Talk about stealing a paycheck.

All eyes were on Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal's frustrating 1-1 draw with DR Congo on Wednesday. The legendary striker joined Lionel Messi as the only men ever to appear in six different FIFA World Cups.

Unfortunately, the milestone was far more memorable than the performance.

In his 23rd career World Cup appearance, Ronaldo's 90-minute stat line read like a string of goose eggs:

• 0 goals

• 0 assists

• 0 shots on target

• 0 chances created

• 0 big chances created

• 0 successful dribbles

• 0 ground duels won

• 0 fouls drawn

Then again, Father Time remains undefeated. At 41 years and 123 days, Ronaldo became the oldest outfield player ever to start a World Cup match.

Meanwhile, Harry Kane reminded everyone why England may be the sleeper team to beat.

Kane scored in England's 4-2 opening win over Croatia, giving the Three Lions their first World Cup victory over a FIFA Top-15 nation since knocking off No. 3 Argentina in 2002. The win also snapped a nine-match winless streak—and six straight losses—against Top-15 opposition at the finals.

With the strike, Kane became only the second Englishman to score in three different World Cups, joining David Beckham. His fifth World Cup penalty (excluding shootouts) is now the most in tournament history, while his 10 World Cup goals further cement his legacy.

England also peppered Croatia with 11 shots on target, their highest total in a World Cup match since firing 13 against Colombia in 1998.

Word around the pitch is England's 2026 squad may be the deepest and most talented in the nation's World Cup history.

Based on opening night, that's looking less like hype... and more like reality.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy the games.

The SEC's College Football Playoff picture for 2026 looks different than it has in years past, with a nine-game conference schedule creating more landmines than ever before.

Serious contenders include some of the SEC's most recognizable programs, such as Texas A&M, Alabama, and LSU, each with a legitimate path to the playoff (and a specific reason to worry).

Florida is a dark horse pick, a team nobody is talking about, that could work its way into the playoff conversation by November, if for no other reason new head coach Jon Sumrall won 4 conference championships in four seasons with Tulane and Troy.

Per Bill Connelly, ESPN’s college football guru, these are his top five contenders to compete in this season’s SEC championship game:

• Georgia Bulldogs –

Georgia being favored to brawl its way to the SEC title. It's nice to have aspects of your life you can count on. Smart's Dawgs have won three of the past four league titles and have made it to Atlanta eight times in nine years. The future of conference championship games is blurry right now, but as long as they exist, Georgia will probably be playing in them.

• Texas Longhorns –

Though the preseason No. 1 Longhorns indeed didn't deserve to make the 12-team field, they looked excellent late in the season. Arch Manning had the best QBR in the nation from November onward, and Texas finished the season by rudely ending rival Texas A&M's unbeaten run and thumping Michigan with relative ease in the Citrus Bowl. Warning: Manning was dreadfully inaccurate throwing on the run last season.

• Texas A&M Aggies –

Four teams that finished in last year's SP+ top 10 currently rank in the top 15 in returning production and the Aggies are n e of then (#14) . Oregon, Notre Dame and Georgia are all virtual locks to start 2026 in the top five or six in the preseason polls. Texas A&M is in the same club, however, and it doesn't seem as if we're talking nearly as much about the Aggies. Warning: A&M lost six of last year's top seven linemen on offense and five of seven on defense.

• LSU Tigers –

With controversial new head coach Lane Kiffiin at the helm, the expectations start from the first game. The Tigers will have to be dialed in right from the start. By Oct. 1, they will have hosted Clemson and Texas A&M and visited Ole Miss in what might be the most hostile game environment of the season. The home stretch is hard, too, but there's potential for either a disastrous or particularly brilliant start. One way or the other, a Kiffin team will likely remain a headliner throughout the year.

• Alabama Crimson Tide -

Kalen DeBoer has lost as many games in two seasons (eight) as Nick Saban lost in his last five. Bama ranked either first or second in SP+ for 13 straight years under Saban but finished 20th last season and looked like a playoff team for only a few weeks in late September and October. QB Kelon Russell was the No. 2 prospect in the 2025 class and was nearly perfect in a tiny sample last season. They won't play a projected top-20 team until Week 6, so Russell might have a chance to generate confidence and momentum before a rugged home stretch kicks in.

The NFL offseason is in a quiet period, which gives us some time to reflect on what's happened. Some teams had productive springs - upgrading their rosters while limiting off-field drama.

We won't be talking about those teams today.

