ESPN Daily

It’s the dream of every sports fan: the star player on your favorite team goes down with an injury. The coach is desperate, and someone needs to step up. Somehow you, the average sports fan, get picked out of the stands to hit with the bases loaded, or step in at quarterback, or take the game winning shot. Obviously, that never happens in real life, or in sports, really…except for extremely rare occasions in hockey, thanks to the EBUG rule: which stands for Emergency Back-Up Goaltender. It’s a rule that requires NHL teams to have a random person standing by in the arena, ready to hit the ice should either team’s two goalies both get injured. Jeremy Schaap interviewed some EBUGs who have been called to action, and he brings us the stories of the lucky few who have lived every fan’s dream.To help ensure you didn't miss any of our best stories from the past year, we've collected our favorite episodes of 2022 into one playlist. We think you’ll love every episode on there, so check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The NFL’s Super Wild Card Weekend did not disappoint, with nailbiting finishes, surprising upsets, and a comeback for the ages. Heavy favorites like the 49ers and Bills both advanced, although Dolphins put up a bigger fight in Buffalo than many anticipated. Meanwhile, the Giants continued their surprising season behind a resurgent Danny Dimes by upsetting the #3 seed Vikings. And the Bengals finished off their divisional rival Ravens with a 98-yard thicc six fumble return on what may be the worst QB sneak attempt of all time. Alex Smith, our Monday QB, breaks all the Wild Card action down for us…and helps us look ahead to Monday’s finale between the Bucs and Cowboys.To help ensure you didn't miss any of our best stories from the past year, we've collected our favorite episodes of 2022 into one playlist. We think you’ll love every episode on there, so check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why are Buffalo Bills fans called “Bills Mafia?” It’s a story that’s become legend within Buffalo. But outside of Bills fandom, the story is less well known, even for the individuals involved with the creation of Bills Mafia themselves. Twelve years ago, Stevie Johnson dropped a potential game-winning touchdown pass in overtime, and seemingly blamed God on Twitter, in the aftermath. That moment sparked a movement among Bills fans, and inspired Bills Mafia as we know it now. So today, ESPN Daily investigates: hear Adam Schefter, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Stevie Johnson, Ryan Clark, and more explain their roles in how a divine blunder branded the NFL’s most devoted fanbase, Bills Mafia. Buffalo Bills beat reporter Alaina Getzenberg and Bills Mafia co-founder Del Reid also share the other side of Bills Mafia: the force for charity, as the community rallies around Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s recovery.To help ensure you didn't miss any of our best stories from the past year, we've collected our favorite episodes of 2022 into one playlist. We think you’ll love every episode on there, so check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

America is a French goose of a nation on Super Wild Card Weekend—a kind football foie gras about to be force-fed a seemingly endless menu of expensive, high-stakes NFL playoff games, until we luxuriously burst.So today, we ask our friend Bill Barnwell—the sharpest and most empirically minded football analyst we know—to explain how he’s attacking these half-a-dozen dishes. Will numerous quarterback injuries spoil the meal? Is Tom Brady about to eat humble pie? Can Dak and the Cowboys sugarcoat over their recent struggles? Bill helps us manage our expectations, and our livers, in the process.--------To help ensure you didn't miss any of our best stories from the past year, we've collected our favorite episodes of 2022 into one playlist. We think you’ll love every episode on there, so check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you live in the United Kingdom, you probably know the voice of Wayne Mardle. But after last week, millions of people around the world suddenly got a taste of him calling the World Darts Championship final – a genuinely historic duel between Michael van Gerwen of the Netherlands and Michael Smith of England. And Wayne’s commentary helped make it the most globally viral thing that’s pretty much ever happened to this admittedly strange game.So, today, for everyone who watched that clip with awe (and maybe a little confusion too) we bring you Wayne Mardle himself, as he tells the glorious story of the darts game that was heard around the world.We've collected our favorite episodes of 2022 into one playlist, to help ensure you didn't miss any of our best stories from the past year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The family feud between the Berhalters and the Reynas is unlike anything we’ve seen in sports. It feels more comparable to Shakespeare, or Game of Thrones, or even Star Wars. But it became all so real when Claudio Reyna, childhood friend of USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter, and father of rising star Gio Reyna, along with his wife Danielle, exposed a 1991 domestic violence incident between Berhalter and his now-wife Rosalind…seemingly in response to Gio being benched at the World Cup. It’s a tragic dispute between two of US soccer’s most famous families. Kyle Bonagura, who has been covering this as it unfolded, tells us what exactly caused this massive rift between former friends. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The final ticket to the NFL playoffs has been punched, and it belongs to the Seattle Seahawks. The Seahawks stayed alive with an overtime field goal over the LA Rams, and they got the help they needed from the Detroit Lions, who spoiled the playoff hopes (and bit the kneecaps) of the Green Bay Packers. The final week of the regular season was also the most emotional, especially for the Buffalo Bills, playing for the first time since Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on Monday night. Add to that a Jaguars team completing a shocking turnaround from a season ago to make the playoffs, as well as a Chiefs play that looked like it belonged at a kindergarten recess, and there is only one NFL analyst who can make sense of all of it, our friend Mina Kimes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s hard to find a more unlikely college football journey than that of Georgia QB Stetson Bennett. He first arrived in Athens as a walk-on in 2017 and a year later, when five-star recruit Justin Fields committed to the Bulldogs, Bennett transferred to Jones County Junior College. He returned to Georgia in 2019, and didn’t get his shot as the starter for two more years after that. But now, Bennett has been a Heisman finalist, and a national championship-winning quarterback…who is about to play for his second. So we called our friend Ryan McGee to put into context how unusual Bennett’s story is…and how a former walk-on is now on the brink of college football immortality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pelé is without question one of the most famous people to ever live. He won three World Cups for Brazil from 1958-1970, and is widely regarded as the benchmark to which today’s greatest players are compared. Pelé died on Dec. 29 at the age of 82. ESPN Global Sports Correspondent Sam Borden is on the ground in Brazil for the funeral, and he tells us what he’s seen in Pelé’s hometown…and how his death has reverberated around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Damar Hamlin’s name has been echoing across sports for the last two days. On Monday night, the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety collapsed on the field during the Bills-Bengals game in Cincinnati, where he was administered CPR and eventually taken to a Cincinnati hospital, where he remains in critical condition. Tyler Dunne, a Buffalo based journalist and founder of Go Long, a football focused newsletter, profiled Hamlin in 2021 after he’d been drafted by the Bills. As the world awaits additional updates on Hamlin’s condition, Dunne shares Hamlin’s story of resiliency and family, and paints a portrait of the man the entire world is just now learning about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices