Culture
Watching four games in four days – and what it revealed about the new Premier League season
It’s off and running: Premier League season 33 has kicked into action and should the title race goes the distance, nine months and one week from now we will know if, on the banks of the Thames at Fulham, Manchester City have confirmed a fifth consecutive triumph or, at Southampton, if Arsenal have become champions for the first time in 21 years.
Or will Liverpool be celebrating Arne Slot’s first season on the last day at home to Crystal Palace? Could an outsider flourish?
There are familiar faces — James Milner and Ashley Young made their debuts in Premier League season 11. There is freshness, too, in Ipswich Town’s return after 22 years. Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Leicester City and Kloppless Liverpool all have new head coaches. Some clubs have new sporting directors and recruitment heads as well. It’s an evolving league in a developing industry. And in the stands, it remains packed out.
In total, 307 players appeared across the four-day weekend. Young’s sending-off was one of two red cards shown, on top of 38 yellows. There were 20 goals, one from a penalty kick.
Yet City’s long dominance means that, while there was much enthusiasm, there is an underlying tension that will not be eased (depending on the outcome) until those infamous 115 questions are addressed.
That figure hangs in the air, like Mikel Arteta’s joke about 114 points. Then there are questions of club owners, ticket prices and kick-off times, not to mention the video assistant referee (VAR) system and a new handball interpretation. Some of this came up as The Athletic spent Friday to Monday moving from Manchester United to Arsenal to Chelsea and then, finally, finishing in Leicester.
Conversations veered from names such as Joshua Zirkzee to Bukayo Saka to Raheem Sterling. There were unexpected detours into Manchester’s Suffragettes and Henry VIII’s view of St Paul’s cathedral.
But did we get any answers?
Friday night, Old Trafford, and as the Munich clock shows 7.55 a Manchester United fan in an old traditional kit scurries by like so many rushing to make kick-off. It says ‘Edwards’ on the back above the No 6.
As the music booms from inside the stadium — This Is The One by the Stone Roses — outside the East Stand there are still around 200 Fulham fans waiting to get in. They are chanting their version of Country Roads — “Craven Cottage, by the river…”
Despite all the speculation, Erik ten Hag is still the man in the Old Trafford dugout and the opening words of his match programme notes are: “As we kick off the 2024-25 season this evening, I hope you are all as excited as I am.”
Well, Erik.
Ten Hag goes on to list new signings for his squad, such as Zirkzee, and also in administration — Dan Ashworth, Jason Wilcox — and adds: “I am very excited to see where this new energy takes us.”
Yet Friday morning’s newspaper headlines had featured Ten Hag’s phrase from his Thursday press conference — “not ready” was his verdict on United — and as the game starts there is another familiar sight, that of United struggling for rhythm, creativity, cutting edge. After 19 minutes, the Stretford End breaks into a chorus requesting the Glazer family leave the building — it is 19 years since they arrived.
In the directors’ box on a rare visit, majority shareholder Avram Glazer is surrounded by the new faces of Jim Ratcliffe’s takeover (partial). The Glazers have heard these chants many times before. They have not left.
Avram Glazer in Old Trafford’s directors’ box (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
But others have gone. Not far away, across the Trafford Road Bridge, one of them, Matthew Haley, is talking about it. Haley was 23 in 2005 when he decided he could physically support Manchester United no more and he departed with thousands of others to help form the protest club FC United of Manchester.
There were those who said ‘FCUM’ would not last until Christmas but here they are, three games into their 20th season, with their own stadium in north Manchester, an academy, a women’s team, 2,000 members and three full-time staff. They play in England’s seventh tier, the Northern Premier League. They play in red, white and black.
One member, one vote, FC United own themselves, but who in 2024, Haley is asked, owns football?
“Well, where to begin?” he replies. “The very wealthy, don’t they? They control it, they make the decisions.
“But ultimately, it is the people’s game, isn’t it? The reason football is as popular as it is globally is because working-class communities put their passion into it. As the saying goes, ‘football without fans is nothing’, and it’s so true.
“But over the years, big businesses have got a bigger stake and their best interests — and those of TV companies — are placed ahead of the fans.”
Haley is not here to congratulate FC United, but 20 seasons is “significant”. He says the club has endured because of Mancunian spirit: “Partly bloodymindedness, there’s a lot of stubborn people at FC United. And Manchester, it’s a city of protest — the Suffragettes, the trade unions.
FC United of Manchester fans set up their club in protest at the Glazers’ ownership (Tim Markland/PA Images via Getty Images)
“At the time, I don’t think there was a grand scheme to go on for 20 years. But a lot feel they didn’t leave their football club, their football club left them. It was a protest first and foremost and a way of keeping that protest going.”
FC United do not own protest — angry current United fans invaded Old Trafford in May 2021, forcing the fixture with Liverpool to be postponed, for example. At ‘FC’ there is still interest in all this and “cautious optimism” that Ratcliffe could bring positive change.
Endurance, of course, was well-known at United under Sir Alex Ferguson. Back at Old Trafford, one year after Raphael Varane had scored a late winner against Wolverhampton Wanderers — and Andre Onana got away with a clumsy right hook — Ten Hag introduces Zirkzee. And with an 87th-minute left-foot jab, Zirkzee floors U.S.-owned Fulham.
“We’re top of the league,” says a fan walking away, laughing at himself.
Saturday, north London: there is a broad and understandable sense the Premier League’s return has lacked some hype and anticipation. The European Championship and Copa America did not end until mid-July and were followed by the Olympics. There has been almost no time away from football and sport. It follows us everywhere.
But passing through thronged Upper Street, turning onto equally thronged Holloway Road, amid a red tide bound for Arsenal — and on a beautiful summer’s day — the new-season buzz was inescapable. Maybe it was the throwback 3pm Saturday kick-off, maybe it was last season and how close Arsenal came to ending City’s domination. But the Arsenal stadium was a happy place.
Arsenal fans are in positive spirits, and no wonder (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
Can it be more than that?
Seasons sometimes bleed into each other — Ferguson’s United players recall him beginning the charge for the 2013 title on the bus home from Sunderland in 2012 after hearing of City’s Aguero moment. On Friday, Arteta spoke of a post-season dinner and how that near-success can help propel this season. He refers to the players, the club overall — and “how we feel playing at Emirates Stadium is another one”.
Arsenal have not been champions since leaving Highbury for the site at Ashburton Grove and the new stadium has been a drag on finances and, until the club’s recent revival, the subject of hot debates over tepid atmospheres.
If Arsenal are to displace City, then feeling comfortable and superior in their own place is essential. The squad has barely altered and Arteta has it training there more often. It is the sort of marginal gain Arteta calls “huge” and brought back Jurgen Klopp’s phrase when reflecting on Liverpool’s unsuccessful and successful title challenges: “Minutes, millimetres, inches decided things.”
Klopp was correct: in 2021-22, his Liverpool were unbeaten at Anfield and still finished second to City. In 2016-17, Tottenham were unbeaten in their last season at White Hart Lane, racking up 53 points at home, yet came second to Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.
