Top 10 Fall Sports Storylines That Are Going to Be Covered Like Crazy
The headline-hogging, broadcast-dominating fall storylines are on the way.
Fans of any sport can see the infancy of many at a glance. There's controversy on and off the field in the NFL. In the NBA, past juggernauts look to retake the Association by storm. New rivalries and the fate of superstars hang in the balance.
As usual, the top storylines fans won't stop hearing about anytime soon range from the almost eye-rolling Tim Tebow stuff to actual pertinent matters such as those surrounding a guy by the name of Kevin Durant.
Maybe fans will get sick of them, maybe not, but these following items are sure to dominate the news cycle and stick around for the long haul this fall.
Quarterback Controversies
1 of 10
It's coming.
Football fans know the drill. As a brief example, the Denver Broncos might decide a guy by the name of Trevor Siemian is a better starter by the time the regular season rolls around, pushing aside notables such as Mark Sanchez.
During the season, though, it takes one interception for Sanchez chants to begin and the media coverage to scurry to the idea of a controversy.
It's not just the drama in Denver, either. Things could get interesting for the Cleveland Browns with Robert Griffin under center. The Philadelphia Eagles will hear chants for rookie Carson Wentz no matter how Sam Bradford performs. Ditto for the Los Angeles Rams and rookie Jared Goff. The San Francisco 49ers are another notable thanks to a battle between Colin Kaepernick and Blaine Gabbert.
Other battles could erupt as the season unfolds, but fans know the drill: The most important position in sports will create plenty of depth-chart analysis by the throw.
The Quest for Big Ten Supremacy
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College football fans had to know the revival of Michigan football would create coverage fireworks.
The Jim Harbaugh era started with a bang last year. Michigan won 10 games, the first double-digit performance in the win column for the program since the 2011-12 season. The team even won the Citrus Bowl, but got stomped by Ohio State, 42-13.
Ohio State, by comparison, only lost a single game by three points and continues to thrive under Urban Meyer.
If fans thought Michigan-Ohio State and Harbaugh-Meyer coverage was wild last year, think again. Harbaugh continues to inch Michigan closer to the peak in the Big Ten as more of his recruiting classes roll into Ann Arbor.
Not only is it great for college football, it's going to be the talk of the sport all fall.
Roger Goodell
3 of 10
The biggest villain in sports won't fade from the headlines.
In fact, Roger Goodell's dominance in the coverage category might only increase as the NFL continues to inch closer and closer to the idea of a strike at this rate.
The NFL just formed a Chairman’s Committee, according to Pro Football Talk's Josh Alper, a fancy way of saying notable names such as New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft will act as an advisor for Goodell.
Goodell might not seem like a one-man show anymore, but he's going to keep coming under fire no matter how he and his overseeing committee decide to handle notable issues.
Which, by the way, flows right into the next fall storyline sure to command attention.
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Off-Field Issues
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Otherwise known as the Johnny Manziel category, off-field issues will once again reign supreme.
Manziel will land in the headlines no matter what he does, with guys like Josh Gordon and others sure to follow suit. "Others" is a broad term because it's impossible to know who will come up next, but perhaps the most notable interesting nugget pertains to Dallas Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott.
This category doesn't begin and end with the NFL. As a brief example, there's the whole Ryan Lochte situation. Hope Solo of U.S. Soccer is another recent notable to land in hot water.
Believe it or not, athletes are humans as well and will encounter off-field hiccups. It's so notable for the simple fact it happened and the ramifications on the field of play, though, that will have fans never hearing the end of mistakes committed by some of the biggest names on the planet.
The Rebuild in Los Angeles
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What? Think Kobe Bryant's retirement and no more than 27 wins in each of the past three seasons would remove the Los Angeles Lakers from the spotlight?
Please.
Bryant might be gone, but the Lakers are far from removed along with him. In fact, with high expectations for what looks like an encouraging rebuild, the Lakers might get more attention than usual starting right away.
Look at it this way—only eight teams have more national games than the Lakers in 2016.
The Lakers still have more national games than the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors, to name a few.
