Good Morning, Stumpers!

We’ve got NFL Honors, the NBA Trade Deadline, and the GLUE GUY of the Fruit family today! But here's a quick shoutout to one of our new subscribers, Richie, who’s spent some time with Snapple! He told me that you have to be careful with those bottle caps because not every fact is true! Turned my world upside down! Welcome to the Stump! We’re growing this thing one branch at a time! Thank you to those who referred people yesterday; that was great to see. Let's get some more today!

Today’s Rundown

Everything you’ll get from today’s edition, and more:

• 🏈 Josh Allen wins the MVP + more from the NFL Honors!

• 🏀 A lot more moves happened at the trade deadline! Let’s look at some of them!

• 🏈 The next class of Hall of Famers has been revealed

• 🍊 THE GLUE GUY FRUIT!?!?!?

On This Day

On This Day…

🏈 New Orleans is Immortal

During the 2009-2010 NFL season, the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana as a whole was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. With nowhere else to go, many locals looked to the New Orleans Saints as a point of strength and hope of a new beginning. The Saints delivered.

On this day in 2010, the New Orleans Saints won one of the most emotional Super Bowls in the history of the NFL. They defeated the heavily favored Indianapolis Colts, 31-17 in Miami, FL. It was the first, and currently only, pro sports championship for the city.

Trivia Time

🧠 Test your sports knowledge…

Yesterday’s Trivia Answer: (B): James White! In the miracle 28-3 Patriots comeback against the Atlanta Falcons, Patriots running back James White had 14 (!) catches! An awesome stat that goes under the radar in a miracle comeback.

Before We Dive In…

👀 Here’s Yesterday’s MUST-See’s

• 🏀 LeBron’s first 40 point game as a 40-year-old! WOW!

• 🏈 Josh Allen’s MVP acceptance speech! All class!

• 🏀 FROM THE LOGOOOOOOOO

• 👀 The NBA All-Star teams are set! And they look good!

The Hot Stove

NFL Honors!

🏈 Josh Allen Wins NFL MVP!

What to know: Last night was the NFL Honors live in New Orleans! We had a first-time MVP, and a star-studded cast of award winners! We’ll go over them here!

MVP: Josh Allen (BUF) - In one of the closer MVP votes in recent memory, Josh Allen got the nod for his first NFL Most Valuable Player award over Lamar Jackson. This is a win for Josh, the Bills, the city of Buffalo, and all of BILLS MAFIA! A group that needed a win! This was a deserving win for Josh, most media outlets had the Bills in 2nd or 3rd in the AFC East alone. Diggs was gone, Davis was gone, “Who is he going to throw to?” Khalil Shakir, Mack Hollins, Keon Coleman, and Dalton Kincaid may not have been household names, but he got it done with the squad he had, and he repeatedly said that he wouldn’t want it any other way.

You never hear any complaints out of Josh. He exudes class both on and off the field and is the type of guy you would want to be the face of your franchise! This award shouldn’t take anything away from Lamar, who had an unbelievable year. if you look at the supporting casts of the two QBs, it’s not even a question who deserved this award. I know that you aren’t supposed to count the postseason towards this, but the two faced off, and one had two turnovers in the first half, and one didn’t. That being said, Lamar is absolutely in the A-tier of QBs in this league!

A great night for Josh and all of Bills Mafia!

NFL Honors

🏈 The Rest of the Awards!

What to know: We have to dive into the rest of the award winners! There were only studs amongst this group!

Defensive Player Of The Year (DPOY) Patrick Surtain II (DEN) - If you watched any Denver Broncos football this year, you saw an electric factory in Bo Nix on the offensive side of the ball, but Pat Surtain was an absolute BALL HAWK on the defensive side! The Broncos became one the most fierce defenses in the league, and were a big part of them becoming a playoff team in what was to be a come-up year! Surtain becomes the first DB to win this award since 2010, Stephon Gilmore being the only other to claim it in 2019. On the year, Surtain had 4 interceptions, 11 passes defended, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery, as well as a 100-yard TD! He had a great year, and it was well deserved for him to take this one home!

