UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy stressed that his offense needed to come out swinging Saturday against Purdue after going scoreless in the first half against San Diego State last week.
And the Bruins heeded the advice, scoring 21 first-quarter points before pulling away in the second half to take a 52-38 win in their Big Ten opener Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.
UCLA improved to 3-0 and matched its 2025 win total with its first 50-point game against a Power Four program since November 2022. Bob Chesney joined Terry Donahue and Jim Mora as the only coaches to start their UCLA tenures 3-0.
Fifth-year tailback Wayne Knight spearheaded the offensive outburst, rushing for 177 yards and two touchdowns for a Bruins team that had 369 yards and four touchdowns on the ground via an average of 7.7 yards per carry. Knight has eight touchdowns in three games, matching the Bruins’ total output for rushing touchdowns last season.
“The biggest thing for us was to just put it all together. And I think that we stepped up to that challenge — what we did on the ground, in the air,” Knight said. “But the guys up front, no matter who is in there as guys are rotating all the time, whoever is in there is going to put up front. They are working as a team.”
While Chesney made sure to acknowledge his running backs — with all three starters reaching the end zone — he made a point to recognize the man under center, highlighting senior quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s resiliency.
After posting two interceptions to zero passing touchdowns through the first two weeks of the season, Iamaleava completed 19 of 31 passes for 276 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for 55 more. Iamaleava looked much more comfortable and confident in the pocket, despite playing through multiple injuries.
UCLA defensive players celebrate after defensive lineman Sahir West (15) recovers a fumble against Purdue Saturday at the Rose Bowl.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
“Last week, I told you it wasn’t his greatest game. We watched him go out here today, and I think he was near perfect for a stretch in the beginning of that game, finding all kinds of different receivers and being able to carry the ball himself a little bit,” Chesney said. “And just what a warrior, because he was pretty nicked up out there in moments, and he just wanted to keep fighting.”
Iamaleava found security in senior wideout Semaj Morgan, who hauled in four passes for 72 yards and two touchdowns. In three years at Michigan, Morgan had just four receiving touchdowns. Outside of Morgan, fifth-year wide receiver Leland Smith caught three passes for 59 yards despite playing just one snap across the previous two weeks, potentially giving Iamaleava and Kennedy a big target to look to going forward.
James Madison transfer Landon Ellis, who returned to the field for the first time since going down with a head injury in the beginning of the second half against California, scored his first touchdown as a Bruin. And South Carolina transfer Brian Rowe Jr. caught two passes for 65 yards despite getting targeted eight times, including a deep shot from Iamaleava in the end zone that bounced off his chest.
Although UCLA’s offense turned in 645 yards of total offense, its defense struggled to hold back a Purdue team that lost its 19th consecutive conference game.
UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava passes during the first quarter Saturday against Purdue.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
While the Bruins held Aztec signal caller Jayden Denegal to just 45 passing yards, the secondary found itself facing a different beast in Boilermaker quarterback Ryan Browne, who completed 19 of 30 passes for 378 of Purdue’s 488 total yards, with a touchdown and an interception. Xavier Townsend had 162 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
“I felt like the pressure mounted a little bit and we were not as clean in our technique as we needed to be,” Chesney said. “We can’t put ourselves in panic mode, which might have hit us a little bit throughout today. But when we needed it the most, we were able to get a stop.”
Chesney said the UCLA defense has the personnel and ability to compete with anyone, but penalties and a fake punt that resulted in a first down allowed the Boilermakers to get within one score and added unnecessary pressure.
Fortunately for the UCLA secondary, linebacker Sammy Omosigho put the defense on his back.
Omosigho led the team in tackles with 12, but more important, he had two sacks and two forced fumbles. He has four forced fumbles in three games.
“That’s his third game in a row forcing a fumble. There’s other things he’s going to want to clean up in there too and other schematic things that he can do better,” Chesney said of Omosigho. “But at the same point in time, the one play that stuck out to me was a running back, and it looked like he was going to go and get the edge, and Sam just put out one arm and just crumbled this kid with one arm. The strength he has, the poise he plays with, the toughness he plays with and the strength to be able to execute and finish on those tackles, are things that are pretty impressive.”
UCLA running back Anthony Woods is hoisted up by offensive lineman Julian Armella after scoring a touchdown against Purdue at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
James Madison transfer Sahir West recovered both of Omosigho’s takeaways — the Boilermakers’ first two giveaways this season — and they set up UCLA touchdowns.
While Purdue (1-2) kept up with UCLA for most of the game, its hopes of a comeback ended when senior defensive back Rodrick Pleasant picked off Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne with less than six minutes left.
Despite the Bruins’ difficulty thriving on both sides of the ball during the same game, Chesney said he is confident in his team’s ability to compete going forward.
“We heard the guys on defense saying thanks for getting our back,” Chesney said. “The offense struggled last week, we’re going to need them at some point. The defense is going to need that at some point, and then we’re all going to need the special teams at some point. We haven’t played the perfect complementary game yet, but there’s one in there and I’m looking forward to seeing that day because it exists. There’s fibers in here of a really high level football team.”
Mark Walter may be selling the Lakers, but the new owners plan to take a money-making page out of the Dodgers’ playbook nonetheless: Dump the ticket brokers and leverage control over the resale market to drive up the cost of a ticket.
As a result, the average price for a Lakers ticket could rise from $217 to $361 within the next two years, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing documents prepared for potential investors.
Thrive Eternal, the sports properties company run by incoming Lakers owner Joshua Kushner, declined to comment because the NBA has not yet approved the sale.
However, the $361 figure was intended to illustrate to potential investors how much incremental ticket revenue the Lakers could gain by booting the brokers, not to signal another immediate and steep price hike, according to a person familiar with the deal but not authorized to comment publicly about it.
In February, under Walter’s ownership, the Lakers announced significant increases in ticket prices for the 2026-27 season. No announcement has been made for seasons beyond then, but the investor presentation provides information on how prices have increased for NBA tickets across the league.
Sports teams often enjoyed long and beneficial relationships with brokers, who bought out blocks of season tickets. That guaranteed the teams with revenue, with brokers benefiting from a markup for popular games but taking the risk that tickets to less popular games would sell at a loss, or not at all.
Over the past decade, the Dodgers and other teams have kicked out the brokers and taken that risk themselves, with the aid of dynamic pricing: the constant raising or lowering of ticket prices based on real-time supply and demand. For the Dodgers, the worst tickets seldom fall to market rate, because the team would rather live with a few empty seats rather than condition fans to hold out for a lower price.
The Dodgers lead the major leagues in attendance, on pace to sell 4 million tickets for the second consecutive season. The Lakers played to 99.8% of capacity last season, according to ESPN. So the calculus is simple for both teams: Sell a $100 ticket to a broker, who would then sell it for $200; or cut out the broker, sell the ticket for $200, and pocket the $100 difference.
Kushner and former Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger agreed last month to buy controlling interest in the Lakers, at a $12.5-billion valuation. The world’s most valuable sports team, according to Sportico: the Dallas Cowboys, at $15.5 billion.
According to the Journal, the Thrive Eternal investor pitch projected that the Lakers could leverage increases in ticket prices, media rights, sponsorships and international growth to generate close to $600 million in annual profit by 2037, when the value of the franchise could reach $30 billion.
Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong holds a 4% stake in the Lakers. He is not selling his stake in the Lakers, his attorney told The Times last month, in part because “we believe they are still undervalued.”
While Purdue is not projected to be a Big Ten juggernaut this season, UCLA coach Bob Chesney and his team expect to be challenged during their first game against Big Ten competition on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.
The Boilermakers’ defensive line features five high-impact players that are at least 6-foot-3, and a nose tackle who weighs in at 301 pounds and anchors a defensive front that ranks second in the Big Ten with 17 tackles for loss.
“They’re talented in who they’re as individual players, there are some game-wreckers in there,” Chesney said. “They are as vertical as can be, they jump out of their stances, they’re jumping snap counts and they’re violent. They pose a giant problem, and we are not going to be able to push them around, and we are not going to be able to find ourselves in a spot where they tire. This is going to be a battle on the inside throughout the entire course of that game.”
While UCLA’s ground attack has dominated through the first two games of the season — rushing for 277 yards and six touchdowns against California and 214 yards and four scores against San Diego State — it might be harder for the Bruins’ running backs to have their way against the Purdue defense.
Purdue held both Indiana State‘s and Wake Forest’s starting running backs to less than four yards per carry, and has conceded just two rushing touchdowns to those starters this season.
