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Good morning! Watch out for yourself today. Don’t stub a toe or anything.
Pain, Pt. 1: How painful was your Sunday?
Week 4 of the NFL season is nearly done, which means we’ve largely escaped the small-sample-size portion of the calendar. We’re learning things. But that also means the season has taken a toll, both physically and mentally.
At Pulse HQ, we kept coming back to one word: pain, a unifying experience in the NFL yesterday and, frankly, the entire sports world. We’re starting with football, though, and rating this pain 1-10 as if these teams were sitting on some crinkly paper in a doctor’s office:
10: Hello, Ravens
They land at the top because they occupy both ends of the pain spectrum. A 37-20 loss to the Chiefs is bad enough, and it drops the preseason Super Bowl favorites to 1-3 on the year. You add in Lamar Jackson’s hamstring injury and this pain requires a strong sedative.
8: Is anyone home in Carolina?
There is no better evidence of the NFL’s unpredictability than the Panthers, who went from beating Atlanta last weekend 30-0 to finding themselves down 42-6 in the fourth against the Patriots yesterday. Something has to change there.
7: Welcome back, Chargers
The Chargers have had a cursed aura for Justin Herbert’s entire tenure. And after the season finally starts well, they lose star tackle Joe Alt in a 21-18 loss to the winless Giants yesterday. The extent of Alt’s injury is unknown, but this was just a bad outing all around. It was also painful for New York, which should be celebrating after Jaxson Dart’s big debut, but instead is mourning after Malik Nabers suffered what looked like an ACL tear.
6: Why are you both here, Cowboys and Packers?
Yesterday’s nightcap between Dallas and Green Bay was arguably our best game of the season, but ending a shootout in a 40-40 tie just felt wrong. The Cowboys have to be thrilled with putting up huge numbers despite missing wideout CeeDee Lamb. George Pickens was incredible (134 yards, two touchdowns) in his absence. But Green Bay should be feeling the most pain here, having squandered what could’ve been an easy win on a tough schedule.
Immune: You’re good to go, Jaguars, Eagles and Bears
The Liam Coen era in Jacksonville is off to a spicy start, both via the team’s 3-1 record and the head coach’s attitude. The Jaguars upended the previously unbeaten 49ers yesterday, but it was Coen snatching headlines by barking at San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh after the game. Fun, honestly.
The Eagles cannot be hurt, I’m convinced, after they moved to 4-0 with a solid win in Tampa Bay. My eyes tell me they’re not elite, but they have the roster and record to debate that. And the Bears are suddenly pain-free after a second straight win, this one coming via blocked kick.
Enough football pain. Read more takeaways from the full slate, or watch our highlights of all the action.
Pain, Pt. 2: A $340 million disaster
Tomas Diniz Santos / Getty Images
We talked this weekend about the impending MLB collapses in Detroit, New York and Houston. They all happened, to varying degrees. Let’s recap baseball pain before the hope of the postseason:
The Mets and Astros are out completely. New York’s fade is particularly heinous. A 4-0 loss to the Marlins sealed the playoff door shut, and a $340 million payroll somehow gets October off. Pete Alonso is also hitting free agency again. What a bad time. Houston completed its own collapse and will miss the postseason for the first time in nine years.
Detroit lost the AL Central — squandering that massive 15 1/2-game lead — to the Guardians, but managed to maintain a wild-card spot. The Tigers’ reward: playing Cleveland in the wild-card round. It’s fitting.
Here’s our full bracket:
Welcome to October baseball 🙂
Let the MLB Postseason begin. pic.twitter.com/9rJgGZWcWB
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 28, 2025
I can’t wait for Red Sox-Yankees. Those games start tomorrow. For more, catch a full wild-card preview from the excellent “Rates and Barrels” podcast.
Let’s keep moving:
News to Know
Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images
Somehow, getting close was worse
Europe won the Ryder Cup yesterday, an outcome most of us expected after a blowout over the event’s first two days. Yet after misery on Friday and Saturday, the Americans nearly erased a seven-point deficit yesterday, when both teams played singles. I don’t know what that says about American team cohesion, but it feels symbolic. Europe won anyway, 15-13, and the Cup goes to the visiting team for the first time since 2012.
Two stories before we move on:
Lynx bow out, painfully
The Phoenix Mercury are heading to the WNBA Finals after beating Minnesota last night, 86-81. For Phoenix, it’s a coup — no one expected the team to be here. For Minnesota, it’s another sinister twist to an elite two years, a pattern that began with last season’s Game 5 loss in the finals. Behind Napheesa Collier, the Lynx were easily the W’s best team this year; in this series, Collier bowed out with an ankle injury and Minnesota won just one game. Tough.
Phoenix will play the winner of Indiana and Las Vegas, which stage a winner-take-all Game 5 tomorrow after the Fever’s big win last night.
Watkins to miss season
JuJu Watkins, women’s college basketball’s brightest star, will miss the entire 2025-26 season to focus on recovering from the ACL tear she suffered in the NCAA Tournament earlier this year. It’s a brutal blow for both USC and the entire sport. Read her reasoning why here.
More news
Not painful: Bad Bunny will be this year’s Super Bowl halftime performer. It will be extremely fun.
Snoop Dogg is returning to Olympic coverage next year. That’s a good thing.
Secondary MLB pain: The Rockies set an MLB record for worst run differential in league history. Oy vey.
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What to Watch
📺 NFL: Jets at Dolphins
7:15 p.m. ET on ESPN
Justin Fields is playing in this one. Both teams desperately need wins. This game could be wacky, or gross, or both.
📺 NFL: Bengals at Broncos
8:15 p.m. ET on ABC
Another weird game. Is Cincy’s season already over? A bad loss here makes that almost certain.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
Padres general manager A.J. Preller might be the most interesting man in baseball, and I thought that before I learned about his other activities, which include … ketchup on steak. Make time for this great profile today.
On the other side of baseball pain was the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the AL East this weekend. I thought Richard Deitsch’s story on their season, through the eyes of their broadcasters, was great.
A story we should monitor all season in the NHL: How do the Florida Panthers think about three-peating without Aleksander Barkov? The fallout from his injury is immense.
Oliver Kay wonders how much more misery Manchester United can take. Things are very bad.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our incredible feature on Oscar Pistorius. Read it if you missed it.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Ryder Cup live blog.
(Top photo: Amy Kontras / Getty Images)