Next up: The Commanders’ defense should get a break this week against Giants whipping boy Daniel Jones. Then again, Dan Quinn’s crack unit is coming off a game in which it helped turn Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield into an MVP candidate.

Future watch: Saturday at ODU, Virginia Tech will be another ACC team trying to protect its conference’s football reputation. Or what’s left of it after N.C. State’s 51-10 mortification against Tennessee.

In a shell: Not surprisingly, Tom Brady’s halting Fox game-day debut wasn’t well-received. He’ll improve. It would be more fun from an entertainment standpoint, though, if the GOAT stepped out from behind his stiff, respectful façade to rain hell on the bungling play of mere mortal quarterbacks. But then, I’m a dreamer.

A leg up: In Week 1, NFL kickers went 21 for 23 on field-goal attempts of 50 or more yards. Good for the kickers, bad for the game and its audience. Time to narrow the goal posts, lest the sidewinders assume even more of center stage.

On the upswing: Football fans younger than the generations still reading newspapers may not be aware of the years of racial discrimination faced by African American quarterbacks. Why should they be when a record 15 Black QBs started the NFL season?

Rush job: In the season’s first “Sunday Night Football” game, NBC magpie Cris Collinsworth set the land-speed record for obnoxious premature hyperbole when he said that a Matthew Stafford pass “may be the throw of the year.”

In passing: The NFL’s new way of handling kickoffs is a reminder that some things are best left alone.

Idle thought: Bill Belichick will be an NFL head coach again in 2025. Best guess, for the Giants.

Quick hit: I could do with a little less from the Kelce brothers.

Done for: In college football, there are losses that all by themselves should disqualify a school from College Football Playoff contention. Notre Dame’s loss to Northern Illinois is one of them.

Italian stallion: U.S. Open champ Jannik Sinner is 55-5 in matches this year. Yes, that’s as impressive as it looks.

A discussion: As he moves closer to a 50-homer, 50-stolen-base season, Shohei Ohtani is set to break a barrier by becoming the first DH who didn’t pitch to win MVP honors. There’s been reasonable pushback on this from supporters of Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who argue that a two-way player is more valuable. But 50-50 is a tough act to beat.

Update: By the way, the Mets have baseball’s best record since the start of June.

Musical chairs: A reconstituted Pac-12 with schools coming over from the Mountain West should restore some order to West Coast sports. Now if only there were a way for Stanford and Cal to escape their ACC contract and return to where they belong.

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

An anticipated overkill by the No. 1 team will fit only too well into an annual early-season pattern. Last week’s interesting games were far outnumbered by clinics in running up the score — 76-0, 63-0, 69-3, 52-0, just to note a few of the many uber-routs. College football’s landscape is changing, yet the custom of big schools beating up on the little guys thrives. The obsequious national media and the people scheduling these games somehow fail to recognize what a bad look this is.

Charging on: Taylor Heinicke’s NFL career lives! Every time the former ODU star turns up on another team, Monarch fans have reason to smile.

Future watch: The NFL’s new kickoff rule and the introduction of in-game coach interviews will compete for this season’s worst idea.

Cats in the hat: NFL players now have the option to add the shock-absorbing Guardian Caps to their helmets during the regular season. Almost none will. Because while the shock-absorbing material may be useful for practice, it’s not cool enough for games. The league says that over two preseasons, the caps reduced concussions by 50% in practice for certain position players. But for now, fashion wins out over function.

Quick hit: Nobody asked me, but I’ll take the Ravens vs. the 49ers in Super Bowl LIX. Anybody can pick the Chiefs to three-peat. What’s the fun in that?

Turn it down: After a couple weeks of college football on TV, I’m reminded that too many play-by-play announcers took screaming lessons in broadcast school. So often the mute button is our friend.

Add TV: Again this year, every pass a defender touches is “almost intercepted.”

Bad start: The ACC badly needs a football reset. Or it could just jump directly into basketball season.

Rank: Florida State, 0-2, has been a mess. But what were the professional guessers in the media thinking when they placed the ‘Noles 10th in the preseason rankings? Anybody willing to explain?

Old-school: With the introduction of the 12-team playoff, the weekly Top 25 guesstimate rankings begin to look even more like an antique.

Name change: Reader Don Vtipil questions why, in this age of NIL, college players are still called student-athletes. He suggests “university employees.” I’m with him.

TV timeout: Seeing as how Tom Brady is making $37.5 million per year to work for Fox, let’s hope he’s not another analyst who talks like he’s being paid by the word.

