CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Just before heading into the locker room to prepare for kickoff against Miami on Saturday, North Carolina receiver Tez Walker came to the sideline to give his high school coach a hug.
Josh Harris has been a father figure to Walker for nearly a decade. They still talk every day. As Walker prepared for his first game fully incorporated in the North Carolina offense, Harris peppered him with questions about how it was going and what he thought of the Miami cornerbacks he would face.
“They’re physical,” Walker told him.
“But can they run with you?” Harris asked.
“Nah,” Walker replied.
That became apparent in the first quarter, when he easily scored an 18-yard touchdown as a flummoxed Miami secondary lost track of him. Then he scored another, a 56-yarder on a perfectly placed ball from Drake Maye after Walker blazed past Jaden Davis. By the time he scored his third, the Hurricanes had no answers.
Walker had become the star of the game.
Six catches. 151 yards of total offense. Three touchdowns. Multiple statements made: To the NCAA. To his opponents. To himself.
When Walker transferred from Kent State to North Carolina in December, he envisioned games just like this one. But then the NCAA declared him ineligible this season because he was a two-time transfer. Walker had no idea it would take a seven-month fight with the NCAA — one that included a public pressure campaign, legal intervention and half a football season — to play in a game for the first time.
“I’m glad they changed their mind,” Walker said. “Very blessed and thankful they were able to do that for me.”
WHEN WALKER BEGAN classes at North Carolina on Jan. 9, he expected some challenges from the NCAA in getting his waiver to play in 2023 granted because he was a two-time transfer, but the NCAA had previously granted them in other cases. He and North Carolina believed he qualified for multiple reasons, because mental health was his reason for transferring and because he never played at NC Central, with the pandemic having canceled the season.
Two days later, he got an indication of just how challenging getting a waiver would become. On Jan. 11, the NCAA announced it was cracking down on waivers for two-time transfers and would grant them only if “student-athletes demonstrated and adequately documented a personal need for medical or safety reasons to depart their previous school.”
Walker tried not to panic.
He had lost football before — because of injury and the pandemic — and always found his way back onto the field. His road to North Carolina was not easy.
Coming out of high school, most colleges wanted Walker to play defensive back. He insisted on playing receiver. Few offers came his way. He took one from East Tennessee State in 2019, but a torn ACL derailed those plans.
Walker decided to stay home in Charlotte and took a job working at Bojangles to help pay his rehab bills. One day, three NC Central coaches walked in the door after watching game tape Harris had sent them. Walker stared at them, stunned, not expecting their arrival.
“I tried to play it cool, but it was heartwarming to see a team still take a chance on me when I thought nobody really was,” Walker said.
The clouds lifted, but only temporarily. The pandemic canceled the fall 2020 season and a planned spring 2021 season. Walker entered the portal again in 2021 and went to Kent State. While he was there, he grew homesick and began struggling with his mental health. Walker had served as the primary caregiver for his grandmother, Loretta Black, a role he took on in high school after she had multiple knee operations and could not walk on her own. Walker did whatever she needed — including bathing her, cooking, administering her medicine, cleaning and running errands while his mother worked two jobs to support the family.
While he was gone at Kent State, he constantly worried as she struggled with her physical health. Black reassured him she was doing OK, but, she says, “I couldn’t travel to see him, my feet swell, it’s hard for me to get around, and I can’t do that much walking because my body gets so tired and weak,” she said.
He opted for North Carolina because it was closer to her — Chapel Hill is a 2½-hour drive from his home in Charlotte, whereas it takes more than 7 hours to drive to Kent State in northeastern Ohio. He and North Carolina knew the fight with the NCAA might take some time, but both believed his circumstances would be enough to get that waiver.
THE NORTH CAROLINA administration and compliance staff started to gather all the necessary documentation, believing Walker had a case on three fronts. They believed his time at NC Central should not count against him because the pandemic canceled his football season; his mental health was his reason for transferring to North Carolina; and both NC Central and Kent State supported his immediate eligibility and were willing to file waivers on his behalf.
But the NCAA had recently changed another bylaw and would no longer take into account waivers from previous institutions that wanted to file in support of immediate eligibility.
