The Athletic’s Evan Drellich joins John to discuss MLB’s looming labor war. Evan puts the odds of a 2027 lockout at 100 percent and the chance of missed games at 75—all while baseball is enjoying a banner season with increased ratings, attendance, and sponsorships. They also explore the sport’s real potential to surpass basketball, the challenges facing its next media deal, and more.

Want to dominate your league and earn Fantasy Football bragging rights? Join the crew at Fantasy Football Today. Adam Aizer, analysts Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings have everything you need. Start or Sit, Waiver Wire, Buy or Sell, Grade the Trade, and Fantasy Cops to settle your league disputes and answer all your listener questions. It’s like hanging out with your buddies and talking football—if your buddies actually knew how to win you a championship.

Puck’s legal expert Eriq Gardner joins John to work through a docket’s worth of sports media legal battles—from the looming challenges to the Paramount-WBD merger to the NFL’s ongoing antitrust case. Plus, a long-simmering dispute between the Chicago Cubs and the rooftop owners over sightlines into Wrigley.

Michael Ratner, C.E.O. of Fanatics Studios, and Lance Fensterman, C.E.O. of Fanatics Events, join John to discuss the wild growth and evolution of Fanatics Fest—and why immersive, interactive experiences built around high-profile athlete appearances are central to its appeal. Ratner also gets into the thinking behind a reimagined ESPYs, which he’s overseeing and which should kickstart a major weekend for Fanatics.

Wells Fargo Securities analyst Steven Cahall joins John to cut through the noise on sports media’s biggest storylines: why a sale of NBC is less likely than the market assumes, the fuzzy logic surrounding the $22 billion Fox–Roku deal, whether linear networks can actually afford to pay more for the NFL, and much more.

With Wimbledon in full swing, John is joined by Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of tennis. They get into Serena Williams’ return to the court, the WTA’s player protests over fair wages, and the challenges and opportunities facing the sport in the U.S. Wertheim also illuminates how tennis keeps finding itself at the forefront of women’s sports’ remarkable rise.

C.E.O. Eric Shanks joins John to gush about the World Cup and Fox’s decade-long investment in soccer. He discusses his biggest surprises, Fox’s always-on approach to coverage, Zlatan Ibrahimović’s unlikely TV career, the controversial hydration breaks, the looming 2030 rights war, and more.

The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand is back on the pod to discuss the World Cup’s runaway success, from its strong attendance numbers and high TV ratings to its positive impact on social media. He also predicts what the momentum means for the 2030 rights, and whether it could land on a streamer for the first time. Plus, how MLS can capitalize on the moment to become a top league globally.

FanDuel President Christian Genetski joins John to talk shop about World Cup engagement, the sports betting scandals putting the industry under a microscope, and FanDuel’s foray into prediction markets. Genetski addresses the looming transparency and regulation questions head-on, and explains how he’s threading the needle between legal complexities and a consumer appetite that's only intensifying.

NBC Sports’ Nicole Auerbach rejoins The Varsity to gab with John about all the latest chaos in college sports, from a bizarre twist in the Big Ten–SEC rivalry to the ongoing legal drama surrounding Brendan Sorsby and an unexpected political threat in Washington.