This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
Watching Venus Williams lose in the US Open was hard. It’s something that I’ll simply never be used to.
Williams has won 79 percent of her games at Flushing Meadows and played in more of these tournaments than anyone. That’s why it was so weird watching her barely be able to compete in her 100th US Open match against Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen on Tuesday.
Williams lost to Minnen 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of the tournament. It was the most lopsided defeat of her career, according to ESPN. Of course, the knee injury she suffered at Wimbledon has been hampering her throughout the summer. But still, this was just painful to watch.
Naturally, people brought up retirement as an option for Williams here. When asked about playing for the rest of the year, Williams said, “I don’t know what I’ll do this fall. Definitely too soon to say.”
Maybe this is it. Maybe this is the end of the Williams era. Obviously, Serena has already retired. It’s too soon to say Venus will, but it seems like she could be next.
If she is finished, it’s been a pretty great run.
Between Venus and Serena Williams are 30 Grand Slam singles titles (with Venus holding seven of them), 14 doubles titles, and hundreds of millions of dollars in prize money from the wins they’ve both racked up.
Bigger than all of that, though, is the legacy they’ve both created in real-time. That legacy lies in every little Black girl who watched these two play tennis and thought, “Maybe I can do that someday, too.”
We don’t get Coco Gauff without getting Venus and Serena. We don’t get Naomi Osaka without them. Sloane Stephens. The list goes on and on and on. Tennis just isn’t the same game if they don’t run through it the way they did. I’ll forever be grateful for their presence here. We should all be.
That’s why, selfishly, I hope this isn’t it. I hope there’s enough gas in the tank for Venus to keep going. Not just for one last big run, but forever. The game just won’t be the same without her. So I hope she never leaves.
The clock ticks for the Colts
The only place Jonathan Taylor was moved on Tuesday was to the Colts’ Physically Unable to Perform list.
That’s certainly not what he was expecting when he demanded a trade a few weeks back in his search for a contract extension. That trade never came, though. The Colts had until Tuesday at 4 p.m. to move Taylor before he officially hit the PUP list and couldn’t make it happen.
RELATED: Jonathan Taylor’s status has huge fantasy football implications.
That’s not surprising at all, though, considering the circumstances. On one hand, Jim Irsay is telling the world that Taylor doesn’t matter, but also that he wants first-round pick value back for him. Somebody make it make sense.
This isn’t over, though. This trade can still happen. In the end, that 4 p.m. deadline was a self-imposed Colts deadline. Sure, Taylor will still be on the PUP list if he’s traded. But the NFL’s true trade deadline isn’t until October 31. A deal can still be done between now and then.
Buckle in, folks. We’re in for a bumpy ride.
You need to see …
The front page of the Daily Tarheel following the school shooting at the University of North Carolina.
UNC was locked down for three hours with an active shooter on campus. The student-staffers of the Daily Tar Heel collected texts sent throughout those three hours and put them on the front page to show us just how horrifying this is.
I have no other words to say. Just look at this.
Warning: There’s some NSFW language in this tweet.
The front page of tomorrow's @dailytarheel –
I shed many tears while typing up these heart-wrenching text messages sent and received by UNC students yesterday. Our campus was on lockdown for more than three hours.
Beyond proud of this cover and the team behind it. pic.twitter.com/2gE51TrHZ8
— Caitlyn (she/her) (@caitlyn_yaede) August 30, 2023
Students should not have to go through this. Parents shouldn’t have to worry about this. Enough already.
Quick Hits: The Angels are done … Nepotism is dead (for one day) … and more
— The Angels are finally waiving the white flag on their season with a slew of roster cuts that came out of nowhere on Tuesday. There’s no way Ohtani is coming back now, right? Cory Woodruff has more.
— Doug Pederson cut his son from the Jacksonville Jaguars, showing us that nepotism doesn’t always win. At least, not today, anyway. Charles Curtis has more.
— Aaron Rodgers mic’d up is always a treat. Here he is telling a dude he’s never heard of him before then throwing a touchdown. GOATed.
— For all of you Star Wars nerds out there, our Mitchell Northam has you covered on Tuesday night’s action from Ahsoka. Tap in.
That’s all, folks. Happy Wednesday.