Notre Dame's historic win, plus Jimmy Butler's trade request

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Good morning! Make some history today.

While You Were Sleeping: Things got messier in Miami

Just last week, as Heat star Jimmy Butler was dropping subtle hints about getting traded, team president Pat Riley was resolute: “We will not trade Jimmy Butler.” 

Butler is still a Heat employee, but as The Athletic reported late last night, he affirmatively wants out. And if the tea leaves are correct, he wants out desperately:

• After Miami’s loss to Indiana last night, he told reporters he wants to get his “joy back from playing basketball.” When pressed on whether he could do that in Miami, he said: “Probably not.” Oof.
• He has not provided a list of preferred teams, a source said, because he is open to any other destination. For a player of Butler’s status, that feels like a new one.

Butler, 35, is averaging 18 points a game this season in a more limited role, which has apparently irked the aging superstar. The trade deadline is Feb. 6. Buckle up.

Read our full report here.

The Final Four: Notre Dame’s roar back to relevance

Before we get to Notre Dame’s historic day, I want to share three facts about the College Football Playoff thus far I found compelling: 

• The Fighting Irish’s 23-10 win over Georgia ensured the top four seeds went 0-4. This is probably an outlier historically, but it’s remarkable nonetheless. There will be plenty of chatter about whether the bye hurt these teams, but the higher seeds were all underdogs in these neutral-site venues.
• In the first-ever 12-team Playoff, Texas is the only SEC team left standing in the semifinals, after officially joining the league just months prior. Take artists will have a field day. The conference that shouts its supremacy the loudest also evaporated in Year 1 of the tourney to which it wants multiple automatic bids. Whoops.
• Notre Dame’s win ensured a Black head coach will be in an FBS national championship game for the first time ever — either the Fighting Irish’s Marcus Freeman or Penn State’s James Franklin. Freeman’s Korean heritage would make history as well.

Back to the game: Freeman’s team was simply outstanding yesterday.  And it is a sweet revenge arc for Notre Dame to do this under the 38-year-old coach who found himself elevated into the role only because Brian Kelly left for LSU, situated just an hour up the road from the stadium in which the Fighting Irish just won their first major bowl game in 31 years. Stewart Mandel made a Kelly joke here that stung me, personally, but will probably make you laugh.

It’s just different with Freeman at the helm, as Pete Sampson wrote. 

The defense was great, the offense was good enough, the special teams made a play, but I can’t get over this gambit from Freeman and offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock on a fourth down:

pic.twitter.com/AGzlIlUjXr

— dubs408 (@dubsvidstouse) January 3, 2025

Those appear to be all 11 players from the punt team sprinting off and all 11 offensive players coming back onto the field. The move elicited a drive-extending offside penalty. Incredible work, and the steam coming from Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s ears made it even funnier for a neutral observer.

We move on, though, because the final four is set:

The overall favorite right now is No. 8 seed Ohio State, which has bulldozed its way through the Playoff so far. No matter what, we’ll get a champ that hadn’t won a title in at least a decade, plus a first-time title-winning HC.

• A final note: I thought Matt Baker’s story from New Orleans was really well done, and captured the strange mood around town. Read that here. 

Let’s keep moving:

News to Know

Spurgeon to miss only 2-3 weeks after dirty hit
Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon will return this season, Team president and general manager Bill Guerin said yesterday, but the mood was still foul surrounding the injury he suffered Tuesday. Predators winger Zachary L’Heureux was suspended three games for the slew-foot on Spurgeon, though many thought it should’ve been longer, considering L’Heureux — just 21 — has 11 previous suspensions in two other leagues. Read our full report on the drama here.

(Top photo: Geoff Burke / Imagn Images)