The NFL Coaching Accelerator has scheduled five events since 2022, providing minority coaches with the opportunity to engage and develop their talent alongside team owners and executives. The sixth would have been in Minneapolis, but the NFL has decided to take a step back.

NFL chief administrative officer Dasha Smith told ESPN that the accelerator would be paused for a year, during which time the league would reevaluate the program’s strategy.

“We believe diversity of thought and background is essential to our success,” Smith said, “and it’s reflected in the policies, programs, and partnerships that help us attract, develop, and retain top talent at every level on and off the field.

“Every off-season, we take a step back to reflect on the positives and areas for improvement of our programs and assess ways to make them more impactful. This year, we assessed and identified additional opportunities with the Accelerator – including combining the coaching and front office programs to ensure the Accelerator continues to be as impactful as possible.”

According to Smith, the NFL intends to introduce the new version of the accelerator in May 2026. But how will diversity fare in the meantime?

The accelerator has had limited success, true. Only one coach and one general manager have come out of the program over the three years it’s been running. But, with the Trump administration’s efforts to quash “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) programs across the country, pausing a diversity-centered program sends a particular message.

There are three fewer minority head coaches and GMs in the 2025 NFL than there were in 2024. For the second year in a row, there are no back offensive coordinators – something that previously hadn’t happened since 1988, despite other league diversity policies like the Rooney Rule.

The NFL and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, have been adamant that the league’s diversity initiatives are here to stay. It’ll be up to them to prove that the coaching accelerator not only returns, but is also effective.

Following his departure from the Las Vegas Raiders at the end of the 2023 season, running back Josh Jacobs has been clear about his problems with the team. Jacobs revealed some details in an interview earlier this year, but was even more explicit about the breakdown of his relationship with the Raiders as a guest on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast.

“It gets to a certain point, you’re not going to keep disrespecting me,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs was drafted by the Raiders 24th overall in 2019 and spent the first five years of his career with Las Vegas. He put up 5,545 yards and 46 touchdowns in those five years, making the Pro Bowl twice and being named first-team All-Pro once, in 2022. But when contract negotiations came up, Jacobs claimed, the Raiders didn’t want to pay up.

“I was legitimately 65% of the offense that year, and you telling me you will not pay the guy that did everything for the team,” Jacobs said. “How does that make sense? … It really hurt my heart because I tried to stay. I did everything in my power to stay.”

Jacobs had built a house in Las Vegas and planned to call it home for the rest of his career. But he felt scorned by what he claimed was a lowball, $10 million per year deal without incentives or the benefit of term. He ended up signing with the Green Bay Packers at $48 million over four years, with millions in roster and signing bonuses built in.

Jacobs has discussed the negotiations before. This time, though, he took aim at the Raiders as an organization – their coaching carousel and one particular “decision-maker” he declined to name.

“I’m not going to say who it was, but it’s a guy that make decisions,” Jacobs said. “He’s talking too much and thinking it’s not going to get back to me and everything is getting back to me… He’s basically like ‘[Josh] needs the money.’ I’m like, ‘I don’t need no money. I could quit playing right now. I’m great.’”

“So I’m like, ‘Where are you getting this information from? Why do you think that you got the leverage when I just led the NFL in everything there is for a running back?’”

And that’s what it boils down to, on Jacobs’ end: the feeling of disrespect.

“You’re bringing in these coaches every other year, new coaches, and now, these new coaches is telling me I didn’t already have three 1,000-yard seasons. You telling me I have to prove myself like I’m a rookie, you treating me like a rookie… Then afterwards you’re basically like, ‘Yeah, you played good, but we’re going to franchise tag you.’”

Jacobs posted 1,329 yards and 15 touchdowns in 2024 for the Packers, who finished 11-6 and made the playoffs. The Raiders, who finished 4-13, had the lowest rushing yards per game in the NFL.

Las Vegas brought in a new head coach and general manager this offseason, and will be looking to hit it big on another drafted running back: Ashton Jeanty.

The Colorado Rockies won just eight of their first 50 games.

It’s the worst 50-game start to an MLB season in the modern era, going back to 1901. That’s bad enough on its own. But to put it into context, the 2024 Chicago White Sox, who compiled the worst record in modern MLB history, started out 15-35. That team piled up 121 losses. Through 50 games, the Rockies were on track for 136.

