Podcast

Raising Arch

Published

6 months ago

June 25, 2025

Cooper Manning began to suspect his oldest son might be a gifted athlete when in elementary school. He noticed Arch could really throw and was always able to run around and make plays in flag football. But even when Arch was only 4 or 5, there was something different about him.

Whenever he’d go to a Colts game to watch his Uncle Peyton or a Giants game to see his Uncle Eli, the little kid would sit there riveted from start to finish.

“He never wanted to go run around in the halls or go eat popcorn and nachos,” Cooper said. “He’d just watch football like he was in a trance.”

At home, Arch didn’t play video games. He wanted to go outside and play catch, shoot hoops or have his dad hit him fly balls.

“We threw more footballs in the den over his mother’s head while a football game was going on, and she’d be like, ‘Please don’t do this — oh, here comes a lamp!’ And she was right,” Cooper said. “There was always something getting broken.”

Now, Arch is 21, a former top-ranked recruit from New Orleans entering his third season at Texas but first as starter after patiently waiting behind Quinn Ewers. He’s made two spot starts in his first two seasons, but the Longhorns could top preseason polls in large part because of excitement around the 6-foot-4, 225-pound redshirt sophomore. Behind the scenes, Arch has drawn rave reviews from coaches for his football intelligence, athleticism and make-up.

But Cooper, the oldest of former Saints star quarterback Archie Manning’s three sons, wasn’t about to go telling anyone that his kid was some athletic prodigy growing up. Being the Next Manning meant he didn’t need to say anything like that on his own.

“You never wanna be that dad who says his son is really something special,” he said. “When you share that with someone, you sound like a lunatic.”

When you’re from football’s first family of quarterbacks, that kind of thing is already baked in, whether you want all that comes with it or not.

Cooper wasn’t a quarterback like his dad or younger brothers. The 51-year-old entrepreneur/television personality was a gifted wide receiver who signed to play at Ole Miss, his father’s alma mater. But as a freshman, he felt numbness in his fingers and toes during training camp. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spine and pinching of the nerves that meant the end of his playing career.

As Cooper’s children were growing up, he watched as his kid brothers blossomed into football icons. Peyton was the wizard who had the answers to every defensive scheme and adjustment whenever he dropped back to pass. Eli was the unflappable one who always seemed to be at his best when the spotlight was brightest. Eli led the Giants to two Super Bowls and was named MVP in both games. Peyton, a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer, won five NFL MVPs and two Super Bowls.

People assume that the two former NFL stars have mentored their nephew, but that wasn’t so much the case. Archie’s been around a lot and always has been, said Arch’s mother, Ellen, “but really, Coop taught Arch how to play football.”

Arch Manning chose Texas over finalists Alabama and Georgia. (Scott Wachter / Imagn Images)

Ellen and Cooper realize that doesn’t make for a good story. Or draw as many eyeballs.

“As much as they are great influences, they weren’t around a ton,” Cooper said. “I don’t think Eli ever saw Arch play a high school or college football game. He is coming in this year. Peyton would come in for a game or two occasionally. Arch would see them at the Manning Passing Academy and may see ’em at Mardi Gras, but that’s like five nights in a year, so it’s hard to say whether he’s ‘like them or like someone else.’

“I do think you can pick up little pieces of people that you like. Arch is probably just as likely to pick up a habit of Patrick Mahomes as he is of Eli with things that you just like about people and the way they handle themselves. And fortunately, anybody who watches anything can get more exposure to players they like and want to mimic.”

Arch is actually much faster than either of his famous uncles. Cooper said Arch gets his speed from his mom. Ellen was the track star in the family, an all-district selection as a high-jumper in New Orleans who led her high school to its first state title in volleyball and was inducted into its sports hall of fame.

Ask Cooper about how he and Ellen raised their children knowing the challenges that would come with the hype associated with being Mannings, and he can’t help but laugh, knowing that he and his brothers didn’t grow up in an era of social media and cellphones with cameras.

They decided they’d deflect all the early attention on Arch as best as they could. It helped that New Orleans offered a more laidback, easygoing vibe than most places. It also helped that Arch, from a young age, never wanted any of it.

But that didn’t stop college coaches from calling as early as sixth grade trying to talk about scholarships.

“I was like, ‘We’re not having any of this scholarship stuff,’” Cooper said. “‘This is ridiculous. He doesn’t even have braces yet.’”

Cooper and Ellen, who is an attorney, set up ground rules raising their three children, May, Arch and Heid. When it came to cellphones and curfews, the Manning kids had a lot less flexibility than most of their friends did. They didn’t get cellphones until middle school. Even then, cellphones couldn’t be used at dinner. And until they were in the 11th grade, they had to charge their phones at night in their parents’ bedroom.

