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Austin Riley hit a three-run homer off All-Star closer Jhoan Duran in the eighth inning and the Atlanta Braves rallied past the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 on Tuesday in the opener of a best-of-three National League wild-card Series.
Duran (0-1), who gave up just two homers in 61 regular-season games, gave up a single to Michael Harris II before hitting Ozzie Albies with a pitch. Riley drove the go-ahead blast over the wall in right-center field. Harris had three hits.
The Braves can clinch the series Wednesday and end the Phillies’ history of postseason success in the NL East rivalry. Philadelphia beat Atlanta in the 1993 NLCS and the 2022 and 2023 NLDS.
Riley’s go-ahead homer was especially satisfying after he hit only .219 with 19 homers in a frustrating regular season.
“Especially knowing how my season was not the way I wanted it, that’s why the postseason is a clean slate,” Riley said, adding he was “trying to do something good” for his teammates.
Braves ace Chris Sale said Riley never let his struggles affect his approach to the game during the regular season.
“You couldn’t tell if he was the leading MVP candidate or if he was struggling,” Sale said. “I really mean that. He’s the same guy. He kept doing the work and had a great moment.”
Sale dueled early against Phillies left-hander Jesus Luzardo, who was sharp after missing time down the stretch with left shoulder inflammation. Luzardo was expected to make an abbreviated start, but he pitched one-run ball over five innings with 77 pitches.
“In my mind if we got 75 pitches from him today we would be in a pretty good spot,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said of Luzardo. “… He kind of gave us more than we thought honestly.”
Scotland fans came to Hampden to welcome the new man, Sebastien Pocognoli, and left with all the woes of old weighing them down as they went.
More calamitous defending in the beginning, another self-inflicted wound that was a complete game-changer, another day without a goal – four in a row now.
In the early minutes when Jack Hendry got himself sent off, we may as well have been back amid the meltdown of Miami. Then, Scotland gifted Brazil one goal and then two when they made a fiendishly-difficult job an impossible one on the back of slapstick in defence.
So it was again on Tuesday. Hendry’s red card was a grim moment that sucked the life out of the occasion.
Switzerland don’t lose many games. Argentina had the devil’s own job in seeing them off in extra-time at the World Cup. Germany beat them 4-3 in a friendly, the winner only coming in the 85th minute.
They’re full of nous and strength and belief. Their coach, Murat Yakin, has the calm authority of a man who knows, with absolute certainty, that his team will prevail.
Once the opening goal went in, Yakin turned around in his technical area with a half-smile on his face. Job done, already.
Two-time NBA champion J.R. Smith has been arrested in Texas on family violence charges.
The former Laker is being held on suspicion of family violence assault causing bodily injury, with no bond currently set, according to the Hunt County jail’s booking records. The charge is usually a misdemeanor for first-time offenders.
According to a news release from Royse City police chief Kirk Aldridge, officers stopped Smith, whose full name is Earl Joseph Smith III, on Interstate 30 on Monday afternoon after receiving an automatic license plate alert about an outstanding warrant for his arrest issued by the Southlake Police Department..
The officers stopped the vehicle, identified Smith and took him into custody. He was transported to the Hunt County dentention center and booked on the Southlake warrant. Smith’s car was released to his brother, who was with him at the time.
Southlake police said in a statement that the investigation is ongoing and no additional information will be released at this time.
Smith played for five teams during his 16-year NBA career. He was named the league’s sixth man of the year in 2013 as a member of the New York Knicks and was a member of the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers that won the 2016 NBA championship.
After signing with the Lakers while the league was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic in July 2020, Smith played sparingly after the season resumed in a bubble environment in Orlando, eventually winning another NBA championship with James as his teammate. His last NBA appearance was in Game 3 of the 2020 finals, a 115-104 Lakers loss to the Miami Heat.
In 2009, Smith was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with 60 days suspended, and 500 hours of community service for reckless driving after he caused a 2007 auto accident in Millstone, N.J., that resulted in the death of a friend who was a passenger in the vehicle.
Real Madrid are waiting for Virgil van Dijk to become a free agent, Bayern Munich offer Michael Olise a long-term contract and are eyeing Barcelona’s Jules Kounde.
Bayern Munich are set to offer French striker Michael Olise a new contract until 2032, with the 24-year-old’s current deal expiring in 2029. (Bild – in German), external
However, the German club played down the prospect of signing Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, 32. (TeamTalk), external
Unitedare also planning to offer new terms for English defender Luke Shaw, 31, who is out of contract at the end of the season. (Football Insider), external
Bayern Munich are also eyeing a move for French defender Jules Kounde, 27, with the player starting the season out of favour at Barcelona(Sport – in Spanish, external)
James Trafford: Made a good save in the second half. Trafford was very calm with the ball at his feet and showed his passing range which pleased Tuchel throughout. 6
Trent Alexander-Arnold: Started his first England game for nearly two years. Not much to do defensively but put in a great ball for the England opener. 7
Trevoh Chalobah: A shaky start from the centre back who lost possession a couple of times and lost out in challenges which frustrated manager Thomas Tuchel. But Chalobah settled and ensured England kept a clean sheet against 10-man Czech Republic. 6
Marc Guehi: The usual reliable performance from Guehi. England didn’t have much defending to do but he put in a couple of important blocks. 6
Lewis Hall: The left-back combined well with Anthony Gordon and offered a good outlet for England. Hall was a threat going forward and should have scored in the second half. 7
Elliot Anderson: Dominated the midfield, kept the ball ticking for England and won possession back the few times that the Czech Republic ventured forward. A mature performance. 7
Myles Lewis-Skelly: Started the game well and was given a lot of responsibility in England’s build up play. However, Lewis-Skelly was booked for a mis-timed tackle and then taken off at half time. 6
Morgan Rogers: Played Bukayo Saka through with a nice pass early on and hit the post twice. Not given much room by a Czech side who defended very deep. 6
Bukayo Saka: Not much of note to mark for Saka in what was a cagey match as England laboured when breaking down the Czech defence before Gordon’s goal. 6
Anthony Gordon: A constant threat in behind and put in a dangerous cross in the first half that deserved to end up with a goal. Scored the opener and continues to show why he is becoming so important for the Three Lions. 8
Harry Kane: A quieter night for Kane who dropped deep and went looking for the ball but the England captain still got on the score sheet with a good finish inside the area in the second half. 7
Subs:
Eberechi Eze (on 46, Lewis-Skelly): Added a spark to midfield. 6
Jude Bellingham (on 70, Kane): Took the captains armband and led the line. 6
Alex Scott (on 70, Anderson): Made his England debut. 6
Rio Ngumoha (on 71, Saka): His first thought was to go forward. 6
Morgan Gibbs-White (on 81, Gordon):
Subs not used: Pickford, Steele, Konsa, Branthwaite, Garner, Calvert-Lewin, Quansah
LA28 announced Tuesday it will begin the U.S. portion of the 2028 Olympic torch relay in Atlanta in a return to the city that hosted the United States’ last Summer Games and provided the Olympic movement with one of its most iconic torch relay moments. The city where Evans passed the Olympic flame to Muhammad Ali changed the swimming champion’s view on the Games and fueled her desire to bring the torch back as LA28 hopes to write an equally influential chapter of Olympic history.
“I realized when I carried that torch that the flame represents so much more than medals,” said Evans, now LA28’s chief athlete officer. “It certainly represents victory and all those attributes about the Olympics. But it also brings people together, and it’s a symbol of hope and what the Olympic movement really does for everyone.”
The torch relay, which begins in Olympia, Greece, will come to the United States in spring 2028, pass through all 50 states and culminate on July 14, 2028, with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony in L.A.
Three decades ago, the relay legs were reversed. Atlanta’s U.S. torch relay started in L.A., where Evans was one of the first people to run with it in 1996. She never thought she would carry it again during the opening ceremony.
Swimmers never attend opening ceremonies, Evans retorted when Billy Payne, president and chief executive of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, asked her to run the penultimate leg of the torch relay. She would be competing the next day and needed to rest her legs ahead of her final Olympic races. She didn’t believe him when he promised that carrying the torch in the opening ceremony would surpass any Olympic medal she could win.
Running past her fellow Olympians in Centennial Olympic Stadium made Evans finally understand. At the top of a large ramp, Ali emerged out of the dark night. Evans felt a deep rumble as the boxing champion came into view. The stadium felt like it would collapse.
Ali, trembling from the effects of Parkinson’s disease but with strength still evident, held the flaming torch aloft.
Payne was “worried to death” that Ali could drop the torch, he said, 30 years later. Payne instructed Evans that if that happened, she was to grab his arm, pick up the specially engineered torch that would never extinguish and light the fuse ball together.
Janet Evans passes the Olympic flame to Muhammad Ali during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremony on July 19, 1996.
(Associated Press)
When Evans faced Ali to pass the flame, she knew she wouldn’t need to resort to Plan B.
“I saw it in his eyes,” Evans said. “I still talk to people that were in the stadium, and they say it changed me. It made me realize that I can do great things just like him.”
The torch and the flame endure in an ever-changing Olympic movement. The Games are no longer just a sports competition. They’re the biggest sporting event in the world. They’re seen as a symbol of unity. For host cities, they can also be seen as a high-stakes burden that must bring economic, commercial and civic success. Anything short of perfection feels like disaster on the world stage.
Now less than two years until the Games open, LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman acknowledged there can be some “angst” around the process that is kicking into the delivery phase.
LA28 is still trying to secure millions of dollars in funding to ensure smooth transportation during the Olympics and Paralympics. The nightmare scenario of running over budget and saddling local taxpayers with debt hangs over the organizing committee.
With no permanent venues to build in advance, much of LA28’s spending will take place in the final stages. It’s almost that time to spend, Wasserman acknowledged. Getting to finalize major touchpoints such as the torch relay, the mascot and the medal designs while preparing to makeover existing venues signal excitement and confidence in the organization’s process.
“The part now [that] we are in is making sure all of our plans are clear, all of our difficult decisions are being made, so that when we go, we have as few changes and as few course corrections as possible,” Wasserman said. “Not that there won’t be any, but to limit those as much as possible, so that we operate towards the start line with as much certainty as possible, which is the only way to deliver a project of this scale.”
LA28 will announce the full torch relay route in 2027. The private organizing committee has a rough sketch of the path that will snake through all 50 states. The nationwide tour was one of Wasserman’s earliest plans for the relay. While he was intent to bring the Olympics back to L.A. for the third time, he has always wanted these to be “America’s Games.”
Payne is jealous that LA28’s torch relay will reach every corner of the United States when Atlanta only managed 42 states. LA28’s route promises to pass through iconic cities and landmarks, but Wasserman is most keen on carrying the torch through small towns, per advice he received from Payne.
“If you want to see the power and the impact of what you’re doing, that’s where you will feel it,” Wasserman said his Atlanta counterpart told him. “Because that city, that community, it will be the biggest thing in that town. That is the power of the Olympic movement.”
Payne calls it “the burden and the joy” of the torch. During his Olympic planning process, he was never more nervous than when he carried the flame through the University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, where he met his wife, Martha, and played for legendary football coach Vince Dooley. Hampered by a hip injury, Payne limped through only a third of his allotted distance. He still cherished every painful step.
“The sense of the entire history of the Olympic world, the hopes and dreams of all the athletes, indeed, all the people of my community, my city, my country, they were all supporting us,” Payne said. “It was an amazing emotional time, and one I think [of] every single time we do the Olympic torch relay. It impacts people very similarly.”
The flame is lit during a ceremony at Olympia, the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games, using a mirror and light from the sun. It will run through Greece before being transferred to the United States. Since the modern torch relay tradition began in 1936, the flame has burned underwater (Sydney 2000) and in space (Atlanta 1996) and traveled by plane, train, automobile, boat, pony and even camel.