He’ll be back: I’m not usually so free with my compliments for TV talking heads, but I thought Robert Griffin III, recently fired by ESPN, did a better job than most on panels or in game-day booths. Somebody will grab him up.

Camera ready: With Monday Night Football spots on the ManningCast, a weekly Friday ESPN show with Peyton and an analyst position on the CW Network’s “Inside the NFL,” Bill Belichick is giving every appearance of a guy getting over his media shyness.

Poor kid: Danger lurks around every corner … and ballfield. Croix Bethune, a midfielder for the Washington Spirit of the National Women’s Soccer League and a member the U.S. Olympic gold-medal winners, recently threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Nationals game. And in the process, she suffered a torn meniscus that will sideline her the rest of the season.

What he said: Orioles TV voice Kevin Brown created a classic call this week when two players from the pitiable White Sox collided on a routine popup, allowing the ball to drop and three runs to score. “Oh no, oh my goodness,” Brown exclaimed, “the White Sox have just gone full White Sox.”

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

A big shadow: Taylor Heinicke’s legacy came up again this week when Grant Wilson was picked to be the first ODU quarterback to start back-to-back season openers since Heinicke three-peated between 2012 and ’14. One day, the school will put up a statue for Heinicke.

Blowing up: Too many calls to the Orioles’ bullpen lately have been wrong numbers.

Their legacy: After a slow start to the season, the Houston Astros are coming on strong. Time for America to grow suspicious again.

Coming attractions: A popular refrain is that college football fans will get used to former Pac-12 teams playing in the Big Ten. But some things you just shouldn’t have to get used to.

Anticipation: For how absurd this will look for the far-flung, new-age ACC, here’s hoping the conference football title runs through Dallas with SMU.

Back and forth: Social media squabbles between Olympic gold medal sprinter Noah Lyles and some NFL and NBA stars began with Lyles’ taunts. Unlike the planet’s fastest human, he contends, football and basketball domestic league winners have no business calling themselves “world champions.” A silly argument, but Lyles isn’t wrong.

Future watch: Given how long 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers has been away from the game, the start to his season will feature a tug of war between rest and rust.

A look back: The news that at 24 years, 195 days, Denver’s Bo Nix will be the fifth-oldest rookie quarterback to start an NFL season recalls that Roger Staubach was 27 in 1969 when he left the Navy to join the Cowboys. Staubach’s career is one of football’s great stories.

Reader response: Bob from Hampton wonders why Oklahoma State football players need a QR code on their helmets that links to a donation page for the school’s NIL fund. “Why not skip all that,” he said, “and have some guy on the sidelines with a paper bag full of cash to hand out to a player who scores a touchdown?”

The long game: Further proof that devotedly following a college basketball team can keep you young, Loyola of Chicago March Madness celebrity Sister Jean turned 105 this week.

Tennis economics: A first-round loser at the U.S. Open earns $100,000, often a lifeline for journeymen and women.

Copycats: With the debut of a 12-team College Football Playoff, ESPN is borrowing from basketball to introduce a Bubble Watch, to be updated each week, predicting who gets first-round byes, the first four out, the next four out and so forth. Because this thing just can’t be hyped enough.

Just asking: When the transfer portal produces college football rosters that are 50% new each season, who can know anything?

PG TV: If you’re tuning in to HBO’s “Hard Knocks” featuring the Chicago Bears’ training camp, you may have noticed that something’s missing from this year’s series — profanity. Naughty words have been left on the cutting-room floor, producers say, out of respect for the McCaskey family, owners of the Bears. Well, then, why not edit out language in future seasons so parents can watch with their children?

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

Vroom: As part of an NIL deal, football players at Texas are given the use of Lamborghinis. Young, high-strung athletes in $350,000 sports cars? What could go wrong?

New life: Presumably, new U.S. men’s soccer coach Mauricio Pochettino is bringing a defibrillator to the job.

Legend to legend: The retirement of North Carolina women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance, who won 21 NCAA titles in 45 seasons, recalls something Dean Smith once said: “This is a women’s soccer school. We’re just trying to keep up with them.”

Debacle: Nobody’s a winner in the gymnastics bronze-medal hot-potato case involving American Jordan Chiles and Romanian Ana Barbosu. Except the lawyers.

Scratched off: Breakdancing, which made its Olympic debut in Paris, will not be included among the sports in the ’28 L.A. Games. Why? My guess is because it’s not a sport.