“Everyone was fully supportive of Tez doing what’s right for Tez,” said Greg Glaus, Kent State executive deputy athletic director with oversight over football. “We wanted to be helpful for whatever that next step for Tez was going to be.”
Glaus said the school “had everything lined up and in the system. I don’t believe there was ever a denial or anything like that. I think it was just more, ‘We see what you’re doing. But that’s just not an option anymore.'”
North Carolina wanted to file two waivers. It believed Walker had a strong argument with the COVID-19 year and pointed out that if a school announced it was not playing sports that year, all student-athletes could immediately apply for an exception that would allow a transfer without penalty.
UNC also pointed to the toll that being away from home and his grandmother took on Walker’s mental health. Sources indicated the NCAA would not allow North Carolina to file these independently — they had to be rolled into one waiver, and the COVID exception would be looked at only as a mitigating circumstance. The NCAA repeatedly told North Carolina it could not retroactively apply that relief exception — that Walker should have done it in 2021 when he left NC Central.
For months, the NCAA and North Carolina went back and forth on the facts of Walker’s case. Sources indicated the NCAA was skeptical about the reason for Walker’s entrance into the portal because it was so close to when his head coach left Kent State. Sources told ESPN on Dec. 5, the same day the transfer portal opened, that Sean Lewis would leave the head-coaching job at Kent State to become Colorado’s offensive coordinator; Walker went into the portal Dec. 9 and committed to North Carolina on Dec. 21. To Walker, that skepticism made him feel as though the NCAA was dismissive of his mental health and the pages of documentation North Carolina provided. In addition to seeking help at Kent State, he immediately sought care when he enrolled at North Carolina, and the school provided that documentation as well.
“I feel like you read my story and just come out and say it had nothing to do with mental health was the most unfair,” Walker said. “I really struggled. I started to feel like it had nothing to do with me. I just felt like the NCAA probably had something against Carolina.”
The process felt like one big merry-go-round. North Carolina filed its initial waiver in the spring. It was denied. North Carolina appealed. It went to a committee made up of NCAA Division I representatives, and they upheld the initial decision. North Carolina got more documentation and asked for reconsideration. It was denied again. North Carolina appealed to the committee. It was denied again. North Carolina then asked for a second reconsideration of its initial waiver, which was denied and went to the full committee again.
At that point, it was Sept. 1, the day before the season opener against South Carolina in Charlotte, with no decision on Walker’s final attempt at eligibility. North Carolina coach Mack Brown laid into the NCAA in a statement, saying, “They say they’re about helping kids, but all they’ve done is add to the very mental health issues Tez has been dealing with that made him want to get closer to home to begin with. You can’t say you’re about helping kids and then show a total disregard for the kids you’re supposed to be helping.”
Walker had to sit out the game in his hometown and missed the opportunity to play in front of 30 of his friends and family members who had tickets (his family insisted on coming anyway). Though Black uses a walker and cane, and tires easily from walking, she pushed herself into the stadium and to her seat.
She said Walker came up into the stands before the game to see them. “When people found out who we were, they were so supportive, so we got through it with so many people being appreciative and supportive.”
A week later, on Sept. 7, Walker got what he believed was his final no from the NCAA. Again, Brown blasted the decision, saying the NCAA had failed Walker and his family. “It makes no sense and it never will,” Brown said.
Walker said his mental health worsened as a result. “That’s when it became hard to get out of bed, nights where I had thoughts that weren’t good thoughts. I was really struggling, but nobody knew that because I came in every day with a smile.”
Asked to elaborate on those thoughts, Walker said he was not suicidal but had thoughts about quitting and dropping out of school. “I didn’t want to do anything anymore. I felt if I didn’t have this game, I had nothing,” Walker said.
Walking around campus made it harder. Students often came up to him and said, “I’m sorry.” Walker said that he put on a fake smile but that he did not like being known as the guy on campus people felt sorry for. Though he said it wasn’t a “big thought,” he said declaring for the NFL draft was in the back of his mind. “I didn’t know what decision I was going to make. So it was 50-50.”
