🎧 The Story Behind the NFL’s Forgotten Scandal

In partnership with

When I got invited to spend a day following around the Minnesota Wild’s head in-arena chef for a game day, I truthfully had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Frying burgers? Pouring beer? Doing the dishes?

Spoiler alert: I didn’t do any of those things. Yet, somehow, this job proved to be even more taxing than I could have ever imagined. More on that at the end.

In today’s newsletter:

🗞 The Big Story: Why Do the Lions and Cowboys Always Play on Thanksgiving

📉 Biggest Loser: The Story Behind the NFL’s Forgotten Scandal

🏆 Winner’s Circle: How One Horse Made $230M Without Winning Anything

Don't wait until New Years to take control of your health.

Every year it’s the same - November comes, the days get dark and cold, you start skipping your morning workout, and you start to lose control of your health habits.

It’s easy to think “I’ll worry about getting back on track next year” - but there’s no reason you can’t get a head start now.

You just need a daily health habit that’s ACTUALLY easy to stick with.


That’s where AG1 comes in. With just one quick scoop every morning, you’ll get over 75 ingredients that help support your immune health, gut health, energy, and close nutrient gaps in your diet.

Right now is the best time to get started - with every new subscription, they are giving away $126 in free gifts for the holidays.

Give AG1 a try today and take back control of your health this holiday season.

Give AG1 a try today

🗞 The Big Story

Why are the Lions and the Cowboys the only teams that always play on Thanksgiving?

Well, it’s actually all thanks to one of the smartest business decisions in sports history that no one seems to know anything about. Let me explain.

For an in-depth breakdown of how the NFL took over Thanksgiving, check out Wednesday’s newsletter or the latest episode of my podcast, Sportonomics.

Background: In 1934, the Portsmouth Spartans were purchased by a radio executive named George Richards for $8,000 and relocated to Detroit, becoming the Detroit Lions. See, at the time, the newly formed NFL was actually far less popular than almost every other sport in the country, including college football.

And even though the Lions started their inaugural season on a 10-game winning streak, which included seven shutouts, the team still couldn’t average more than 12,000 fans per game.

So, in what was considered a major risk at the time, Richards decided to call the defending NFL Champion, the Chicago Bears, and schedule a game on Thanksgiving Day to help drum up more publicity for his team.

But I’m not even sure Richards himself could have predicted what would happen next.

Ticket Demand: That’s because a whole two weeks before this battle for first place in the NFL Western Division, the 26,000 seats in the University of Detroit Stadium were already sold out. In fact, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, another 20,000-25,000 people would have attended if the stadium were larger.

Still, even that wasn’t the most impressive part of this game.

Because not only was it a risk for Richards to host a game against the defending NFL Champions on Thanksgiving in the first place, but he arguably took an even bigger risk by calling in every favour he had to broadcast this game across NBC’s 94-station radio network.

Even though the Lions lost the game 19-16, it was so successful at creating local and national attention for the team that the Lions have played on Thanksgiving every year since, except during World War II.

Cowboys Thanksgiving Game: It’s also why, when the struggling Dallas Cowboys were looking to gain national attention in the 1960s, they volunteered to play in the NFL’s second Thanksgiving Day game every year. A tradition that has been broken only twice, once in 1975 and again in 1977, when the NFL was trying to drum up popularity for the struggling St. Louis Cardinals.

I guess not everything the NFL does works…

📉 Biggest Loser

No one seems to remember one of the craziest scandals in NFL history, but I might have just uncovered the reason why.

Patriots vs. Steelers: In 2015, the defending Super Bowl Champion Patriots were taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers at Gillette Stadium in the very first game of the season. And even though it started off completely normal, it didn’t take long for something extremely suspicious to start happening.

With 3 minutes left in the first quarter, the broadcast cut to the Steelers’ sideline, where a group of NFL employees were scrambling to fix the team’s headsets. That’s because Pittsburgh’s coaches were complaining that instead of hearing each other, their headsets were picking up the local Patriots radio broadcast.

But that’s not even close to the strangest part.

