We are coming off our Thanksgiving bye week with a big episode. The holidays are upon us, bringing with them festive cheer and family game nights. This week we welcome two of the most competitive gamers to Basic Sports, Zach and Christine Johnson. We talk all about the highs and lows of high school sports, the cutthroat arena of family game nights and the BS Fantasy Football league. Don't forget to follow and comment with your favorite games!

"F is for friends who play sports together"

- SpongeBob SquarePants

This week we talk about making friends in sports. Are they the best friends you will ever make? Is it too late to make friends in sports? We talk about how we met through sports and how sports creates such strong bonds. We also explore "frenemies" in sports, listen in!

While this episode isn't live, the sporting events we attended definitely were! Join us as we recap a couple of our recent journeys into the world of live sports in Austin. Tune in as we talk about watching the US Women's National Team (soccer) play their first game post Olympic Gold against Iceland at Q2 stadium and the Texas Longhorns game against the Florida Gators. Both decisive wins and a great time! Is there anything better than high-fiving your neighbors when something good happens? Maybe the snacks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on Instagram!

In honor of the US election this week, we decided we should have our own BS Election (see what we did there, Basic Sports - BS), especially since we believe sports bring people together and it can feel especially divisive around election time. For a little levity we had our own "would you rather" election: sports edition. Tune in for some hard hitting questions that may make you think. Please enjoy, the first of hopefully many future BS elections here on Basic Sports. Add your own "would you rather" votes in the comments and toss out your own questions to add to our future BS ballot.

Is that blood or mom's spaghetti? It's spooky season and we are embracing the scary on Basic Sports. In honor of Halloween this week, we are bringing you true crime, sports edition, joined by returning special guest Regan for her second guest appearance! We dive into three different cases related to sports and athletes this week, looking at true crime from a sports angle.

*Warning: This episode does discuss murder, abuse and gambling. Please skip this week if you need to, we will be back to regularly scheduled programming next week.

As listeners of true crime, we gained a newfound respect for true crime podcasters, we learned how hard it is to tell these stories cleanly, succinctly and with the right information. Join us as we cover Operation Flagrant Foul along with the murders of Lorenzen Wright and Steve McNair. We summarize these cases in this episode but below are links to the documentaries and articles we referenced to tell their stories, check them out for more information and to see the full, professional versions:

Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul on Netflix

Who Killed Lorenzen Wright | Sports Illustrated

Dateline Podcast Episode: The Murder of Lorenzen Wright

Untold: The Murder of Air McNair on Netflix

Why the New Steve McNair Netflix documentary, while informative, feels incomplete

Your Own Backyard Podcast

The Vanished Podcast

Get your ice packs ready and warm up those heating pads because this week on BS we talk about a really painful topic... injuries in sports!

This week we welcome some very special guests to the BS podcast, Mary's parents, Pat & Scott!! They spill the tea on having kids in sports, raising two children with very different competitive drives and more. Tune in to hear their take aways from 18+ years involved in their kids sports, and maybe they will share who their favorite kid is...

*Note: In honor of the Vikings epic Parent Trap touchdown celly, we are calling this one "Parent Trap" but no parents were trapped or harmed in the making of this episode.

Get your glass slippers ready, this week we are talking about Underdogs, upsets and Cinderella Stories! After this weekend, which we have coined "Upset Weekend" in college football, we thought it would be fun to take a look at why we love underdogs so much. Who didn't love watching Alabama lose to Vanderbilt and their fans carry the goal posts to the river?! Let us know what some of your favorite underdog moments are in the comments!

Here is the link for the article Stef referenced, its a great read! (the percentage we were looking for is 81%).