Welcome back to The Varsity, a twice-weekly private email for people who are just as interested in attendance and ratings as the final score. I’m coming to you from my hometown of Washington, D.C., where I spent Father’s Day gorging on steamed crabs and watching the most heartbreaking ending to the U.S. Open that I’ve seen in decades. Poor Rory.

My social feeds lit up over the weekend with Charles Barkley’s announcement that he would retire from television at the end of next season, regardless of whether or not TNT stays in business with the NBA. When it comes to Barkley, I’ll believe it when I see it. The writer Jon Lewis humorously tallied all the times Barkley has “retired” over the past 30 years. My bet: You’ll see Barkley on NBC in 2025.

Let’s get to it…

1. NFL Christmas anxieties: Ever since Netflix acquired two Christmas Day NFL games for around $150 million a pop, traditional media executives have been quietly sounding alarms in private—both about what the games might mean for the streamer and for...