“There’s some things that I think Purdue does a really good job defensively, in terms of getting off the ball,” said UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy. “They have got a lot of length. They’re a very, very big team, it will probably be one of the biggest teams we will face, so we have to be prepared for that.”
However, the Boilermakers have struggled to stop quarterbacks on the run — allowing Indiana State’s Elijah Owens and Wake Forest‘s Gio Lopez to combine for 118 rushing yards and two touchdowns — giving Bruins senior quarterback Nico Iamaleava the opportunity to rely on his legs.
While Iamaleava should have wide receivers Landon Ellis and Brian Rowe Jr. back to full strength, fortifying the aerial attack, the signal-caller will be without Mikey Matthews, after the slot receiver went down with a lower-body injury against San Diego State.
“There’s a fine line. Understanding what the coverage is doing, when is it time to take off and go,” Kennedy said. “If you are going through your read, from a clock standpoint, and it’s not there, it’s a great time to take off and go. It’s our job as an offense to create explosives, whether it’s him taking off or it’s him creating a scramble drill. We look at scramble drills, that we have to create explosives, and that’s something we have to do a better job of.”
Defensively, the “Bruin Bullies” will be tasked with stopping running back Fame Ijeboi, who has run for 201 yards and four touchdowns on 5.3 yards per carry this season. Chesney said that Ijeboi has a “Wayne Knight” feeling to him, where he plays low to the ground, displays proficient body balance and leg drive, allowing him to be influential in the passing game and break tackles.
While UCLA has already faced formidable rushers in Cal’s Adam Mohammed and San Diego State’s Lucky Sutton, Ijeboi could be the most impactful yet. And no one knows that more than Bruin defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler, who went to the same high school as the Boilermaker running back.
“It’s been fun to watch his growth, following him through high school, and watching him earn those scholarships and opportunities,” Hitschler said. “Those first two games, he jumped off the tape. He’s got great potential and he’s going to go a long way. We have to do a good job putting a physical shoulder on him and knocking him down because he’ll run through contact and does a great job of finding the edges.”
If Ijeboi is unable to get it going, it will have to be up to Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne to generate offense.
While the signal-caller struggled last season — throwing nine touchdowns with 10 interceptions — Browne has looked like a new player in 2026, passing for 646 yards and four touchdowns.
Browne has benefited from the addition of two premier slot receivers in Florida Atlantic transfer Asaad Waseem and Iowa State transfer Xavier Townsend. They have combined for 25 receptions, 277 yards and one score.
“What makes them unique is there are a lot of them,” Hitschler said. “When you have 10 personnel and that many receivers that can catch the ball, it can create mismatches, and we play a lot of man, so who’s going to fold first?” Hitschler said. “Are we going to be able to man them up or are we having to play more zone? Those are questions that will play out as the game dictates by who’s winning the one-on-one matchups. It’s the chess match that always happens in any game.”
The Bruins’ defense will look to force turnovers, but that is no easy feat as the Boilermakers have yet to turn the ball over this season.
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. Thirteen division titles in 14 seasons, and in the year they didn’t win, they had 106 victories. We don’t have a lot to complain about.
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Division titles and Ryan Ward
—The Dodgers won the division title again, clinching it Thursday with their win over the Reds. Remember the olden days of yesteryear when winning the division was a huge deal? Now it is blasé. Dodgers fans live in a time where they have an embarrassment of riches,
Let’s look at how many NL West titles each team has won since divisional play began in 1969:
Dodgers, 24 San Francisco, 9 Cincinnati, 7 Arizona, 5 Atlanta, 5 San Diego, 5 Houston, 2
There was no official winner in 1994, which was ended by a labor dispute.
I guess I’m feeling extra nostalgic today, but I remember growing up the Dodgers’ biggest divisional rival was the Cincinnati Reds, who moved to the Central division in 1994 and have since won a grand total of zero division titles.
If we narrow NL West titles since 2000, we get:
Dodgers, 16 San Francisco, 5 Arizona, 4 San Diego, 2
Poor Colorado.
—The Dodgers made room for pitcher Kris Bubic on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder Ryan Ward for assignment. Ward has been a favorite of newsletter readers for a couple of seasons now, but he really had no place on the team anymore. He’s too old (28) to really be a prospect and his best triple-A season came in his third season at that level. His numbers declined in triple-A this season (you can see his numbers here).
He’s not great defensively, and the team already has corner outfielders who aren’t great defensively. They passed him over for Josue De Paula when they needed someone to fill in for Shohei Ohtani, and there are several outfielders in the system who are considered better than Ward.
In all likelihood, another team will pick him up and give him more playing time in the majors, something he wasn’t going to get with the Dodgers. Hopefully we see him next season in the “There names seem familiar” section of this newsletter.
Evidence of Dave Roberts’ growth
One of the knocks on Dave Roberts has always been his poor postseason managing. But his postseason managing has dramatically improved the last few seasons, and I’m not just saying that because they won the last two World Series. His decisions appear to not always be guided by analytics, like they are during the regular season. And it appears Roberts has indeed learned some things during his tenure. He recently appeared on the 6-1-1 podcast, hosted by former major leaguers Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins, and had this to say:
“When you’re talking about winning 11 games in October, I couldn’t believe more that it’s about people, and players you can bet on,” Roberts said. “The heartbeat that the analytics doesn’t line up with. I think that early on, my mistake was I continued to use that same method of the regular season in the postseason….
He also had high praise for two of his players.
“Mookie has said to me, ‘Doc, we wouldn’t have won the World Series if it wasn’t for Shohei and Yamamoto. And his point was, the discipline that they had every single day, how they worked with intention every single day … it raised the level even higher for our guys.”
Forgotten Dodger: Pete Reiser
Pete Reiser in 1941.
(Associated Press)
Pete Reiser never met an outfield fence he didn’t like crashing into and it may have cost him a Hall of Fame career.
Harold Patrick Reiser was born on March 17, 1919, in St. Louis. He loved westerns and as a child often walked around wearing a cowboy hat and carrying toy guns, so people started calling him Pistol Pete, which stuck with him throughout his baseball career.
After playing in 58 games with the Dodgers in 1940, Reiser came into his own in 1941 when he hit a league-leading .343 to go with 117 runs, 39 doubles, 17 triples, 14 homers and 76 RBIs. He also played great defense in center. That got him second place in NL MVP voting behind teammate Dolph Camilli (Reiser should have won). Reiser led the league in nine categories.
He followed that by hitting .310 with 33 doubles and 10 homers in 1942, leading the league with 20 steals and making his second straight All-Star team. However, on July 18 of that year, he crashed full speed into the center-field fence, which was made of concrete, while chasing a fly ball. He ended up with a separated shoulder and fractured skull. In those days though, you didn’t let little things like a fractured skull slow you down. He returned to the lineup a week later, but he wasn’t the same. He hit .244 the rest of the season.
He then enlisted in the Army and spent three years there. In 1944, after a long march in below-zero weather, Reiser was diagnosed with pneumonia. The Army decided to put him in Fort Riley, Kan., so he could play for the camp’s baseball team. With Reiser on the team, they were virtually unbeatable and Reiser was given his own room and excused from all other duties.
Reiser returned to the majors in 1946 and broke his leg while stealing second. He crashed into the fence in St. Louis and missed some time. But he still led the league with 34 steals, though his batting average dropped to .277.
In 1947, he was chasing another fly ball when he crashed into the wall face first. This caused another fractured skull. He was given the Last Rites by a priest in the hospital before making a miraculous recovery. He ended up playing 110 games that season.
He was a bench player the following season, as he had put on a little weight and had been slowed tremendously by his numerous injuries. The Dodgers traded him to the Boston Braves after the season for Nanny Fernandez and Mike McCormick.
By unofficial count, Reiser’s injuries over the years included four fracture skulls, multiple dislocated shoulders, two broken ankles, torn ligaments in both knees and and two beanings. He was carried off the field on a stretcher eleven times—five times when he was unconscious.
He retired after the 1952 season and came back to the Dodger organization as a roving minor-league hitting instructor. He joined Walter Alston’s coaching staff in L.A. in 1960 and helped tutor Maury Wills on how to steal bases. In an interview with this newsletter a few years ago, Wills made sure to give praise to Reiser as being a big part of his 104-steal season.
Reiser had a heart attack in 1965, went on to coach for other teams. He smoked a pack of cigarettes a day throughout his adult life and died of emphysema in Palm Springs in 1981. He was only 62.
The postseason race
Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye. Milwaukee and the Dodgers have clinched division titles.