To continue the tradition, LA28 will call upon thousands of torchbearers. LA28 will announce information on the torchbearer nomination process in the coming months.
The Olympic flame is passed to a torch during a ceremony in Olympia, Greece, in November 2025 prior to the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
(Milos Bicanski / Getty Images)
Once it gets to the final 25 to 30 torchbearers, Wasserman said, each runner has to be “fundamentally important, connected and relevant to what we’re doing.” Runners could honor the Olympic movement’s past or future while celebrating L.A. and sports before passing the flame to the final torchbearer to light the cauldron.
The ultimate honor is typically reserved for sporting heroes from the host country, often with Olympic excellence on their resume. Since 1980, only two Summer Games have featured a cauldron lit by a non-Olympic or Paralympic athlete. Ali’s iconic moment set a high bar for the LA28 Games, but with 22 months left before the opening ceremony, the question of who will light L.A.’s cauldron remains a fun parlor game, Wasserman said.
He can make only one promise, which he first told Rafer Johnson. The legendary decathlete who climbed 99 steps to light the cauldron at the Coliseum in 1984 just begged Wasserman not to repeat the punishing path.
“Who lights it and how they get there, I don’t know,” Wasserman said, “but there won’t be however many stairs he ran up to get up to the bottom of the peristyle.”
Hot mics have embarrassed many a media professional.
Cincinnati Reds longtime broadcaster Thom Brennaman was suspended indefinitely in 2020 after his microphone accidentally picked up him using a three-letter anti-gay slur.
Charles Barkley dropped an uncensored F-bomb during an Inside the NBA on TNT broadcast in 2025 while venting about NBA award voters.
And just two months ago, San Francisco Giants executive Buster Posey trolled radio station KNBR on-air after a behind-the-scenes employee was caught on a hot mic talking trash about him.
Add reporters covering Sacramento Kings media day Monday to the list. At least three were heard in an unvarnished conversation about Kings players Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine that took a personal turn.
A handful of local outlets livestreamed media day interviews. But the mics also picked up reporters chatting, and embarrassing comments went beyond their frequent use of the hyper-localized and outdated NorCal modifier “hella.”
Comments begin about Simmons, a guard on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract after missing last season with injuries. A female says “That’s what comes with being Ben Simmons. He is cringe, cringe,” and another jumps in to say he is “lucky he’s so fine.”
The first media member agrees, saying “He’s a good-looking dude. His skin is, like, so smooth, I was like, damn, no tattoos?”
A male voice joins the conversation, asking, “I thought Jordan Poole was your type.”
A female voice replies, “Allegedly, I like light-skinned, I guess.”
The male voice continues: “What about Zach LaVine, then?”
“Hella fine,” the female voice replies.
“I think his personality annoys the [expletive] out of me, so that’s what makes him less fine,” the first person says. “Zach’s cute but his personality [expletive] annoys me. He just seems like hella like a prick. But he is beautiful.”
“He’s a [expletive] UCLA guy,” replies the third person. “Just all of them are.”
Another voice jumps in, offering that LaVine is “hella fine, too.”
Someone asks how the others would rank Kings players by hotness. One voice votes for Simmons because of “his skincare routine.”
Apparently referring to the team’s woeful 22-60 record last season, the male voice responds by cracking, “Well, Ben wasn’t a King for the last year and a half either,” to which a female voice concedes, “That’s true.”
The reporters involved have not been publicly identified, and none of the players have responded. LaVine’s wife, Hunter, did offer a low-key comment to the Kings Muse recording, writing on X, “a great start to the season!”
The episode called to mind the hot mic that marred the Toronto Raptors’ postseason news conference last April. Two unidentified media members were heard making disparaging comments about players Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Mogbo.
“It’s not just his enunciation, which, like, was super bad, especially last year,” one person said about Barnes. “But even the attitude. Just the attitude — like he’s having fun up there. First year or even before, he just kept getting worse and worse every year.”
Rookie forward Mogbo was the next target. “When I first interviewed Mogbo when he was drafted, I was shocked ’cause he was so dumb,” the person said.
Raptors fans were appalled by the comments, but Barnes responded with humor on social media. It remains to be seen how Simmons and LaVine react.
Chicago Bears linebacker D’Marco Jackson had just delivered a hard hit on Jalen Hurts as the Eagles star quarterback was running out of bounds. Hurts had to leave the game under the NFL’s concussion protocol.
So Sirianni decided to let Jackson know exactly how he felt about him. ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” cameras showed the sixth-year coach screaming an extremely NSFW word apparently at the opposing player — twice — while Eagles backup quarterback Andy Dalton prepared to enter the game.
Hours later, following the Eagles’ 27-7 loss to the Bears, Sirianni expressed regret for how he behaved.
“I always come away when I have a moment like that with remorse,” Sirianni told reporters during his postgame news conference. “I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the best of me. Those guys are out there trying to make a play. It was close on the sideline, ended up being a penalty. Obviously you never want to see your quarterback get hit like that, but it’s in the heat of the moment. I know nobody’s trying to hurt anybody out there, and I always have remorse when I act that way.”
He added: “The emotion of the game probably got the better of me today and I have to learn from that in that particular moment. I have to be more steady in that situation and be able to — like I say to the guys all the time, be able to move on and go to the next play. I didn’t like how I handled that.”
Trailing 7-0 midway through the second quarter, Hurts was forced to scramble out of the pocket on second down for a short gain to the Bears’ 13-yard line. As he was stepping out of bounds, Hurts was hit hard in the shoulder area by Jackson and knocked backward onto the ground. Jackson was flagged for unnecessary roughness, but the penalty was offset by an offensive holding call on Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson.
After the game, Jackson joked that he received “some feedback” over that hit but said that he thought he was making the appropriate play at the time.
“I’m seeing him, I see the first down right there and in my head I’m trying to stop him from [getting] the first down and reaching the ball out,” Jackson told Marquee Sports Network. “I thought it was a clean hit. In the second of the game, I thought it was clean.”