Ultimately, Walker pushed himself forward, went to practice and voluntarily asked to play on the scout team so he could help the first-team defense get better. He went to class because he did not want to fail. Receivers coach and passing game coordinator Lonnie Galloway made sure to check on him every day. So did his teammates. Walker credited the support of Brown, the staff, teammates and the administration for helping him. “It goes to show under the right coach, under the right staff, what they’ll do for you,” Walker said.
Walker also tried one more avenue at trying to play this season. Raleigh-based attorney Elliot Abrams and four other attorneys took on Walker’s case.
“Every other student gets to go to the place they think is going to maximize their future opportunities, and because he’s a football player, he has to sit in timeout for a year for making a choice that’s best for him. It’s absurd to me, and the human cost of that is completely ignored by the NCAA,” Abrams said.
The legal team, in conjunction with UNC, went through the case file again. “We looked at a case as one of these situations where the unjustness of the decision, the incorrectness of the decision and the illegality of the decision were all relatively apparent. We really believed that the NCAA would have to see that he met the criteria,” Abrams said.
Walker said his legal team began preparing the necessary court filings to sue the NCAA, in all likelihood by Friday, Oct. 6. State attorney general Josh Stein also threatened legal action against the NCAA in a letter he sent to the NCAA on Sept. 26, saying its decision likely violated federal and state antitrust laws.
“I just wanted fair treatment,” Walker said. “If they were not going to let me play, then we were going to just sue them. So it was just trying to figure out ways where we can go throughout that process and I could still play without punishment.”
On Thursday, Oct. 5, Brown called Walker up to his office. Walker walked in and saw Galloway standing there, too. “You’re eligible,” Brown told him. “You’re eligible, big dog!” Galloway said as he clapped. Brown came over and gave Walker a hug.
“I was in a state of shock,” Walker said. “I was glad it was over. Now I can focus on football.”
In its statement, the NCAA cited “new information” and blamed North Carolina for not providing it earlier, but UNC chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said that info was “immediately gathered and submitted.” Meanwhile, Walker said, “It was the same information we’ve been trying to give them and tell them that they’ve been reading for the last 10 months, so there was no new information.” (The NCAA declined further comment for this story, citing federal privacy laws and pointing to its previous statements on the case.)
Abrams declined to elaborate on what was presented, but he and Walker expressed their gratitude to the NCAA for taking another look.
WALKER MADE CALLS to Harris, Black and Ivey Cody, Walker’s mother. Black screamed so loud Walker had to pull the phone away from his ear. Harris simply told Walker he had to go because he was about to cry. “I found a corner in the gymnasium. I cried a little bit. I got myself together. Then throughout the day, I cried about three times just thinking about it,” Harris said.
Galloway and Walker immediately started working to get him into the game plan. Because he had been playing on scout team, and the game against Syracuse was just 48 hours away, Walker would have a limited role in his first game.
“We tried to cram as much as we could in, we knew we weren’t going to get everything,” Walker said. “I knew I had to go to my past notes and relearn the offense and the playbook as much as possible and then be locked in on Saturday when my number was called.”
With his grandmother, mother, uncle, sisters, high school coach and other family members in the stands, Walker was chosen to run onto the field carrying the North Carolina state flag. Black described the moment as “overwhelming.”
Walker got into the game in the first quarter, and his first catch was a short completion. He ended with six catches for 43 yards, and Walker said he played more than he expected. But he was also jittery because everything happened so fast.
Preparing for Miami would be completely different. Walker immersed himself in the game plan. He called on Maye and the receivers to watch extra tape. This would be his breakout moment, months and months in the making.
After it was over — North Carolina defeated Miami 41-31 to remain unbeaten — Walker ran to midfield to soak it all in. He did a television interview, while Galloway screamed, “Free Tez!” in the background. Then the two embraced, Galloway telling him how proud he was to be his coach.
An hour later, Walker’s mom, his uncle, his sister and Harris waited outside the football facility. Black was unable to make the trip this week, but she plans to make the next one. They all spoke about their excitement and joy, their relief and happiness that Walker was finally allowed to play.
