-Defensive Tackle Dontay Corleone (Cincinnati) aka “The Godfather”: Movie and book fans will instantly understand the nickname of Cincinnati’s former defensive lineman. The famous book and movie “The Godfather” featured the Corleone family with a strong background for various moves and large-scale decisions. Corleone was the most important part of Cincinnati’s defense in recent seasons mirroring the importance of the Corleone family in “The Godfather”.

-Kicker Kansei Matsuzawa (Hawai?i) aka “The Tokyo Toe”: One of the most unique stories and coolest nicknames, “The Tokyo Toe”, in the 2026 NFL Draft belongs to a kicker, Kansei Matsuzawa. He self-trained himself into becoming a junior college kicker using mostly YouTube videos after being completely foreign to the game of American football after leaving his native Japan to come to the U.S. He eventually transferred to the University of Hawai?i and became the team’s starting kicker and now has a chance of playing in the NFL.

-Defensive Tackle Domonique Orange (Iowa State) aka “Big Citrus”: Defensive lineman who clog up the run are valuable and Domonique Orange has the ability to do that. His nickname is self-explanatory when you see him and his last name. The origin of his nickname is not completely known but Orange’s nutritionist deserves some credit of bringing the nickname to the attention of the large defensive lineman himself. It’s hard not to smile when you realize that Domonique Orange already has one of the best nicknames in sports.

-Offensive Tackle Kadyn Proctor (Alabama) aka “Krispy”: Football fields are full of large men battling against each other for hours but few are ever as enormous as former Alabama star Kadyn Proctor. The 6’7, 359-pound offensive lineman gained the nickname “Krispy” due to his enjoyment of Krispy Kreme donuts. Don’t let his massive frame fool you into thinking he isn’t athletic as Alabama added a couple plays in its offensive playbook called the “Krispy package” for giving Proctor a couple of chances carrying the ball. When a man that size is carrying the football, he will definitely “Kreme” opposing tacklers!

-Wide Receiver Elijah Sarratt (Indiana) aka “Waffle House”: While Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza received a ton of attention during Indiana football’s history making season in 2025, his star wide receiver Elijah Sarratt had Mendoza beat when it comes to nicknames. Sarratt’s “Waffle House” nickname is a great one for any receiver because he describes him being open 24/7, like the famous breakfast restaurant.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

Lebron also recently set the record for most games played in NBA history. Both Close and James have made recently headlines for their work on the court but also through their words they show they struggle to understand “regular people”.

Over the past half-decade, Name, Image, and Likeness, aka NIL, and the transfer portal has changed college sports in a major way. Those changes have made the responsibilities of coaches like Cori Close increased. During her team’s road to the NCAA women’s basketball national championship, Close discussed the challenges saying, “I’ve never been as tired as I’ve been in the last two years, and it’s made me think how much longer I can do this. And I’m just being transparent with you about that. There are so many things that are harder, and we keep losing incredible people on the men’s and the women’s side.” Close has been the head coach of the UCLA women’s team for 15 years so she has seen the changes in not only women’s college basketball but college sports as well. It is also worth noting that she also made reportedly close to $900,000 in salary in her position which is lower than her fellow Final Four peers as head coaches but certainly a livable wage even in Los Angeles.

College head coaches who complain about NIL and transfer portal are certainly inadvertently complaining about the power that the newfound power that the collegiate athletes have in this new era. Today’s college athletes have more power than any generation and that ranks a lot of college coaches that had all the leverage as it relates to retaining players and making decisions on the careers of collegiate athletes. It is notable that Close’s words about being a college basketball head coach were not shared by some of her colleagues such as Louisville’s Jeff Walz, who stated, “My favorite line, I would tell her, if you don’t like your job, find a new job. I mean, I’m listening this morning at 4:20 as the workers outside my window at the hotel in the street are working. I mean, you choose your profession. If you don’t like it, find a new profession.” Also, fellow competitor South Carolina’s Dawn Staley said, “I welcome change. I like challenges. I like to figure out things and still find a way to be successful. I think when that leaves me, then I know it’s time for me to move on.”