“Did they bitch and complain about it? Sure, they did,” Ellen said. “But I mention that to other people and they say, ‘Oh, I can’t get my kid’s face out of the screen,’ and my response is, ‘Well, take it away from ’em! It’s like they’re scared to do that.

“We never were scared to enforce the rules that we put in place for them because we believed in them.”

They had seen how social media had come into vogue and didn’t love where some of that could be headed. Though their kids complained about restrictions, Ellen said, they’ve come to look back and appreciate it.

“It was all a distraction,” Cooper said. “I just saw too many people taking their kids to dinner and everybody else was talking and the kids are on their phones. I thought, we’re not having this junk. I was a little old-school, kind of copying my dad. We’re not playing video games. Get outside and go play. I don’t care, you’re not hanging around here just swiping and thumbing through some useless, endless stuff.

“Arch was kind of wired that way anyhow so it made it easier.”

Cooper remembers Arch protesting that he couldn’t stay out until 11 o’clock in high school, saying friends’ parents let their sons come home later.

But then he’d say: “I didn’t really wanna go out anyway. I was just testing y’all.”

The irony is that now that all three kids have gone off to college — Heid is at Texas with Arch and May graduated this spring from Virginia — when they come home to New Orleans, they’ll spot their old man thumbing away on his phone.

Dad! Enough with the phone!

“I’ll lie and say I’m doing something work-related,” Cooper said, “but now it’s reversed, and they make me put it away for hours, so that’s good.”

When Arch’s recruitment began in earnest while at Isidore Newman School, Ellen and Cooper were thorough in how he chose where he went to college. They took visits to Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss and LSU.

They ended up going to Alabama, Texas and Georgia four times each before Arch chose to play for Steve Sarkisian and the Longhorns ahead of his senior season.

“When you’re 16, you don’t know what college is like, much less what the locker room is like, what the coaches are like, what the meetings are like, what practices are like, what it’s like to be going to classes in the summer — all that stuff,” Cooper said. “The more you get exposed to, the more you can make a relatively educated decision on where you can see yourself going, and if things may go wrong, you’re not gonna get homesick and think, ‘Golly, I screwed up.’

“We’re just the concierge, you get to figure out what feels right to you.”

Arch Manning made his first start in a 51-3 win over ULM last September. (Tim Warner / Getty Images)

After making brief appearances as a freshman in 2023, Arch played in 10 games last season, starting two when Ewers was injured. The younger Manning was impressive in limited time, as he completed 68 percent of his passes, going 61-for-90 for 939 yards with nine touchdowns and two interceptions. More impressively, he completed over 78 percent on third downs and 85 percent in the red zone. He also ran for 108 yards and four touchdowns for a Texas team that made it to the College Football Playoff semifinals for the second consecutive season.

The Mannings are well aware that Arch is a hot-button subject — and has been since he got to Texas (and even before that). They appreciate how UT has handled him. He’s been there for two and a half years and been available for interviews just five times: once during Sugar Bowl media day in his freshman year, another time for Cotton Bowl media last year, once this spring and twice after his two starts last fall.

Cooper set his phone up to get Google Alerts daily for articles mentioning Arch, but for as many as there are, he’s realized there’s rarely anything to them.

“There’s not really anything new because he’s not saying anything, and no one is really saying anything with new information,” he said. “It’s just recycled stuff. He’s kept his head down and kept a low-profile, so when he does something, it kinda matters.

“I think they’ve done a great job of protecting him, developing him, and letting him be a regular kid as best you can. Now, when the time is right, you’re ready to go, you’re ready to go. Playing is good, but playing when you’re really ready and prepared usually works out better, in every league.”

Cooper is also proud to say that Arch was never on social media growing up. His first tweet didn’t come until June 23, 2022, when he announced his commitment to Texas. It has been retweeted over 35,000 times and liked over 200,000 times. He’s tweeted only four times in the three years since. He’s slightly more active on Instagram, where he has posted 16 times. He doesn’t read a lot of the stuff on social media, either, Cooper said, adding that they “don’t ever discuss” the things being talked about or written about him.

Committed to the University of Texas. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/jHYbjBaF5K

— Arch Manning (@ArchManning) June 23, 2022

It’s all part of the careful curation of a quarterback, and of a young man, at a time when not everything can be controlled.

Arch, who is majoring in communication and leadership, can’t help but encounter some unique challenges no one else in his family faced. Like, how do you handle when you’re walking to class and realize you’re being filmed? Or every time when you go out to eat?

