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Awards Season? Buffalo’s frenzied comeback wins a Pulse ring
After months of waiting, watching a full slate of NFL football for the first weekend induces a sort of delirium. Mostly, it is glorious. But it is also disorienting and almost distorting — how many assumptions can we really make off one game?
Life is short, and I’ve seen enough. I’m ready to give out some select end-of-year awards already. Let’s sort through the madness:
Super Bowl champions: The Buffalo Bills
We can talk about the game aplenty — a matchup of two MVPs, the AFC’s elite, Baltimore’s depth against Buffalo’s top-heavy star power … but it matters little. What matters is the Bills were trailing 40-25 with four minutes to play in the game and came back to win 41-40. Credit to Josh Allen, who finished with 394 passing yards and was inevitable on the final two drives. And kudos to Ed Oliver, who forced a fumble from Derrick Henry with Buffalo down 8. Doing all of this in Week 1 was wild, and watching it felt like a playoff game already. Congrats on the Pulse ring, Bills.
Honorable mention Super Bowl champs: The Green Bay Packers.
MVP: Colts QB Daniel Jones
You read that correctly. Jones was crisp in Indianapolis’ 33-8 rout of a hapless Miami team, going 22-for-29 with a touchdown through the air, while rushing for two more scores. I know it’s the Dolphins (who looked abysmal), but if the Colts can get above-average QB play from Jones, this might be a playoff team.
Honorable mentions: Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields, who played each other (and looked great!) in a QB swap-eroo from last season.
Rookie of the Year: Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka
As we mentioned last week, Egbuka has been a favorite of tape-grinders this offseason, and he emerged into the mainstream in Tampa Bay’s 23-20 win over Atlanta yesterday. He had four catches for 67 yards and two touchdowns, including the game winner. Good enough to win my award.
Honorable mention: Travis Hunter, who did in fact play both ways yesterday.
Defensive Player of the Year: Packers DE Micah Parsons
Is this a cop-out? Absolutely. But we must talk about Parsons’ debut in Green Bay, which included his first sack as a Packer in the team’s dominant win over Detroit. Everything about his first day in Packer green looked magical, and as Matt Schneidman wrote, his impact was overwhelming — even in just playing 45 percent of the snaps.
Honorable mention: The entire Rams defense.
Catch of the Year: Lions WR Isaac TeSlaa
All you need to do is look at this to confirm:
Isaac TeSlaa already has a Catch of the Year submission in Week 1 😱
🎥 @NFLpic.twitter.com/YNZat7ON6Q
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) September 7, 2025
We missed plenty of the copious Week 1 action, so don’t miss our takeaways file. Jaxson Dart starting soon? I bet yes.
P.S. The LVP goes to whoever threw a green sex toy on the field during Cincinnati’s win in Cleveland.
News to Know
Alcaraz, again
On paper, this era of tennis might be considered boring. The same two young players, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, inevitably battling for every Grand Slam title. And yet I find the pairing thrilling — not in the traditional rivalry sense, either. These two are so clearly the best tennis players walking the planet right now, and they genuinely seem to like and respect each other. What has followed is some of the best tennis you’ll see.
Alcaraz beat Sinner in yesterday’s U.S. Open final, and although it wasn’t the marathon matches they’ve put on in the recent past, it was still a beautiful match of tennis wits. Alcaraz won in four sets, showing his evolution at the Open. It’s his sixth Grand Slam title — reminder that he’s just 22 — and helps him reclaim the world No. 1 ranking from Sinner. Read more about the match here.
- Watching them play: President Donald Trump, who heard both boos and some cheers from the crowd. Lukas Weese told us how it really sounded in the stadium, and about the logistical challenges the president’s presence incurred.
More news
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What to Watch
📺 MLB: Mets at Phillies
6:45 p.m. ET on MLB Network
These two are playing each other plenty down the stretch, which is good for us. The Phils have a solid lead in the NL East (seven games), but New York has just a four-game jump on the Giants and Reds for the final wild-card spot. Fewer than 20 games to go.
📺 NFL: Vikings at Bears
8:15 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN
Hard to imagine a buzzier matchup this week, despite last night’s great one between Buffalo and Baltimore. Caleb Williams makes his sophomore debut with new coach Ben Johnson. J.J. McCarthy finally plays with the world on his shoulders. And it’s a division matchup. Just find a TV.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
I enjoyed Ken Rosenthal’s perspective on MLB’s 15 flawed contenders, with a reminder to fans that things could always be worse.
Richard Deitsch has a good review this morning of all things TV in NFL Week 1, including Tom Brady’s strong debut. Read that here.
It’s hard to convey how bad Billy Napier’s situation is at Florida right now. Stewart Mandel explained it well, though.
I loved this a lot: Meet the Missouri fan who passed up the chance to win $25,000 to instead troll Kansas.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our reference back to the Jalen Carter spitting incident.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Background on how the USTA asked broadcasters to censor any boos for President Trump.
(Top photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)