Steph Curry Still Has What Silicon Valley Lost On the last pure remnant of a bygone era.

Latest Throwbacks, on Steph as the last pure remnant of a bygone era of techno-optimism.

The Line Every Journalist Has to Draw On Dianna Russini, David Halberstam, and getting too close to the story.

The only newsletter you'll read today that somehow connects David Halberstam and Skip Bayless. throwbacks.substack.com/p/the-line-e...

Latest newsletter, on the Cubs' odd managerial experiment in 1961 and what it says about the current moment. throwbacks.substack.com/p/whos-in-ch...

Is Golf (!) About To Become America's Most Progressive Sport? On golf's unlikely potential revolution, the NFL's insatiable appetite, and the radical notion that less might be more.

Latest newsletter: The NFL's inevitable 18-game season, the NBA's meaningless regular season, and why golf (!) might be the first to figure out that less can actually be more. throwbacks.substack.com/p/is-golf-ab...

Has The Day of The Umpire Officially Passed? On a week's worth of baseball's A.B.S. system, a detour into modern journalism, and what happens when nobody's left to make the call.

Latest newsletter: What do automated ball-and-strike calls have to do with the crisis in modern journalism? Turns out, quite a bit. throwbacks.substack.com/p/has-the-da...

Sports Movies: Field of Dreams (1989) Has America lost faith in its own redemption myth, or have we just lost faith in ourselves?

Latest Throwbacks: Rewatching a movie that is both great and terrible, at a moment when its premise feels especially creaky. throwbacks.substack.com/p/sports-mov...

You Got Mossed How Randy Moss became a folk hero in an era where folk heroes were presumed dead.

Latest newsletter: In the wake of @brucefeldmancfb.bsky.social's oral history of Randy Moss, I wrote about Moss, Bo Jackson, and how Moss became a folk hero in an era when folk heroes were presumed dead. throwbacks.substack.com/p/you-got-mo...

What Does Baseball Sacrifice When It Replaces Human Judgment? A man called God, the automated strike zone, and what we lose when the umpire walks away.

Latest newsletter, on the umpire called God, and what we lose when we begin to automate away human authority at this moment in American history.
throwbacks.substack.com/p/what-does-...

I was going to mention that. But I’m glad you mentioned it.

How We Killed The NCAA Tournament Bracket One of the most joyful pastimes in sports isn't really that fun anymore.

Latest newsletter, on how we destroyed one of the most joyful pastimes in sports. throwbacks.substack.com/p/how-we-kil...

Bam Adebayo, Louie Louie, and the Strange Alchemy of the One-Hit Wonder Some performances can't be explained. That's the point.

Latest newsletter: Bam Adebayo's 83-point game made people angry because it made no sense. But a lot of one-hit wonders make no sense. That's kind of the point. throwbacks.substack.com/p/bam-adebay...

Spring Training Has No Purpose. That's The Point. On the rare pleasures of something that exists for no good reason at all.

Latest newsletter, on one of the last truly meaningless rituals in sports. throwbacks.substack.com/p/spring-tra...

"Lou Holtz Was Not Made for Professional Football" (1976) He was made for a version of college football that no longer exists.

Latest newsletter: As college and professional football converge, Lou Holtz feels more and more like the last of his kind. throwbacks.substack.com/p/lou-holtz-...

Kasparov's Last Stand (1996) Thirty years after a computer first beat the world's best chess player, we're still trying to figure out what it means.

Latest newsletter: Thirty years ago, Garry Kasparov sat down to play chess against a supercomputer. He thought he'd win easily. He was right--until he wasn't. What do his matches with Deep Blue tell us about our modern-day AI panic? throwbacks.substack.com/p/kasparovs-...

The Undefeated Team College Basketball Doesn't Want Fifty years after Indiana went undefeated, does winning still matter more than metrics?

Latest newsletter: A college basketball team is undefeated this season and somehow on the bubble for the NCAA tournament. When did metrics come to matter more than winning? substack.com/home/post/p-...

You need to track down the writer who came up with those fake headlines

The Five: Even They Couldn't Ruin These Olympics Mikaela Shiffrin, George Orwell, and why patriotism is not nationalism.

Latest newsletter: On Mikaela Shiffrin, George Orwell, and patriotism trumping nationalism during an otherwise memorable Olympics. throwbacks.substack.com/p/the-five-e...

Oakland's Alysa Liu: A Brief Coda This is Throwbacks, a newsletter by me, Michael Weinreb, about sports, history, culture, and politics—and how they all bleed together.

Latest newsletter: Alysa Liu is the most unique figure skater in modern history, which is why she could only find her true self in a city like Oakland. throwbacks.substack.com/p/oaklands-a...

Mark Cuban Wants the NBA to Embrace Tanking. That's a Terrible Idea. The former Mavericks owner thinks fans don't care about competition or the collective good of the league. The NFL's century of dominance would seem to prove otherwise.

Latest newsletter, in which Mark Cuban attempts to re-frame tanking as a populist idea, and also doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of watching sports. throwbacks.substack.com/p/mark-cuban...

Congrats to BART rider and Oakland legend Alysa Liu on winning a gold medal at the Olympics and making the Bay Area proud!

Trading John Fisher for Alysa Liu is the best thing to happen to Oakland in a generation

So the NFL just completed its most competitive season in modern history by angling for decades toward increased parity, but the NBA is "in the business of creating experiences for fans" by embracing the opposite?

The Beautiful Face of Socialism (1988) Katarina Witt had to perform loyalty for East Germany or lose her freedom. Is America still the counterbalance?

Latest newsletter: On Katarina Witt performing patriotism for the state...and whether America is still the counterbalance. throwbacks.substack.com/p/the-beauti...

Special Edition: Throwbacks Goes To the Super Bowl I watched the least interesting Super Bowl in years from inside a fishbowl. Then Bad Bunny happened.

I watched the least interesting Super Bowl in years from inside of a fishbowl. Then Bad Bunny happened. The view from Santa Clara: open.substack.com/pub/throwbac...

Michael Weinreb (@michaelweinreb) Latest newsletter: The rest of the world is importing American football and leaving behind the one part that might destroy it. Are they misunderstanding the sport, or are we?

Latest newsletter: The rest of the world is importing American football and leaving behind the one part that might destroy it. Are they misunderstanding the sport, or are we? substack.com/@michaelwein...

"Let's stop doing the thing we're known for doing well in order to do the thing we're already known for doing well, but without the actual people who do it well." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/b...

Worst. Super Bowl Uniforms. Ever? How NFL uniforms got objectively worse, and why no one will admit it.

Latest newsletter: The Patriots and Seahawks are playing the Super Bowl in objectively terrible uniforms. So what went wrong with NFL uniform design, and why is no one willing to admit it? throwbacks.substack.com/p/worst-supe...

The Orangeburg Massacre and the Fight Against Forgetting (1968) Fifty-eight years before Minneapolis, a group of Black students, led by the football team, were gunned down in cold blood while protesting segregation. History nearly forgot them.

In 1968, South Carolina State football players led protests against a segregated bowling alley. Police opened fire. Years later, amid the tragedy in Minneapolis, it’s worth remembering that the Orangeburg Massacre was largely forgotten. throwbacks.substack.com/p/the-orange...

screenshot of a reddit post in r/nursing Photo of a hospital hallway where staff in scrubs stand with their hands clasped and heads bowed

As seen on r/nursing

Alex Pretti's coworkers taking a moment of silence to honor him

That was less of a catch than every other catch that wasn’t called a catch