Latest / The Sports Hangover Daily / Brunson's 22-Point Comeback Stuns Cavs in OT Thriller | May 20, 2026
Transcript
- Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Today on the show: Aaron Rodgers is back at Steelers OTAs and somehow this is year twenty-two, Jalen Brunson leads a twenty-two-point comeback to steal Game one in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the Canadiens survive Game seven in overtime to punch their ticket. Let's get into it. So Aaron Rodgers is officially back. He's at OTAs, he's taking first-team reps, and he signed a new one-year deal worth up to twenty-five million with incentives — base salary jumping from about thirteen and a half million to around twenty-two or twenty-three million. Year twenty-two. Let me say that again. Year. Twenty-two. The man is forty-two years old, and he's still out here acting like he's got unfinished business. And look — he was pretty solid last year. Threw for over thirty-three hundred yards, twenty-four touchdowns, seven picks. Led Pittsburgh to a ten and six record and a playoff berth. So it's not like he's washed. But here's what's wild about this whole thing. He's now quarterbacking a Mike McCarthy offense again. The two of them ran the show in Green Bay for years, and now they're reunited in Pittsburgh like some kind of football nostalgia tour. The Steelers also added Michael Pittman and Germie Bernard to a receiving corps that ranked thirty-first in eleven personnel last year under Arthur Smith. McCarthy's offense ranked ninth. So on paper, this should be a real upgrade. ESPN's Brooke Pryor reported that his presence "surprised some teammates." Which — come on. The guy spent the entire offseason being mysterious about his future, and now he just shows up at OTAs like nothing happened. That's peak Rodgers. Will Howard is QB two, Mason Rudolph QB three, Drew Allar QB four. That's a deep room. But make no mistake — this is Rodgers' team until he decides it isn't. Lamar Jackson was absent from Ravens voluntary OTAs yesterday. New head coach Jesse Minter played it cool, said Lamar's been one of the leaders of the offseason program and had "a couple things going on." But let's be real — Lamar's got two years left on his deal, no extension, and the Ravens are breaking in a new coaching staff with Minter and OC Declan Doyle. Tyler Huntley, Skylar Thompson, Diego Pavia, and Joe Fagnano were the four quarterbacks on the field. That's not exactly inspiring. Lamar being absent from voluntary sessions isn't a crisis, but it's worth watching. You want your franchise guy setting the tone when everything is new. Jacoby Brissett is also holding out from Cardinals OTAs. He wants a raise on his four point eight eight million dollar deal — only one point five million guaranteed — and the team told him he's the starter. Arizona gave Gardner Minshew five point one four million guaranteed and drafted Carson Beck at sixty-five, so Brissett's leverage is limited. But I get his frustration. You're the starter getting paid like a clipboard holder. That's not great. George Pickens signed his one-year franchise tag with the Cowboys — twenty-seven point three million. Dallas has already said they won't entertain a long-term deal. Classic Cowboys. They traded for the headache and now they're managing it one year at a time. In Cleveland, Deshaun Watson is reportedly healthy after missing all of twenty-five with the ruptured Achilles. Shedeur Sanders started seven games last year. An insider told ESPN that Watson's absence "was the best thing that could've happened to him." We'll see. That quarterback battle is gonna be one of the more fascinating camp storylines. And Rashee Rice got sentenced to thirty days in jail after testing positive for marijuana in violation of his probation. He'll miss Chiefs OTAs and minicamp. Just when you think that situation has calmed down, it hasn't. Jalen Brunson put on a show. Knicks trailed the Cavs ninety-three to seventy-one with seven minutes and fifty-two seconds left in the fourth quarter of Game one. Down twenty-two. And Brunson just took over. He finished with thirty-eight points and led a forty-four to eleven run through the end of the fourth and overtime. Final score — one fifteen to one oh four, New York. Brunson attacked James Harden relentlessly down the stretch, and Harden had a rough night — one for eight from three, more turnovers than field goals, six turnovers to five makes. Donovan Mitchell had twenty-nine for Cleveland, but the Cavs collapsed. That's now eight straight wins for New York. And the Canadiens survived. Montreal beat Buffalo three to two in overtime in Game seven. Alex Newhook scored at eleven twenty-two of overtime. He's now the second player in NHL history to score multiple Game seven series-clinching goals in a single postseason, joining Nathan Horton back in twenty eleven. Jakub Dobes was incredible — thirty-seven saves on a night when he had to bounce back after getting shelled in Game six. Buffalo's fifteen-year playoff drought continues in the most painful way possible. That one stings. Here's my Hangover Take. The Browns quarterback situation is gonna be the most toxic camp battle in the league and nobody's talking about it enough. You've got Deshaun Watson, who hasn't played a meaningful snap in over a year, coming back from a double Achilles nightmare. And you've got Shedeur Sanders, who started seven games and has real momentum. An insider told ESPN that Watson's absence was "the best thing that could've happened to him." Cool. But that also means the organization spent an entire year getting used to life without him. Shedeur has allies in that building now. Watson is walking back into a locker room that moved on. This isn't a competition — it's a cold war. And whoever loses is gonna make it ugly. Book it. That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.