Minnesota Teams

Rest in peace, Joey Browner. The former Vikings safety and Ring of Honor member passed away at 65 — he was a six-time Pro Bowler in the 1980s and one of the hardest hitters the franchise ever had. On the field, the Twins open Monday against the Kansas City Royals to continue their young season. In a fun bit of early drama, Twins manager Derek Shelton made history last week by becoming the first manager ever ejected for arguing an automated ball-strike challenge — he thought the opposing pitcher didn't challenge a call fast enough.

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NFL

The big pre-draft story: the NFL is preparing to hire replacement referees. Negotiations with the NFL Referees Association have stalled badly enough that team owners are "alarmed" and have authorized hiring and training replacement officials. This is the sports equivalent of your company starting to interview for your job while you're still sitting at your desk. The 2026 NFL Draft is also dominating conversation, with analysts publishing full seven-round mock drafts and the Arizona Cardinals listed as favorites to land quarterback Ty Simpson with the top pick.

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NBA

Luka Dončić, the Lakers' star point guard, is suspended for one game after picking up his 16th technical foul of the season — the league automatically suspends players once they hit that threshold. In other news, Michael Jordan told CBS he doesn't consider himself the NBA's greatest of all time, saying the game evolves and players learn from each other. Several coaches are also on the hot seat as the regular season winds down, most notably the Orlando Magic's Jamahl Mosley after his team lost by 52 points to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.

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MLB

Baseball is five days into the 2026 season and the biggest story isn't any team — it's the new automated ball-and-strike system, called ABS. Umpires can now have their ball and strike calls overrwitten by a computer, and veteran ump C.B. Bucknor had six calls overturned in a single game, including two consecutive strikeouts that got reversed. It's a brand-new rule and it's already causing chaos, with managers getting ejected for arguing about the challenge system itself.

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NHL

In a stunning shakeup right before the playoffs, the Vegas Golden Knights fired coach Bruce Cassidy and immediately hired veteran coach John Tortorella. Vegas has been sliding lately and apparently decided a jolt of Tortorella's famously intense style was the fix. Meanwhile, a fun subplot to watch Monday: New York Islanders rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer could tie or break an NHL record for goals by a rookie defenseman when the Islanders play the Pittsburgh Penguins — those two teams may also meet again in the first round of the playoffs.

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College Sports

The men's Final Four is set, and the biggest story is UConn pulling off a stunning comeback to beat heavily favored Duke in the Elite Eight. Duke led by 19 points at one point, making the collapse all the more jaw-dropping. UConn will now face Illinois in the Final Four in Indianapolis, while Michigan takes on Arizona in the other semifinal. Duke coach Jon Scheyer is facing tough questions after back-to-back March Madness meltdowns — winning in the regular season but flaming out in the tournament is becoming a pattern.

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Other Sports

The Masters golf tournament is just around the corner at Augusta National, so expect to hear a lot about that this week. In soccer, London's Tottenham Hotspur fired their manager Igor Tudor after just 44 days on the job — it's their third coach of the season, and the team is dangerously close to being relegated (that means dropped to a lower division, which would be a massive embarrassment for a club of their size). Closer to home, Minnesota will host the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in just 82 days, welcoming 3,000 athletes from all 50 states.