The Cooligans welcome former MLS head coach and analyst Giovanni Savarese for a deep dive into the 2026 MLS season. Gio shares his predictions, breakout teams to watch, and how the league continues to evolve ahead of a massive 2026 on home soil. The conversation also turns to the USMNT, as the guys assess expectations, pressure, and what success should realistically look like at the 2026 World Cup.
Advertisement
Christian and Alexis then tackle the troubling racist incident involving Vinícius Júnior during Real Madrid’s clash with Benfica. They unpack how these situations are currently handled, question whether the responsibility to stop a match unfairly falls on the player experiencing abuse, and debate what meaningful structural changes could better protect players moving forward.
Finally, it’s a jam-packed Champions League recap. Folarin Balogun shines in a statement performance against Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus suffer a shocking defeat to Galatasaray, and Bodø/Glimt pull off a stunning win over Inter Milan. The boys react to all the drama, surprises, and what these results mean going forward.
Timestamps:
(6:30) – 2026 MLS preview and predictions
Advertisement
(30:00) – Gio Savarese’s USMNT World Cup outlook
(39:00) – Vinicius Junior deals with racism again: time for a rule change?
(59:00) – Folarin Balogun shines in Champions League loss to PSG
(1:04:30) – Serie A teams suffer shocking Champions League losses
Following the rave reviews and reactions to 2022’s Emily the Criminal, filmmaker John Patton Ford felt like he needed to strike while the iron was hot.
The South Carolina native made the rounds to discuss the possibilities of what he could do for his sophomore effort. Such a water-bottle-collecting moment was truly a long time coming for the writer-director. He’d been toiling away since the late 2000s in order to get one of his scripts produced. Several projects had fallen apart on or near the one-yard line, but together with his lead actor Aubrey Plaza and what would become her career-best performance, he finally crossed the plane with Emily in 2022.
The crime thriller may not have blown the roof off the summer box office, but its strong word of mouth and four Independent Spirit Awards nominations, including Ford’s win for “best first screenplay,” flooded his inbox with opportunities.
“It was an overwhelming moment that I didn’t quite know how to deal with, to be honest. I felt a lot of insecurity at that time. I felt like I had to get another movie going pronto or else the attention would go away,” Ford tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Within a few months, Ford dusted off an old script called Rothchild that The Black List had recognized all the way back in 2014. Loosely inspired by 1949’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, the tragicomedy chronicles a bastard son named Becket who starts killing off all the estranged family members who stand in the way of the inheritance that he and his late mother were wrongly denied. Like Emily, it’s a film about the desperate measures people take for money.
“After school, I struggled for a long, long time. Now I’m a white guy with an education; I can only fail so hard. But I wasn’t getting to do what I wanted to do for a long, long time,” Ford says. “It seeped into my pores and took over my personality. I thought it was just never going to end. So I was willing to do whatever it took to get my career going, and hey, big surprise, I make movies about similar people.”
In 2019, the film nearly got made when it hit the Cannes Market as a Shia LaBeouf-Mel Gibson package for another director. At the time, LaBeouf was riding high on the Sundance sale of his semi-autobiographical drama, Honey Boy, and Gibson was still enjoying some post-Hacksaw Ridge goodwill. However, between Gibson’s checkered history and the title’s similarity to a real-life banking dynasty, controversy seemingly derailed the picture.
In 2023, the project reemerged with a new title and a new family surname (among other things). Glen Powell and Ed Harris eventually became the new grandson-grandfather pairing of Becket and Whitelaw Redfellow. Ford has repeatedly likened Powell to a cross between Captain America and a golden retriever, but he reveals that there was early concern among executives when Powell showed up to set looking like Steve Rogers, pre-Super Soldier Serum. The actor, as he noted in a THRcover story, lost at least 15 pounds by ingesting a steady stream of bone broth. He even changed his hair color after another coiffure concept was ruled out.
“When he came on set, he didn’t quite look like Glen Powell — or not how people expected — and some of the executives were actually really concerned at first,” Ford shares. “He also had a crazy wig [initially], and we were like, ‘That’s a step too far.’”
For a film that ultimately condemns billionaire families who take all they can and give next to nothing back, Ford repurposed a directive he once received during a sales job to define the Redfellow patriarch’s (Harris) unwavering philosophy.