In the four following games, the Rockies were able to pick up a win – against the high-powered New York Yankees, no less – before dropping the next three. At 9-45, Colorado is now proudly on track for 27 wins.

Yes, the Rockies are terrible. The numbers concur: they allow 6.46 runs per game, the most in MLB, score the second-fewest, at 3.28, are struck out the most and strike out the fewest batters. In fact, they’re so astonishingly bad that this season is raising questions for MLB, baseball fans and bookmakers alike.

Colorado hasn’t made the playoffs since 2018, and doesn’t seem to be showing any urgent desire to do so. The Rockies continuously place in the top half of MLB in terms of attendance, largely owing to affordable tickets and concessions – not to mention the presence of opposing fans. And their top-paid player, Kris Bryant, has played just 170 games since the beginning of the 2022 season due to injury.

Unless attendance sees a significant drop, what’s the motivation for ownership to spend on talent? The absence of a salary floor means no penalties for underspending teams, and the Rockies seem to stay afloat regardless of the team’s actual performance.

That logic has led to fan calls to “sell the team,” targeting the Monfort family as primary owners.

Meanwhile, sportsbooks are facing a crisis as bettors hammer the under for Colorado runs, the over for the opposing team, and always bet on the opposition.

“Teams playing the Rockies are regularly among the most-bet MLB teams of the day on both the moneyline and run line, so the rare Rockies win is something of a bright spot,” said ESPN BET director of North American sports trading Adrian Horton. “However, those wins don’t outweigh the good days for bettors taking whoever is playing against Colorado.”

In essence, sportsbooks are paying through the nose every time the Rockies lose, and especially when they lose badly. The problem is that both of those things are happening all the time.

“We have to just weather this storm,” said DraftKings head of sportsbook Johnny Avello. “We can adjust prices, but we just have to wait for a time when maybe they get on track a little bit and win a few games.”

For now, though, eight of the Rockies’ next 11 games are against either the Chicago Cubs or the New York Mets, which are currently both sitting at 33-21. Put another way, both teams have won 24 more games than the Rockies this season. It might be a while until Colorado starts to win again, if they ever do. In the meantime, concerns will continue.

Former Phoenix Suns director of safety, security and risk management Gene Traylor filed a lawsuit against the organization last week alleging racial discrimination, unlawful retaliation and security problems. But one part of the lawsuit stood out: a story about an interaction Traylor had with Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein.

Traylor allegedly told Bartelstein that vice president of security and risk management Cornelius Craig had been spreading damaging information about the organization. “When Bartelstein asked Plaintiff to reveal what Craig was saying,” reads the lawsuit, “Plaintiff explained that Craig had been telling others, ‘Josh Bartelstein is f–-ing Sophie Cunningham.’”

Cunningham, 28, spent the first six years of her WNBA career with the Phoenix Mercury, which Bartelstein also owns. She was traded this year to the Indiana Fever.

She and Bartelstein, who is married, both denied the allegations vehemently.

“The recent reports concerning Josh Bartelstein and Sophie Cunningham are entirely false and morally reprehensible,” reads the Suns’ statement. “Let’s absolutely be clear about the origins of these claims.”

The team, which has been sued four times in the past seven months by former employees, accused attorney Sheree Wright of attempting to extort them. “She continues to insert salacious lies and fabrications into her complaints—knowing that the media may report them as fact, as happened yesterday [with the Cunningham story]—she hopes to coerce the Phoenix Suns into settling. Sheree Wright will not extort our organization and never see a single dollar.”

Cunningham, in turn, issued a much more personal statement calling the allegations “untrue and extremely hurtful.”

“I am here to compete, play basketball at the highest level and win for my team and my fans, while inspiring other women that they can do or be anything they ever dream of becoming… I will not let untrue gossip take my focus away from what is most important to me, which is basketball, my supportive teams and my fans.”

Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark is just a few games into her second season in the WNBA. She also now holds the league record for most career games with 25 points and 10 assists.

Clark dropped 27 points and 11 assists on the Atlanta Dream last week as the Fever lost 90-91. That was her sixth career game with at least 25 points and 10 assists, out of 42 total games played. She passed New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, who is playing her sixth season in the WNBA, for the record.

