Thanksgiving Day spent with friends and family is a hallowed time for many. The turkey, the stuffing, the gravy, the football — all of it plays into the traditions that surround the holiday. But in all that, there's also going to be plenty of arguing. Who wants to argue about the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys for the billionth time and nothing else, though? It's time to spice up your Thanksgiving arguments, and we at FanSided have the perfect hot takes to get those arguments started.
Start the argument at Thanksgiving with these sports hot takes
Nomar Garciaparra was better than Derek Jeter
Derek Jeter won more rings, surpasses Nomar Garciaparra in counting stats, and obviously had a better career than the rival Red Sox shortstop. But for the peak of Nomar’s career in Boston and the peak of Jeter’s career in New York, Garciaparra was simply better.
From 1996-2003, which is the peak of both players in total bWAR, Garciaparra bested Jeter in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, doubles, triples, home runs, RBI, Top 10 MVP finishes and, yes, bWAR. There’s no arguing who had the better career, but Nomar was the better of the two at their respective peaks. — Cody Williams, FanSided.com
Kobe Bryant is not a top-10 player of all-time, by any metric that matters
The Kobe Bryant you know is a myth. The hardest worker in sports, the relentless winner who touched greatness by force of will, by refusing to lose. That’s not even his own mythology! That’s literally The Myth of Michael Jordan, which Kobe made his own with sleight of hand and meticulous brand-crafting. He won titles by playing next to some of the greatest bigs of his era. He never carried a team to greatness on his own. He treated his teammates like garbage and his signature achievement — scoring 81 points — came in a meaningless January victory over a 27-win Raptors team, while he was being guarded mostly by Jalen Rose and Morris Peterson. He was a good player, but only remembered as an all-time great because #Lakers and because so many modern NBA players and fans weren’t alive to see Jordan in his prime. — Ian Levy, FanSided.com
Matthew Stafford is the NFL MVP
It’s hard to argue that Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is trailing anyone in the MVP race right now. Stafford is blowing away all other competition. Not only has he thrown 2,830 passing yards, but he has thrown 30 touchdown passes to just two interceptions. In just 11 games, he leads all other quarterbacks by seven touchdown passes, nearly one TD pass per game.
This comes on the heels of a back Injury that sidelined him throughout training camp. Retirement? Don’t be silly. He continues to prove that he is still in his NFL prime. — Bret Stuter, Ramblin’ Fan.com
All public university football coaches should be elected officials
More often than not, the football coach at the flagship institution is the most highly compensated employee in a given state. It’s time to hold that money accountable to the people, rather than back-room boosters (or, in the case of Louisiana, one entirely out-of-pocket governor). It’s a foundational principle of American democracy that citizens should have some sort of say over how their tax dollars are being spent. Why should football be any different? If Florida decides it’s time to pay $60 million to tell Mike Norvell to take a hike, who am I, or anyone else, to disagree? — Chris Landers, FanSided.com
Cal Ripken’s games-played streak is the most overrated number in sports
It is impressive that Ripken was able to take the field more than 2,600 times in a row? Without a doubt; playing Major League Baseball is a grind, and no one is questioning Ripken’s toughness. But at what cost? How much better might Ripken’s numbers have been, how much more could he have helped his team in the long run, if he’d just taken a day or a week off to rest whatever bumps and bruises were ailing him? Add to that the fact that he and Kevin Costner may or may not have conspired to postpone an O’s game via power outage just to keep the streak alive, and I’m unmoved. — Chris Landers, FanSided.com
The St. Louis Blues will go from zero to heroes before season’s end
The St. Louis Blues are among the bottom of the NHL in terms of standings, but also in terms of their disappointing performances. The goaltending and defense have been abysmal, and the offense has been very inconsistent. But, as we approach Thanksgiving, there are still around 60 games of action left, leaving plenty of time to right the ship. This team consists of a Jack Adams award winner leading the charge, a flourishing prospect group finding its stride with each passing game, and a General Manager who holds no favorites to try to put together a winning hockey team. The Blues will go from zero to heroes by the end of the 2025-26 season. — Justin Bonhard, Bleed In Blue
There has never been a good gray uniform, and there never will be
Embrace color, you cowards. — Chris Landers, FanSided.com
Nikola Jokic is the greatest offensive player in NBA history
You know what’s great about this hot take? It’s bound to make somebody at your Thanksgiving dinner table angry, because inevitably, you’re going to be feasting with either A) A Michael Jordan fan, B) A LeBron James fan, C) A Kobe Bryant fan, or D) Someone really old who believes that Wilt Chamberlain would be just as dominant today as he was in 1962. No matter what, if you come at them with this Jokic take, it may make someone’s head explode all over the turkey. So, before you bring this one up, I advise you to wait until the table is cleared.