“They said [the sales pitch] like it was a lesson that we needed to learn: ‘Your only enemy is your own conscience. If you can turn that off, you can actually succeed,’” Ford recalls. “It is, on one hand, a brilliant thing to say. On the other hand, it’s completely sociopathic. I didn’t want to have a movie that says, ‘Rich people are bad, period,’ and that’s it. I wanted something a little more complex.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Ford also discusses some of the film’s lingering questions, as well as whether he and Plaza have another team-up in store.
***
Aubrey Plaza as the title character in John Patton’s Ford’s Emily the Criminal.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute/Low Spark Films
Emily the Criminal received rave reviews, and it became a word-of-mouth movie among industry people and the audience. Did you go on a water bottle tour as you figured out what to do next? Or did you go straight for this old Black List script of yours?
I did the tour. I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do next. It was an overwhelming moment that I didn’t quite know how to deal with, to be honest. I felt a lot of insecurity at that time. I felt like I had to get another movie going pronto or else the attention would go away. It’s funny how that works, and it took me a minute. It was maybe two or three months before this project came to light [again], but when it did, I was on that train for as long as it took.
Both Emily and How to Make a Killing explore the extreme lengths that people will go to for money. Is there a deep-rooted reason why you’re drawn to this theme?
This is a lot like the Zoom therapy session I had two days ago. The quick answer is: after school, I struggled for a long, long time. Now I’m a white guy with an education; I can only fail so hard. So I don’t mean to paint a picture like I had it rough, but I wasn’t getting to do what I wanted to do for a long, long time. I was living off of an incredibly low amount of money a year in L.A., and I don’t even know how I did that for so long. It seeped into my pores and took over my personality. I thought it was just never going to end. I was cooking in that marinade for so long that I’ll probably be burning off the fumes of those feelings for a while. So I was willing to do whatever it took to get my career going, and hey, big surprise, I make movies about similar people.
John Patton Ford on the set of How to Make a Killing.
A24
When a debut feature is received well, the filmmaker is sometimes miscategorized as an overnight success, and that probably happened with you and Emily.
Yeah, it was probably about 12 years of trying to get something made. I’d had four projects come together and fall apart. One of them was pretty late into the game, and it was brutal.
Marty Supreme had the slogan of “dream big.” I just watched a movie called GOAT that also had the “dream big” mantra. Kate Hudson and Hugh Jackman’s recent movie, Song Sung Blue, even has the tagline of “dream huge.”
Does it really? (Laughs.)
It does. But Ruth (Jessica Henwick) makes the opposite point that it’s okay to dream small even though we’re not taught to think that way. Do you think it’s a mistake that so many of us are conditioned to believe that “the right kind of life” involves fame and/or fortune?
I don’t know if it’s a mistake, but I do know that we have a societal conundrum in the sense that we’re born into this system where you have to grow, expand and earn more. We have a system that is reliant upon growth, or it quite literally won’t work. We measure our success in growth. How much more money are we making? How many jobs have we added? How is the GDP going up? That boils down to the individual, and yet the definition of contentment is literally the sensation of not wanting anything more than you currently have. So how do you reconcile these two things? And maybe that’s just the experience of being a human regardless of what system you’re inside of. I don’t know. But I find it fascinating and compelling.
I also find it interesting how hard I work and how many things I’m doing. Does it net out to contentment or security as much as I think it does? Probably not. I’m fascinated by Gen Z and their emerging attitude that they’re just not going to work as hard as previous generations. They’re kind of my favorite generation ever. I’m cheering them on, man. I’m also terrified of them, but I hope it works out.
The whole movie, Becket is trying to figure out what his mother meant when she made him promise to pursue “the right kind of life.” He assumes it’s material wealth, but do you think his mother would ultimately agree with Ruth?
I would probably never speak to that in an interview. I feel like I don’t want to show all the marbles. Is that an expression? I think I just made that up.
Show all your cards?
Cards! Thank you. Who’s got marbles anymore? But I hesitate to get too in the weeds about that. We definitely wanted his mom to provide this canonic text in the beginning, and then for the rest of the story, he’s trying to interpret what she exactly meant by that. For me, it just reflects an overall cultural norm, especially in the U.S. We’re taught from early on about ambition — reach for the stars and dream big, as you said. But what does that mean? What do we do with that? Where does it lead and why? It’s a little mysterious. So these are the questions I was interested in. What did his mom literally mean? I don’t really know. I don’t know any more than the central character does.
