie named after the four-legged legend that’s really worth checking out. The movie features Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire, and the world-famous Santa Anita Racetrack.
Looks like we’re out of time, so we’re going to call it a wrap for this edition of The Epoch Times Sports Brief.
If you have any thoughts about the Sports Brief program, we’d love to hear from you, and you can find us at [email protected].
For all of us here at The Epoch Times Sports Brief, I’m Bill Thomas.
The Epoch Times Sports Brief program is written by the winless Davey Ross, who was rooting for the Yankees.
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Enjoy another great weekend of sports, stay safe, and please join us again next time for another edition of The Epoch Times Sports Brief.
Till then, let’s all continue to watch out for one another, have a superb day today, and remember to keep your eyes on the game. Bye for now.