With rookie Brandon Ingram joining D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and others, the Lakers should become more fun to watch than usual. Pair it with the prestige of the franchise and don't expect to avoid the Lakers much this fall.
New England Patriots
6 of 10
The Patriots being the Patriots will keep the team in the headlines, as usual.
So it goes for one of the most winningest franchises around, a secretive organization with a character like Bill Belichick running the show.
In what some might consider an irritating turn of events, though, the Patriots should be in the headlines more than ever this fall. Not only is the team coming off a 12-win season and a two-point loss in the AFC Championship game, the team still has the aura of the Deflategate scandal enshrouding it.
This more than anything gets personified by Tom Brady's suspension, which means it's the Jimmy Garoppolo show for the first four games of the season. Nobody would be silly enough to suggest Brady has a chance of losing the starting gig, but the Patriots could get off to a rough start with games against a tough slate of opponents (Arizona, Miami, Houston, Buffalo).
Rough start or not, New England's journey next year will feature some of the most scrutiny around.
NBA Free Agent Watch
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Yes, NBA free agency just happened.
As fans have surely learned over the past few seasons, though, NBA free agency now stands as a year-round event. Last year, folks pondered the future of guys like Durant all season long and the news cycle was more than happy to play along.
This year looks even bigger. Durant happens to have a player option that could toss him on the market again. Even without him, guys like Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Kyle Lowry and many others still have the potential to hit the market.
It's another gigantic free-agent class. Rest assured the storylines will follow the same pattern as always, with these potential trips to market getting weaved into every big game, streak and injury.
The New York Knicks
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Like the Lakers, the New York Knicks are too historic to get left out of the limelight.
This is especially the case with Phil Jackson running the show and having made move after move over the summer to push the franchise in the right direction.
The Knicks also happen to rank among some of the top teams in terms of national games and it's not hard to see why. Carmelo Anthony has a brand new supporting cast around him, with Derrick Rose at point guard, Courtney Lee next to him and Joakim Noah getting the starting nod at center.
Granted, the Knicks might feel a lot like an older version of the Chicago Bulls. But any forward step is a good move for the Knicks. And while Jackson's efforts haven't crafted a "superteam" like Rose would suggest, the Knicks should be improved, and any leap at all should help the team look more attractive to the aforementioned ridiculous upcoming free-agency class.
Whether they want to or not, fans around the globe will follow the Knicks every step of the way next season.
Cam Newton
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The most polarizing man in sports returns with an MVP under his belt and looking to get back to the Super Bowl.
Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers can't smile in the general direction of a camera sometimes without causing controversy. He dabs, rips off a Superman pose, the whole nine yards and it offends some moreso than the over-the-top antics from past greats such as Chad Johnson.
Celebrations or not (his giving the ball to a kid in the stands follows every dance and dab, by the way), Newton has embraced a quiet, reserved fist-pumping position and infused it with his personality. It's infectious—and deadly, to the tune of 45 total touchdowns last year.
This fall, coverage won't come difficult to predict. Newton is going to score a lot as usual and the cameras will not only capture his dual-threat prowess helping him reshape the league, but his post-score actions.
The reactions to those, of course, will loom large for a full week before the process repeats itself.
Durant vs. Westbrook
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The NBA's new biggest rivalry will dwarf even what the NFL can come up with.
It just writes itself. Durant left the Oklahoma City Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors, the team that beat his in the playoffs after erasing a 3-1 deficit. The guy most had painted as quiet and loyal pulled the betrayal, embracing the villain role perhaps even better than LeBron James did.
Westbrook, the guy perceived much in the same way as Newton, had most thinking he would split Oklahoma City no matter what Durant did. Instead, he inked an extension and became the hero, just as nobody predicted.
What fans have here is Durant trying to fit in on a superteam in what has the potential to wildly fail or downright dominate. Westbrook now has to carry a team on his own, which makes for a great underdog angle while also serving to let him perhaps chase some historic individual numbers and hardware.
Forever linked, Westbrook and Durant won't escape each other and fans won't escape the coverage. It's not a bad thing, especially at a time when one of the major sports needed a new major feud and storyline to keep things fresh.
Get ready to monitor every tiny detail every step of the way.
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