Modern fans don't tend to lend his name the same weight that Jerry Rice and Randy Moss and Calvin Johnson are afforded, but when ranking the all-time greatest receivers in football history, the list simply isn't valid without Raymond Berry.

Berry, who went to six Pro Bowls, led the league in receptions three times, and won two championships, passed away last week at the age of 93. And while the Hall of Famer is best remembered for his 13-year playing career with the Baltimore Colts and another six seasons as head coach of the New England Patriots, the Corpus Christi native and SMU alum had a handful of Cowboys connections, too, that helped mark an extraordinary football life.

Berry, a 20th-round draft pick by the Colts in 1954, was considered an extreme long shot to even make the team's roster. But the 1956 arrival of quarterback Johnny Unitas gave birth to one of the best QB-WR tandems the sport has ever seen. By 1958, Berry had been named a first-team All-Pro and was among the game's top receivers.

But it was his performance in 1958's NFL Championship Game that launched him into another stratosphere. Catching a then-record 12 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown, Berry was instrumental in the Colts' dramatic 23-17 overtime win over the New York Giants.

Unitas and Berry hooked up on three straight pass plays for 62 yards in a game-tying drive in regulation, and then connected on two more plays for another 33 yards in overtime to set up the winning touchdown run and secure the Colts franchise's first-ever championship.

The contest, the first sudden-death game in NFL history, was watched by an estimated 45 million television viewers across the country and is credited with not only kickstarting America's love affair with the NFL but also inspiring the creation of an entire second league, the AFL.

With a whopping 17 players, coaches, and execs on the field that day who ended up in the Hall of Fame, the 1958 championship is still referred to as "The Greatest Game Ever Played." And it gave Berry a key connection that helped him embark on his post-player career.

Berry retired following the 1967 season as the NFL's career leader in both receptions and receiving yards. But 1968 saw him wearing Cowboys blue, as the team's new wide receiver coach. How did that happen? Cowboys head coach Tom Landry had been the Giants' defensive coordinator during Berry's rise as a player and remembered well the damage he had done to his unit during that 1958 title game.

In this first year on Landry's staff in Dallas, Berry helped Lance Rentzel surpass 1,000 yards and Bob Hayes top 900 yards as the high-octane Cowboys, with the top-ranked passing offense in the league, finished with a division crown and a 12-2 record. An 11-2-1 mark and a second straight division title followed the next season.

Berry left the Cowboys in 1970 to go back to the college ranks, but he would return to the NFL in 1973. In 1984, Berry was named head coach of the Patriots, and the next year, his club appeared in Super Bowl XX to face the legendary Chicago Bears. The coach on the opposite sideline that day? Mike Ditka, who had been a Cowboys tight end in 1969, Berry's second season in Dallas.

Despite earning a Super Bowl berth, Berry's head coaching tenure did not bring him the same success he had enjoyed as a player. After six years and a 48-39 record, he was out in New England.

Berry's final coaching gig found him in Denver in 1992, under yet another one of his Cowboys connections. Dan Reeves had played running back during Berry's two seasons on staff in Dallas; over 20 years later, Reeves hired Berry to be his quarterbacks coach for what turned out to be his final year as Broncos head coach and Berry's last season working in the NFL.

Berry was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973, shortly after leaving the Cowboys staff; it would still be another 10 years before he led the Patriots to their first-ever Super Bowl. He remains in the NFL's top 70 all-time receiving leaders and was named to the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.

Berry passed away May 25 at his home in Tennessee at the age of 93.

Todd is on X at @ToddBrock24f7. Also, follow Cowboys Wire on Facebook to join in on the conversation with fellow fans!

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys connections punctuated career of Hall of Famer Raymond Berry

After a 2025 season filled with injuries, players switching from their natural positions and a nearly winless slate in Southeastern Conference play, Missouri Baseball was looking for a year to show just about any signs of improvement. 

They got that in 2026. While a 12-2 loss in the SEC Tournament might have brought an unceremonious end to the season for the Tigers, they didn’t leave Hoover in shame. Before the Tigers’ opening SEC Tournament win over Ole Miss a day earlier, Mizzou had not won its first game in the tournament since defeating Texas A&M in 2017. A pair of series wins over Kentucky and Vanderbilt, while picking up a win against Arkansas for the first time since 2022, gave the Tigers a doubled win tally in conference play. 

Mizzou closed the season at 24-31 overall and 6-24 in SEC games. The question is, how much have the signs of forward progress shown and what do they mean for the future of the program? 

Jackson continuing with the program

Let’s start with the present. Those steps forward, paired with the increased competitiveness of the Tigers this season led to the decision by Missouri to retain Jackson as their head coach for the fourth straight season. (Editor’s Note: I’d also add that a 1.1 million buyout probably didn’t help, either.) A report on Friday evening from Kendall Rogers from D1 Baseball stated that the Tigers plan to retain their current head coach Kerrick Jackson. 

