10 best sports podcasts to listen to in 2026

The right sports podcast is the perfect commute companion. Long enough to fill a drive, short enough that you can skip a couple of episodes and not feel behind, opinionated enough to be entertaining whether or not you agree.

These ten cover the major sports a US or UK fan is likely listening to in 2026: NFL, NBA, Premier League, plus a couple of crossover hangs that work whether or not you're paying close attention to the league this week.

TL;DR

• Best NFL film breakdown: Pardon My Take or Around the NFL
• Best NBA hang: The Lowe Post or The Steam Room
• Best NBA from a player: Mind the Game (LeBron + JJ Redick) or The Old Man and the Three
• Best Premier League companion: Football Weekly or The Athletic Football Podcast
• Best all-purpose sports + culture: The Bill Simmons Podcast
• Best stand-alone US soccer pick: Men in Blazers

The Bill Simmons Podcast

• Host: Bill Simmons
• Best for: NBA + NFL + a pop culture digression
• Length: ~90-120 minutes

Two-decade veteran of the form. Simmons rotates through NBA Wednesdays, NFL during the season, and pop culture (movies, TV, gambling) the rest of the time. Guests are deep across the sports media bench. The show is fundamentally about how you talk about sports, which is why it converts non-fans more often than most.

Pardon My Take

• Hosts: Big Cat, PFT Commenter
• Best for: NFL coverage delivered as comedy
• Length: ~75-90 minutes

The funniest sports podcast that's also doing real coverage. Bits and segments are the backbone (Mt. Rushmores, Hot Seat / Cool Throne, fyre extinguisher), but the interviews are surprisingly substantive. Works as your background sports knowledge top-up two times a week.

Around the NFL

• Hosts: Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal
• Best for: the NFL game-week recap
• Length: ~60-90 minutes

NFL Network's flagship podcast. Three guys who genuinely like each other and the sport, running through every game with the right balance of fan and analyst. If you only listen to one NFL podcast a week, this is a defensible pick.

The Lowe Post

• Host: Zach Lowe
• Best for: the NBA podcast for people who actually want to learn the game
• Length: ~60-90 minutes

Zach Lowe is the best NBA writer working, and the podcast is where you hear him think out loud. Guests are basketball journalists, coaches, occasionally a current player. He explains schemes, contracts, and front-office logic in ways that turn casual fans into informed ones. The episode after a major trade is always worth your hour.

Mind the Game

• Hosts: LeBron James, JJ Redick (with Steve Nash in the new season)
• Best for: the player's-eye view of basketball
• Length: ~60-75 minutes

When this launched a couple of years ago it was the most-anticipated NBA podcast in history, and it mostly delivered. The reason to listen is to hear two championship-tier players actually break down film. The reason to keep listening is that the format kept evolving and the conversations got sharper as everyone got comfortable.

The Old Man and the Three

• Host: JJ Redick (with rotating co-hosts)
• Best for: NBA conversations with names you've heard of
• Length: ~60-90 minutes

JJ Redick's other podcast, predating Mind the Game and still going. Less film breakdown, more relaxed athlete-and-coach conversations. Good as the second NBA podcast in your queue.

The Steam Room

• Hosts: Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson
• Best for: TNT-NBA-style banter without the broadcast clock
• Length: ~45-60 minutes

Two of the most-beloved figures in basketball broadcasting, untethered from the show clock. Funny, opinionated, occasionally moving. Doesn't try to be the analytical show; that's not the point. You're here for the company.

Football Weekly

• Hosts: Max Rushden plus a rotating cast (Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, Faye Carruthers, others)
• Best for: Premier League and beyond
• Length: ~45-60 minutes

The Guardian's flagship soccer podcast. Two or three episodes a week during the Premier League season, plus international tournament coverage. The format (manager + writer + presenter) works because the chemistry is real. The pre-season shorts are also surprisingly listenable.

The Athletic Football Podcast

• Hosts: Various Athletic writers
• Best for: the more analytical Premier League companion
• Length: ~30-60 minutes

The Athletic's coverage migrated cleanly into podcasts when they were acquired by the New York Times. The reporting is the work; the conversations are tight; the bench of writers is enormous. Use it as your second soccer podcast if Football Weekly is the first.

Men in Blazers

• Hosts: Roger Bennett ("Rog"), Michael Davies ("Davo")
• Best for: Premier League for Americans
• Length: ~60-75 minutes

Two Brits who moved to the States, started a soccer podcast for the US audience, and accidentally built a whole media company around it. Works even if you don't follow the Premier League closely; works much better if you do. The World Cup and Euros runs are special.

How to use this list

Sports podcasts are best as a fixed part of your week, not the next-thing-in-the-queue your app picks at random. Pick one daily/twice-weekly NFL show, one NBA show, one Premier League show, and (if you want it) one big-tent crossover like Bill Simmons. That's four shows, roughly eight hours a week. Plenty of sports, manageable queue.

For tips on actually keeping up with the queue when sports season hits all at once, see our guide to organising your podcast library and our piece on getting through a podcast backlog.

How we chose

Three filters. First, the show consistently delivers across a full season, not just during playoffs or transfer windows. Second, the hosts know more than the average fan and translate that knowledge usefully. Third, the back catalogue is approachable: drop in for a current episode, no homework required.

Listen smarter with Podtastic

Want a podcast app that surfaces the best clip from a 90-minute sports show before you commit to it? Podtastic is a fully featured podcast player for iOS and Android, built around Smart Features (the AI features) and Audio Enhancements (deterministic DSP tuned for spoken-word audio):

• Smart Summaries — AI summaries of every podcast and episode so you know what's coming before you hit play
• Smart Topics — key topics surfaced across your favourite shows so you can jump straight to what matters
• Smart Skip — auto-skips commonly-skipped sections of an episode (intros, recaps, asides), powered by AI topic detection plus aggregated listening data; a single tap on any control surface jumps you to the next Smart Topic on demand
• Skip Silence — auto-removes silences from speech so episodes flow without dragging
• Enhance Voices — a gentle EQ and compression preset that keeps voices clear in any room

Try Podtastic at podtastic.app — now $2.99/month on the annual plan.