TIPSHEET

KNOW THIS

"Who is the biggest star in Minnesota pro sports right now?" I asked Wednesday on Twitter. Within 15 minutes, there were seven different answers, many followed by "and it isn't even close." Can't tell if that means there are a lot of stars or zero (or maybe both).

WATCH THIS

Remember how the Falcons almost beat the Eagles in the playoffs last season, which would have set up an NFC title game in Minneapolis? Atlanta and Philadelphia open the NFL season Thursday on Ch. 11 (7:15 p.m.).

RANDOM FANDOM

"On a positive note, Stewart looked really good last night against a good hitting ballclub. And despite not being the starter he ended up going through the Astros order top to bottom twice."

"twinman55" commenting on startribune.com.

TWEETED

"A constant tension in CFB, especially in the CFP era, is balancing the value of winning with overall performance and predictive measures. I love analytics and would lean toward S&P+ for ranking teams. But there has to be some value placed on winning games or why play?"

@ralphDrussoAP