Remember, there are no extra games to break ties anymore. It all comes down to tiebreakers. Atlanta and Milwaukee have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. For the wild card, the Cubs have the advantage over the Phillies, having won six of seven games against each other. The Diamondbacks and Padres have split 10 games, but their final three games this season are against each other, so that very well could determine the final wild-card spot.
These names seem familiar
How notable players who were with the Dodgers the last couple of seasons are doing with their new teams (through Wednesday). Click on the player’s name to be taken to their full stats page:
Anthony Banda, Twins: 2-0, 4.46 ERA, 2 saves, 34.1 IP, 31 hits, 15 walks, 33 K’s, 95 ERA+, out for the season
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Paige Bueckers scored 19 points, Jessica Shepard had her fifth triple-double of the season with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists, and the Dallas Wings beat the Sparks 97-77 on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory.
Both teams were returning from the break for the FIBA World Cup in Germany, where Bueckers helped lead the United States to the title.
Dallas (25-16) tied the franchise record for wins in a season set by the 2003 WNBA champion Detroit Shock (25-9). The Wings have three games remaining in the regular season.
Shepard has the third-most triple-doubles in a season in WNBA history, trailing Alyssa Thomas’ six in the 2023 and eight in 2025.
Maddy Siegrist added 12 points and Arike Ogunbowale had 11 for Dallas. Kitija Laksa and Aziaha James each scored 10 off the bench. Odyssey Sims did not play in the fourth quarter after injuring her right knee late in the third.
It took a field goal with 10 seconds left by star soccer player Alejandro Carranza to give King/Drew a 13-12 win over L.A. Cathedral last week. That’s a breakthrough win for King/Drew against a quality Southern Section opponent.
King/Drew is 2-2 in nonleague games and wants a return to the City Section Open Division playoffs. The Golden Eagles always seem to have lots of talent but have failed to reach the championship game of the City playoffs at the highest level.
This season there’s signs of progress on offense. Quarterback Gerard Torres has passed for 1,106 yards and eight touchdowns. Receiver Darr Muhammad has 26 catches and three touchdowns. King/Drew has lost to San Pedro and Culver City this season and has wins over Cathedral and Gardena.
There’s a showdown with Crenshaw on Oct. 16 to probably decide the Coliseum League title. King/Drew also travels to face Baltimore St. Francis Academy, where coach Joe Torres used to coach.
King/Drew needs to keep improving to reach the top four in the City playoffs.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Just 15 days after the SLB season tips off, SLBW will do the same.
Cardiff Met Archers host B Braun Sheffield Hatters, the defending championship and play-off winners, in the opening match on Saturday, 3 October.
At Cardiff, four players are salaried while also studying masters degrees at the university.
The rest of the team are made up of players on scholarships, postgraduate and undergraduate students and others that are balancing a career in basketball with full-time work.
“I think there’s an opportunity to build something that people genuinely want to watch and follow,” Archers head coach Stef Collins, a member of Great Britain’s 2012 Olympic squad, told BBC Sport.
“Women’s basketball has shown what is possible internationally, particularly with the growth we’re seeing in leagues like the WNBA, NCAA College Basketball.”
Collins wants SLBW to build on the recent Women’s World Cup in Berlin, at which the United States earned a fifth successive title, beating France in the final.
“It was the most-attended World Cup in the modern era with over 230,000 fans in attendance,” she said.
“For me, it’s also about telling the stories of the players. They’re not just basketball players – they’re students, they’re professionals, they’re international athletes, they’re role models. If we can showcase that properly, I think there’s an exciting future for the Super league.”
The WNBA, the independent women’s equivalent of North America’s NBA, has been among the pioneers in women’s sports leagues across the globe.
In 2025, WNBA clips gained more than one billion views on Instagram, making it the most-followed women’s sports league on that platform, which Collins feels can help SLBW on its path for development.
“The WNBA is a really good example of what happens when you give women’s basketball a platform and make the players and their stories visible,” she said.
“But I think there’s also a lesson beyond the basketball itself. Women’s sport has shown that fans want to connect with the athletes, their personalities and their stories.
“We shouldn’t be afraid to market women’s basketball differently and allow our players to be themselves.”
Brian Wolfe, a standout pitcher at Servite who played three seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays, has died at age 45, his wife shared Tuesday on Facebook.
“I’m am sorry to write this but after a really really difficult and torturous battle Brian Wolfe passed away early this morning,” Rachell Wolfe wrote.
No other details have been provided.
Wolfe was one of Orange County’s most dominant high school pitchers during the late 1990s. After going 8-0 with an ERA of 0.27 as a sophomore in 1997, he was the Friars’ ace the next two seasons.
Honored both years as a member of The Times’ All-Orange County team, Wolfe went 11-2 with a 1.37 ERA and a county-best 139 strikeouts as a junior and was 12-0 with a 1.30 ERA and nearly 100 strikeouts as a senior.
After committing to Cal State Fullerton in the fall of 1998, Wolfe opted to sign with the Minnesota Twins organization after being drafted in the sixth round (179th overall) the following summer. He spent the next several years working his way up through the minor leagues with the Twins, Milwaukee Brewers and Blue Jays before making his major league debut with Toronto as a relief pitcher in 2007.
Wolfe appeared in 72 games over three seasons with the Blue Jays, compiling a 5-5 record and a 3.81 ERA in 82.2 innings pitched. He became a free agent after the 2009 season and spent the next nine years playing in Japan with Nippon Professional Baseball, playing for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (including the 2013 season as teammates with Shohei Ohtani), Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (winning the Japan League title in 2014 and 2015) and Saitama Seibu Lions.
Former MLB outfielder Brandon Barnes posted a tribute to Wolfe on Wednesday, calling his fellow Orange County native “one of my best friends and a mentor.”
CINCINNATI — Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell left his start against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday after one inning, with what the team identified as left groin tightness.
Snell gave up one hit, a single to Sal Stewart, which he quickly erased with a successful pick-off that caught Stewart in an inning-ending run-down.
Snell threw 19 pitches. Blake Treinen replaced him in the second inning.
Wednesday marked Snell’s eighth start of the season. His 2026 debut was delayed by shoulder fatigue. After one start, he landed back on the injured list to undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow.
Since returning, he hasn’t given up more than one run in a start. Through Wednesday’s abbreviated outing, Snell has a 1.86 ERA.
Snell has a history of left groin and adductor strains. He spent time on the IL in 2021, 2022 and 2024 for such injuries.
Joe Buck will call his seventh Super Bowl in February. It will be his first with ESPN — and, it turns out, won’t be his last.
The “Monday Night Football” play-by-play announcer and the network agreed to a six-year, $108-million extension, according to the Athletic. Buck’s deal was set to expire following this season.
Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium will be broadcast on ESPN and simulcast on Disney sister network ABC. It will be the first Super Bowl on ESPN and the first on ABC since Super Bowl XL, which followed the 2005 season. The game is scheduled to rotate back to ESPN/ABC in February 2031.
While Buck seems locked in for that Super Bowl LXV broadcast, his longtime booth partner may not be — at least not yet. The Athletic reports that color commentator Troy Aikman remains unsigned beyond this season.
When asked about the contract situations for Buck and Aikman, an ESPN spokesperson directed The Times to a statement executive vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz gave to the Athletic.
“With this historic season for ESPN now underway, our entire focus is on bringing fans the best possible football coverage, culminating with our first Super Bowl,” Krulewitz said. “To that end, we won’t be addressing talent contract specifics publicly before the Super Bowl.”
Buck broke into broadcasting in 1989, calling games for the Louisville Redbirds, a minor-league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Two years later, he joined his father, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Jack Buck, in the radio and TV booths for the Cardinals’ games.
In 1994, Buck was hired by Fox Sports. He eventually became the network’s top play-by-play voice for the NFL and MLB, calling 24 World Series and six Super Bowls for the network. Buck joined his father in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2022.
Buck and Aikman have been calling football games together since 2002 and left Fox for ESPN together before the 2022 season. Last season, “Monday Night Football” averaged 15.8 million viewers per game, the second-best ratings in ESPN’s 20 seasons of broadcasting the franchise (it averaged 17.4 viewers in 2023).
“American Idol” is packing up its stars after 25 years in Hollywood.
In the latest blow to Los Angeles film production, ABC’s long-running program will move its upcoming season to the Atlanta area, according to Fremantle, which produces the show with 19 Entertainment, owned by Sony Pictures Television.
Fremantle declined to comment further.
The move comes as Los Angeles’ production levels have tumbled, prompting concern from film workers, union leaders and elected officials who are scrambling to address the crisis. California, despite boosting its tax incentive program, has been struggling to compete against other states that offer more lucrative credits.