LeBron James famously was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers as the “savior” of the team closest to his hometown of Akron. He apparently would not have wanted to be drafted by the Memphis Grizzlies when he entered the NBA in 2023. In the interview with Bob Does Sports, James joked that a star athlete his age would not be staying at the Hyatt in Memphis and he feels that the Memphis Grizzlies team should relocate to Nashville. James’s issues as an NBA player playing in Memphis are a true example of an “out of touch” professional athlete complaining about situations that the average person doesn’t have to encounter. It is noteworthy that James’s comments were made on the golf course and are an example that he has been a multi-millionaire longer in his life than he hasn’t been even though he grew up in humble financial circumstances as the son of a single mother. Sports figures like Cori Close and LeBron James need to have some humility when they complain about aspects of their jobs to better understand the challenges that everyday people face.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

The subjective and somewhat mythical title of “face of the league” is based on a number of factors. The first is the player’s talent as they have to be among the best at their sport at that particular period of time. The professional sports league must also market that athlete through commercials and ads which show the athlete’s charisma, and it is also important that the athlete who is the “face of the league” shows leadership qualities to not shy away from the spotlight placed on them. In sports history, it is easy to name some of the recognizable “faces of the league” in different sports like Michael Jordan and LeBron James in the NBA, Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby of the NHL, and Ken Griffey Jr. in Major League Baseball. It could be said that it is as important for women’s professional sports leagues to have a “face of a league” to draw more casual fans and continue to develop the interest around women’s sports.

While the WNBA has continued to grow in popularity in the recent years, some of that can be attributed to a new “face” of the league, Caitlyn Clark. Clark isn’t the best player in the WNBA, as that would be A’ja Wilson, but she is the most recognizable name and face of the league due to numerous factors. Trinity Rodman had a built-in factor that makes her a compelling sports figure due to her last name. As the daughter of Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman, she has now made her own legacy separate from her father, whom she has had a very rocky relationship with. At just 23 years old, Rodman’s skills, flair on the soccer field, and age made her so important to the NWSL that the instituted new league clause to give their teams a better chance to retain U.S. soccer stars from leaving to play in alternative soccer leagues overseas.

Soccer is the global game so while Trinity Rodman is talented she is not the best women’s soccer player in the world. She ranked 37th of ESPN’s top 50 women’s soccer players in the world and among the best U.S. soccer players. Rodman has battled injuries at times in her young career but the NWSL is putting all their hope that she can draw casual sports fans and keep diehard soccer fans glued to the league as their “face of the league”.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “public relations” as “the business of inducing the public to have understanding for and goodwill toward a person, firm, or institution”. The NFL has made several quality public relations moves over the past two decades including moving the NFL Draft to a different NFL city every year and upgrading kickoff returns in game. However, the NFL recently winning its grievance to stop NFL Players Association Report Cards can be viewed a public relations negative in multiple ways. Last month, an arbitrator found in favor of effectively banning the union from publishing future player report cards and that the report cards violated the collective bargaining agreement by “disparaging NFL clubs and individuals.”

The annual NFLPA report cards issue letter grades in areas such as player amenities, travel accommodations, coaching and ownership. They also focus on how NFL players’ families are treated including family meeting areas pregame and postgame and they matter a lot to NFL players. Every year when they are published, there are NFL organizations that are lauded for their overall amenities and treatment of players and their families while there are other NFL organizations that receive negative attention for being subpar in comparison to other NFL organizations. Having those important factors publicized forces NFL organizations to keep up if they are lacking in areas and improves things overall for all NFL players and NFL organizations, i.e. owners, wanting no publicity about some of the more daily aspects of their organization can be viewed as negative PR.

Over the last 20 years, the NFL is aiming to stop the NFL Players Association’s annual report cards grading each of the 32 franchises can be viewed among the three worst PR moves by the NFL on the last 20 years. Here are the three worst PR decisions by the NFL of the last 20 years (from fifth worst to the worst):

3. NFL wins grievance to halt NFLPA’s public release of team report cards-Not wanting the NFL players to grade the positives and negatives of NFL organizations for public release is not the best look for NFL team owners or NFL organizations.

2. Roger Goodell’s mea culpa on video to Colin Kaepernick-Back in 2020, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell publicly said he wished the league had “listened earlier” to polarizing former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, known for protesting during Star-Spangled banner in 2016. Kaepernick never played in the NFL again after 2016.