On Saturday evening, after a sometimes convincing 2-0 victory over Wolves, Arteta explains his summer tour reference to “114 points” as a jokey response to the question of what Arsenal require to be champions. It will probably be 90 points or above and that generally means getting around 50 at home (though, in the Covid-19 disrupted season, City got only 41 at home; they still triumphed).
Arsenal’s points tally at home has gone from 41 to 45 to 47 over the past three campaigns. They lost twice last season, to Aston Villa and West Ham United. So there is room for home improvements. Admittedly, there is not much for error.
Therefore, Saturday was a solid start in terms of points. In terms of atmosphere, it was also encouraging. There is a newish, curious demand that grounds should be hostile, teeming with noise for 90 minutes regardless of the state of the game, the home team’s performance or the opposition: hence the recent importation from Europe of numbing drummers. “Un-British” as someone called it on Saturday.
Arsenal fans salute their team (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
Arsenal have drums and ‘ultras’ — mocked by Wolves’ fans — but after Arteta’s continuity XI imposed themselves in the visitors’ half from kick-off, their aggression was met with the rising volume set off by the drumbeat and spiralling around the stadium. The first Arsenal corner excited some, then Saka was close with a shot and when Kai Havertz nodded in on 25 minutes, the stadium was already alive with noise. The supporters were feeding off the team and vice versa. It was no library.
It is best not to pretend it was a night match at Galatasaray or Marseille or Rangers, but it was animated and loud. And that’s OK.
After Saka scores a sharp second and the final whistle blows, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil calls this “such a tough place to come” and while he may have been commenting on Arteta’s players’ first-half attitude, he also mentions that “everybody knows these Arsenal fans are smelling another title charge”.
On top of that, all Gunners will be delighted to hear, O’Neil describes this red corner of north London as “an intimidating place”.
Sunday afternoon, west London and one year on from Chelsea displaying their new manager on the front cover of the matchday programme — Mauricio Pochettino — there is a picture of an 11-player huddle minus Pochettino’s successor, Enzo Maresca. But then, as well as managers, Chelsea do like accumulating footballers.
Contrasting matchday programmes, featuring Mauricio Pochettino (left) and the class of 2024 (Michael Walker/The Athletic)
In August 2023, Pochettino was the Chelsea ownership’s third head coach hire (including caretaker managers) in the 15 months since Clearlake Capital acquired the club. Roman Abramovich’s assets had been frozen by the British government in March 2022.
Previously, there was Graham Potter and Frank Lampard for those who, reasonably, may need memories refreshed. Now it’s Maresca trying to maintain order, or the impression of it, and Raheem Sterling’s pre-match statement is an example of the seeming impossibility of that task.
One year ago, before Chelsea faced Liverpool here on the opening day, the CFCUK fanzine called the situation “carnage” and the author of that description, Charles Rose, is in a pub elaborating.
Rose watched his first Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge in April 1968 — against Manchester City — and is a typical, ordinary Chelsea fan, in one sense. In another, as the former chair of the Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC, Rose has a deep knowledge of the club and considered opinions on who owns football in 2024.
“Well, I know who it isn’t,” he replies to the big question, “it’s not the fans. Has it ever been? That’s debatable. But it’s gone further away from the fans than ever before. It used to be owned by patrician local owners, the successful butcher or businessman who wanted to do something for their town. It’s moved to being a geopolitical game, it’s moved to stratospheres beyond what we could ever have imagined.”
The Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO), as the name suggests, understand ownership. Formed in the 1980s when it looked as if Stamford Bridge would be sold to property developers, supporters came together and bought the land. The CPO owns the pitch, the stands and the megastore. To take them over requires a 75 per cent vote in favour from shareholders and the closest anyone has come is 61 per cent — Abramovich.
What did Abramovich own then?
“He owned the club itself, the players, and the valuable thing at Chelsea is the marketing,” Rose says. “Chelsea’s value is in its worldwide marketing, that’s what clubs are striving for.”
It is the same for Clearlake, who cannot redevelop the stadium without consultation with CPO, who know details such as Henry VIII’s 16th-century law on being able to see St Paul’s cathedral from various points around London, one of which is in the sightline of Stamford Bridge.
There is minimal contact with the new owners and Rose says, as a fanbase, Chelsea “had a sense of ownership then (in the past), and I still do, I talk about Chelsea in the first person, as ‘us’. But it’s never been more remote than it is now. They’re stripping the essence of what we think of as the club.”
Blue is indeed the colour.
Rose offers the losses of Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne as examples of Chelsea’s overstocking and misjudgement of squads, so he probably isn’t amused when Mateo Kovacic, who left Chelsea for City in June of last year, curls in City’s second goal to secure, as predicted, the three points.
Manchester City park the bus at Stamford Bridge (Michael Walker/The Athletic)
As jubilant City fans walk along Fulham Road, past their team buses (plural) they are taking photographs of the ‘CHAMPIONS 4-IN-A-ROW’ livery, while taunting their rivals back in Manchester with this season’s terrace favourite climaxing:
All that money you spent
Since Ferguson went
And you’ll never win four in a row.
City stroll on. Chelsea play Servette of Switzerland in a Europa Conference League qualifier here on Thursday night.
Monday night in the East Midlands: it is past 10pm and Steve Cooper, his Leicester City players and mascot Filbert the Fox are still on the pitch. In the stands, supporters are on their feet. The applause is mighty. These are sights and sounds to behold for a stadium that does not reveal the clear belief Leicester can compete.
And after 45 minutes, those who think it’s all over for the three clubs promoted from the Championship, even before the first weekend is done, are having their opinion justified. Tottenham run away with the first half, scoring once, forcing corners every four minutes or so. There is evidence to support the motion.
At least one Leicester fan was fired up before kick-off (Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Leicester are losing heavily in lots of ways except the scoreline and the assumption is they, like Ipswich and Southampton on Saturday, will make it three defeats for the promoted trio, possibly without scoring a goal between them.
But football really is that funny old game cliche at times and Jamie Vardy really is that funny old striker. “Not normal” is Cooper’s phrase about Vardy’s fitness at 37.
He is still doing it, leading from the front, cajoling, battling, closing down and then when it matters, putting the ball away. Vardy’s goal here early in the second half, from his first chance, will not go down as one of his classics from his epic Leicester City seasons. But in the context of the night, in the context of the club’s mood and the promoted clubs’ perspective, it really matters.
Leicester fans left in the rain with hope; their fear was it would be with resignation.
“I’ll look at the first half because that’s my job,” Cooper says, late into the night. “But to do what we did in the second half in a really good atmosphere… it’s not a win but we’re up and running. It’s more than just a half-decent result.”
It does feel that way and the result is not just important for Leicester. It will have buoyed Ipswich and Southampton, too. It is premature to deduce too much but, faced with the Premier League clubs who finished third, fifth and seventh last season — Liverpool, Spurs, Newcastle — the promoted three conceded only four goals between them.
In 2024, there is a recency bias to the perception the three teams from the Championship will go straight back down. Last season, Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town were relegated having come up in 2022-23. The pessimism around the prospects of Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton are not without foundation.