Hurts was able to jog back to the Eagles huddle but was then called to the sideline for concussion testing. Out on the field, Dalton handed the ball off to star running back Saquon Barkley three times to get the Eagles to the Bears’ 2-yard line. But on third and goal, Dalton’s pass intended for Dontayvion Wicks was intercepted by Chicago’s Dillon Thieneman in the end zone to stop the drive.
In his postgame news conference, Hurts didn’t address the hit by Jackson but did express frustration about not being able to clear the concussion protocol and re-enter the game sooner.
“I wish they could have expedited things,” Hurts said. “I felt fine.”
The Bears — led by third-string quarterback Case Keenum, who started in place of injured starter Caleb Williams and backup Tyson Bagent, who was recovering from a conncussion — then drove the ball down the field for a field goal. Hurts returned to the game on the next drive and led the Eagles to their only touchdown of the game.
Saracens are set to receive a series of fines from Prem Rugby due to director of rugby Brendan Venter’s failure to fulfil media commitments.
It is understood the club have already been handed a £5,000 sanction after Venter was not present at the Prem’s pre-season launch day.
The South African also did not speak to the media before, during or after the opening-weekend victory at Leicester.
The Daily Telegraph reported earlier on Tuesday, external that Venter “resigned” as director of rugby last month and took up a new role of “head of rugby culture and wine consultant”, with head coach Joe Shaw assuming responsibility for media commitments.
The report also claims Saracens asked permission in July for Shaw to front the club’s media commitments.
However, none of this has been confirmed by the club nor Prem Rugby.
It is also thought a change of job title would not preclude Venter from his contractual responsibilities.
Saracens announced in January that Venter would be returning to the club as director of rugby and have yet to confirm any change to his day-to-day responsibilities.
He succeeded Mark McCall, who stepped down at the end of last season after 15 trophy-laden years in the job.
Venter’s first spell as Sarries’ director of rugby, which began in 2009, also included clashes with authorities over media commitments.
In September 2010, the club apologised to European Rugby Cup (ERC) officials for then-captain Steve Borthwick’s failure to attend the Heineken Cup launch at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
Borthwick, now England head coach, was the only missing representative from the coaches and captains of 12 English, Welsh and Scottish clubs attending the event.
He had been told by Saracens to instead attend a team bonding session at a beer festival in Munich.
In December 2010, Venter himself was warned by European Rugby Cup officials for a post-match interview after his side’s 24-21 Heineken Cup loss to Racing Metro, in which he repeatedly gave short answers, agreeing with whatever was being asked.
He later said it was inspired by a scene in the football mockumentary film, Mike Bassett: England Manager.
Venter left his full-time role at Saracens halfway through the 2010–11 season, to be replaced by McCall.
Cole Palmer is the “victim” of a “sick” system that is expecting too much of players, according to Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango.
Molango said Palmer’s recent withdrawal from the England squad highlighted a match calendar that is unsustainable and has become the “survival of the fittest”.
“When England see five players who need to withdraw when the single most proud moment a player has is to be called up for the national team, you just ask yourself, what’s wrong about the industry?” Molango said at the Fifpro performance summit in London.
“You see people like Cole Palmer, someone who would have played four consecutive summers in a row had he gone to the World Cup, and you wonder why is he missing?
“He’s missing because he’s a victim of the calendar and that’s something that needs to absolutely trigger the alarm bells.”
The PFA and global players’ union Fifpro have repeatedly warned about the impact of an increasingly congested calendar on player welfare.
But Molango criticised that stance, saying: “They [England players] love to play for England. They love to play for their national team. But unfortunately your body puts a limit to it. You cannot cheat biology.”
Molango said this was far from an issue that only impacts England players, pointing to other recent withdrawals from European teams, including Germany’s Kai Havertz, Dutch striker Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe.
“Is that really the football that we want?” Molango asked.
“Is it the football where the people who make us dream just cannot perform? For me it’s very worrying.
“What we’ve seen over the last few years is a system that’s sick, that’s ill, because it ultimately revolves around obtaining votes and power consolidation.”
Molango wants to see a mandatory three-week summer break and a three-week “retraining” period every summer.
While the Premier League’s chief football officer, Rebecca Caplehorn, said she was supportive of this in theory, she said in practice it is not feasible at present.
“It’s something we’re really supportive of, conceptually, but the challenge is that it just doesn’t fit into the current calendar,” Caplehorn said.
“There’s always something that’s preventing us having that six-week gap that we want. Without regulatory change and change to the calendar, it’s not possible for us to deliver that.”
Ulster will be without backs Michael Lowry, Aitzol Arenzana-King and Robert Baloucoune for Saturday’s United Rugby Championship game against Glasgow at Scotstoun (17:30 BST).
Full-back Lowry and wing Baloucoune suffered concussions in the Irish province’s 34-29 defeat by Edinburgh in their opening URC game of the 2026-27 campaign.
Winger Arenzana-King picked up a knee injury during the game in Belfast, from which Ulster emerged with two bonus points.
All three players started last weekend’s fixture, with Lowry captaining the side and scoring the first of Ulster’s four tries in a match which Richie Murphy’s side’s comeback fall short after they bounced back from a 34-5 deficit.
Glasgow began their season with an impressive 26-20 victory on the road at Munster.
As with every home game, the Salisbury FC players and coaching staff went to embrace the fans in the Andrews Terrace at The Mac Stadium after Saturday’s 2-0 win against Folkestone Invicta.
Alongside the normal applause and cheers, they were greeted with a chant that isn’t a regular from the songbook.
“Kuwait away ole, ole,” sang fans of the National League South outfit.
The players clapped back with an extra buzz – within 24 hours they would be travelling to the Middle East.
“Straight away we all said, ‘yeah, we’re all in,” explains Salisbury player Luke Russe.
“It’s a unique opportunity and as players, we are so thankful to everybody involved in making this trip happen. I’ve been involved in this level for a long time now and I’ve never had an experience like it.”
The five-day trip involves the club facing one of Kuwait’s most successful teams on Wednesday, Al Qadsia, who have won more than 50 trophies, before returning on Thursday to play Saturday’s FA Cup third qualifying round against Dulwich Hamlet.
It comes as part of the club’s continued link with Kuwait through their owner Ali Alhamad, who purchased the club in 2025.
The club hopes the trip will offer significant commercial growth and, for the players, an opportunity to experience football in a new environment and culture.
The Mohammad Al-Hamad Stadium holds 22,000 spectators, more than five times that of Salisbury’s The Mac.
“We’d love to win the game,” says Russe. “But at the same time I think it’s more about the experience and about the club as a whole, going over there, living that way of life and experiencing the game.
“We’ve got a very young group, so for them to experience that and kind of experience cultures and differences is great.
“It’ll be a fantastic opportunity for us players, for the staff, and I think it’ll bring the whole club even closer to what we are now.”
Rooney’s former United team-mates Rio Ferdinand and David de Gea both posted on social media after news of the guilty verdict emerged on Friday, suggesting they should be awarded retrospective title wins.
“When I’ve heard of ex-team-mates and people saying, ‘we’ve won another medal’, I’m happy with the five I’ve won,” said Rooney.
“I wouldn’t want this one just sat there… 15 years later or whatever it was you get a medal because City cheated. I wouldn’t feel comfortable.
“The question is, would I want to receive that medal for finishing second? No.
“Some players might. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable for accepting a Premier League medal for finishing second.”
While Rooney is against titles being taken away from City, he does believe they should be relegated.
“I do think we’re going to see City getting relegated,” said the 40-year-old. “However that happens I don’t know but I think we’re going to see them get relegated.”
Rooney added: “I’d put them in the lowest league they can go in and then put restrictions on them in terms of how much money they can spend for the next three or four seasons.
“If you’re just putting them in the Championship, and I get that’s a massive punishment, they’re going to come back up. Where, I feel if they have got restrictions… League Two, whatever… that could be very difficult for them.
“For instance, if they got a 20-point deduction for the next three years then players won’t want to stay there. If it’s Championship for a season, you could talk players round.
Meanwhile, there is a first senior call-up for Chelsea midfielder Lexi Potter, 20, who has impressed alongside England’s Keira Walsh in the Women’s Super League.
She has started three of Chelsea’s opening four matches and was a standout performer in their 1-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday.
“Her performances were just really good. We started following her closely last season and she got minutes over time,” said Wiegman.
“She plays with a lot of courage, a lot of understanding and her decision-making is really good. Her technical ability, we have seen, is really good too.
“What I’ve seen is that no matter who she plays against, like last Sunday [against Arsenal], it looks like it doesn’t bother her at all and she will just play football.
“She played against very high-level players, international players, and she just played. She looked very comfortable. I hope she shows that with us too.”
There is also a return to the squad for uncapped midfielder Erica Meg Parkinson, 18, who has excelled since joining North Carolina Courage in the summer.
Manchester City full-back Niamh Charles made her return from injury as a substitute in their 1-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday and is included.
London City Lionesses forward Freya Godfrey and Liverpool defender Grace Fisk are the other two uncapped players named.
England play a double-header against Greece, first in Crete on Friday, 9 October (17:30 BST) and then in Leicester on Tuesday, 13 October (19:30 BST).
If they win the two-legged tie, they progress to round two of the play-offs where they can compete for a place in next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
When Dodgers rookie Josue De Paula debuted a little over two weeks ago, he was the youngest player in the lineup by four years. And when veteran infielder Miguel Rojas pinch-hit for Alex Freeland in the eighth inning, the 21-year-old De Paula and 29-year-old Kyle Tucker were the only Dodgers under 30 remaining in the batting order.
“You’ve got to have both,” veteran shortstop Mookie Betts, who turns 34 next month, said in a recent conversation with the Times. “You need experience, but you also do need youth. I don’t know what the balance is, to be honest.”
The age of the Dodgers’ stars is the most persistent knock on a group that just finished a 100-win regular season and has the second-best odds to win the World Series (16.7%), according to Baseball Prospectus.
It’s the threat looming beyond every new accomplishment. Yes, the Dodgers are in the midst of a historic run. Only one other organization has strung together so many consecutive postseason berths, and that Braves team of the 1990s and early 2000s won only one World Series.
The Dodgers are aiming to become the first National League team to claim three straight championships.
But how long can this last?
The Dodgers’ lineup is the oldest in the majors, according to Baseball Reference, with an average age of 30.9 years old when weighted by at-bats and games played. Their star corner infielders, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy, are the oldest of the everyday starters, at 37 and 36, respectively. Even two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani turned 32 in July.
“That’s a fact, we’re an older team,” manager Dave Roberts said. “With age, there’s experience. I know we’re not going to fall off a cliff, our team.”
Plenty of young players in the Dodgers’ system have been blocked by older stars over the years. But in addition to a sky-high payroll, the Dodgers are known for their player development.
Even after the trade deadline — when the Dodgers sent two MLB Top-100 prospects, outfielder Zyhir Hope (No. 25) and right-hander River Ryan (No. 68), to the Tigers as part of the trade package for left-hander Tarik Skubal — the organization’s farm system ranked No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s rankings.
Serving as a reminder of that strength, when the Dodgers called up De Paula straight from double A, he immediately showed his bat belonged in the big-leagues.
At the same time, injuries stoked the flames of the age discussion. De Paula got his shot because Ohtani finally went on the injured list, after managing problems with his left knee and right biceps for much of the season.
Freeman pushed through knee tendinitis in September. Teoscar Hernández (left hamstring strain) and Betts (right oblique strain) both had monthlong IL stints earlier in the season but have helped carry the offense lately.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’m definitely taking a lot more care of my body,” Betts said. “I know I had an oblique [injury] earlier, but as far as just showing up every day and whatnot, I feel like we do a good job in taking care of our bodies and staying healthy for the most part.
“But I mean, people are talking like we’re the only ones in the league that’s getting hurt. You look everywhere around the league, somebody’s hurt.”
That’s true. And it also isn’t just the guys in their mid-to-late 30’s sustaining soft-tissue injuries. Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing, 25, served back-to-back IL stints for a flexor strain in his forearm down the stretch.
The Dodgers’ roster has proven deep enough to withstand injuries, as the team posted the second-best regular-season record in the majors this year.
“We’re not going to win games the same way that Milwaukee or Tampa Bay or these younger teams are winning games,” said Rojas, 37. “We’re going to win games a different way. We’re going to win games with a lot of talent, with experience, and winning moments.”
Over the years, the Dodgers have brought in players with postseason experience. But roster continuity also has meant that 17 players on this year’s projected postseason roster also contributed to both of the Dodgers’ last two World Series-winning seasons.
So, after playing more games than any other team the past couple years, the Dodgers may be a little hobbled going into their first-round bye. Regardless, they just completed their first 100-win season since 2023.
“The experience, how smart these guys are on the field, I think those things help win moments and win battles on the edges in October,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said when the Dodgers clinched the NL West title earlier this month. “It’s not as easy to navigate through a 162-game season with an older roster. But I do think that experience in those moments will definitely help and we’ll see it shine through at different points in October.”
It seems like a simple equation: $338 million produces 100.
That’s the Dodgers’ season-ending payroll and victory total. But to assume a franchise can merely buy a playoff berth is a stretch.
The New York Mets sit at home — or more likely at lavish vacation destinations, given their perch at the top of baseball’s payrolls at $345.8 million. They finished last in the National League East with a 74-88 record.
The Cleveland Guardians also sit at home, but are quite pleased about it. They earned a first-round bye and berth in the American League Division Series this weekend despite a payroll of only $74.2 million — baseball’s lowest and barely one-fifth that of the Mets.
Twelve of the 30 MLB teams qualified for the postseason, with four best-of-three Wild Card Series beginning Tuesday. Eight of the dozen have payrolls in the top 10, with the defending AL-champion Toronto Blue Jays joining the Mets as supreme underachievers given their No. 5-ranked payroll of $275.4 million.
Yet three playoff teams — the Tampa Bay Rays ($98.3 million) and Chicago White Sox ($98 million), in addition to the Guardians — rank among the six lowest payrolls, according to present-day salary calculations from the MLB Labor Relations Department, or LRD, obtained by USA Today.
The combined LRD payrolls of those three overachievers don’t come close to the Mets or Dodgers, highlighting the enormous disparity between the haves and have-nots that team owners point to while demanding a salary cap during ongoing collective bargaining negotiations.
Oddly, only one playoff qualifier is among the 14 mid-range payrolls of roughly $100 million to $200 million — the Milwaukee Brewers, who achieved baseball’s best record at 103-59 while paying its roster $143.5 million. The Angels are also among that group, ranking No. 15 at $179.8, not enough to keep them from losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history.
The LRD payroll tracks a team’s real-time salary commitments for the current season, accounting for the 26-man MLB roster’s base salaries plus a prorated portion of signing bonuses. LRD differs from luxury tax payrolls, which are based on the average annual value of every player contract on the 40-man roster.
Luxury tax payrolls determine whether a team exceeds the league’s luxury tax threshold and owes financial penalties. MLB is using luxury tax payrolls in the CBA negotiations over a hard salary cap and floor, proposing a $245.3-million ceiling and $171.2-million floor for 2027.
Luxury tax penalties from clubs that exceed the thresholds funnel back to low-revenue clubs through revenue sharing. A record $402,637,907 was paid in luxury tax penalties last season, with the Dodgers paying the most at a record $169.4 million. This year, the Dodgers’ luxury tax is projected at $180 million — higher than the LRD payroll of 16 teams.
The Dodgers also have the highest luxury tax payroll at $430 million, dwarfing the Mets’ $363-million number. Reasons? The Dodgers pay more in penalties because they have exceeded the luxury tax six years in a row, they have more players with massive average annual values and they took on additional penalties by acquiring starter Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline.
Aston Villa manager Natalia Arroyo has been sacked following a disappointing start to the Women’s Super League season.
Villa are yet to win this season, drawing two and losing two of their opening four matches and BBC Sport is told that led to the club’s decision.
They suffered a 4-0 defeat by Tottenham on Sunday in the WSL and are due to play Newcastle in the Women’s League Cup on Wednesday (19:30 BST).
Spaniard Arroyo joined Villa in January 2025 and had another two years remaining on her contract.
She becomes the first managerial departure this season, though former Manchester United boss Marc Skinner and ex-Brighton head coach Dario Vidosic both stepped down earlier this year.
The club informed Arroyo of their decision on Monday evening and players were told on Tuesday morning.
Former Everton manager Brian Sorensen, who is now Villa’s women’s technical advisor, has been placed in interim charge.
Since Arroyo’s arrival, Villa have shown flashes of potential and she initially steadied the ship as they toyed with relegation in her first six months at the club.
But despite investment in the transfer window, Villa lacked consistency and were underwhelming last season.
There was pressure on them to perform in 2026-27 and while they earned a draw on the opening weekend against Chelsea, they have looked dangerously open at the back and chaotic out of possession.
Their latest defeat by Spurs was a worrying display and appears to have been enough to lead to Arroyo’s sacking.
Lewis was part of the Wales squad at the 2022 union World Cup and was set to play in the inaugural WXV tournament a year later.
But she suffered a serious knee injury as Wales beat Italy in the 2023 Six Nations.
Since her recovery Lewis has played for Brython Thunder in the Celtic Challenge but, with no WRU contract, felt she had unfinished business and “didn’t want any regrets”.
“I could have easily just walked away from rugby at that point. I could have just been like ‘I’m done’,” said Lewis.
“But internally, I knew I wasn’t, and I put so much time and effort into coming back and getting back fit, and I was only 28, and I was like, ‘I’ve still got so much time left’, and I just felt individually I didn’t deserve my time to be done based on someone else’s decision.
“So I took some time, and then I just set a goal to myself. If I got the opportunity to play rugby league, great.
