Good Morning, Stumpers!

Just 6 seconds into the first game of the year, we had an ejection due to spitting on another player! We literally had a SPITGATE! If that’s what happened in just 6 seconds, there’s no telling what will happen over the next months! Look alive everybody, not only is it Friday, but Football is oh so back!

The Rundown

🏈 WE ARE BACKKKKKKKK! WITH SPITGATE!

💰️ A look into this crazy Kawhi Drama

🎾 US Open Women’s final is set!

🏈 A look ahead at the Week 1 slate!

On This Day

🏈 We’re Talking the Forward Pass

The NFL has evolved into a Quarterback driven league. Those with the best, often stand the best chance of winning the Super Bowl. It’s hard to think of a time when the QB was nothing but a hand off machine, but fear not, that time did exist.

On this day in 1906, Saint Louis University QB Bradbury Robinson throws the first forward legal pass in the history of American football. The pass went to a touchdown to Jack Schneider at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. St. Louis went on to win 22-0. I can’t imagine how nuts everyone at Carroll must have been going, I bet the refs even looked at each other in conclusion. There’s no Brady, no Mahomes, no Montana, no Manning, no Marino, without Robinson.

Today’s Trivia

Glue Guy of the Day

🤯 This Kawhi Conspiracy is BONKERS

If you’re in to conspiracy theories about professional athletes and the disturbing underbelly of the way they get paid, this story is CERTAINLY for you.

Pablo Torre, a former ESPN reporter who now hosts his own podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out”, has made quite a name for himself in recent memory as a pseudo sports investigative journalists who digs up and reports controversial stories. Yesterday, Torre dropped an absolute bomb relating to Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard and a pretty intriguing $28M marketing deal. A marketing deal that Leonard never did anything for. Torre is accusing Leonard, the Clippers, and owner Steve Balmer, of using this marketing deal as a way to circumnavigate the NBA salary cap.

A few years back, Leonard was paid $28M through a company owned partly by Clippers owner Steve Balmer, named Aspiration. The now bankrupt company paid Leonard through a legal agreement with KL2 Aspire, LLC, a company owned by Leonard. Torre, being the investigative journalist he is, tried to find some evidence of Leonard promoting the company, but found nothing. A clause in Leonard’s contract with the Aspiration basically stated Leonard could “decline to proceed with any action desired by the Company”. In simple terms, Leonard could do absolutely nothing and still get paid. Which is exactly what happened.

Okay, yeah this is weird, but it’s not like they have any former employees of the company saying anything like this… right? Right??? Wrong. A former Aspiration company claimed they were told the agreement between the two was done to “circumvent the salary cap,” WOOF! Not only was this odd, but when you put all the pieces together, it makes too much sense.

Leonard isn’t a normal choice for a promotion, given his nonchalant and secluded nature, and his team-friendly deal that allowed the Clippers to sign other players and stay within the salary cap. But did Leonard REALLY take a pay cut? Or did he just get paid some other way. Are other teams doing the same thing?

Jalen Brunson took a “team-friendly” deal, is there a smoking gun there as well? I can’t tell you, but I can tell you that when there’s smoke, there’s fire. Let’s all take a look at this video from Torre’s podcast and decide for ourselves…

The BIG Moments

🏈 And We’re Off! Eagles def. Cowboys 24-20

The Stump Short Story: It’s ok, the Stump is a safe space for all of us sports fans. It’s fine to admit that some tears of joy were shed last night because football is officially back. We had everything imaginable in that game last night. We had an ejection 6 seconds in, multiple runners with 2 TDs, a 1-hour lightning delay, and some pushes of the tushes. The Cowboys looked good early. The questions around their running game have been loud, but it was none other than Javonte Williams who was able to answer the bell early, scoring two first-half rushing TDs. CeeDee’’s 110 yards look good on the box score, but it was 3 drops in the second-half that will keep him and Cowboys fans up this week. Overall Dak looked good, the defense played well, but to beat the champs, you have to be great!

Listen to these numbers. Saquon Barkley: 60 rush yards; DeVonta Smith: 16 yards; A.J. Brown: 8 yards. Wowza. If you heard that before the game and read that the Eagles looked good and won the game, you would’ve said I was crazy. Hurts on the ground was the different for Philly, rushing for 62 yards and TWO TDs. Overall, it was a long but solid start to the NFL season. We are back!

Why it Matters: The Eagles seem to have fully embraced the new year new journey mentality after their Super Bowl win just 7 months ago. They came out with a big Divisional win last night, and now we’ll see how this sets up the rest of the way in the NFC East.

Read More: Jalen Carter Ejected 6 seconds in after spit incident (Bleacher Report)

🎾 Women’s US Open Finale is Set!

The Stump Short Story: If you’ve been Stumping these last two weeks, you know that there have been some amazing moments from this years tournament, the Women’s side especially. Yesterday we had our two semifinal matchups, featuring an American in each of them. The first was a rematch of last years final between (1) Aryna Sabalenka and (4) Jessica Pegula. This was a battle all the way through, with the two splitting the first two sets. Pegula went down in two sets last year, so her winning the first set today showed that she belonged face-to-face against the World No. 1. Despite that, Sabalenka was able to up a break and won the final set 6-4.

The second match was between American (8) Amanda Anisimova and (25) Naomi Osaka. This was as back and forth as it gets, with the first two sets being split both in tiebreakers. With the home crowd behind her, at 12:45 AM ET Amanda Anisimova was able to close the deal and advance to her second straight Major final! We are set for a great one on Saturday!

Why it Matters: Unlike the men’s side, American Women have had success at the US Open. Coco Gauff won it in 2023, before that it was Sloane Stephens in 2017, and before that Serena won three straight from 2012-2014. Anisimova is only 24 and is looking to dethrone last last years champ in what would be STUMPSET fashion! She beat her in the Wimbledon semis, hopefully she can do it again.

Read More: Anisimova to face Sabalenka in Final (The Athletic)

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🔗 Quick Links

🏈 We’ve got SPITGATE one game into the season!

🎾 Just some unreal tennis between two warriors last night!

⚾️ Trent Grisham appreciation link!

What To Watch

🏈 NFL FULL SLATE! Biggest games to watch below:

• KC @ LA Chargers: 9/5 @ 8:00 PM on YouTube

• Steelers @ Jets: 9/7 @ 1:00 PM on CBS

• Detroit @ Green Bay: 9/7 @ 4:25 PM on CBS

• Houston @ Rams: 9/7 @ 4:25 on CBS

• Baltimore @ Buffalo: 9/7 @ 8:15 PM on NBC

• Vikings @ Bears: 9/8 @ 8:15 PM on ABC/ESPN

• full schedule

🏈 Here’s the BEST matchups to soak in this weekend in college football:

• (11) Illinois @ Duke (12:00 on ABC)

• Iowa @ (16) Iowa State (12:00 PM on FOX)

• (12) Arizona State @ Mississippi (7:30 PM on ESPN2)

• (15) Michigan @ (18) Oklahoma (7:30 PM on ABC)

• full schedule here

⚾️ MLB is going on this weekend too, don’t you forget!

• Blue Jays @ Yankees, Astros @ Rangers, Red Sox @ Diamondbacks

🎾 You’re telling me there’s US Open finals, too? MY LANTA!

• Men’s Bracket: Sinner vs Auger-Aliassime (9/5 @ 7:00 PM) & Djokovic vs Alcaraz (9/5 @ 3:00 PM), finals on 9/7!

• Women’s Bracket: CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY! 4:00 PM.

Of! The! Day’s!

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