Clark makes it look easy. But in the time between her first 25/10 game and her sixth, only one other WNBA player logged even one: Odyssey Sims, who logged 26 points and 10 assists for the Los Angeles Sparks against the Dallas Wings last season.

It’s not the first record Clark has broken, and it won’t be the last. She also set a record with 42 consecutive games with a three-pointer made to begin her career, which finally ended as the Fever played the Dream a second time. Clark went 0 for 5 from three-point range, ending with 11 points.

But, as Clark has made clear, she’s focusing on improving as a player and winning, not on records. And the Fever were able to pull through on the back of a huge 26-point game from veteran Natasha Howard, bringing them up to 2-1 on the season.

With 43 games into her career, you can be fairly sure that watching Clark, she’ll set many records that may never be broken. It only feels like a matter of time.

NBA icon Charles Barkley made his thoughts on transgender women athletes clear.

“Men should not play sports against women, Barkley said on Outkick’s Don’t @ Me. “If anybody thinks that, I think they’re stupid. I support the gay community 100%. I support the transgender community 100%. But I do not, under any circumstances… think that men should play sports against women.”

Barkley’s stance is controversial, and it’s not just because it’s a hot-button topic. Barkley has been vocally supportive of the LGBTQ community for years, advocating for gay marriage rights as far back as 2008 and even buying cases of Bud Light in 2023, when the brand faced backlash for hiring trans advocate Dylan Mulvaney.

“Hey, I ain’t worried about getting canceled because lemme tell you something,” Barkley said at a golf tournament that year. “As I said last night, if you’re gay, God bless you. If you’re trans, God bless you. And if you have a problem with them f— you.”

Barkley’s comments also come as a surprise because of the political landscape they’re in. President Donald Trump passed an executive order entitled “Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports” in February, following an executive order that decreed that gender was the same as biological sex. Trans advocates feel that Trump’s moves threaten transgender people’s ability to change their driver’s license sex markers, acquire hormone therapy, and ultimately their ability to exist peacefully in public.

If Barkley is to be taken at his word, he continues to support other rights of the trans community – but his calling transgender women “men” doesn’t seem to align with the positions he’s previously expressed.

“I don’t even think that’s controversial… I don’t wanna hear you try to explain it to me. No, no, no, I don’t wanna hear it. I’m not gonna argue with you. Men shouldn’t play sports against women. I’m done,” he said. 

The defending champion New York Liberty blew out the Chicago Sky last week, 99-74. 57 of those 99 points were three-pointers – 19 in total – which set a new WNBA record for the most threes made in one game.

The previous record, 18, had been reached six separate times, most recently by the Liberty against the Phoenix Mercury last season.

Early in the season, the primary story about the Liberty has been their depth. Five separate players were in the double digits against Chicago, with three more contributing six or more points. And eight separate players contributed to the record with at least one three-pointer, as Natasha Cloud and Kennedy Burke led the way with four each.

The flip side of the story, of course, is the Sky, who drop to 0-2. They’ve also made history this season, albeit the much less desirable side: through the first two games of the season, they’ve been blown out twice, with a total point differential of -60. That’s the worst through two games in WNBA history.

Former MLB All-Star shortstop Rafael Furcal is facing a felony charge for an altercation in a grocery store parking lot last month. Furcal turned himself in to Broward County jail in South Florida, and was released on $7,500 bail.

It’s not Furcal’s first run-in with the law: he was arrested in 2000 and 2004 for driving under the influence.

According to court documents, the instigating incident was a near-crash in a parking lot. Furcal nearly drove head-on into a truck, which swerved away to avoid an accident.

The truck driver dropped his coworker off at the grocery store, and then turned by Furcal’s car again. At that point, Furcal allegedly began to throw rocks and plastic bottles at the truck – a situation that escalated when the driver emerged from the vehicle.

The truck driver claims that Furcal then threw a larger rock, “the size of a small palm,” causing him to bleed profusely, before departing the scene.

Furcal, 47, played for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. He won the World Series with the Cardinals in 2011 and finished his MLB career with the Miami Marlins in 2014.

Ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft, Caleb Williams and his father, Carl Williams, reportedly looked for ways around going to the Chicago Bears first overall, including demanding a trade to the Minnesota Vikings, consulting lawyers to evade the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement and even signing with the United Football League (UFL).