1. 2012 “Fail Mary” NFL game-The importance of actual NFL referees was emphasized in 2012 when a last second Hail Mary throw by Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson was first grabbed by Green Bay safety M.D. Jennings. Jennings was able to pin the ball to his body as he fell to the ground and landed on top of Seattle wide receiver Golden Tate. Tate tried to wrestle the ball away, and his efforts led to confusion among the refs. After several minutes of replay review, the NFL replacement refs ruled it was shared possession and a touchdown for the Seahawks. The call was universally considered to be wrong and the call was a major reason that two days later, an agreement was reached to end the referees’ lockout.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

Laila Edwards is a two-time national championship senior forward for the Wisconsin Badgers. Her inclusion on the U.S. women’s hockey team for this year’s Winter Olympics set history. When she made her Olympic debut at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games earlier this month, Edwards became the first Black woman to compete for the U.S. women’s ice hockey team. She recorded an assist that same game and on the following game during the Team USA’s 5-0 victory over Canada, she became the first Black woman to score a goal. At just 22 years old, Laila Edwards is considered a future high draft pick for the PWHL, the highest profile women’s professional hockey league in North America.

Hockey has long been considered the most unwelcoming historically to Black people among the five major sports (basketball, baseball, football, soccer, hockey) in the U.S. Despite groups like The Black Girl Hockey Club, it has been difficult to draw in more Black people as participants and fans of the sport. Growing up in Cleveland Heights, Laila Edwards began playing hockey at age 5 and often played on hockey teams as the only girl on the team due to a lack of girl’s hockey teams and leagues. Now as a young adult, Edwards has some awareness of her being on the U.S. women’s national hockey team. “I take a lot of pride in it,” she said. “Just to have the ability to be a role model and hear that people are looking up to me, that’s something I really appreciate.”

Being from Cleveland Heights also links Laila Edwards to the well-known football brothers, the Kelces. Former Philadelphia offensive lineman turned NFL television analyst Jason Kelce and current Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce donated a combined $10,000 to a GoFundMe to help Edwards’s family see her in-person play at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Italy. It is worth noting that the Kelce brothers did not personally know the Edwards family they just knew that they were from Cleveland Heights. They also shouted out Laila on their podcast “New Heights” prior to making the donation.

The magnitude of the path of getting to the Olympics also is something that Laila Edwards is aware of. “I have had so many people help me get here, and especially my family. They sacrificed time, money, you know, experiences,” Edwards said. During the course of her hockey career, it will be interesting to see and hear about her growth not just as a hockey player, but socially and as an advocate for both gender and race issues as many in her generation outside of sports have done.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

Azeez Al-Shaair was undrafted entering the NFL in 2019 after playing college football at Florida Atlantic and eventually made the San Francisco 49ers team where he shared a position room with 49ers star linebacker Fred Warner. After a year with the Tennessee Titans in 2023, Al-Shaair joined the Houston Texans where his former defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, was the head coach of the team. Ryans thought well of Al-Shaair’s talent and play to make him a starting linebacker for Houston the past two years. As a player, Azeez Al-Shaair is a rangy, hard-hitting linebacker who has been known for being fined for the hard hits he has given to opposing players the past few years. He was even suspended during the 2024 NFL season for a hit on Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

For football players, it can be an interesting challenge to turn on the violence and energy on the football field and be a thoughtful and kind person off the football field. During an interview on NFL Network earlier this year, Al-Shaair discussed the differences of his on-field play and off the field personality. His community work is due to his mother’s values and his Muslim faith as he mentioned during the interview.

Azeez Al-Shaair was nominated as the Houston Texans club winner for The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award because of his work with the non-profit organization United Way, an organization that helped him and his family when he was young. He also visited Covenant House with Special Teams Coordinator Frank Ross and his teammates to provide support and free haircuts, and also provided opportunities to young people during separate events who are in challenging financial situations due to their familial situation.

During the NFL Playoffs, Azeez Al-Shaair made a statement for what he was wearing and not what he was saying vocally. During Houston’s first playoff game against the Steelers, he wore eye black etched with the phrase “Stop the Genocide” in referencing Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza against thousands of Palestinians. The NFL levied a $11,593 fine to Al-Shaair for a violation of the NFL uniform and equipment rules, citing the display of a personal message. It did not stop him from again wearing eye black with the same message during the pregame huddle with his Texans teammates before their team’s loss to the Patriots. He did not wear it during the game. Al-Shaair is taking a stance on a smaller level than freedom fighter legends Malcolm X and Kwame Ture, who supported Palestinian rights. Al-Shaair previously used the NFL’s annual “My Cleats My Cause” initiative to demonstrate his support for the “Free Palestine” cause.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

James Nnaji is a 7-foot-tall, 21-year-old Nigerian whose basketball background has caused controversy in college basketball. He was chosen in the 2023 NBA Draft second round by the Detroit Pistons as an international player playing in Turkey but returned to Europe without a contract and without ever appearing in the NBA. Nnaji spent four years playing professionally in Europe before Detroit drafted him as an 18-year-old with the first pick of the second round in 2023. Since Nnaji never signed an NBA contract and never set foot on an NBA court as an official NBA player he was eligible to play college basketball and joined Baylor in December 2025 after enrolling.

