Welcome Back to “I’m Curious.”

Hello. If you would like to remain updated about the very important event that unfolded this weekend, this is not the place for that. This is a newsletter about fun things. Political violence is never fun.

Scripps News is covering the story, as are other major outlets. Check in with all of them for the latest and make sure to double-check that what you’re reading is true and not a hoax.

This newsletter, meanwhile, is not my job. So here, I will do my best to provide some levity by talking about sports, food and the other things we’re lucky enough to be able to enjoy in life.

The Most Curious Thing This Week

Growing up in my household, there were few sounds more ubiquitous than that “EA Sports, it’s in the game” tagline. I grew up a sports gamer. And EA was king of those games. Even as they threw a different name each year on basically the same game, I was ready to play it.

One of the all-timers was NCAA Football 2004. EA was on fire in the mid-2000s and something about that edition made it one I played into adulthood. Unlike future editions, it didn’t tack on a zillion features no one would ever use. It didn’t force you to play online or pay to get ahead. It was the perfect balance of a decently realistic simulator and arcade-style fun.

The NCAA games in particular always felt looser than the pro equivalents. Usually EA’s NFL counterpart Madden had more rigid gameplay. You had less control over where players could go. The gameplay itself was slower. NCAA, meanwhile, embraced the weirdness. There were a ton of trick plays. Players could basically be slotted into any position. You could change classic moments of college football history. Heck, you could even play as a team of mascots!

After NCAA Football 14, which came out in 2013 when I was freshman year of college, EA Sports packed it in. It had already begun to face legal challenges because it would use the image and likeness of a player but use just their position and number (e.g. Tom Brady as “QB #12,” or Travis Kelce as “TE #87.”)

A cult following played NCAA Football 14 for years, hoping against hope that there would be a replacement.

NIL opened the door for a game developer to sign deals with players and programs to get everyone back into a new college football game.

Which brings me to EA Sports’ College Football 25.

It’s here. It’s real. And everything is in the game.

I ponied up the extra cash to play it early last night. So far, it’s worth the hype.

Sure, you get every team’s stadium, uniforms, fight songs, etc. But they went the extra mile with the details.

Basically every single player in FBS college football is available to play. No TE #87’s anymore. Real players, real names.

They sweat the small stuff, too. Iowa players wave after the first quarter to the kids in the cancer ward. Notre Dame’s guys touch the “Play Like a Champion Today” sign on their way through the tunnel before the game. Playing at Penn State, you may not be able to use the controls as well, or even hear yourself, as Mo Bamba comes blaring through your speakers.

As far as I can tell, EA spent several years building this game from scratch. Instead of chasing money by going all-in on their usual “Ultimate Team” mode, they seem to have taken pains to build their player and team career modes (my usual favorites.)

Diehard fans of the game think that only cops and feds use big-name programs for their dynasty modes. So my beloved Tennessee Volunteers are out. And despite me nearing the day in which I become a Gator-in-law, Florida is out too.

Catch me using the team that has never even played a game in FBS college football and only got promoted for this upcoming season: Kennesaw State. Go Owls!

My Reporting

With the WNBA and NWSL on their Olympic breaks, no events for me to cover. More time for you and me to learn the “Hot To Go!” dance.

But I was able to do some reporting! For the moment, I’m the go-to guy for the “Friday Fun n’ Games” segment on America Tonight, which airs weeknights at 8p Eastern on Scripps News. We’ll be spending a part of the show in the back half of our Friday edition focusing on something related to sports, pop culture, or something else in the general “fun n’ games” category.

For the first edition, we looked at the rise of a new generation of girl pop. A trio of pop stars with very different backgrounds, each becoming a pop music phenomenon (and in one case a “Femininomenon,” but we’ll get to that.)

There’s Charli XCX, the British pop starlet from a decade ago whose star never completely faded and who is crashing the party again this summer with her new album “Brat.”

There’s Sabrina Carpenter, the former Disney Channel star who seamlessly transitioned to making bland, inoffensive, impossibly catchy pop songs with lyrics that make negative amounts of sense. At least they actually sound like the pop songs from the 80s and 90s that I love. I don’t know what it means to “Mountain Dew it for ‘ya,” and at this point, I’m too afraid to ask.

And then there’s arguably my favorite, Chappell Roan. The Missouri trailer park girl who thought she couldn’t make it further than niche indie pop stardom, came back home from LA to work as a barista, then became a smash hit when she embraced her LGBTQ+ identity and dressed like a drag queen. She’s a lesbian and her songs embrace a world where you can live and love without a man in sight.

Her songs also have a retro sensibility to them, but a lot of that might be down to them… also being catchy. Some great examples include the aforementioned Femininomenon and of course, the seemingly “Hey Mickey”-inspired hit “Hot To Go!”

Here’s the full segment. We brought on Constance Grady, senior correspondent for Vox who wrote up a nice explainer on why Chappell Roan is having a moment now, but who was able to deftly explain to us why all three of these stars are busting onto the scene.

Other Sports Takes and Things of Note

The Stars At Night Are Big And Bright: I’ll be honest, on Opening Day I did not know how to pronounce the name “Skenes.” Now, Paul Skenes (pronounced “skeenz”) is on the scene, as arguably the best pitcher in baseball. The Pittsburgh Pirates prospect didn’t come up until May but will start Tuesday’s All-Star Game for the National League. He’s the first rookie to start an All-Star Game since Hideo Nomo in 1995, literally before I was born.

