‘Nightcaps’ is a daily column that catches you up on the biggest sports, news and culture stories you may have missed while pretending to do work at your desk. It runs Monday-Friday on OutKick.com.
Over the hump and safely into the second half of the week. We made it. We’re here.
We’ve got Thursday Night Football tonight. We’ve got college football all weekend — and we don’t have a ton of those left, so I’d suggest not missing a single second.
We’re two weeks out from Thanksgiving. The weather is starting to turn, even down here in Florida. We’re supposed to stay in the 60s all Saturday. Do you know the last time that happened?
March.
March!
Yeah, it’s been a while. We gutted it all summer in the 90s. We stayed the course in September and October when it rained every single day. This weekend, the grind finally pays off.
Let’s roll.
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Welcome to a Thursday Nightcaps — the one where we pay tribute to legendary broadcaster Dan Hicks, who died today at 64.
Just brutal. What a terrible, terrible loss.
I’ve also got Lindsey Vonn going back under the knife to get a new ACL, Dan Mullen offering up maybe the smartest idea I’ve ever heard, and I downloaded the “Back When” app last night after talking about it in yesterday’s class …
Spoiler alert: It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I spent two hours on it last night. I was in a trance. I was mesmerized. I may never watch 2026 TV again.
OK, grab you whatever drink you’d like — pour it out for Dan Hicks — and settle in a Thursday ‘Cap.
Before we officially get this class started, I need to talk about Dan Hicks. The legendary sports broadcaster, most known for his work in golf and the Olympics, died today at 64.
How? I don’t know. They’re calling it an “acute illness.” Whatever the reason, it’s beyond sad. Hicks was a legend. We grew up with him calling some of the golf’s biggest moments. You may not have realize it, but I can promise you that you’ve heard a Dan Hicks call.
SPORTS WORLD REACTS TO DAN HICKS’ DEATH
Doesn’t have to be golf, either. He famously called the Men’s Olympic 4x100m Freestyle Relay in Beijing in 2008. He called NFL playoff games. He called Notre Dame games.
His most famous call, in my mind? Tiger’s long putt at the 2008 US Open.
“Expect anything different?!”
I’ve watched that putt a billion times. I watched it live with my dad on Father’s Day when I was 15. I still get chills to this day.
It was an iconic sports moment, and Hicks gave us an all-time call. I expected nothing different.
Hicks was our comfort food on the weekend of a major tournament. You knew when you heard Dan’s voice, something big was happening. You also knew he was going to nail it.
Amazingly enough, he called a Notre Dame game just last month:
Just shocking. When I saw the news this morning, I was stunned. Everyone was.
Nobody did it better than Dan Hicks. Sundays in the spring and summer won’t be the same. Saturdays on NBC won’t be, either.
What a gut-punch.
OK, let’s try our best to transition to something a little lighter on this Thursday, although it’s still not great. Lindsey Vonn spent all day yesterday back on the operating table as she continues her recovery from last February’s devastating leg injury.
The latest? A total ACL replacement.
Check out what they took OUT of Lindsey’s LEG:
Lordy. First of all, I had no clue they could just … give you a new ACL. Is that normal? I assume so, but I had no idea.
“Surgery went well!” Vonn wrote in a separate Instagram post, which featured some more behind-the-scenes footage from her operation.
WARNING: Some of the pics ain’t for the squeamish.
“It took over 5 hours to remove all of the plates and screws from my leg and replace my ACL,” she continued. “I am home from the hospital now and thankful to be on the final road to a full recovery.”
This was Vonn’s ninth surgery since February, by the way. What a warrior. What a patriot. She’ll be back upright in no time. Can’t wait.
OK, let’s rapid-fire this Thursday class into a big Thursday night of FOOTBALL. First up? There’s been a ton of CFP talk this week with the expansion to 24 teams becoming official starting next year.
Best I can tell, nobody likes it. At all. UNLV coach Dan Mullen did, however, propose a radical idea involving the G6 teams that I’m 100000% on board with.
Take a look:
I think it’s brilliant. Have the four best G6 teams play two de-facto play-in games the weekend before the playoffs begin. Start the first one at noon, followed by Army-Navy at 3:30, and the final game at 8.
Pretty sound plan, if you ask me.
Thoughts? First impressions? I love it. I doubt the P4 teams will ever allow TWO G6 teams in the dance, but that’s not my problem. You want some actual stakes at the end of an increasingly meaningless season? There they are.
I’m all in.
Next? Yesterday I talked about this new app on Roku called “Back When.” Essentially, it’s an app that transports your TV back to the 1990s (or ’80s) and has actual shows — and commercials — airing as if it’s happening in real time.
I got an email from Eric P. last night saying that not only was this app legit, it was as good as advertised.
Naturally, I had to find out for myself …
I was hooked right off the bat. I found an old Braves-Dodgers game with Lasorda in the dugout and Glavine on the mound, and a Pittsburgh-West Virginia game on ESPN from 2000. Just two random channels on this app, and THAT’s what they were playing.
Both were complete with commercials from the actual telecast, too. The first commercial during the WVU game? The classic Bowflex commercial that I’m quite certain anyone my age has burned in their brain:
THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!
I was hooked. I couldn’t stop scrolling through the channels. I also found an old episode of Still Standing on ABC Family (now Freeform), an old episode of Roseanne and an episode of Cheers from NBC’s Saturday night lineup in 1985.
I’ve never been more in on an app. I never want to go back to today’s television. We had it so much better back then, it’s not even funny.
What a pleasure it was to be transported back to the ’90s for a few hours.
OK, that’s it for today. Good class, everyone. Let’s have a big Thursday night of FOOTBALL, and end the week strong tomorrow.
See you then.