Greetings sports fans, it's Chris Bengel back with you on this Tuesday morning. While getting through the workweek may be tough sometimes, one thing to take solace in is the fact that football is back.
We've got NFL preseason football a few nights out of the week and that is just tremendous. Many of the preseason games saw low scoring totals, which isn't exactly ideal. On the other hand, it's just awesome to have football back in our lives. In addition, we're just a few weeks from having both college football and the NFL back. There's truly nothing better than kicking back and watching two straight days of football over the weekend.
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Before we fully dive into what's happening, we have some breaking news to cover: Joel Embiid is sticking around in Philly. The star has agreed to an extension for four years, $196 million that will keep him with the 76ers through the 2026-27 season . As a huge Sixers fan, I'm ecstatic.
Now, let's dive right into the rest of the news!
The college football season is just a few short weeks away and that is simply a beautiful thing. It's so close that the first Associated Press poll came out on Monday. As always, that led to a ton of debate.
As should come as no surprise, Alabama will enter the season as the top team in all of the land. The Crimson Tide lost a ton of talent to the NFL as they normally do, including last year's starting quarterback Mac Jones. However, Alabama had star signal caller Bryce Young waiting in the wings and he is already being touted as one of the frontrunners for the Heisman Trophy.
Following Alabama is Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State and Georgia to round out the top five of the poll. The college landscape is expected to look quite a bit different with quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields moving on to the NFL ranks and forcing a changing of the guard under center at Clemson and Ohio State, respectively.
With the first poll being released, CBS Sports college football scribe Barrett Sallee weighed in with a few teams that he thinks are overrated and underrated . Here's one team from each side:
Last week's Field of Dreams Game between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees was a smashing success. The game, which was played in the corn fields of Dyersville, Iowa , was the first of its kind and provided several theatrics, including a walk-off home run from White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson.
It was a success for MLB that on Monday night, NBC Sports Chicago reported that the 2022 Field of Dreams Game will be between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds . Shortly after last week's contest ended, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that there would be another edition of the game during the 2022 season. However, it was unclear what teams would be participating up until now.
It's definitely not surprising to see a Chicago team playing in the Field of Dreams Game once again, due to the city being the closest major market to Iowa. However:
That being said, it will be tough for the 2022 version of the game to live up to what happened between the White Sox and Yankees.
With the NBA Draft and free agency mostly in the books, the calendar is beginning to flip towards the 2021-22 season. Many of the league's top teams made moves in an attempt to position themselves for another deep postseason run.
Some of the bigger surprises of the playoffs were the fact that the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers all failed to reach the conference finals. As such, those teams have led the way in making changes ahead of next season.
The Lakers made huge changes to their roster as they traded for All-Star guard Russell Westbrook and also signed veterans like Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard. Meanwhile, the Nets and Sixers made minor changes in an effort to keep pace with the Bucks in the East.
CBS Sports NBA scribe Colin Ward-Henninger took a closer look at each team's offseason to date and handed out grades . Here are a few of the highlights of some of the league's upper-echelon teams:
The trade deadline is in the past and the 2021 Major League Baseball season is coming down the home stretch. Division races are really heating up and some of the league's biggest contenders are starting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
CBS Sports baseball scribe Matt Snyder unveiled his latest edition of MLB Power Rankings following last week's action . The Giants topped Snyder's list and it's really hard to argue with that, as they have been one of the biggest surprises of the 2021 campaign.
As a Phillies fan, you can imagine that I wasn't the biggest fan of Gabe Kapler's tenure with the franchise. However, the third-year skipper really seems to have everything figured out in the Bay Area. The Giants currently lead the Los Angeles Dodgers by four games in the NL West.
Here's a rundown of the top 10 in this week's Power Rankings:
⚾ Red Sox vs. Yankees , 7:05 p.m. | NYY +110 | TV: MLB.TV
⚾ Athletics vs. White Sox , 8:10 p.m. | CWS +101 | TV: MLB.TV
⚾ Mets vs. Giants , 9:45 p.m. | SF -157 | TV: MLB.TV
One of the biggest head-scratching moves of the offseason was when the Jacksonville Jaguars signed Tim Tebow to compete at tight end. As many of you may remember, I wasn't ever a fan of Tebow as a quarterback, nevermind at a different position. On Saturday, Tebow saw his first preseason action at tight end against the Cleveland Browns. One of Tebow's only chances at a catch was a second quarter play in which Tavon Austin jumped in front of Tebow to record the reception. You almost have to feel for Tebow on a play like this where he probably thought he was hauling in a pass.