6 sports group chats we’d love to be added to on accident

These are the sports group chats we’d love to be added to.

If you have been near a computer or looked at your phone in the past 24 hours, odds are you have seen the story about several Trump Administration figures discussing plans for an upcoming military action in a group chat on Signal, the messaging app. However, one of the individuals added to that group chat was a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, of The Atlantic.

While we are not here to dive into the details of that story, it did get us thinking: What sports-related group chats would we love to have been added to accidentally?

Here is what we came up with.

PGA Tour Policy Board negotiating with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)

For almost two years, PGA Tour brass has met with and negotiated with the Saudi PIF, LIV Golf’s beneficiary, hoping to strike a deal to unite professional golf. It’s been a mess, a jumbled process that has included Congressional hearings, the Department of Justice getting involved, and a couple of meetings at the White House under the new administration.

Yet, the golfing public has no idea what has been discussed or what specifics have been addressed. Could LIV players return to the tour? Will LIV Golf cease to exist? Or will the PGA Tour incorporate elements of LIV into its circuit? Nobody knows. And PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan refuses to delve into any details, often repeating the now infamous line, ‘We are not going to negotiate in public.’

So what would this group chat look like?

It would be quite juicy and also include the likes of Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, both of whom have joined Monahan on a recent trip to the White House. Learning of Woods’ honest assessment of this whole ordeal would be worth the price of admission in and of itself. — Jack Milko

F1 Drivers’ Group Chat

The F1 Drivers’ Group Chat is the stuff of legend.

The existence of a WhatsApp group chat consisting of the current F1 drivers was confirmed years ago, but despite rampant speculation about what happens in those discussions, some drivers have downplayed the idea that things get out of hand. Oscar Piastri, speaking about the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA) group chat back in 2023, said that the matters discussed were “boring.”

“There is. Yeah, there’s like the GPDA WhatsApp group chat. I think everybody has this really grand idea of how exciting is and people are just taking shots at each other and posting memes, but it’s really quite boring”, he told the P1 Podcast.

However George Russell, the Director of the GPDA, did say once about the group chat that “I mean it’s not like we’re sending banter in there day after day but there are occasions where something may have happened on track and suddenly people are sending memes in and whatever and it gets a bit out of control.” Russell said this on the The Fast and the Curious podcast.

One such day where things might have gotten out of control?

Before last season, when Hamilton announced he was going to Ferrari. But there are certainly other options, such as the drama surrounding Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner last season, the driver transfer market that saw Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Pérez lose their seats, and other moments in recent F1 history. — Mark Schofield

NFL owners group chat after things like Lamar Jackson getting no contract offers in free agency

It can be difficult to get the NFL into the discovery stage of trials, so let’s just get a chance to take a look at ownership group texts after every questionable piece of news over the years. I’m not saying the owners illegally agreed to not make a contract offer to Lamar Jackson when he was on the non-exclusive franchise tag, but given their history, I’m not not saying that. While Jeffrey Goldberg didn’t feel it was appropriate to remain in the group chat, I’d remain in that group chat in silent mode as long as necessary. Billionaires have to do some shady stuff to get to that level, and we know sports owners are no different. I’d love to get a chance to listen to them honestly discuss so many different topics, in a way we never hear them discuss them publicly.

Every group chat related to Browns QB decisions since Jimmy Haslam took over

Listen, the Deshaun Watson trade process would for sure be interesting but Cleveland has had their fair share of interesting quarterback decisions. Drafting Johnny Manziel (not just because a guy on the streets told Haslam to), choosing to draft and then choosing to trade Baker Mayfield, not bringing back Joe Flacco after his Comeback Player of the Year award, talking about every weird thing Jameis Winston said and, oh yeah, guarenteeing Watson’s contract and everything that came with his acquisition.

The 2011 NBA owners chat when the Hornets tried to trade Chris Paul to the Lakers

It was the biggest trade that never was. In December of 2011 the (then) New Orleans Hornets were under the control of the NBA itself. Owner George Shinn bankrupted the team after moving the Hornets from Charlotte, and was no longer able to keep funding the organization — forcing the league to step in and manage things until a new owner could be found.

During this time period the objective was to just steward the team through without rocking the boat, but the Hornets had a mega-problem on its hands: Chris Paul. In the final year of his rookie deal, CP3 told the team he wouldn’t be re-signing for obvious reasons. Unquestionably the best point guard in the NBA at the time next to Steve Nash, Paul was going to get a massive contract from someone and the Hornets had to get something for him.

What followed is one of the most contentious, lop-sided trades in NBA history. A three team deal with the Lakers and Rockets, essentially the Hornets would lose Chris Paul and in return get:

• Kevin Martin
• Luis Scola
• Lamar Odom
• A 2012 1st round pick

Odom was way past his prime, Scola and Martin were decent — but nothing like Chris Paul.

All hell broke lose with owners, led by Dan Gilbert, accusing the NBA of orchestrating the trade to make the Lakers into a championship team. The owner uproar was so great that commissioner David Stern ended up vetoing the deal, eventually agreeing to a separate trade to send Paul to the Clippers.

It would have been amazing to be in the chat to see what owners were saying privately about this deal that was so intense that Stern stepped in. — James Dator

The Packers’ front office when Aaron Rodgers went into a cave

I’m here for prime television and entertainment, folks. When then-Green Bay Packers’ QB Aaron Rodgers went into his darkness retreat for four days, and I would’ve loved to be added to the front office group chat in those four days that Rodgers was in a Hobbit hole. Do we think the front office shit talked Rodgers in those four days? Did the trade to the Jets materialize in the chats? It feels like this chat was made immediately after Rodgers told the team he was doing the darkness retreat, like a shit talking alarm went off right after he closed the door on it.

I bet the meme collection in that groupchat on every day since the Rodgers trade went down has gone crazy too. With how the Rodgers era ended for the Jets, GM Brian Gutekunst has to be in that chat talking cash shit about he and the team. I would love to see and be a silent observer in that.