Musings of An Old Sportswriter

On the Fever and the Colts' quarterback battle. And other stuff to consider.

Don’t look now, but the Indiana Fever have won five straight games, doing so without the services of Caitlin Clark.

What this tells me is the Fever are a title contender; consider how this team will perform once Clark returns from her groin injury. Consider how fresh she’ll be down the stretch as the Fever positions itself for the playoffs. The Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Atlanta Dream and Phoenix Mercury currently rate as the top four teams, but the Fever are within shouting distance of all of them except the 24-5 Lynx. They’re a game behind Atlanta, a half-game behind Phoenix and a game-and-a-half behind New York.

Before it’s all over, the Fever have every chance to finish in the top two or three WNBA teams, even compete for a league title. In many ways, the Fever are like the Pacers, treading water for the first third to a half of the season, waiting for Clark to come back, poised to make a huge run down the stretch. Stay tuned.

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If you’re looking for an unlikely Fever hero, look no further than Aari McDonald, the 5-foot-6 point guard who was cut by the LA Sparks and picked up in midseason by an Indiana team desperate to fill Clark’s oversized shoes. McDonald has averaged 9.8 points and 4.7 assists in 18 games, pairing up with Kelsey Mitchell to give the Fever a fast and dynamic backcourt.

That’s not to suggest the Fever are better with McDonald than they are with Clark – perish the thought – but she’s been a roster Godsend, a quicksilver guard who was the third pick in the draft by the Atlanta Dream back in 2021.

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Another day, another Fever road sellout, as is expected tonight at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

I never thought I’d see the day.

I’ve been a sports journalist for more than 40 years, and the single greatest change I’ve seen in sports is the growth not only of women’s sports, but the growing role of women in sports journalism.

When I was a kid, athletic girls were viewed as tomboys. I remember a girl named Gina Galicchio, a neighborhood girl who could out-run and out-play all the boys. We thought she was a freak of nature. Suffice to say, we disliked her; I mean, a girl beating the tar out of the boys? Can’t happen. Shouldn’t happen. But did. Every time.

Everything changed in 1972, when I was 12 years old. That’s when Title IX was enacted, and girls started getting some of the kinds of athletic opportunities as the boys. That’s not to say everything was equal the moment Title IX was enacted; girls still lacked facilities, sharing gyms and fields with the boys, but over time, the women’s games have grown and grown. And now look, another Fever sellout, even with Caitlin Clark on the sidelines with a strained right groin.

This isn’t just a Clark thing, although she’s certainly supercharged the process. All throughout the league, attendance is booming, and not just on nights when Clark will be appearing on the road.

As for sports journalism, I still remember a day when women had to fight to gain access to the locker room. And if they did have access, they were treated poorly. I will never forget the scene in the San Diego Padres post-game clubhouse when Hall of Fame writer Claire Smith walked into their room during the 1984 National League playoff series against the Chicago Cubs. Immediately, players started making inappropriate comments toward Smith, a respected veteran writer based out of Hartford, Conn. It wasn’t until Steve Garvey and Tony Gwynn spoke up and put a stop to their teammates’ nonsense that the foolishness died down. (Gwynn was the nicest professional athlete I ever knew. A prince of a guy.)

Now, you look at Sports Illustrated, The Athletic and all the national and even local outlets, and the number of female journalists is growing by leaps and bounds. A lot of the best columnists, beat reporters and features writers are women. Earlier in my career, it was rare to have a female on the staff, and if one existed, she usually covered a low-profile beat. That’s no longer the case.

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DeWanna Bonner returned to Indy and, as expected, got booed pretty vociferously, with calls of “quitter” audible when she was on the floor. Bonner, who was expected to be the Fever’s biggest off-season addition, left the team for personal reasons for five games, then announced she would not be returning to the Fever. Indy then waived her. The boos were expected, unless you’re Bonner’s Phoenix teammate, Kahleah Copper.

“I just don’t understand. Like, she’s a legend. All the things she’s done for the league – the disrespect, I just can’t get down with it…” Copper told the Indy Star. “It’s very distasteful what their fan base is doing when it comes to DB, because she is just the sweetest soul. The situation didn’t work for her and it wasn’t what she wanted or whatever, but we don’t need all of that. It’s just unnecessary.”