Offensive Player Of The Year (OPOY) Saquon Barkley (PHI) - What Saquon Barkley showed this year was that sometimes a change of scenery can go a long way! CMC was out this year, and King Henry did have a great year, but Saquon Barkley NO DOUBT showed how he can be the best Running Back in the league when he wants to! Not only did he join the 2,000-yard club, but he did it in dominant fashion. Not counting his WILD playoff numbers, here are some of his rushing yard totals from games this year: (167, 150, 255, 159, 176, 147, 150). It seemed as if he was playing a different sport than defenses this year. The highlight clip of him hurdling a man BACKWARDS, may go down as one of the greatest running-back highlights of all time! Saquon Barkley is your well deserved OPOY!

Offensive Rookie Of The Year (OROY) Jayden Daniels (WAS) - It was a great rookie class that featured Brock Bowers, Malik Nabers, Bo Nix, Brian Thomas Jr., Caleb Williams, Xavier Worthy, Marvin Harrison Jr., and more. It may be looked back upon as one of the most offensively gifted classes in a long time. Despite this, there was no world where this award didn’t go to Jayden Daniels. The Washington Commanders were a 4-win team just one year ago. They were rolling out onto the battlefield with Sam Howell as their starting QB. It was bad! What he did, along with Dan Quinn in their first year in Washington, is unheard of! Rookies do not do what he did. And he did it! Over, and over, and over again!

More Winners:

Comeback Player Of The Year: Joe Burrow (CIN)

Walter Peyton Man Of The Year: Arik Armstead (JAX)

Defensive Rookie Of The Year: Jared Verse (LAR)

Coach Of The Year: Kevin O’Connell (MIN)

Assistant Coach Of The Year: Ben Johnson (DET, now CHI)

NBA Trade Deadline

🏀 Here is a Review of the NBA Trade Deadline!

What to know: We had some blockbuster moves, some under-the-radar moves, and some straight-out confusing moves! Let’s do a quick review of what went down!

After the absolute CANNONBALL of a trade to get the week started, it was tough to compete with that, but it didn’t matter, Shams was like a HAWK on his phone and got us all the news. Here’s what went down…

• The LA Clippers traded Bones Hyland, Terrance Mann to the Atlanta Hawks for Bogdan Bogdanovic and a second-round pick

• The Cleveland Cavs traded Caris LeVert, Georges Niang, and two first-round pick swaps to the Atlanta Hawks for Deandre Hunter

• The Phoenix Suns traded Jusuf Nurkic and a 2026 first-round pick to the Charlotte Hornets for Cody Martin, Vasilije Micic, and a second-round pick

• The LA Lakers traded Dalton Knecht, Cam Reddish, and a 2030 pick swap to the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams

• The NO Pelicans traded Brandon Ingram to the Toronto Raptors for Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk

• The Washington Wizards traded Jonas Valanciunas to the Sacramento Kings for Sidy Cissoko and two second-round picks

This was on top of the Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler, and De’Aaron Fox BLOCKBUSTER TRADES! This may go down as one of the biggest trade deadline weeks of all-time!

Quick Hitters

• 🏈 Antonio Gates headlines HOF Class of 2025!

• 🏀 Jimmy Butler says he’s “Happy to be wanted again”

• 🏒 Canucks not happy with J.T. Miller trade!

What We’re Watching

🏀 Just one game on ESPN tonight

• 76ers @ Pistons: Can Detroit after a heartbreaker against the Cavs?

⛳️ Day 2 of the Waste Management Phoenix Open! One of the rowdiest tournaments on TOUR! Going to be a fun few days! Here is a live look at the LEADERBOARD!

🏒 A couple big time matchups for you to soak in on this lovely Friday

• Penguins @ Rangers: 7:00 PM on NHL Network

• Avs @ Oilers: 9:00 PM on ESPN+

• Stars @ Kings: 10:30 PM on ESPN+

🏀 College Basketball ranked action:

• Men’s: USC @ (7) Purdue (7:00 PM on FS1), (12) St. Johns @ (19) UConn (8:00 PM on FOX)

• Women’s: Nothing on the schedule for the top 25

⚽️ Fútbol!

• Premier League: Manchester United vs Leicester City (3:00 PM)

• Bundesliga: Bayern Munich vs Werder Bremen (2:30 PM)

• French Ligue 1: PSG vs AS Monaco (3:00 PM)

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

Can’t thank you enough for sticking to the end of this thing we call The Daily Stump. If you know anybody who might want this bit of daily juice in their life, send them this link, it would go a long way. Appreciate the hell out of you all!

Trees may get chopped. Stumps hold strong 🌴