Laremy Tunsil Excited About Commanders' Culture
When the Washington Commanders sought out reinforcements to surround star quarterback Jayden Daniels, many assumed that meant more weapons at the skilled positions. However, the Commanders added those pieces and sought out some muscle up front.
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That resulted in a trade for heralded veteran tackle Laremy Tunsil who projects as a key piece on the Washington line. The five-time Pro Bowler is certainly an upgrade on the left side, taking on the primary responsibility of protecting Daniels.
Tunsil has taken little issue with adjusting to his new team. He shared a glowing review of the Commanders' culture shift, crediting head coach Dan Quinn who has engineered this movement since arriving in D.C. last season.
'It's something special for sure. I think that DQ (Quinn) did a good job putting the coaches together, putting the players together, and just embracing this new chapter... I've been here for two days, I love the atmosphere, good energy, and good people,' Tunsil told reporters at minicamp.
This serves as the foundation for his extraordinary praise of his teammates, rather, the "dogs" on the offensive line
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'Dogs. Absolutely dogs. I think moving BC (Brandon Coleman) inside, and then you know who I'm really impressed with, though? Is JC (Josh Conerly Jr.). JC is gonna be a dog. And I'm not just saying that just to blow smoke up his (expletive). Pardon my language, but JC is gonna be a dog, man. I can't wait to see it."
The Commanders are all in on maximizing the early years of the Jayden Daniels era in Washington. Their trades for Tunsil and wide receiver Deebo Samuel reflected that competitive aggression earlier in the offseason.
But focusing on Tunsil and the offensive line, the Commanders understand the need for a strong infrastructure in the trenches. The NFC East alone boasts some of the most formidable pass rushers and defensive linemen in the league.
Having "dogs" as Tunsil proclaims up front is not just a luxury. It is a necessity for an offensive to thrive in such an environment.
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The Commanders certainly hope that this label translates onto the field and the Commanders can duel with these formidable defenses while Daniels continues his growth as the leader under center.
Related: Commanders Slap Back at Deebo 'Haters And Losers on 'Fat'
Related: Commanders' Austin Ekeler Details Benefits Of Running It Back Amid Trade Rumors
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 14, 2025, where it first appeared.
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What I learned from SEC media days: Tiers, cash budgets and a 30-team Playoff pitch
ATLANTA — The College Football Hall of Fame serves to celebrate all of the sport. So even with SEC media days taking over the building this week, reminders abounded of others' accomplishments: Displays for Ohio State's national championship and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter of Colorado, hard to miss as coaches, players and commissioner Greg Sankey went to do radio and podcast interviews. Advertisement In case that didn't bring home the message, there were questions to coaches asking whether the SEC, after failing to make the past two national championship games, had pressure to 'get back to the top.' When Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz got that question Thursday, he took a dramatic pause. 'The top?' he said, quizzically. 'The top as in the number of draft picks in the NFL? The top as in most viewership? Overall top, deepest conference in college football?' Those have always been talking points in this conference: Depth, ratings and draft picks. But they're especially necessary this year. 'I still feel that the SEC top to bottom is as strong as you'll find. We experienced that last year,' said Alabama's Kalen DeBoer, whose team lost at Vanderbilt. This is talkin' season, as Steve Spurrier put it. Everyone is optimistic, everyone had a great offseason, everyone has a chance to have a really, really good season. But after listening and talking to coaches and players on all 16 teams, the takeaway is that more than half the conference has a realistic chance to contend for the College Football Playoff. There's evidence beyond the SEC for that: Indiana and SMU out of nowhere last year. There's evidence within the SEC: South Carolina went from being picked 13th in last year's media poll to finishing three spots out of the CFP. The SEC will release this year's media poll on Friday. Here is how this reporter sees it, eschewing the specificity of rankings for the safety of tiers: Clear favorite: Texas The Longhorns aren't a perfect team, and Arch Manning may not be an immediate star. But he also may be, and the program has plenty of talent, a decent schedule, and two years of CFP experience. 'There's a real sense of hunger on our team right now,' Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. 