reception

New York Giants rookie running back Cam Skattebo had a long day Sunday, having suffered what appears to be a season-ending ankle injury and reportedly undergoing surgery that night.

Nonetheless, the player who has become one of the breakout stars of the 2025 appeared to be up early Monday.

Skattebo took to his Instagram Story to post a video showing clips of Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, receiver Darius Slayton, defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence, defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux and offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor all expressing concern for their injured teammate following New York’s 38-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

“My guys love tall boys,” Skattebo wrote in the caption, making an apparent reference to his relatively small (by NFL standards) 5-foot-11 stature.

Skattebo was injured midway through the second quarter after attempting to catch a pass over the middle. His right foot appeared to get caught under another player and was bent in an unnatural direction. Players from both teams huddled around Skattebo in concern as he was treated by medical staff.

Even the notoriously harsh Philadelphia fans gave their NFC East rival’s rising star a standing ovation as he was carted off the field with an air cast on his leg. Skattebo responded by waving in appreciation.

“I feel absolutely terrible for the young man,” Giants coach Brian Daboll said. “Looked bad. You feel for anybody that goes down and has a really bad injury. I know the players feel the same way about Skatt.”

Dart added: “That’s my boy, man. That sucks. It’s just the worst part of the game.”

The Giants said Sunday that Skattebo had suffered a dislocated ankle and would undergo surgery that night. ESPN reported Monday morning that the fourth-round draft pick out of Arizona State remained in the hospital after the previous night’s surgery and was “doing well given the circumstances of what was described as an emergency situation.”

Skattebo leads Giants this season with 410 rushing yards in 101 carries with five touchdowns. He also has 24 receptions for 207 yards with two touchdowns, including one on an 18-yard pass from Dart in the first quarter of Sunday’s game.

Skattebo’s injury leaves New York with second-year player Tyrone Tracy Jr. and seven-year veteran Devin Singletary at running back. On Sunday, Tracy had 10 carries for 39 yards and two receptions for 14 yards while Singletary rushed twice for no yards but had a 28-yard reception.

For the season, Tracy has 45 carries for 159 yards with one touchdown and 10 catches for 68 yards; Singletary has 28 carries for 84 yards and three receptions for 28 yards.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

If you want to see a player whose impact is growing, go watch South Gate junior quarterback Michael Gonzalez. He’s listed as 5 feet 9 on the Rams’ roster, but what an arm he has and he can run, too.

He passed for 273 yards last week in a loss to Garfield. He has passed for 1,999 yards and 22 touchdowns in eight games. He’s also scored six touchdowns.

Receiver Nicholas Fonseca, another junior, has 52 receptions for 1,027 yards and 10 touchdowns. He was the City Section Division II player of the year last season.

South Gate is 5-3, with the duo leading the way. The Rams’ passing attack could set them apart for the Division I playoffs.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].

ADVERTISEMENT

The EU Commission made its opening move in implementing the trade agreement reached on August 21 with the United States, but the legislative proposal for tariff reductions on a wide range of US industrial and agricultural products will face a tricky path through the European Parliament which will start considering the measure next week.

This legislative move should offer immediate relief to the EU automotive sector, as the US committed to retroactively lower its 27.5% tariffs on EU cars to 15% from 1 August, once the Commission proposed the legislation. 

Among the concessions granted to the US, the Commission’s proposal provides for reducing tariffs to 0% on the vast majority of US industrial products – ranging from machinery to pharmaceutical products, some chemicals, plastics and fertilizers – for which the EU aims to break its dependence on Russia. The proposal also targets some agri-products, such as fruits, juices and certain seeds.

“This is not costly for us,” a senior EU official said, pointing out that existing tariffs levied by the bloc on these products are very low.

The Commission has also declared privileged access to its market for certain agricultural products, whose tariffs will be reduced — such as certain vegetables, fruits and grape juices.

Tariff-rate quotas are also planned for 20 product groups, including pork (25,000 tonnes), dairy products (10,000 tonnes), cheese (10,000 tonnes), and soybeans (400,000 tonnes), which will benefit from 0% tariffs below the set thresholds.

Despite a trade agreement widely seen as heavily tilted in favour of the US — with the EU facing 15% tariffs under the deal — Brussels foresees the possibility of suspending these tariff advantages on US products if the US fails to implement the 21 August agreement, or if a sudden surge in US imports on the European market poses serious risks to EU industry.

The legislative proposal needs the buy-in of the European co-legislator, the European Parliament and the EU Council, which represents the member states.

MEPs responsible for monitoring trade issues will meet for what promises to be a heated session on 3 September, with some having criticised the deal as unbalanced. Sabine Weyand, Director-General of DG Trade and one of the chief negotiators, will attend to answer their questions.

“Politically, some MEPs saw the conclusion of the agreement as a humiliation and a surrender,” French liberal MEP Marie-Pierre Vedrenne told Euronews, adding: “Especially since we were promised predictability — yet Trump is already threatening tariffs on countries implementing digital legislation. The Commission is clearly uncomfortable.”

On top of the proposal on tariffs reduction, the MEPs are waiting for a second legislative proposal on the whole deal.