Relocation plan: After many years, lacrosse returns to the Olympic menu in L.A. But if Oklahoma City is the venue for women’s softball in ’28, why not stage lacrosse in Maryland, a cradle of the sport and home to the lax hall of fame and USA Lacrosse, the sport’s governing body? There are more current and former lacrosse players in Maryland than you can shake a stick at.

Reality check: Their speed on the track is nothing compared with how fast most of our great Olympic sprinters, hurdlers and distance runners will be sent back to the athletics version of the federal witness protection program. Too bad. But football muscles out everything.

New wave: The L.A. Olympics swimming competition will be held inside SoFi Stadium, home to the Rams and Chargers. Gives new meaning to “football pool.”

In passing: The NBA’s schedule release was met with deafening silence.

Just a thought: Games of 40 minutes in length heightened the suspense of Olympic basketball. Perhaps the NBA should consider trimming its 48-minute slogs. Never happen, of course, lest TV ad revenue suffers.

Hoop du jour: With Victor Wembanyama vowing to lead a French juggernaut into the next Olympics, who will make the clutch plays for Team USA after graybeards Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and LeBron James pass the torch?

Numbers game: Forgotten amid the heroics of Curry and Co. is that the USA was more than a two-touchdown favorite against France.

Future watch: To the media and others who equate anything less than men’s basketball gold with infamy, I suggest you lighten up.

The great hybrid: Don’t tell the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani that a 6-foot-4, 215-pound home run hitter doesn’t also fit the description of a lead-off man. His 35 stolen bases through Wednesday were the second-most in baseball.

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

Numbers game: The revelation that on Wednesday 20-year-old Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday became the youngest player in American League history to homer in three consecutive games is further proof that no sport does statistics quite like baseball.

Breaking in: Jackson went 4 for 34 at the plate before rehabbing his swing in Norfolk. Coby Mayo, who tore up Triple-A pitching, was 0 for 13 with six strikeouts for the Orioles through Wednesday. The jump to the big leagues can be staggering.

What he said: Jim Harbaugh’s vigorous public denial of knowing anything about Michigan’s sign-stealing scheme would have impressed Sgt. Schultz.

Making claims: The ACC school that’s produced the most medals in Paris is, um, Stanford.

Stolen glory: In addition to Katie Ledecky, among the greatest re-minted ACC athletes are Tiger Woods and John McEnroe, also former Stanford students.

Bidding adieu: The award for best exit by an Olympian goes to 41-year-old Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez, who won his fifth consecutive gold, then retired by leaving his shoes on the mat.

Up next: Because there just aren’t enough Olympic sports, the 2028 L.A. Summer Games will see the debut of men’s and women’s flag football. And yes, with the support of their union and the league, NFL players are expected to participate. In the men’s division, presumably.

Fun fact: If you’ve wondered about flag football’s international appeal — and who hasn’t deeply pondered such a thing? — it is played in more than 100 countries.

Free passes: Last weekend, the Blue Jays issued a two-out, nobody-on-base intentional walk to Aaron Judge. In the second inning. The next day, they intentionally walked him three times. The highly unusual strategy may be the only way to keep Judge in the park some days. But not a great look for the game, right?

The other guy: Judge has one hand on the AL MVP trophy, but Kansas City shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. deserves consideration, too.

Cleveland rocks: Here on the East Coast, thoughts turn to the Yankees-Orioles AL East matchup, though the Central-leading Guardians may be better than both of them.

Curious comedown: Let down by an underachieving Angels franchise and then by his body sums up the latter, sadder parts of Mike Trout’s career.

Out of step: Lincoln Riley stepped on a rake by broaching the idea of ending Southern Cal’s football series with Notre Dame. We get it from Riley’s angle. Another difficult game as a Big Ten team could hurt USC’s playoff chances. Too bad for him and the coaches who follow. The rivalry means too much to the Trojans.

Money talk: Another twist in the further monetization of college sports has Miami recording star Pitbull purchasing the naming rights to Florida International’s football stadium for $6 million. For the next five years, FIU will play in Pitbull Stadium.

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

Wherever this season lands him — on the practice squad behind Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix Jr. or elsewhere — for a too-short, undrafted quarterback, he’s had an interesting career. This season, he said, he intends once again to be “a great teammate.” Heinicke’s time in the NFL proves that there’s a talent to that.

A moment of crisis: With Orioles All-Star infielder Jordan Westburg joining Jorge Mateo for an extended injury absence, Jackson Holliday is being thrown into the deep end.