Look, we have a half-decade body of work now that proves this to be true. The Joker is not only the best passing big man ever, he’s proving that when he needs to, he can also be one of the greatest high-volume, high-efficiency scorers as well. Right now, the three-time MVP is averaging 30 points per game on absolutely ludicrous 63-43-85 shooting splits. Did I also mention he’s leading the league in assists? And did I mention he’s on track to break his own single season PER record by 4 points?
Just as we’ve been saying about King James for a solid decade now, don’t take Nikola Jokic for granted. — Sonny Giuliano, Toro Times
Teams should be able to sign retired players for a single postseason run
Are you honestly about to tell me that you wouldn’t want to see David Ortiz pinch hit for the Red Sox next October? Just imagine several general managers rolling up to someone’s house a week or two before the playoffs begin, ready to make their pitch. — Chris Landers, FanSided.com
Athleticism is the most useless 'skill' in basketball
In the world of professional hoops, everyone is athletic. Nikola Jokic is athletic. Sam Hauser is athletic. Kyle Lowry is athletic. That’s how they got as far as they did in the world of basketball. Yet when players enter the draft process, athleticism remains one of the most heralded skill sets. And year after year, teams get fooled while scouting.
Sure, there are exceptions. The Thompson twins are a perfect example. Amen and Ausar take athleticism to another level, but that’s not why they’re talented. They’re talented because they understand how to use their athleticism. Their knowledge of tendencies, defensive positioning, and timing makes them elite players, not just freak athletes.
For every Thompson twin there are 50 Jarrett Culvers. Fifty guys like Kira Lewis Jr., Josh Jackson, Ziaire Williams, and Stanley Johnson.
Athleticism is not a skill. Spatial awareness is a skill. Three-point shooting is a skill. Defensive timing is a skill. Passing is a skill. Understanding defensive angles is a skill. Being an elite athlete is only helpful as a complementary piece to the rest of a larger product. It’s time to stop treating it as anything else. — Jack Simone, Hardwood Houdini
The GOAT is an unquantifiable thing in sports
The arguments over who is the GOAT at any given position, or even on a team dynamic, are pointless and completely impossible to quantify. With the constant changes in rules, the lengths of schedules, the expansion of postseasons, the additions of more teams and players, these arguments become absolutely pointless. Add in the training methods, equipment, and “supplements” available to modern athletes and how athletes in general have become stronger and faster than previous generations, there is no “apples to apples” comparison to decide the “Greatest of all time” Stat lines become skewed, title and award accumulation are overblown, and the amount of practice vs play time, and medical advancements to heal injuries that were once considered career-ending make the “GOAT” a water cooler myth. — Michael Collins, FanSided Editorial Director
An offensive guru head coach will never win the College Football Playoff
Winning big in the NFL and in college football are two completely separate entities. In the NFL, you are dealing with the best of the best in terms of players, coaches, and whatnot. It is all about executing complex plays at an optimal level. It is why seemingly every NFL game comes down to the final possession.
But in college football, it is about building a team through recruitment and executing simpler plays to a high degree. Yes, you can use an Air Raid offense, or some offshoot of it, to make up for talent deficiencies. But in the end, the deeper and more talented team usually prevails.
To win a multi-round College Football Playoff, you need depth to overcome some largely expected attrition from the tournament. It is why teams who are led by defensive-minded coaches or CEO-types can win national championships in the modern college football era. They prioritize the right things.
An offensive-minded head coach must evolve into a CEO-type, one who empowers his coordinators to make a difference in crunch time. An offensive guru will think his plays can overcome any talent deficiency when it cannot. Players win games, not plays.
As for a defensive-minded head coach, he will always want to have a talent advantage, so he can run simpler plays more effectively. Better players can blow up more complicated offensive plays in a matter of seconds. In short, he does not have to evolve, so long as he prioritizes recruitment.