They all had on their Walker gear. As they chatted, a man walked past and screamed, “The man scored more points than NC State did!” — a reference to the Wolfpack’s 24-3 loss to Duke earlier that night up Tobacco Road.
Walker finally emerged and walked over to his family, smiling the smile they all missed while he sat out. His mom, hoarse from cheering, called the entire night “magical.”
“It was beautiful, like a dream come true,” Cody said. “We had to fight for everything, and I showed him the example that if you want anything, don’t stop. Since the day he told me he wanted to play football, I said, ‘Go get it, son.'”
The winner of the National League Championship Series could determine if Major League Baseball is played in 2027.
This might sound far-fetched. It is not. What looks like a best-of-seven baseball series, which starts Monday as the Milwaukee Brewers host the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1, will play out as a proxy of the coming labor war between MLB and the MLB Players Association.
Owners across the game want a salary cap — and if the Dodgers, with their record $500 million-plus payroll, win back-to-back World Series, it would only embolden the league’s push to regulate salaries. The Brewers, consistently a bottom-third payroll team, emerging triumphant would serve as the latest evidence that winners can germinate even in the game’s smallest markets and that the failures of other low-revenue teams have less to do with spending than execution.
The truth, of course, exists somewhere in between. But in between is not where the two parties stake out their negotiating positions in what many expect to be a brutal fight to determine the future of the game’s economics. And that is why whoever comes out victorious likely will be used as a cudgel when formal negotiations begin next spring for a collective bargaining agreement that expires Dec. 1, 2026.
If it’s the Dodgers, MLB owners — who already were vocal publicly and even more so privately about Los Angeles spending as much as the bottom six teams in payroll combined this year — will likely cry foul even louder. Already, MLB is expected to lock out players upon the agreement’s expiration. Back-to-back championships by the Dodgers could embolden MLB and add to a chorus of fans who see a cap as a panacea for the plague of big-money teams monopolizing championships over the past decade.
Such a scenario would not scare the union off its half-century-old anti-cap stance. The MLBPA has no intention of negotiating if a cap remains on the table, and considering MLB was on the cusp of losing games in 2022 because of a negotiation that didn’t include a cap, players already have spoken among themselves about how to weather missing time in 2027. Certainly, the Brewers winning wouldn’t ensure avoiding that, but if in any argument about the necessity of a cap, the union can counter that the juggernaut Dodgers lost to a team of self-proclaimed Average Joes with a payroll a quarter of the size, it reinforces the point that team-building acumen can exist regardless of financial might.
The Brewers have joined the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians as vanguards of low-revenue success in this decade. Over the past eight years, Milwaukee has won five NL Central titles and made the playoffs seven times. At 97-65 this year, the Brewers owned the best record in baseball. And they did so with a unique blend of players.
Of the 26 players on Milwaukee’s NLCS roster, 15 came via trade, according to ESPN Research, including a majority of its best players (slugger Christian Yelich, catcher William Contreras, ace Freddy Peralta and Trevor Megill, the closer for most of the season). The Brewers drafted four (Brice Turang, Jacob Misiorowski, Sal Frelick and Aaron Ashby, all major contributors), signed three as minor league free agents, brought in two via international amateur free agency (their best player, Jackson Chourio, and closer Abner Uribe) and snagged one in the minor league portion of the offseason Rule 5 draft.
That leaves one major league free agent. One. And it was left-hander Jose Quintana, who signed a one-year, $4 million deal in March.
Think about that: The MLBPA, which has fought for free agency since its inception, would be heralding a team that does not spend on free agents. Strange bedfellows, yes, but it strengthens the union’s position: If the current system is beyond repair because of money, how did a team that doesn’t spend win a championship?
The Dodgers, on the other hand, are not nearly as free-agent-heavy as might be assumed. They’ve acquired the most players via trade, too, though it’s only nine, and several of them — from Mookie Betts to Tyler Glasnow to Tommy Edman to Alex Vesia — play a significant role on the team. Los Angeles signed five major league free agents (including Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Blake Snell), plus two professional international free agents (Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Hyeseong Kim), two amateur international free agents (Roki Sasaki and Andy Pages) and two minor league free agents (Max Muncy and Justin Dean). They drafted five of their players — one more than the Brewers, whose development system is regarded as one of baseball’s best — and rounded out their roster with Jack Dreyer, an undrafted free agent.
