The Week That Was (March 2-6, 2026)
A roundup of what I wrote, read, watched, etc. over the past week.
In this space on Saturdays, I do a weekly round-up of sorts: Sifting through what I wrote that you might have missed during the week, what I’ve been reading and watching myself, and some other fun things that have been going on.
📝 What I did this week
Here are the things I wrote or podcasted about during the previous week, sorted in descending order by quality, popularity and/or current relevance.
🏁 Why F1’s 2026 Title Odds Look Nothing Like 2025’s – What many have called the “most dramatic rules reset in modern Formula 1 history” has upended the sport’s recent hierarchy — sorry, McLaren — and compressed years of potential change into one offseason.
⚾ Japan Is the WBC Standard — So Why Is the U.S. Favored? – While the Americans are heavy prediction-market favorites for 2026, historical dominance suggests “Samurai Japan” is being overlooked as the true benchmark of international baseball.
🏈 Will the Raiders Ruin Fernando Mendoza? – With folks debating whether Las Vegas would be better served to trade down from No. 1 than taking Indiana’s Heisman QB and throwing him to the wolves, I explored the NFL’s longstanding policy of sending elite quarterback prospects to the teams least equipped to develop them.
🏈 Lou Holtz Was College Football’s Original Turnaround Artist – The former coach of Notre Dame (and many others) died Wednesday, so I looked at his restless habit of jumping from program to program to fix them quickly — an approach that now defines much of the modern sport.
🏒 Who Needs to Make a Move at the NHL Trade Deadline? – Using my Elo rating simulations, I identified which teams would see their playoff and Stanley Cup odds boost the most with a trade-deadline talent upgrade. (Not that many of them took very much of the advice to heart.)
🏁 Will Tyler Reddick’s ‘tall tale’ grow with four in a row at Phoenix? - Comparing Reddick’s list of early-season feats to other great folk heroes of Americana, I made the case that winning his fourth straight race at Phoenix (of all places) would be arguably his most impressive yet.
🏁🎙️ Podracing: The Chronicles of Reddick - In this week’s episode of Podracing, Tyler Lauletta and I broke down Reddick’s ultra-impressive win over road-racing GOAT SVG at Austin, dug into my story on his Phoenix history, and then made our betting picks. (The model likes Denny Hamlin to avenge last fall’s heartbreaking loss, FWIW.)
🏀 Men’s Bubble Watch: Tracking which teams will make (or miss) the NCAA tournament - Another friendly reminder that I am also running Bubble Watch for ESPN! With the help of my NCAA tourney forecast-model consensus tracker, we’re keeping tabs on the teams who are fighting to stay on track for at-large bids with roughly a week to go before Selection Sunday.
📊 Chart(s) of the week:
Here were my favorite items of the week from Scoreboard, my daily newsletter for Sherwood News…
⚽ On Arsenal’s history of finding ways to not finish first…
🏀 On Trae Young getting ejected without actually playing…
🏈 On the Bears potentially moving to another state…
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👀 Some interesting things I read/watched this week
A collection of articles (with a heavy focus on my fellow Substackers), videos and other media that I enjoyed and/or found thought-provoking over the past week. I don’t always 100% agree with or endorse what’s linked here… but that’s also sort of the point.
🏈 Is This Really the Fastest Combine of All Time? by Arif Hasan
🏈 Winners and Losers of the NFL Combine: Defensive Positions by Kevin Cole
🏈 Lou Holtz Was Not Made for Professional Football // He was made for a version of college football that no longer exists by Michael Weinreb
🏈 Let’s Bleed Together: Choppin’ It Up at the NFL Combine by Mike Tanier
🏈 Winners and Losers of the NFL Combine: Offensive Positions by Kevin Cole
🏈 An NFL preseason power ranking based on win totals and futures and Home-field advantage in the NFL isn’t what it used to be by Neil Greenberg
🏈 How to Spot a Great (or Terrible) Athletic Director in 2026 by Split Zone Duo
🏀▶️ Why no one could average 50 today by Thinking Basketball
🏀 Statistical Red Flags and The Guys Who Beat Them, Volume Two by Maxwell Baumbach
🏀 A Magical Night in Moraga and Senior Day Doesn’t Mean What it Once Did by JDB College Hoops
🏀 the night jokić stopped absorbing and the celtics that jayson tatum left are already gone by bang! NBA
🏀 Miami’s at-large case is not complicated (at least not yet) by Eamonn Brennan and Winning>Computers: A 31-0 Miami University Not Making the Tournament would be Flat-Out Wrong by JDB College Hoops
🏀 NBA Hipster: 10 Under the Radar Seasons by Above the Break
🏀 St. Jimmy Part 2: More NBA Teams as Green Day Songs by Chris Gunther
🏀 Hornets and hope: The sudden rise of a long-dormant fandom by Tommy Tomlinson
⚾▶️ SURPRISING Effects of an MLB Salary Cap by Brodie Brazil
⚾ Ranking all 20 WBC teams, from the sure things to the Cinderellas to the seedlings by Grant Brisbee
⚾ The Hidden Insurance Rules Keeping MLB Stars Out Of The 2026 World Baseball Classic by Joe Pompliano
⚾ No-hitters lost to posterity // Sometimes it’s more memorable to just fall short by Mark Kolier
🏒 NHL Trade Deadline Wishlist and Mailbag Time! NHL Trade Deadline, Mets, Must-Watch Athletes by Andrew Steele
🏁 Overtake Mode Explained: F1’s New Proximity-Based Power Boost by Formula Reports
🏁 The craziest relief driver swaps in NASCAR history, from a strange voice to a sneak preview by Nate Ryan
🏁 Let’s Match IndyCar Drivers With NASCAR Drivers by NASCARCASM
🏃 Dick’s will pay you pennies for your data by Eben Novy-Williams
▶️ Old YouTube Game of the Week
Notre Dame-Florida State 1993
🎵 Music to Play Us Out
Dionne Farris - “I Know”
Filed under: Weekly Round-up
Appreciate the shoutout!
What an interesting week it was! Thanks Neil!