Jessica Henwick as Ruth in How to Make a Killing.
A24
I don’t think this movie works without Jessica Henwick pulling off the heart and moral compass as well as she does. Knowing you had so many despicable characters, did you always view Ruth as the movie’s linchpin?
Yeah, I think so. I saw Ruth as someone who provided an alternative. She’s someone who has a different value system and a different way of living that would provide the central character with a dilemma. Do I want to go in her direction, or do I want to go in another direction? Jess is an incredible actor. She can do anything. But she also has a flavor of that kind of thing in real life. She strikes me as someone who’s really well-adjusted, and she has her passions outside of acting. She’s so great that people keep asking her to be in stuff over and over again, but she’s one of the only actors I know who’s constantly trying not to work. Actors are always doing whatever they can to get booked — except for Jess Henwick. She’s like, “I just want to go backpacking. I just want to go on a solo.” She’s big into outdoor stuff. She’s a super experienced backpacker, and she’s always trying to take these trips. Then she gets cast in something, and she’s like, “Ah! I had all my gear.” She’s the best.
She and I talked about her future recently, and I definitely walked away worried.
We can’t let her go. She’s too good.
Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow in How to Make a Killing.
A24 Films
Glen Powell went on the world-famous bone broth diet to lose weight for this movie. What was his reasoning? That Becket was hungry literally and figuratively?
That was something he brought to the table. He wanted to look a certain way, and he didn’t want the character to be reminiscent of previous characters he played. I think it’s worth noting that, on arrival, stock Glen, the basic version of Glen, looks like a superhero. The dude is jacked, and his base weight is “jacked dude.” So he didn’t think that made sense for the character. For this person to be an underdog and for him to not be getting what he wants, he felt that it doesn’t make sense for him to look like Captain America. So he went on a crazy diet and lost a lot of weight. He even changed his hair color. When he came on set, he didn’t quite look like Glen Powell — or not how people expected — and some of the executives were actually really concerned at first. He also had a crazy wig [initially], and we were like, “That’s a step too far.”
Becket’s childhood friend, Julia (Margaret Qualley), keeps close tabs on him throughout the movie, and she’s onto him and his killings before anyone else. Thus, was their initial reunion at the Brooks Brothers-type store really an accident? Could she have been that many moves ahead? Did she already sense that her fiancé Lyle was heading in the wrong direction and start lining up a plan B?
To me, it wasn’t calculated. It’s just happenstance, and then it kicks things off. But the thing about Margaret is that she’s so overwhelming on camera. She has such confidence that she takes over everything when she shows up, and it’s impossible to look at anything else. And for that reason, audiences are free to project any number of things onto her character. That character is so nuts that you can easily imagine that she had it all figured out and planned. She just has so much confidence that you can build your own narrative off of it. But from my mind, she was just showing up.
Margaret Qualley as Julia in How to Make a Killing.
A24 Films
To put it mildly, Redfellow-type people have been in the news a lot lately, and so I couldn’t help but watch the film through that lens. Thus, Ed Harris’ monologue about ignoring one’s conscience was what I imagine a lot of these wealthy elites learn to do. Were you actually trying to rationalize how many of these people live with themselves?
Yeah, sure. In that moment with Ed Harris, I didn’t want a movie that says, “Rich people are bad, period,” and that’s it. I wanted something a little more complex. Who is this guy actually? What is his mantra? What is his way of living, and can you criticize it exactly if it works for him? What he says is something that someone said to me once at a sales pitch for this company I was working for, and they said it in an unironic way. They said it like it was a lesson that we needed to learn: “Your only enemy is your own conscience, telling you some kind of story about what’s right and what’s wrong. If you can turn that off, you can actually succeed.”
It is, on one hand, a brilliant thing to say. On the other hand, it’s completely sociopathic. Which one is it? History is littered with no shortage of geniuses and incredibly successful people who probably followed that mantra completely, from Napoleon to Henry Ford to you name it. But what were the casualties of that mindset? Yes, they led to great breakthroughs and successes and things that may have helped humanity as a whole, but what did it cost? So I wanted to infuse it with that.