'They're probably tired of being close. They want to reach the summit here.' Advertisement Clear second: Georgia It was weird this week: The defending SEC champions, who won the conference's last two national titles, were an afterthought at an event an hour from their campus. Georgia was a less compelling story because it is just expected to be good now, and didn't have a recent rash of arrests to ask Kirby Smart about. The main question for the Bulldogs isn't quarterback Gunner Stockton. It's the offensive line, and to a lesser degree, the defensive line. Smart built his colossus along the trenches, and that play slipped in the last two years. Otherwise, though, there's the usual array of future NFL players on the roster, and unlike last year, Georgia plays its hardest games at home: Alabama, Ole Miss and Texas. The most likely other contenders Alabama is loaded but has an unknown quantity at quarterback, and is coming off a disappointing (for Alabama) season. LSU has potentially the best quarterback in the conference, Garrett Nussmeier, and plenty of other talent, but is the defense better? Ole Miss lost a lot but still has enough to be dangerous. South Carolina could ride LaNorris Sellers even further than last year. The upstarts Florida could keep the momentum from last year's 4-0 finish. Oklahoma is primed for a big move, especially if QB John Mateer is the real deal. Auburn could do the same if QB Jackson Arnold is better than he was at Oklahoma. Still around, don't forget Missouri has a new QB and doesn't have Luther Burden anymore, but Drinkwitz has built Mizzou into a steady contender. Texas A&M is hoping to build on a solid first season under Mike Elko. Tennessee may have lost its CFP hopes when Nico Iamaleava transferred, but Josh Heupel's team has surprised before. The rest Arkansas and Vanderbilt may be decent teams, occasionally dangerous, as they were last year. Advertisement Kentucky doesn't look great, but Mark Stoops has earned the right to not be written off. And then there's Mississippi State. As for what else we learned this week: It seemed the SEC was set on supporting a 16-team Playoff model that didn't include multiple automatic bids per conference. Sankey basically confirmed that on Monday. But there was at least one dissenting voice: Missouri's Drinkwitz. 'This isn't going to help me with our commissioner,' Drinkwitz said Thursday, when he was asked what CFP model he favored. Drinkwitz outlined his preferred model, which resembles the 4-4-2-2-1 automatic bid format favored by the Big Ten. But Drinkwitz presented it as essentially a 30-team field, because each conference would have play-in games to determine the automatic bids. The idea has been bandied about since earlier this year, but Drinkwitz put his name on it, which few, if any, have done thus far: Drinkwitz admitted his math might not add up. But his main point was that 30 teams would enter what is now conference championship weekend with a chance to compete for the title. 'I think we should go back and try to find more ways to include teams,' Drinkwitz said. 'How do we get more people involved. Because that's better for the players. That's better for the player experience to have more people involved in the potential to play for a championship. That's better for the fan bases. I think we all would agree the four games on home campuses was a win for college football. We need to expand that opportunity, that energy and excitement.' There's another reason Drinkwitz favors this: It takes decisions out of the selection committee. Many SEC coaches and athletic directors were already upset with the perception that schedule strength wasn't factored in enough by last year's committee when deciding seven at-large spots. Keeping a committee while expanding it to decide on 11 at-large spots would be 'ridiculous,' Drinkwitz said. Advertisement 'It's based on implicit bias,' he said. 'And it only benefits the top 25 blue bloods who are consistently ranked in the top 25.' The era of revenue sharing arrived on July 1, via the House settlement. Going by what coaches said this week, it remains a work in progress. Football teams are expected to get a majority of the $20.5 million that athletic departments are now paying players. Players can get money on top of that via name, image and likeness deals that have to be approved by a third party operated by the Deloitte accounting firm. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin was already skeptical. Asked if the idea was for a hard salary cap, Kiffin said, 'I think that's what we attempted. Doesn't seem like that's working very well.' Kiffin didn't get into specifics, and neither did any coach. LSU coach Brian Kelly did say that at a speaking engagement, 'every question about the NIL was trying to find a way around it.' Florida coach Billy Napier called revenue sharing 'a cash budget,' rather than a cap. Napier also said there's clarity needed on the role of collectives, which third-party NIL deals will be approved, and — in what could be a big loophole — what is legal for players 'pre-enrollment.' In other words, whether teams could pay high school players to commit and enroll as a way around the rules. As in, what happened pre-NIL. 'This is like moving into a new house. Like you're learning, and there's a few things you got to get fixed,' Napier said. 'It's better than what we used to have. So it's not about perfection here. It's progress. I think you can get some more clarity, in that as we go every week, every month, we'll get more clarity.' The other complication is that teams are supposed to provide their revenue-sharing budget, including player agreements, to the College Sports Commission for the fiscal year beginning around Aug. 1. But football's fiscal year includes two different teams. Advertisement 'I'm not sure who came up with that one,' Napier said. 