This weekend 12 months ago, Luton lost 4-1 on their Premier League debut, Burnley conceded three without reply at home to City and did not win in the league until beating Luton in October. Sheffield United lost at Bramall Lane to Crystal Palace and did not win until November.
So when Ipswich’s lunchtime loss to Liverpool on Saturday is followed by Southampton’s at Newcastle, albeit narrowly, optimism dips. Yet Ipswich’s 38 per cent possession at Portman Road tells a story and Southampton’s 78 per cent at St James’ Park tells another.
The focus shifts to Leicester. In the first 15 minutes, Spurs seize almost 70 per cent of possession, win five corners and have one effort cleared off the line. It looks ominous.
But then Vardy strikes, Spurs disappear and maybe some recall that last season was only the second time in the Premier League era that all three promoted clubs went straight back down (1997-98 was the other).
The mood was transformed at Leicester by Jamie Vardy’s goal (Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
In the past seven seasons, Brighton, Wolves and Brentford have established themselves in the middle class. Bournemouth have rebounded from a relegation and it appears Fulham and Nottingham Forest might be able to cement their status.
Each acts as an example of what Ipswich and other clubs can do. They are also barriers to promoted clubs’ progress. That is the fight. Leicester know its scale more than most.
The weekend stops here, with one last question hanging: what are Tottenham?
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
By Grant Brisbee, Kaitlyn McGrath and Stephen J. Nesbitt
Every week, we ask a selected group of our baseball writers — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results.
We’re approaching the business end of the season. With six weeks remaining, the postseason races are coming into focus as are the finalists for the annual awards.
Bobby Witt Jr. and Aaron Judge are each making a strong case for the American League MVP, while Shohei Ohtani is proving that even when he’s held to only hitting, he can be the heavy favorite to win his first National League MVP and third overall. Corbin Burnes and Tarik Skubal are the leading candidates for the AL Cy Young Award, while in the NL, Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler are favored for the honor.
We can all name plenty of players having standout seasons and getting deserved recognition — but what about those players flying just under the radar? In this week’s power rankings, we set out to identify those players having sneaky good seasons for their respective ball clubs.
Record: 74-52
Last Power Ranking: 3
Sneaky-good season: RHP Gavin Stone
The Dodgers would be absolutely hosed without Stone. Bobby Miller and Walker Buehler have combined for 17 erratic and ineffective starts this season, and Clayton Kershaw rejoined the team only recently. Tyler Glasnow is on the 15-day IL, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is on the 60-day IL with shoulder issues and River Ryan needed Tommy John surgery right as he was starting to impress.
Without Stone and his modestly successful 22 starts (3.63 ERA, 4.04 FIP), there would be a lot more panic surrounding the Dodgers. They probably weren’t expecting an NL West race this close, and they definitely weren’t expecting to need 17 different starting pitchers (and counting) this season. The peripheral stats suggest that Stone won’t be dominant until he returns to missing bats like he did in the minors. The Dodgers needed one of their gaggle of young starters to be sneaky good this season, and they needed it in the worst way. — Grant Brisbee
Record: 73-52
Last Power Ranking: 1
Sneaky-good season: RHP Michael Tonkin
After the opening month he had, who would have thought the 34-year-old Tonkin would have a 2.73 ERA with the Yankees? After signing a split contract with the Mets and breaking camp with them, the journeyman reliever was DFA’d then traded to the Twins only to be DFA’d by them and picked up again by the Mets, who subsequently DFA’d him once more after which he was claimed by the Yankees — all before the end of April. But after a blown save in his Yankees debut, Tonkin has found a home in the Bronx and earned his way into Aaron Boone’s circle of trust. Upping the usage of his two-seam fastball along with some runway to get comfortable seems to be the recipe Tonkin needed to put together a sneaky good season after a chaotic start. — Kaitlyn McGrath
Record: 73-51
Last Power Ranking: 4
Sneaky-good season: RHP Orion Kerkering
Jeff Hoffman and Matt Strahm have been the standouts from the Phillies bullpen — and both received well-earned All-Star nods because of it. But behind them, having a season just as good, though perhaps more under the radar has been rookie Orion Kerkering, who has a 2.51 ERA in 47 appearances with 53 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings. He’s succeeded especially by limiting hard contact, holding the opposition to a 31.4 percent hard-hit rate that ranks in the 92nd percentile in the majors. Kerkering shot through the Phillies system last year, and made his MLB debut last September. Expectations were high for Kerkering this season, and he has lived up to them. — McGrath
Record: 73-53
Last Power Ranking: 2
Sneaky-good season: 1B/OF/DH Ryan O’Hearn
O’Hearn had five unremarkable years with the Kansas City Royals, compiling a .683 OPS, before he was DFA’d and landed with the Orioles in 2023 in a make-or-break year for his career. The first baseman broke out and he’s carried that success into this season, too. The left-handed hitter has a .801 OPS in 107 games and has been particularly effective against right-handed pitching, with an .818 OPS and all 12 of his home runs coming in situations where he has the platoon advantage. On a team with many big hitters, O’Hearn is making the most of his part-time role and for that reason, he’s authoring one of the best sneaky good seasons. — McGrath
Record: 72-52
Last Power Ranking: 6
Sneaky-good season: 3B Joey Ortiz
The seriously good Brewers have had no shortage of sneaky good seasons — we’ve previously noted Jackson Chourio and Bryan Hudson and Brice Turang — so we’re going with a guy who’s mostly flown under the radar. After going to Milwaukee in the Corbin Burnes trade last offseason, Ortiz has played plus defense at third base and been a steady contributor at the plate: .248/.345/.401, eight homers, seven steals. There’s more power in the bat than he’s shown so far this season, but in the meantime, he’s getting on base and displaying exceptional plate discipline to help lengthen the Brewers lineup. A 3 WAR rookie season won’t win hardware, given the competition, but it’s still sneaky good. — Stephen Nesbitt
Record: 72-52
Last Power Ranking: 5
Sneaky-good season: RHP Hunter Gaddis
Sorry Cade Smith, but once you get the Ken Rosenthal notebook treatment you’re not sneaking by anyone anymore. So let’s go with the Guardians’ other set-up guy. Gaddis entered this season with a 6.57 ERA in almost 50 innings in the majors. That stinks! So when he started the season with 13 consecutive scoreless relief outings, that was a surprise. Then when he served up six runs across his next three outings, that was not a surprise. And yet, entering this week, Gaddis has allowed only four earned runs since the start of May. That’s an 0.84 ERA in 42 2/3 innings, cutting his season ERA to 1.40. Good luck staying sneaky good at that rate. Just look at this stuff! — Nesbitt
Hunter Gaddis, Filth. 😷 pic.twitter.com/FAjIRzAjOw
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 25, 2024
Record: 71-55
Last Power Ranking: 8
Sneaky-good season: C Kyle Higashioka
Sometimes you have the kind of season where almost nothing goes right. Like, say, most of the seasons in Padres franchise history. But sometimes you have the kind of season where even the backup catcher is contributing. Higashioka’s on-base skills still leave a lot to be desired, but he’s hit 14 home runs in just 189 plate appearances, which is more than anyone in the Yankees’ infield this season.