TV production activity in the L.A. region was down 27% in the second quarter compared with the same period a year ago, largely because of fewer reality TV shoots, according to the nonprofit FilmLA.
Earlier this year, another broadcast TV stalwart, Fox’s “The Masked Singer,” made plans to vacate its space on the Fox lot on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles and head to New Jersey, also in search of more lucrative tax credits. Another ABC hit, “Shark Tank,” also is relocating to Atlanta from its longtime home base on Sony’s Culver City lot.
“American Idol” has been a local economic engine since launching on Fox in 2002. For years, the show ranked as the No. 1 show on TV and employed hundreds of workers each season as aspiring singers hoped for their big break.
The most recent season originated from Red Studios in Hollywood.
Georgia offers generous tax incentives, including up to a 30% tax credit for reality television productions that spend at least $500,000 in the state. Unlike California, Georgia’s tax program allows compensation for actors and other so-called above-the-line workers to be included.
Like California, Georgia has been grappling with lower production levels. For more than a decade, its soundstages attracted colossal movie productions, but the region was dealt a blow when the Walt Disney Co. recently shifted production of its Marvel superhero films to facilities near London.
On Tuesday, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, the Motion Picture Assn., industry unions, Hollywood special ambassador Jon Voight and filmmaker Steven Paul made a pitch for a federal film and television tax credit to keep jobs in Hollywood and in the U.S. broadly.
Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) plans to introduce a bill into Congress as early as this month in collaboration with Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), who represents a district southwest of Atlanta. The MPA released a study estimating a federal tax credit could add 143,000 film and TV jobs.
This year, in particular, has seen big swings as the California Film and TV Tax Credit Program expanded eligibility to include competition shows.
Large-scale competition shows are eligible under the state’s incentive program if they have a minimum budget of $1 million per episode. The credit, however, does not include traditional reality shows, game shows, talk shows or docu-follow television programs.
Changes in California’s formula resulted in a jump to 676 shoot days in the second quarter, compared with 463 shoot days during the first three months of the year. Nonetheless, this year’s April-June quarter still reflected an almost 40% decline when compared with the same time last year.
FilmLA said that over the last five years, reality productions have plummeted nearly 63%.
ABC in late July announced “American Idol” was returning, marking its 10th season on the Walt Disney Co. network. Producers are auditioning potential contestants this week during stops in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
ABC declined to comment on the move.
Ryan Seacrest has long hosted the show, which last season featured Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan and Carrie Underwood, a previous “American Idol” champion, as the celebrity judges.
Deadline first reported the planned move to Georgia.
Game shows are also leaving L.A.
A growing number of programs long based around Hollywood and New York have headed across the ocean to Ireland and Britain to take advantage of tax credits that bring down the cost of production as broadcast network executives contend with shrinking audiences and lower profit margins.
Fox currently has several prime-time game shows produced overseas, including “The Floor,” “Celebrity Name That Tune” and “Beat Shazam.
Staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
Draper will not qualify for a protected ranking if he does return in January, as only those who are out for over six months are able to retain the ranking they had when they left the tour.
He is currently ranked 155, which means he would require wildcards or have to come through qualifying to play in Grand Slams and ATP Tour events.
But none of that will worry him if he is able to play freely and without so much pain.
Draper peaked at four in the world last June after winning a first Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells and finishing runner-up at another in Madrid.
“Last summer, all the dedication and work I had put into this sport was coming together,” Draper added.
“It was all going my way and the path seemed so clear. However a complicated injury made things incredibly challenging, and since that moment I’ve been desperately trying to get back and feel as I once did on the court.
“Managing so much change, adversity and pain has helped me to grow massively in many areas of my life but has also made me feel a level of fatigue.”
Draper has taken a holiday with friends in recent weeks and has been trying to aid his recovery by taking a mental break from the sport.
He is expected to make a gradual return to training over the next few weeks, as his team try to work out the principal causes of the injury.
CINCINNATI — The Dodgers celebrated clinching a postseason berth with a champagne toast. Simple. Restrained. Leaving room for larger celebrations to come.
“The message was, ‘We haven’t come close to playing our best baseball yet,’” manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ 4-1 win over the Reds on Monday. “And here we are with 12 games left, getting a ticket to the postseason. And that says a lot about this entire organization. And just to finish strong.”
It marked the Dodgers’ 14th straight playoff berth, tying a record set by the Atlanta Braves from 1991 to 2005.
“It’s different than anything I’ve experienced, for sure,” Tarik Skubal said of the understated celebration. “But I think it just speaks to the people in this room and what they expect out of this team. That was cool. A little toast and move on. Forget it happened. We’ve got more to accomplish.”
Most teams don ski goggles to celebrate with champagne and beer showers. The Dodgers will save the messier celebration for clinching the division. Their win over the Reds (70-80) trimmed that magic number to three.
It was fitting that Skubal, the Dodgers’ big trade-deadline acquisition, was on the mound for the clincher. He’s progressively improved in his eight starts with the Dodgers. And on Monday, he breezed through seven shutout innings, allowing just four baserunners (three singles and a walk).
“I think a lot of the struggles have been me versus me,” Skubal said. “Thinking too much out there, not competing the way I know how to compete. Just thinking too much about pitch selection at times and trying to be too fine and not challenging guys.”
He has grown more comfortable with the pitching coaches and his catchers, and it has brought out a better version of him. Skubal seems to be peaking at the right time — just as Roberts hoped for the team as a whole.
Even after clinching the division likely this week, the Dodgers (91-59) will be playing for seeding, aiming for at least a first-round bye.
“It’s always helpful in the sense of giving your guys a break to reset,” Roberts said. “But given all the tax and where our guys are health-wise, to get that week would be huge. So we’ve still got to play well to finish out the season to get to that point.”
The position-player group has been hit the hardest down the stretch.
Designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (right biceps and left knee), center fielder Andy Pages (left hand fracture) and backup catcher Dalton Rushing (sprained right elbow) are on the IL. First baseman Freddie Freeman was out of the lineup Monday managing right knee soreness, and second baseman Miguel Rojas was playing through shoulder soreness after aggravating a longstanding partial tear in a labrum.
“You’ve got to give credit to the front office,” said Teoscar Hernández, who hit a two-run homer Monday. “They put together a really good team, [a] deep team that has a little bit of too much of everything. A lot of pitchers, a lot of position players here, players that can play all over the field. We’re one of the oldest teams. We know [injuries] are going to happen throughout the season. So, we’ve just gotta be ready, and the team has to be ready, and everybody else.”
Here are more specific injury updates provided by Roberts:
— Ohtani is set to hit off a tee Tuesday. Up until this point, he’s been working out, lifting and undergoing treatment.
— Pages hit softer balls Monday and will advance to hitting baseballs in the cage Tuesday. “He’s trending really well,” Roberts said.
— Freeman is expected to return to the lineup Tuesday, but Roberts will continue to keep a close eye on him. “Where we’re at in the season, an IL is not an option in the sense of — I personally don’t think we have a better option,” Roberts said. “So I don’t think it needs to be 10 days. But could it be more than one? That’s a fair question. And I’ve got to talk to the training staff, Freddie, and ultimately make that decision. But I don’t think IL would make sense at all.”
— Rojas did not receive a cortisone injection as he had initially predicted when he hurt his shoulder Sunday. But he said it’s still a possibility as he manages pain in his shoulder. The Reds have left-handed starters scheduled for two of the four games, making Rojas’ right-handed bat valuable.
“Right now it’s front of mind, it’s not great,” Roberts said of the Dodgers’ injury situation. “But I will say this: Once you get to October, athletes have a magical way of feeling better. It happens every single year, where there’s that extra adrenaline that athletes get when you get to the postseason.”
Vigil aired its explosive finale on Monday night as series three came to an end
22:52, 14 Sep 2026Updated 22:57, 14 Sep 2026
Vigil aired its explosive finale on Monday night as series three came to an end (Image: BBC / World Productions / Mark Mainz)
Vigil viewers were all quick to make the same demand on Monday as series three came to an end.
The hit BBC detective drama sees Suranne Jones as DCI Amy Silva and Rose Leslie as DI Kirsten Longacre. Series three has seen the murder of a British citizen in the Arctic, leading to DCI Amy Silva and DI Kirsten Longacre investigating the case.