Ultimately, the broader picture for Missouri baseball, despite all of the aforementioned improvements, is the obvious. They fall behind in the investment aspect compared to other SEC programs — a conference in which the No. 9 seeded team in the SEC tournament is the No. 17 ranked team in the country and where 10 of the nation’s top-25 teams hold a spot.

Ultimately, as Joe Healy pointed out in his analysis of the program for D1 Baseball ($$), the Tigers finished well below .500 and were an absent non-factor in the postseason. They have a stadium infrastructure that is, in comparison to the other teams in the conference, lower in quality. He wrote, “Everyone associated with Mizzou baseball has been sent into a gun fight with a Super Soaker.” 

That’s why the second part of the post is almost more notable than the decision to keep Jackson onboard. What would a program with more investment and internal support under Jackson look like? More interesting — because it not only gives a chance for him to yield his vision of what his team can look like — but if the program’s downhill slide since joining the SEC continues, the naysayers of Jackson could also be proven right. Ultimately, what is true investment needed to be seen for Tigers fans that not said?

What’s happening on the inside of the program is more important to Kerrick Jackson than hearing all of the noise on the outside, as he described in detail after the Tigers’ historic home series win over Vanderbilt. 

I’ve never listened to it,” Jackson said. “Growing up, it didn’t matter what other people thought except for the people in your circle. You never let anybody else establish your self‑value and self‑worth. There are only certain people whose opinions really matter, because those are the people who support you whether you’re at the top or the bottom. When you look at social media, a lot of people want to see someone fail. So we tell our guys: don’t worry about what other people outside your circle think. Stay focused on what we’re doing and what we’re about.”

Throughout the season, Jackson has remained consistent in his stance on the longterm building process. It will take time, and while earning the historic wins was nice, it isn’t as important as Mizzou playing good consistent baseball. 

“If you take away the wins and losses and you see the progress the team has made,” Jackson said. “We want to be in regionals… as we’re continuing to grow and develop, we’re going to put ourselves in a position to be able to make those things happen.”

Breaking down the Tigers’ remaining stars 

With seven seniors honored in the team’s final home game: Peyton Basler, Cameron Benson, Gehrig Goldbeck, Jamal George, Keegan Knutson, Juan Villarreal and Jase Woita, Mizzou now enters an important transition period. Here is where the roster stands heading into the post-graduation offseason. 

The bats were alive this season, and a few star players will hopefully return for more. Junior Kam Durnin led the way with a .329 batting average while also posting the team’s highest slugging percentage at .570 and adding a high of 11 stolen bases. After transferring from Wichita State in June 2025 with two years of eligibility left, Durnin quickly became a key piece of Mizzou’s lineup. Retaining Durnin for his senior season would be a major boost for Mizzou, and a vital offensive threat on the basepath. 

Another key contributor, freshman Blaize Ward, ranked second on the team with a .296 batting average. Ward was especially dominant in SEC play, hitting .667 during the series win over Kentucky and .462 during the series against Vanderbilt. He also earned SEC Co-Freshman twice this year, and his emerging young talent will be a key necessity for the Tigers. 

As for the Tigers’ pitching staff, junior Josh McDevitt is exactly who they need on the mound during his senior year. McDevitt posted a 4.42 ERA with a 3-5 record this season, including a career-high 11 strikeouts against Arkansas in a 5-4 tough loss. After his 2025 year of just seven appearances on the mound, he has proven to be the kind of arm Mizzou put at the top of its rotation. McDevitt took the ball as the starter a total of 15 times this season, and will be just as crucial in the upcoming one. 

UPDATES: 

May 24: The roster will continue to evolve this offseason, and the first two moves came when infielder Chris Patterson and right-hander Keagen Kohlhoff both entered the transfer portal. Patterson missed nearly two months with an injury from March 14 through May 9 before returning for the final three SEC regular‑season games and both SEC Tournament contests.

Patterson started all 24 games he played in this season and hit .237 in the 2026 season with two doubles, a triple, two home runs and 14 RBI. As a freshman in 2025, he appeared in 35 games with 30 starts and hit .232 with eight doubles and 18 RBI. Across two seasons, he hit .234 in 59 games with 32 RBI and posted a .955 fielding percentage.

Kohlhoff appeared more scarcely for Missouri in the 2026 season, pitching 4.1 innings total in three relief appearances. He gave up three earned runs and struck out seven batters while walking nine batters and hitting one. Thus marks the first Mizzou pitcher to enter the portal after the conclusion of the 2026 season.

May 26: Former Missouri baseball hitting coach Bryson LeBlanc, who joined the Tigers staff in June 2023 after previously playing for the program from 2005-06, will not return for the 2027 season.

LeBlanc played two seasons for Mizzou, and was welcomed into Kerrick Jackson’s hitting staff. He has spent the past several years working with the Tigers offense.

Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball was first to report the news.

May 27: Missouri pitcher Kadin Muckley has officially entered the NCAA transfer portal as a graduate student with one year of eligibility remaining.

Muckley’s collegiate journey began at Golden West College in 2023, after undergoing hip surgery in 2022, where he made his debut at the junior college level. He missed the entire 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery before making his return to the mound on April 22, 2025.

Following his comeback season, the 6-foot, 200-pound right-hander transferred to Mizzou for the 2026 season, and will now look for the next opportunity.

The information was reported by Muckley himself.

Missouri’s right-handed pitcher PJ Green has officially entered the NCAA transfer portal after spending the past two seasons with the Tigers.

Green is coming off his sophomore year, where he appeared in multiple outings for Mizzou, having pitched 13.2 innings with 12 strikeouts. His notable moments this year included scoreless innings against North Dakota State, Illinois, Georgia and Texas.

During his freshman season, Green pitched 26.1 innings with 15 strikeouts while also recording a save against Evansville, and his first collegiate win over Missouri State for the Tigers.

The information was reported by Green himself.

May 28: Joining the wave of departures from the Tigers’ roster is shortstop Gehrig Goldbeck, who has officially entered the NCAA transfer portal after spending the last two seasons with Mizzou.

Goldbeck is coming off his senior year, where he appeared in four games to open up the 2026 season, reaching base at a solid .533 clip and scoring four runs. He was slated to return to live action this summer with the Battle Creek Battle Jacks of the Northwoods League in July.

During his junior season in 2025, Goldbeck started 35 games in his first year for Mizzou, hitting .248 with eight RBIs. Prior to his time in Columbia, Goldbeck was the 2023 NJCAA Division I Defensive Player of the Year at Kansas City Kansas CC.

The information was reported by Golbeck himself.

May 31: The roster overhaul continues as Missouri’s right-handed pitcher Keyler Gonzalez becomes the fourth pitcher to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Gonzalez has two years of eligibility left after spending one season in Columbia.

The Nova Southeastern transfer proved to be a key piece for the Tigers this past spring, striking out 36 batters in 28.2 innings across 11 appearances. He leaves Mizzou with a 5.02 ERA, and a rather tough blow to the Tigers pitching staff.

The information was announced by Gonzalez himself.

Jun 1: The official opening of the portal for non-graduate players saw the portal entries for Missouri baseball increase by four (so far). Two standout offensive contributors, Blaize Ward and Kaden Peer, will leave significant voids. Ward won SEC Co-Freshman of the Week two times and ranked second in batting average on the team, hitting .296.

Ward hit four homers and accumulated 33 RBI with a .421 slugging percentage and appeared in 44 games this season even with not making an appearance in the lineup from Feb. 28—Mar. 10. At second base, Ward consistently dazzled in the field, while in SEC play his hitting continued to elevate, ranking second on the team in batting average in conference play and second in OPS.

Peer leaves the Tigers program after three years in Columbia. Coming into the 2026 season, Peer was one of the team’s top hitters in a season marred with difficulty, hitting a .299 batting average and second on the team in hits.

Peer continued to be a consistent figure in the Tigers’ lineup in 2026, starting in 42 games and hitting .266 with two homers, 14 RBI and 41 hits. His grand slam against Ole Miss in the opening round of the SEC tournament helped Missouri secure its first win in the tourney since 2017.

To a lesser extent on significance, Peyton Basler and Todd Feurtado III also entered the portal. Basler played 35 games for Mizzou in 2025 but only appeared in three this past season due to injury, starting in one and collecting one hit in two at-bats.

The left-handed pitcher Feurtado joined the Tigers out of St. Mary’s High School in New York and didn’t make any appearances in the 2026 season. He still has four years of eligibility remaining.

The 2026 World Cup is the tournament of more. The biggest soccer tournament ever begins June 11 in North America and will look a lot different than its predecessors for a whole host of reasons. But is bigger actually better?

We’re about to find out.

More host countries

The World Cup will be played across three countries for the first time in history.

Since its inception in 1930, the tournament has traditionally been held within one country, though two countries have shared hosting duties once before. In 2002, both South Korea and Japan hosted World Cup games.

Though the United States has plenty of infrastructure to host the entire tournament itself like it did in 1994, CONCACAF submitted a joint bid with Canada and Mexico in 2016.

There wasn’t much competition to host the tournament, either. Since the 2018 World Cup was held in Russia and the 2022 tournament was in Qatar, Europe and Asia were ineligible to host the 2026 event. That left Morocco as the lone competing bid against North America’s.

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It was a resounding win for CONCACAF when voting was held. The joint bid received twice as many votes as Morocco’s at the 2018 FIFA Congress.