'So literally half of the team is on one fiscal year, half of the next fiscal year. … Then you have multiyear agreements with incoming players and then players you're working on retention plans for. So it's a big math problem. There's some strategy in there in how you manipulate the money.' There is consensus within the conference: Everyone is tired of the debate over whether the SEC should play eight or nine conference games. Everyone also seems annoyed that playing eight conference games has become a means to ding the SEC. 'It is absolutely, fully, 100 percent correct that in the SEC we play eight conference games while some others play nine conference games. Never been a secret,' Sankey said, before adding that detractors often don't point out that the SEC mandates everyone play a ninth game against a power-conference team. And several play a 10th. Sankey also said, and was echoed later by Kiffin, that it was doubtful anybody in another conference would prefer to play an eight-game SEC schedule than a nine-game schedule in their conference. 'I handed out a bunch of stats that caused a stir in Destin that showed there is a rigor here that is unique,' Sankey said. 'But we're going to continue to evaluate whether increasing the number of conference football games is appropriate for us.' Thus the SEC schedule saga goes on. But for anyone reading the tea leaves, almost every SEC team has only three nonconference games scheduled for 2026. (Mississippi State is an exception.) If the SEC does go to nine games, Sankey did confirm that each team's three annual opponents would not be permanent. The schedules would be on a four-year cycle, every team having three annual rivals and rotating everyone else so they play twice every four years. But Sankey said there would be 'look-ins,' so the three annual rivalries could be revisited.
Yahoo
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Can WNBA get even more eyes on Caitlin Clark? Yep, host a game at Lucas Oil or Wrigley Field
One of the buzzwords often heard in sports media today is 'eventize.' But the word is far from new. For instance, a 2004 New York Times Magazine piece on the explosion of DVDs as a marketing play reveals that 'eventize' is a word the writer has been hearing a lot around Los Angeles. From the piece: 'As in, 'We really need to eventize the hell out of this release. For the 'Star Wars' debut on DVD, that meant parties, paparazzi, robots and a red-carpet treatment that mimicked in miniature the fanfare accompanying a big-screen theatrical opening. A boffo event, in short.' The word pops up frequently these days when discussing Netflix's sports ambitions or a broadcaster's desire to make something feel big. The sports content marketplace is crowded and one way to separate yourself is making a broadcast feel like an event. That will be case this weekend in Indianapolis as the WNBA descends on the city for All-Star Weekend, even without Caitlin Clark participating in the event because of injury. The league made a smart move by anointing Napheesa Collier and Caitlin Clark team captains and having them select teams. That mini-event delivered a ton of earned media, which is always a bigger win than a paid marketing campaign. The most successful sports leagues steal ideas from other leagues — or simply use their might to swipe them — and here is where the WNBA should swipe from the NFL, NHL, MLB, college football and other leagues. The WNBA needs to 'eventize' more regular-season games, and a priority for the 2026 season should be using the popularity of Caitlin Clark by scheduling the Fever to play a game at either Lucas Oil Stadium, the home of the Colts in Indianapolis, or a unique outdoor venue in the Midwest, such as Wrigley Field. (Clark is a lifelong Cubs fan.) The proof of concept already exists in a number of forms for women's sports: The Crossover at Kinnick (Stadium) was a preseason exhibition in 2023 between Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes and DePaul at the home stadium of Iowa football. The game set the global women's basketball single-game attendance record of 55,646. Two months earlier, Nebraska women's volleyball drew 92,003 fans to Memorial Stadium— home of the Cornhuskers' football team — to set the U.S. attendance record at a women's sporting event. When I interviewed former Iowa women's basketbal coach Lisa Bluder last March, she used the word 'magical' to describe being part of the The Crossover. 'We had 55,646 people show up, and there were women crying in the stands because this had been done for women's athletics,' Bluder said. 'Some of these women never got to play sports. They didn't have the opportunity. They were so excited and so emotional to see this happen for women.' These were creative ideas from people at those colleges, and they became unforgettable events. Are there issues that come with playing basketball outside? Of course. The weather needs to come through. But history suggests the positives outweigh the negatives if you can get scale, even if the game itself isn't great. Such an event will guarantee a new WNBA attendance record. The current one was set last September, when 20,711 watched the Fever and Mystics at Capital One Arena. If the Fever want to keep the game close to home, Lucas Oil Stadium has proven multiple times it can set up a basketball venue. The facility hosted the 2025 Midwest Regionals for the men's NCAA Tournament and will host the 2026 men's Final Four. (The Indianapolis Capital Improvement Board operates several facilities, including Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse and the Indiana Convention Center). In an email, CIB Executive Director Andy Mallon said that Lucas Oil Stadium can host approximately 72,000 for basketball depending upon the setup. 