Wilson Simons Blog Posts

Byline: Wilson Simons      I came into this World Cup an optimist. I've believed for a while that this is the best version of the U.S. men's national team in a long, long time. Even I didn't expect them to take Paraguay apart the way they did.      Four goals in one game. The 2022 U.S. team scored three across the entire tournament in Qatar. This group matched that and then some before halftime was a distant memory, in front of a roaring home crowd in Los Angeles, against a physical CONMEBOL side that was supposed to be the toughest test in the group defensively. Folarin Balogun scored twice, Gio Reyna iced it with a golazo, and the U.S. controlled the ball, the tempo, and the room. That game woke a lot of people up. The USMNT isn't a charity case anymore. They're legit.      Start with the man at the center of it. Christian Pulisic is, arguably, the best player this country has ever produced, and he's spent a chunk of 2026 in a slump at AC M...

Wilson Simons The curse worked. The New York Knicks won their first NBA Championship in 53 years. Along the way, they swept the Cleveland Cavaliers out of the Eastern Conference Finals—the same Cavaliers that Danhausen had publicly cursed after being paid on Cameo to do so.      A goofy wrestling bit somehow became one of the strangest stories in sports and I fear that might be the worst thing that ever happened to Danhausen.      I should be celebrating. I'm a massive Fanhausen. I completely lost my mind when Danhausen debuted at Elimination Chamber in February. In a year where WWE has often felt repetitive and predictable, Danhausen has been one of the only consistently entertaining parts of the show. He's one of the company's top merchandise sellers. He's one of the most popular wrestlers on the roster and it's not because WWE manufactured him into a star. It's because he's genuinely funny.      While Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and Gunther...

 The Steelers Signed the Easy Ones. Joey Porter Jr. Is the Hard One. Two homegrown extensions in two days. The corner is still waiting — and the reason why tells you exactly how his deal plays out. In the span of about 28 hours, the Steelers have locked up two of their own. First Nick Herbig, on a four-year, $100 million extension. Then, barely a day later, tight end Darnell Washington on a four-year, $42 million deal. Two ascending homegrown players, two quick agreements.  That’s not a coincidence. It’s a method. Pittsburgh has settled into a clear offseason rhythm: find the player you already know you want to keep, put a fair — sometimes slightly rich — market number in front of him, and get the signature before free agency ever enters the conversation. Herbig came in above his projected price. Washington signed at $10.5 million a year without a public hiccup because neither number was ever really in doubt. The going rate for an ascending edge rusher and a do-it-all tight en...

The Ad-itude Era: Why AEW Caught Fire While WWE Cooled Off Wilson Simons      For about two years, WWE was untouchable. When Vince McMahon was finally pushed out and Paul "Triple H" Levesque got the creative pen, what followed was the hottest main-roster product since the Attitude Era. Cody finished his story at WrestleMania 40. The Bloodline saga was appointment television. It felt like the company could do no wrong.      Then it cooled. Fans have a name for what came after: the Ad-itude Era. A product buried under sponsor reads, where the hype packages that used to explain why a match mattered have been swapped out for commercials, and where ticket prices have climbed so high that the families WWE was built on are getting priced out of the building.      That last part isn't just fan theory. It's the stated business plan. At last September's Goldman Sachs conference, TKO president Mark Shapiro said the quiet part out loud: Vince M...

  The Steelers Paid Nick Herbig Like a Star Four years, $100 million for a player who's never started a full season — and why getting it done before Joey Porter Jr. is exactly the right order. The Steelers have agreed to terms with edge rusher Nick Herbig on a four-year, $100 million extension that includes $42 million guaranteed, per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo and ESPN's Adam Schefter. Herbig, who turns the page on a rookie deal that paid him under $5 million total, is now signed long term at $25 million a year — and says he wants to be a "Steeler for life”  Pittsburgh just made a player who has never been a full-time starter the second-highest-paid pass rusher on its own roster — ahead of Alex Highsmith, an actual starter, at $17 million. Behind only T.J. Watt and his $40-million-plus.  A day before the deal, one veteran beat writer called signing Herbig this summer a "very steep hill to climb." The conventional wisdom said Joey Porter Jr. should be first ...

The Myles Garrett Trade Is an NFC Story. Steelers Fans Should Read It as a Divisional One. Pittsburgh just lost the player who tormented them twice a year — at the exact moment it finally has a line worth protecting. The way Cleveland got paid is the part that should worry us. The headlines all live in Los Angeles. Myles Garrett — reigning Defensive Player of the Year, the man who broke the sack record — is a Ram now, and the story is about a Super Bowl in their own building for the second time in 5 years. Fair enough. That's the blockbuster. But if you've spent any time in the 2020s watching a Steelers tackle get turned into a turnstile twice a season, you read this trade differently. The best pass rusher in the AFC North just left the AFC North. This lands at the exact moment Pittsburgh finally has an offensive line worth talking about. For years, "protect the quarterback" was this franchise's unsolved problem. That's changing, and it's not an accident —...

  Los Angeles receive reigning DPOY Myles Garrett for 2024 DROY Jared Verse and a 2027 first-round pick The Los Angeles Rams were already one of the NFL’s most aggressive teams this offseason. Now, they may have made the move that defines the entire championship race. The Rams acquired reigning Defensive Player of the Year and NFL sack record holder Myles Garrett from the Cleveland Browns in a blockbuster trade, sending edge rusher Jared Verse and a 2027 first-round pick to Cleveland. The deal comes just 15 months after the Browns made Garrett the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history at the time. Garrett, 30, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft and had become the face of Cleveland’s defense. Now, he is headed to a Rams team that already looked like a Super Bowl contender. Rumors surfaced within the last 24 hours that the Rams, Eagles and Cowboys were all making offers for Garrett, but Los Angeles ultimately landed him in one of the boldest trades of the offseas...