When Mexico’s game against South Africa in Mexico City kicks off the tournament on June 11, the country will officially become the first to host three World Cups. Mexico first hosted the event in 1970 and then was the host nation 16 years later. While it’s the second World Cup for the United States, Canada’s game against Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 12 in Toronto will be the first World Cup game ever played in Canada.

More teams

A big reason why the tournament is so spread out? The 2026 World Cup has grown a lot since 2022 and is twice as large as it was when the U.S. hosted in 1994.

The 32-team tournament is now 48, as many more countries got the opportunity to qualify for the event. Teams like Jordan, Uzbekistan, Curacao and Cape Verde are making their first World Cup appearances, while Scotland and Norway are back in the World Cup for the first time since 1998 and Haiti is making its first appearance since 1974.

The World Cup has steadily grown since 13 teams took part in the first tournament in Uruguay in 1930. It expanded to 16 teams in 1934, though the 1938 tournament featured just 15 teams as Austria had become part of Germany and the 1950 tournament had just 13 teams after three backed out.

In 1982, the World Cup expanded to 24 teams and was that size for the 1994 World Cup in the United States. It expanded to 32 teams four years later.

More teams means more games and more money for FIFA, so the 48-team World Cup is here to stay. It’s not going to go back to 32 teams for 2030 or 2034. And don’t rule out the tournament getting bigger in the distant future, either.

More knockout round games

In the 32-team World Cup format, the process to make the knockout rounds was pretty simple. Group play featured eight groups of four teams and the top two teams in each group made the 16-team knockout stage.

But as the tournament has grown by 16 teams, the size of the knockout round has doubled to 32. Overall, the tournament will feature 104 games. In 2022, there were 64 World Cup games.

There are now 12 groups of four teams and each team will continue to play at least three games. The top two teams from each group will still advance, but the final eight spots in the Round of 32 will be filled out by the top eight third-place teams among the 12 groups.

That means it’ll be harder for a team like Germany to miss the knockout rounds like it did in 2022. The Germans finished third to Japan and Spain in Group E, but had four points and a positive goal differential. That type of performance should be more than enough to get through to the knockout rounds in 2026.

With third-place teams getting into the knockout stages and goal differential being a key tiebreaker for those final eight spots in the Round of 32, expect goal prevention to be even more of a priority for teams in group play, especially among smaller nations. While the talent gap between the best and worst teams at this year’s World Cup is considerably larger, more teams having a shot at qualifying for the knockout rounds may lead to more conservative game plans.

More breaks

It’s likely going to be very hot and humid at many World Cup host stadiums. After all, the tournament is being played during the summer.

But even though five stadiums have full or retractable roofs over their fields, every World Cup game will feature multiple scheduled hydration breaks for players.

It’s an unprecedented move for a sport that prides itself on continuous action in each half. In December, FIFA announced that each half would have a three-minute break to “prioritize player welfare.” Each break will come 22 minutes into the half.

Hydration breaks aren’t a new thing; they’ve been regularly used in games played in extreme heat. But the move to schedule the breaks for games that could be played in cooler weather or are being played indoors is unprecedented.

And it also gives Fox and other broadcast partners around the world the opportunity to play more commercials. In March, FIFA said that networks would be able to go to commercial during the stoppages as long as they begin 20 seconds after the break is called and end 30 seconds before the break is over. That gives networks approximately two minutes for ads and the opportunity for additional eight 30-second commercials during each game.

More VAR

The hydration breaks will be far from the only stoppages during World Cup games, either. While the 2026 World Cup isn’t the first for Video Assisted Replay, officials will have the ability to replay review even more aspects of games than they did four years ago.

In addition to plays like potential handballs along with possible red cards and penalty kicks, replay officials will now be able to check if a call for a corner or goal kick is correct provided that the mistake is “clear and obvious.” Of course, what “clear and obvious” is in the soccer world is a contentious debate and something with a fluid definition. You’re going to hear that phrase a lot during the World Cup and by the end of the tournament you may even find yourself questioning what it actually means.

Match officials can also now be called to the monitor to assess the validity of a second yellow card given to a player. Remember, two yellow cards in the same game leads to an automatic ejection and a team playing with 10 players for the rest of the game.

If you have been up to date on the Giannis Antetokounmpo summer sweepstakes, you would know that the Cleveland Cavaliers are one of the teams being floated as a destination for the Milwaukee Bucks’ superstar.

In an article by Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, he describes where the Cavaliers’ ‘brain trust’ lands on a potential trade centered around Evan Mobley for Antetokounmpo.

“The Cavs love Mobley, they believe in him and there are multiple members of the Cleveland brain trust that would be vehemently against a Giannis-Mobley swap…(Mobley) is viewed as not only a future star but also a proverbial safety net when it comes to another rebuild.”

There has been a lot of discourse around Mobley as the player to be moved if the Cavaliers want to reshuffle the deck. It would make sense if the Cavaliers were angling for a win-now mentality. With a soon to be 37-year-old James Harden and a will be 30-year-old Donovan Mitchell, you can’t have this two-timeline sort of mentality.

Everyone wants to point to the Golden State Warriors’ 2022 title and how they were able to navigate this, almost impossible feat. However, when you look at that championship from a 3,000-foot view, you would notice that in 2026, no one considered as a young building block really panned out. It was the old guard that made that title team who they were, Golden State would soon offload all those players (Jordan Poole, James Weisman, Jonathan Kuminga, etc.) to try and keep their core (Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green) relevant.

If the Cavaliers brass reportedly already is thinking about “safety net(s),” they may be setting themselves up to blow up this nucleus sooner rather than later. A half-in, half-out mentality will hamstring whichever direction the franchise would prefer to go.

To achieve either a rebuild or trying to improve their title odds, the Cavaliers need to go all in. By acquiring a veteran Harden at last deadline, there was a clear signal of going for the title now. If they decide not to move Mobley because they are thinking about the future, they’re likely not maximizing their current title window.

New York Knicks fans have infiltrated opposing arenas throughout their team’s storybook playoff run. With ticket prices at Madison Square Garden out of reach for many Knicks lifers, several have hit the road to get their postseason fix.

Perhaps that will happen again in the NBA Finals, especially now that, according to Gametime data from Monday morning, the get-in cost for Games 1 and 2 in San Antonio is dropping while seats in MSG are increasingly expensive.

Just two days ago, on Saturday evening, the get-in price for Wednesday’s series opener between the Spurs and Knicks was sitting at $1,905. Friday’s Game 2? Even higher: $2,044.

But, as of Monday morning, the get-in cost for the second game of the series was down a more manageable $1,280. Plus, more notably, fans get can now buy their way into Game 1 for under $1K, as the get-in cost for that highly anticipated showdown at Frost Bank Center has plummeted all the way to $992.

The median-priced tickets being sold, however, are still remarkably high for those games in San Antonio: $3,144 for Game 1 and $3,583 for Game 2. But it’s worth noting that those figures are still significantly smaller than the ones in that category two days ago, and that they’re dwarfed by the median-priced tickets at MSG, which are $9,807 for Game 3 and $8,388 for Game 4.

The get-in costs for Games 3 and 4 in New York are $4,160 and $3,761, respectively. They were $4,112 and $3,722 on Saturday evening.

The series is right around the corner. It’s a rematch of the 2025 NBA Cup, and it’s a clash between one of the best bigs (San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama) and one of the best guards (New York’s Jalen Brunson) in the NBA.

The Spurs are back in the Finals for the first time since 2014. Meanwhile, the Knicks haven’t been on this stage in 27 years.

It’s no surprise tickets are in high demand, particularly in the Big Apple.

Southampton have released an acceptance of its punishment for spygate despite complaints about the process.

The Championship side was found to have spied on three clubs throughout the 2025/26 campaign, including against Middlesbrough ahead of the first leg of the play-offs.

That eventually led to Tonda Eckert's team being kicked out of the Championship play-offs with Hull City going on to defeat reinstated Middlesbrough to earn promotion to the Premier League.

Now the club have released a begrudging statement of acceptance over the situation.

"Southampton Football Club notes today’s publication by the Arbitration Panel of the written reasons behind our unsuccessful appeal of the sanctions the Disciplinary Panel previously imposed on us in the EFL proceedings," the club said in a statement. 

"We accept that the club breached the relevant regulations, and we recognise that the disciplinary bodies were entitled to conclude that proof of sporting advantage was not necessary in order to establish a serious offence.

"The club accepts that aspects of our initial response to the situation were not treated with the level of scrutiny they required at the time. In hindsight, we wish this had been managed differently from the outset and this represented an error of judgement for which we take responsibility. Despite this, we are happy with the way in which we admitted the charges and offered our full cooperation and honesty once the formal EFL investigation process had started."

However, the statement then went on to question the impartiality of the independent panel due to two members having an 'indirect' connection to Middlesbrough.

The club then denied accusations of pressure put on junior staff before in the next sentence accepting responsibility for any pressure put on junior staff.

There was also push back on whether spying on opposition teams even had any benefit: "This case has ultimately been decided on the basis that breach and attempted breach were enough, regardless of whether any sporting benefit was actually obtained. In fact, at no stage was there any finding that the club actually obtained any sporting advantage as a result of the conduct in question."

"Our responsibility now is to acknowledge what has happened, take ownership of the lessons it brings, and use this experience to strengthen our judgement, discipline, and integrity moving forward together as a club," the statement concluded.

Southampton finished fourth in the Championship last season just four points away from second place – primarily, thanks to a late improvement of form under Eckert.

The Oklahoma City Thunder's season came to a crushing end with a narrow Game 7 loss in the Western Conference Final to the San Antonio Spurs. With a chance to close it out in two games, the 2025 champs fell short. This exit interview looks back on a season defined by SGA's back-to-back MVPs, with one of the deepest supporting casts in the league. Let's break down OKC's fantasy season and what's next for this team.