The Padres were just looking for a catcher who wouldn’t mess things up, but they stumbled onto an accidental dinger machine, which is just how this team is rolling right now. — Brisbee
Record: 70-55
Last Power Ranking: 9
Sneaky-good season: 1B Carlos Santana
None of the other first basemen who were free agents last offseason have come close to matching the 38-year-old Santana’s value this season. Not Cody Bellinger. Not Rhys Hoskins. Not Rowdy Tellez or Joey Gallo or Matt Carpenter. The Twins signed Santana for $5 million, and he’s delivered a .241/.330/.432 slash line (112 OPS+) with 18 homers while playing outrageously good defense. He has accrued 13 outs above average, which is No. 1 among first basemen and twice as many as any first baseman not named Christian Walker (11 OAA). Pairing that defense with an excellent eye and solid switch-hitting pop, I don’t see why Santana wouldn’t keep finding one-year deals and play into his 40s. — Nesbitt
Record: 70-56
Last Power Ranking: 7
Sneaky-good season: Justin Martínez
Martínez has a National League Championship ring from his time with the Diamondbacks last season, but that doesn’t mean that he actually contributed. He walked 11 batters in 10 major-league innings, which was only slightly worse than the 48 batters he walked in 49 1/3 innings in Triple A. It would have been possible to make a list of “The 50 players who are likely to contribute to the 2024 Diamondbacks” without including Martínez.
Stuff is stuff, though, and Martínez has stuff. He’s one of the only pitchers who averages 100 mph on his fastball, and his Baseball Savant page is dripping with red ink (the good kind). If the Diamondbacks are going to get back to the World Series, they’ll need relievers. Here’s a sneaky good one. — Brisbee
Record: 68-56
Last Power Ranking: 11
Sneaky-good season: C Victor Caratini
Boy, did Astros fans deserve this one after suffering through three straight miserable offensive seasons from Martín Maldonado. The former Astros catcher had 1,212 plate appearances over the last three seasons, with a .183/.260/.333 slash line. He was under the Mendoza Line in all three. You might be thinking that he made up for all this with his speed, but that’s a common misconception. He actually wasn’t very fast at all.
The Astros found their primary catcher of the future last season, Yainer Diaz, and he’s having another excellent season. But when it’s time to rest him and keep him fresh, the Astros can turn to Caratini without losing too much offense. That’s the dream for every team. They all want a backup catcher who can hit a little, but that’s incredibly difficult to find. Here’s a fan base that appreciates it even more than others might. — Brisbee
Record: 70-55
Last Power Ranking: 10
Sneaky-good season: The starting rotation
When The Athletic’s Jim Bowden ranked every starting rotation before the season, the Royals were 23rd. MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince didn’t even give them an honorable mention in his preseason top 10, either. Both writers were dead on about the Mariners and Phillies, who rank first and second, respectively, in rotation ERA this season. But third? That’s the Royals, at 3.56.
The current rotation stacks up like this:
Seth Lugo: 3.04 ERA, 3.49 FIP, 1.09 WHIP, 159 2/3 IP
Cole Ragans: 3.18 ERA, 2.95 FIP, 1.15 WHIP, 147 1/3 IP
Brady Singer: 3.18 ERA, 3.66 FIP, 1.21 WHIP, 141 2/3 IP
Michael Wacha: 3.33 ERA, 3.86 FIP, 1.21 WHIP, 127 IP
Michael Lorenzen: 2.87 ERA, 4.76 FIP, 1.28 WHIP, 15 2/3 IP
Ragans-Lugo-Singer isn’t the most intimidating starting three for a wild-card series, but, boy, they’re going to give the Royals a good chance to win. — Nesbitt
Record: 66-58
Last Power Ranking: 13
Sneaky-good season: RHP Jesse Chavez
We know what you’re thinking. Is Jesse Chavez still pitching? Is he pitching well? For the Atlanta Braves? The answer to those three questions is a resounding yes! The 40-year-old continues to be a reliable arm out of the bullpen for Atlanta, where he’s cultivated a legend status and earned the nickname “coach” in the clubhouse. In his 17th (!) season pitching in the majors — a career that includes stops with nine teams — Chavez has a 2.85 ERA in 39 appearances with 47 strikeouts in 53 2/3 innings. The veteran has been particularly effective with runners in scoring position, holding the opposition to a .127 batting average in those situations. — McGrath
Record: 65-59
Last Power Ranking: 14
Sneaky-good season: RF Wilyer Abreu
When former Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom dealt Christian Vázquez to the Astros at the 2022 trade deadline for prospects Enmanuel Valdez and Abreu, there was consternation from the fanbase for moving on from the fan-favorite catcher. Two years later, however, the deal looks like a win for Boston, thanks in part to the play of Abreu. (Although apologies to Bloom will have to be forwarded to St. Louis, where he is now an advisor after being fired by the Red Sox.) The right-fielder had a .836 OPS through 96 games with 14 home runs, including a pair of emotional ones earlier this month. As the Red Sox try to desperately stay in the mix for a wild-card spot this year, Abreu at least looks like he’ll be a part of the solution in Boston for years to come. — McGrath
Record: 64-62
Last Power Ranking: 12
Sneaky-good season: CF Victor Robles
Quick, how old do you think Robles is? I would have guessed 30, and that he was a Nationals prospect a decade ago, if not more. Heck, he was a prospect for so long, you could have convinced me he was in the Expos’ system.
He just turned 27. While he’s probably not going to turn into an All-Star, he’s currently one of the only Mariners hitters with any idea how to hit a baseball, which makes him a precious gem. A .345 OBP with 14 steals and strong defense? Break out the rye bread and the salami, grandma, because you’re going to need to eat something while you’re hammering out a 12-year contract extension for the guy. — Brisbee
Record: 65-60
Last Power Ranking: 15
Sneaky-good season: LHP Sean Manaea
In the crowded NL wild-card race, we don’t know yet whether the Mets can make a late charge for the last spot. But what we do know is that starter Manaea has likely pitched his way into a neat multi-year deal this winter. The left-hander has a 3.46 ERA in 24 starts. According to ERA+, this has been his best season since 2018, when he had a 3.59 ERA in 27 starts for the Oakland Athletics. A free agent in the winter, Manaea has made the most of his platform year, while also helping the Mets at least remain competitive down the stretch. As one of the top left-handed starters available, Manaea’s sneaky good season could pay off big in the offseason. — McGrath
Record: 62-62
Last Power Ranking: 19
Sneaky-good season: LHP Garrett Cleavinger
This is what the Rays do. They take a relatively unknown pitcher, perhaps a guy who bounced around, and make him into one of the game’s most feared arms out of the bullpen. Enter this year’s example, Cleavinger, who previously pitched for the Phillies and Dodgers before finding a home in Tampa Bay. In 54 appearances, the left-hander has a 2.81 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 48 innings. His 29 percent strikeout rate ranks in the top 20 of qualified AL relievers and his average exit velocity of 86.5 mph ranks in the top 10 percent of the majors, making him one of the toughest relievers to square up. Thanks to advice from fellow Rays pitcher Drew Rasmussen, Cleavinger has found success splitting his breaking ball into two pitches — his previous slider and a new sweeper that’s held batters to a .275 slugging percentage. Cleavinger is yet another reminder of the Tampa Bay Way. — McGrath
Record: 64-63
Last Power Ranking: 16
Sneaky-good season: LHP Erik Miller
Miller is a left-handed reliever who’s built like a power forward or tight end and throws 100 mph with occasionally nasty secondary pitches. The Giants got him from the Phillies for Yunior Marte, and it’s looking like a steal so far.
