July is sports list season.

“Seven NBA teams with the most exciting Summer League squads.” “Ten MLB stars who will break up with their girlfriends before the trade deadline.” “A million reasons why the SEC should expand to 95 teams.”

It’s kind of a lot. And not always great.

But I promise you’ve never seen a list like the one below.

Quick links: Cunningham’s weekend reflections | Pitts appears ready | United keeps sinking

HIGH SCHOOL HIERARCHY

Mickey Conn was 137-48 in 16 seasons at Grayson High. His hiring is not No. 1 on this list.

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Is Todd Holcomb insane? Or just a glutton for punishment?

Maybe both.

But he’s definitely the foremost authority on Georgia high school football, past and present — and he just dropped a massive (and deeply subjective) project.

Behold: A ranking of the top 50 high school football coaching hires this century.

Yep. Fifty. And something like 5,600 words altogether.

“We have about 415 high school football teams in the Georgia High School Association, and there are eight classes now, so lots of great hires that led to historic state championships,” Todd told me.

“Even 50 isn’t enough. I’m already apologizing in my mind to several coaches for whose hires I did not include.”

To be clear: This isn’t merely a ranking of the best coaches.

It’s more about the hire itself — the results, sure, but also the boldness of choice. The impact, relative to previous successes and the standard set for the future.

Overall, the 50 included coaches won 83 state titles. Their predecessors? Eleven.

(And yes, the notorious Rush Propst made the list.)

“It took days, maybe weeks,” Todd said. “OK, weeks. Definitely weeks. I actually created a spreadsheet with about 60 coaches on it along with their records, the records of their teams before they were hired, the improvement by wins and winning percentage, state/region titles before and after.”

“Not sure how much it helped,” he conceded. “I still had trouble ranking them.”

Dig in, folks. And let us know what you disagree with.

A BRAVES-YANKS HEAD CASE

Braves coach Eddie Perez (right) and manager Brian Snitker during an April pointing incident unrelated to Saturday's events.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

The Braves picked up two more losses over the weekend — and, apparently, an MLB investigation as well.

Here’s the deal: On Saturday, in the middle of Atlanta blowing a 5-0 lead, the Yankees’ Jazz Chisolm was on second base. He picked up on the signs being flashed to Braves pitcher Rafael Montero and relayed them to teammates at the plate.

• Ozuna out as primary DH
• Acuña’s epic throw from right

As one might imagine, chirping ensued from the Braves dugout. Then Atlanta coach Eddie Perez shouted at Chisolm and pointed to his own head.

Chisolm — who, it must be said, tends to get emotional about things — later suggested Perez was threatening to have him beaned.

Perez said this, per MLB.com: “I was just saying, ‘Be smart.’ I like that guy. He’s one of my favorites. And he got mad about it.”

Like our columnist friend Michael Cunningham, I tend to believe Perez. And either way, a league investigation seems unlikely to be particularly productive.

⚾ Up next: The Giants come to town for a three-game series at Truist Park. Bryce Elder gets the start tonight (7:15 p.m. on FanDuel Sports).

MAGIC CITY, HUH?

Falcons training camp starts Thursday. Previously injured tight end Kyle Pitts seems like he’ll be ready to go (if we’re correctly deciphering social media posts, anyway).

Much more on all that later this week.

But I couldn’t resist circling back to another NFL story from the weekend.

😬 Lloyd Howell Jr., the now-former leader of the players association, is out of a job — and a pit stop at Atlanta’s legendary Magic City strip club probably didn’t help things.

According to reports, Howell and two other people stopped by Magic City earlier this year. As part of what expense reports described as “Player Engagement Event to support & grow our Union,” Howell charged more than $2,400 to the union.

It’s not my place to judge. And the NFL is certainly different from most businesses — but man. Maybe don’t ask your boss to cover your strip club excursion? Especially when that request explicitly includes ATM withdrawals and the use of two “VIP rooms.”

• Also: This is the second straight newsletter in which I’ve reference Magic City, which has to be some kind of record.

😬 But here’s the real question: What’s the weirdest, most indefensible work expense you’ve ever witnessed (or tried to pull off)?

THE BIG NUMBER: 7

Atlanta United midfielder Tristan Muyumba celebrates his goal against Charlotte. Which, shockingly, wasn't enough for a win.

Credit: Mitch Martin/Atlanta United

That’s the length of Atlanta United’s winless streak, after Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Charlotte at home.

The Five Stripes are now 13 points out of the playoffs — and reportedly working on shipping centerback Efrain Morales to Montreal.

Feels to me like that white flag is just about flapping.

“We need to win a lot of matches, and how we are playing now, it doesn’t necessarily look like we are going to do that, but at the same time, we are never going to give up,” manager Ronny Deila said.

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ALSO INTERESTING

🙄 The President of the United States of America declared on social media that the Washington Commanders and Cleveland Guardians should change their nicknames back to the ones that are hateful terms for Native Americans. I’m sure they’ll get right on that.

✊ Every WNBA player at Saturday’s All-Star Game (including the Dream’s Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Brionna Jones) wore a shirt saying “Pay Us What You Owe Us” during warm-ups. Players are pushing for better revenue sharing and higher salaries, which they deserve.

• The WNBA’s current minimum salary is about $66,000. The top salaries sit around $250,000.
• Per MarketWatch: WNBA players share 9.3% of total league revenue. MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL players all split about 50%, give or take a couple percentage points.

🫡 The Hawks’ Summer League squad dropped its finale against the Celtics on Sunday to finish at 4-1. First-round draft pick Asa Newell averaged 13.5 points and 8.3 rebounds throughout the action in Las Vegas.

WEEKEND WONDERPERSON

Hats off to Mr. Scheffler.

Credit: Jon Super/AP

Scottie Scheffler cruised to British Open victory on Sunday, clinching his second major this year and fourth in the last three. (Former Georgia Bulldog Harris English finished second.)

Scheffler now needs only a U.S. Open title to claim a career grand slam. He’ll get it, whether he wants to be compared to Tiger Woods or not.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of Sports Daily. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.

Until next time.