SGA: Two-time MVP and elite fantasy producer

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the NBA MVP award for the second consecutive season and the numbers backed it up. He closed the year averaging 31.1 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 1.4 steals, and 1.7 3s on a career-best 55.3% from the field, while setting a record with 127 consecutive games scoring 20 or more points. He's finished as a top-3 fantasy player in 9-cat leagues for four straight seasons while finishing fourth in High Score, averaging 55 fantasy points per game. I’d still take SGA over Luka Dončić heading into next year.

Chet rising (despite an awful Game 7)

Chet Holmgren played in 69 games, averaging 17.1 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.3 3s, and 1.7 assists over 28.9 minutes per game. He earned his first All-Star nod, made the All-NBA Third Team and was named to the All-Defensive First Team — an all-around strong season for the third-year pro. He played one of the worst Game 7s in recent memory against the Spurs on Saturday. So bad there’s chatter of him even getting traded. Still, that shouldn’t distract managers from drafting him.

Chet still has untapped upside. Despite top-five block numbers and elite efficiency, his minutes are capped below 30 per game due to injury management, limiting his fantasy ceiling. While his reliability is valuable, he should be taking more than 11 shots and rebounding more aggressively. Holmgren's ADP was 27 and he finished 19th in 9-cat, but only 64th in High Score. A third-rounder is fair for 9-cat, but in points leagues, consider dropping him a round or two next season.

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J-Dub falling

Jalen Williams couldn't catch a break. Hand/wrist, then ankle, then recurring hamstrings — the injury carousel made him nearly impossible to rely on all season. Williams didn’t come close to reaching his third-round ADP, finishing 61st in High Score and 88th in 9-cat on a per-game basis in 33 games. He's still a talented two-way wing, and I’m confident he’ll bounce back to the 20-5-5 type of player we’ve seen before. A full offseason to get right is necessary.  I wouldn’t draft him before the fourth round next season unless we see evidence that he’s 100% ready for training camp.

Other fantasy stars

Isaiah Hartenstein took a step back from his strong season in 2024-25. Injuries limited his availability and the overall numbers didn't match his previous production. He’s a useful asset for rebounds and stocks when healthy, but hardly an anchor of your frontcourt. Hartenstein is best served as a depth piece around Rounds 8 and 9.

Second-year guard Ajay Mitchell benefited from J-Dubs' absence, averaging 14-3-4 with an efficient 49/35/87 shooting split. Mitchell missed 25 games, but early in the season, he was a must-roster player. Suddenly, the Thunder have a (good) guard problem, with Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso and Jared McCain all vying for minutes in the rotation. Of those names, I’d be watching Mitchell the most heading into next season.

Final thoughts

The Thunder remain one of the most stacked teams in the league. Cason Wallace is a restricted free agent that OKC can match. They have $49 million in cap space and picks 12 and 17 in the upcoming draft (ridiculous). Hartenstein's $28M expiring deal is a prime trade chip, and if he's moved, Thomas Sorber could fast-track into a bigger role. SGA is the engine, but there’s still plenty of fantasy value with OKC since they’re such a well-coached and structured team. SGA, Chet, J-Dub, Hartenstein and Mitchell are all draftable players next season.

The Detroit Lions will have one more recognizable name to prepare for when they host the New York Giants at Ford Field on December 26.

According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the Giants are bringing back veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., reuniting with the franchise that originally selected him with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft.

At 33 years old, Beckham returns to New York after a winding NFL journey that included stops with the Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Rams, Baltimore Ravens, and Miami Dolphins.

A Full-Circle Moment for Beckham

Few players have left a bigger early impression on the Giants organization than Beckham.

During his first three seasons in New York, he quickly established himself as one of the league’s most explosive playmakers.

From 2014 through 2016, Beckham posted:

Over that three-year span, Beckham amassed an incredible 288 catches, 4,122 receiving yards, and 35 touchdowns while earning three consecutive Pro Bowl selections.

His spectacular one-handed catch against the Cowboys remains one of the most iconic plays in NFL history.

What Beckham Brings to New York

While Beckham is no longer the dynamic superstar he was in his mid-20s, he still offers experience and leadership to a Giants receiving corps looking for veteran stability.

For his career, Beckham has accumulated:

• 575 receptions
• 7,987 receiving yards
• 59 receiving touchdowns
• 3 Pro Bowl selections
• 2014 Offensive Rookie of the Year
• Super Bowl champion with the Rams

His most recent productive season came in 2023 with the Baltimore Ravens, when he caught 35 passes for 565 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games.

Last season with the Miami Dolphins, Beckham appeared in nine games and finished with nine receptions for 55 yards.

