Author: Don Yaeger

Chemistry. It’s one of the most complex elements of a team’s success but it’s often ignored or marginalized in favor of talent. Great teams are more than just a collection of talented individuals – great teams strategically combine the strengths and abilities of talented individuals to create a winning combination. Exhibit A: the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers. Just a little more than a week ago, the Cavs were stuck...

The 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame class was announced on Wednesday of last week. Despite there being four players that were inducted into this year’s class, the newest Hall of Famers were not the players people wanted to talk about. Among the four new inductees was one of my personal favorites, Trevor Hoffman. Unfortunately, I didn’t receive a single question about him. Everywhere I went in the days after the announcement...

Dear Commissioner Goodell, I hereby declare myself available for the 2018 NFL Draft. I get it. I probably (ok, certainly) won’t hear my name called among the 250+ players picked during the 2018 NFL Draft on April 26-28. Sadly, there are countless others who have written this letter to Roger Goodell that are in the same boat as me – they won’t hear their name either.

Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart has his work cut out for him in the national championship game tonight. His team faces the Alabama Crimson Tide, a team attempting to win its fifth championship in the last nine years. Oddsmakers don’t believe in him or them. And on the other sideline will stand his mentor, Nick Saban. When Smart’s Bulldogs kickoff this evening, it will be the 12th time one of Saban’s former...

I’ve gotten some meaningful gifts in my life, but few have captivated me quite like this one. Last year I heard a story about a company in its infancy, Fabled, that found a way to lace storytelling into the very fabric of a pair of shoes. A couple of weeks ago my wife surprised me with a pair of those special shoes for as an early Christmas gift. The shoes honored a man I considered my mentor, legendary UCLA Coach...

The “sports” news over the last few days has had little to do, actually, with games. Opinions, discord, protest…and now a national scandal involving college basketball coaches and the FBI. The acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York issued indictments this week to a collection of men that represent the underbelly of the college game (college basketball coaches, Adidas shoe executives, and agents)....

You never know how close your “Big Break” might be. So be patient. For evidence, look no further than last Saturday’s slate of major college football games. Entering the 2017 collegiate football season, nearly a dozen freshman quarterbacks had an opportunity to make an early impact on their team’s season. From the Terrapins of Maryland to the Hurricanes of Miami, there was the potential (not guaranteed) that young...

Cleveland Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas has seen a lot of praise this week following an accomplishment implausible to most in his profession. Not to be overshadowed by what would amount to another road loss for the Browns on Sunday, Thomas lined up for his 10,000th consecutive snap. I want you to think about that for a moment. Ten years ago, in 2007, the Browns chose Thomas with the third-overall pick in the...

It must have seemed weird to the woman sitting next to me on the plane when I chuckled out loud as I read USA Today on a flight to San Antonio for a speech Tuesday. But I couldn’t help myself. Only in America, and more specifically, only in Indianapolis in early March, would it be deemed appropriate for a gaggle of sweaty, tie-less, out-of-shape guys to be furiously photographing and filling notepads with minute...