“He struggles with that right now,” Ellen said. “Especially when he’s in Austin, he feels like he can’t go out because everybody wants to take a picture. He said it’s not even the ones that are coming up and saying, ‘Hey, can I get a picture?’ He’s always been very gracious about that. He learned that from his grandfather. You always take the time to take a picture, talk to a fan.

“But it’s the people who are filming him from across the quad when he walks to class. That’s the most awkward thing for him. He calls me: ‘Mom, will you just talk to me while I’m walking to class because this is so awkward. I don’t know whether to wave and smile.’”

Still, Cooper said the biggest area he thinks Arch has grown since going to Austin is his independence.

As a kid, he struggled getting up early, whether for school or for an 8 a.m. baseball tournament an hour away. He quickly learned he needed to take initiative in Austin.

“When you don’t have someone nagging you, who you know is gonna bail you out,” Cooper said, “all of a sudden, you grow up.”

Arch gushed to his father about Kelvin Banks, the All-American Texas left tackle, who he said might be the best teammate he’ll ever have — and provided stiff competition to be the first one at 6 a.m. workouts.

“He said Kelvin’s always the first one in,” Cooper recalled, “so he said, ‘I started trying to beat him in. I’d get there 10 minutes earlier than him, but Kelvin had gotten there 20 minutes earlier. It was like this unspoken rule —No, no, no, no one is gonna be in before me.’ He just takes it seriously, which is good.”

Banks is gone, taken with the No. 9 pick in the NFL Draft by the Saints in April. With Ewers gone, too, there’s no doubt it’s Arch’s team now.

He’s come a long way from scrambling to get to those 8 a.m. youth baseball tournaments. Though he’s set up to succeed, what happens next?

It’s up to Arch Manning.

“That’s what you do as a parent — you do your best, and then hope when you send them off to college, they’ve absorbed some of the things you instilled in them,” Cooper said, “but you can’t micromanage anything.”

(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Kevin C. Cox / Getty, Icon Sportswire / Getty, Wesley Hitt / Getty)

Podcast

Better rookie season

Published

4 months ago

September 4, 2025

Your Sports Nation

As the clock wound down in a recent contest, the Golden State Valkyries’ Veronica Burton and Kaila Charles swarmed Paige Bueckers on the perimeter to deny the Dallas Wings rookie from even getting off a shot. The 3.2 remaining seconds ticked away, and the ball remained in Bueckers’ hands as the buzzer sounded.

That type of attention has become common for Bueckers in her debut WNBA season, especially as the firepower in the Wings rotation has thinned because of injury — eight of 12 players on the opening-night roster have missed seven or more games — putting more offensive burden on her. Bueckers has also proven increasingly capable of dissecting single coverage and has demanded star-level defense.

“She lets the game come to her, and she takes what the defense is giving her all over the floor,” Wings coach Chris Koclanes said. “She doesn’t get sped up, and it’s really impressive for a rookie in this league to be able to maintain her own speed and tempo.”

But the game was already in hand when the Valkyries corralled Bueckers at the 3-point line. Golden State led by nine and the heightened defense wasn’t because the game was in balance; it was because Bueckers needed one more point to reach double digits, as she had done in every prior game of her rookie year.

With Dallas long since removed from postseason contention and playing out the string over the second half of the season, these are the stakes for Bueckers. She hasn’t been put in position to chase wins; she can only pursue individual accolades while the Wings build for the future. Nevertheless, despite a constantly changing supporting cast, Bueckers has thrived, putting herself in conversation for one of the best debuts in league history.

Bueckers has been the leading rookie scorer every month of the 2025 season, and her average of 18.9 points is seventh in WNBA history among rookies. With three games left, a late surge could move Bueckers past her teammate Arike Ogunbowale, who is sixth on the list at 19.1.

Paige Bueckers in August:

🪽 20.3 PPG | 3.7 RPG | 5.0 APG
🪽 44-point performance: highest by any W player this season
🪽 @Kia Rookie of the Month#KiaROTM | #WelcometotheW pic.twitter.com/Cx09czcFhi

— WNBA (@WNBA) September 3, 2025

As was the case during her college career that culminated in a national championship at UConn, Bueckers has been efficient in the process of scoring at a high volume. Among rookies who have averaged at least 17 points per game, Bueckers is sixth in field-goal percentage at 46.7. The only two guards in front of her are Chennedy Carter, whose first season came in the friendly offensive environment of the WNBA bubble, and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, who was a 34-year-old rookie during the league’s inaugural season.

Bueckers has been an elite playmaker as well. She is on pace to finish the season as one of 12 rookies to ever average five assists per game, and one of two to pair that with 15 points, joining Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark.