Dreyer highlights what the Dodgers and Brewers do exceptionally well: extract talent from players through systems that value a combination of scouting, analytics and superior coaching. It doesn’t matter whether you spend half a billion dollars or the $115 million or so currently on the Brewers’ books. If you can become an organization that gets the best out of players, winning will follow.
Perhaps if they weren’t so terminally parked at opposite ends of the continuum, the league and union could agree that staking an argument around one playoff series is foolhardy. Both sides should understand that, in the grand scheme, a seven-game series says very little, particularly when it comes to the complicated economic system of 30 billion-dollar corporations competing in the same space.
But this battle is as much about narrative as it is reality, and if MLB is going to push for a salary cap, it needs as much evidence as possible, and the Dodgers becoming the first team in a quarter-century to win back-to-back World Series would provide another nugget on top of the reams the league already cites. The last team to do that was the New York Yankees — and the competitive-balance tax, the proto-cap that currently penalizes high-spending teams, came into existence specifically to check what other owners believed the Yankees’ runaway spending.
The Dodgers are the new Yankees, more moneyed and willing to spend than anyone. They’ve won the NL West 12 of the past 13 years and captured championships in 2020 and 2024. And despite their seeming inevitability, baseball is not suffering in most areas important to the league. Television ratings are up. Attendance has increased. The implementation of the pitch clock before the 2024 season modernized the game and is now almost universally beloved. The addition of an automated ball-strike challenge system next year will only add to the game’s appeal.
This NLCS is baseball at its best. A well-oiled machine of superstars, peaking at the right time, looking to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions since 2000, against a team that plays a delightful brand of baseball, is wildly likable and always seems to succeed, too. The Brewers haven’t won a championship yet — not just in this recent run of excellence but in their 57-year history — and derailing the Dodgers en route to doing so would make the tale of triumph that much greater.
And, yes, despite the higher win total, the Brewers enter this series as the underdog, and it’s a fair designation. Even if they swept the Dodgers in the six games they played in July. Even if their bullpen is filled with fireballing nastiness. Even if they have whacked as many home runs this postseason as Los Angeles, despite the Dodgers hitting 78 more during the regular season.
There will be a lot of great baseball played in Milwaukee and Los Angeles over the next week-plus, fans’ cups running over with the sorts of matchups that make October the most special month of the year. Ohtani, Betts and Freeman trying to catch up to Misiorowski’s fastball and read his slider. Chourio, Contreras and Turang trying to solve Snell, Yamamoto, Glasnow and Ohtani. The Brewers’ terrifying bullpen, with five relievers throwing 97 mph-plus, against the team that hit high-octane fastballs better than anyone this year. The Dodgers trying to figure out if they can rely on any reliever other than Sasaki, and the Brewers, who were the fifth-toughest team to strike out this season, trying to get to Los Angeles’ bullpen with a barrage of balls in play.
While the baseball itself will be indisputable, this NLCS is bigger than the game. Its tentacles will reach into the future, with an unwitting but undeniable place in something far more consequential. It’s just one series, yes. But it’s so much more.
TORONTO — Bryce Miller overcame a shaky first inning and gave the tired Seattle Mariners the start they needed in the AL Championship Series opener.
Miller pitched six sharp innings, Jorge Polanco hit a go-ahead single in the sixth and the Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 Sunday night as they returned to the ALCS for the first time in 24 years.
“The year, personally, didn’t go how I had planned and how I had hoped for but we’re in the ALCS and I got to go out there and set the tone,” Miller said. “I felt great.”
Seattle slugger Cal Raleigh added a tying solo home run, his second homer of the postseason after leading the major leagues with 60 in the regular season.
“That was a big lift,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said of Raleigh’s drive in a two-run sixth.
George Springer homered on the first pitch from Miller, who then escaped a two-on jam in a 27-pitch first inning.