“If I had the opportunity to play union, I wouldn’t say no. But this opportunity came up, and I just grabbed it with two hands, and hopefully now it’s paid off.”
According to documents obtained by The Times via the California Public Records Act, Inglewood High School confirmed to the Southern Section that its football coach, Mil’Von James, played three ineligible players during a game in Austin, Texas, last month.
The reason, according to the letter sent to the Southern Section office, was, “The coach stated that he was not aware CIF eligibility rules applied to a game in Texas.”
That raises the question how many more times Inglewood has used ineligible players for out-of-state football games under James, the head coach since 2019. Last season on Sept. 25, 2025, the team played in Midland, Texas, three days before sit-out transfer players became eligible. Inglewood won 43-42. One of the players on the team who had not been cleared to play was Masyn Harvey, a quarterback transfer and holder on PATs.
Harvey, now playing for a prep school team, declined to return a request for comment if he had played.
If Harvey did play, Inglewood should have forfeited its win last season to Midland. Because Inglewood lost to Westlake of Austin on Aug. 28, a forfeit was moot for this season. Inglewood informed the Southern Section that it imposed a two-game suspension as punishment to James, who returned to coach last week in a win over Downey. The school said it would extend the sit-out period by another week to those players who participated while not cleared.
As for corrective action, the school stated, “Going forward, all ineligible players, across all sports, will be in street clothes on the sideline and must check in with the game administrator prior to the start of each game. We will send all coaches, across all sports, a weekly email listing ineligible players and the reasons for their ineligibility.
“At the start of each season, we will re-train all coaches on eligibility criteria and the clearance process and require them to sign an acknowledgment confirming they understand.”
James has a history of using ineligible players. He was dismissed at Hawkins High in 2016. The Los Angeles Unified School District did not share why James was fired, calling it a confidential personnel matter. LAUSD dismissed James soon after the discovery of ineligible players, resulting in Hawkins forfeiting all of its games to finish 0-13. Since then, the City Section established a rule that teams must exchange rosters before games to verify that players are eligible.
The Southern Section declined comment, but according to a letter response from an assistant commissioner, “Based on your self-report, preventative measures and the corrective actions taken, we will consider this matter closed.”
It’s about moving on, or attempting to, after the franchise endured a nightmare offseason.
“My entire summer’s been basketball,” guard Darius Garland nonchalantly said during media day at Intuit Dome. “My main thing is to come in here and win games. So, that’s my main focus.”
The Clippers’ offseason was engulfed by the NBA’s salary-cap circumvention investigation into the team’s endorsement deals with Kawhi Leonard. The NBA fined the Clippers $30 million, stripped them of five first-round picks, dealt suspensions to owner Steve Ballmer and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank — and the Clippers ultimately traded Leonard, who was fined merely $700,000, back to Toronto.
Garland represented his teammates in prioritizing hoops.
But for Trent Redden, the Clippers’ interim president of basketball operations, things weren’t that simple. The admittedly nervous executive started Monday’s news conferences by apologizing to the Clippers’ faithful for the aftermath of the Leonard situation.
“Our fans deserve to hear from us before this, and for that we’re sorry,” Redden said. “We’ve been listening to the thoughts, the concerns, and feeling the emotions of our fan base. They mean everything to us. … We hope to fulfill our promises to them, to build their trust and move forward through this time.
“This franchise often has done its best work with its back against the wall … We hope to represent our fans the same way we always have in dark times, by coming out fighting.”
Fighting is all the new-look Clippers can do as they enter the 2026-27 season.
Leonard is back north of the border. Other stars, such as Paul George, James Harden and the recently retired Russell Westbrook, are distant memories in L.A. For the first time in years, the Clippers aren’t entering a season with championship aspirations.
“It’s been difficult,” said Ty Lue, who enters his seventh season as the Clippers’ coach. “But I give our players a lot of credit … the leadership is great [and] the morale is great, even in these tough situations. That’s good to see, when you have your players coming in every day, giving everything they have; a lot of teams don’t have that.”
The Clippers’ league-record streak of 15 consecutive winning seasons is in jeopardy. Nonetheless, the team will still feature plenty of intrigue roster-wise, with a mix of youngsters “doing TikToks” and “old heads” trying to keep up, as Garland described it.
“I think we can surprise a lot of people,” he said.
Garland himself, 26, enters his first full season in L.A. as the team’s go-to scorer. A two-time All-Star, he’s primed to lead a promising backcourt alongside 19-year-old rookie Keaton Wagler, the Clippers’ No. 5 pick in the 2026 draft.
Wagler is one of the team’s promising young players, alongside fellow rookie Baba Miller, Kobe Sanders and the rehabbing Jordan Miller and Yanic Konan Niederhauser.
“I’m just going to do my best to stay mentally focused,” Wagler said when asked about the pressure of being the team’s first top-five pick since Blake Griffin in 2009. “Not worry about all the outside noise.”
The Clippers return key role players like Derrick Jones Jr., Kris Dunn, Bradley Beal and Brook Lopez, and sport new ones like Max Strus and Gradey Dick via trades.
However, the team’s ceiling will rest on the influence of new forwards Brandon Ingram and Rui Hachimura. Hachimura is coming off a strong playoff run and four-year stint with the Lakers.
“One thing about here … everybody talks about how they take really good care of their players,” Hachimura said of signing a two-year, $28-million contract with the Clippers this offseason.
Ingram, the centerpiece of the Leonard trade, is a solid three-level scorer and will shoulder much of the offensive load alongside Garland — when healthy.
Redden shockingly shared that Ingram is recovering from a partially torn Achilles tendon in addition to heel surgery.
“I had been dealing with some pain throughout the year with the Raptors, especially coming down crunch time with the Raptors,” Ingram said. “I didn’t quite know what it was. Near the end of the season, we figured out what it was, and surgery was the best thing to do.”
The 29-year-old Ingram, though, should make a full recovery and claims his best days are still ahead of him.
He feels the same way about his new Clippers team.