Clark became the standard-bearer for rookie guards during her historic 2024 season, and her production is the only realistic point of comparison for Bueckers. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi were also first-year All-Stars, but neither displayed the same combination of elite scoring and creation as Clark and Bueckers. The new generation of rookies has the advantage of playing in a more offensive-minded league. Still, their numbers relative to the rest of the league stand out.

The last two No. 1 picks both delivered individual historic moments. Bueckers tied a rookie record last month with 44 points against the Los Angeles Sparks, on a night when she started alongside two players who were signed midseason to hardship contracts. Clark set the single-game assist record of 19 about midway through last season.

But Bueckers trails Clark in most of the counting stats: 18.9 to 19.2 in points, 3.7 to 5.7 in rebounds, and 5.3 to 8.4 in assists. Other than points, those differences cannot be explained by the extra two minutes Clark averaged as a rookie. The major advantage Bueckers possesses is in turnovers, where her 2.1 per game is significantly better than Clark’s 2.8.

Bueckers has a better overall field-goal percentage, but since so many of Clark’s shots came from 3-point range, the Fever guard’s effective field-goal percentage (which weights the point value of each field goal) of 52.2 percent bests Bueckers’ mark of 50.4. Clark also shot better from 3-point range (34.4 percent to 33 percent) despite attempting them three times as frequently.

Those box-score numbers don’t fully account for the surrounding situation of each rookie. Clark’s assists, for example, were easier to come by with All-Star Aliyah Boston in the middle of the floor; the 2023 No. 1 pick was the recipient of 105 of Clark’s helpers, or 2.6 per game. Both Clark and Bueckers had an All-Star guard sharing the backcourt in Kelsey Mitchell and Ogunbowale and a relatively similar level of talent on the rest of the roster, at least to start the season, but Dallas didn’t have anyone resembling Boston.

Another feat for PB5 🙌

Paige Bueckers joins Caitlin Clark as the second rookie in WNBA history to record 500+ PTS, 150+ AST, 100+ REB, and 50+ STL in a season. #WelcometotheW pic.twitter.com/G1rooMRgLo

— WNBA (@WNBA) August 23, 2025

Although Bueckers had a worse net rating than Clark (minus-5.0 compared to minus-2.4), her on-off differential has been better in her rookie season. The Wings are 8.1 points per 100 possessions better with Bueckers on the court, demonstrating her impact, even if it hasn’t translated to victories. Win shares favor Bueckers as well, and she can build on her 3.5-3.0 lead in the final three games.

However one chooses to assess the statistical impact of Bueckers and Clark in their first years, there is one point of comparison that works in Clark’s favor. Bueckers’ production has come in the context of a largely meaningless season, as Dallas hasn’t even spent one day in playoff position. Clark and the Fever, on the other hand, rallied from a 2-9 start to pursue a postseason berth.

That is the next frontier for Bueckers: not be a spoiler, but to play in games of real consequence. Clark’s rookie season ended with a big chasing her on the perimeter as she launched a 3-pointer because a playoff win was on the line. Bueckers’ rookie season could be lost to history if Dallas doesn’t put her in that position sooner than later.

(Photo of Paige Bueckers: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)

NIL

Christian Gonzalez misses Patriots practice, 'working' to return from injury

Published

4 months ago

September 3, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Christian Gonzalez misses Patriots practice, 'working' to return from injury

FOXBORO — Christian Gonzalez quietly folded and put away some of the clothing in his locker at Gillette Stadium.

While his Patriots teammates prepared for a fully-padded practice just four days before their season opener, the third-year corner did not. He understood the plan for him on Wednesday was to do some conditioning work on the side and not much more.

“I’m working,” he said softly.

Gonzalez is inarguably his team’s best player. He was named a Second-Team All-Pro last season after routinely matching up with and shutting down opposing No. 1 receivers. He was expected to be one of the linchpins of Mike Vrabel’s defense in 2025, allowing for extensive man-to-man looks and aggressive calls for pressure because of his lock-down coverage skills.

But after Gonzalez missed Wednesday’s practice, his status for Sunday’s game is in doubt, despite Vrabel not ruling him out. Gonzalez hasn’t practiced since injuring his hamstring on July 28.

“He’s continuing to work,” Vrabel said prior to the practice, “and he’ll do some stuff on the side, but I’m not going to rule anybody out. … We’ll continue to work and treat and make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to help him, and he’s doing everything he can to get back out on the field. That’s the only update I have right now.”

Gonzalez rode a stationary air bike on the upper fields behind Gillette Stadium while his teammates practiced on the lower field. He pedaled under the watchful eye of assistant strength and conditioning coach Brian McDonough before pausing and watching the action on the fields below.

