Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta of ESPN gave an inside look at the closed meetings between NFL owners and the NFL Players Association to discuss anthem protests and declining TV ratings.

Ken Belson of the New York Times also wrote on the internal tension within the NFL over the anthem protests, profiling league executive vice president of communications and top public relations official Joe Lockhart.

Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated examined the role of new, slicker baseballs used in the World Series and what impact they had in record setting amount of home runs this postseason.

Verducci also wrote on the Houston Astros epic win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series.

Angelique S. Chengelis of The Detroit News examines claims made by Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight’s father that his son’s injury was mishandled by Purdue medical staff earlier this season.

Tommy Deas of the Tuscaloosa News asks the difficult question, “Should your child play football?”

Peter King of the MMQB profiled long time ESPN NFL insider Chris Mortensen’s battle with cancer.

Torii MacAdams of Vice Sports profiled 16-year-old golf phenom Yaelimi Noh.