In a perfect world, what would you do next?
I would love to make something more similar to my first movie. I would love to get back to a character-driven thriller, something much more grounded and based in reality. This movie was a huge adventure out into the left field. It’s something I never thought I’d do, and it just felt so different. No regrets, I learned a lot, but I also learned that it is not the comfiest zone for me. Things that are elevated and aren’t quite reality, they’re hard. So now that I have a better idea of what my wheelhouse is, I’d like to get back to that wheelhouse. If Sidney Lumet was born in the ‘80s, what movie would he make right now? That’s what I’m looking for right now.
Do you think you and Aubrey Plaza will have another story to tell someday?
Yeah, I love Aubrey. Whatever she wants. I would love to. We’re both a little bit older now. We’d have to figure out what that thing is. We were both raised by lawyers. Both of our parents are attorneys and litigators, and there’s something there. I would love to see her playing an attorney who’s locked into really heated debates with someone. If you’ve been around Aubrey, you know how smart she is and how good she is at arguing. So I’d love to see that. I don’t have a story, but I’d love to see whatever that is.
*** How to Make a Killing is now playing in movie theaters.
Tarik Skubal’s stint with Team USA at the World Baseball Classic will be short-lived.
The Detroit Tigers ace told reporters Monday that he’ll make one WBC start and then be done with the tournament. It sounds like the start will come in pool play, rather than in the knockout rounds.
Advertisement
Skubal shared the plan from spring training in Florida and explained that he’ll prioritize getting ready for Detroit’s season after his start.
“I’m trying to do both things, trying to pitch for Team USA, but I understand the need to be here with these guys and get ready for the season,” Skubal said, per The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen. “I think it’s kind of the best of both worlds in that aspect, and I’m grateful they took me in that capacity.”
Skubal also said he’d ask the Tigers to rejoin Team USA as a spectator if it makes the finals, indicating that his start will come sometime early in pool play.
“If they go to the finals, I think I’m going to try and lobby to just go watch and be with the guys,” he added.
The WBC finals will be played in Miami, not far from Detroit’s spring training home in Lakeland, Florida.
The Tigers and Tarik Skubal are limiting his exposure to injury risk in the World Baseball Classic.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The reigning two-time AL Cy Young winner’s absence after his planned start will leave the U.S. without arguably its top pitcher for the remainder of the tournament. USA has a deep roster of nine starting pitchers to choose from, including reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, two-time All-Star Logan Webb and 2025 All-Star Joe Ryan.
Advertisement
The upgrade of its pitching staff from the previous WBC is expected to give USA a leg up in the tournament after it lost to Japan on the final at-bat of the championship game in 2023. Skubal’s limited availability is something of a blow to those plans and will leave Team USA without one of its top options on the mound in elimination games if it advances beyond pool play.
The decision appears to be a compromise from the Tigers, allowing Skubal to pitch for Team USA while limiting his exposure and injury risk. The Tigers are coming off a season in which they bounced back from a regular-season collapse that allowed the Cleveland Guardians to win the AL Central to clinch a wild-card berth and beat the Guardians in the wild-card round. They lost to the Seattle Mariners in the ALDS.
Detroit is projected to contend for the AL Central title in 2026, and Skubal’s health and performance will be a big part of those plans.
After a three-year wait, the World Baseball Classic is back. Team Japan will look to defend its title after taking down Team USA in the 2023 final. That contest ended in the most dramatic way possible, as Shohei Ohtani faced his then-teammate Mike Trout with the game on the line in the ninth inning.
With the 2026 World Baseball Classic fast approaching, here’s everything you need to know about the event, including the schedule, bracket, rosters and where you can watch every game.
The pool stage will run from March 5 to March 11. The quarterfinals will occur March 13 and March 14. The semifinals will take place March 15 and March 16, setting up the WBC final on March 17 in Miami.
Venezuela Dominican Republic Netherlands Israel Nicaragua
2026 World Baseball Classic format
The 2026 WBC will begin with the pool stage. In this stage, teams will play every other team in their pools. Puerto Rico, for example, will play the four other teams in Pool A during this portion of the tournament. After that, the two teams with the best records in each pool will advance to the quarterfinals. In the event of a tie, head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker. From there, things get slightly more complicated, with the “lowest quotient of runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in games between the teams that are tied” coming into play, per ESPN.
Advertisement
In the quarterfinals, the winner of Pool A will play against the runner-up from Pool B, and the winner of Pool B will play the runner-up from Pool A. The same format will occur on the other side of the bracket featuring the winners and runners-up from Pools C and D. The tournament is a single-elimination bracket, meaning teams that lose are eliminated.
The four teams left standing after the quarterfinals advance to the semifinals. Teams are reseeded for the semifinal round, so a team from Pool A could face a team from Pool D for the first time in the semifinal. Once again, games are single-elimination.
The two teams that advance to the final will play one winner-take-all game to determine the champion.
Previous World Baseball Classic winners
Since the first World Baseball Classic in 2006, three countries have won the championship. Here are the winners — and runners-up — from the five previous editions of the WBC.
Advertisement
2006: Japan defeated Cuba 10-6 2009: Japan defeated South Korea 5-3 2013: Dominican Republic defeated Puerto Rico 3-0 2017: United States defeated Puerto Rico 8-0 2023: Japan defeated United States 3-2
Japan has won three of the five World Baseball Classics, with the Dominican Republic and the United States taking the other two editions of the tournament.
Shohei Ohtani celebrates with his teammates after the final out of the 2023 World Baseball Classic. (Photo by Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images)
(Christopher Pasatieri via Getty Images)
2026 World Baseball Classic rosters
Many MLB superstars have committed to the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Team USA will feature MLB stars including Aaron Judge, Paul Skenes, Bryce Harper and Bobby Witt Jr. A full rundown of Team USA’s roster can be viewed here.
Advertisement
Japan should also have plenty of MLB talent once again, led by Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Ohtani, however, will not pitch in the event. Team Japan will also feature Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki and new MLB additions Kazuma Okamoto and Munetaka Murakami.
The Dominican Republic is also loaded with talent. Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are among the MLB stars playing for the country in 2026. They’ll be joined by Brayan Bello, Sandy Alcantara, Ketel Marte and Julio Rodriguez, among others.
Mexico and Venezuela also have some MLB stars on their rosters. Mexico will feature Alejandro Kirk, Jarren Duran and Randy Arozarena. Venezuela will have Ronald Acuña Jr., Jackson Chourio and Salvador Perez.
MLB players will appear across the rest of the WBC rosters, too. Nolan Arenado will play for Puerto Rico, which will be without Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa due to insurance issues. Vinnie Pasquantino will play for Team Italy. Jose Quintana will play for Colombia. And Liam Hendriks will take the mound for Australia.
Advertisement
For a comprehensive list of MLB players in the 2026 WBC, go here.
How to watch the 2026 World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic games will air on FOX Media in 2026. Games will appear on FOX, FS1, FS2, the FOX Sports App, FOX One and Tubi. FOX Deportes will carry 28 games in Spanish during the event.
The 2026 World Baseball Classic championship game will be broadcast on FOX.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Major League Baseball is changing … again.
Amid an era that has already seen significant alterations to the sport, most of which have been received favorably by fans and players alike, MLB will introduce perhaps its most dramatic change yet in 2026: the ability to challenge ball and strike calls.
Advertisement
For the past four seasons, MLB has invested heavily in testing the use of Automated Ball Strike (ABS) technology, predominantly at the Triple-A level but also during 2025 major-league spring training and the 2025 All-Star Game. At the minor-league level, early experimentation included the use of ABS to call all balls and strikes based on a designated virtual strike zone — crafted in space using 12 Hawk-Eye cameras placed around the perimeter of the field and tracking the pitch’s location, with the top and bottom boundaries of the zone determined by the batter’s height — with calls communicated to the home plate umpire via earpiece. But feedback on such a comprehensive system was less than positive among fans and players.
Instead, there was quickly a consensus among all parties that ABS would be better deployed in a limited capacity. Rather than completely eliminating the home plate umpire’s perspective, ABS — which offers a more black-and-white interpretation of the strike zone than a human ever could — could act as more of a support system than an overarching rule of law. Indeed, starting this season, no longer will MLB players have to begrudgingly accept a home plate umpire’s ruling no matter what; modern technology has provided the chance for recourse.
In September, the Joint Competition Committee — a group of six owners, four active players and one active umpire — voted to introduce the ABS challenge system for the 2026 season. On Thursday, at the conclusion of the annual Cactus League media day, former big-league pitcher and current vice president of on-field strategy for MLB Joe Martinez gave a presentation on how the ABS challenge system will function in 2026. It was similar to the one MLB gave a year ago ahead of its first round of testing in big-league spring training games, but this time, the stakes are considerably higher. This is no longer some early-stage experiment. This system is coming on Opening Day.
Advertisement
Welcome to a world in which players can argue balls and strikes — at least some of the time. In reintroducing the concept of the ABS challenge system, MLB stated its objective early and emphatically: “To provide players with an opportunity to correct missed calls in high-leverage moments in a manner that fans like.”
Here are the basics of how the ABS challenge system will work:
Each team will have two challenges to begin each game, and all successful challenges will be retained.
Only the batter, catcher and pitcher are allowed to challenge a ball or strike call; protests from the bench or elsewhere on the field are prohibited, and umpires have the ability to deny a challenge if they believe it was aided or influenced by anyone else on field or in the dugout.
To challenge a call, the pitcher, catcher or batter must tap his head immediately (in less than two seconds, roughly) to initiate a review. At that point, the umpire will announce the call is being challenged, and a graphic showing the ball’s location as determined by ABS will be displayed on the scoreboard and broadcast. The result of the challenge will be announced, and play continues. (In the past, even before ABS was a factor, there have sometimes been minor discrepancies between the strike zone displayed on the broadcast, the one embedded in MLB’s Gameday app and the one appearing on Baseball Savant’s Gamefeeds. MLB is working to ensure that all available forms of the strike zone are reflective of the zone being used by the ABS challenge system.)
MLB defines the strike zone as “a two-dimensional rectangle that is set in the middle of home plate with the edges of the zone set to the width of home plate (17 inches) and the top and bottom adjusted based on each individual player’s height (53.5% of the batter’s height at the top and 27% at the bottom).” If any part of the ball is touching that strike zone — as tracked by the Hawk-Eye cameras — it is considered a strike.
Because the system is based entirely on player height, MLB has arranged for independent testers to measure all players during spring training using a standardized process to ensure that no player’s zone is too large or small based on a misreported height.
If a game goes to extra innings, each team will be awarded one extra challenge each inning, but only if they do not have any remaining. For example, a team that has two challenges left after nine innings would not gain a third challenge for the 10th, but a team with zero challenges remaining after nine innings would regain one challenge for the 10th. This repeats with each successive extra inning.
Challenges cannot be used if a position player is pitching.
On Thursday, MLB also supplied some data regarding how challenges came into play during spring training last year and another full season of testing in Triple-A. The overturn rate in Triple-A in 2025 was 50%, while the rate in spring training was 52%. Interestingly, catchers (56% overturn rate) were notably more successful at overturning calls than batters (50%) or pitchers (41%), lending credence to the possibility that some teams will institute strict guidelines regarding which of their players have the latitude to challenge calls. That’s just one of several strategic elements of the ABS challenge system that are still being contemplated by front offices, coaches and players in camp.
Another data point that could illuminate potential strategy is when during games the challenges have most commonly been deployed. In Triple-A, challenges were far more frequent in the later innings than the early innings, perhaps a reflection of a strategic preference to save challenges for more consequential or higher-leverage moments later in a game.
Advertisement
Conversely, in big-league spring training last year, the bulk of the challenges were used earlier in games, often in the first three-to-five innings. But as Martinez pointed out, that likely had less to do with a conscious strategy and more with who was playing earlier in those games: veterans testing the system before they exited to make way for the prospects and minor leaguers who often occupy the later innings of Cactus and Grapefruit League contests. This dynamic is crucial to keep in mind as we prepare for another spring with the ABS challenge system in action.
Before we get to Opening Day, this spring will provide a larger sample of data for us to glean a preview of what’s to come. Last year, Hawk-Eye was installed in a select number of spring training ballparks, thus limiting certain teams’ exposure to the system; this time around, Hawk-Eye is in every spring training ballpark. But while teams are now preparing behind the scenes for how to take advantage of the challenge system in games that count, it’s unlikely that will meaningfully change their behavior — or that they’ll reveal such strategies — in exhibition contests.