In the College Football Playoff era (2014-present), we have only had CEO-types or defensive-minded coaches win national titles (Urban Meyer, Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, Ed Orgeron, Kirby Smart, Jim Harbaugh, Ryan Day).
Meyer and Swinney were former wide receiver coaches who never called plays. Saban, Orgeron and Smart handle defense. While Harbaugh and Day are former quarterbacks, their evolution as CEO-types played a huge part in Michigan and Ohio State finally breaking through under them. — John Buhler, FanSided NCAA Division
Bring back the BCS
Was it particularly fair? No. Was it inscrutable to anyone without an applied mathematics degree? Absolutely. But it ensured that college football’s regular season remained the greatest in all of sports, and it also ensured that I didn’t have to watch an athletic director get on television every week and try to explain a largely arbitrary top 25 without giving Rece Davis a coronary. (And the fact of the matter is that the BCS would have produced largely the same results we’ve gotten from the committee anyway.) The quality of discourse and decision-making has not improved in the slightest, and the sport and its fans were better off without the indignity of arguing over whether a three-loss team deserves a shot at a national title. — Chris Landers, FanSided.com
Victor Wembanyama is already on track to be the GOAT
It’s very simple. We’ve never seen a player do what he can do on both sides of the ball. We’ve seen him score 50 points, and we’ve seen him rack up 10 blocks in one game. If he plays long enough and avoids injury, there’s no way he doesn’t end up as the Greatest of All Time. That also means that he’s currently the greatest talent we’ve ever seen. He doesn’t have to wait for that title. — Jahlil Williams, Air Alamo
Defense has never been better in the NBA
The idea that defense is declining in the modern NBA is simply a myth. We just saw the Thunder win a championship with a historically elite defense, and overall, defenders have never been asked to cover more ground.
Big men now have to defend the paint and switch onto smaller players. Guards must be strong enough to defend bigger players. Forget eras before the early 2000s, when illegal defense limited creative schemes and versatility wasn't needed; this is the golden age of defense. Most people agree that offensive schemes have gotten more creative, but so have defensive schemes. — Eamon Cassels, Dunking with Wolves, FanSided.com, EbonyBird
Baseball players are the softest athletes in sports
It’s not because of the sport itself; hitting a baseball, fielding a baseball, throwing someone out with a pinpoint throw are incredible skills. But clearing the bases because someone celebrated wrong? Throwing at a player because they flipped a bat? It’s S-O-F-T. Unwritten rules? S-O-F-T. — Alicia de Artola, FanSided.com
Flopping is an art and it’s not inherently wrong
Americans love to make fun of soccer players for flopping and then sit down for an evening of basketball and see just as much. In either sport, it’s fine! Flopping that accentuates contact is an art built around ensuring the ref sees the foul. And it’s necessary because they often don’t see the foul. I’m fully in favor of referees having the power to penalize obvious playacting, where the contact is imagined. Even then, if you trick the ref into giving you a call, kudos to you. That’s the refs fault. This isn’t that commercial where the basketball player tells the ref he touched the ball last. Honesty isn’t something you owe the other team. — Alicia de Artola, FanSided.com
MLB, NBA and NFL champions are indeed World Champions
Internationals may scoff, but it’s only the truth. If you win the World Series, NBA Finals or Super Bowl, you rule over the world. We don’t call college football title winners World Champs because they’re not. There are better teams than them in the world. But there is no more impressive football team in the world than the one that lifts the Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season. The world’s best football players are in the NFL. Same goes for MLB and the NBA. Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic play in the NBA and not in Europe because the NBA is where you prove yourself on the world stage. Lifting a trophy in Spain =/= lifting the Larry O’Brien Trophy. — Alicia de Artola, FanSided.com
The Dallas Cowboys aren't “America’s Team”
This isn’t the 1990s Dallas Cowboys. This version of Jerry Jones’ football vision is far from anything that American football should believe in. Dallas doesn’t win, they’re equally arrogant and pompous while confining themselves to the mental institution that is, “This is our year!” Who is America’s Team now? Doesn’t matter, it shouldn’t be Dallas. — Wynston Wilcox, FanSided.com
The refs aren’t out to get your team, they’re all just bad