ESPN Writer Seth Wickersham‘s forthcoming book, American Kings: A Biography of the Quarterback, details Williams’ pre- and post-Draft journey, alongside the stories of other iconic quarterbacks, including Johnny Unitas and the Mannings.

“I don’t want my son playing for the Bears,” the elder Williams reportedly told multiple agents leading up to the Draft. That hesitation was understandable. The Bears have famously never had a 4,000-yard season from a quarterback. They’ve had two Pro Bowl selections since 1950, and one of them was Mitch Trubisky as a replacement in 2018.

The coaching also presented an issue for the Williams family. At the time, the Bears employed Matt Eberflus as their head coach and Shane Waldron as their offensive coordinator. Caleb, skeptical of the coaching staff, wondered, “Do I want to go there? I don’t think I can do it with Waldron.”

As it turns out, both have now been replaced following a season best represented by a Week 8 loss to the Washington Commanders, sealed by Jayden Daniels‘ Hail Mary. Eberflus was fired mid-season, at the end of November. The Bears, who had gone 4-2 prior to the Washington game, finished the season with ten consecutive losses and one win.

On the other side of the coaching coin, Caleb had hit it off with Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell at the NFL Combine. He and his father made their preferences clear, including to the Chicago brass, but the Bears did not budge. Said general manager Ryan Poles, “We’re drafting you no matter what.”

Not wanting to get into a public firestorm, Caleb acquiesced. “I wasn’t ready to nuke the city,” he told Wickersham.

It’s undeniable that Williams felt the full brunt of that decision during his rookie year. While other rookie quarterbacks – particularly Daniels, who went on to win Rookie of the Year – benefitted from a stable coaching staff, Williams’ head coach was fired in the middle of the year. And even before that, Williams wasn’t receiving much guidance from the coaching staff.

“No one tells me what [film] to watch,” Williams told his father. “I just turn it on.”

Williams played decently, but didn’t live up to the hype. He was also sacked a league-leading 68 times. It looked like a confirmation of all his greatest fears about the Bears organization.

The organizational turnaround, though, looks promising. Chicago has replaced Eberflus with respected Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and added young offensive coordinator Declan Doyle. The team also invested in quarterback protection, trading for Kansas City Chiefs’ four-time All-Pro guard Joe Thuney.

There are still questions about Chicago as an organization, and there’s a limit to the turnaround you can really expect from Johnson’s hiring. Still, Williams ultimately committed to the Bears, and the team seems to be doing its best to build around him.

“I see a chance for greatness here for him,” said Johnson. “He’s been communicated that way, and he feels the same way. I don’t know what’s gone on prior to him joining the organization, but he is very proud to be a Chicago Bear.”

A routine fly ball from the Baltimore Orioles’ Cedric Mullins on Thursday became a terrifying moment when Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa and outfielder Byron Buxton both went for it. With their eyes trained upward, the pair didn’t see each other until they clacked heads.

Buxton managed to hang onto the ball, but both men lay dazed on the ground for a long moment after the play. Correa left the game immediately, while Buxton played out the inning before departing.

The Twins have officially placed both players on the seven-day concussion injured list, but have not set forth return timelines yet. Correa and Buxton were reportedly participating in concussion protocol exercises on Monday and are eligible to be cleared as soon as the end of this week.

In the meantime, though, the injuries handicap an already-underperforming Twins batting lineup. The team extended its win streak to 13 games on Saturday before losing to the Brewers 2-5 on Sunday—a streak that was largely bolstered by its pitching. Minnesota boasts the third-best ERA in the league, at 3.20, but its hitters are just 18th in runs scored.

Losing Correa and Buxton doesn’t help. While Correa was having a disappointing year to that point, hitting .238/.276/.333 over the course of the season, his offense was seemingly ramping up. He recorded multiple hits in two of his last three games going into Thursday. Meanwhile, Buxton has arguably been the Twins’ most valuable hitter, posting .258/.310/.503 splits and contributing his tenth home run of the year just an inning before the collision.

Teammates Ryan Jeffers, Kody Clemens and Trevor Larnach have stepped up to provide the offense necessary to win two of three games since the injuries – in fact, Jeffers managed a four-hit game to lift the Twins over the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday.

Still, Minnesota will be missing Correa and Buxton both on offense and defense for as long as they’re out. With any luck, their absence will be short-lived.

