The soul of the Champions League isn’t the players or the teams, but the fans.And every one of them has a story on how their squad earned their undying loyalty.ESPN’s very own Luis Miguel Echegaray is no different. His tale is of a stirring, intercontinental journey into the ranks of Birmingham’s Aston Villa that continues to be written.So today, as he makes his way to their big Champions League showdown against Bayern Munich, LME explains why he bleeds the Villains claret and blue and explains how a revamped format has this entire league more than ready to deliver. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last Thursday, the Athletics played their final game ever in Oakland, the city they’ve called home for 57 years. As friend of the show Jeff Passan wrote, baseball in the East Bay was “killed by greed… John Fisher did not have to move this team… This was a choice. A wrong one. History will sneer.” For the conclusion of our Death of a Sports Town series, we trekked to the Oakland Coliseum and bore witness to the sights, sounds, and emotions of a city’s last gasp as a big time pro sports town. It was a poignant and passionate display from a vibrant and rich fanbase, defiant to the very end. Today, we share that experience with you. Death of a Sports Town Episodes:Apple Podcasts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, & Part 4Spotify: All episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Four weeks of the NFL season are just about in the bag, and some things are just starting to come into focus. For example, how even at 3-1, the new look Buffalo Bills are facing an uphill climb against the true contenders in the AFC and how the Minnesota Vikings — who NOBODY saw coming — could shake up the NFC all season.So today, Ben Solak takes us through everything you need to know about the league one month in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The college football landscape, once the bedrock of tradition in sports, now seems to shock us every few months with more changes and teams on the move.And with the transfer portal, NIL and this year’s expanded college football playoff, just about anything and anyone is up for grabs.Which brings to our latest storm on the college football radar: The Pac-12. Left for dead only a year ago, this once-mighty brand is looking to make a comeback by reclaiming their Power 5 status one school at a time.Today Kyle Bonagura joins us to try and tame this Wild West story and bring some order to all this conference chaos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Three weeks in the question surrounding the 2024 NFL season? Where’s the offense at? With teams practicing less in training camps, starters playing less in the preseason, and more youth than ever lining up under center, things have been kind of ugly for a lot of teams.So our friend Mina Kimes explores how all of that is manifesting at the most important spot on each team. Quarterback.From Caleb Williams’ rocky start in Chicago, to Jayden Daniels’ star turn on Monday Night Football, Mina looks at several situations around the league to tell us what’s working, and what’s not for these franchise QBs as we move toward the quarter mark of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Major League Baseball is a sport that celebrates its history through, among other things, its records.So when you break a 60-year old mark, people take notice. But when it’s for the most losses in a season, that’s not the kind of attention you ever want for your franchise.That is where the 2024 Chicago White Sox find themselves at 120 losses and counting while dethroning the 1962 Mets’ losing record as being the furthest away from the right side of history.Veteran Chicagoan Jesse Rogers joins the show to take the pulse – if there even is one – of the South Side of Chicago and tells us why this mark of futility was years in the making. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In covering Oakland’s unraveling as a big time sports town, we’ve documented the greed, the loss, the dubious decisions, and the rich sports community soon to be left behind. But we’ve yet to fully examine the most pertinent question of all––does the Athletics planned move to Las Vegas make any sense at all? Today, in part four of our series Death of a Sports Town, we take stock of why the A’s (and MLB) are so enamored with Las Vegas––a city soon to be the smallest market in the league––why this move will be extraordinarily messy, and why Oakland is America’s most-underappreciated sports town. Don’t miss our series finale, publishing next Tuesday in the ESPN Daily show feed.Death of a Sports Town Episodes:Apple Podcasts: Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3Spotify: All episodesAlert Text:  In part four of our series “Death of a Sports Town,” we take stock of why the A’s move to Las Vegas will be extraordinarily messy and why Oakland is America’s most-underappreciated sports town. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many people forget that Joe “Brrr” Burrow started off as a fourth string quarterback at Ohio State before transferring to Baton Rouge to join the LSU tigers.Despite being underestimated at first, Burrow quickly showed that his grind and passion for the game would propel him to the top.So today, with the Bengals headlining Monday Night Football against the Commanders, our own Ryan Hockensmith shares his exclusive interview with Joe Burrow and breaks down the journey it took to become the star quarterback we know him as today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It seemed easy to write off the Indiana Fever’s 2024 season as a rebuilding year at the end of May. They had won just one of their first nine games, and looked like they were trying to figure out how to even play together.But since the calendar flipped to June, the Fever have found their footing, and a spot in the WNBA playoffs.ESPN women’s basketball reporter, Alexa Philippou explains how Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and the rest of the team found their identity, and forged a path into the postseason.Then takes us through some of the biggest storylines we should be watching, as the playoffs begin on Sunday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Aaron Rodgers was injured four snaps into his tenure as the new quarterback of the Jets, he not only missed, virtually, the entire 2023 season, but cost the team up to $22 million dollars in lost production. A fate the Jets could have mitigated by taking out an insurance policy on Rodgers.Rodgers' situation is one that stands out amid a trend of teams buying insurance policies on star players around the NFL. The practice — which is becoming more popular as the sums of guaranteed money in players’ contracts increases — can soothe the bite of losing a player to injury, while also creating cap space for strategic front offices.Today, Senior ESPN reporter Kayln Kahler breaks down how these policies actually work, and explains why some teams have bought into the trend, while others opt out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices