Box Score 10/13: Rice, Cooks, Towns and Matthews

Good morning and welcome to the Yardbarker Box Score, what we're reading while we wait for the Stanley Cup champion the Pittsburgh Penguins to return to the ice. (And oh, guess the NLDS can hurry up and finish already.)

Happy birthday to Jerry Rice and Summer Sanders. And a special big happy birthday to Paul Pierce. Have a good final season and enjoy retirement, sir. On today's date in 1971 the first night World Series game was played (Pirates 4, Orioles 3), and in 1982 Jim Thorpe had his Olympic medals restored posthumously.

Around the league: 

• Solid read on the European kickers who completely transformed the NFL. [ESPN]
• Jim Harbaugh likes his steak with an enormous glass of milk because of course he does. Never pass up a chance at added protein. [Sportress of Blogitude]
• Want to watch a fan run on the ice in an OHL game? Of course you do. [Punk Drunk Love]
• Listen if we're watching funny videos we're also watching this raccoon who stole a cellphone. Really. (We'll call it the 'raccoon marathon' so it seems like sports.) [SBNation]

YB ICYMI:

"How many of you drafted Brandin Cooks? Like me you probably thought that this Saints team was going to have to throw the ball all over the place because their defense was going to be garbage. The good news is, you’re right – the Saints defense is atrocious giving up 423 yards and 32.5 points a game. The bad news? Brandin Cooks has 12 catches, 112 yards and zero touchdowns in his past three games combined. Week 1 had Brandin Cooks owners feeling excited with six catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns which was good for 27 points. " - Fantasy players we already regret drafting

"The fifth spot will go to Karl-Anthony Towns. There isn’t anything the kid can’t do. He has phenomenal footwork in the post, can stretch defenses out to the perimeter and can pass as well as any young big man in the league. It’ll take some time for Joel Embiid to adjust to the NBA, but between those two and Anthony Davis, the battle for the best big in the NBA is going to be awfully fun to watch over the next decade — and after a rookie season in which Towns averaged 18 and 10.5, it looks like he has the early advantage over his peers." - Projecting the All-NBA teams

"Despite entering the postseason as a Wild Card team, Toronto did win 89 games this season and likely had a few more victories shaved off due to being amid the gauntlet of the American League East. That goes to say that they are a better team than their record indicates, and the type of club that can defy the odds of opening and closing a series on the road. But can the Jays do just that? Especially when tasked with a Cleveland Indians team that just made short work of the Boston Red Sox team that finished ahead of the Jays in the AL East?" - Three reasons why the Toronto Blue Jays could make (or miss) the World Series

"The Broncos will be heavily favored over the unranked Akron Zips, but that won't matter to Broncos fans excited to watch their team protect their ranking. This Saturday, Kalamazoo will be an all-day party, and football fans with a taste for some MACtion could do a whole lot worse than to join Western Michigan fans in the lot at Waldo Stadium." - TailGreater: Every sport is going right now, including MACtion

"Overall, as I said above, it really is hard to look at this game and not be disappointed. Most yearly games are iterative, sure, but each tries to add new and exciting features, gameplay hooks, or modes. WWE 2k17 didn't do any of that, and in fact, cut a mode out wholesale." - WWE 2K17: Cutting weight

When your son gets a hat trick in his very first game in the NHL on his way to scoring four goals for the night you do this: