The Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.Good morning! Barehand a home run today. Coming up:
While You Were Sleeping: Two contenders, two escapesCarly Mackler / Getty ImagesOle Miss and Notre Dame entered this college football season full of legitimate hope. The Rebels, coming off the best season in school history, have their Heisman-candidate quarterback. The Fighting Irish are a trendy pick to make a deep Playoff run.Both had some first-game jitters last night. We’ll start with the worse case, out of the SEC:
No. 9 Ole Miss needed a last-second field goal to beat No. 24 Louisville 41-38 in a game I have no idea how to evaluate. Were the offenses great, and the quarterbacks electric? Yes. Were the defenses troubling, at best, for both of these teams? Also yes.
On the other hand, No. 4 Notre Dame entered halftime with just a 13-10 lead on unranked Wisconsin. It was easy for paranoia to set in, as we’ve seen the Irish lose early in each of the last two seasons. Then Notre Dame finished the game on a 28-3 run. That’ll do.
Let’s move on to the other football starting this week:More, Please: OK, now football season is hereOver the last few weeks, we’ve said some version of “football’s back” far too many times. Sue me for getting excited. But this week, it finally, fully, feels true.After two weeks of real college football games, the NFL returns this week, and sooner than you think. We’re doing five quick thoughts on the looming season with help from some friends:1. Yes, the season starts on a Wednesday. The NFL has colonized plenty of the fall schedule already, creeping further into other sports’ territories in the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday windows. Now, in Week 1 of 2026, the season starts the day after tomorrow, with another game Thursday before everyone else plays Sunday.2. The favorites are? We should probably talk about that first before getting into takes. The Rams are the clear betting favorites, with the Bills, Ravens and Seahawks close behind. I have no quibbles there, especially since no one has played a game. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow are your leading MVP candidates.3. Hot takes, please. I thought I’d never ask. For this, I chatted with Charles McDonald and Max Browne, two hosts of our new show, “The Athletic LIVE,” which debuts tomorrow on YouTube. I asked them for a flaming hot take or a specific prediction about the season:💬 Charles: “You know I can’t get out of here without some love for my guy, Falcons running back Bijan Robinson. Atlanta head coach Kevin Stefanski and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees were able to get the most of Cleveland’s backs last year — I think Robinson is in store for an all-time season this year (please just don’t watch the rest of the team).”