Don’t blame the Phillies (too much) for giving up on Miller. His stuff was obvious, but his command and control were dreadful, and he had a career 5.8 BB/9 in the minors. Something clicked for him, though, and since the beginning of May, he’s had a 2.90 ERA, with 47 strikeouts in 40 1/3 innings. The walks still need to come way, way down, but he’s been a large part of a Giants bullpen that’s gotten more reliable as the season has progressed. — Brisbee
Record: 61-64
Last Power Ranking: 18
Sneaky-good season: 1B Michael Busch
We’ve really rankled Cubs fans lately by not mentioning Busch among the top NL Rookie of the Year candidates. “If he were a Yankee,” one reader wrote, “the clarion call from the Bronx would be deafening.” Consider this your clarion call, Chicago! After arriving in a trade from Los Angeles, Busch started the season white hot and has been remarkably steady all summer. He’s providing standout defense at first base and a blend of on-base and power at the plate. It remains concerning that Busch has struck out in 31.2 percent of his plate appearances in the majors, but odds are that will come down slightly over time. — Nesbitt
Record: 61-63
Last Power Ranking: 17
Sneaky-good season: 1B/DH Alec Burleson
If you’d have told a Cardinals fan this spring that Burleson in his sophomore season would hit .280 with about 25 dingers and 10 steals, they’d have asked if they could give you a big ol’ hug. That’s a great year! Burleson has some obvious flaws in his profile, but there’s been a lot more good than bad. The biggest knock against Burleson: his atrocious defensive numbers. He played out of position much of the summer, bouncing between left and right field despite having no business being out there. Burleson could wind up being on the large side of a platoon, as he’s struggled mightily against lefties, but with his bat-to-ball skills and barrels he should remain a useful hitter for years to come. — Nesbitt
Record: 61-64
Last Power Ranking: 20
Sneaky-good season: RHP Nick Martinez
Martinez has been sneaky good since returning in 2022 from a four-year stint in Japan. He had a 3.45 ERA over 216 2/3 innings for the Padres across the 2022 and 2023 seasons, and has seen similar success in a bulk role with the Reds this season: 3.25 ERA in 97 innings. Martinez is a soft-contact savant. What’s changed this year, though, is that he’s simply not permitting walks. He’s the only MLB pitcher (minimum 90 innings) averaging less than a walk per nine innings this year; he has not allowed multiple walks in any outing. Cincinnati is a hard place to pitch, and Martinez has a much worse ERA at home (4.42) than away (1.71), but limiting walks and homers is a great recipe anywhere. — Nesbitt
Record: 61-64
Last Power Ranking: 23
Sneaky-good season: CF Parker Meadows
A sneaky good stretch has saved Meadows’ season. One of the most gifted defensive outfielders in the game, Meadows was optioned to Triple A in May because he was batting .096. He returned to Detroit in July and had four hits in a series sweep of Cincinnati, then suffered a hamstring strain. He recovered, returned and hasn’t stopped hitting. He’s 20-for-57 (.351) with eight extra-base hits in 15 games since being recalled from the minors, and the Tigers are 12-3 in those games. After tallying three hits, including a walk-off single, in the leadoff spot against the Yankees on Sunday night, Meadows saw his season batting average rise above .200 for the first time all season. Considering where Meadows was a few months ago, the Mendoza Line never looked so impressive. — Nesbitt
Parker Meadows walks it off! Dan Dickerson on the call #RepDetroit pic.twitter.com/ckU1zwmTCL
— Dan Dickerson Calls📞 (@dannydHRs) August 19, 2024
Record: 58-66
Last Power Ranking: T-21
Sneaky-good season: C Joey Bart
The Pirates’ inability to identify their catcher of the future is not a new issue. They haven’t drafted one, haven’t signed one. When they added Bart, who’d busted in San Francisco, in a minor trade this spring, few thought they’d found a long-term contributor. But Bart has been one of the Pirates’ best hitters this season, with a .351 OBP, .882 OPS and career-high 12 homers. Bart’s defensive numbers are poor, so perhaps he’s a short-term solution at catcher, but if he hits like this the Pirates will gladly take him as the first baseman of the future. — Nesbitt
Record: 58-68
Last Power Ranking: T-21
Sneaky-good season: RHP David Robertson
Try to find another candidate for a sneaky good season on the Rangers. Go on, I dare you. The story of their season has been a surfeit of aggressively lousy seasons, nothing sneaky about it. So we’ll go with Robertson, who was in the same draft class with Max Scherzer and Joba Chamberlain, roughly six decades ago. He was teammates with a rehabbing Roger Clemens on the 2007 Trenton Thunder, and Clemens was in the Red Sox organization when Carl Yastrzemski was still playing. You can get from Robertson to Babe Ruth in five steps.
Robertson is also having a sneaky good season. Again. Not bad for a 39-year-old who had to pitch for the High Point Rockers a couple years ago just to get teams to notice him. — Brisbee
Record: 58-67
Last Power Ranking: 24
Sneaky-good season: RHP Chad Green
Green survived the Blue Jays’ purge at the trade deadline, and it’s a good thing he did because he has been far and away their best reliever. The veteran right-hander has a 1.82 ERA with 33 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings. With their regular closer Jordan Romano on the 60-day IL and backup closer Yimi García traded to the Mariners at the deadline, Green stepped into the closer role and has gone a perfect 13-for-13 in save opportunities. There hasn’t been much good to come out of this season for Toronto, but Green’s first full season back after Tommy John surgery has been a bright spot and he’s also signed through next season. — McGrath
Record: 56-69
Last Power Ranking: 25
Sneaky-good season: RHP Jake Irvin
A year ago, Irvin looked like he might be a guy who could at the very least fill innings for the Nationals which is useful, if not spectacular. But this season, the 27-year-old right-hander has shown more promise and moved in the right direction. In 26 starts, Irvin has a 3.81 ERA and his 151 innings pitched lead all pitchers on the Nationals while his 2.7 bWAR is behind only CJ Abrams for the most on the team. A key to his success has been cutting his walk rate nearly in half, from 10.2 percent last season to 5.7 percent this season. If the Nationals are going to return to relevancy again, they’ll need the likes of Abrams, James Wood and MacKenzie Gore to perform. But after this sneaky good season, Irvin is showing that he too can be a key part of the future. — McGrath
Record: 54-71
Last Power Ranking: 27
Sneaky-good season: RHP Osvaldo Bido
Sometimes it’s good to be a team without a chance at the postseason. Experimentation is encouraged, if not necessary, and that’s how the A’s can follow a hunch and convert a 28-year-old minor-league free-agent reliever into a starter. Let’s not go overboard with his success in six starts, but the early returns are encouraging. Last year, he struggled with his command in the Pirates organization. This year, he’s allowing some of the weakest contact in the league. He has the lowest hard-hit percentage in the game. Exit velocity data is just as encouraging.