Lions Will See Beckham Late in the Season

The Lions and Giants are scheduled to meet on December 26 at Ford Field, giving Detroit’s secondary an opportunity to face one of the most recognizable wide receivers of the past decade.

Whether Beckham plays a major offensive role by that point remains to be seen, but his return certainly adds another storyline to the matchup.

For Giants fans, it’s a nostalgic reunion.

For Lions fans, it’s another veteran weapon Detroit’s defense will need to account for when New York comes to town during the final stretch of the 2026 regular season.

A familiar name is returning to one of the NFL's most recognizable divisions.

According to NFL Network insiders Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo, the New York Giants are signing veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., bringing the former Pro Bowler back to the franchise that drafted him and returning him to the NFC East.

For Philadelphia, the move adds another intriguing storyline to a division already loaded with star power and familiar faces. The Giants are also signing WR Braxton Berrios to a one-year deal, his agents Drew Rosenhaus and Robert Bailey told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

New York also looked at veteran Juju Smith-Schuster and Anthony Miller in that tryout. The signings come just days after wide receiver and kick returner Gunner Olszewski tore his Achilles tendon during an OTA practice. Wide receivers Malik Nabers (knee) and Darius Slayton (core muscle) are also currently sidelined as they rehab injuries.

Beckham was one of the league's most dynamic players during his first stint with the Giants, producing three consecutive 1,300-yard seasons and becoming one of the NFL's biggest attractions. His spectacular one-handed catch against Dallas remains one of the most iconic plays in league history.

Reunion: The #Giants are bringing back WR Odell Beckham Jr, as their former standout returns, per me and @MikeGarafolo.

Beckham, 33, recently worked out again for the team that drafted him, paid him, then traded him. Now, he’s back with NYG and John Harbaugh. pic.twitter.com/iaDJNCF5JZ

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) June 1, 2026

The player returning to New York, however, is much different from the one who left.

Now 33, Beckham has battled injuries and inconsistency throughout the latter stages of his career. Last spring, he accepted a six-game suspension for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing drug policy. He also struggled during his most recent NFL action, appearing in nine games with the Miami Dolphins in 2024 before the two sides mutually agreed to part ways in December.

Beckham finished that season with nine receptions for 55 yards on 18 targets.

Since 2020, Beckham has recorded only one season with more than 500 receiving yards, highlighting the challenges he has faced in recapturing his earlier form.

Still, the Giants clearly see value in adding a veteran presence to their receiving room. Beckham's experience, leadership, and familiarity with the organization could make him a valuable contributor, even if he is no longer a featured offensive weapon.

For the Eagles, Beckham's return adds another recognizable name to a division already rife with intense rivalries and high expectations. Whether he becomes a significant on-field factor remains to be seen, but one of the NFC East's most memorable players is officially back where it all started.

This article originally appeared on Eagles Wire: Eagles will see familiar face as Beckham rejoins Giants

De’Aaron Fox wasn’t putting up big numbers in San Antonio’s Western Conference Finals clincher, and that’s exactly what makes his upcoming battle with Jalen Brunson more interesting than a simple head-to-head at point guard.

Fox put up 15 points, five assists, and three steals as the Spurs topped Oklahoma City 111-103 in Game 7. Victor Wembanyama finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, while Julian Champagnie dropped six threes on his way to 20 points.

Stephon Castle added 16, Dylan Harper chipped in with 12, and both Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson had 11 each.

Champagnie joined Klay Thompson and Steph Curry as the only players to hit six or more threes in a Conference Finals Game 7.

San Antonio’s blueprint for handling elite point guards

San Antonio managed to hold Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to 37.9% shooting and just 26.1% from three, a significant drop from his usual efficiency. Stephon Castle took the lead defensive role, with the Spurs only sending extra help when SGA moved into dangerous areas.

Brunson, though, brings a different kind of challenge. He earned Eastern Conference Finals MVP honours, and much of the Knicks’ playoff run has been built around his ability to control pace without speeding up the game. Unlike SGA, Brunson doesn’t get solved by a single defender across 48 minutes.

Having missed the opening two games of the series, Fox spent Game 7 getting back into rhythm as much as closing out the Thunder. What he brings now is an extra gear on both sides of the floor. He has the quickness to pick up Brunson early, disrupt his timing, and then force him to work defensively in return. Every possession where Brunson has to fight through defensive pressure is one more stretch where New York has to find support from somewhere else.

San Antonio’s depth lets them keep that pressure coming from different angles. Castle added 16 points in Game 7 while handling most of the SGA assignment throughout the series. Harper chipped in 12 off the bench, with Vassell and Johnson each finishing with 11. Fox doesn’t need to do everything himself; there are enough options for San Antonio to keep Brunson busy all night.

Knicks have ways to manage Spurs’ defensive approach

With Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby able to take on the tougher matchups, Brunson can be hidden defensively when needed. Josh Hart also helps by taking on bigger assignments, allowing the Knicks to keep their rebounding in order. And if San Antonio gets too aggressive, Brunson is more than capable of playing off the ball.