Advertisement
Further complicating matters is the high percentage of players who will depart spring training early to participate in the World Baseball Classic — in which the ABS challenge system will not be used — and thus miss out on the reps with the system leading up to its official introduction in the regular season.
All of this adds to the intrigue surrounding a new technology that will transform the sport in myriad ways we are still in the earliest stages of fully grasping. A spring training with widespread use of the ABS challenge system will serve as an appetizer to this new world we’re about to enter.
But we won’t know the full scope until the real games commence at the end of March. Opening Day can’t get here soon enough. Let the head tapping begin.
On today’s Kevin O’Connor Show, KOC is joined by NBC broadcaster John Fanta to talk everything NBA. They start with Eastern Conference contender power rankings: who’s the number one team in the East? Could Cade Cunningham really be MVP?
Advertisement
Then, they turn to Team USA hockey’s gold-medal win against Canada before John tells the story of his call-up to the NBA on NBC by Mike Tirico.
Plus, they discuss if Anthony Edwards is the face of the league, address the troubles in Phoenix & Houston, and take a look at the top prospects in this year’s fiery draft class.
That and more, today!
Eastern Conference Contenders (1:39) USA Hockey and John’s NBC Career (43:16) Draft Class (1:10:20)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 22: Payton Pritchard #11 of the Boston Celtics talks to head coach Joe Mazulla during the second half of their game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on February 22, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Luiza Moraes/Getty Images)
“Maybe we all represented the United States at the Olympics or World Championships,” Hughes wrote. “Maybe we won a gold medal (or gold medals) together. What an honor that would be.”
Advertisement
Hughes is coming off scoring a goal in overtime in Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Canada to help Team USA win its first Olympic gold in men’s hockey since the famed 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team. After Hughes’ overtime goal and his resilience through the game, he has become the poster boy for the Team USA men’s hockey team.
Early in the third period, the 24-year-old forward got his front two teeth knocked out after taking a stick to the face. Later in the period, Hughes was in the penalty box after accidentally hitting a Canadian player in the face with his stick while fighting for a loose puck in the corner. He feared the worst.
Advertisement
“I pictured myself on Barstool being the guy that America hates because Canada scores on the power play,” Hughes said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, here it comes.’”
In the end, Hughes traded his front teeth for a gold medal. Instead of being the punchline of online jokes, Hughes’ goal will be ingrained in Team USA history and it was all predicted way back in 2019.
A familiar face is joining the Los Angeles Rams coaching staff.
Former Rams wide receiver Robert Woods is joining Sean McVay’s staff as an assistant wide receivers coach. The Rams announced the hiring on Monday via an announcement of its full coaching staff for the 2026 season.
Advertisement
They also announced that Kliff Kingsbury will work as McVay’s assistant head coach. Reports previously indicated that Kingsbury was joining McVay’s staff, but his role wasn’t clear.
The former head coach of Texas Tech and the Arizona Cardinals, Kingsbury spent the previous two seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders. The Commanders parted with Kingsbury in the offseason, and he’ll now work as McVay’s top assistant.
Brian Johnson, the former Eagles offensive coordinator who worked as the Commanders’ passing game coordinator with Kingsbury, is also joining the staff as a senior offensive assistant.
Woods back with Rams days after retirement announcement
Woods, meanwhile, will embark on a coaching career with a Rams team for which he played five of his 12 NFL seasons. Woods played for the Rams from 2017-21, all under McVay. He finished his final season in Los Angeles on injured reserve with a torn ACL, but was a member of that 2021 Super Bowl-winning team.
Advertisement
Woods joins the Rams’ staff less than a week after retiring as a player. Woods played his final two active seasons with the Houston Texans from 2023-24. He joined the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2025 offseason, but didn’t play in 2025 after the Steelers released him in August.
Woods played for four NFL teams, but announced his retirement via a Rams blue-and-gold Instagram statement alongside prominent graphics of him wearing a Rams uniform. The Rams later announced that he was officially retiring as a member of the team.
Less than a week later, Woods has officially rejoined the team as a member of its coaching staff.
Advertisement
He rejoins a Rams team that lost to the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks in the NFC championship game and projects as one of the top contenders to compete for the Super Bowl next season. He’ll work directly with two of the top receivers in football, Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.
For the first time ever, the NAACP Image Awards are getting into gaming.
