🏈 Two Massive NFL Trades, Yankees vs. Guardians Game 2, NHL + More!

Morning Blitzers,

Fall is starting to settle in that means playoff baseball, WNBA finals, NHL and… big NFL Trades? That’s new. Yesterday we had two Pro Bowl WRs on the move. Could we see more big trades coming?

WTF Stat: Less of a WTF stat, more of an update on Tropicana Field that is going to put the Rays in a tough position:

🏈 The Jets completed a trade to acquire WR Davante Adams from the Las Vegas Raiders, sending a conditional 2025 3rd-round pick that could upgrade to a 2nd-rounder based on Adams' performance. This trade reunites Adams with QB Aaron Rodgers, creating a potent offensive duo.

• 🔥 Take: The Adams trade doesn’t move the needle much for me, had it happened at the beginning of the season, I’m sure I’d be more excited, but the Jets are a great team on paper already, they just haven’t found ways to win games. We’ll see if adding Adams is the piece they are missing (doesn’t look firing the coach was the answer after all).

🏈 The Bills traded for WR Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns, acquiring him along with a 2025 6th-round draft pick in exchange for a 2025 3rd-round pick and a 7th-round selection in 2026. This move addresses the Bills' need for a top receiver after trading Stefon Diggs. Despite a strong 2023 season, Cooper has faced challenges this year, leading the Browns in receiving but ranking low in yards per target.

• 🔥 Take: Cooper to the Bills I think is a bigger deal. The Bills desperately needed a weapon at WR and Cooper is streaky (he had less than 40 yards in 6 of his 15 games last season), but he can be absolutely unguardable at times (he also had a game where he had 11 catches, 265 yards and 2 TDs). QB Josh Allen does a great job of spreading the ball, so Cooper doesn’t need to win every game for them, but having a legitimate #1 to target when needed is going to be huge.

MLB Playoffs

• Yankees 6, Guardians 3: The Yankees have been great this postseason, now imagine how good they can be once Aaron Judge gets going. Well we found that out Game 2 as Judge hit his first home run of the postseason, a two-run blast that helped the Yankees win and take a 2-0 lead in the series. Guardians pitcher Tanner Bibee had a short outing giving up 3 runs (2 earned) before being pulled in the 2nd inning. The series moves to Cleveland on Thursday.

⚾️ Today

Dodgers @ Mets - game starts at 8:08 EST on FS1

NHL Top Games

Florida Panthers 4, Columbus Blue Jackets 3: It was an emotional game for the Blue Jackets as they paid tribute to Johnny Gaudreau, who tragically passed away in August. Really cool moment to start the game in the video above.

James van Riemsdyk's late goal for Columbus brought them within one, but they couldn't find the equalizer despite outshooting Florida 38-22.

Carolina Hurricanes 4, New Jersey Devils 2: The Panthers won thanks to rookie Jackson Blake's first NHL goal and Pyotr Kochetkov's 23 saves in his season debut. The loss snapped New Jersey's two-game winning streak.

Edmonton Oilers 4, Philadelphia Flyers 3: Leon Draisaitl scored just 56 seconds into overtime to lead the Edmonton Oilers to a victory, marking their first win of the season. The Oilers came from behind, with Connor McDavid assisting on Draisaitl's winning goal after his breakaway attempt was saved. McDavid extended his point streak against the Flyers to 11 games.

Dallas Stars 3, San Jose Sharks 2: The Dallas Stars remained undefeated with a 3-2 shootout victory over the San Jose Sharks, marking the first time this season they trailed in a game. Wyatt Johnston scored the winning shot in the shootout after Jake Oettinger stopped San Jose's first attempt. Oettinger made 25 saves in regulation and overtime, while Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood had a standout performance with 36 saves.

Washington Capitals 4, Las Vegas Knights 2: The Capitals ended the Knights three-game winnings streak thanks to Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin assisted on two goals reaching 700 career assists, becoming the 60th player in NHL history to achieve this milestone. Logan Thompson made 24 saves against his former team, while Jakub Vrana scored on his first shot after returning to the Capitals.

See full NHL scoreboard here, and standings here.

Free Forum Wednesdays

Free Forum Wednesdays continue - we'll be writing a bit more outside-the-box, fun sports content, hope you enjoy it!