There will be an adjustment from the rest of the league. Each start will give opponents new ways to attack him. After another month, we’ll have a better idea if Bido is for real. My suspicion is that his command will need to improve for him to be a bonafide starter, but he’s done well so far. — Brisbee
Record: 53-72
Last Power Ranking: 26
Sneaky-good season: SS Zach Neto
Angels fans probably don’t think that Neto’s season needs an adjective. He’s just been good. He has a .779 OPS, which is 15 percent better than the average hitter, except he’s doing it as an excellent defensive shortstop. It’s less a sneaky good season and more of a sneaky great season.
We’ll let it qualify for this exercise because we’ll stretch the exercise to allow Neto’s breakout season to feel sneaky good about the Angels franchise as a whole. No, seriously. They drafted Neto 13th overall just two years ago, and he’s already thriving in the majors and looking like a franchise cornerstone. The organization has a long way to go, but developing an excellent shortstop is a heckuva start. Go on. Be a little positive about the Angels. As a treat. — Brisbee
Record: 46-79
Last Power Ranking: 29
Sneaky-good season: 1B/3B Jake Burger
It didn’t always look like Jake Burger would be on this list. As the Marlins were off to their dreadful start, the 28-year-old infielder had a .635 OPS with only 10 home runs in 73 games during the first half. But Burger has turned it on in the second half. In 28 games since the All-Star break, Burger has hit .321 with a 1.161 OPS. He’s hit 14 home runs in that span — including a stretch of eight games in August where he homered seven times. Thanks to the hot stretch, Burger has his season wRC+ back up to 113 which is in line with the rest of his career. It hasn’t been a memorable season in Miami, but Burger may have found a way to salvage his. — McGrath
Record: 46-79
Last Power Ranking: 28
Sneaky-good season: 1B/OF Michael Toglia
Toglia is an extremely large, switch-hitting first baseman who was drafted in the first round in 2019, only to get sucked into the COVID-19 maelstrom that cost minor leaguers a full season of proper development. He’s behind schedule compared to the typical first-round first baseman, but it’s not hard to guess why.
He’s up now, though, and he’s raking in the second half. His strikeouts are down, his walks are up and he’s already hit 20 homers. The most exciting part for the Rockies might be that he’s been even better on the road, which isn’t supposed to happen. The organization’s future is still dull and frustrating, but getting value out of first-round picks, even if it takes a few years, is how they’re going to get out of this mess. — Brisbee
Record: 30-96
Last Power Ranking: 30
Sneaky-good season: RHP Jonathan Cannon
Do you understand what you’re asking of me? The White Sox don’t have a position player above 0.5 fWAR. Their only pitcher above 1 fWAR is All-Star Garrett Crochet, who was the talk of July and therefore not at all sneaky.
There really is only one option, other than the under, and that’s Cannon. The former Georgia Bulldog has had a couple starts go sideways, but the overall line — 4.02 ERA, 4.70 FIP, 1.30 WHIP in 80 2/3 innings — is solid enough. Cannon has command but lacks swing-and-miss stuff. We’ll see how that goes. Normally Cannon would just be a bright spot for a bad team. But he has a big job the rest of the way: helping the White Sox try to avoid the most losses in modern history. — Nesbitt
(Top photo of Brandon Lowe: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
Why isn’t Gabby Williams playing in the WNBA?
It’s a question that Williams has had to reckon with too many times over the past four years, and one that is once again at the forefront after the former UConn guard’s dominant showing at the Paris Olympics. As Williams debates a return to the league she has played 135 games in since 2018, the barriers to her re-entry raise important questions about player agency in the WNBA and what changes the players union should prioritize as they decide whether to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement at the end of 2024.
Williams, who led France to a silver medal and averaged 15.5 points, 4.8 assists, and 2.8 steals per game during the Olympics, entered the 2024 WNBA offseason as an unrestricted free agent. She has been an ace perimeter defender throughout her professional career and has improved her ballhandling and shot creation while playing in Europe and could immediately step into a guard rotation for a contender.
But Williams has been an intermittent member of the WNBA since 2021. She couldn’t play that entire season and has dealt with prioritization challenges each of the last two years. The players union has a variety of priorities to address in a new CBA, including salaries, maternity protections (of particular importance after the Dearica Hamby lawsuit) and revenue sharing. The experience of Williams also shines a light on player agency and autonomy, and what sort of freedoms the players have earned after helping to build the league.
BEST of Xi’an 👑
Gabby Williams helped France 🇫🇷 sweep #FIBAOQT in Xi’an, while averaging 16.3 PTS, 4.0 REB, 2.7 STL and 19.3 EFF and claiming TISSOT MVP honours ⚙️ pic.twitter.com/UALfRCwPCe
— FIBA (@FIBA) February 12, 2024
During the 2024 offseason, rather than sign with a team, Williams opted to spend the first half of the season preparing for the Olympics. Since she retained her status as a free agent and finished her European club season before May 1, Williams isn’t restricted by the WNBA’s prioritization clause, which requires players competing internationally to report at the start of the WNBA calendar (even if their overseas team is still playing) or else be suspended for the season. She could choose to play out the remainder of the season stateside provided a team has a roster spot and cap space available. Even with the WNBA trade deadline on Tuesday, Williams is likely the most impactful addition a team could make before the end of the regular season.
However, as originally reported by Rachel Galligan on X and confirmed by The Athletic, Williams is considering whether to return to the WNBA this season because of how that decision would impact her options in 2025. If Williams simply elects to eschew the WNBA in 2024 (she already has a contract to play for Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahçe for 2024-25), she will once again be an unrestricted free agent in the 2025 offseason and have full control over where she plays in the league next year. However, if she signs for the rest of the season, that team would have the opportunity to core Williams and thus retain her exclusive negotiating rights for 2025.
WNBA teams have the opportunity to designate a free agent as a core player during the offseason. The player can subsequently only negotiate with said team as a free agent and is guaranteed a one-year, supermax contract unless the two parties agree on a deal with different terms or a trade.
The purpose of the core provision was to give teams the ability to protect their investment in a player. After drafting, developing and investing in a player, the core gives franchises another mechanism to keep top talent in their organizations. However, it also by definition reduces player freedom, which has inadvertently been the story of Williams’ WNBA career.