Suspicious Timing: According to the Steelers’ team website, when league officials went over to the Patriots’ sideline during the game to check their headsets, the Steelers’ issues would “mysteriously” disappear. But then, when the officials would leave the Patriots’ sideline, the Steelers’ headsets would start to malfunction again.

This issue continued throughout the first half, resulting in the Steelers going into halftime down 14-3, and even though the issue was fixed for the second half, they still went on to lose 28-21. After the game, Bill Belichick claimed that the Patriots’ headsets had also been experiencing issues, even though league officials could never confirm it.

So what was actually going on here?

What Happened: Most fans probably don’t realise this, but the radio signal between each coach’s headsets is actually first passed through a transmitter at the top of the stadium; this way, it can be monitored by the league for any illegal jammers or interference. However, these radio transmitters are actually different for the home and away team — meaning an issue to one wouldn’t necessarily affect the other.

This lines up with the league’s official statement after the game, where they blamed “a stadium power infrastructure issue” and “inclement weather” for the signal mix-up.

But wouldn’t that be the perfect cover-up if you were the home team trying to mess with your opponents' headsets (which I’m not saying the Patriots did)? But as Mike Tomlin pointed out, this wasn’t the first time they had headset issues in Foxboro.

I guess it’s easier to get away with cheating if you get blamed for it all the time…

🏆 Winner’s Circle

This is one of the most valuable racehorses in the entire country, but not for the reason you might think.

Into Mischief: Meet Into Mischief, a thoroughbred racehorse who never finished worse than second place in his entire career, winning three races and placing second in the other three between 2007 and 2008:

• Maiden Special Weight (2007): 1st

• Hollywood Prevue Stakes (2007): 2nd

• CashCall Futurity (2007): 1st

• San Vincente Stakes (2008): 2nd

• Damascus Stakes (2008): 1st

• Malibu Stakes (2008): 2nd

But even with a promising career ahead, he was forced to retire after just six starts and was ultimately never able to compete for the Triple Crown. Even with a shortened racing career, Into Mischief earned a respectable $597,080.

Still, that’s not even close to the most impressive part of his story. 

Stud Fees: See, even though Into Mischief had proven to be a promising racehorse, his shortened career meant he could only command a $12,500 stud fee in 2009, which even dropped to as low as $7,500 by 2012. But after becoming the first sire to produce back-to-back Kentucky Derby winners:

• Authentic (2020)

• Mandaloun (2021)

His stud fees suddenly skyrocketed to $250,000 per mating.

Meaning today, according to Spendthrift Farm, Into Mischief’s lifetime progeny earnings are over $230 million, breaking the all-time earnings record for a sire in North America.

And after Sovereignty’s victory in 2025, Into Mischief has now produced three Kentucky Derby champions, the most of any sire in recent history.

Sire Future Wager: In fact, you can now bet on Into Mischief in the 2026 Kentucky Derby Sire Future Wager. This is a unique wager that allows you to bet on the sire, also known as the horse’s father, that will win the Derby.

FWIW, Into Mischief currently has 4-1 odds to sire the 152nd Kentucky Derby Winner.

⏱️ In Other News

• I Survived a Full Gameday as an NHL ‘In-Arena’ Chef

• What happened to Top Golf?

• The average F1 franchise value is now worth more than the average MLB franchise value

🎁 Share the Bottom of the Ninth

When you refer new readers to the Bottom of the Ninth, you win exclusive prizes.

➡️ Here is your unique link to share: https://bottom-of-the-ninth.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER

You’re currently at 0. That’s only 1 away from receiving a Bottom of the Ninth Sticker!

*Please do not use fake email addresses — they will not qualify as referrals. Thank you!

👋🏻 Happy Friday!

If you want to meet someone who absolutely loves what they do, just go walk around the concourse of Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minnesota, and odds are you’ll run into Chef Kyle Bowles, Levy’s Senior Executive Chef.

During my day with him, I couldn’t believe how much time he spent interacting with fans. It felt like walking around with someone on the team.

However, the part I didn’t expect was the sheer amount of food we’d need to test before the game to ensure it was ready to serve. I encourage you to watch the video yourself, but let’s just say I didn't pace myself well.