The Sweep, October 28 — The Rays Walk Off in the 12th, Saquon Barkley Sells His Polymarket Stake, Pat McAfee Says He "Hates" Utah, and Ernie Johnson Is Leaving Inside the NBA

Tuesday, October 27. Rays 4, Brewers 3, in 12 innings, and the World Series goes on. Milwaukee led the series 3-0 and took its first lead of the night in the top of the 12th, when Cooper Pratt put it 3-2. In the bottom half Shane Drohan came on, Joey Ortiz threw a ball away to let Junior Caminero reach, and Jonny DeLuca's single tied it. Pinch-hitter Ben Williamson then singled to right with the bases loaded. "It's what you dream of growing up," he said. Milwaukee still leads 3-1.

Wednesday, October 28. The second-guessing went to Pat Murphy, because Jacob Misiorowski, the Brewers' best pitcher, sat in the bullpen through the 12th and never warmed up. "Miz would have had to get himself ready," Murphy told ESPN. "I can second-guess a lot of things, and believe me I do." Misiorowski started Game 5 instead, against Drew Rasmussen on short rest, at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night. That game was still being played when this column went out. Murphy's call was defensible: a starter on four days' rest is worth more in a potential clincher than for one inning of a game he never prepared for. It only looks bad if the Rays win Game 5.

Wednesday, October 28. Saquon Barkley told Front Office Sports that the NFL made him sell his stake in Polymarket. "I was in it before, but no bueno," he said. The league confirmed that players may not invest in or promote sportsbooks or prediction markets. The NFLPA, ESPN reported, "views prediction markets as gambling entities." The NBA, MLB, the NHL and MLS all have prediction-market partnerships, Front Office Sports notes, so the NFL now has the strictest line of the five, at the same time as the exchanges are suing states to establish that they are not gambling at all. Our lead today covers three of those suits.

Monday, October 26 (reaction through Tuesday). Pat McAfee told his show audience that he had "never felt more uncomfortable" than at College GameDay in Salt Lake City on Saturday, after the University of Utah's main Instagram account posted a video of students doing impressions of him. "I hate this place. They have a good football team though," he said. Utah apologized for "any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome," and said "we missed the mark." ESPN said it supports McAfee and recognizes "the very real and valid concerns he has around safety and security." The safety concern is the point here. Whether or not the video was harmless, a school mocking a visiting broadcaster on its official account is a bad idea, and Utah said so itself.

Tuesday, October 27, and Wednesday. The Colts are selling. On Tuesday they traded DeForest Buckner to San Francisco for a 2027 fourth-round pick and Quenton Nelson to Seattle for a 2027 third and a 2028 fifth. On Wednesday ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that Josh Downs has asked for a trade. "I'm open to whatever," Downs said. "My feet are here right now, so I've got to be right here." The deadline is November 10 at 4 p.m. ET. Two of the team's best veterans for a third, a fourth and a fifth, with two weeks still left to deal: whatever the Colts call it, that is a rebuild.

Wednesday, October 28. The Chiefs are signing Justin Tucker to their practice squad, a source told Front Office Sports. Harrison Butker has missed five of 16 field-goal tries and is in the second year of a four-year, $25.6 million extension. Tucker served a 10-week NFL suspension at the start of 2025, after an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct during massage therapy sessions. He denied the allegations and was not charged with a crime. A practice-squad signing does not settle the job, but it puts pressure on Butker.

Wednesday, October 28. Ernie Johnson will leave Inside the NBA after this season, his 37th. "Totally my decision. It's just time," he said in a video on X. He named heart problems, including bypass surgery, as a contributing factor and said his health is not in immediate danger. He will keep calling March Madness. "This is by no means the end—it's just a turning of the page." Nobody in studio television has been better at letting the people around him be the show.

Tuesday, October 27. Asked on 105.3 The Fan whether he would bring Troy Aikman into the Cowboys for a major role, Jerry Jones said: "Yes, I could and would." Then: "It's very possible." Aikman is in the final year of his ESPN deal, and Awful Announcing notes that Joe Buck already signed his extension. With Jones, "don't rule it out" usually means a radio segment and nothing more. With Aikman's contract expiring, though, this time it might not be.

Sunday, October 25 (still going Monday). Lions 20, Packers 17, and Green Bay's complaint is that nobody blew a whistle. Umpire Terry Killens Jr. threw an unnecessary-roughness flag on Devonte Wyatt from the ground after he had been knocked over. Detroit scored a touchdown two plays later. "We ruled the play was over," referee Alex Moore said in the pool report. "I can't honestly hear if there was a whistle or not." If the referee could not hear a whistle, it is hard to see how Wyatt was supposed to.

Wednesday, October 28. The money: Robinhood made $173 million from event contracts in the third quarter and says most of its flow is leaving Kalshi. Our betting desk explains why that is about margin, not sports. Anthony Edwards' knee surgery leaves him 17 games to give, and our NBA desk counts them down to December 1.

What we are not running, and why

Gary Trent Jr. and a "$64 million probe." It was circulating on Wednesday, but the NBA investigation was reported in July. The only new material is an anonymous executive's comparison, relayed secondhand from a podcast we could not date.

A DeForest Buckner quote about the Colts having "s--t the bed." It came back with Tuesday's trade, but it is from an old CBS story about a loss to the Giants, not this season.

Pat Murphy's "If you're tired, take a nap." It appeared as a headline on ESPN's Game 4 page, and we could not find the article or any context for it. A quote with no context is not an item.

Naz Reid's $50,000 fine. The page is headed "October 6, 2026," but the article says nine regular-season games remain, so it is a spring story with the wrong date.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson's ejection for apparent spitting. It came from an earlier week, not Week 8.

A Stifel cut to its third-quarter online-gambling forecasts. It appeared in search snippets, but the page returned a 403, and we could not confirm the date or the figures.

Malik Beasley "will plead guilty." This was resurfacing on Wednesday, and nothing has changed since our October 27 item: the plea change is still set for December 9.

An Edwards MVP price "from 11.7% to 3.8%." Search summaries attributed it to HoopsHype, but the page was paywalled to our reader. The Polymarket price we read directly is in our NBA piece.