Our focus is on the biggest losers from the NFL offseason so far. It should come as no shock that the Patriots made the cut with Mike Vrabel at the center of a messy off-field scandal. But New England's problems don't end there. A step back might be in store following a run to Super Bowl LX.

To make matters worse, the Patriots are the prime regression candidate in 2026.

After going 14-3 last season with help from the easiest schedule since the turn of the millennium, the Patriots have the sixth-toughest schedule in 2026 (in terms of opponent’s win percentage last season), including the toughest Weeks 1-4 strength of schedule by any team in 40 years. They open with a Super Bowl rematch against the Seahawks, then face the Pittsburgh Steelers, travel to the Jacksonville Jaguars and visit the Buffalo Bills.

Last week we pointed put the handful of teams that improved the most during the offseason, per CBS Sports. We switch gears today.

Let's break down the five teams that had the worst NFL offseasons, starting with a club in the NFC South.

5. Atlanta Falcons

It's the beginning of a new era in Atlanta, but it remains to be seen whether that era will be successful. The offseason certainly didn't get off to the right start for the Falcons, as Defensive Rookie of the Year finalist James Pearce Jr. faced several troubling charges after a scary domestic dispute. Pearce got the deal of a lifetime, as all charges will be dropped if he completes a pretrial intervention program. However, the NFL will likely still suspend him. Matt Ryan is a franchise legend, but how will he fare as the president of football in Atlanta? Ryan hired two-time NFL Coach of the Year Kevin Stefanski, formerly of the Cleveland Browns, to serve as the lead man, but he comes with questions as well. Stefanski was part of the egregious Deshaun Watson trade that led to Baker Mayfield being pushed out of Cleveland, and he's gone 8-26 over his last two seasons despite having an elite defense led by Myles Garrett, a generational pass rusher. The Browns went 5-12 last year with the No. 4 defense in the NFL. Some would argue Stefanski didn't have the right quarterback in Cleveland. OK, but the situation is arguably worse in Atlanta. Michael Penix Jr. is coming off the third torn ACL of his football career and is 4-8 as an NFL starter. Then the Falcons made the puzzling decision to quickly sign Tua Tagovailoa. The Miami Dolphins had to take on an NFL-record $99 million in dead cap just to get rid of the former No. 5 overall pick, and there's no denying Tagovailoa has regressed since his Pro Bowl season in 2023. Stefanski has coached some weird quarterback rooms over the past couple of years. Now he's just collecting lefties. Running back Bijan Robinson and tight end Kyle Pitts have the potential to be top-three players at their position. Atlanta has legitimate weapons on offense and some pieces on defense, but if it doesn't have a quarterback, regression is imminent.

4. Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers are one of six NFL teams to have made the playoffs in each of the past three seasons – all as a No. 7 seed... Green Bay lost its most reliable wide receiver in Romeo Doubs, linebacker Quay Walker and left tackle Rasheed Walker in free agency. And star pass rusher Micah Parsons is expected to start the season on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, which means he will miss at least four games, and the Packers should be worried about star running back Josh Jacobs, who is facing domestic violence charges. When you look at the NFC North, the Bears are coming off their best season in more than a decade, the Lions are always going to be competitive and the Minnesota Vikings have reason for optimism with new quarterback Kyler Murray. Things are rather crowded in this black-and-blue division.

3. New England Patriots

There's a narrative that some are afraid to address the Mike Vrabel drama, but we also deal in facts, and neither party will come out and admit what we saw in the photos published by the New York Post/Page Six. We have a resignation letter from Dianna Russini and worthless word salad from the Patriots head coach in his press conferences instead. This became a bona fide football story when Vrabel stepped out of the office for the final day of the 2026 NFL Draft, but this is also a leader of men who was shamed for a major personal mistake. Alleged mistake. The reigning NFL Coach of the Year was always seen as a hard-nosed, authoritative figure capable of getting the most out of his players. How about now? To make a list of NFL teams that had the worst offseasons and not include the Patriots would be disingenuous. To make matters worse, the Patriots are the prime regression candidate in 2026. After going 14-3 last season with help from the easiest schedule since the turn of the millennium, the Patriots have the sixth-toughest schedule (by opponents win percentage last season) in 2026, including the toughest Weeks 1-4 strength of schedule by any team in 40 years. They open with a Super Bowl rematch against the Seahawks, then face the Pittsburgh Steelers, travel to the Jacksonville Jaguars and visit the Buffalo Bills. All four teams made the playoffs last year. If the Patriots get off to a slow start in September, the season could be over in New England before it even begins.

