…You’re about to find out! The Chat by WhatsApp is a partnership we’ve had with the messaging app for some time now. This is, in fact, our ninth. Thousands of fans get a front row seat to witness, engage and reply to their favorite athletes. This time, we’ve got Trick Williams, Cody Rhodes, The Miz, and Liv Morgan watching and live-reacting to Sunday night’s Cowboys-Packers game. Sign up here. Then, scroll down for more on the WWE-NFL crossover below!

On the heels of this announcement, the internet is confused that writers at The Ringer are using Substack to platform their pieces rather than their homepage. I’m kind of jealous of people who have no idea about the state of SEO or websites. 

College football teams sure are pushing the boundaries with their uniforms these days. Coastal Carolina is going for a 90s throwback, Oregon had us thinking they were sponsored by Monster, Cal is collabing with the Grateful Dead. I don’t mind this — at least they aren’t gray. 

Michael Strahan is getting back into football. Well, flag football. And he’s not playing. Sorry, clickbait wins again! He’s actually a founding partner (with league commissioner Sam Rapaport) to launch the women’s tournament series Grand Slam of Flag, ahead of LA28. Let your freak flags fly, ladies (positive)!  

The Cleveland Browns fanbase has not had an easy life. But they finally have something to look forward to. No, it’s not a bunch of new/good players…They get their own Hulu series! I can’t tell what the plot is, but that’s not important. The cast is star-studded! Cleveland Browns Head Coach, Detective Elliot Stabler? Sign me up!  

“Go Off” is a special edition of our daily newsletter, featuring my thoughts, takes, and general vibes, presented to OffBall readers every Wednesday.

Last week, Pat McAfee and the rest of the College GameDay were under more scrutiny than usual. Not only was the bizarre rabid barking and rolling around off-putting to viewers, but the crew committed a crime even more heinous: they mocked non-Power Five schools, and laughed at their own little-to-no knowledge on the schools (despite it being part of their job to have that knowledge). 

The thing with ESPN/SEC and Fox/B1G’s not-so-secret plans of college football world domination are that, yes, they are unfair to the less-covered schools, but moreover, they take the fun out of the sport (as evidenced by a drop in viewership this year). And it may seem like we are at the mercy of the coverage, but we are not powerless before it. 

Of course, this year I’m speaking from a place of optimism and self-interest, because last year my alma mater, Oregon State, was one of the worst teams in football, and now we have one of the best players in college football. That (true fresh)man’s name is Jesse “Problem Kid!!” Legree. 

He is magic on the field. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen, and the Heisman committee is starting to agree. But the really crazy part is that he has the best numbers of any receiver in college football, and he still isn’t getting enough coverage at the national level. No shade, Nicole Auerbach, sorry girl.

This might be the best football player in the country (I’m knocking on everything wooden within reach as I type this), and the general college football consumer has been robbed of knowing little to anything about him. Except your cats, who may or may not have Beaver Fever. 

Most interesting about this whole thing is that when I celebrate Jesse Legree or his teammate, quarterback Braden Atkinson, on social media, so many replies say something like: “He’s gonna leave us next year” or “he’s going to look great in an Ohio State uniform next year.” Because college football fans have also forgotten the point of sports: the enjoyment of living in the moment. What do we think we accomplish by preparing ourselves to lose something instead of smiling through it all, refusing to believe this is our life right now? If an asteroid hits Earth the day after the CFB Championship, we will have spent our last football season missing the forest for the trees. Because the point of any sport isn’t to spend every minute preparing for the next season. What a silly way to live. 

In what other sport do fans spend every game lamenting a player leaving the year after? None! In what other league are the teams with the most resources in the country bragging about stealing players next season instead of focusing on their own wins and losses this season? None! 

All of this has created a strange sense of entitlement among the schools that networks have deemed worthy of coverage. They know their schools are more enticing to players because of 1. Money, and 2. Coverage. Players can go to Ohio State and see themselves on TV every five minutes. 