Just a kid: Any evaluation of 20-year-old Holliday’s big-league readiness should take into account that he’s the youngest player in MLB. After being the youngest in Triple-A.

Marketplace: Of the 34 players traded this week, 20 are relief pitchers the average fan wouldn’t recognize. Boring stuff. It’s boring, too, that in an era when starting pitchers are lucky to work five innings, bullpen journeymen often alter the course of seasons.

Not right: Paris 2024 is the first Olympics in modern history to have an equal number of male and female athletes. Though that depends, I suppose, on how one counts a couple of male-born transgender boxers controversially competing in the women’s division.

From the heart: After winning bronze in sabre, Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan said, “To all the athletes who could not be here because Russia killed them, I dedicate this to them.” As real as it gets.

False claim: The ACC must think its fans are morons. Note the conference’s “Olympians made here” online self-promotion after Katie Ledecky’s gold-medal swimming performance. Ledecky graduated from Stanford three years ago.

Football folly: While they’re at it, why don’t conference flaks proclaim John Elway an ACC legend? Or SMU’s Eric Dickerson?

Bottom feeders: Stanford is all that’s keeping Virginia from last place in the media’s ACC preseason poll. Wonderful timing to bring the West Coast school into the fold after it stopped playing good football. Stanford does, however, feature a strong swimming program. Yippee!

Numbers game: When the 1992 Dream Team laughingly romped, the Olympics featured 21 players with NBA experience. In Paris, 68 players boast an NBA résumé. The Dream Team beat up on window cleaners and cab drivers.

Bread and circuses: This summer, Texas shelled out $2.3 million for a campus party — with Pitbull as the alleged musical attraction — to celebrate its entrance into the SEC. So, no, football and basketball factories don’t get to whine about where they’re going to find the money to pay athletes.

Idle thought: Commanders can’t be the worst name along a pro sports landscape that includes the Cleveland Guardians.

Future watch: Aaron Rodgers won’t be satisfied until he gets his head coach fired.

A wrinkle: There’s at least one reason to watch this year’s tedious NFL preseason games — for the chance to be confused and/or amazed by the new kickoff rule.

In closing: I don’t think I’ve ever met a White Sox fan. Don’t expect to meet one this summer. Not, at least, anyone who would admit to it.

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

Numbers game: Baltimoreans of a certain generation might find some amusement in Lamar Jackson’s trademark dispute with Troy Aikman over who has promotional rights to No. 8. At least until Jackson leads the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory, for the burghers at the other end of the Chesapeake Bay, the most revered No. 8 is Cal Ripken Jr.

On edge: As the MLB trade deadline approaches and the Orioles’ need for a front-line starting pitcher grows urgent, baseball insiders have done a lot of speculating about the Tides’ talent pool — which players are untouchable and which aren’t. We shall soon find out.

Idle thought: The Open Championship served as another reminder that Tiger Woods has been a ceremonial golfer for quite some time now.

TV timeout: I’m reading a lot about the ACC’s “identity crisis,” created, in part, because the conference can’t keep pace with the media reach of SEC football. Don’t see how the additions of SMU, Cal and Stanford are any help with that.

Future watch: The distinct possibility exists that the inclusion of Oregon and Southern Cal in the Big Ten will expose the conference’s brand of football as highly overrated.

Weird and wacky: Under Jim Harbaugh, who compared the first training-camp practice to childbirth — “it was like coming out of the womb” — the Chargers’ season may be good or bad, but never dull.

Looking ahead: Dak Prescott is about to become the first quarterback to break the $60 million-per-season barrier. And yes, he’s still 2-5 in playoff games.

Girl dads: Some of the increased popularity of the WNBA — TV viewership for its All-Star Game jumped 300% this year — is credited to men warming up to women’s sports. That’s true in a sense. But it doesn’t take into account the dads who have always supported and coached their daughters on the grassroots level. There wouldn’t be women’s sports without fathers.

Just asking: Something has been left out of reports on the WNBA’s new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC Universal. Does Caitlin Clark get a cut?

Nostalgic: Because Olympics coverage is programmed for a female audience, boxing — once a major attraction — has been given an eight-count by TV since Sweet Pea Whitaker took gold in the ’84 LA Games, with Howard Cosell at the mic for a national audience. For broadcasting purposes, boxing isn’t what it used to be. But as a result, neither are the Olympics.