Yeah, well, explain that to the more than 17,000 fans who believe, with merit, that Bonner went south on the franchise. Yes, she’s a legendary player, one of the WNBA’s best-ever, but she had it coming. This is pro sports. Fans are gonna fan.

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Whoever wins the Colts quarterback derby – and I think it should be Anthony Richardson unless Daniel Jones significantly outplays him this next month – should get a very long leash. At some point, the Colts need to make a commitment to a quarterback – for as long as he stays healthy, of course.. It serves no good purpose to start Richardson with the idea that he’ll get the hook if he struggles. I say, let him struggle. Let him learn and get the reps he didn’t consistently get his first two years, when he played just 17 of 34 games due to injuries and a benching . At some point, the Colts need to find out whether he's the future or not.

Both quarterbacks have had good and bad moments, but I’m guessing we learn a lot more about them during these joint practices against the Baltimore Ravens and then in preseason games. Most preseason games are a giant waste of time, but this will be incredibly important Thursday night in Baltimore and beyond that. Every snap will be judged.

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It may not seem possible, but I’m figuring IU’s football team has a chance to be better this year than they were last year.

Virtually all of their stars are back from last season. There’s Mikail Kamara, Aiden Fisher, D’Angelo Ponds, Elijah Sarratt and others. More, they figure to upgrade at quarterback, which seems insane given how well Kurtis Rourke played last year, but Fernando Mendoza, a transfer from Cal who threw for more than 3,000 yards despite being sacked on a consistent basis.

Last year was not a fluke, and it wouldn’t surprise me, at all, if the Hoosiers found their way again to the College Football Playoff.

The non-conference schedule is, in all fairness, a joke, the Hoosiers having canceled their home and away with the University of Virginia. The Hoosiers should be able to name the score against Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State. The first test comes Sept. 29 at home against Illinois, a 10-3 team last year that has most of its firepower returning from last year’s group. Then comes two eminently challenging road games against Iowa and Oregon, and a Nov. 8 game at Penn State.

The question is, how do they handle success. That’s Curt Cignetti’s biggest challenge.

“You’re as good as you are today,” he said recently. “Your resume, your body of work in the past is sort of an indicator, a predictor of what the team is capable of doing…but you’ve got to put the work in. You’ve got to find the edge every day. It’s that kind of business where the margin for error is very slim and that’s what makes it such a great game and such a great profession. It’s challenging.”

The Vegas over-under on win total is 8.5 victories. True, the Big Ten schedule is more challenging with games against Iowa, Illinois, Penn State and Oregon, but I still say, take the over. I’m not sure they reach the College Football Playoff again, but I wouldn’t put it past them, either. Cignetti is building a powerhouse.

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Terry McLaurin and Micah Parsons, two players who would look phenomenal in Colts uniforms, are demanding trades to go along with their contract holdouts (or, in McLaurin’s case, a hold-in). Now, if we’re being realistic, there’s little to no chance they’re going to be moved. How can Washington justify dealing McLaurin when the quarterback, Jayson Daniels, is still on a rookie contract? It’s not like Deebo Samuel is poised to be WR1. They’d be nuts to move him. Same with Parsons, who is going through the usual war of words with the eminently flaky Jerry Jones. If history tells us anything, Jones will sign (and overpay) Parsons just before the regular season begins.

That said, if you’re the Colts, aren’t you kicking the tires? Don’t tell me you don’t want to pay a plus-30-year-old wide receiver $30 million and chance. Guy named Reggie Wayne had four seasons of 1,000 yards or more after he hit 30. McLaurin is a No. 1 receiver who’s put up big numbers despite playing with sub-standard quarterbacks (save for Daniels).

As for Parsons, he’s the most impactful defensive player in the league and he’s only 26. If you’re Carlie Irsay-Gordon, imagine the statement you could make by having Chris Ballard engage in conversations with Parsons’ people and the Cowboys. Imagine this team with a dominant pass rush, something that haven’t had in decades.

Look, I know, this comes under the heading of “never gonna happen,” but it would be interesting to think about the kind of move that would rock the NFL. Just once, I want to see the Colts do something wildly exciting and wholly unexpected.