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The Summer Of Playoffs

We begin with the first round of the NBA playoffs, since they started this week, and which teams and players seem to be in good shape. While Neil is looking more prophetic, for the moment, for picking the Los Angeles team that he did, the Hot Takedown crew hasn’t lost faith in LeBron James quite […]

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The College Football Layoff

We begin, in fine Hot Takedown tradition, by talking about something that happened shortly after we recorded this week’s episode. The Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences have canceled college football for the fall, with the hopes of trying to play in the spring. We knew it was coming. But what’s interesting about where college football […]

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Will The Power Five Try To Power Through?

We begin with the latest developments and/or setbacks in college football’s attempts to get off the ground. Players from the Pac-12 have posted a list of demands around player safety, racial justice and economic opportunity that they want met to ensure their participation; the SEC admitted on a call that positive coronavirus cases on their […]

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MLB’s ‘Plan’ Didn’t Pan Out

We begin this week with baseball again, although not in the way that we had hoped. In light of the news that more than a dozen personnel of the Miami Marlins have tested positive for COVID-19, we examine what went wrong (traveling in big groups across state lines is probably not a great idea right […]

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At Long Last, Baseball’s (Almost) Back

We start with our preview of the 2020 MLB season. However abbreviated, and however shaky the runup, baseball is back! And it looks … pretty similar to how we thought it would look. Our model favors the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees in the American League (with Sara’s beloved Minnesota Twins close behind), […]

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