I know you expected Her Sports Desk on Monday, and I sincerely apologize for missing our regular window. Unfortunately, our 13-year-old mini schnauzer, Zeus, passed here at home Sunday night, in my arms. 😭 The vet called it a broken heart related to all the stress of losing our 15-year-old lab, Caesar, in June. 😢 I was right in the middle of putting this together for you when it happened, and opening this draft back up felt like a painful reminder.

But, I’m feeling semi okay today, and hope you can forgive me! Issue IX is still packed with all your must knows! So, I won’t keep you waiting. Let’s dive in.

– jen

PS: Hug your fur babies EXTRA tight for me! 💔

In today’s memo:

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It’s not what we (and when I say “we” I mean “I”) wanted. But the L.A. Dodgers are repeat champions (the first to do so in 25 years) after besting the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7, 5-4 in 11 innings. And you better believe me when I say the 2025 World Series Finale was nothing short of dramatic. Here are the highlights:

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Whether you’ve been watching football for a while or are just getting into it, you’ve probably had the same question I used to:

“What the heck is that yellow thing the refs are tossing?”

Well, that’s the penalty flag. It’s football’s version of “hey, you can’t do that.”

But like most modern things in the NFL, this flag wasn’t always around. In fact, the first flag was tested by Youngstown State coach Dike Beede in 1941 (before that, refs used horns…talk about chaos 😱). The NFL made flags standard in 1948.

And I know what you’re thinking…why yellow? Great question – I’d love to tell you! You see, before 1965, NFL flags were white, which was great for black and white T.V.

But then color T.V. came along and we needed to be able to tell the white hats of the refs apart from the penalty flags. So, the league switched to bright gold flags in 1965, just in time for the first NFL game broadcasted in color on Thanksgiving Day in 1965.

(It just felt wrong to give you Week 9 scores this late in the week. So here are the upcoming games for this weekend, starting tonight!)

Week 10 Byes: Bengals, Cowboys, Titans, Chiefs

Okay bestie, time to grab a pen and paper (or just save this newsletter) because I’m taking you to NBA School. Here’s a rundown of the basics so you can start watching every game with some frame of reference.

There are 30 teams split into two big groups aka conferences (yes, kinda like the NFL): East and West. Divisions exist, but honestly? You can ignore them. What matters is where a team ranks in its conference – that’s how they make the playoffs.

The regular season is 82 games, October to April. Two extras you’ll hear about:

We’ll have more coming your way every week!

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Have you ever overheard a college football conversation that featured the phrase “a power conference” and wondered what the heck that meant? Then I’m here to break it down for ya!

Big-time college football and basketball is basically run by these big universities lumped into clubs called conferences. They handle the schedules, the TV money, the championship games, all of it. When people say “Power Four,” they mean the big dogs: ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, & SEC.

Side bar: There used to be a fifth conference called the Pac-12, but that conference collapsed in 2024 after 10 of its 12 schools joined other conferences.

Now, here’s where it gets juicy…

Notre Dame plays by a different set of rules. Instead of joining a conference, they’ve remained independent in football on purpose. Why? Because it has allowed the program to build a massive national brand, negotiate their own TV deals, and schedule games however they want to—USC one week, some no-name school the next. For most other sports they roll with the ACC, but in football, they’re like, “nah, we’re good.”

Here’s the wild part: even without a league, Notre Dame still gets a seat at the big table. In the College Football Playoff setup, they have their own vote alongside the conference reps. So when they’re deciding formats, rules, who gets what slice of the pie, Notre Dame isn’t yelling from the hallway—they’re literally in the room with the same voice as everyone else.

So, if you ever hear anyone complaining about how Notre Dame has so much sway, this is what they mean.

To keep things super simple in fantasy land this week, I’m just going to give you one of my favorite breakdowns of players by game matchup this week.

Check it out HERE.

Holding is a penalty in American football and happens when a player is supposed to block someone, but instead ends up grabbing, hugging, or straight-up yanking on a jersey to keep them from getting by.

Think: handful of fabric, arms wrapped around a defender, or dragging someone down instead of moving your feet. On offense, it usually costs 10 yards 😱 and they replay the down, which can totally kill a good drive. If you see that yellow penalty flag flying and everyone groans, there’s a good chance the ref just announced: “Holding, offense…”