‘Nightcaps’ is a daily column that catches you up on the biggest sports, news and culture stories you may have missed while pretending to do work at your desk. It runs Monday-Friday on OutKick.com.
Middle Hump Day of October, and it’s a big one.
We’ve got postseason baseball tonight. We’ve got college football tonight. I hear there’s a big cold front headed south for the first time this fall.
Sure, it’s gonna stop just short of Florida as they always do, but I’m happy for everyone else. You all deserve it. It’s been a long, hot summer. There’s nothing like that first real cold front of the fall. It was my favorite part of living in Boston when I was there a decade ago.
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You can just smell it. You can feel it. That first crisp morning of the fall? It’s the best. We have to wait another month for ours, but I know it’s right around the corner.
We’re close, folks. Soak it all in. Best time of year.
Let’s roll.
Welcome to a Hump Day Nightcaps — the one where Sydney Sweeney catches a stray from the marketing folks over at Powerade because people weirdly think her naked GAMBLING ads are some sort of shot at women’s sports.
US actress Sydney Sweeney appears in an advertising campaign for sports betting app Novig on a billboard in Times Square in New York City on Sept. 15, 2026. Sweeney has been condemned by leading women athletes for the sports betting advert. (AFP via Getty Images)
For the life of me, I still don’t get that one. But, that same outrage mob is also pissed at Shane Gillis today for making a joke on “SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.”
There’s just no helping these people. It’s pointless to even try.
COMEDIAN TIM DILLON SLAMS SYDNEY SWEENEY CRITICS UPSET WITH STEAMY AD: ‘HOW INSANE IS THAT? ‘
What else do y’all wanna talk about? I’ve got a high school coach out in Oregon getting canned for running up the score. Wait till you see what he did!
Also, MLB fans are PISSED at the league for moving tomorrow’s ALCS game up five hours, and while we’re on the subject of naked Sydney Sweeney ads, I’d like to ask the class a question about commercials on the way out.
Sound good? Good!
Grab you your favorite dessert for National Dessert Day, and settle in for a Hump Day ‘Cap!
Sydney Sweeney faced the wrath of online critics after posing in provocative new sports betting campaign. (Carlo Paloni)
Powerade dips their toe into the Sydney Sweeney drama
Easy one. Key lime pie. Maybe it’s the Florida Man in me, but there’s nothing better than a solid piece of key lime pie. And yes, the one from Publix absolutely counts as a solid piece.
I got an email from a reader a few months ago berating me for saying Publix key lime pies were elite, and it was just nonsense. If you really think that, you’ve clearly never had one. They will change your lives. Trust me.
And that concludes the culinary portion today’s class.
You’re welcome!
Now, let’s al take a swig of Powerade to wash it down, and check in with the ongoing drama surrounding the provocative Sydney Sweeney ad:
Was this a fireable offense?
Amazing. Silly, yet amazing.
So, Powerade is apparently waging war on Sydney Sweeney and Novig because, as you can see, they took Sweeney’s nearly nude gambling ad as a shot at women’s sports.
They’ve slapped a brand new ad campaign entitled Never Just Sports right next to Novig’s, and it’s just a compilation of female athletes doing athletic things. And that’s fine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the ad. It makes sense.
Here’s where Powerade looks dumb …
Sydney Sweeney posed in the nude for her latest campaign, a move that sparked controversy among athletes and experts. (TheStewartofNY)
Sweeney’s campaign has NOTHING to do with women’s sports. Nothing. Nada. They aren’t connected at all. Her ad is for a GAMBLING company and is geared towards men. It’s literally about betting on sports, which is why it’s aptly titled Just Sports.
The whole point of the ad was to get dudes to sign up for a Novig account and start hammering parlays this football season. And it worked, by the way.
The left, of course, took this completely out of context because most things fly over their heads, and instead viewed it as Sweeney somehow demeaning women’s sports.
It makes no sense. It’s never made any sense. They’re trying to create a narrative that simply doesn’t exist, which is funny because that’s what they accuse us of doing with the whole transgender athlete issue.
The whole thing is silly. Powerade’s response is, of course, silly. But, we live in really silly times right now.
Oh well.
Speaking of silly things to do, let’s head out to Oregon and check in on the Marist Catholic High School football team:
MLB makes a move & are commercials getting out of hand?
Whoaaaaaaaa Nellie! That onside kick rivals Sean Payton’s infamous onside kick in the 2009 Super Bowl. Stunning. Nobody saw it coming, which is fair given A) it was the second quarter, and B) the score was 57-0.
According to boots on the ground, the game was halted at halftime and never resumed. The play was so egregious, they just … stopped the game entirely. The coach was fired the next day.
Fair or foul? I think the firing, on the surface, is a bit much. But, as is usually the case with these things, I’d imagine there’s some more meat on this bone. There HAS to be more to the story, right? You don’t just fire a coach because he called an onside kick up 57-0.
Was it in bad taste? Sure. No argument from me. But I also once played for a coach who warned us before a game to “give them a good, old-fashioned country a**-kicking” or we’d spend the entire next morning running stairs, so I’ve seen worse.
OK, let’s rapid-fire this Hump Day class into a big Hump Day night. First up? Get to sleep, Indians fans — you guys are playing at 1 p.m. tomorrow!
Let’s check in on the comments to get a pulse at how Tribe fans are handling the news!
- I’m genuinely sick to my stomach right now. Why would you move the game up and not back? Move it back a day. It doesn’t make sense. These need to be night games. What are we doing?
- Y’all laughing at the Rays being so “empty” last night, under a dome, then you get rugpulled from a 6PM to 1PM game.
- Day playoff baseball in October is a gift. Unless you have a job.
- Livid.
- All 12 people will be watching.
- Sports are scripted so therefore fans come first and they pull this s–t. Lmao. This is why I laugh at ppl that worship these clowns, they don’t care about anyone but themselves. This game should be postpoened and made up the next day.
I could go on and on. Fans are PISSED right now. I don’t blame them. A 1 p.m. start time for an ALCS game … on a THURSDAY? Come on. Feels like a massive advantage for the Rays.
Disgusting behavior here from Rob Manfred.
On the way out — as promised — I want to leave the class with a question:
Hey @MLB – wanna get more kids watching baseball? Maybe start with the commercials. Watching the playoffs tonight with my kids and here’s the rundown:
– Megan Fox selling ED pills in a red bodysuit
– The scariest movie trailer you’ve ever seen
– Sydney Sweeney in zero clothes promoting betting on sports Leagues can’t figure out why kids don’t watch.
You don’t need a Nickelodeon game. You’re not the Savannah Bananas. Just show baseball in a way I can leave on in my house.
My wife actually brought this up a few weeks ago when the Braves were still in it …
Are commercials getting out of hand during sporting events? I understand marketing. I get it. But I tend to agree with this rant. The naked Sydney Sweeney ad isn’t even my biggest gripe.
I can’t stand the horror movie trailers during these events. They drive me NUTS. I love scary movies. LOVE them. You know who doesn’t? My 5-year-old daughter, who is also a huge sports fans.
If I see that stupid “Other Mommy” trailer one more time during one of these games, I’m going to lose it.
Can we at least tone those down a touch? Feel like that’s not a big ask, right?
Let me know!
And, as always, see y’all tomorrow.
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Have commercials gone too far? Zach.Dean@OutKick.com.