No, the NBA doesn’t have the worst refs on the planet. No, MLB umpires aren’t uniquely low. No, the Premier League doesn’t have a monopoly on bad calls. No, the SEC or Big Ten don’t rig games with their zebras. Because refs suck across the board. It’s a hard job made impossible by the development of athletes with increasingly superhuman traits and rulebooks that have been bloated by time. Refs have it rough, I feel for them. But they’re also universally terrible, and leagues bend over backwards not to criticize them, making the issue worse. The good news is that means they’re not actually missing calls out of malice. There’s a saying, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” Refs are incompetent, they’re not out to get you. — Alicia de Artola, FanSided.com
The NBA season shouldn’t start until Christmas Day
We all agree that 82 games is way too long and we’re all tired of hearing about this player load managing and that player resting during a team’s lone road trip to any specific city. It’s time to change the NBA calendar, shortening the season and tipping off the year on the biggest day of basketball. Truthfully, how many NBA games are being consumed during the pinnacle of the football season? It’s time to change this, to hell with greedy owners and money-hungry franchises. Protect the players, make the NBA fun again and cut the season shorter. — Wynston Wilcox, FanSided.com
Tua Tagovailoa's failures will save Mike McDaniel
Throughout the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Mike McDaniel showed very little consistency, but a new found running game has replaced the need to rely on the Dolphins starting quarterback. As a result, the Dolphins are winning again despite Tua Tagovailoa’s mundane performances. If the quarterback that was drafted long before McDaniel arrived is showing to be one of the bigger problems, and the head coach is finding a way to win without him, Stephen Ross may have no choice but to give his coach another season. — Brian Miller, Phin Phanatic
College football dominance and dynasties are dead
As the season comes to a close, fierce playoff debates will be held in living rooms across the country. Ohio State, Indiana, and Texas A&M all had weak schedules. Georgia, Texas Tech, Oregon, and Ole Miss all dropped one regrettable game. Beyond that, there is a sea of two-loss teams that is difficult to evaluate. There is no clear choice for the National Champion; at this point, any prediction is a crapshoot.
While we can (and will) pick apart each team, what is clear is that there will be no 2019 LSU or 2020 Alabama in the NIL era. Last season, the National Championship game was held between the 7th and 8th seeds, and all four teams with first-round byes were eliminated in the first round. Talent is distributed much more equally across the country, and the future salary cap will only continue to level the playing field. — Sam Allred, Soaring Down South
The Houston Astros did nothing wrong
Let me clarify from the start: I’m a Texas Rangers fan, so I have every reason to slam the Astros for their sign-stealing scheme. But I also believe firmly in gamesmanship and finding ways to give yourself an edge. Everybody admits that sign-stealing is “part of the game” and has been going on for decades. What people objected to with the Astros was that they used technology to do it. Just like Billy Beane and his moneyball antics, the gatekeepers of America’s Favorite Pastime reject innovation in favor of the unwritten rules of the game. Houston just built a better mousetrap; they should be celebrated for it, not scorned! They also won another ring not long after the scheme was discovered and ended, so it clearly didn’t change the fact that they were just an elite club. — David Howman, Devils in Detail
The professionalization of college sports is good
The NCAA drew heavy criticism for allowing professional players to play collegiate basketball this year. Just this season, Louisville and Santa Clara both recruited former G League players, and Texas A&M signed a five-year pro out of Spain.
The common knee-jerk reaction to this is to say college sports are getting out of hand. But is this really the case? Sure, these pros will take space from college rosters that used to belong to beloved walk-on players, and some of the most romantic aspects of college sports have faded with these changes. On the flip side, however, players are getting paid to play, fans are getting the best quality product in years, and alternative routes are emerging for student-athletes who were crowded out of the NCAA.
College sports have always been broken, but this is the best-case outcome for everyone involved. —Sam Allred, Soaring Down South
Early-season college basketball is better than its NBA equivalent
To most of America, college basketball doesn’t exist until the end of football season, which is a shame because some of the best games happen in non-conference action. Feast Week alone delivers high quality tournaments like the Player’s Era Festival, the Battle For Atlantis and the Maui Invitational while we’ve already had stellar standalone games like Arizona-UConn and Alabama-Illinois deliver March Madness quality hoops in November. The NBA season is bloated as is and the NBA Cup still doesn’t make sense to casual fans. Turn on those huge early season college basketball games people - every game matters more than the random Lakers-Kings contest on Peacock or NBA TV. — Mike Phillips, FanSided.com