Mark Followill

What a thrill it was for all of us that make up the MavsTV team to broadcast many of the special moments that were part of Cooper Flagg’s NBA Rookie of the Year season! If you wanna savor the flavor of some fun times, a mix of our favorite MavsTV Cooper highlights are here. Poster dunks, drives and contested jumpers against top defenders, records set, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. He did it all and the overall game you see here is a big reason why he won!

Concacaf, the confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean, says it rejects FIFA’s plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to private investors. All 41 members of Concacaf met on Thursday to discuss the proposals. One source with knowledge of the meeting, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said the feeling and discussion expressed among the vast majority of Concacaf members was that they are losing confidence, or have lost confidence altogether in Gianni Infantino as FIFA President. A second person considered that to be a slightly stronger description of the meeting than they took away from it, but acknowledged widespread concerns over the current FIFA approach to leadership and transparency. More from @AdamCrafton_ 🔗 nyti.ms/3U3aVgW

UEFA: "No UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive, unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety & binding assurances ... FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership."

Spent the last two days in the great city of Chicago at Big Ten Football Media Days. Thrilled to work my 7th season of football play by play this season for the Big Ten Network. An outstanding group in every facet to work with…I’ll be partnering w/ an awesome team of @RhettNFL as analyst and reporter @cghendy on game broadcasts this season bigten.org/fb/article/601…

Word on the socials is it’s NBA Handles Week. Since I haven’t had the pleasure of posting any Cooper Flagg Rookie of the Year highlights in a while, just a few of the best off-the-bounce moves from Coop that we had the thrill of calling on our Mavs broadcasts this past season!

@CyclingWerewolf Happy to do it…timing was good for me to be more verbose lol and I don’t get asked for my cycling opinions often so it was fun to riff on it and definitely meant for anyone interested in a more thorough analysis of the tour from an American rider perspective.

@MFollowill Sincerely appreciate you taking the time to respond so thoroughly to this and to get your insights. It really is a fun era for American riders in the peloton! 🙌

I’m well over two decades into every day Tour de France watching. Such a great three weeks every year. Sad to see it end today but as I said earlier it was a spectacular final stage. Closing out 2026 w/ some thoughts: Tadej Pogačar: not much left to say that hasn’t been said. The debate isn’t is he the greatest of our generation, it’s where he ends up in greatest male cyclist of all time discussion. Maybe his most impressive performance this year to me wasn’t his domination over the field but that he seemed genuinely excited to take on being a domestique to a lift up and/or protect a teammate’s GC position on three different occasions, so speaking of Isaac Del Toro: I will be stunned if he doesn’t put a Grand Tour win on his CV by end of 2028 (prob quite sooner). The Del Toro-Seixas rivalry is going to be really fun in a few years, which leads me to… Paul Seixas: don’t know how he could have realistically done any better as a 19 year old in his first Grand Tour. Seems to be handling the hype and pressure well. And rooting for him in the future because I want to see the scenes of a French winner in the TdF soon. Remco Evenepoel: thought the whole thing was about to unravel for him in the first week when he blasted teammates and tactics. But he got it together mentally and physically and was clearly the best of the rest. Really showed a lot in the last two weeks. Quick hits - Mads Pedersen, if the Tour couldn’t have Wout Van Aert he was the next best thing. Richard Carapaz, the best third week of the TdF, turned EF team performance from blah into a top 5 of this tour. Tim Merlier, when in form the best sprinter in the world right now. Visma - one good day and then yikes…which is a bummer, team full of guys I really like. #TDF2026

Of course. I’m a glass half full guy but I can also recognize where the disappointments are and I’ll elaborate on those but generally I’m pleased with the American contingent in this TdF. A long career of broadcasting for a team has certainly made me realize stats can be massaged but with Jorgensen being the lowest placed American on GC at 30th, it seems like a perfectly acceptable cutoff to point out this note…the nation with the most representation in the top 30 of this year’s TdF is the USA with 5, edging out France with 4 and Belgium and Spain with 3. Individually, Quinn Simmons was a key component of Lidl-Trek who I thought had the second best team performance at the Tour. He got in breaks, he supported teammates and he unquestionably had a major role in his team winning the team competition. I truly believe his day is coming for a Grand Tour stage win in the not too distant future, like many he just needs the right day and parcours to align for him to win from a break. Analyzing the Tour for Sepp Kuss is a little more complicated. It’s his 2nd best GC finish in six TdFs, finishing 13th on GC (he was 12th in 2023). But by his own admission he let a glorious stage win get away from him. So, I’m gutted for him in that sense but relieved the second fall didn’t turn out way worse, which it seemed like it was a few feet from doing. I’m not one to believe in jinxes but outside of the first day when they were all laughing, smiling and congratulating each other as a team after the TTT, it was a Tour of seriously bad mojo for Visma and Sepp’s 20th stage was indicative of that. Between his Amstel Gold crash and the impact on form and illness it obviously wasn’t what we know Jorgensen is capable of at his best but he fought until the end. Sean Quinn was tantalizingly close to a yellow jersey which was exciting to watch but just a shame he couldn’t find those 28 seconds he needed but 19th in GC is by far his best Grand Tour. Matthew Riccitello battled through the injuries from his early crash and in his TdF debut rode well in support of Paul Seixas. And it’s a shame Brandon McNulty got sick and had to abandon because he was riding well for the Tour’s dominant team but obviously a pretty bad virus hit UAE in the final week. It’s a fun era to watch the American riders in the pro peloton. Many of them are sought after to be on the best teams and have important roles as super domestiques when riding in the biggest race of the year but capable of performing at a high level in other events. The palmares for Kuss, Jorgensen and McNulty speak for themselves in that regard!