“I know [there are] little to no expectations for us this year,” Ingram said. “We have enough in the building to compete. This is what we love to do. So, we’ll go out and compete every single night, learn, go on to the next game and get better and better.”
After eight years of James being the Lakers’ leader, the role now will be shared by Doncic and Reaves.
Doncic already took a step in that direction when he invited his teammates to his home country of Slovenia in August for a bonding trip.
Reaves chided Doncic about losing in rowing, bowling and golf while they were in Slovenia together.
Reminded about it Monday at the Lakers’ media day, Doncic immediately retorted: “I beat him in golf two days ago. … He didn’t say that, huh?”
Doncic paused and smiled.
“The key was I was playing great golf,” Doncic said. “He gave me some strokes, I’m not going to lie — as he should.”
Reaves spoke about the events his group won in Slovenia and how they beat Doncic in the process.
“We won the rowing, we won the golf, we won bowling,” Reaves said. “Luka tried to put on a blue shirt when his rowing team lost, which is crazy. But he did host us, so we let him hold the first-place trophy for once.”
The two friends and teammates have developed a closeness that their teammates have noticed.
“They get along so well that it’s kind of easy for them to co-lead this team — in different ways sometimes,” Jake LaRavia said. “I think sometimes Luka leads by example and we watch him and we watch how he goes about himself. AR can sometimes be a bit more vocal. But I think they both do a great job at what they are good at it when it comes to being leaders for this team.”
Lakers guard Luka Doncic speaks during the team’s media day in El Segundo on Monday.
(Eric Thaye r/ Los Angeles Times)
Doncic led the NBA in scoring last season (33.5 points per game) and was third in assists (8.3). He averaged 7.7 rebounds and shot 47.6%, including 36.6% from three-point range.
The three-year, $165-million contract extension Doncic signed last year kicked in this season.
“Obviously, it’s a new challenge,” he said about his leadership role. “I was in this position in my career a lot of times, so it’s not new to me. But I feel great, I feel excited, and like I said, I’m ready to go. It’s been a long time since I played basketball, so I’m ready.”
Reaves is entering his sixth season with the Lakers, making him the longest-tenured player on the team. In June, he signed a four-year, $180-million deal, the largest contract for an undrafted player in NBA history.
Reaves earned it by averaging career-highs in points (23.2) and rebounds (4.7).
The Lakers have nine new players and Reaves knows he’ll need to provide guidance.
“I think it’s different for everybody,” Reaves said. “I’m not going to lead the same way Bron does. I’m not going to lead the same way Luka does. I like to do things a little different. I was talking about doing more one-on-one conversations. There will be times where I need to speak up in group settings and I’ll do that when the time comes. But I think you just got to be true to yourself and do what’s comfortable for you.”
Doncic played in just 64 games last season. He missed the last five regular-season games and all of the playoffs with a left hamstring strain. After spending time in Europe rehabbing his hamstring over the summer, Doncic said he’s healthy and ready to go with no restrictions when the Lakers begin training camp Tuesday.
“I know I had a lot of time, just taking it slowly, not taking no risks,” Doncic said. “But right now, I’m feeling great. I feel rested. Mentally I feel great, so I can’t wait just to start.”
With Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Jaden Hardy, Kevon Looney, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams among the newcomers on the Lakers, Doncic and Reaves are looking forward to what comes next.
“I like everybody that we signed,” Doncic said. “I think there’s a lot of underrated guys. … Now training camp is going to help us a lot, focus on basketball, get to know what they like on the court, but I’m very excited to play with all of them.”
A controversial pass-interference call cost the Rams dearly in their defeat by the Denver Broncos, but coach Sean McVay said Monday that neither he nor the team would play the victim card.
With just over a minute left in the game, Rams cornerback Josh Wallace battled with Broncos receiver Pat Bryant before intercepting a Bo Nix pass at the Rams’ seven-yard line. Had the play stood, it would have preserved a second consecutive Rams victory.
But officials cited Wallace for pass interference, giving the Broncos another set of downs. Nix eventually scored a touchdown to give the Broncos a 30-26 lead and an eventual victory that dropped the Rams to 1-2.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went wrong for the Rams in a 30-26 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday night.
“I’m not going to play the victim card,” McVay said during a videoconference with reporters. “Doesn’t really matter. It is what it is. That was the call that was made, and there was a lot of opportunities that we had to be able to close the door on that game. … I wouldn’t have any additional coaching points for how Josh plays through the cycle of the snap.
“But I’m not going to make excuses either and we’re not going to play the victim card.”
“I told Josh, ‘Hey, nothing you can do. Refs got to call their calls. We can’t control that,’” McDuffie said. “But, I mean, looking back at it, I don’t know what they saw but I thought it was a great play. Got the interception for us.
“But like I said, whatever the refs saw they saw and threw the flag and ain’t much we can do about it, so it’s really just on to the next week.”
The Rams play the Eagles on Sunday in Philadelphia.
They will probably do so without cornerback Jaylen Watson, who left against the Broncos after suffering a dislocated right shoulder.
Watson will not be placed on injured reserve, McVay said, “but will probably be out for this week. We’ll see if we can kind of get him strengthened and harness it. It’s something that he’s dealt with before.”
Tight end Terrance Ferguson sustained an ankle sprain and is probably out against the Eagles. Tight end Colby Parkinson’s (shoulder) status will be evaluated this week.
Receiver Puka Nacua, who has been sidelined the last two games because of a hip injury, went through a lengthy on-field workout before the game against the Broncos.
Will he play against the Eagles?
”I’m hopeful,” McVay said, adding, “We’ll continue to see, but if he is able to progress the way that we hope there’s optimism that he’ll be able to play this week.”
McVay apologized for taking only a few questions during a postgame news conference after the defeat by the Broncos.
“I understand my role and responsibility is to be able to talk whether it’s after a win or whether we don’t get the results that we want,” McVay said, adding that the brevity resulted from a mix-up in timing. “There was a pause in any sort of questions and obviously an emotional game and so that was kind of what led to that.
“But if there was any misinterpretation, do apologize for that.”
