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Aaron Rodgers re-signs with Pittsburgh on a one-year deal worth up to $25 million, while the NFL schedule release brings new holiday games including a Thanksgiving Eve matchup on Netflix. Cleveland crushed Detroit in Game 7 to reach the Eastern Confe
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Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Today on the show: Aaron Rodgers is officially back in Pittsburgh and the money is wild, the Cavs just demolished Detroit in Game seven to reach the East Finals, SGA goes back-to-back MVP, and the Sabres forced a Game seven in Buffalo. Let's get into it.
Alright, so the biggest NFL news of the weekend — Aaron Rodgers is coming back to Pittsburgh. One year, up to twenty-five million dollars. Base salary sits around twenty-two to twenty-three million with a few million more in incentives. And look — I get it. The guy is forty-two years old. He's about to suit up for his twenty-second NFL season. But Rodgers threw for over thirty-three hundred yards last year. Twenty-four touchdowns, seven picks, almost sixty-six percent completion. He led Pittsburgh to the AFC North title — their first division crown since 2020. That's not a guy riding off into the sunset. That's a guy who still produces. Now, the interesting layer here is Mike McCarthy. Rodgers played under McCarthy for years in Green Bay, and now McCarthy's running the show in Pittsburgh. That relationship has history — some of it good, some of it complicated. But if they're on the same page? This offense could be dangerous. The Steelers also just signed first-round tackle Max Iheanachor to his rookie deal, worth about twenty point seven million over four years. They're building around Rodgers for one more run. Behind him you've got Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and rookie Drew Allar out of Penn State. That's a deep room, but this is Rodgers' team. He's expected at OTAs today. The man wants to compete.
Still in the NFL — the schedule release fallout is still cooking. The Seahawks host the Patriots in the opener on Wednesday, September ninth. That's a Super Bowl sixty rematch right out of the gate, and it's only the third time in league history the two Super Bowl teams have opened the following season against each other. The NFL also dropped a Thanksgiving Eve game for the first time ever — Packers at the Rams, streaming on Netflix. And Christmas Day gets a tripleheader: Packers at Bears, Bills at Broncos, Rams at Seahawks. The league is pushing content into every possible window and honestly, I'm not mad about it.
On the trade front, A.J. Brown is still the name to watch. The Eagles are ready to move him after June first for cap relief, and the Patriots keep coming up as the frontrunner. That story isn't slowing down. And George Pickens still hasn't signed his franchise tag in Dallas — twenty-seven point three million is the number, and because he hasn't signed, he can't even be fined for not showing up. He's technically not under contract. That's a standoff worth monitoring all summer.
Over in the NBA — the Cavs smoked the Pistons in Game seven. One twenty-five to ninety-four. In Detroit. That's a thirty-one point road win in a winner-take-all game. Donovan Mitchell had twenty-six points, eight assists, and seven boards — fifteen of those points came in the third quarter when Cleveland just buried them. Jarrett Allen went for twenty-three, Evan Mobley had twenty-one and twelve, and Sam Merrill came off the bench with twenty-three of his own. Four guys with twenty or more in a Game seven — only the fourth time that's happened since the merger. Detroit's stars disappeared. Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren combined for just twenty points on eight of twenty-three shooting. The Pistons got outscored in the paint fifty-eight to thirty-four. This is a team that went from fourteen and sixty-eight two years ago to the one seed this year, so the growth is real. But that was an ugly exit. Cleveland heads to Madison Square Garden to face the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And SGA is your back-to-back MVP. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander averaged thirty-one point one points on fifty-five point three percent shooting this season. He broke Wilt Chamberlain's record for consecutive twenty-plus point games — ran the streak all the way to one hundred and forty. Eighty-three first-place votes, nine thirty-nine total points. It wasn't close. Jokic was second, Wemby third. The only drama was Shams leaking the result Sunday morning before the league could announce it during Game seven on Amazon. Fans were furious. The league was furious. Shams gonna Shams.
In the NHL — the Sabres stayed alive with an eight to three beatdown of Montreal in Game six. Rasmus Dahlin went off with a goal and four assists. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen came in after Alex Lyon allowed three goals on four shots and locked it down with eighteen saves. Jack Quinn had two power-play goals. That series is now tied at three games apiece with Game seven in Buffalo.
Here's the Hangover Take. I wanna talk about that NFL schedule for a second — specifically the Thanksgiving Eve game. Packers at the Rams, on Netflix. The NFL just created a new tentpole holiday slot out of thin air. Think about that. Thanksgiving football has existed forever. Christmas games are relatively new but established. Now they're carving out Wednesday night before Thanksgiving as must-watch football. And they gave it to Netflix. Not Fox, not ESPN, not Amazon. Netflix. That tells you where the money is flowing and where the league sees its future audience. Within five years, I bet Thanksgiving Eve becomes as locked-in as the Thanksgiving Day slate itself. The NFL doesn't experiment with holidays — they take them over. And Netflix just bought the deed.
That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.