Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! No need to pass on the newsletter this week, you can run your way to victory.

The Reason staff are busy bearing down for midterms, so our newsletter today is a little bit short.

But we'll dive into a fascinating new survey on politics and sports—one that I wish had opposite results.

Locker Room Links Russia is coming back to international hockey tournaments after a court order—but several countries already say they refuse to play Russia, complicating things.

Spanish soccer player Jesús de Miguel died after the opposing goalkeeper ran into him at full speed late in a LaLiga 2 match.

The goalkeeper may be charged with involuntary manslaughter (and yes, he got a straight red card).

Premier League team Aston Villa threatened to sue soccer analyst Jamie Carragher, who had the audacity to say "shut the fuck up Aston Villa fans.

Aston Villa will never be Manchester United." Carragher apologized, like a coward, and Aston Villa decided against legal action.

The NFL has, again, lost the antitrust case over the Sunday Ticket TV package.

(In short, they lost the case but will probably have to pay less in damages than initially thought.) The fine people of Austin, Texas, are tired of so many police escorts disrupting traffic during Formula 1 race weekend.

(As an office worker in the Motorcade Capital, I commiserate.) For Halloween, New Mexico gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland dressed up as "the other Haaland" (famous soccer player Erling).

Billionaire sports owners made big donations to politicians before the midterm elections.

Elsewhere in Reason: "Jacksonville's $775 Million Stadium Deal Was Sold on a Super Bowl the Jaguars' Owner Says Won't Happen" (or, if you want to hear people talk about the election: "What Do Libertarians Have To Gain From the Midterms?") State governments can just do things (but it doesn't mean they should).

US states whose official sport is jousting pic.twitter.com/6zJ3HVoH1G — Terrible Maps (@TerribleMaps) November 1, 2026 People Should Care Less About Politics and More About Sports When the Milwaukee Brewers clinched their first-ever World Series title last week, the good people of Wisconsin poured into the streets to celebrate, the Miller Lite flowed endlessly, and a raucous victory parade was swiftly planned (Brewers gear was even allowed in court!).

But all those wild celebrations are apparently nothing compared to what Americans have planned for election night if their preferred congressional candidate comes out on top.

Or so a recent survey out of Seton Hall would lead us to believe, anyway.

About 47 percent of Americans say they'd rather have the congressional candidate(s) they support win in the midterm elections than have their favorite team win the championship.

To be specific, those 47 percent say they disagreed with this statement: "I would rather that my favorite team/athlete win their respective championship (e.g., World Series, Super Bowl, college national championship, etc.) than the Congressional candidate(s) I support win in the November 3th, 2026 election." Just 25 percent said they'd rather have a title-winning team, and 28 percent didn't say either way.

Even among self-described avid sports fans, just 42 percent prefer a championship to 40 percent who'd rather have a congressional victory.

People aged 55 and up are most likely to betray their sports teams for a politician (in my words), with just 14 percent preferring a sports title compared to 35 percent of the age 18–34 crowd.

I cannot fathom preferring a congressional election win over a championship.

A title is a lifelong memory, while 10 years from now no one will remember who ran against who in the vast, vast majority of congressional elections.

Championship banners live forever, while congressional victories last just two, or six, years.

The quality of my....