Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below the main deck of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are busy doing research for their upcoming college football preview…
Or, they’re watching cartoons again.
Anyway, given the heat waves that have afflicted different parts of the country — not unsurprising, given that it’s the latter part of July — I thought I’d start this post talking about something cool, namely hockey. Yesterday (July 29, 2026), the San José Sharks signed their youthful superstar, Macklin Celebrini, to a 5-year contract extension with a handsome $18.8M average annual value. Not bad for someone who still can’t legally buy a drink.
The deal makes Celebrini the highest-paid per-year player in the NHL, and he is worth every penny. Celebrini has generational skills and a work ethic that would have given John Henry a run for his money during his man-versus-machine days. He will undoubtedly be team captain next season, which, for the first time in several years, is being looked forward to with anticipation rather than angst by aficionados of Los Tiburones.
In NFL news (yes, I’ll start writing soon about college football as well), the Buffalo Bills have unveiled their new alternate jersey with which they will welcome in a new stadium this upcoming season.
A blue collar town that never backs down.
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) July 27, 2026
We are the Nickel City. pic.twitter.com/nDja8yhTMW
The reaction thus far has been less than favorable among the Bills Mafia. I like it myself, though it would have been better if they had gone with a retro helmet design similar to the one they wore from 1965 to 1973. It’s not as cool as my preferred team, the Los Angeles Rams’ new alternate jerseys…
Legacy isn't built in a moment... it's forged. pic.twitter.com/zqwSIjI9J0
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) July 24, 2026
I may be a tad biased.
In news of a far more facepalm-inducing sort, there was some ugliness at the Indiana Fever-Seattle Storm game that took place July 28, 2026, in Seattle. Before the game, a group of fans held a positive protest outside Climate Pledge Arena thanking Fever player Sophie Cunningham for her public statements opposing biological men participating in women’s sports. The fans then went inside to watch the game, where things got ugly.
The Seattle Storm have apologized for the conduct of a co-owner toward to young girls who were supporting Sophie Cunningham on Tuesday night. But footage and testimony shows a further storm of chaos the two girls endured that the team has not addressed. https://t.co/tb7nvpZLJs
— Jackson Thompson (@JackThompsonFOX) July 29, 2026
Aside from the usual musing over why this is a hill progressives are willing to die on, one has to wonder what people at the game were thinking. If one or more members of the Indiana Pacers had shown up in the Fever locker room announcing they now identified as female and wanted to play, and the Fever had said, “sure,” would the Storm be happy with it? Or are they secretly hoping that Shawn Kemp will come out of retirement and play for Seattle? Apparently, too much Starbucks coffee and socialism-lite politics have made Seattle fans and ownership alike forget what the W in WNBA stands for.
Finally, while it was nice that the Storm organization apologized for the co-owner’s outburst — for the record, said co-owner is the spouse of the team’s primary owner — what is genuinely required is a personal apology by her to the girls. Who, in return, could helpfully outline to the co-owner and her wife what a woman is. They seem to be so utterly lacking in self-awareness they don’t know what they are.
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