In 2021, Williams was set to miss part of the season to compete in EuroBasket and the Tokyo Olympics for France. Although she anticipated being able to return stateside once her international commitments were complete, the Chicago Sky suspended her for the full season, meaning she wasn’t paid her WNBA contract. In 2023, the prioritization clause would have prevented Williams from suiting up for the Seattle Storm because her French season ended after the start of the WNBA calendar. She only ended up being able to play for the Storm because of an unexpected coincidence; she got a concussion in France, thus prematurely bringing her European season to a close and clearing her to be available for Seattle.
GO DEEPER
Why is Gabby Williams the first test case for WNBA’s prioritization rule?
Now, Williams finds her autonomy threatened by another CBA provision: the core.
Williams’ case challenges the theory of the core provision. She isn’t a franchise player. If she returns to the WNBA, it will be to a team that didn’t draft her and hasn’t given her any marketing money because she’s always overseas during the offseason. A team’s only investment in her would be the $20,000 or so it will pay her for about a dozen regular-season games to close out the season. And for that limited stretch, a team would be able to control where she plays in 2025.
As the WNBA increases in scale, bringing in more revenue, the CBA still exists to protect the teams’ interests, not the players. Mechanisms like restricted free agency, a hard cap and the core depress players’ markets and ability to seek out situations of their choosing.
As a result, players are called upon to make tough decisions that often disincentivize their participation in the WNBA. Prioritization forces a choice between playing overseas and in the U.S., and overseas contracts often outpace what the best players can earn stateside. Elena Delle Donne was cored this offseason by the Washington Mystics, and the veteran is now sitting out despite reportedly expressing an interest to play elsewhere, so the WNBA is missing out on one of the final healthy seasons of a two-time MVP.
Williams could stay in France and bask in the glory of her silver medal for a month before reporting to Turkey. Instead, the decision to help a team chase a WNBA title could handcuff her, once again putting her WNBA career in the hands of an outside actor. The professional experience should be prioritizing players, not forcing them to rely on the promises and goodwill of organizations. The reason Williams isn’t playing in the WNBA is because she is trying to control her career, and the league’s CBA is trying to control her.
(Photo: Jean Catuffe / Getty Images)
Pate Tuilevuka could hardly believe what he was seeing. He was only at this tryout as a favor to an old friend, but it didn’t take long to realize he was watching someone special.
A person that big and that strong shouldn’t be that fast. That smooth. The possibilities felt infinite. The heights limitless.
Tuilevuka, the general manager of Major League Rugby’s Seattle Seawolves, thought that with a little training, Laiatu Latu could dominate. He reminded Tuilevuka of New Zealand rugby union legend Jonah Lomu. “Jonah was a huge, massive individual who had incredible speed and power,” Tuilevuka said. “So, as soon as I saw (Latu) … I just knew, ‘Aw shoot, this kid has all of that.’”
It was scheduled to be a three-day tryout, but Tuilevuka had seen enough after only a few drills. He was ready to sign Latu on the spot. But the 20-year-old couldn’t commit.
Latu liked rugby, and he was great at it, leading Jesuit High in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael, Calif., to two national championships. His coach, Lou Stanfill, who helped set up the Seawolves tryout, described Latu as “clinically merciless.” If an opponent got between him and a scoring opportunity, Latu ran straight through their chest. If a player tried to score on him, Latu caved their chest in.
Of course we dug up Laiatu’s high school rugby highlights. 💥
(via @Hudl) pic.twitter.com/QsfJYla7nW
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) April 26, 2024
“He was a man among boys, especially in his senior year,” Stanfill said. “He was 6-foot-4, 250-260 pounds, could run, could hit, could jump. He could do everything and he was coachable in everything.”
But even though Latu could do it all on a rugby pitch, his heart belonged elsewhere. A neck injury he suffered at the University of Washington just months prior was supposed to keep him off the football field forever. But Latu wasn’t ready to accept that, so he turned down Tuilevuka and the Seawolves — and a potentially fabulous life.
“If Laiatu wanted to go play rugby, he would play overseas, and he would be a big name,” Stanfill said. “Everyone around the world would end up finding out who Laiatu Latu is.
“He would play here in the States for MLR. He’d get on the U.S. National Team, and then someone in France, England, New Zealand (would sign him). … He’d be making good money, living in France and playing great ruby.”
Instead, Latu defiantly rededicated himself to a sport that was supposed to be in his rearview mirror. “I told them that my passion is football,” Latu said of the Seawolves tryout. And three years after being told he’d never play football again, he became the first defensive player selected in the 2024 NFL Draft, his passion having become his livelihood.
After teams selected 14 straight offense players to open up the 2024 NFL Draft, the Indianapolis Colts made Laiatu Latu the first defender chosen. (Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
The text sent shivers down Kerry Latu’s spine.
“Mom.”
None of her four children ever sent cliffhanger texts, so this one-word message from her oldest son gave her an ominous feeling. Soon, she was talking to Laiatu and Washington’s medical staff, trying to piece together exactly what had happened during an awkward practice collision with a teammate in November 2020.
Laiatu remembers it vividly.
“I tackled the running back, and right after that play everyone was still playing and running around because I did it pretty quick,” he said. “So when I turned around, my middle linebacker was running full speed and hit me in my face.”
Latu experienced numbness in his neck and extremities “for like 10 seconds” and initially thought he’d suffered a stinger. Trainers decided to keep him sidelined for the rest of practice out of an abundance of caution. It would be his last rep at Washington.
An MRI later revealed Latu had suffered a significant neck injury, the extent of which he has declined to specify publicly. He planned to sit out the remainder of a 2020 season already in disarray amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The family and university hoped his neck would heal on its own. But as the days, weeks and months went by, nothing improved.
“Eventually, the doctors were like, ‘I think we need to do surgery,’” Kerry said. “And from that point, the conversation started about medically retiring, and that was just gut-wrenching. … I thought maybe Laiatu was gonna have some say in it. But once they started talking about medically retiring him there was no looking back.”
Laiatu underwent neck fusion surgery in March 2021. Washington medically retired him in April.
“We would never want to put anybody in danger of possibly not being able to use his extremities the rest of his life,” then-Washington head coach Jimmy Lake said at the time. “We would never want that to happen to anybody.”
Lake added that the university consulted “five of the best specialists in the country, guys who have worked with different NFL clubs,” before choosing to end Latu’s career.
He was only 20, and he was devastated.
“I can’t imagine what he went through, because even I struggled with it,” Kerry said. “I kept thinking, ‘Not only is he a phenomenal football player, but he’s one of the most humble kids. I didn’t understand. Like, why is this happening to him?’”
It didn’t matter that Latu was weightlifting right up until the day before his procedure, even hang-cleaning a personal best 345 pounds. It didn’t matter that just two months into what was supposed to be a six-to-nine-month recovery, he picked rugby back up and was running and tackling with no issues. It didn’t matter that he was teaching himself pass-rush moves from YouTube videos while trying to flip his nightmare back into his lifelong dream.
“This one time he came to my office trying to explain to me how badly he wanted this,” said Ikaika Malloe, then Washington’s defensive line coach. “My doors are closed and I’m watching this kid break down in front of me. You cannot help but cry as well.”