That guy: Bob Beamon holds the Olympic record in the long jump, and swimmer Michael Phelps has won the most medals. But nobody had a bigger impact on a prominent Olympic sport than Dick Fosbury, a 1968 gold medalist whose Fosbury Flop — leaping over the bar backward — revolutionized high jumping.

Another oddity: Breaking — breakdancing — which deserves ridicule as an Olympic “sport,” is not the only event entering the Games on a trial basis. Surfing is another. Surfing in France? Not exactly. The competition will be held in Tahiti, a French protectorate located almost 10,000 miles from Paris. Don’t try to understand it.

Tennis tussle: Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who haven’t met on court in more than two years, could tangle in the second round of the Olympics. Djokovic leads their head-to-head 30-29, with Nadal up 8-2 on the red dirt of Roland Garros. The “lions in winter” vibe adds to the anticipation.

Real politics: With the IOC’s ban of Russia from the Olympics, only 15 Russian athletes — seven of them tennis players — will compete. But why 15? Why not zero?

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

Idle question: In 2024, calling the MLB showcase the best of its kind in sports is faint praise indeed. During a night full of stars, shouldn’t the average fan be able to name more of them?

Quick hit: Baseball can now return its All-Star uniforms to the softball teams they borrowed them from.

Legend: Corbin Burnes was the first Orioles pitcher since 1980 to start an All-Star Game. Baltimore Hall of Famer Jim Palmer started four in the ’70s. At the risk of ruffling the feathers of Cal Ripken Jr. fans, don’t sleep on Palmer as the greatest Oriole of them all.

Money matters: After Jalen Brunson volunteered to take an historic discounted contract extension that gives the Knicks more cap room, we can say with relative certainty that there’s at least one NBA star who doesn’t equate less money with “disrespect.”

Net results: Novak Djokovic has yet to win a tournament this year, but after he lost the Wimbledon final to Carlos Alcaraz, the ATP computer rankings have the Serbian second, one place ahead of Alcaraz, who is coming off back-to-back Grand Slam titles. Who you gonna believe, a computer or your own eyes?

Future watch: Good news for Rafael Nadal fans — and who isn’t? Using a protected ranking, he has entered the main draw of the U.S. Open.

Obvious: This is the time each year in college football for rampant speculation, but identifying Nick Saban successor Kalen DeBoer as the coach under the most scrutiny is a no-brainer.

Mind games: Alabama players he left behind took offense, but it’s possible that in his new role at ESPN, Saban is just trying to take a little pressure off the Tide by picking Georgia and Texas to play for the SEC championship.

Not so fast: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is smart to hold off on robot umpires until at least 2026, until “technical issues surrounding the definition of the strike zone” can be ironed out. Not, I’m guessing, that they can ever be ironed out to the satisfaction of every player.

Wondering: Do robotic ball and strike calls generally favor hitters or pitchers?

A reminder: An argument for why the remarkable Patrick Mahomes could be underrated: In his six years as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback, he’s been to six AFC title games. Not to mention four Super Bowls.

That girl: Caitlin Clark, who put up a WNBA-record 19 assists along with 24 points Wednesday, appears to be figuring things out very nicely.

In closing: WNBA stalwart Diana Taurasi reportedly has recovered from a lower leg ailment in time to compete in her sixth Olympics. Her return saves the U.S. selection committee the trouble of thinking up another excuse for keeping Clark off the team.

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

Meanwhile: Nobody wearing U.S. colors is under more pressure to bring home the gold than the NBA stars.

The old vet: If anyone could have been excused for sitting out these Olympics, it’s 39-year-old LeBron James.

Her: Caitlin Clark is the Taylor Swift of sports. For the impact she’s had on court, for the new, young audiences she’s attracted while dragging the WNBA out of the shadows and for the multimedia debates she’s generated. Seven months into 2024, Clark is America’s Sportsperson of the Year.

Slugging it out: You get the sense that baseball fans — especially young ones — think the actual All-Star Game is a sideshow to the Home Run Derby. In truth, one is as much a gaudy exhibition as the other.

Over the top: The media’s All-Star Game selection coverage is so melodramatic. Stories coming out of big-league towns inevitably insist that certain local players who didn’t make the team were “snubbed.” The dictionary definition of snub is “to treat with scorn, contempt, disdain …” That’s not what’s going on when there’s just not enough roster space for every good player to make the cut.

Net results: For someone so young, Carlos Alcaraz knows how to handle the big moments. It’s something great athletes are born with.

