Quick Hits

• The Vikings are the talk of the NFL. After Week 5, both ESPN and CBS Sports are openly asking whether Minnesota is a legitimate Super Bowl contender — the league's trendiest storyline right now.
• Baseball's final four is set. The Dodgers, Brewers, Rays and Guardians are the last teams standing, with World Series spots on the line in the League Championship Series.
• WNBA chaos, in the best way. The Golden State Valkyries — a team that didn't exist two years ago — are in the WNBA Finals, while defending champion Las Vegas and MVP A'ja Wilson were knocked out.
• Big NFL names in the news: Aaron Rodgers passed Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger on the NFL's all-time lists, and Arizona traded former top-five pick Marvin Harrison Jr. to Houston.
• Soccer's messiest story got louder: Manchester City thrashed Liverpool in its first match since the Premier League issued a guilty verdict in its cheating scandal.

Minnesota Teams

Vikings: If you hear one NFL conversation today, it'll probably be about the Vikings. CBS Sports' Week 5 "overreactions" column asks whether they're legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and ESPN's roundup of Sunday takeaways lists "Are the Vikings legit?" among the biggest questions of the week. The CBS column also muses that the NFC East champ could finish with a losing record — a sign of how strange this season has been.

Wild: The Wild are back on the ice Monday night against the Vegas Golden Knights — one of just three NHL games on the schedule — in what ESPN is billing as an early-season Western Conference showdown.

NFL

• Rodgers keeps stacking milestones: The Steelers quarterback passed both Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger in the NFL record book during a big Week 5 win that moved Pittsburgh to 3-2.
• Trade of the weekend: The Cardinals sent wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Texans for multiple draft picks after what CBS called a "failure to launch" in Arizona. The fun wrinkle: he reunites with C.J. Stroud, his old Ohio State quarterback.
• Rookie watch: Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, was solid in his NFL debut — though it came in a blowout loss. Meanwhile, Tennessee fell to 0-5, and coach Robert Saleh says he's sticking with second-year QB Cam Ward, promising to give him "every opportunity to be successful."
• Sunday night was the Lamar Jackson-less variety: Baltimore started backup Tyler Huntley against Atlanta, and whether the Ravens can win big with him is one of ESPN's big questions coming out of the weekend.
• Report card time: CBS Sports handed out Week 5 grades — the Patriots and Packers earned A-pluses, while two teams got failing marks.
• A nice Indigenous Peoples Day note: Cowboys rookie offensive lineman Shiyazh Pete's brief NFL debut gave fellow Navajo citizens "a moment to remember," per the AP.

NBA

The WNBA has its Cinderella: The Golden State Valkyries, an expansion team playing just its second season, are in the Finals — ESPN has a full piece on how they built a title contender from scratch. The flip side: A'ja Wilson's historic MVP season ended abruptly when her Las Vegas Aces were denied a repeat championship.

In NBA preseason news: Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg starred in the league's China Games, and ESPN's Brian Windhorst writes that Flagg's rise — with what he calls a "franchise-savior ceiling" — "is starting to feel inevitable."

MLB

Four teams remain, and it's not the usual suspects: the Rays and Guardians in the ALCS, the Brewers and Dodgers in the NLCS (that's baseball's round of four — the two winners meet in the World Series). ESPN's experts have made their picks for who advances, and a companion piece breaks down how each roster was built, from superstar signings to under-the-radar finds.

College Sports

• The weekend's stunner: Texas lost to rival Oklahoma, but CBS says the Longhorns' playoff hopes survive thanks to an earlier marquee win over Ohio State — they could even make the 12-team College Football Playoff field with three losses.
• The disappointment award: Oregon entered the season as the national title favorite but suffered its second loss Saturday, prompting CBS to declare the Ducks "college football's biggest disappointment."
• Looking ahead: Saturday brings a big one — No. 2 Georgia vs. No. 6 Alabama in an SEC showdown.

Other Sports

• Soccer: Manchester City thumped a depleted Liverpool in its first match since the Premier League's guilty verdict in its cheating scandal — Liverpool fans brought banners and chants, but ESPN says City played with "snarl" and defiance. Elsewhere, Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk visits Stamford Bridge in London for a Champions League match, carrying a message of resilience while Russian strikes continue back home.
• NASCAR: Chase Briscoe won his second straight playoff race, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell in a photo finish at Charlotte.
• Golf: Michael Brennan won the Baycurrent Classic by one shot — his second PGA Tour victory of the season.