Oregon State might lose Jesse Legree to a program with lots of money next year, maybe even Ohio State! It’s the most likely scenario. But if ESPN/Fox spent time giving coverage to the players and teams that deserved it, instead of just the two conferences they’ve invested in, maybe the transfer portal would look different. Maybe the playing field would even out a bit.  

We have to set a cultural standard that every player, with a good story, has theirs told. Like Oklahoma State’s Drew Mestemaker, who had no scholarship offers. Arizona’s Noah Fifita, a fifth-year who has never transferred. Boise State’s Dylan Riley. Wake Forest’s Gio Lopez. Duke’s Nate Sheppard. Houston’s Connor Weigman. Oregon State’s Braden Atkinson. Missouri’s Jamal Roberts. Louisville’s Lincoln Kienholz. Mississippi State’s Kamario Taylor. 

So, if you come across my social profiles on any given Saturday this year, don’t be surprised at the dozens of posts praising my little guys. I’m celebrating where I can, and you should, too.  

In honor of the latest edition of The Chat by WhatsApp and OffBall, we handed the keys to our friend Kazeem Famuyide to effuse about his love of the NFL and WWE, and how four wrestling legends chopping it up over this Sunday’s Cowboys-Packers smackdown is the most natural crossover imaginable. Take it away, Kaz!    

Even as a kid, the first thing I knew about Ron Simmons, the first Black World Heavyweight Champion famous for slamming spines, drinking beer and saying “DAMN!,” was that he played for my favorite college football team, the Florida State Seminoles. Before “Prime Time” high-stepped the Sunshine State’s school into prominence, Simmons, a nose tackle and two-time All-American, finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He was later drafted by the Cleveland Browns. 

Current WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Roman Reigns, spent his college years  as co-captain with Calvin “Megatron” Johnson at Georgia Tech before a cup of coffee in the Canadian Football League. Brock Lesnar, who’s had as much football experience as you and me, almost walked onto the Minnesota Vikings directly from the wrestling ring off of pure freakish athleticism. 

What would pro wrestling be without football? One specializes in the sport of entertainment, and the other emphasizes the entertainment in sports. Both the WWE and the NFL have been culturally intertwined for years. 

One of my earliest wrestling memories is of Wrestlemania XI and watching New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor throwing a flying shoulder tackle on Bam Bam Bigelow in the show’s main event. Been to a Buffalo Bills game lately? The Bills Mafia’s favorite pastime of dropping family and friends through tables was in all likelihood birthed through and inspired by Paul Heyman’s Extreme Championship Wrestling and the obligatory table spots that seem to be customary at every wrestling show now. 

QB1 isn’t just reserved for the Mahomeses, Hurtses and Allens of the world; it’s the moniker that three-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Cody Rhodes. Bron Breakker (Baltimore Ravens), Trick WIlliams (Philadelphia Eagles), Goldberg (Atlanta Falcons), AJ “Top Dolla” Francis (Patriots, Dolphins, Giants), Brian Pillman (Cincinnati Bengals) and of course, Pat McAfee among many others have thrown down on the gridiron and the squared circle. 

Even without wrestling’s colorful cast of characters, the NFL and the WWE have been attached at the hip. Both rely on heavily and critically scrutinized storylines every week from talking heads, who, at times, don’t know what they are talking about. Both begin their shows with electric entrances complete with pyro and very easily imitated emotes: Ray Lewis Squirrel Dance, anyone? 

And we all pretend in some way or another that we are civilized people who enjoy a sophisticated level of entertainment, but at the end of the day, nobody can turn down watching someone getting absolutely cracked off of a blindside blitz or a Roman Reigns spear. It’s simple, but dammit, we’re a simple civilization.

You know what else is simple: signing up for Sunday’s WWE-Sunday Night Football Chat. One more time, here’s the link.