Welcome back to The Varsity, my private email on the titans who run the sports business—from the luxury suites and corner offices to team planes and production trucks. It was great seeing all my Puck partners in D.C. last week in the run-up to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. We all had a great time at our party, in partnership with WME and Snap, at the Riggs. To all those who have remarked on the ascent of my social status since I arrived at Puck, I’ll let you eat cake…

On this date in 1988: The Baltimore Orioles won their first game of the season after 21 straight losses. A younger version of myself celebrated this highlight, a nadir of the Ripken era, at a Baltimore bar—a moment that was immortalized in this 15-minute video produced by MLB Network.

This issue is chock-full of news on Diamond, Paramount, the NBA, and the NFL. If you were forwarded this email, sign up here to become a Puck subscriber. And if you’re one of those people who keep forwarding this email, we’re prepared to kidnap Marchand from his silent retreat and send him after you…

Let’s get to it…

1. The Paramount-Charter extension is coming…: Here’s the only piece of good news about Paramount Global that you’ll hear all day: I’m told that the company’s negotiations with Charter have advanced far enough along that...