Fast-tracked: Novak Djokovic, who likes to think he’s persecuted, can’t complain about his route to the Wimbledon semis, which included a very weak draw and a quarterfinal walkover that allowed him three days’ rest.

Going backward: The ATP, which runs men’s tennis, is going back to pre-Covid protocols, allowing a player to ask for a towel from the ball kids rather than fetch it himself. The change is as unnecessary as it is unhygienic for the kids. The ATP wants to reduce the amount of time wasted during matches. But players can do something about that by not toweling off and otherwise dilly-dallying so often.

Whoa there: Cooper Flagg is a young man in a hurry, at 17 headed for Duke when he should be a senior in high school, then onto the NBA next year as the top pick. That’s the path laid out for him, especially after the way he played in a pre-Paris scrimmage against the U.S. team. But he’s 17. Can the media turn down the hype a little? Of course they can’t.

In NIL news: Arch Manning, the backup quarterback for the Texas Longhorns, reportedly received between $50,000 and $60,000 to promote a college football video game. Imagine how much he could have made if he were first-string. Or how little if he wasn’t a Manning.

Happy to stay: It surprises football people that Manning, behind Quinn Ewers for another year, hasn’t transferred. By the end of last season, nearly two-thirds of the top 20 quarterbacks for each of the 2019 through ’22 recruiting cycles were either in the portal or had already switched schools.

Trending: On June 13, the Yankees were in first place with the best record in baseball, while the Red Sox were 13 games behind them. After a bad spiral, New York dropped to second, behind the Orioles, and Boston was within 4½ games of the Yankees through Wednesday. And with so much summer yet to go.

As is: The meeting this week by the NCAA men’s basketball committee produced no news about the possible expansion of the Field of 68, a good thing. If it ain’t broke …

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.

Idle thought: Is it asking too much of college athletes making the really big bucks to pay their own tuition? Assuming they go to class.

Star treatment: A Lakers No. 9 jersey, to be worn by the 55th player selected in the NBA draft, is now on sale along with his father’s jersey. Do we really have to ask how many other late second-round picks had their pro jerseys online before playing a game? I’m wondering, then, how soon until Nike gives Bronny James a signature shoe?

Family dynamics: Are we supposed to believe that if Daddy LeBron had advised his 19-year-old son to go back to school, his son wouldn’t have done it?

The difference: The Caitlin Clark Effect was in evidence again when the WNBA’s All-Star fan voting increased this year by almost 600 percent.

Wondering: Am I any less of an American patriot because the U.S. loss to Uruguay in the Copa America didn’t make me lose sleep?

Numbers game: Does the USA defeat sting any worse because Uruguay’s population of 3.4 million is dwarfed by our 340 million? It shouldn’t. All they’ve got in Uruguay is soccer. We’ve got pickleball, y’all.

Ballin’: In addition to his hitting and fielding talents, Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson is a young star who bursts out of the batter’s box looking to turn singles into doubles. Too many big leaguers turn doubles into singles.

All his: If he stays healthy, Aaron Judge — who at the halfway point in the schedule is enjoying a Triple Crown season — is on his way to locking up the AL MVP award.

Rising: The Red Sox are better than people thought they’d be. A wild-card contender.

Magical memory: It was a great decision by Norfolk State to install in its Hall of Fame the 2011-12 men’s basketball team. By upsetting No. 2 seed Missouri, the Spartans created a special moment that only the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament can produce.

Wrong audience: A changed, enfeebled Sports Illustrated is trying to annoy this longtime reader by including in its current edition a story about “breaking” (once called breakdancing) as an Olympic sport in Paris. I don’t need this sort of aggravation.

Hoop du jour: To be fair, 3-on-3 basketball is another new Olympic event that strikes me as pretty lame.

Future watch: The 34-year-old Klay Thompson signed by the Mavericks isn’t the player he was before tearing his ACL and rupturing an Achilles tendon. But Dallas is getting someone who in his peak years with the Warriors scored an NBA-record 37 points in a quarter. And showing his prowess as a spot-up shooter, he once scored 60 points in three quarters on 11 dribbles. Thompson taking passes on the perimeter from Luka Doncic might work out very nicely for the Mavs.

Anniversary: On July 1, long-retired Bobby Bonilla received another installment of $1,193,248.20 from the Mets, his 14th. He’s got 11 more payments coming to him.

Bob Molinaro is a former Virginian-Pilot sports columnist. His Weekly Briefing runs Fridays in The Pilot and Daily Press. He can be reached at bob5molinaro@gmail.com and via Twitter@BobMolinaro.