“We need to understand the agreement much better before we can be decisive and say yes or no,” Swedish MEP Jörgen Warborn (EPP) told Euronews, “I’m myself concerned because I have not yet understood whether the deal was compatible with WTO rules.”

According to WTO rules, any country that grants a preferential tariff to one country must extend those terms to others.

“There is a lot of turbulence when it comes to trade at these times. We need a rule-based space and not that the EU is part of breaking WTO rules,” Warborn added.

Within the S&D group, some are betting on the continuation of the negotiations to improve the deal.

“The deal is quite unbalanced and we need to see real effort from the EU Commission to obtain more exemptions and a clear path for an agreement on steel and aluminium,” a lawmaker from S&D said, adding: “Otherwise we should go back to the possible countermeasures.”

The deal published on August 21 does not address the aluminium and steel sectors, which remain subject to tariffs of up to 50%.

No one in the Chargers’ locker room felt as bad as Justin Herbert. At least that’s what the quarterback said after a career-high four interceptions in January cost the Chargers an opportunity for their first playoff win since 2018.

But the disappointment that rendered Herbert motionless on the sideline in Houston had faded in his memory, he said. Offseasons tend to have that rejuvenating effect.

“If I spend any more time worrying or focusing on a loss like that, I would be doing a disservice to my teammates,” Herbert said Wednesday on the second day of Chargers minicamp. “Obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted it to, like I said at the end of the year, but you gotta move on.”

Despite the crushing wild-card loss that prolonged the Chargers’ seven-year playoff win drought, Herbert maintained that his offseason has been business as usual.

Meeting with local reporters for the first time in five months, Herbert recited the typical offseason lines with a stone-faced expression. His new teammates are picking up the offense quickly. He wants to continue mastering the scheme in his second season under the coaching staff.

Herbert instead makes stronger statements on the practice field and in the weight room, where his determined nature has earned him a spot in coach Jim Harbaugh’s “Elite Nine” club of the team’s hardest workers.

“I know it motivates me every day to get up out of bed, like I gotta rise up to his level,” Harbaugh said. “He’s doing anything and everything he can possibly do. Now it’s up to the rest of us.”

During the offseason, the Chargers focused on adding weapons around Herbert to elevate a sputtering offense that ranked 20th in the NFL in yards per game.

Even without pads, the athleticism and instincts of running back Najee Harris and rookie Omarion Hampton have impressed Herbert. Rookie tight end Oronde Gadsden is showing his receiving capabilities as Syracuse’s all-time leader for receptions and receiving yards by a tight end when he had the most catches of any player during team drills Wednesday. Gadsden, a converted wide receiver, will team with free-agent acquisition Tyler Conklin, who has had at least 50 catches in each of the last four seasons, to boost the tight end position.

The biggest offseason move was the addition of a familiar name. Mike Williams, after one year away from the franchise that drafted him in 2017, returned on a one-year contract to reunite with Herbert. The 6-foot-4 receiver, who has been working primarily with trainers during minicamp practices, “changes the way you play football when he’s on your team,” Herbert said.

“50-50 balls are not quite 50-50 as we’ve seen with Mike,” the quarterback added.

The receivers could use the boost. Ladd McConkey was the group’s only consistent force last year. The former second-round pick dominated against Houston with an NFL rookie playoff-record 197 yards receiving, nine catches and one touchdown. The rest of his teammates combined for five receptions and 45 yards. Still without a playoff win in two appearances entering his sixth NFL season, Herbert completed a career-low 43.7% of his passes and was sacked four times.

Chargers rookie running back Omarion Hampton warms up with teammates during a workout last week.

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Getting Williams and rookie receivers Tre’ Harris and KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who were selected in the second and fifth rounds, respectively, on the field could open up a more aggressive deep passing game, offensive coordinator Greg Roman said.

The stacked room also could put more pressure on Quentin Johnston to live up to the billing of a former first-round pick. The receiver entering his third year is “owning the system now,” said Roman, who predicted another major step for Johnston this season.

The former Texas Christian star shook off a disappointing rookie season with 711 yards receiving and eight touchdowns on 55 catches last year. He torched the Las Vegas Raiders in a playoff seed-clinching Week 18 win for 13 receptions and 186 yards receiving. Even Johnston estimated that it was the best game he’d ever had at any level of football.

Yet he followed with a major disappointment in the biggest moment with no catches on five targets in the wild-card loss. Johnston went without a catch in two games last season, both coming in marquee matchups. He was also shut out against the Baltimore Ravens in a “Monday Night Football” showcase in which he also dropped a crucial third-down pass. To pile on, fellow receiver Zay Flowers, who the Ravens picked one spot behind Johnston in the 2022 draft, led Baltimore with 62 yards receiving on five catches.

Learning a second offense in as many years in the NFL, Johnston had to play “a game of catchup last season,” Roman said. But with consistent practices in organized team activities and minicamp, the coach said Johnston is “starting to come out of the other end of the tunnel.”

“Justin, he’s throwing to him a lot,” Roman said, “and Q’s answering the call.”