2. Arizona Cardinals

It's hard to imagine a 3-14 team getting worse, but DraftKings has assigned the lowest preseason win total to the Arizona Cardinals at Over/Under 3.5. It's not just because they reside in the toughest division in the NFL. In fact, Arizona became the first team in NFL history to finish nine games worse than the rest of its division rivals last year. The fact of the matter is that one of the worst teams in the NFL did not get better this offseason. The Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon for Mike LaFleur, who spent the past three seasons as the offensive coordinator for the Rams. The last time we saw LaFleur in charge of an offense was in 2021 and 2022 with the Jets and Zach Wilson. They ranked in the bottom eight in the league in both total offense and scoring offense. His top offensive lieutenant in Arizona is Nathaniel Hackett, who was one of the worst one-and-done head coaches in NFL history. He spent last year as a defensive analyst with the Packers. The Cardinals will be quarterbacked by Jacoby Brissett, who went 1-11 last year. Arizona is in a rebuild. They are the only NFL team that will be underdogs in every game this season and didn't inspire optimism with their coaching hires, failed to draft a top quarterback prospect and selected a running back at No. 3 overall. Unsurprisingly, they are expected to be the worst team in the NFL this season.

1. Jacksonville Jaguars

The reigning AFC South champion Jaguars did not earn high marks from pundits when it came to free agency or the draft. The Jags objectively got worse in free agency, losing linebacker Devin Lloyd, running back Travis Etienne, cornerback Greg Newsome II and safety Andrew Wingard. The only players Jacksonville signed from outside the organization this year were four reserves. In the draft, the Jaguars put together what many would call the worst class this year. It's not fair to judge an entire draft class before the players have taken a single snap, but the picks were a bit confusing. The Jags drafted Texas A&M tight end Nate Boerkircher at No. 56 overall. He's going to be an older rookie who caught just 19 passes for 198 yards and three touchdowns last season, but offensive coordinator Grant Udinski has said he's going to change their offense. Say what?

NFL player gripes about artificial turf are nothing new, but the volume just got turned way up.

49ers star TE George Kittle said it best, ““We’ve made it clear that we prefer grass fields. We know it’s better on our bodies. And clearly, we know it’s possible based on everything that went into putting down grass fields for the World Cup in each stadium. At this point, it comes down to the NFL making it a priority and choosing to invest in us as players, because our bodies are our business — which they get to capitalize on!”

Fans, though, are split right down the middle—some buying what the stars are selling on injury risks, others figuring the owners are dug in too deep to budge an inch.

One fed-up voice nailed it: “Literally don’t get why the NFL won’t put grass in stadiums for NFL games. Literally makes no sense. It’s ridiculous too that they won’t say anything in response or give a reason… DO IT.”

Others hit back with cold reality: “It’s very possible injuries are cheaper than maintaining grass unfortunately.”

And the mandate crowd chimes in: “He’s right. Every NFL stadium should be mandated to have grass.” Sure, artificial turf saves owners a bundle upfront.

But when your star quarterback or top receiver goes down with a non-contact knee tweak on that plastic carpet, those “savings” vanish faster than a bad parlay.

Bottom line: Don’t hold your breath waiting for the checkbooks to fly open. NFL owners aren’t about to drop millions flipping surfaces just because the players’ union is raising hell about injury rates. If the NFLPA wants real grass in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, they’re going to have to cough up some serious concessions at the table. Otherwise, it’s business as usual—turf stays, pads stay on, and the injury debate rolls into another season.

Playbook says: Follow the dollars. The turf isn’t going anywhere until the math changes.

Fallen Arches

From the 2026 PLAYBOOK Football Preview Guide Magazine

The team write-up above is from the 256-page
2026 PLAYBOOK Football Preview Guide
Magazine - NOW IN STOCK!

Texas

Don’t sleep on this team. Despite preseason No. 1 hype and a disappointing three-loss season, QB Arch Manning ranked No. 1 in Total QBR from November onward as Texas won 10 games and stifled six opponents’ offenses to season-low or second-lowest yards. Those are attributes, not participation trophies. This year, coach Steve Sarkisian added high-upside talent in RB Raleek Brown, WR Cam Coleman, RB Hollywood Smothers, and LB Rasheem Biles – plus four offensive linemen to boost depth and support Manning. Be careful, as this year’s team might own more talent than last’s year’s edition. The Horns are looking to make amends in 2026 and they were the biggest spenders in the NIL player market this season ($23M).

STAT YOU WILL LIKE: Head coach Steve Sarkisian is 18-4-1 ATS in the game after his team allows more than 36 points.