Rory McIlroy became the sixth man ever to achieve a career grand slam just a month ago, and came into the 2025 PGA Championship tied for favorite with eventual winner Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy has long dominated at Quail Hollow, and has won four times in PGA Tour competition there. This year, though, he looked strangely uncomfortable, ending the tournament tied for 47th place.

So, what changed?

There might be an easy answer to that. The biggest news that came out of the Championship was the reported disqualification of several attendees’ drivers, including McIlroy’s.

It’s not an uncommon occurrence. Driver faces are, naturally, optimized to the athlete’s swing, and that can push up against the regulations. After a number of high-speed swings, these faces can be warped past the acceptable thickness or even cracked. For McIlroy, the switch was likely a top factor in a difficult tournament; he did demonstrably worse following it, particularly struggling in the first round, where he shot a 3-over 74.

Even given the swap and the underperformance, though, McIlroy wouldn’t have been such a massive story if he had been willing to speak about it.

McIlroy declined four interview requests after and during the tournament, eventually departing Quail Hollow having done no media since his pre-tournament interview. This uncharacteristic rejection caused the driver story to balloon into controversy, taken as an admission of guilt or some turmoil beneath the surface.

Meanwhile, the other top competitor and the eventual champion, Scheffler, confirmed to the media that his driver was also among the disqualified ones. “We had a feeling that it was going to be coming because I’ve used that driver for over a year,” he said.

As the winner, the club switch was “no big deal” to Scheffler, and his transparency about it made that clear to the media as well. He did, however, point out his dissatisfactions with the testing strategies.

The current process sees only a third of the drivers examined, and the disqualifications are kept close to the vest, sparking the implication that they’re shameful. If there was more transparency on all ends about the process, players might have a better chance to acclimate to the new drivers.

“It’s a newer rule that we haven’t quite gotten right yet,” said Scheffler. “I think we have some stuff to figure out, get more robust and get even more strict. You can test guys every week if you want. I mean, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”

Colorado Buffaloes star quarterback Shedeur Sanders‘ slide from a projected top-10 pick to the fifth round shocked the football world, but none as much as one anonymous Buffaloes fan. The fan filed a lawsuit this past week suing the NFL for $100 million in punitive damages, as well as apologies for the league’s statements and actions concerning Sanders.

The fan accused the NFL of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act (on the basis of collusion between teams), the Civil Rights Act and consumer protection laws, as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress and trauma; that is, causing him “frustration, disappointment and psychological harm as a fan.” I’m sure that sounds unfamiliar to sports fans.

The complaint itself is just four pages, filed ‘in forma pauperis,’ meaning the fan was financially unable to pay the official filing fee. With both an utter lack of evidence to support his claims and no financial means to see them through, the lawsuit isn’t going anywhere.

Even so, it says a lot about the media firestorm that’s followed Sanders for the past two years. Whether it’s the flashy watch or the number retirement, the accusations of nepotism, of flippancy or anything else.

Despite the slide, which saw him finally taken at No. 144 by the Cleveland Browns, Sanders has the best-selling jersey of any 2025 NFL rookie. He might become a starting quarterback, or he might crash and burn out of the league for exactly the reasons that dropped his draft stock. But it’s publicity. And any publicity is good publicity. Right?

It’s the second time the Boston Red Sox have asked three-time All-Star Rafael Devers to switch positions in the past year. And Devers has every reason to be hesitant.

Following a big swing this past offseason to sign Gold Glove-winning third baseman Alex Bregman away from the Houston Astros, the Red Sox asked Devers to vacate his traditional spot at third base. He agreed to become a designated hitter. Then, under two months into the 2025 season, first baseman Triston Casas ruptured a patellar tendon. The Sox once again asked Devers to step up – but this time, they wanted him to play a position he had never played: first base.

The move makes sense mechanically. With Devers in place at first, the Red Sox would be free to select designated hitters from the rest of their offensive talent, likely bringing in Masataka Yoshida. But Devers rejected the idea, and can you blame him?

After getting off to a slow start, Devers is batting .285, with 31 RBI and a .901 OPS, all solid numbers. He’s been vital to Boston’s offensive game, and a position swap has the potential to endanger that offense and risk injury. First base isn’t a position that can be learned in a couple hours. It takes time and engagement – difficult, during the season – and carries substantial risk.

Devers expressed his frustration last week in a chat with Christopher Smith of MassLive.

“I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position,” he said. “It was the GM [Craig Breslow] that I spoke with. I’m not sure what he has with me. He played ball, and I would like to think he knows that changing positions like that isn’t easy.”

The tension got so dire that Red Sox owner John Henry flew to Kansas City to personally speak to Devers. Breslow called the discussion “an honest conversation about what we value as an organization and what we believe is important to the Boston Red Sox.”

Devers is continuing to hold strong in his refusal, and in the meantime, the story has ballooned. While he’s in just the second year of his 10-year, $315 million contract, analysts have speculated that Devers may be traded for his response, and plenty of fans have called him out for being selfish or disloyal to the team.

The more likely option is for Devers to acquiesce and move to first base. And then what?

Devers publicly criticized Boston’s management for not upgrading the roster last offseason. They did the same this offseason, ignoring their lack of first-base depth, and it’s costing them now. If Devers moves and he’s fine, that’s great. But if he gives in, becomes the ardent ‘team player,’ and plays bad defense at first base, what can the Red Sox do?

That’s the risk both sides are considering: that the switch won’t happen or that it won’t work out. And the Red Sox have already had to confront the risk of alienating their star player. It’s become a reality.

Among a wave of moves to exclude transgender women from sport, the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court ruled in April that the definition of a woman is based on biological sex. That ruling, like the Trump Administration’s executive order stating that gender is equivalent to sex, opened the door for restrictions on transgender athletes.

Now, the Football Association and Scottish Football Association have changed their rules to exclude all transgender women from women’s soccer teams, effective June 1. The rules previously allowed transgender women to play, provided they fell below maximum testosterone levels.

There are no known trans women playing in professional leagues, but the league reported around 20 playing on a grassroots level. The latest census found about 116,000 people in the U.K. identified as transgender out of around 660 million – 0.018% of the population.

Sharron Davies, a former Olympic swimmer and longtime advocate for the exclusion of transgender athletes from women’s sport, said, “I’m overjoyed that women are getting their sport back at last. Hopefully cricket will follow.”

“The science is still the same. Males kick 50% harder than females, they’re taller, they have bigger hands and feet, and they’re more dynamic, particularly in goal…A lot of people are owed an apology.”

The ruling and rule changes were hailed by some feminist groups as a victory for equality, but transgender rights advocates have expressed concern about trans women’s ability to exist in vital gender-segregated spaces, including public bathrooms and hospital wards. Some clubs have also spoken out publicly about the rule change.

“In 1921 the Football Association banned women from playing football,” reads a letter from a East London club called Goal Diggers FC. “In 2025, you’ve done it again.”

“The reality is there are not enough transgender people in society for us to run our own sports, run our own spaces – there just aren’t the numbers to make that viable,” said Natalie Washington, one of the 20 transgender women registered in amateur leagues.

“This is a lot of attention on a very small number of people who aren’t causing a problem, and are just going about their lives.”

The Pittsburgh Steelers had two rostered quarterbacks before the 2025 NFL Draft: Mason Rudolph and Skylar Thompson, both former backups. And instead of prioritizing the position, like many expected, the Steelers waited until Day 3 to draft their guy. Ohio State’s championship-winning quarterback, Will Howard, is headed to Pittsburgh.

Howard, who grew up near Philadelphia, hoped to be drafted by the Steelers as he waited for a call, at one point saying, “Please pick me, Pittsburgh. Please pick me, please!”

His family is “all Eagles fans, but now they’re going to be some damn Steelers fans,” Howard told Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin over the phone.

Howard’s enthusiasm and work ethic have immediately impressed Pittsburgh’s coaching staff. He reportedly reached out to Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth for plays just a day after being drafted, eager to get a head start on, he hopes, becoming Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback.

“[Arth] wrote [Will] back and said, ‘Hey, we were going to give you the weekend off, but this is why we drafted you, because it’s the kind of worker you are,’” said Howard’s mother.

While the possibility of the Steelers landing Aaron Rodgers or Kirk Cousins isn’t out the window, a quarterback room of Rudolph, Thompson and Howard could be wide open for the rookie to seize a larger role. And if Howard is who Pittsburgh hopes he is, the team may have finally found a long-term option at quarterback.