@MFollowill Would you mind sharing a thought on the 🇺🇸 in the Tour if willing? x.com/cyclingwerewol…

I’ve read some people speculate that his TdF wreck might push him toward retirement especially since he was supposedly pondering it but I don’t think he’s retiring and I think he’ll continue riding with Visma because he has a long term contract with them… Would love to see him ride the worlds this year since they’re in Montreal and I’m going for some of it

@MFollowill Ever. - and/or - Ever again, with Visma.

@freakingbadass This year or ever?

@MFollowill Visma needs to shuffle the deck pretty hard. You think Jonas comes back?

@NickyCycles The point is more about animating the race and versatility as a rider…sprinting, dragging himself over hard climbs to contest intermediate sprints, getting in breaks, dropping back and working for the team etc

@MFollowill Let’s be real, Mads wins the green jersey whether Wout is there or not.

He had a nice tour. First time two French riders have be in top 5 since 2014 (Jean-Christophe Peraud and Thibault Pinot were 2/3 behind Nibali). Wish he’d worked better with Carapaz and Kuss on Alpe d’Huez stage. He’s good but I’m not as sold on him in the way I am seixas yet. Martinez- above avg GC stage racer who can podium things like Romandie, Catalunya etc. Seixas - potential superstar who can win everything from Classics to Grand Tours and in between. But like all these things time will tell.

@MFollowill Wish there was more Lenny Martinez love. Dude really performed so well this TdF. Announcers act like only Seixas is a great hope for France. Great TdF this year and yeah, wow, final stage was a banger!

@MFKammermeier I did a ranking in my head of team performances 1-10 last night and I don’t think there’s much debate they were definitely 2nd. Stage win, green jersey, team competition, two top 7 GC riders,

@MFollowill Lidl Trek should get a big shoutout for handily winning the team comp against UAE despite UAE riders finishing 1st and 3rd and being super deep, too. Probably would win it even without Yates and McNulty falling ill.

@midwestmusin I saw it on social media today first (as an unless someone wins today thing) but I did it hear it on the broadcast later. France is gonna get that sorted out soon with Seixas. Obvs the TT wasn’t set up well for Filippo Ganna

@MFollowill Framed that way, really impressive. Glad they're all riding for relevant teams! Another good one, not sure if you caught it on the broadcast, first time in Grand Tour history a French, Spanish or Italian rider didn't win a stage.

For sure, the interesting thing about Pogi from my distant perspective anyway is that it seems like he’s a thoughtful guy who realizes there’s more out there for him than being a pro cyclist. So his biggest challenge to more record setting may just be what’s his interest in living a different life sooner than a lot of people in his position typically seek to do.

@MFollowill The fact Pogi is only 27 means he still has a few more prime years of adding another couple of Tours de France to his lengthy list of accomplishments

@midwestmusin Seems to be the US cycling specialty these days which I’m not upset about for reasons that aren’t worth getting into but I’m sure you get my drift. Here’s a good trivia question for your to use who had the most top 30 finishers in this years tour…the US w/ 5…France had 4.

@MFollowill Fair enough. I guess the Visma boys were less center stage with JV's crash. They'd both been prominent for him the last few Tours. EF is rudderless except Carapaz chasing KoM. Sean's performance was impressive, no doubt. Guess I need to be comfortable with super domestiques!

@tshane81 I would definitely concur with best final day by far (since 1989).

@MFollowill Not that I’m a cycling expert, but I have watched this race basically for the past 30 years and this was the best final day by far and maybe the most entertaining stage I’ve watched in years But that’s just me

Then way they’ve changed the final stage of the Tour and added the three circuits of Montmartre has made it some of the best racing and watching of the entire three weeks. Fantastic end to the race today and incredible stage win by Mathieu van der Poel!

@MeanGreenBowler He did some incredible domestique, breakaway etc type riding. Very underrated part in why Trek won the team competition

@MFollowill Also Quinn Simmons will never win but love the way he races and is the coolest guy out there

Outside of Sepp squandering Saturday’s stage I completely disagree. 5 guys in the top 30 in GC. Everyone plays an important role as a high level domestique on their team. McNulty was top 20 in GC when he got sick. Sean Quinn was good, Riccitello was good. Jorgensen was a little down but given his crash at Amstel Gold he prob didn’t have best prep he could have and even though I’m not one to really believe in jinxes some weird mojo hit Visma this tour

@MFollowill Tough TdF for the American contingent. Quinn rode a great race, but Kuss, Jorgensen and McNulty were underwhelming.

@cutthepod Thank you! I need to make a trip to Duluth haha and use that as a base to knock out Eagle Mountain in Minnesota and Timms Hill in Wisconsin…it’s kinda close to equidistant between both! Enjoy your time at a highpoint!!!

@MFollowill Mark, I’m currently at the highest point in Wisconsin, Tim’s Hill. 1,951 feet I believe. When you make it out here let us know as family lives at the bottom and owns the property surrounding - and it’s way out there. Enjoy the offseason!

I guess this is nothing new on the vastness of the Great Plains but man it was windy yesterday at Mount Sunflower (4,039 feet asl, high point of Kansas). I think the wind was blowing too hard when I was trying to explain but the only other person there was a ham radio operator!