The 57th NAACP Image Awards kick off a two-day stream of its virtual awards portion Monday at 8 p.m. on Youtube. Among the multiple digital content creator categories that will be announced out of the stream is Outstanding Digital Content Creator – Gaming/Tech, an honor that will go to one of five nominees: Berlin Edmond Jr., Cory Kenshin, Jay-Ann Lopez, Khleo Thomas or Gerard Williams, better known to fans as HipHopGamer.
“So I personally spoke with Derek Johnson, the president of the NAACP Image Awards, and he said it clear as day,” Williams told Variety ahead of Monday’s awards show livestream. “He said, yo, look, let me tell you right now, we wanted to open up this category — because he realizes that there’s a lot of people, there’s a lot of minorities, there’s a lot of Black people, period, that’s also in this area that we need to reach out to, that we need to talk to. And the only way that’s going to happen is we got to meet them where they are. So it was ideal to open up this category for the 57th NAACP Image Award. So that’s one of the reasons why they opened it, and also they understand the power of gaming and tech, AI, where everything is going. They need to be a part of that conversation as well, so they can have a lot of opportunity in the space, too.”
Williams first became interested in gaming when his late grandmother, Margaret Williams, introduced him to the hobby when he was a small child growing up in Brooklyn. Today, he’s known for his gaming journalism and weekly syndicated show with Hot97, as well as his community outreach, including Playmakers, a partnership with Chase Bank to expand financial literacy through gaming in New York City schools, and a Denzel Washington-backed gaming-focused rehabilitation program for inmates at Rikers Island.
Williams recently debuted as a character in the “Mutant Football League 2” video game, featuring his likeness, music and his own team, which includes some of the students and released inmates he has worked with.
“Being nominated for the first time ever that this category even exists — just this moment alone, it makes me just go right back to grandma when I was four years old,” Williams said. “That kid spirit just comes right out saying it was an honor. I was actually in a hotel in Vegas for something else and I got the email. I was jumping on the bed. It was crazy. It was very overwhelming.”
Up next, Williams will be the host for the Games Beat Summit at the GDC Festival of Gaming in March in San Francisco, and looking further ahead, his longterm aspirations include landing a Men’s Health and becoming a gaming anchor on “Good Morning America.”
Win or lose — though Williams is very clear he would love to win — at the NAACP Image Awards, Williams is so grateful the gaming category exists at all and sees it as a step toward more acknowledgement of the Black community’s presence in the gaming industry.
Williams recalls attending his first E3 (a now-ended but formerly impactful gaming convention) back in 2008, and the poor reception he received from some in the predominantly-white gaming journalism community, despite his self-proclaimed exuberant and friendly attitude.
“I got this big championship belt on me. I’m from East New York, Brooklyn, and I don’t code switch, meaning that I’m me wherever I go. This is what you get, but I know my stuff,” Williams said. “The way it was 15-20 years ago, oh my gosh, listen — it was bad. One of the reasons why I learned business so much so fast within the gaming industry is because I was met with racism, too. It’s crazy. But one thing about me, I don’t complain, I create. Period. Because you can get caught up in all of that racist stuff and be all mad, and then at the end of the day, you can only control what you can control. And if you allow the negativity to control your energy, then you become what you hate.”
Kevin O’Connor is joined by Andrew Sharp to break down the Ja Morant situation in Memphis. They discuss the Grizzlies reportedly entertaining offers for Morant, his trade value and potential suitors for Ja.
Advertisement
Next, they check in on the ongoing ‘point guard musical chairs’ situation in the NBA. Is LaMelo Ball going to follow Trae Young’s lead or stay in Charlotte? Should the Cavaliers explore Darius Garland trades? Will a point guard solve Houston’s problems? Plus, the duo drafts their 10 most underrated NBA players for this season.
Later, Mohamed Farah joins for this week’s Draft Class to highlight Kingston Flemings, Darryn Peterson and more of the top NBA draft picks.
(0:44) Grizzlies open to trading Ja Morant (5:19) Ja Morant trade destinations (22:07) Point guard musical chairs (42:37) Underrated NBA player draft with Andrew Sharp (1:08:31) Draft Class with Mohamed Farah
Ja Morant looks on prior to the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on January 02, 2026 in Los Angeles, California (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
