Butker’s 69-Yard Bomb Ends in Chiefs Chaos | Aug 23, 2026

Show Notes

Harrison Butker’s 69-yard preseason bomb highlighted a wild Chiefs-Bucs finish, while Tampa’s comeback and several ugly blowouts shaped the weekend slate. Plus, Jon Gruden returned to the booth, the Browns had a strange transfer portal mystery, and the Texans added veteran receiver help.

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Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Today on the show: Butker's sixty-nine-yard bomb, Tampa stealing Chiefs-Bucs late, Gruden back on TV, and the Browns' transfer portal mystery. Let's get into it.

Harrison Butker gave us the funniest preseason experience possible last night.
He hit a sixty-nine-yard field goal before halftime in Chiefs-Buccaneers. Sixty-nine yards. In a preseason game. That's the kind of kick where every special teams coach starts squinting like, wait, are we allowed to do that?
And then Kansas City lost sixteen to fifteen.
That's the part I love. Butker was the viral hero for about seven minutes. He also hit from forty-five and fifty-eight, so this wasn't one lucky swing. His leg looked ridiculous. If that kick happens in the regular season, we're talking about it all week.
But preseason does not care about your clean little story. Later, Butker missed an extra point after a penalty. Then he missed a forty-three-yard go-ahead field goal late. So his night went from, “build the statue,” to, “sir, please make the normal one.”
The Chiefs led nine to nothing at halftime on three Butker field goals. Emmett Johnson added a short rushing touchdown. That should've been enough in a preseason game where the other offense looked stuck in airport traffic.
Tampa came back anyway. Jalon Daniels threw a touchdown to Ko Kieft. Sean Tucker punched in a rushing score. Bucs win sixteen to fifteen.
And honestly, that's preseason football in one box score. A kicker does something stupidly cool, the Chiefs still lose, and the ending comes down to the boring kick.
Except Chiefs fans. Chiefs fans will remember it by Tuesday if they feel like being annoying.

Tampa deserves a little more love than just being the team standing there while Butker tried to kick a football into another county.
The Bucs were down nine at the half and still made the second half useful. Jalon Daniels getting a touchdown drive matters. Ko Kieft finishing it matters. Sean Tucker scoring late matters.
Not because it changes the NFC. Relax. It's August.
But those reps decide roster spots. Coaches don't need your third-string quarterback to look like Joe Montana. They need him to function when the game gets ugly. Daniels did enough. Tucker gave them a touchdown. Tampa won the final twenty minutes. That's a useful night.
Around the rest of the preseason board, the Rams beat the Saints thirty-four to nothing. I don't care if it's preseason — thirty-four to nothing is still gross. If you're New Orleans, the film room today should just be someone turning off the lights and saying, “we all know.”
The Giants beat the Dolphins twenty-six to three. The Cowboys handled the Cardinals thirty-four to thirteen. The Bengals beat the Bears twenty-seven to nine. The Bills crushed the Browns thirty-one to seven. That's a lot of ugly football for one preseason Saturday.
And yes, it's dangerous to overreact. But it's also lame to pretend every preseason result means nothing. If your backups can't line up, tackle, protect, or avoid turning the game into a group project from hell, that's information.
The Falcons over the Colts, thirty-four to six, jumps out for that exact reason. Not because Atlanta is suddenly scary. Because thirty-four to six means one sideline got useful tape, and the other got evidence.
Jon Gruden was also back in the booth for the Buccaneers broadcast, working with Rondé Barber on WFLA. That was always gonna get attention.
Gruden on a Bucs preseason game is football nostalgia with a side of awkward group chat energy. Some people are gonna love hearing him diagram a play again. Some people are gonna hate that he's back on TV at all. Both reactions were obvious.
As a broadcast story, it matters because networks love familiar football voices. Gruden is polarizing, but he still has that old coach cadence where every screen pass sounds like a federal investigation. You may not want the full Gruden comeback tour. But one preseason booth appearance? Of course people clicked.
Now the weirdest NFL-adjacent story of the weekend: Browns rookie tight end Dae'Quan Wright showed up in the NCAA transfer portal.
He is signed with an NFL team.
That sentence should not exist.
Wright went undrafted out of Ole Miss, signed with the Eagles, got waived, and was claimed by Cleveland earlier this month. Then his name appears in the college transfer portal like the paperwork got drunk.
Browns head coach Todd Monken had the only proper reaction: “Ain't this shit crazy?”
Yes, coach. It is.
This is what happens when college football, NIL, transfer rules, pro roster churn, and backend databases all get thrown into the same blender. A guy can be fighting for an NFL job and still somehow look available to transfer schools. That's not a loophole. That's a system begging for an adult.
The Texans also made two veteran receiver moves, signing Zay Jones and Sterling Shepard. Late-preseason receiver signings aren't sexy, but Houston adding two real NFL names is worth noting.
If you're C.J. Stroud, you never complain about more adults in the receiver room. And on Stroud, Aaron Wilson pushed back on that seventy-million-dollar-per-year rumor. His reporting says there's no seventy-million ask, no deal is imminent, and talks could stretch into next year.
Good. Because the fake contract number economy is out of control. Somebody sees one giant quarterback deal and suddenly every rumor sounds like Monopoly money with a helmet.

My Hangover Take: preseason blowouts matter more than coaches want to admit.
Not the final score by itself. Nobody's hanging a banner because the Rams beat the Saints thirty-four to nothing in August.
But the shape of the score matters.
When you lose thirty-four to nothing, or thirty-one to seven, or thirty-four to six, that's not just “we were evaluating young guys.” That's your second and third units getting handled. That's your special teams depth getting exposed. That's your backup offensive line making the quarterback look like he's trapped in a haunted house.
Good teams don't treat the bottom of the roster like decoration. They know the forty-ninth man is gonna play at some point. He'll cover a kick. He'll take eight snaps when a starter twists an ankle. He'll decide whether a normal injury becomes a two-game losing streak.
So yeah, coaches will downplay it. They have to. But when your preseason tape looks that bad, the league notices.
August doesn't tell us who wins the Super Bowl. It does tell us whose roster is fake deep.

That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.