“I mean, I do like where he’s at from an engagement standpoint,” Vrabel said. “We’ve been through this with other players, and I like where he’s at from that standpoint. In the meetings, locked in, following along at practice, which is difficult. To think that a player that’s not in there can follow along, I’ve been through that as a player and a coach, and I think he’s done a nice job of being able to do that.”

While Vrabel surely would like to have Gonzalez for Week 1 against a Raiders offense that features second-year standout tight end Brock Bowers and former Patriots wideout Jakobi Meyers, he didn’t indicate that he would be rushing Gonzalez back onto the field, either.

When asked if it was important for him to allow players to get back to “100 percent” before returning to the field, Vrabel shed some light on his thought process.

“I mean, I don’t use percentages,” Vrabel said, “but, again, I’ll remind you what we talked about as far as, when I try to make decisions about players and returning, one, can they make it worse? Can they, two, protect themselves?

“We can all say what we want about this game, but it’s violent, and can you protect yourself? And can you do your job up to the standard that we expect and that the player is used to? So, those are the things that I’ve tried to use when making decisions. Maybe I’ll add some to that, but that’s what I’ve tried to use in my other experience in this position.”

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Podcast

Steve Smith Moves His Podcast, 'The 89 Show,' to Blue Wire

Published

4 months ago

September 2, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Steve Smith Moves His Podcast, 'The 89 Show,' to Blue Wire

Steve Smith Moves His Podcast to Blue Wire

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Podcast

Andy Roddick returns to tennis on own terms with successful 'Served' podcast

Published

4 months ago

September 1, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Andy Roddick returns to tennis on own terms with successful 'Served' podcast

Andy Roddick’s journey back to tennis began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Tennis Channel asked him to remotely appear on studio programming while the sports world was shut down.

“I didn’t really play. I would come [to the U.S. Open] to do corporate work once a year, and that was it,” Roddick recently told Sports Business Journal. “Tennis Channel was great because I could do it from home. My one thing was, I never wanted the game to control my geography ever again.”

Five years later — and 13 after announcing his retirement from play on his 30th birthday — Roddick has established a pillar of the tennis media ecosystem on his own terms with his “Served” podcast.

Launched in January 2024 with veteran producer Mike Hayden and journalist Jon Wertheim, the show began with ambitions as simple as “a fun side project that I thought no one would listen to,” in Roddick’s words. But since its debut, the show has garnered more than 150,000 YouTube subscribers, 185,000 social media followers and 3.5 million audio downloads while attracting marquee sponsors such as Amazon Prime (2025 French Open, U.S. Open), Mercury Financial (2025 Wimbledon) and ServiceNow (live shows at the upcoming Laver Cup) for events. It also joined Vox Media’s network of sports podcasts last year.

As it’s grown, “Served” has earned bona fides with tennis diehards for long-form interviews with Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi; laid-back but incisive analysis of tennis’ entire calendar of events (not just the Grand Slams); and the versatility to dig deep into topics such as, in an early sitdown with longtime IMG Tennis agent/executive Max Eisenbud, the economics of tennis player development.

“What makes him special, specific to his podcast, is his ability to transcend the deep tennis insiders, but also the casual tennis fans,” said Eric Butorac, a former doubles player on the ATP Tour and the USTA’s senior director of player relations and business development.

“He’s [Roddick] exactly like he was on tour. You walk into the locker room, and you just hope he’s sitting there, because he’s going to be jabbering away, super engaged, super competitive. … It’s the same way when I turn on ‘Served.’”

Served Media — the media company atop “Served” co-founded by Roddick and Hayden — is now a seven-figure revenue business. Since the debut of its eponymous podcast, it has launched a women’s tennis-focused show hosted by Kim Clijsters, daily recap program hosted by Hayden, active social and newsletter channels, and a merchandise line, with yet-to-be disclosed plans for further content expansion.

“We thought there would be a lane for it for, like, super nerds,” Roddick said. “But I don’t know that we thought it would grow like this.”

NIL

Postgame Podcast

Published

4 months ago

August 29, 2025

Your Sports Nation

RALEIGH, N.C. — NC State needed a fourth-down stop in the red zone to survive, but came away with a 24-17 win over ECU to start the season. The Wolfpack (1-0) finished with 423 total yards behind CJ Bailey’s 318 yards passing with one touchdown through the air and one on the ground.

Cory Smith and Michael Clark share their thoughts after the game, including Bailey’s performance, Wesley Grimes’ career night, Hollywood Smothers’ solid outing, and the defense’s up-and-down night. Get all of that and more on the latest Postgame Podcast.

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