NFL
“Louder! Louder!”
Legend of Halas’s ghost, what volume! Visitors to Chicago’s Wintrust Arena needed hearing protection to survive the noise instigated by the Sky’s 2025 gameday crew. Regretably, Angel Reese’s style could not paint a large enough scoreboard number to justify the racket. It seemed the Wintrust speaker system would return to befuddle fans’ ears again this season. And, alas, with presumably little effect on the court.
Yet while LA may have its movie stars, and New York features lovely musicals, Chicago is the best town for second acts.
Second Verse? Not at All Worse
Sky GM Jeff Pagliocca traded Reese to Atlanta for a draft pick bounty. Meanwhile, Pagliocca spent the Sky’s 2026 first-round pick on UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez. Franchise goat Courtney Vandersloot returns to provide needed leadership for another reimagined roster. 2021 hero Azurá Stevens also returns to Chicago, joining long-journeyed and long-successful Skylar Diggins. With just one game played, fans are only starting to peer around the curtain. As it rises, those supporters find reasons to keep turnips in their back pockets.
Hang in there, Sky Town. Light pollution’s blight is ready to fade to a more pleasing blue-and-yellow hue. Jaquez, mere weeks after a dominant championship run for her Bruins, played 32 excellent minutes to spoil Portland’s franchise debut. Rising prize Kamilla Cardosa’s 22-point double-double supplanted Jaquez’s 21 tallies, resulting in a refreshingly decisive 98-83 triumph for the Sky. Wednesday’s journey to San Francisco proves a greater opportunity.
The Golden State Valkyries charmed the Wverse with an impressive debut in 2025. Instead of letting their competitive series loss to mighty Minnesota diminish State’s momentum, the Valkyries clawed deeper into the mysterious competitive ether of our growing sport. State, led by Frenchwoman and second-year Valkyrie Janelle Salaün, already holds a 2-0 record. As of presstime, DraftKings posits State as a 3.5-point favorite.
Eventually, Pagliocca’s roster maneuvers must achieve results on the scoreboard. While Reese impressed Sky fans with unique stat lines at a perfect moment of growth leaguewide, only the hardiest Sky fans will keep watching if the league’s first letter remains absent from Sky boxscores.
Size of Skye in Fight?
Team NBS Media implores Sky savants not to bring blindfolds along with seemingly obligatory headphones to Wintrust this year. By now, followers of every team have heard some form of a “size of the Skye in the fight” trope. Funny, though, how Chicago is the only basketball franchise to have a champion reach the pinnacle thrice, be demoted to the minors (literally!), and earn glory thrice more. With Vandersloot’s sharp memory of her triumphs returning with even stronger passes, 2026 is well past time to bury the phony curse of MJ in the same graveyard that haters’ X posts enter.
Legend of Halas’s ghost, what a noise it will be! When Golden State fans yelp in delight to see their new, proud franchise battle one entering a new, more excellent era.