'We have more than 350 days when we are not hosting Indianapolis Colts home football games, so we offer ample opportunities to host non-NFL events,' Mallon said. To be clear, individual franchises are going to have to drive this idea. Per a league source, WNBA franchises can bring such venue ideas to the league for review, and approval is based on a number of factors including venue requirements. The WNBA can advocate for such an idea but ultimately two teams would have to be on board with everything that comes with such an event (travel, logistics, tickets, etc.) to get it done. Clark has proven to be a catalyst for teams changing arenas. We saw this again last week when the Dallas Wings announced they will move the Aug. 1 game against the Fever to American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas. The game that was initially scheduled for College Park Center. The Across The Timeline website tracks WNBA data, and the Fever far and away outpace the rest of the league when it comes to away attendance. Any Fever opponent would obviously need incentivizing to play in an NFL or MLB stadium, but it would be massive publicity for both teams. Every one of the WNBA's media rights-holder partners would want the game, and it would easily have a shot at being the most-watched regular-season game of the year. 'I like the idea,' said ESPN WNBA analyst Rebecca Lobo. 'The W actually did something similar in 2008 when the Liberty played the Fever at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It would be pretty spectacular to see a massive venue full of W fans watching the Fever play. I think they could get a crowd close to what the game at Kinnick drew. Chicago or Dallas would be attractive opponents since Angel (Reese) and Paige (Bueckers) are big draws as well, especially against Caitlin. It would be a rare WNBA tailgating opportunity as well.' Lobo is correct, and as she notes, the history of 'eventized' WNBA games already includes the Fever: The Liberty and Fever played a regular-season outdoor game on July 19, 2008, at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the first non-tennis sporting event to take place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. (Game-time temperature was a steamy 87 degrees.) The game drew 19,393 to the then-23,226-seat stadium. Two years later, Los Angeles hosted Seattle at the 8,000-seat Home Depot Center's tennis stadium in Carson, Calif. (That game had some air quality issues given a fire at an auto scrap yard about six miles south of the Home Depot Center.) If you ask people within the sports business industry, most would jump on board with the idea because they understand eventizing is the currency of the moment. 'There is a whole concept in sports of creating bigger events and more spectacles,' said John Kosner, the former ESPN executive vice president for digital media, who now advises sports media and tech start-ups. 'Why is the NFL so big? Because it's weekly spectacle. What makes NASCAR unique? It's a spectacle.' Ed Desser, a former NBA media executive and the president of the consulting firm Desser Sports Media, said he would advise the WNBA to go beyond Indianapolis and Lucas Oil Stadium to take advantage of the Clark brand. 'I don't know that a regular-season game at Lucas Oil Stadium reaches the level needed to make it a spectacle,' Desser said. 'There are going to be lots of chances for those Indiana fans to to watch the Fever during the course of the season in Indianapolis, so is playing at the football stadium enough in order to be a bona fide spectacle, to make it really special? I think of the outdoor game the NHL did in Lake Tahoe. You just had this pristine, gorgeous backdrop. Now that made it a special occasion.' Clark and Aliyah Boston running a pick-and-roll at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort would be lovely but unlikely to happen. Lucas Oil Stadium, though, is very doable. When asked last Wednesday by The Indianapolis-based 'The Fan Morning Show' if the Fever would ever play a game at Lucas Oil Stadium — my colleague at The Athletic, James Boyd, who co-hosts the sports radio show and made the ask for this piece — Joey Graziano, the executive vice president of strategy and new business ventures at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, said: 'I'm really excited about bringing the Fever around the world. We've seen interest from Asia. We've seen interest from Australia. Teams wanting to make sure that the Fever have an opportunity to play in their market. Obviously, this year we played in Iowa. I think what we've seen from our team is that they're excited to be able to use the platform to get into new places. So, I wouldn't put anything past us.' Asked specifically about the prospect of hosting a WNBA game at Lucas Oil Stadium, the CIB's Mallon understandably was diplomatic. 'Gainbridge Fieldhouse is a premiere professional basketball venue — I would argue that it's the best in the country — and the Indiana Fever and their fans love being there,' Mallon said. 'While Lucas Oil Stadium has a terrific basketball resume with success hosting past Final Fours and 2024's NBA All-Star Saturday night, and we've been tapped to host the 2026 and 2029 men's Final Fours, we tip our hat to Gainbridge Fieldhouse when it comes to hosting Indiana's game.' History is a valuable tour guide, and Bluder said it herself: The Iowa Crossover was a magical day and one of the highlights of her five decades coaching career. Opportunity is knocking here for the WNBA and its franchises. Let's hope they grab it in 2026. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Indiana Fever, NFL, WNBA, Sports Business, Opinion, Culture 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
