I love the new layout of Sports! It’s so much prettier than my old newsletter!

Well … normally it’s prettier than my old newsletter. Today I’ve decided to use the new layout to create a Tryptich Of Frustrated Middle-Aged Men.

– Rodger Sherman

We live in the era of the immortal athlete. Tom Brady was able to keep playing football at a high level for so long that his wife divorced him. LeBron James has played for so long that his son is now his teammate. With the marvels of modern sports science and hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal, the superstars of our generation are capable of playing until the next generation. (In LeBron’s case, literally!)

So when 4-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers signed up to play for his 21st NFL season, at age 41, two years removed from an Achilles injury, it seemed doable. Especially since he was headed to the Steelers, a team that figured out a way to make the playoffs the last two seasons with Kenny Pickett and past-expiration date Russell Wilson.

But in Sunday’s primetime loss to the Steelers, Rodgers played one of the worst games of his extremely long career. In fairness, Rodgers’ numbers improved a lot from the time the above screencap was taken, thanks to a late touchdown pass to Roman Wilson — in the end, it was the 12-lowest completion percentage, 16th-lowest yards per pass, and 6th-lowest passer rating of his career. But overall, the stats are painting a pretty solid picture of Rodgers’ performance in 2025:

In summary: Rodgers is pretty comfortably below average in most metrics, and playing some of the worst ball of his career — perhaps slightly better than his 2024 season with the Jets, but probably not.

Rodgers is a visibly different quarterback than he used to be. Some of the issues are physical: his Hall of Fame arm can’t rip the one-in-a-million throws that used to come naturally. And, well, he moves like a 41-year old two years removed from Achilles surgery.

Some, though, are mental: Rodgers is clearly terrified of contact, and he’s rushing throws he shouldn’t be making. In past, he had a seemingly psychic connection with his favorite receivers; now he doesn’t seem to trust any of his teammates. (Or the opinions of the medical community, but that’s another story.)

On the plus side, the Steelers are 5-4 and technically still in first place in the AFC North. But they’ve lost three of four and still have two remaining games against the resurgent Ravens. And with each week, Rodgers seems a little bit older and a little bit worse.

The NFL rarely lets competitors rethink your dumbest decisions. There is no “are you sure you want to repost this to your followers?” pop-up when a quarterback slings a pass into triple coverage.

But Sunday, Brian Daboll got a second chance to contemplate one of the most obviously incorrect decisions a coach has made this year. Leading the Bears late, the Giants had a 4th-and-1 from the Chicago 1-yard line. In the analytics era, this is not a difficult decision: There had been 20 situations this NFL season where teams faced 4th-and-1 from the opposing 1, and 19 teams went for it, with one field goal largely influenced by the fact that it was the last play before halftime. Either you score a touchdown — and teams were 10-for-19, 3.7 points per play, higher than the 3 points you get from a field goal — or you hand the opponent the worst possible field position.

Daboll kicked. However, the Bears had 12 men on the field, resulting in a penalty and giving the Giants the opportunity to move the ball half the distance to the goal line and go for a touchdown. This was Daboll’s second chance to make the right call — the are you sure you want to coach like a coward? pop-up most coaches don’t get.

Daboll kept the 3 points rather than trying to score from the half-yard line. The Giants never scored again. The Bears scored back-to-back touchdowns on their final two drives to win 24-20. The margin of victory was four points, or the difference between a field goal and a touchdown.

Daboll’s Giants have led four road games this season by double digits. Remarkably, they have lost all four: Sunday’s collapse against the Bears, the 33-point fourth quarter they allowed to the Broncos, the 23 unanswered points they allowed to the Saints, and the 40-37 loss to the Cowboys. There was one big mitigating factor on Sunday — starting QB Jaxson Dart went out with an injury, and all their good vibes immediately evaporated as Russell Wilson came into the game — but the result matches the rest of the season.

The Giants are 2-7, but they’ve learned a lot about their future this year. They’ve established proof of concept with Dart, which is all you really want out of a rookie QB. They know Malik Nabers can ball out, even if he’s out for the year. They’ve established elite vibes with Cam Skattebo and his 7 remaining brain cells.

And perhaps most importantly: They’ve established beyond any reasonable doubt that Brian Daboll is not their long-term head coach. Whatever shape the future of the franchise takes, it does not involve a coach who loses winnable games like this. They can fire him tomorrow — no are you sure? pop-up needed.

El-Alamein, Kursk, Jets-Browns: The greatest tank battles of all time.

Sunday’s game between New York and Cleveland was a classic Toilet Bowl: Per ESPN’s Seth Walder, the game’s loser would leap from an 8 percent chance of having the #1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft to a 27 percent chance. But even by general tank standards, the Browns went above and beyond.

With three minutes left, the Browns punted to the Jets, who needed to pick up a couple of first downs to win the game. Big problem for Cleveland. The Jets were averaging 3.6 yards per play and had only picked up nine first downs all game. The Browns had to take matters into their own hands.

After a run play which went backwards nine yards, the Jets faced 3rd-and-16, and seemed destined to punt. So the Browns committed defensive holding, an automatic first down. It was just the fifth penalty committed by any NFL team this year that led to first down on 3rd-and-16 or longer; two of the other four were committed by the Jets.

On the next set of downs, the Jets faced a 4th-and-4; in a situation where the Jets obviously weren’t trying to run a play and were simply trying to draw the opponent offsides, the Browns jumped offsides:

It’s not the first game-ending offsides penalty — we actually got one last year in a Steelers-Commanders game — but I think the fact that it was 4th-and-4 in Jets territory and the Jets were averaging three yards per play should’ve tipped the Browns off to the fact that THE JETS WERE OBVIOUSLY HOPING YOU WOULD DO THIS EXACT THING.

Was this intentional tanking? Probably not. Players have pride, and don’t lose games on purpose. (Although as Cleveland fans found out Sunday, they do occasionally avoid the strike zone on purpose.) And the average player has little to gain from helping their team secure better future draft picks. The player who jumped offsides was Cam Thomas, a player on the final year of his rookie deal. He has no vested interest in the long-term success of the Browns’ franchise, and does have a strong interest in playing well before his upcoming free agency.

But let’s recap the Browns’ season. They traded their starting QB, revitalizing a division rival’s season, so they could start a third-round rookie who is the worst QB in the league by virtually every metric. They have lost games this year on a missed extra point and a last-minute touchdown drive by Carson Wentz. And Sunday, they were outsmarted by the New York Jets. If they were tanking, how would it look any different?

🍆 I want to update you on last week’s post about how the NFL’s rulebook asks referees to decide what they think is sexy.” I WASN’T JOKING. WATCH THIS VIDEO. THE REF ACTUALLY TELLS THE SEAHAWKS’ PLAYERS WHICH ACTIONS HE THINKS ARE SEXY AND WHICH AREN’T.

🪙 Sunday was the NFL’s annual Germany game, which went to overtime — just the second NFL international game tied after regulation. This apparently led to confusion as the referees forgot which team was meant to be the home team, asking the “home” Colts to call heads or tails, awarding the Colts possession before realizing they needed to redo the flip with the Falcons picking. Also, do you think they used one of those cool multicolored Euro coins or is it a BYOC situation?

🐬 … the Dolphins??? beat the Bills????????? … who beat the Chiefs last week?!!?!?!? in football?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

🦒 the Texans needed a spot start from Davis Mills after last week’s injury to C.J. Stroud … and they scored 23 unanswered points in the fourth quarter, winning on Mills’ first rushing touchdown since 2022:

Incredible game etc., really I just wanted to post pictures of his gargantuan neck: