This week, I’m abroad à Paris (by the way, if you’ve got an extra “Torchon Terrible,” let me know)! We’ve got the last of our three very special guest writers lined up to take the writing reins, and our team of crack editors will make sure the newsletter goes off without a hitch. Say hello everyone to Mike Golic Jr.! À bientôt!

…and in honor of today’s great sports confluence, the 33rd in history, the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB are all represented in today’s links. Brewers relief pitcher Aaron Ashby said Landry Shamet, his best friend, motivated him with a video of his Knicks championship ring. The Brewers are two games away from winning the first World Series in franchise history.

The Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic featured the Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets wearing gorgeous heritage jerseys “that celebrate each club’s storied history through iconic crests, vintage-inspired details, and special phrases sewn into the neck colors.” More on the sports nostalgia boom below.

Calgary Flames goalie Devin Cooley needs to trademark and sell his truth serum. In his latest viral interview (he’s becoming a regular in this newsletter), he waxed poetic about controlling his self-talk, flow state, and reading with his pet rabbit (iconic). Bears quarterback (and potential NFL MVP?) Caleb Williams knows all about “parasympathetic health,” humming to himself on the field.

Nobody loves Nike Caitlin 1s more than Jalen Green, except maybe Caitlin Clark. Green rocked the “Caitlin Blue” and “Warning Code” colorways in the preseason, and he pulled out the “Midnight Fever” this weekend. Were Green and Devin Booker arguing here over who the most stylish Sun is? Just speculating! 

Paul Pogba photographed the first-ever NFL game in Paris, between the Saints and Steelers, and while I wait to judge how this shot of Cam Jordan turned out, I’m ready to declare Pogba the coolest-looking photographer who ever lived. 

While Ashtyn is out, we've lined up three writers to go off on subjects near and dear to their hearts. Last up: Mike Golic Jr., who is equally great reviewing Pop-Tarts and Taylor Swift albums as he is analyzing Notre Dame football with fellow Golden Domer Jessica Smetana on “The Echoes” and sports at large with his dad on ESPN’s “The Golics.” For OffBall, Mike explored why anime and athletes are a match made in visual sports heaven. Enlighten us, Mike!

Two weeks ago, my chaotic corner of the Twitter hellscape was dominated by one question: Does Blastoise actually have the arm length needed to play left tackle? 

Ball knowers flocked to All22Pokemon.com (ACTUALLY!) to embrace the internet’s challenge du jour of constructing the best possible offense and defense solely out of the original 150 Pokemon. 

Debates raged about Nidoking’s ability to stretch the field at tight end, if any double-team on the planet could pry Snorlax out of the A-gap, and why anyone on EARTH would be asking ARMLESS DODRIO TO CATCH THE FOOTBALL?! It’s the kind of low-stakes chess match social media was born for. 

It’s also a reminder that sports and anime have always been a perfect match. 

NFL players like Mike Daniels, Jamaal Williams, and Juju Smith-Schuster not only talked openly about their fandom, but helped make celebrations like Goku’s Kamehameha or the Fusion Dance a ubiquitous part of our Sundays. 

Is Kenneth Walker III’s undying love of anime the source of his unlocking of a new dimension with the Kansas City Chiefs this season? People are asking (and by people, I mean me)!

Victor Wembanyama brought the Attack on Titan hand-biting celebration into the fold (leave it to him to pick the anime with the most complex themes). Naomi Osaka wore a Bleach-inspired kimono to Wimbledon before taking down the No. 1 player in the world, and Coco Gauff runs her own (awesome) anime fan edit TikTok account. 

Chloe Kim and other athletes have even appeared as presenters at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards show in Japan. (Plus, anime bonds Chloe and Myles Garrett, my sister’s favorite sports power couple.)

Emmanuel Morgan wrote a great piece for the New York Times back in 2024 about the marriage of athletes and anime that included a quote from Rahul Purini, the president of the anime platform Crunchyroll.

“All of those old myths and concerns about, ‘What will people think if I tell them that I watch anime?’ go away because if this person that is a celebrity and really famous athlete is talking about it, then it’s OK for every one of us to talk about it,” Purini said. “It’s a very important thing for the medium.”

The marriage works so naturally because most of the anime that makes its way to the States basically is sports. Shows like “Dragon Ball Z,” “Demon Slayer,” and “Jujitsu Kaisen” showcase the benefits of rigorous training, strategic planning, and the need for teamwork to overcome the odds or a common opponent along with BIG, LOUD, FUN action sequences. Sound familiar? 

And it persists because athletes are just normal people with a unique skillset. They’re a cross section of larger society. They like what we like, just while running faster and with bigger muscles. 

Those muscles do come with a megaphone. I always used to joke that a good side-effect of the size and tattoos I acquired as a football player was that very few people would push back when I talked about my fandom of things like Taylor Swift, “Glee,” and anime. 

Our obsession with sports gives athletes the cover to do what we all should be able to: love what we love! 

I love being a nerd, and a jock, and a human being that can be many things at once. I love speaking yet another fandom’s language (with subtitles) that instantly lets people know the coast is clear and we can talk freely about the new Demon Slayer Infinity Castle trailer. And I love reminding people that, yes, Venausaur absolutely has All-Pro upside at center.

I knew I was officially old when I caught myself constantly thinking (and sometimes saying) that everything used to be so much better. 

Nostalgia as an emotion is way older than that thing you miss, but it feels like you’re the first person to ever experience nostalgia once you’re old enough to really feel it. (It especially hurts when you’re officially in the same age bracket as athletes labeled “old” or “washed.” Or so I’ve heard.)

When it comes to the nostalgia in sports, however, there is evidence that it’s not just me morphing into Old Man Yells At Clouds.

Joon Lee, Friend of OffBall™, did what he does best and investigated “Why Sports Logos Are Boring Now” earlier this year. TLDR? “We’re living through the great flattening, where the unique souls of teams are being sanded down into a safe, geometric template,” Lee wrote.

So, that’s pretty bleak, but there’s good news.

Right now, the Tampa Bay Rays are rocking a redesign of their Devil Rays uniform from the late 1990s in the World Series, and local Milwaukee meteorologist Sam Kuffel wore the same Brewers jersey her dad wore to the 1982 World Series.

The NBA has activated Blast From The Past mode, too. The Brooklyn Nets, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and San Antonio Spurs revealed new throwback uniforms to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ABA-NBA merger. 

Kevin Wildes of FS1’s “First Things First” knows what’s up (even if he did blatantly copy my idea), putting modern uniforms and “neutral bleh” on high alert while yearning for “old thing that pops like when I was a kid.”

Humans are silly this way. Changing for the sake of change, realizing how good we had it only once we’re years removed from the original. 

But that’s the beauty in nostalgia. It’s sort of baked into being human that evolution is necessary (annoying). It’s necessary to not only allow ourselves to miss something, but to also care enough to want it to evolve alongside us (cute). 

It’s always great to revive something old. Take the Seattle Seahawks breaking out their gorgeous throwbacks for an all-time uniform matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs last night. So aesthetically pleasing I could cry.

But in some cases, it’s even better to spark that sense of nostalgia with a totally new idea derived from a deep appreciation for history. The Minnesota Timberwolves are undefeated after doing exactly this. (Coincidence? I think not.)

Like Miranda Priestly said in “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” an unexpected opus of our times that lives rent free in my mind, “Surely, some things will stay the same. A commitment to beauty, artistry, the best in human achievement. Maybe.”

Maybe one day the “cartoon dinosaurs, angry hornets, and mascots bursting with personality,” as Joon Lee put it, will return as the norm. In the meantime, I’ll hold tight to the WKU Hilltoppers’ “Big Red” helmet and the eternal truth that sports is the one arena where human creativity always wins out.