Nnaji’s eligibility situation has more than opposing fans angry as longtime college basketball coaches such as John Calipari and Tom Izzo have publicly decried the process and rules that allowed Nnaji to be eligible to join college basketball in 2026. During a long post game rant last month, Calipari exclaimed, “Does anybody care what this is doing for 17- and 18-year-old American kids? Do you know what this opportunity has done for them and their families? There aren’t going to be any high school kids,” Calipari said after he coached Arkansas’ 103-74 win over James Madison. “Who other than dumb people like me are going to recruit high school kids? I get so much satisfaction out of coaching young kids and seeing them grow and make it — and their family and life changes — that I’m going to keep doing it. But why would anybody else, if you can get NBA players, G League players, guys that are 28 years old, guys from Europe? Do we really know their transcript? Do we have somebody over there? Do we really know their birth certificate or don’t we?”

Before Calipari’s rant regarding the eligibility situation around Nnaji, Tom Izzo publicly said, “If that’s what we’re going to, shame on the NCAA. Shame on the coaches, too. But shame on the NCAA because coaches are going to do what they’ve got to do, I guess. But the NCAA’s the one. Those people on those committees that are making those decisions to allow something so ridiculous and not think of the kid. Everybody talks about me thinking of my program or selfish. No. Get that straight, for all of you. I’m thinking of what is best for my son if he was in that position, and I just don’t agree with it.”

It has not been unusual in sports history for college football players to be former drafted Major League Baseball players who return to play college football at an advanced age like Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke in the year 2000. There are several European basketball players who have entered college basketball in recent seasons who played professionally overseas who have not gotten the attention of Nnaji, who was drafted by the NBA, but there is a case to be made that in some Euroleagues the competition is better than the G-League that Nnaji competed in before joining Baylor. His eligibility is getting undue negative attention.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

5. U.S.-Canada tension: There is and has been a lot of discussion in 2025 about the impact of the Trump administration raising tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners and how that would affect consumer goods and those prices for American citizens. That topic also veered into sports as Canadian sports fans voiced their displeasure with the U.S. during sporting events of NHL games and NBA games in Toronto by booing the American national anthem due to Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods in early 2025.

4. Super Bowl Statement: The most surprising impromptu halftime action since the Justin Timberlake-Janet Jackson exposure several years ago had much more of a political message as performer Zül-Qarnaïn Nantambu surprisingly displayed a combination Sudanese-Palestinian flag with “Sudan” and “Gaza” written on it during Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show. Regarding his actions, Nantambu said, “I hope God shifts Trump’s heart to be empathetic and compassionate to those who are suffering in Palestine and do what is right by the Palestinians. And if he can, help the Sudanese — which I’m sure he can.” During his protest, he stood on a car used as a prop for Lamar’s performance and held up the flag before being removed.

3. College Football’s Head Coaching Chaos for Black coaches: Despite most of the top college football players being African/Black, the numbers of African/Black head coaches in high profile positions is relatively low. HBCUs like Norfolk State and Delaware State hoped to replicate the Deion Sanders impact that the former Jackson State football head coach had for that program by hiring former NFL Pro Bowl players Michael Vick and Desean Jackson to their first major football head coaching opportunities. At the Power Five level, two of the most well-known Black football head coaches faced surprising exits from their respective schools as James Franklin and Sherrone Moore did not finish the year 2025 in the same position that they started 2025.

2. Sports betting alters the sports landscape on grand scale: Legal sports betting has increased the revenues and interest for professional and major college sports exponentially. Legal sports betting as also caused a variety of controversies in sports including in the NBA where Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and current NBA player Terry Rozier were the big names of a 2025 FBI probe as they were involved in allegedly illegal activities. Time will tell of the future of sports betting and its overall effect on sports.

1. NBA’s link to the Congo: In 2025, the NBA unveiled a new award named for the late Dikembe Mutombo, a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and one of the most well-known humanitarians in recent NBA history. However, the NBA also has notable ties to Rwanda’s government, which has led to numerous human rights violations and violence to the people of the DRC. For a sports league known for being predominantly of athletes from the African diaspora, the NBA is under the microscope for its role in the unrest in the DRC.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

Arguably the best sports documentary of 2025 was ESPN’s “Above the Tide – 20 Years After Katrina“, as a documentary that captures much of everlasting impact of Hurricane Katrina on Louisiana, the city of New Orleans, and the role the New Orleans Saints had in giving the city and state of Louisiana some semblance of its spirit back after the devastating hurricane.

“Above the Tide – 20 Years After Katrina” is a gripping documentary that details the effects of the Hurricane Katrina to the state of Louisiana and features Louisiana native and former NFL player Ryan Clark as the main voice and reporter. He is a solid fit as he described the essence of Louisiana culture, the people, and gives the right balance of passion and thoughtful commentary. The images of the documentary are powerful as the E:60 doc captured the essence of what it means when people lose loved ones and the community that they lived and grew up in. Through interviews of Louisiana natives and video clips, it allows the viewer to get a sense of what was really going on during and following Katrina. The interviews with former New Orleans Saints players Steve Gleason and Drew Brees and former Saints head coach Sean Payton describing the Saints return to the Superdome on Sept. 25, 2006, the first game in New Orleans after Katrina more than a year after the hurricane, were able to capture the energy from that big night in Louisiana sports history.

The documentary was directed and produced by Julian Gooden, who has made more than the standard sports documentary with “Above the Tide”. It is a documentary that speaks to human connection as well. The words of the Louisiana residents during “Above the Tide” will resonate with most who show an understanding of people connecting with each other in various ways and circumstances. Two decades later, one of the major aspects of Hurricane Katrina is that the delayed response by the government to the Katrina victims was likely due to classism because most people affected by Hurricane Katrina were from the working poor class.

It remains fair to question why it took the government as long to get assistance to all the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina and even question the intent behind the less than sturdy construction of the levees that allowed for more destruction of New Orleans. Perhaps it is because the people affected were from a lower social class that the government responded with the speed they did. “Above the Tide” unintentionally reignites those type of questions and is one of the better E:60 documentaries in recent memory.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines

It has had a major impact on the major professional sports leagues as well including the National Basketball Association, which has seen the start of its 2025-2026 regular season overshadowed by the October 2025 FBI sports betting gambling probe involving current Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, and others. Rozier, Billups and former NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones were all arrested in October 2025 as part of a wide-ranging gambling investigation involving more than 30 people.

While Terry Rozier has accomplished some notable things during his career, Chauncey Billups is a much bigger name and recent Basketball Hall of Fame inductee. As the former point guard of the “Goin’ To Work” Detroit Pistons teams of the 2000s, Billups won the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award of the 2024 NBA Finals as the Pistons upset the Shaq-Kobe led Lakers dynasty of the 2000s. He was a leader of that team, was well respected as an NBA player during much of his playing career, and became the head coach of a young Portland Trail Blazers team trying to find its footing in recent years. Billups is allegedly accused of disclosing confidential injury information in a game he coached, and he has been linked to an “illegal poker operation tied to the Mafia,”. The poker scheme included alleged actions such as X-ray tables to scan playing cards, custom glasses with the ability to read cards, and other suspicious cheating activities in high stakes poker games.

Chauncey Billups’ attorney, Chris Heywood, had strong words as it relates towards the charges of his client, in a statement to ESPN. “To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his hall-of-fame legacy, his reputation and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” Heywood said. “Billups has never and would never gamble on basketball games, provide insider information, or sacrifice the trust of his team and the League.” In the court of public opinion, it will be a challenge for Billups to overcome as even stories of his past alleged gambling indiscretions are getting more attention.

While illegal gambling on sports has been a longstanding significant driver for professional and major college sports, the legalization of sports in recent years has made the sports landscape more unsteady in the current age. The NBA and all major professional sports leagues are under the radar and even major college sports has major question marks as well. It will take evaluating lessons learned from some of the biggest sports gambling scandals of the past from the Black Sox scandal of a century ago to the Pete Rose banishment to on a much smaller level the lifetime ban of former NBA player Jontay Porter to manage the significant challenges that sports gambling can cause.

Staff Writer; Mark Hines