It wasn’t long until Amy looked into a possible conspiracy on Scottish soil while Kirsten came up against uncooperative Russian inhabitants, who claimed foul play and obstructed her at every turn. As expected with Vigil, soon many twists came about, including the discovery of a missing person…
After five episodes full of suspense, Monday night saw the series finale as Amy and Kirsten returned to Scotland, only for danger to follow them there.
Meanwhile, Amy found herself on the wrong side of the law, and Kirsten put herself in danger to keep Amy safe and to get to the truth while under immense political pressure and personal jeopardy. The duo were faced with the hardest choice of their careers yet…
After Sir Ian Downing was arrested and politician Gordon Laity, Shen Jia was finally safe and able to share her research with the world. However, it was heartbreaking news for Amy as she faced severe action for refusing to hand Shen Jia over to the authorities.
Speaking to her boss, Amy asked: “Are you going to arrest me now?” to which he responded: “No, I don’t think there’ll be an appetite to bring charges… provided…”
With Amy answering: “Provided I resign?” to which her boss emotionally confirmed her question, saying he doesn’t like the idea but he doesn’t want to see her in prison either.
Amy then declared: “It’s been a privilege to work with you, sir” as she shook his hand. Meanwhile, emotional partner Kirsten said: “A wise colleague of mine once told me to never make this job personal” to which Amy insisted she has no regrets before walking off hand-in-hand with Kirsten.
Following the finale, viewers were quick to take to Twitter, now X, to share their thoughts, demanding a series four. One person said: “brilliant series enjoyed every episode more please #Vigil.”
A different account wrote: “End of the series. A fantastic series! #Vigil” while another fan put: “#vigil What a brilliant series.”
Elsewhere, another show watcher commented: “Vigil with the wildly talented Suranne Jones is a terrific tension filled mystery. The gripping drama, Line of Duty meets 24 with a hint of Chain Reaction, is f***in awesome. Support includes Rose Leslie as Detective Inspector Kirsten Longacre. Season 4? #Vigil.”
Will there be a Vigil season 4?
Only recently, creator Tom Edge teased whether viewers could see the duo return for a fourth series. Speaking exclusively to Radio Times, the writer said: “Regrettably, the world remains complicated and finds new ways to evolve towards instability, danger and the rest. So I don’t think we would ever find ourselves short of stories.”
He added: “I think certainly this time around, we put the show in a place where we feel that this arc across three seasons has been settled.
“I think we will see how it goes. But one of the pleasures of the show is it doesn’t feel like it is a show that has to return on an annual ticking clock basis. So I think we can leave it open, but certainly for this season, it felt like it was the culmination of a bunch of questions that we’ve asked across three seasons. I was happy to take it to that point.”
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. There are only 13 games remaining in the regular season. Time flies when you are having fun.
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A different opinion
Throughout the season, I like to occasionally reach out to others to see what they think of the Dodgers so the readers are not exposed to just my viewpoint. This time I reached out to two of my favorite sports people.
I have listened to sports talk radio for about 50 years. Bud Furillo, Superfan, Rick Talley, Joe McDonnell, Steve Edwards, Fred Wallin, Steve Somers and many, many others. For me, “The Mason and Ireland Show,” hosted by Steve Mason and John Ireland and currently on ESPN Radio, surpasses them all. They can talk knowledgeably about any of our local teams, and the Dodgers are no exception. They were kind enough to answer a few questions.
Q. With the postseason rapidly approaching, how would you assess the Dodgers’ season so far?
Ireland: Surprising, in this sense: the Dodgers are heavy favorites to win it all, but they rarely beat good teams. Since the All Star break, they are 6-16 against teams with winning records. That’s obviously not good, and doesn’t bode well for the postseason. But having said that, for the Dodgers, the regular season is basically a dress rehearsal for the playoffs. I’m not sure they’re motivated until October. Maybe they’ll “flip a switch” and turn it on when it counts. We’ll see.
Mason: The Dodgers seem to be in a good groove right now. Mookie is starting to look like Mookie. Teo has come around. But hard to judge this team without a healthy Andy Pages and with Ohtani on the IL. I worry that as an organization, they didn’t get Shohei off his feet sooner. He has wrestled with injury for the last couple of months, and his biggest at bats are coming in October. They still have a chance to win 100 games, and they’re in position to three-peat, but with the playoffs, it’s a crapshoot. It’s a historically good rotation, but will those bats be clicking at the right time?
Q. The Dodgers have won two World Series in a row. Winning a third would be great, but if they don’t, does winning two in a row make up for it?
Ireland: Absolutely. Let’s face it, most teams want to be the Dodgers. A seemingly unlimited payroll, best manager in baseball, best front office. It’s incredibly hard to win two World Series in a row, and almost impossible to win three straight. No National League team has ever done it. So if they pull it off, it’s icing on the cake. But the cake has been great.
Mason: When the Yankees clinched their three-peat in 2000, they only won 87 games and lost 15 of their final 18. That shows you how hard it is. Honestly, the odds are strongly stacked against anybody winning three in a row, but if they fail, it is not a waste of a season. When you go back-to-back, you’ve got to show a lot of gratitude to the organization and to those players. A lot has to go right to win it all.
Q. Do you think Shohei Ohtani should just stop pitching altogether and focus on hitting the rest of his career?
Ireland: Selfishly, I hope he does both. That’s what makes him the best baseball player I’ve ever seen in person. But it’s obviously hard, and he’s had to shut down pitching at least three times since he came over from Japan. This year, it seemed to me that he was going for the Cy Young Award, while trying to keep up his offensive numbers, and it didn’t work. So maybe they do just let him hit moving forward, but I hope not. One thing that complicates things is that at least so far, the Dodgers have let Shohei do what he wants. And my sense is that he wants to continue to pitch and hit, so that figures into this too. It may not be a Dodgers decision — it might be Shohei.
Mason: I really want Shohei to do both, but in a specific way. He’s never going to give you 25 starts, and as good as he is, I cannot imagine him winning the Cy Young. He started 14 games to start the season this year — I say, instead, put those 14 starts at the end of the season. Ramp him up after the All-Star break, and have him ready to contribute on the mound in October. I was there for the magical night in the playoffs last year, when he hit three home runs and struck out 10. As a baseball fan, I really want to see him do both.
Q. If you were put in charge of the Dodgers and could make three immediate changes to the organization, be it on field, the stadium, whatever, what would you choose?
Ireland: For starters, I would address affordability. Most Dodgers fans have been priced out. They lead the league in attendance every year, so they have a business model that works. But I would take two or three sections in the upper deck and make those $5 tickets. They can afford it, and I think the gesture alone would score major points with fans.
On the field, they need to get younger. Freddie Freeman is 36, and so is Max Muncy. Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández, and Blake Snell are all 33. Andrew Friedman has been great at roster building, so they have the right guy. But it isn’t easy to say goodbye to great players as they age out, and he’s facing that now.
Finally, everybody I know thinks there’s a lockout coming. To me, that would ruin all of the progress baseball has made over the last five years. The game has never been better. All of the rule changes have worked, and the pitch clock has been brilliant. Most people feel the Dodgers are the main reason for the lockout. They outspend everybody, have a sweetheart TV deal, and most small market teams can’t keep up. The Dodgers need to lead the charge to avoid this lockout. I’m against a salary cap, but everything should be on the table. I would lock both sides in a room and tell them not to come out until they have a deal. It’s a huge story that we probably don’t talk about enough.
Mason: First I would expand the number of retired jerseys. It would be great to see guys like Maury Wills, Steve Garvey, Bill Russell, Davey Lopes, Orel Hershiser and other Dodger greats receive that honor.
Andrew Friedman is a genius, but he has overspent on guys like Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz. I’d like to see them consider more of their minor league talent employed. Love that Rushing and Freeland have had strong moments this year, but instead of signing Tucker, why not find a way to use De Paula or Tibbs or Sirota. I know they are unproven, but once upon a time, so was Andy Pages.
Pet peeve of mind, but I don’t like the brand of Dodger Dogs being served. Farmer John hot dogs had a better taste and texture than the ones they are using now. Plus, Dodger Dogs are much better when grilled, so why are there so many boiled hot dogs at the stadium?
Q. Favorite Dodger of all time?
Ireland: Can I say Vin Scully, or is that cheating? I say all the time that I grew up going to Sportscasters School, but I just didn’t know it. For years, I listened to Vin call the Dodgers, Chick Hearn call the Lakers, Dick Enberg call the Angels and Bob Miller call the Kings. FOUR Hall of Fame announcers — I didn’t know what a bad announcer sounded like until I moved out of L.A. But I had this exchange with my Dad before he died in 2017:
Dad: “If you want to be a sports announcer, you better study more than just the sports page.”