Anthony Santander singled in the second for Toronto’s only other hit, and Seattle pitchers retired 23 of the Blue Jays’ final 24 batters. Miller, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andres Munoz combined to throw just 100 pitches less than 48 hours after the Mariners needed 209 pitches to outlast Detroit over 15 innings.
“The job Bryce Miller did tonight was phenomenal,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “After that first inning, he went into a different gear. You saw him getting ahead, using all his stuff.”
Miller, the winner, struck out three and walked three in six innings, throwing 76 pitches. The three relievers each had eight-pitch, 1-2-3 innings, with Muñoz getting the save.
Raleigh tied the score in the sixth with his ninth homer in 14 games at Rogers Centre. Kevin Gausman had held batters to 0 for 16 on splitters in the postseason before Raleigh’s homer.
“I was trying to get bat on ball, really just trying to put something in play,” Raleigh said, wearing a T-shirt with the words: “JOB’S NOT FINISHED.” “I didn’t want to punch out again.”
Polanco hit a go-ahead single later in the inning and added an RBI single in the eighth.
“He’s been huge from both sides of the plate,” Raleigh said .
AL West champion Seattle traveled to AL East winner Toronto on Saturday after a 3-2 home victory over the Tigers on Friday to win the Division Series, the longest winner-take-all game in Major League Baseball history.
Seattle, the only MLB team to never host a World Series game, held Toronto to two hits after the Blue Jays had 50 hits and 34 runs in their four-game Division Series against the New York Yankees.
“We’re a really good offense,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Today it just didn’t work out.”
Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 9 for 17 with three homers and nine RBIs against the Yankees but finished 0 for 4 Sunday with three groundouts.
“This is going to be a hard-fought series, man,” Schneider said. “These guys will be ready for it.”
Springer’s 21st postseason home run broke a tie with the Yankees’ Derek Jeter, moving him into sole possession of fifth place on the career list.
Raleigh’s homer was his fourth in 15 at-bats against Gausman, who took the loss.
“Up to that point, I’d been throwing the ball really well and had the game right there,” Gausman said. “This one’s on me.”
Gausman allowed two runs and three hits in 5⅔ innings.
“Great hitters capitalize on mistakes,” Schneider said. “That split from Kev just kind of leaked back over the middle a little bit.”
Raleigh hit a one-out single off Gausman in the first and advanced to third on Julio Rodríguez’s base hit but was thrown out at the plate by third baseman Addison Barger on Polanco’s grounder.
Polanco, who had the game-ending single Friday, singled against Brendon Little to drive in Rodríguez, who had chased Gausman with a two-out walk.
Eugenio Suarez doubled off the top of the right-field wall against Louis Varland in the seventh. The 395-foot drive would have been a homer in 15 of 30 big league ballparks, including Seattle.
Toronto outfielder Nathan Lukes left in the fourth inning. Lukes bruised his right knee when he fouled a pitch off it in the first inning. Schneider said X-rays were negative and said Lukes might return Monday.
TORONTO — The Blue Jays‘ George Springer homered on the first pitch from Seattle‘s Bryce Miller in the American League Championship Series opener Sunday, moving past the New York Yankees‘ Derek Jeter into sole possession of fifth place on the career list with his 21st postseason home run.
Springer’s 385-foot drive to right field on a fastball at the outside corner put Toronto ahead with the first postseason leadoff home run in Blue Jays history. Springer has 63 leadoff homers in the regular season, second to Rickey Henderson’s record 81.
Manny Ramirez hit a record 29 postseason homers and is trailed by Jose Altuve (27), Kyle Schwarber (23) and Bernie Williams (22).
However, also in the first inning, Blue Jays outfielder Nathan Lukes fouled a ball off his right knee, falling in pain. He stayed in the game and drew a 12-pitch walk, then flied out leading off the third and was replaced by Myles Straw for the start of the fourth.
The team said he bruised his knee and was being further evaluated.
Lukes went 4-for-12 with five RBIs in Toronto’s division series win over the Yankees, including a key two-run single in the Game 4 clincher. He also made a diving catch in Toronto’s Game 1 win.