The Morning Shot: September 11, 2026
The sports stories worth knowing before your coffee gets cold.
Never Forget
Before we get to sports this morning, today marks 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives that day, and countless families, first responders, service members, and communities have carried its impact ever since.
Twenty-five years later, we remember the lives that were lost, the people who ran toward danger to help others, and the families whose lives were forever changed. I can still remember exactly where I was when I heard the news and, even as a middle schooler, I understood the severity of the event.
Never Forget. 🇺🇸
Good morning.
Remember yesterday when we wondered whether the Rams’ decision to basically ignore jet lag would work in Australia? I think we have an answer. It did not.
The 49ers made themselves very comfortable Down Under, both American women are out of the U.S. Open, Team USA decided a 52-point quarterfinal win was an appropriate response to anyone questioning them, the Kawhi Leonard situation has somehow gotten even more serious, and LSU is still a member of the SEC.
Here’s what you need to know.
01 | Jet Lag 0, Sports Science 1
Yesterday, I said I was strangely invested in jet lag vs. sports science.
Well, sports science won handily.
The 49ers arrived in Melbourne more than a week before their historic game against the Rams. Los Angeles decided on a dramatically different approach: stay on its normal schedule as long as possible and arrive just 28 hours before kickoff.
Then San Francisco trounced them 27–7.
Brock Purdy threw three touchdown passes, the 49ers rushed for 174 yards, and San Francisco scored 24 unanswered points after trailing 7–3. The Rams went just 2-for-9 on third down and were stopped on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1 before San Francisco responded with a 99-yard touchdown drive.
There was no denying Australia was ready for football, with 100,021 people packing the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the NFL’s first regular-season game on the continent.
The takeaway: Correlation is not causation, and Sean McVay wasn’t blaming the travel plan afterward. I, on the other hand, am keeping the score:
Arrive a week early: 1
Arrive 28 hours early: 0
02 | And Just Like That, the American Women Are Out
Twenty-four hours ago, the U.S. Open women’s semifinals featured the top four seeds—and two Americans. I was even thinking an all-American women’s final was possible.
This morning, neither American is left.
Two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7–5, 6–2, while newly crowned world No. 1 Elena Rybakina came back to beat Coco Gauff 3–6, 6–4, 6–4.
For Gauff, it was a frustrating ending to what had become another remarkable run. She’d saved two match points against Mirra Andreeva just one round earlier and took the first set from Rybakina Thursday night, but Rybakina steadied herself and ultimately closed it out. Gauff followed a near flawless first set with two sets riddled with costly unforced errors that ultimately resulted in break point opportunities that sealed Rybakina’s victory.
Pegula, meanwhile, ran into the same player who beat her in the 2024 final and the 2025 semifinal. Sabalenka was strong from start to finish, leaving no doubt that she is primed for a back-to-back-to-back U.S. Open crown.
We are left with a fantastic Saturday final between the top 2 players in the world:
Sabalenka vs. Rybakina.
Sabalenka is in her fourth consecutive U.S. Open Final and trying to win her third straight title. Rybakina is headed to her first U.S. Open final and will officially take over the No. 1 ranking Monday regardless of Saturday’s outcome.
The takeaway: Yesterday morning we had two Americans and four legitimate contenders. Twenty-four hours later, we have the outgoing world No. 1 playing the incoming world No. 1 for the U.S. Open championship. It has the ingredients for an epic 3-set thriller.
03 | Team USA had Something to Say About Those Power Rankings
If Team USA’s three-point win over Italy raised questions earlier in the tournament, Thursday’s quarterfinal provided a fairly emphatic response.
The Americans beat Hungary 108–56 to advance to the FIBA Women’s World Cup semifinals.
They scored 36 points in the first quarter, led 59–30 at halftime and shot nearly 59% from the field. Napheesa Collier led the U.S. with 19 points, while Caitlin Clark finished with 10 points and nine assists. Every American player scored.
And there’s a little extra spice here: FIBA had dropped the U.S. behind France in its tournament power rankings before the quarterfinals.
The takeaway: Power rankings can be motivation. Team USA appears aware of this.
04 | The Kawhi Leonard Situation Is Now a Federal Investigation
If the NBA’s punishment of the Clippers over their dealings with Kawhi Leonard seemed severe, well, that wasn’t enough.
The U.S. Justice Department is now conducting a criminal investigation into the Clippers’ dealings involving Leonard, according to reports Thursday. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are handling the investigation, which is reportedly still in its early stages, and at least one subpoena has been issued. It’s not yet clear whether the investigation will ultimately result in criminal charges.
This comes just over a week after the NBA concluded that the Clippers had circumvented salary-cap rules by helping arrange outside income opportunities for Leonard through companies doing business with the franchise.
The league hit Los Angeles with a $30 million fine, took away five first-round draft picks from 2029–33 and suspended owner Steve Ballmer for one year. Leonard was ordered to pay $700,000.
The Clippers have strongly denied wrongdoing and disputed the NBA investigation’s conclusions. Leonard has said he had no knowledge of an effort to circumvent the salary cap. And now federal prosecutors are asking questions. Questions that I’m curious to know the answers to.
The takeaway: Losing five first-round picks and $30 million was already a disaster. When your salary-cap scandal starts involving subpoenas and the Justice Department, we’ve officially moved beyond an NBA problem.
05 | LSU Is Still in the SEC. For Now.
Remember when we talked about the possibility that LSU’s fight over former NFL players could somehow end with the school getting kicked out of the SEC?
Well, everybody remains in the conference this morning.
SEC presidents and chancellors met Thursday to discuss the escalating dispute with LSU and finished the meeting without imposing sanctions or voting to expel the school. The conference said discussions would continue as it works toward what it called an “appropriate resolution.”
The fight started after LSU and Lane Kiffin pursued former Ole Miss players Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, both of whom spent time with NFL teams this summer before being cut. A Louisiana judge ruled they could return to college, putting LSU directly at odds with an SEC rule prohibiting players who signed professional contracts from returning to compete.
But there’s an important twist: LSU ultimately filled its 105-player roster without either Wright or Harris. LSU president Wade Rousse has argued that makes the SEC’s case essentially moot. The SEC isn’t quite ready to forgive and forget.
The takeaway: LSU backed away from actually putting the former NFL players on the roster, and the SEC backed away—at least for now—from the nuclear option. After lawsuits, injunctions and threats of expulsion, everybody remains exactly where they started.
And, as someone who already wrote an entire article arguing that the NFL should be a one-way door, I’m aligned with this decision.
ONE TO WATCH | Tiafoe vs. Shelton. Can’t Wait!
We’ve been waiting for this one since Tuesday night’s chaos.
Frances Tiafoe vs. Ben Shelton.
Two Americans. Arthur Ashe Stadium. One spot in the U.S. Open final. And most importantly: an American man is guaranteed to play for the championship Sunday.
The significance goes beyond getting someone into the final. No American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick won the 2003 U.S. Open.
Shelton is coming off his 3:33 a.m. five-set upset of Carlos Alcaraz. Tiafoe is coming off his own ridiculous five-set comeback against Alex Michelsen.
They play in the 7 p.m. ET semifinal tonight. Alexander Zverev and Karen Khachanov play the first semifinal at 3 p.m. ET.
The takeaway: I don’t particularly care which American wins this one, though I think Shelton has a slight edge, even with the late finish time a couple days ago. I really, however, just want whoever does prevail to have one more win left in him on Sunday.
Five stories. A few minutes. Now you can pretend you spent all morning following sports.