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Who will win the 2025 WNBA championship? Players make their predictions
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has emphasized rivalries as a method of growing the game almost from the moment she assumed her role, sometimes to her detriment. Regardless, the league and its media partners rely on rivalries to package games and generate excitement about particular matchups. Look no further than a July 8 broadcast between the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces that featured a complete introductory sequence of Breanna Stewart and A'ja Wilson's battles through the years, along with highlights from the teams' 2023 and 2024 playoff series. Rivalries are also why Indiana and Chicago are one of two pairings to meet five times this season — Atlanta-Connecticut is the other — while many teams meet each other only three times. Whether they're manufactured or the result of repeat postseason meetings, rivalries pervade the WNBA. We asked players to identify which rivalry they thought was the best in the league. We also asked players for their title pick. With any luck, the WNBA Finals could produce another installment of a great rivalry. We've also asked players to share their thoughts on a range of topics within the league, including who they believe is the league's best player, where expansion should occur, who they consider the face of the league and which franchises they think are the best and worst. Our reporters spoke to nearly 40 players from the start of the 2025 season. All 13 teams are represented, but none of the 30 rookies on rosters are included as the survey attempted to gather veterans' perspectives. The pool of players represents approximately one-third of the non-rookies in the league. Players were granted anonymity to speak freely. They were also permitted to skip individual questions; as a result, each question shows the total number of responses for complete transparency. Some recency bias was evident in these answers. After meeting in the 2024 WNBA Finals, New York and Minnesota were voted as the league's best rivalry, despite the two teams not having a postseason history before last year. Nevertheless, players believed that the competitiveness of that five-game series, combined with the Liberty and Lynx both starting this season 9-0, would produce worthy antagonists. New York also factored into the second-place rivalry: Liberty versus Aces. The teams met in the 2023 Commissioner's Cup championship, the 2023 finals and in the second playoff round in 2024. Collectively, they have won the last three titles. There is also a longer rivalry at play between Stewart and Wilson, who have combined to win five of the previous seven titles (including Stewart's two in Seattle) and the last five MVP awards. Even after Stewart switched teams, the individual rivalry persists. That individual rivalry is what the WNBA hopes to stoke between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese after they famously faced off in the 2023 NCAA championship game. However, only four players named that as the league's best rivalry. The Las Vegas-Los Angeles matchup was the other one receiving multiple votes, given the teams' geographic proximity and the growing number of All-Stars who have played for both squads, including Candace Parker, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby. In their words '(Minnesota vs. New York because) of the finals last year.' 'After last year, they've got a rivalry.' 'Before, I would've said L.A.-Minnesota, but that was a while ago. Recently, New York-Vegas.' Although this was a more straightforward question than most, several players refused to answer because they didn't want to speak another team's success into existence. Those who responded overwhelmingly favored the two teams in last year's final. However, the majority picked Minnesota to win after it came up just short in 2024. The only other team to earn a mention was Phoenix. The Mercury enter the All-Star break third in the league standings, with wins over the Lynx and the Liberty. '(The Lynx) are just trending well, and they have the league's best player.' 'Since they finished runner-up, I think they'll figure it out and not be the runner-up again. They should win.' 'I think they'll be driven and motivated from last year. Losing in the finals gives people a different kind of fire for the following season. We saw that with New York before.' '(New York) because of (Jonquel Jones). She remains one of the league's most underrated players.' — The Athletic. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix Mercury, Golden State Valkyries, WNBA 2025 The Athletic Media Company