Malloe remembers looking out his office window at Husky Stadium and often seeing Latu on the field training by himself. He wasn’t allowed to practice or work out with the team, but he prepared as if he was going to play every snap in Washington’s next game.
Malloe said he’s never seen someone as determined as Latu. But when Latu was fighting his way back to football, he wasn’t fighting alone. His coach and his family rallied around him because they knew how desperate he was for another chance.
When Laiatu’s then-8-year-old sister, Aulani, was assigned a school project that was supposed to be all about her. She was asked to fill in the blank: “If I had one wish, I would wish for …”
Her response? ” … my brother to play football again.”
My baby girl’s school project. ❤️😇 pic.twitter.com/FIimi8flWO
— Kerry Latu (@kerry_latu) August 26, 2021
When Laiatu resumed playing rugby in hopes of eventually returning to football, Kerry was a bit startled. All she wanted was for her son to heed the doctors’ orders and take it easy in his recovery, but there he was tearing through people on the pitch.
Each time Laiatu told her he was tackling with his surgically repaired neck, she tried to convince him to dial it back. Instead, he stepped on the gas. And when he wasn’t terrorizing opponents on the rugby pitch, he was ripping through imaginary foes on the football field.
Laiatu joked that his stubbornness was “the good kind,” and after a while, his unwavering self-belief pushed Kerry to do something that hardly anyone in Laiatu’s life was willing to do at the time: She listened. The two began having serious conversations about the possibility of reversing Laiatu’s medical retirement, and when he called Kerry in the spring of 2021 saying, “I’m not done,” she told him she wasn’t either.
Kerry never promised her son he would play football again. She just promised she would try to help.
She knew the outlook was bleak, “but as a mom, I don’t know, you just have this adrenaline in you,” Kerry said. “You want to make things better. You want your kid to be happy, and this is his passion. This is something he was good at. I didn’t think about it after that I just kind of went into go mode, and I just started searching.”
She sought out other football players who had significant neck injuries or conditions that threatened medical retirement but were able to continue their careers. Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones bounced back and became a first-round pick of the Steelers in 2017. Clemson wide receiver Justyn Ross is a member of the two-time defending champion Chiefs.
As Kerry researched and networked, one name kept popping up: Dr. Robert Watkins, who performed the neck fusion surgery that allowed Peyton Manning to continue his Hall of Fame career. Kerry gave Watkins a call in August 2021, and two weeks later, she and Laiatu were sitting in Watkins’ Los Angeles office. Kerry remembers spending three hours there as Watkins and his staff reviewed all of Laiatu’s medical records and had him undergo several tests before eventually coming to a decision.
When Watkins walked into the room, Kerry and Laiatu held their breath.
“I’m comfortable clearing you,” Watkins told them.
Laiatu immediately broke down.
“I had that moment in my brain every day, and I just wanted to work at being the best at football,” he said. “The fact that it got taken away from me and I got to come back; I really got to prove to people that you can do anything you set your mind to.”
Latu wanted to resume his career at Washington after he was officially cleared in September 2021, but the university chose not to reverse its decision to medically retire him, so he entered the transfer portal. A few schools showed interest, including Cal and Oregon State, but Latu wound up transferring to UCLA. Malloe had been hired by Chip Kelly in December 2021 and advocated for giving Laiatu a shot.
And if the Bruins had any questions about Laiatu’s neck surgery, one of their consultants just so happened to be Dr. Watkins.
Laiatu Latu racked up 23.5 sacks over his final two years of college at UCLA. (Ric Tapia / Getty Images)
Latu was finally able to resume his football career with the Bruins in 2022. He recorded a sack in a win over Washington he had circled on the calendar. But even that moment of redemption couldn’t compare to when Laiatu faced and beat his little brother, Keleki, in UCLA’s regular-season finale.
Keleki, a tight end at Cal, saw Laiatu on his darkest days. Their matchup – the first time they’d ever played against each other – was one of the brightest.
“We were laughing,” Laiatu said. “But it felt really good, too, because as the older brother, I always wanted to show him what success looks like and I wasn’t able to do that for a time. So, when I got back on the field it was like, ‘Damn, he can really look up to me.’”
Keleki said he’s always admired his older brother, even when he was medically retired, because Laiatu embodied dedication and perseverance. Now playing at Washington, where Laiatu started his college career, Keleki knows the odds of earning another snap against his brother in the NFL are slim. But if there is one thing he’s learned from Laiatu’s journey, it’s that the odds don’t matter.
“When he was playing rugby and continuing to work out, it just made me think, ‘It’s not his time (for football to end),’” Keleki said. “So knowing that, I just prayed to God to see if he could give him another chance to play. Because now that he has it, I know he can be one of the greats.”
It didn’t hit him on draft night. It didn’t hit him when he first tried on his Colts helmet. It didn’t even hit him after he bought his mom a new house.
The moment Latu’s status as an NFL player finally sank in came after an OTA practice. The gratitude bubbled to the surface, and he could feel his eyes welling up. “I was just walking back to the locker room and I just started bawling,” he said. “That’s when it really hit me, when I seen that Colts sign on the facility.”
Back-to-back stellar seasons at UCLA convinced Indianapolis’ front office to select him with the No. 15 pick. The expectations are high, but early on, Latu has thrived under their weight.
GO DEEPER
How star OLB Laiatu Latu masters the unique craft of pass rushing — and why
Since the pads came out during training camp, Latu has often doubled as starting quarterback Anthony Richardson’s shadow. The rookie has wrecked enough drives to make Richardson admit he’s tired of seeing him in the backfield.
“Just getting around the edge, it’s like, ‘Man, I’m trying to hit the receivers in stride,’ but he’s there in my face trying to make a play,’” Richardson said through a wry smile. “I’m glad we got him in practice so I can get used to stuff like that.”
Colts West Coast area scout Chris McGaha first saw Latu’s dominance on film. Then, during the pre-draft process, he saw the heart that drives it.
“Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to try to find, ‘Do they really love it?’” McGaha said after the draft. “But his (desire) was pretty easy to see, right? The things he had to go through, the things he had to overcome, it’s a unique story and a unique journey for him. It’s just a testament to him as a person, the kind of special makeup he has.”
The Latu family (from left: Keleki, Kerry, Aulani, Laiatu and Naite) pose on the field after UCLA and Cal met in the teams’ regular-season finale in 2022. (Courtesy of Kerry Latu)
Every now and then, Latu thinks about how different his life would be had he closed the door on football and opened it to rugby. He may be in France right now, fresh off an Olympic appearance. But while peering around the field after a recent Colts training camp practice, Latu took a deep breath and came to a simple conclusion about that life: “It just can’t beat this.”
The 23-year-old has a tattoo on his left hand: “Like your last,” his personal mantra since returning to football. He writes the phrase at the top of every page in his notebook during team meetings, always reminding himself of where he was and where he’s headed.
“I made it,” Latu said. “Through all of the trials and tribulations that I’ve been through in my life, I get to say that I’ve made it.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Ryan Kang, Christopher Mast, Todd Rosenberg / Getty Images)
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