By Matt Noonan

Welcome to Thursday, everyone!

Hopefully everyone is doing well and thinking optimistically as we anxiously await the outcome of the election. Can it please end today?

Alright, let’s get to some news, beginning with the National Football League (NFL) as part two of the 2020 season begins tonight in Santa Clara, California with the San Francisco 49ers hosting the Green Bay Packers at 8:20 p.m. (eastern).

Here are some pregame reads to get you excited for tonight’s matchup:

• Five keys for the 49ers to beat the Packers without quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and tight end George Kittle. Both Garoppolo and Kittle are sidelined with injuries, and not expected to return to the gridiron anytime soon.
  
• Speaking of Jimmy Garoppolo, could the 49ers consider pursuing another quarterback to lead their offense next season? It seems likely, according to one journalist, but who knows?
  
• The Packers should be considered the favorites in tonight’s matchup with so many members of the 49ers on the sidelines. Some players on dealing with nagging injuries from the past few weeks while others have been placed on the Covid-19 list.

Let’s switch gears to basketball – I prefer to call it hoops (😉)! – as we may know later today if the 2020-21 National Basketball Association (NBA) will tip-off next month or perhaps in mid-January.

As we all know, the 2019-20 season concluded last month in the Orlando, Florida, so the turnaround time would be much shorter than a typical offseason, but according to a few reports, the league is planning to play 72-game season instead of the typical 82-game season.

And finally, here are some additional news and links from the world wide web – have a great day, everyone!

• According to Sportico‘s Anthony Crupi, ESPN is eliminating 500 jobs.
  
• Apparently the first Mid-American Conference (MAC) football game of the 2020 season took place last night and featured a power outage – yikes!
  
• While we anxiously await the outcome of the 2020 election, we did learn recently that three more states – Louisiana, Maryland, and Soith Dakota – will allow wagers “on sporting events,” which is good news for DraftKings and FanDuel.
  
• Could Alex Cora become the next manager of the Boston Red Sox? It seems like a second stint is possible, according to multiple reports over the past few days, including MLBTradeRumors.com.

Enjoy a BRAND new Noontime Sports Podcast this morning (or afternoon) – today, we welcomed Darryl Konicki, who is the associate commissioner of the Little East Conference (LEC), to discuss the content he and his the league have produced over these past few weeks and months without games being played.

You can listen to today’s podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor and wherever you get your podcasts!