Source: Giphy

The 11th and 12th Tuesday NFL games will take place this evening, as the NFL scrambles to complete its season amid a wave of positive tests.

• The matchups: Seahawks at Rams (-7); Washington at Eagles (-6.5)
• The broadcasts: Both games are on Fox at 7pm ET, with coverage based on location. See which game you'll get.

A brief history of Tuesday games...

Modern era: There have been three Tuesday night NFL games this century, two due to COVID and one due to a winter storm.

• Dec. 8, 2020: Baltimore Ravens 34, Dallas Cowboys 17: Lamar Jackson led a dominant rushing attack in his first game back after a positive test. "I still can't really taste or smell, but I'm good," he said postgame.
• Oct. 13, 2020: Tennessee Titans 42, Buffalo Bills 16: This was a snoozer, though it did feature Derrick Henry's epic stiff arm on Josh Norman.
• Dec. 28, 2010: Minnesota Vikings 24, Philadelphia Eagles 14: Two days after a winter storm forced a postponement, Joe Webb led the Vikings to victory in his first career start filling in for an injured Brett Favre.

AAFC: The All-America Football Conference existed from 1946 to 1949 and played many of its games during the week. The 49ers, Browns and Colts later joined the NFL, so these games are official.

• Oct. 5, 1948: Cleveland Browns 14, Baltimore Colts 10: The Browns were the AAFC's best team, winning all four league championships.
• Dec. 3, 1946: Cleveland Browns 34, Miami Seahawks 0: The Seahawks lasted just one season and played six Friday games, four Monday games, two Tuesday games, and two Sunday games.
• Oct. 8, 1946: San Francisco 49ers 34, Miami Seahawks 14: The 49ers were one of three "Big Four" sports teams in the Western U.S., joining the Los Angeles Dons (AAFC) and Los Angeles Rams (NFL).

Early NFL: The NFL played four Tuesday games in the 1940s, with most of the featured teams having since relocated or folded.

• Oct. 1, 1946: New York Giants 17, Boston Yanks 0: The Giants advanced to the 1946 NFL Championship Game, where they fell to the Bears, 24-14, at the Polo Grounds.
• Sept. 25, 1945: Brooklyn Tigers/Boston Yanks 28, Pittsburgh Steelers 7: The 1945 Steelers were so bad that the seven points they scored against the merged Tigers/Yanks was their third-highest output of the season.
• Sept. 26, 1944: Philadelphia Eagles 28, Boston Yanks 7: This game was played at Fenway Park, and the only Boston TD was scored by a guy named Ted Williams. Not joking.
• Sept. 16, 1941: Cleveland Rams 10, Chicago Cardinals 6: Coincidentally, both of these teams would go on to play in St. Louis.

MLB players in their age-29 season or younger made a huge impact in 2021, generating 63% of league-wide wins above replacement, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes.

Why it matters: They also made just 38% of the salary — a discrepancy that illustrates what, exactly, the players' union is fighting for as the MLB lockout heads toward the New Year with no end in sight.

By the numbers: Even as MLB revenues break records annually, average salaries have largely stagnated despite what the splashy, headline-grabbing deals might suggest.

• Take last month's free-agency frenzy: 46 players signed for $1.9 billion total, but the 10 biggest deals made up $1.3 billion of that haul.
• That's part of a larger trend that has seen superstars make an increasingly bigger piece of the pie. In 2017, the 100 highest-paid players made 42.5% of MLB salaries; last season, they made 52.4%.
• MLB's average salary has increased by just 21% in the past decade while the NBA and NFL's have both nearly doubled.
• Wild stat: The number of players making at least $26 million has increased from three to 17 since 2015. Yet during that time, median salary has plummeted 30%.

Between the lines: These numbers stem from an economic system that sees players enter free agency near the end of their primes. And that's preceded by arbitration, which keeps salaries lower than they'd be on the open market.

• That's why the union wants free agency to begin sooner, either by imposing an age limit or by decreasing the arbitration period.
• Tanking is also an issue. Unlike other leagues, MLB has no salary floor, and thanks to lucrative media deals and revenue sharing, owners have little incentive to cut checks to field winning teams.

The bottom line: Moments after the lockout began, commissioner Rob Manfred wrote about the record money being spent on free agents. Though factual, Manfred's argument is a logical fallacy that clouds the real issue behind why players are demanding change.

44% of U.S. sports fans say they're comfortable attending an indoor sporting event, while 59% are comfortable attending an outdoor game, per a Dec. 16–19 Morning Consult survey.

Why it matters: This has left the NFL (+1% increase in average attendance from last season) in a better position than the NBA (-5.7% decrease) and the NHL (-7.9% decrease).

🏀 Beast in the East: Joel Embiid had 40 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks for the third time in his career on Monday. The only player with more such games since blocks became official in 1973? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (four times).

🏒 NHL shutting down early: The NHL will pause its season on Wednesday, two days before its planned Christmas break. Players will report back on Dec. 26 and resume daily testing.

🏈 10 down, 34 to go: Tulsa beat Old Dominion, 30-17, in Monday's Myrtle Beach Bowl, the 10th bowl game so far. 34 games remain, concluding with the national championship on Monday, Jan. 10. Full schedule.

🍿 CFP on the big screen: ESPN has partnered with movie theater chain Cinemark to offer theater screenings of the semifinal Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl in select markets.

💍 Must-see proposal: A Utah Jazz dancer realized the routine was different than what she practiced. Then she found out why...

UConn fell to No. 11 in the rankings after a close loss to then-No. 6 Louisville on Sunday, Jeff writes.

Why it matters: It's the first time UConn has been out of the top 10 since 2005, ending an NCAA-record streak of 313 consecutive weeks. No. 10 Baylor now holds the longest active streak at 136 weeks.

State of play: South Carolina is again the unanimous No. 1 in a week that saw no movement in or out of the rankings, just shuffling within.

• No. 9 Michigan reached the top 10 for the first time ever after beating then-No. 5 Baylor — the program's first win over a top-five team (previously 0-33).
• No. 2 Stanford's coach Tara VanDerveer has 600 appearances in the top 25 — 18 shy of Tennessee legend Pat Summitt for most all-time.

📆 Coming up: The game of the year is tonight (7pm ET, ESPN2) as No. 1 South Carolina hosts No. 2 Stanford in a Final Four rematch.

• Both teams returned nearly every key player from that matchup, which Stanford won in the final seconds en route to a national title.
• Players to watch: South Carolina's Aliyah Boston is averaging a double-double (17 and 10); Stanford's Haley Jones is coming off a huge game against Tennessee (18-19-6).

Go deeper: The key to UConn's new normal (Hartford Courant)

Baylor remains undefeated and atop the rankings — the first time in a month that the No. 1 spot stayed the same, Jeff writes.

The big picture: Baylor is one of just six undefeated teams remaining. They're joined by No. 6 Arizona, No. 8 USC, No. 9 Iowa State, No. 17 LSU and No. 21 Colorado State.

• No. 6 Arizona, the No. 1 team in the NCAA's NET rankings, snagged the final first-place vote. Quite the start for new coach Tommy Lloyd.
• No. 8 USC has its highest ranking since 1992. The Trojans are currently paused due to COVID but are scheduled to play Arizona at home on Jan. 2.
• No. 9 Iowa State is a top-10 team a year after going 2-22 (0-18 in the Big 12). What an incredible turnaround.

State of play: Last week was more about what didn't happen, as 25 games were either postponed or canceled amid Omicron's surge.

• In: No. 22 Providence enters the poll after taking down then-No. 20 UConn, and No. 24 Wisconsin is back after dropping out last week.
• Out: Arkansas' two-loss week and UConn's aforementioned loss dropped them both from the rankings.

📆 Coming up: 15 games have already been postponed or canceled the next two nights, and the rest of the week is light with Christmas on Saturday. Still, there are two ranked-on-ranked matchups on deck:

• Tonight: No. 18 Xavier at No. 23 Villanova (7pm ET, FS1)
• Tomorrow: No. 6 Arizona at No. 19 Tennessee (7pm, ESPN2)

Go deeper: Seven breakout underclassmen to watch (The Athletic)

CLEVELAND — Derek Carr led his 28th game-winning drive (tied for the most by any QB since his debut in 2014) to lift the Raiders past the depleted Browns, 16-14, on a walk-off field goal.

• Nightcap: The Vikings beat the Bears, 17-9, their 13th game this season (out of 14) that's been decided by eight or fewer points. Insanity.

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — Chloe Kim, the defending gold medalist who took nearly two years off, won the halfpipe event at Sunday's Dew Tour final, announcing that she's still the woman to beat in Beijing.

• Go deeper: Chloe Kim and Shaun White thrill fans at the Dew Tour (NYT)

NAZARÉ, Portugal — Brazilian big wave surfer Lucas "Chumbo" Chianca competes during the Tow Surfing Challenge at Praia do Norte, the world-famous beach on the Portuguese coast.

• 🎥 Watch: Highlights (YouTube)

130 years ago today, 18 students in Springfield, Massachusetts, played the first game of basketball — a new sport invented by 30-year-old schoolteacher James Naismith.

Details: The Springfield YMCA physical education director tasked Naismith with creating an indoor game to give students an "athletic distraction" during the harsh New England winters.

• The primary criterion, aside from exercise, was that the game wasn't too rough. In researching other sports, Naismith noticed that most physical contact came when players ran with a ball, so he ruled that passing was the only legal form of ball movement.
• He further reduced contact by putting the goal out of reach so as to make it unguardable, and by orienting its opening towards the ceiling he ensured goals could only be scored by soft, lobbed shots.

Fun fact: Naismith asked for a pair of boxes to fashion into goals, but the janitor brought a couple peach baskets instead. Thus, he named his new game "basket ball."

"I called the boys to the gym, divided them up into teams of nine and gave them a little soccer ball. I showed them two peach baskets I'd nailed up at each end of the gym, and I told them the idea was to throw the ball into the opposing team's peach basket. I blew the whistle, and the first game of basketball began."

The big picture: A year later, Naismith published the 13 original rules and organized the first public game. In 1968, the Basketball Hall of Fame opened just down the road from the YMCA (now Springfield College).

Nick Chubb has averaged 5.3 yards per carry for his career, the second-best mark of any RB since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

• Question: Who's the only RB ahead of him?
• Hint: His last name also starts with "C."

Answer at the bottom.

Today marks 6,753 days since LeBron James was selected No. 1 overall in the 2003 NBA draft.

Why it matters: James was only alive for 6,752 days from his birth to draft day, meaning he's now spent more than half his life in the NBA.