When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced in March that the format of the league’s All-Star Game would be pivoting, it seemed pretty natural to infer that there would be an international element.

The announcement came in the wake of an, um, down year for the NBA All-Star festivities. The game itself commanded just 4.7 million viewers, down 13% from the previous season and 80% from past All-Star games. “We’re not there in terms of creating an All-Star experience that we can be proud of and that our players can be proud of,” Silver acknowledged afterward.

Meanwhile, the NHL replaced their All-Star weekend with the Four Nations Face-Off, played between Finland, Sweden, Canada and the United States. The USA-Canada final drew over 16 million viewers worldwide – rivaling last year’s Stanley Cup Finals Game 7. That’s good business.

For the NBA, which is already playing its 2026 All-Star Game during the Winter Olympics, an international lean is natural. The game will also be played at Intuit Dome, the location of the 2028 Summer Olympics.

“We’ll be competing in the arena at Intuit, where the basketball competition will take place in the 2028 Olympics,” Silver said. “So I think all of those factors, when they come together, it presents an enormous opportunity for us to do something with an international competition instead of the traditional All-Star formats that we’ve used.”

So what will that competition look like?

About 70% of all NBA players are American, so a tournament representing several disparate nations, like the NHL’s, is likely off the table. Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of league operations, remarked specifically on “formats that lean into this idea of international play, to some extent leaning a little bit on this idea of U.S. versus rest of the world.”

“The USA has more talented players than the rest of the world,” said Nikola Jokic earlier this year. “Europe and the rest of the world has talented players, I think, but the majority of the players are coming from USA.”

In such a consolidated matchup, though, the talent would be close. Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama and Luka Doncic are just a few of the probable names for the international roster. It would be difficult to argue there’s a lack of talent there.

The All-Star game is still nearly ten months out, so details likely haven’t been hammered out yet. But it now seems like the format – USA versus the World – has been set. The rest, including the amount of success it’ll have, remains to be seen.

Four games into the second playoff round, Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis told reporters that he finally felt that his energy level had begun to recover from a mystery illness that sidelined him for nine games in March.

The Celtics have been tight-lipped about the specific nature of the disease, but Porzingis has been open about the long-term impacts of the upper-respiratory viral illness on his game.

“I’m dealing with some, I don’t know what to call it, but I’m just not feeling my best,” Porzingis said. “I’m not feeling my best at all, but it just kills me inside that it’s happening in this moment, and what I’m super appreciative about is about the support that I have on the inside, and also probably from the fans.”

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the illness affected Porzingis’ “stamina ebbs and flows,” which has kept him from playing his typical minutes. Porzingis played just 13, 14 and 19 minutes in Games 1-3 of the Celtics’ series against the New York Knicks, putting up a combined 13 points over those three games.

Following Game 4, where he played 24 minutes, Porzingis said that he felt much better.

“Tonight was the first time I felt decent, honestly,” he said. “Just everything. My energy, I was more like uplifted, and maybe didn’t have my best game, anyway. But my energy was good and I felt like I could go a bit more up and down, so that was a positive.”

But Boston also lost that game 113-121, dropping to 1-3 in a series where they had been prohibitive favorites. Even worse, Celtics star Jayson Tatum suffered an Achilles tendon rupture late in the game, taking him out for the remainder of the postseason and likely most, if not all, of next season.

It’s a good time for Porzingis to be recovering. But for the Celtics, who are facing elimination on Wednesday without their top star, that’s probably not going to be enough.

“We have a lot of talent,” Porzingis said. “Even with [Tatum] out, even me maybe playing 10-15 minutes, we have the guys and we’ve shown in the past that we can play still really good basketball. Obviously, there’s no replacement for this guy, no? Like, this is a big hit for us, 100%. But again, we have to play with the hand we’re dealt right now, and this is it.”

Charlie Woods, 16, won’t be playing in the U.S. Open this year.

Woods shot three-over-par 75 at Wellington Golf Club in Florida last Thursday, seven strokes over the qualifying score of 68. While he missed out for the second consecutive year, he did improve from his previous year’s total of 9-over 81 at The Legacy Golf & Tennis Club.

Following his failure to qualify in 2024, Woods was able to qualify for the U.S. Junior Amateur, although he missed the cut there by 18 strokes.