In 11 starts, he has struck out 89 batters in 66 innings. His earned run average sits under two (1.90). And he throws gas! And his fastball averages 99 miles per hour, tops among all starting pitchers.

And he backs it up with an extremely fast, fall-off-the-table splitter, and a slider that he can place right along the right edge of the plate for a strike.

It’s been a long time since a pitching prospect has come up and dominated this quickly. I can’t think of anyone since Stephen Strasburg did it for the Nationals nearly 15 years ago now.

And then, there’s the Home Run Derby. Special skills competitions at All-Star weekends are always my favorite. The NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest and 3-Point Shootout. The NHL’s SuperSkills competition or whatever they call it nowadays.

But while the Dunk Contest has faded due to weird rule changes and the fact that stars don’t do it anymore, the Home Run Derby has stayed the gold standard.

The original format, where players hit as many home runs as they could before accumulating 10 outs, in this case non-home runs, was legendary. Everybody had their shot, then the competition was culled from 8, then to 4, then to 2.

It produced iconic moments like Josh Hamilton’s magical streak of home runs in the old Yankee Stadium. Even if he didn’t end up winning, his streak lives in the memory of any baseball fan who watched it.

When they changed the rules for the 2015 contest to build out a bracket, I was skeptical. But the format was a home run (pun intended.)

I was even lucky enough to be at the 2018 edition held at Nationals Park, where hometown hero Bryce Harper won in dramatic fashion, including while decked out in an American flag sleeve and bandana.

This year’s format change made me skeptical again. Everybody goes in the first round, no brackets. There’s a cap on pitches: 40 pitches maximum or 3 minutes of pitches, whichever comes first. Bonuses for long home runs grant you pitches rather than time. Then, the final four are placed into a bracket. And the finals are trimmed to two minutes.

Sounds complicated and less fun.

As it turns out, I wouldn’t know. Work kept me from watching. Seemed like there was at least a thrilling conclusion, as it took until the very last swing for us to confirm that Teoscar Hernández of the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Bobby Witt Jr. from the Kansas City Royals.

People seemed more focused on the strange, breathy rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” beforehand. I won’t comment since now we know the singer was drunk and has since said she’ll be checking into rehab.

Lions, GOATs, and Air Vents, Oh My!: We had not one but two international soccer finals on Sunday. Spain beating England in the Euro finals is honestly kinda straightforward.

England seemed to overperform and rely on clutch moments to make it to the final. Spain just had more talent and a more disciplined system and took advantage to outlast the English Three Lions.

And then, there’s the objectively more fun Copa America. So fun, in fact, that fans without tickets stormed the place. It left fans with tickets unable to get in, which seems like a preventable disgrace that came from the fact that US Soccer gave up authority to CONMEBOL, the South American soccer federation. They can’t do logistics to save their lives, and so you get scenes like this.

Colombia almost stopped the inevitable win by Lionel Messi and Argentina. It took until extra time but Argentina snagged the inevitable goal and added yet another trophy to its collection.

The One Vote Revenge Tour: A’ja Wilson will tell you she wasn’t the WNBA MVP last year. But she was sure she was at least top-3. She got one fourth-place vote. And the Las Vegas Aces star told ESPN last week that she’s used that as her motivation.

So how well has that been working? Uhhh…

She’s leading the league in points per game, is just a fraction of a rebound off leading the league in rebounds per game, leads in blocks per game, and she’s even top-five in steals per game!

And she’s been on a whole other level in her last three games leading into the break.

On Wednesday, it was 24 points and 20 rebounds against Seattle. On Friday, 33 points and 18 rebounds against Atlanta. 3 steals in both games. 5 blocks on Wednesday, 4 on Friday.

On Sunday against Washington, sure, only 2 blocks and no steals, but she scored 28 points and grabbed 17 rebounds.

It’s no surprise that she’ll be an Olympian for Team USA this month.

Something Good I Ate

For this edition, we go back to a meal I consider one of the best of my life: a multi-course bonanza at Chef and the Farmer in Kinston, North Carolina.

Chef and the Farmer, if you are unfamiliar, is a hidden gem made famous by a PBS show. It is a contradiction, in that it’s a pretty gourmet restaurant tucked in an otherwise largely run-down town that isn’t near anything in particular.

Its owner Vivian Howard opened the place with her now-ex-husband about 20 years ago. The PBS show that documented its growth and made it nationally known, A Chef’s Life, is one of my favorite TV shows ever. It’s a delightfully slow-paced show, with each episode focusing on how Vivian, the title chef, chases down each ingredient that features on her restaurant’s farm-to-table menu. In the process, you let her slow-as-molasses voice guide you through the area she calls home.

In early 2020, a bad case of food poisoning led me to stumble on the show, and it quickly guided me down to North Carolina to try it.

Abby and I shared a lovely date night under the dim lighting and amid the din of conversations around us.

The best thing we had was the first: a broccolini pizza. I’ve tried to remake it for years to limited success, but the menu described it as having bresaola salted cured beef, garlic purée, blue cheese streusel, and chili oil. Add what looks like some shredded parm, and you have a phenomenal combination of flavors.

I remember each flavor nullifying the weaknesses of every other flavor, working together to produce a taste far greater even than the sum of its parts.

Cheers to Chef and the Farmer’s broccolini pizza, the ultimate combination of team players!