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Dexter Lawrence has requested a trade from the Giants after two failed contract negotiations, while OKC dominated a depleted Lakers squad 123-87. Photos surfaced of Patriots coach Mike Vrabel with a married NFL reporter at a Sedona resort, and the sh
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Mike Vrabel and a married NFL reporter got caught holding hands in a hot tub at a luxury resort in Sedona. And somehow that's only the SECOND most dramatic thing happening in the NFL right now. Happy Wednesday.
Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar.
Let's start with the NFL, because the Giants are a soap opera and I can't look away. Dexter Lawrence has officially requested a trade out of New York and will not be showing up for the team's offseason workout program. And honestly? I don't blame the man one bit. Lawrence has spent two offseasons trying to get a new contract from this organization and gotten absolutely nowhere. He's watched Leonard Williams leave and win a Super Bowl. He watched Saquon Barkley leave and win a Super Bowl. At some point you look around and go — why am I the loyal one? What is loyalty getting me here?
Now, I do have to be fair. 2025 was rough for him. Half a sack. Eight QB hits. A pass rush win rate of eight point three percent on a four and thirteen team. That's not exactly leverage material. And Jim Harbaugh's response was basically a shrug — he said he "saw it coming a few weeks back, probably." Which is the most Harbaugh quote of all time. Just zero emotion. Like a man reading a weather report about his own house fire.
The reality is the Giants probably aren't trading him. League sources say he'd fetch maybe a late first or a second-round pick, which isn't enough for New York to pull the trigger this close to the draft. But the Niners are reportedly circling, and if you pair Lawrence with a healthy Nick Bosa and rookie Mykel Williams? That defensive line gets real scary real fast. I'd keep an eye on San Francisco. They love making a move when everyone thinks it's too early to make a move.
Alright, around the league. The Thunder went into Crypto dot com Arena last night and just embarrassed whatever the Lakers put on the floor. One twenty-three to eighty-seven. That is the Lakers' lowest-scoring game of the entire season, and look — they were missing Luka, LeBron, Reaves, Smart, and Jaxson Hayes. That's ninety-four point six combined points per game just sitting in street clothes. So no, I'm not panicking about LA. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 25 and eight assists like it was a light jog, Chet had 15 and 10, and OKC has now won eighteen of their last nineteen games. They're sixty-three and sixteen. That team is a freight train and nobody in the West is stopping them right now. The Lakers have slipped to fifty and twenty-nine and dropped behind Denver for the three seed. Not ideal going into the postseason, but they'll have their guys back for the playoffs. I think.
Staying in the NBA — Cooper Flagg's 51-point game from Friday is still the talk of the league. First teenager to ever drop 51 in an NBA game. He's averaging twenty-one and change, six and a half boards, four and a half assists for a twenty-five and fifty-three Dallas team. If he holds those numbers through Sunday, he joins Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and his old teammate Luka Doncic as the only rookies since the merger to average twenty, six, and four. That's elite company for a nineteen-year-old on the worst team in Texas.
Over in the NHL — Colorado clinched the one seed in the West and the Central Division title with a 3-1 win over St. Louis. Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, including a shorty, and the Avs outshot the Blues seventeen to two in the first period. Seventeen to two! That's not a hockey period, that's a firing squad. Colorado's now fifty-one, sixteen, and ten, and they did it without Cale Makar, who's dealing with an upper body injury. That's how deep this team is.
And then there's the story everyone's whispering about. Page Six dropped photos of Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and Athletic reporter Dianna Russini at a resort in Sedona — holding hands, hugging, sitting in a hot tub together. Both are married. Both say it was innocent — Vrabel called the suggestion "laughable," Russini says there were six people hanging out and the photos are out of context. I don't know what happened and I'm not gonna speculate on anyone's marriage. But I will say this — if you're the head coach of the New England Patriots and you're trying to rebuild that franchise's credibility, maybe don't give Page Six ammunition in April. The optics are brutal regardless of the truth.
Quick hits — De'Von Achane is holding out from Dolphins workouts wanting a new deal. Five point six yards per carry and thirty-five touchdowns in forty-four career games? Pay that man. Also, Puka Nacua's lawyer confirmed the Rams receiver has been in rehab this offseason. No details beyond that, but wishing him well. And Lamar Jackson actually showed up to voluntary workouts in Baltimore, which if you know Lamar, is basically a standing ovation for new coach Jesse Minter.
Here's my Hangover Take. The NFL draft is fifteen days away, and I think the Raiders are about to screw up the number one pick. They need a quarterback. Everyone knows they need a quarterback. Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson — the options are there. But this is a franchise that has found a way to fumble every major decision for the better part of two decades. I have zero confidence they walk out of Pittsburgh on April twenty-third with the right guy. I'm not saying the prospects are bad. I'm saying the Raiders are the Raiders. And until they prove otherwise, I'm betting on chaos. Vegas always wins — unless Vegas is picking for itself.
That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.