Me: “Not necessary — I just need to call the games.”
Dad: “Listen to Vin Scully — he talks about EVERYTHING.”
Of course, my Dad was right. Listening to Vin was a history lesson every time he did a game. I learned more from him than I did from a lot of my professors at UCLA.
Mason: Back in the day, I would have said Sandy Koufax, who I had the pleasure of meeting at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, but nobody, in the history of the game has awed me the way that Shohei Ohtani has. His performance in NLCS Game 4 last year is the greatest I have ever witnessed in person. Better than any athlete in any sport. I have been a baseball fan all my life, and I could never have even imagined that was possible. I also love Ohtani’s Harada chart, basically his goals in life and career. One of his goals has been to “be someone people root for.” Hard to find anybody who is not amazed by both his talent and his humility.
Q. I have long said that the Mason and Ireland show is the best sports talk show of all time. Do you guys remember when you first met? First impressions? And remind the readers where they can listen to you now.
Ireland: Mason and I were kind of a weird shotgun wedding in the beginning. In the early ‘90s, he moved to XTRA in San Diego from Toledo, Ohio, to do mornings. After a few months, the station decided they didn’t like him. So they moved him to nights in an effort to try and get him to quit.
I was a TV guy in San Diego, who filled in on the radio station when they needed somebody. They called me and said, “We’re going to put you on at night with Steve Mason, but he’s not happy with us. Anything could happen.” On the first night, I walked in and Mason was working on a screenplay on his computer and he told me, “Just have fun and say anything you want — I won’t be here for long anyway.” So we just started goofing around, and I asked Mase on the air why he thought mornings didn’t work. He started making fun of himself, then me, and we just clicked.
After it was over, I called the program director and said, “You guys are idiots — Mason is fantastic. If you can’t build a show around him, you don’t get it.” The more Mason stopped caring, the better he got. They came back to him and said, “That’s the guy we thought we were getting from Ohio.” They told him they wanted him to stay, and told him he could pick his partner. He picked me, and we were off and running. The first week was pretty bad, but we were following a failed show, so they let us work through it, and we’ve been at it ever since.
We’re on every day from noon to 3 p.m. on ESPN LA, and we post a podcast of every show as soon as it ends. You can also listen live on the ESPN LA app from anywhere in the world, which is a free app that works great. Also, you can find Mason’s podcast, “Mason Plus,” on that app, which has some great deep dives with a lot of cool people in and out of sports.
Mason: Thank you for the kind words. John’s story of our meeting and partnership is right on. In radio, there is this idea that you can throw any two people in a studio and they will automatically do great radio. It just doesn’t work like that. John and I clicked immediately. The show has always been good because John and I are so different. He’s Corona del Mar, and I am a kid from Toledo. Even now, he’s very Manhattan Beach, and I’m very Venice. We see the world differently, which leads to healthy debate, but we have a deep respect for each other and for what we have built.
The postseason race
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the NL West is four. Here are the postseason seedings as of Thursday’s games. The three division winners get the top three seeds, followed by the three teams with the best records. The top two division winners get a first-round bye. The division winner with the worst record plays the wild-card team with the worst record, and the other wild-card teams play each other in the best-of-three wild-card round that begins Tuesday, Sept. 29.
Remember, there are no extra games to break ties anymore. It all comes down to tiebreakers. Atlanta and Milwaukee have the tiebreaker over the Dodgers. For the wild card, the Cubs have the advantage over the Phillies, having won six of seven games against each other. The Diamondbacks and Padres have split 10 games, but their final three games this season are against each other, so that very well could determine the final wild-card spot.
The Dodgers won it all last season without a first-round bye, but with all the injuries, it would be nice to get that bye this season. They have only three games remaining against a team with a winning record, so they really have no one to blame but themselves if they don’t get it.
Up next
Monday: Dodgers (*Tarik Skubal, 9-7, 2.84 ERA [2-2, 2.93 ERA with Dodgers]) at Cincinnati (*Nick Lodolo, 3-4, 5.12 ERA), 3:40 p.m., SportsNet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020
Vin Scully is interviewed by the Braves announcers during his final season. Watch and listen here.
Until next time …
Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
DUBAI: British Lebanese actor Razane Jammal has kicked off the awards season with a big win — in style.
Jammal accepted the Best Actress in a Cinematic Role Award at the 17th edition of the Arab Satellite Festival in Cairo, while wearing an all-black gown from Lebanese designer Georges Chakra.
Jammal took to Instagram to celebrate the win, writing: “Incredibly proud to accept the Best Actress in a Cinematic Role Award for ‘Asad.’ Layla is a character very close to my heart because she reminds me of my mother in so many ways. She was a strong-willed woman who was way ahead of her time, who defied social norms and wasn’t afraid to speak up against injustice. A woman who fiercely protected her loved ones and showed up for any person in need, no matter what she was going through. Your spirit is imprinted in Layla mommy, so for you I dedicate this award, my angel.”
Helmed by Egyptian filmmaker and Marvel’s “Moon Knight” director Mohamed Diab, Jammal stars alongside Egyptian actor Mohamed Ramadan in “Asad.”
Jammal, famous for her roles in the Netflix series “The Sandman” and “Paranormal,” is joined by Maged El-Kedwany, Khaled El-Sawy, Sherif Salama and Ahmed Abdelhamid in the film.
The action-romance is set in the 1800s, with 2,000 extras being drafted in for the production. It features large-scale action sequences led by renowned stunt designer Kaloyan Vodenicharov.
In a trailer shared by Jammal last year, snippets from the film showed its lead star being dragged along by a horse, as well as scenes of a budding romance involving Ramadan and Jammal’s characters.
Jammal made a bold statement earlier this month in a striking red gown from Carolina Herrera’s Spring 2026 collection by Wes Gordon at the Murex d’Or 2026 ceremony. The sleeveless design featured delicate spaghetti straps, a rounded neckline, and dramatic side cutouts. She completed the scarlet look with a red clutch and pointed-toe lace heels.
In June, she launched her own children’s book, titled “Lulu and Blu.” Published by Turning Point Books, the story was illustrated by Sasha Haddad, a Lebanese illustrator who graduated from Cambridge School of Arts in 2014.
PARIS, France: Ferran Torres was on target as champions Paris Saint-Germain finally got their Ligue 1 campaign up and running with a 1-0 win at Brest on Sunday.
Prior to their trip to Brittany, Luis Enrique’s double Champions League-winning side had managed just two points from their opening three matches in an uncharacteristically sluggish start to the league season.
They began their quest to win a third consecutive Champions League title by thrashing Slovan Bratislava 6-1 on Wednesday and four days later they are now off the mark domestically thanks to new signing Torres.
The close-season arrival from Barcelona, who scored the winning goal for Spain in the World Cup final this summer, netted a hat-trick midweek and followed it up with a sumptuous early strike at Brest’s Stade Francis-Le Ble.
Torres now has six goals in five outings in all competitions for PSG.
“What matters to me is always helping the team, regardless of how much playing time the coach decides to give me, and doing my part. Whether that’s through goals, assists, or my work on the pitch,” the 26-year-old said.
The result sent the Parisians up to eighth in the league table, with an identical record to their hosts, who had been unbeaten heading into the encounter.
Ahead of kick-off, Brest paid tribute to their former coach Eric Roy, who died in June aged 58 after suffering from pancreatic cancer.
PSG got the crucial breakthrough in the fifth minute when Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele flicked a backheel into the path of the onrushing Torres.
The Spaniard strode onto the ball just outside the ‘D’ and caressed it into the bottom corner beyond the dive of goalkeeper Egil Selvik.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia then went close to doubling PSG’s lead in an entertaining first half.
It was not all good news for PSG in the opening period, however, as Morocco captain and right-back Achraf Hakimi limped off just before half-time to be replaced by midfielder Fabian Ruiz.
Brest came within a whisker of equalising five minutes after the interval when Nuno Mendes carelessly played the ball across for Kamory Doumbia, but the forward saw his effort rebound off the post when he had only goalkeeper Matvey Safonov to beat.
The hosts then turned into their own net two minutes later but the goal was disallowed for a push by Warren Zaire-Emery, which forced the error.
Safonov was the hero for PSG late on as he got down quickly to fingertip a Pathe Mboup effort past his far post as Luis Enrique’s side held on for the victory.
Mbappe redemption
Earlier, Ethan Mbappe redeemed himself after his Champions League red card in midweek by scoring a late goal in a 2-0 win over Troyes which sent Lille top of Ligue 1.
