Perhaps the searing August heat has begun to take its toll.

We have just emerged from yet another weird weekend in sports with an assortment of strange things occurring.

Let’s (briefly) venture outside to review a few more odd August sports stories.

LSU expected to sign a tight end who was just cut by the Cleveland Browns?

Ole Miss football fans were already incensed about former head coach Lane Kiffin’s departure at the end of last season. The Rebels will host Kiffin’s LSU Tigers in Oxford on Saturday, September 19 in a nationally televised made-for-media marquis match-up.

America’s most popular coach (to hate or to love) not only left Ole Miss before last year’s College Football Playoffs.

He brought along a handful of his Ole Miss players and a few dozen of his assistant coaches and staffers to Baton Rouge, too.

On Sunday, we learned that Coach Kiffin is about to add a talented former Ole Miss tight end to the Tigers’ roster. This particular tight end had been spending his summer practicing and playing for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

How can a player who has been playing (even for a few months) with a professional football team be allowed return to play college football?

The NCAA recently changed its rules. Beginning this year, college athletes will now be allowed five years of eligibility over a five year period.

What about college athletes who participated last year assuming they were in their fourth and final year of eligibility? They left school in the spring believing they had used-up all of their college sports eligibility.

Oops! Did the NCAA just overlook them in their new rule?

In general, there are not a lot of top college football players who started and played for four consecutive years now willing to return to college football this fall for a fifth season.

Some have found paying jobs in the NFL. Others are finding work outside of football.

As you might have guessed, lawsuits have been filed by some of last season’s college athletes arguing that the NCAA’s new rules should allow them the right to return to college to play in a fifth year this season.

Former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright played for Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin the past two seasons.

He finished his fourth year of eligibility last fall and spent the summer trying to make the final roster of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

Dae’Quan Wright did not get to play in any of the Browns’ preseason games. He was just waived by Cleveland. Once he clears waivers early this week (and no other NFL team signs him), Brown plans to return to college to play for his former college coach who now works in Baton Rouge.

But wait – doesn’t LSU already have a talented 6’7” tight end on their team?

Indeed, they do!

Junior tight end Trey’Dez Green was one of LSU’s top receivers last season.

The south Louisiana product became a second team All-SEC tight end after his sophomore season last fall.

Green isn’t just 6’7” tall. He is a talented basketball player who averaged 27 points per game as a center on his high school roundball team. Green’s unique skills have many professional scouts drooling as he returns for his junior season in Baton Rouge this fall.

Why would LSU football coach Lane Kiffin want to add another tight end only two weeks before the Tigers kick-off the new season at home against Clemson?

Perhaps another way to look at this is why would Kiffin NOT want to sign another talented tight end right before the season begins.

Dae’Quan Wright (the former Ole Miss player) is already familiar with Coach Kiffin’s playbook. LSU’s acquisition of a second talented tight end would also prevent the former Ole Miss football player from heading back to Oxford (or to Tuscaloosa, Austin, Auburn, etc.)

Let’s not fool ourselves. This isn’t about Dae’Quan Wright’s loyalty to Lane Kiffin.

He is likely coming to LSU, because the price is right.

Oregon football coach Dan Lanning (like many of us) doesn’t like the court’s decision

This year’s AP preseason #2 Oregon Ducks are expected to make a run at the national championship. Coach Dan Lanning does not care for the court’s ruling which would allow some football players to return to college after being cut by an NFL team this month.

Over the weekend, Lanning said, “Once you go to the NFL, I mean, you’re in the NFL. You don’t get the opportunity to come back (to college football). So, if you invite somebody back to your team, that means your kicking somebody else off your team, right?”

Indeed, it does! That’s a very noble stance, Coach Lanning!

On the other hand, I wonder what the Oregon coach would do if his starting tight end from last year’s team wanted to return after being cut by an NFL team last week?

LIV Golf Season 5 ended with a Cinderella story winner!

Did you watch the FOX Sports Sunday afternoon coverage of (perhaps) the final round ever to be played by LIV Golf?

The upstart golf league has lost $6 billion in five years. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund pulled the plug on the money tree after yesterday’s final event of the 2026 season in Indianapolis. The league’s future is shaky at best.