He was one of 10,202 entries for the U.S. Open, which is scheduled for June 12-15 at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. And he’s not the only Woods to be missing out – his father and three-time U.S. Open winner, Tiger, announced in March that he had ruptured his Achilles tendon while training.

Charlie has been following in his father’s footsteps from a young age. He and Tiger have competed as a father-son duo at the PNC Championships four times, in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2024, finishing as high as second place.

While neither Woods will be playing in the U.S. Open this year, their story is far from over.

Following a hugely disappointing 2024 that saw them finish 5-12, the New York Jets went through a complete overhaul – head coach, general manager and quarterback. New head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey have made it clear that they’re looking to turn things around quickly for the team with the longest playoff drought in North American sports. And that began last week, with the seventh-overall selection of right tackle Armand Membou.

Membou played for Missouri for three years, making the second-team All-SEC in 2024. His potential, though, lies in his physicality. Membou is reportedly a “ridiculous athlete,” with a playing style best described as “nasty.” The Jets, who have had a glaring hole at right tackle, will be hoping he’s a day-one starter.

“The number one thing is we really have guys that fit the brand of who we’re going to be,” said Glenn following the Draft.

And what is that brand?

“Tough, physical, violent, aggressive, a resilient attitude,” he said. “We continue to get guys like that, I mean, you’ll start to see the brand show up on the grass.”

Despite consistently drafting highly offensive linemen, the Jets have underperformed. They were 23rd in pass block win rate last season, and have only finished above 20th once in the past five years. Continuing to invest in the offensive line should give an extra layer of security to newly-acquired quarterback Justin Fields.

“I come from two teams … where everything was about the offensive line,” said Glenn, discussing the Membou pick. “I’m a firm believer that you start it inside out. So if we can build our line, just as much as our defensive line, that only helps you as a team. It helps your quarterback, it helps your running backs, it helps your passing game, and it just creates an identity within your team.”

The Jets were scrambling for much of last year, looking for an Aaron Rodgers miracle that never came. They fired their head coach in the middle of the season and proceeded to continue declining. In short, they looked hopeless – lacking an identity.

These new Jets promise to be better. Membou is a hugely promising pick with Pro Bowl potential, and he certainly bolsters Glenn’s brand. But, for the Jets fans who have waited 14 years to see the playoffs again, they’ll have to see it in the regular season to believe it.

The Jacksonville Jaguars called the Cleveland Browns about a trade weeks ago, hoping for a miracle in the runup to the 2025 NFL Draft. Their long-shot wish was granted. Travis Hunter, a college superstar at both cornerback and wide receiver, is now a Jaguar.

The Jaguars initially had the No. 5 pick in the Draft, while the Browns had the No. 2 pick. They swapped, with a second-round and fourth-round pick, along with a 2026 first-rounder, going to Cleveland. Cleveland gave up a fourth-round and sixth-round pick. It was a pricey trade for the Jaguars, but, as general manager James Gladstone said, Jacksonville was happy with the way things unfolded.

Hunter won the Heisman Trophy this past season, along with the Biletnikoff (as the best college wide receiver) and the Bednarik (as the best college defender). He was the cornerstone of a team that went from a one-win season to nine wins this past year.

“He’s somebody who is deserving of a first-round draft pick as a wide receiver, and he is worthy of a first-round draft pick as a corner,” Gladstone said. “Certainly look forward to each of those elements showing themselves over the next few years while he’s under his rookie contract. But yeah, we’re excited about just getting him in the boat, so to speak.”

While some analysts have expressed concern about Hunter’s physical ability to continue playing both positions in the NFL, Hunter has said that he would like to continue as a two-way player. Luckily for him, the Jaguars have committed to doing just that – Hunter said that he was in contact with Jacksonville’s offensive and defensive coordinators by the end of Draft day.

Hunter, paired with wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., should also make quarterback Trevor Lawrence‘s life easier. Lawrence has struggled with consistency and injury for the past few seasons – as, frankly, has the whole team, and Hunter has the potential to be a linchpin to turn the franchise around.

“You can count however many drafts you want to [and] there are players who have the capacity to alter a game. There are players who have the capacity to alter the trajectory of a team. There are very few players who have the capacity to alter the trajectory of the sport itself,” Gladstone said, discussing the price of the Cleveland trade.

“Travis, while he has a lot to still learn in our eyes, has the potential to do just that.”