Mbappe, the younger brother of France and Real Madrid star Kylian, was sent off in Wednesday’s 3-2 home loss to Real Betis in Europe for elbowing an opponent.
The 19-year-old put that incident behind him, though, as he came off the bench against Troyes to seal victory in stoppage time, after the hosts had taken a first-half lead through Portuguese full-back Tiago Santos.
Mbappe celebrated his first goal since December in subdued fashion by apologizing to supporters for his red card, but the strike lifted Lille above Monaco and Rennes on goal difference at the top of the table.
“He came to his senses after his red card and showed maturity beyond his years; he took responsibility for his actions,” Lille boss Davide Ancelotti said.
“This week has been very important for him personally, helping him to grow as a player and as a person. As for his qualities, he certainly has them — he showed that again today.”
Lille have taken 10 points from a possible 12 under new coach Davide Ancelotti, the son of Brazil boss Carlo Ancelotti.
Last season’s surprise title challengers, Lens, have found the going tougher this season in Ligue 1.
A 3-2 Champions League win on Thursday at Slavia Prague and victory over PSG in the French Champions’ Trophy last month stand in juxtaposition to a difficult early domestic campaign.
They now have just four points from as many outings following a 2-2 draw away to newly-promoted Le Mans on Sunday, which leaves them in 10th.
Taking your peers into battle every week requires leadership that inspires respect and admiration. Orange Lutheran High’s star offensive lineman Lucas Rhoa has figured out the perfect formula to achieve that.
The senior Texas commit is easily noticeable before, during and after a game. He leads the team in warmups, conducting their every move. If he jumps up, so does every other player. If he waves his arms this way and that, you bet his teammates follow.
It’s the perfect hype up to get Orange Lutheran in the mood to win.
Rhoa has earned that respect partly because he reminds opponents on a weekly basis that they need to hit the weight room. Sometimes Orange Lutheran will put Rhoa in motion after the snap, blocking multiple players to create a hole for the run game. On passing plays he’ll face off one on one against the outside defensive lineman, and he stops them in their tracks.
During the game, if he isn’t on the field, Rhoa can be seen giving encouragement to every player. In a recent win against Chandler (Ariz.) Basha there were two moments that exemplified this.
First, when Orange Lutheran’s punter pinned Basha inside its own three-yard line, Rhoa was the first to come off the sidelines and get excited for his teammate. On the flip side, when a teammate’s holding penalty negated a 20-yard run, the big man was sympathetic. Rhoa gave a head pat and some words of encouragement and ran back to the line for the next play.
“There’s no room to get caught up on anything,” Rhoa said. “If you’re getting caught up on a play then you’re three steps behind. You just gotta forget.”
To Rhoa, his star quality and mentality are non-negotiables of the job. His offensive line coach, Chris Ward, is less humble when talking about his best player.
“He’s been extremely dominant individually and he’s really grown as a leader,” Ward said. “We have some young guys in there, it’s their first time playing varsity football. He’s kept his composure and really let those guys grow.”
Rhoa has shown his skill level and leadership against a bevy of highly ranked opponents so far this season, but his toughest task may come against a player who has seen his best traits firsthand.
Orange Lutheran, which is 3-1 after shutting out Gardena Serra 35-0, is next playing Sierra Canyon, where former teammate and senior defensive lineman Marcus Fakatou now plies his trade.
Sierra Canyon has started the season 3-0, with a big 41-21 opening-weekend win against JSerra, which has won three straight since. Rhoa spoke on the potential matchup against Fakatou.
“I’ve seen him the most out of anybody,” Rhoa said. “We used to go against each other every day at practice. But it’s just another game for me.”
Fakatou is committed to Ohio State and, given its recent rivalry with Texas, this isn’t likely to be the last time he and Rhoa meet.
Fakatou is listed at 6 feet 7, 285 pounds while Rhoa is 6-5, 295. When they hit each other, the collision might create the force of an atomic bomb or at least a high speed car crash.
Richard Wesley and Trey Brown of Sierra Canyon combine for one of seven sacks against Orange Lutheran last season, when the Trailblazers won 41-9.
(Craig Weston)
The key to victory for either Orange Lutheran or Sierra Canyon may come down to this matchup. There could be more joy for Fakatou lining up against the other side of the offensive line, but Rhoa is as mobile as they come and will certainly try to find a way to put his former teammate on the ground.
Ward said that both players are likely to make great plays, and that his offensive line can’t be frustrated if Fakatou hits somebody for a loss. Like Rhoa said, they have to move on to the next play right when the whistle blows. “There’s never a thought of ‘oh, I got beat!’ It’s out of the mind,” he said. Head coach Ray Fenton said that his team goes as Rhoa does, and that his leadership will be the key to a great season beyond just the Sierra Canyon matchup.
“One of the best [leaders] I’ve been around in my many years of coaching,” he said. “He says it with his words but most importantly he says it with his own actions …It makes life easier as a coach.
The Times has Sierra Canyon ranked as the fourth best team in the Southern Section and Orange Lutheran ranked as No. 5. But Rhoa doesn’t care who lines up across from him, the goal is always the same: to dominate.
“At the end of the day [the opponents] are just humans,” Rhoa said. “However many stars they have, it’s just football.”
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High has been known for years as the school for kickers, with the likes of kicking guru Chris Sailer and NFL kickers Nick Folk and Kai Forbath among a long list of standouts.
Notre Dame coach Evan Yabu has been keeping a secret weapon hidden for two years. Charles Szares made a 49-yard field goal for the freshman team in 2024. He was the backup on varsity last season, getting to do one kickoff.
This season as a junior, he has burst onto the scene as a varsity starter. After four games, he is perfect on PATs (23 for 23), perfect on field goals (six for six) and on Friday he was perfect on kicking the ball into the end zone (eight for eight on touchbacks). He also punts.
“I’m not kidding — this is the best kicker/punter I’ve seen,” Yabu said.
Szares has been playing soccer all his life and continues to play for a club team and Notre Dame football.
He started kicking by accident in eighth grade. He was a receiver and a youth football coach saw him fooling around kicking at a flag football game.
“You want to join the team?” the coach asked.
Said Szares: “I’ve had a love and passion ever since.”
Szares knows about Notre Dame’s kicking tradition from looking at the alumni board of top football players in the gym. And Sailer trains him. “He’s outstanding,” Sailer said.
He still hasn’t gotten the opportunity to try a possible game-winning field goal this season, though he made a 45-yard field goal on Friday in a win over Oaks Christian.
“I handle pressure pretty well,” he said. “I’m more confident under pressure oddly.”
He also thanks his long snapper, John Henry Mason, and holder, Levi Gonzaga.
And just remember, he has two seasons to go after the Notre Dame kicking records.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
By that point, Ohio State had just blown a 20-point, fourth-quarter lead to Texas, and Oregon had, hours earlier, been stunned by Oklahoma State. The path to the top of the Big Ten suddenly seemed open as ever, just as the Trojans’ tremendous freshman caught the punt and took off in search of an opening himself.
With his stunning start to the season, no one player at USC — and perhaps in all the nation — had manufactured more hope through two games. While the conference’s other top teams spent the day licking their wounds, here, once again, was Mosley weaving joyfully through the open field and conjuring the very same magic from thin air. He shook off one tackle, then another. Soon enough, he was gone for an 86-yard punt return, and the No. 14 Trojans were rolling, comfortably on their way to a 49-30 win over Louisiana.
The second half didn’t feel quite as hopeful, as the Trojans let up and let Louisiana linger around through a victory that coach Lincoln Riley deemed “up and down.”
Still, the win was USC’s 10th straight at home, going back to the 2024 season, and gives the Trojans’ a spotless nonconference slate in 2026 — not that anyone would confuse their early-season schedule for a murderer’s row. There won’t be any easy home wins from here, though, with USC’s next three games against Oregon, Washington and Ohio State.
“It’s been good getting adjusted to this,” Mosley said. “But now we go on the road, so that’ll be a new adjustment.”
USC has, in glimpses this season, looked like a team that belongs among those Big Ten behemoths. And the most encouraging of those moments have largely come from the Trojans’ talented freshman class.
Mosley, who also had an acrobatic receiving touchdown Saturday, wasn’t the only one who made his presence felt. Tight end Mark Bowman had his eagerly anticipated breakout game, as he exploded for six catches, one of which he capped by hurdling two defenders. He finished with 83 yards and two touchdowns, all in the first half. Defensive tackle Luke Wafle, meanwhile, continued his streak of early dominance by tallying a team-leading seven tackles.