I watched as LIV Golf’s $300 million bonus baby Jon Rahm and $125 million bonus signee Bryson DeChambeau battled back and forth for the lead. Rahm fired a nifty 63 on Sunday to edge DeChambeau’s bogey-free 64.

While those two very wealthy golfers traded blows Sunday afternoon, a 22-year old golfer on the verge of losing his spot on the LIV Golf tour quietly zoomed past both titans to claim the title.

Michael La Sasso won the US Amateur in 2025 after a great collegiate season at Ole Miss. Winning the US Amateur title last summer earned La Sasso the right to play at The Masters and in this summer’s US Open – as long as he remained an amateur golfer.

La Sasso decided to forego his chance to play Augusta National and Shinnecock Hills and turned professional. He joined LIV Golf to become part of absentee captain Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers golf team.

Michael La Sasso struggled this spring and summer in his rookie season as a professional golfer.

He was mired in 53rd place in the LIV Golf standings heading into this weekend’s season ending event. The young golfer was on the LIV Golf chopping block (called “relegation”) if he was unable to earn enough money to move into the top 48 golfers. He would have been out of a job – regardless of whether LIV Golf returns again in 2027.

La Sasso is definitely safe now!

He fired a sizzling 10-under par 60 in Round 2 and took a slim lead over tour veterans Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau entering Sunday’s big finale.

The climactic 72nd hole saw the rookie golfer calmly loft a nifty 20-yard pitch shot onto the green. His ball rolled downhill and came to rest within one foot of the cup to insure Michael La Sasso’s one shot victory over Jon Rahm.

His 18-under par total carried a first place check worth more than $2 million.

Most importantly, the rookie golfer zoomed up to #14 in the final LIV Golf rankings for 2026.

Well played, Michael La Sasso!

The WNBA has learned well from professional wrestling

I will spare you the details concerning a few recent events featuring the Women’s NBA (WNBA), its fans, and several of the players this season. You have likely read and heard enough.

Like professional wrestling, the WNBA has learned that any publicity (generally) beats no publicity.

Recent controversies have kept the league front and center in the sports headlines.

Quick – Can you tell me which team leads the WNBA today? (Answer – the Minnesota Lynx is 31-7 and leads the league by five games coming down the stretch)

The good news has been that WNBA attendance is growing. Pay for players has been rising. New teams have been added in the past few years with more new franchises on the horizon.

For all of the good news, some of the WNBA’s players and fans have been getting fighting mad recently. This stuff has been coming right out of the professional wrestling playbook.

Sunday’s latest publicity stunt came as Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham and the Indiana Fever visited the Windy City to play the Chicago Sky.

Former NBA center Enes Kanter (who changed his last name to Enes Freedom a few years ago) recently declared that he wants to play in the WNBA next season.

The league’s current rules are too vague to know whether the 6’10” Enos Kanter-Freedom (his last name could change again by the end of this story) will succeed in joining the women’s basketball league next year.

That classic wrestling story line should serve to keep WNBA fans on edge for at least the next six months.

The aforementioned “Enes-the-Menace” decided to check-out a WNBA game.

He obtained a prime seat near the basket during Sunday night’s game in Chicago.

The 6’10” giant was spotted sitting in the crowd late in the third quarter by Chicago Sky guard “Nasty” Natasha Cloud. Instead of heading toward her bench during a called timeout, an angry-looking 5’10” Cloud walked toward the towering 34-year old former NBA player.

Cloud appeared to spew a number of, uh, Chicago-styled greetings toward the giant ticket holder. That’s when stadium security intervened.

“Enes-the-Menace” was escorted out of the building (wonder if he received a refund?).

For her part in starting this incident, “Nasty” Natasha Cloud was allowed to remain in the game.

As of press time, the WWE (oops, I meant the WNBA) has not addressed the Chicago Sky guard’s unexpected and unnecessary aggressive move toward a 6’10” paying customer.

Her distracted Chicago Sky team never recovered. Caitlin Clark tallied 37 points and ten assists for the winners as Indiana darkened the Chicago Sky with an easy 113-90 victory.

Any publicity beats no publicity, right?

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