Former Pro Bowl CB Nnamdi Asomugha is a Great Actor

The Good Nurse, starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne was released a couple of years ago on Netflix. It’s a crazy true story, that is well acted, and a solid watch (although it’s a bit creepy). My biggest takeaway though was the performance by Nnamdi Asomugha, who played one of the detectives in the movie. He crushed his role. A professional actor being good at his/her job isn’t much of a story, but the Nnamdi Asomugha I know is a lock down cornerback in the NFL.

Nnamdi Asomugha wasn’t just a good NFL player, he was a 3x Pro Bowler, and was ranked the 18th best player by his peers in 2011.

Typically any time a professional athlete makes their way onto the silver screen it’s pretty obvious they don’t belong. But my guess is the vast majority of people that watched the movie had no idea that Nnamdi was an NFL player. It’s pretty rare for an elite professional athlete to completely change careers and hold his own with academy award winners.

This isn’t like a musician also being good at acting. Those art forms are similar, acting and athletics usually don’t mix (although soccer players are great at both…) Think of all the past athletes that have appeared in movies, they’re typically 1) In a comedic role – Michael Jordan in Space Jam or Terry Bradshaw in Failure to Launch 2) An action movie – Carl Weathers in Rocky or Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock in anything he does. Nnamdi has pretty much only performed in dramas so far, including going on Broadway. He has taken a much harder route than most athletes. Typically athletes will play themselves, or draw attention to their past achievements and embrace athletic roles. Nnamdi seems to have almost shied away from what is easy. It’s pretty impressive to say the least.

Comparable Acting Journeys to Nnamdi Asomugha

In terms of rise to prominence, the most accomplished actor/athlete at this point is probably John David Washington who had a brief stint as an NFL player, and has now become an A-List actor. He was blessed with great genes being the son of Denzel, but still pretty impressive to rise to the highest ranks of both professions. He also played running back, a position that constantly is getting hit in the head, so I’m not sure how he was able to switch over to such a cerebral profession.

The other comparable actor starred along side John David Washington’s father in He Got Game. None other than Jesus Shuttlesworth himself, Ray Allen. Allen hasn’t done much acting outside of He Got Game, but it is pretty insane to be the co-star of a Spike Lee film, as your debut role, only a couple years into your Hall of Fame basketball career. The role did have him playing as a basketball player, but it was still a drama. Allen’s success in the NBA is probably the most comparable to Nnamdi’s in the NFL (I would say Allen does have the edge).

Top 5 Most Talented All-Around Athletes

Nnamdi stands at almost 6’3″ can run a 4.45 40-yard-dash, and is an unreal actor? Save some for the rest of us. Am I extremely jealous? Yes. Does he also happen to be quite an attractive man… Also, yes. Anyway, here are the top 5 most talented athletes/my biggest crushes:

5. Peyton Manning – I’m a Tom Brady guy until I die, so naturally I have to hate Manning. But the guy is unfortunately really funny and great on Manning Cast (Bill Burr sums it up well).

4. Sam Hunt – College QB, massive country star, model looks, likes to drink. Just like me, except I only check one of those boxes.

3. Nnamdi Asomugha – See above. Looking forward to seeing what he does next.

2. Myron Rolle – Former NFL Player, Rhodes Scholar, doctor, author, board member for S&P 500 company. I guess we just have slightly different life goals.

1. The Rock – Former University of Miami/Canadian Football League defensive lineman. One of the most likeable people in the world (I watched wrestling briefly only because of him), and now megastar. Probably a future president.

On this day in 2004, 17-year old Lionel Messi makes his league debut for FC Barcelona in a 1-0 win against Espanyol. Messi scored 3 goals last night for Argentina, but here is a look at his first goal as a 17 year old:

Yesterday’s Trivia Time Answer

In honor of last nights MNF game, what team has the infamous record for most penalties ever in a game?

A) Oakland Raiders - The Raiders set an NFL record with 23 penalties in a 30–24 overtime victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on October 30th, 2016. The penalties, which totaled 200 yards, broke the previous record of 22 reached by three teams.

Check back tomorrow for the answer to today's trivia question and more info!