USC tight end Mark Bowman hurdles over Louisiana safety Kody Jackson during the first half Saturday.
(Kevin Terrell / Getty Images)
“I feel like our peak, our trajectory should be even higher because of how many young guys are playing,” Riley said.
The win wasn’t nearly as dominant an effort for the rest of USC’s defense, which was coming off of a shutout of Fresno State. Louisiana averaged 7.6 yards per play and scored 20 points in the second half, led by dual threat quarterback Lunch Winfield, who scampered to 91 rushing yards.
“We’re just gonna take this as a learning moment,” defensive tackle Jide Abasiri said. “I just feel like sometimes we’ll get comfortable or complacent, then that’s something we need to, going forward, fix when adversity hits.”
It wasn’t the sharpest night for the Trojans’ offense, either. Though, you wouldn’t know it from the box score. While USC rushed for 214 yards, nearly 100 came in the fourth quarter, with the game well in hand. Quarterback Jayden Maiava put up numbers once again, as well, completing 19 of 29 passes for 261 yards and five touchdowns.
USC receiver Trent Mosley makes a touchdown catch under pressure from Louisiana safety Maurion Eleam Saturday at the Coliseum.
(Mark J. Terrill / Ap Photo/mark J. Terrill)
The five passing scores tied a career high. But Maiava said after the game that it “definitely didn’t feel like” that strong of a performance.
Through two games, Maiava had accounted for as many touchdowns (six) as he had incomplete passes entering Saturday’s game. But on Saturday, he missed his first three passes, the third of which went directly to a Louisiana defensive back.
The interception was Maiava’s first of the season, and it led to a Louisiana field goal, giving the Ragin’ Cajuns (1-1) an early lead. It was also the first time the Trojans trailed this season.
USC (3-0) and its quarterback settled down after that. The Trojans mounted a 12-play scoring drive on the ensuing possession, and Maiava found Bowman for a five-yard score. Then, they mounted a 10-play drive, and Maiava found Bowman again.
By that point, USC’s offense had piled up almost 200 yards, while Louisiana had scraped together just 18.
But the Ragin’ Cajuns refused to go away — for the moment, at least. They marched the length of the field and scored, cutting USC’s lead to 14-10.
That was the closest they’d get. The Trojans mounted a third straight drive of 10 plays or more, and this time, Maiava fired a touchdown pass through the hands of a Louisiana defensive back on its way to freshman Kayden Dixon-Wyatt.
The knockout blow came soon after that. After its follow-up drive went nowhere, Louisiana made the mistake of punting to Mosley, who took off sprinting to his right and didn’t stop until he reached paydirt.
The punt return was his fourth score of the season. He added a fifth before the final buzzer sounded.
The rest of the night wouldn’t go nearly as smoothly. The intensity, Riley said, “dipped a little bit.” Louisiana would linger, well into the fourth quarter.
But by then, the Trojans could safely coast their way to a clean non-conference sheet, knowing the trust test of their season – and their stellar true freshmen – is still to come.
Nearly 30 years after Judy Sheindlin launched a career that made her TV’s most widely recognized judge — first on the syndicated small claims series “Judge Judy,” which premiered in 1996 and ran for 25 seasons; then on Amazon Prime’s streaming show “Judy Justice” starting in 2021 — she’s passing her gavel to a fitting successor: her son, Judge Adam Levy.
The 83-year-old Sheindlin told People magazine that when “Judy Justice” wraps in October, she’s moving away from on-camera work to focus on other endeavors, including afternoon naps and developing the animated series “Judyverse” based on the “Baby Judge Judy” videos circulating social media.
Created with AI, the videos feature a toddler version of Judge Judy overseeing cases with her signature New York accent and no-nonsense barbs.
“I don’t want to do hair and makeup anymore, but I still want my message to get out there,” she told the outlet.
Sheindlin will also produce her son’s syndicated court TV show, “Adam’s Law,” which debuts Monday.
“There aren’t a lot of people who can carry a half-hour on their own, unscripted,” Sheindlin continued, adding that Levy has what it takes.
The 58-year-old earned his law degree from Hofstra Law School in 1992. This isn’t his first foray into TV, as he joined a panel of judges on Prime’s “Tribunal Justice” in 2023. After three seasons, Sheindlin said he’s ready for his close-up.
On Sept. 22, CBS will air a 30th anniversary special looking back on Sheindlin’s career, “Judge Judy: Unfiltered, Unforgettable.”
“I don’t think that I’ve ever been this content before,” she told People of entering the next era of her life. “I don’t have to prove anything else. I did it.”
That was a strange game. There were 22 accepted flags for 211 yards in penalties, fumbles galore and three turnovers in total. There was a safety and a missed field goal. Ultimately, Mater Dei (4-0) won 10-9 over Corona Centennial (1-2) in a game where it only converted two out of 10 third down attempts.
Beyond the weirdness, however, a solution at the quarterback position might have emerged for the Monarchs — in the form of a freshman, no less. Head coach Raul Lara has cycled through three players in the position so far this season, and the standout against Corona Centennial on Friday was Paytyn Guess.
“The young kid is dynamic, no doubt,” Lara said before the game. “But he’s young and he’s still learning the program and playbook. Once he learns, we’ll get him in the game a little bit more.”
Friday night’s game showed that Guess might be ready to be the starter.
Santa Ana Stadium has played host to Mater Dei football games for many decades, but the fans in its stands might not have seen a better pass than what the freshman conjured during the second quarter. Running away from oncoming rushers, Guess threw the ball back against his body — something most coaches advise against — and found heavily recruited senior wideout Gavin Honore at the one-yard line.
It was a dot. Right on the money. Professional players 10 years Guess’ senior would be excited to make that kind of play.
Mater Dei High freshman quarterback Paytyn Guess.
(Caleb Otte / For The Times)
The only hesitation to not start Guess was shown on the very next snap. Under center, Guess fumbled the snap and Centennial recovered the ball in the end zone. It was an unfortunate low after such a triumphant high.
Ultimately, though, Guess made the key throw after being entrusted to lead the final drive. With Mater Dei in their own half of the field on a third down, he found Honore along the sideline to pick up a first down and effectively end the contest.
That came after Mater Dei junior quarterback Russell Sekona tied the score, 9-9, midway through the fourth quarter with a one-yard touchdown plunge. Jerry Shifman converted the point-after kick for the winning margin.
Centennial had a chance to reclaim the lead with 2:30 left in the game, when its last drive ended in a missed field goal.
As far as Guess, he can make plays and had multiple downfield passes that fell just incomplete. But in that moment, the kid showed true composure. There might be growing pains, but the raw talent is on display.
Guess finished the nightcompleting four of nine passes for 56 yards, while rushing for 19. Lara had no worries about putting the freshman in the fire and letting him secure the victory.
“Coach Lara’s trust in me means everything,” Guess said after the win. “It shows me what I can accomplish on the field.”
He has a lot of time to develop, but aGuess said he needs to acclimate to this new stage.
“High school football moves quicker,” Guess said “I also need to be louder in my cadence because this was my first game in front of a big crowd.”
His skills directly resembled that of his counterpart on the night, senior Jaden Jefferson. The Hawaii commit might be ending his high school career just as Guess is starting, but both have a slippery and slinking style of play that excites fans just as much as it moves their teams down the field.
Jefferson had a solid game, going 14 for 23 through the air with 205 yards and tacked on 65 on the ground. The play that defined the night, however, was a blemish on his record. Backed behind its own 10-yard line, Centennial looked to Jefferson for another magic moment. His flip pass to a running back bounced off his teammate and into the waiting arms of a Mater Dei defender, setting up Sekona’s run.
Centennial’s defense was top notch all night, only allowing two third-down conversions. Mater Dei’s run game was shut down, gaining less than 100 yards, and it looked like the Monarchs would be stifled for the entire four quarters.
The game started out with a jet sweep touchdown from Kennie Leggett, a former Mater Dei player, and it seemed as though Centennial would beat the Monarchs as it did twice last season when building a 9-0 lead in the first quarter. The home team’s defense ratcheted up the pressure, however, not giving up another score. The Huskies only scored again on the freak safety in the first quarter.
Centennial has dealt with a lot of injuries to the offensive line this season, which allowed Mater Dei to get multiple sacks and hurries on Jefferson. Before the game, head coach Matt Logan said that his team has been treating every game in the same way regardless of the opponent. Three tough Trinity League matchups to start the season, however, have left them with a losing record.
Centennial played better, and Logan was right by saying it can go toe-to-toe with any opponent, but the scoreboard favored Lara’s men on a weird night in Santa Ana.