The real risk for San Antonio is spreading themselves too thin under pressure. Brunson is effective at exploiting gaps, and Karl-Anthony Towns offers an outlet if help comes too early. Relying solely on ball pressure against a team as organised as New York could backfire quickly.

Fox gives the Spurs a way to apply pressure without sacrificing their defensive shape. He can chase, recover, and attack, while Castle handles possessions. Harper changes pace, and Vassell defends and stretches the floor.

The Game 7 win was built on that group’s balance, making Brunson’s Finals workload heavier than any single matchup issue. If Fox stays aggressive without forcing the game open, Brunson has to create through speed and fresh defenders before even dealing with Wembanyama behind.

Read more:

Texas vs. Tennessee softball box score: Live stats from Women's College Series semifinal originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Tennessee Volunteers softball team faces the Texas Longhorns in the 2026 Women’s College World Series Semifinals on Monday. One win and the Vols will advance, while the Horns need to Hook em' twice for a trip to the final.

First pitch will be at Noon ET from Oklahoma City.

Texas vs. Tennessee softball box score: Live stats from NCAA Women's College World Series

Texas Longhorns

• Gutierrez 7 (6 strikes)

Tennessee Volunteers

• Nuwer 20 (11 strikes)

How to watch: Texas vs. Tennessee 2026 NCAA Softball Championship Game

Date: Monday, June 1

Time: Noon ET

TV: ESPN

More NCAA News

• Saint Mary's vs. UCLA baseball box score: Final stats from NCAA Baseball Championship Game 1
• Milwaukee vs. Auburn baseball box score: Final stats from NCAA Baseball Championship Game 1
• Arkansas vs. Georgia box score: Final stats from 2026 SEC Baseball Championship
• Bill Belichick, Jordon Hudson at Kentucky Derby leaves everyone saying the same thing
• Demond Williams bombshell could have resulted in Lane Kiffin fired by LSU

Raymond Berry, the Hall of Fame wide receiver whose relentless attention to detail helped redefine his position and later guided the New England Patriots to their first Super Bowl appearance as a coach, died May 25 at his home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He was 93.

Berry spent all 13 of his NFL seasons with the Baltimore Colts from 1955-67, forming one of football’s most productive partnerships with quarterback Johnny Unitas. Together, they helped the Colts win NFL championships in 1958 and 1959 and became central figures in the league’s rise to national prominence.

MORE: Former Patriots DB announces immediate retirement from NFL at 28

A 20th-round draft pick out of SMU, Berry lacked elite speed and size. His precise route running and tireless practice habits made him one of the greatest receivers of his era.

By the time he retired, he held NFL career records with 631 receptions and 9,275 receiving yards. He finished with 68 touchdown catches, earned six Pro Bowl selections and three first-team All-Pro honors, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973.

Berry delivered one of the defining performances in league history during the 1958 NFL Championship Game against the New York Giants, catching 12 passes for 178 yards in a contest later known as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”

MORE: Former Seahawks, Vikings quarterback announces immediate retirement from NFL at 28

The Colts retired his No. 82 jersey, and he remains widely regarded as one of the greatest players in Colts history.

“Simply put, not only was Raymond Berry one the greatest players in the history of the Colts, but he was one of the most influential and foundational players of the modern NFL,” the team said in a statement. “More than anything, Raymond was devoted to his faith and his family. We’re grateful his family was able to be with him at the end, and we hope they know Colts fans and all fans of the NFL share their sadness today.”

After retiring as a player, Berry moved into coaching. His most notable success came with the Patriots, whom he took over during the 1984 season. One year later, New England reached Super Bowl XX, the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. Berry coached the Patriots through 1989 and finished his head-coaching career with a 48-39 record.

Berry is survived by his wife, Sally, their three children and nine grandchildren. His legacy endures in the modern passing game, where preparation and precision remain the standard he helped establish.

Rockets predicted to swap ex-Lakers disgruntled forward for $285 million Celtics star originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

All things considered, the Houston Rockets enjoyed a moderately successful 2025-26 season. 

Losing Fred VanVleet before the start of the year forced the franchise to spend the entire campaign with a true floor general, as Amen Thompson is far from a true point guard who can truly command the high-usage position. 

To Houston’s credit, they found a way to make it work, winning 52 regular season games, earning the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference, and nearly overcoming a 3-0 first-round playoff deficit against the Los Angeles Lakers. 

Looking ahead to the offseason, there are rumors that the Rockets could unite Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun with another superstar to significantly raise their ceiling. In a hypothetical four-team trade idea, Houston would do just that by swapping a disgruntled ex-Lakers forward (Dorian Finney-Smith, who was unhappy with the way Los Angeles handled his contract negotiations last summer) for a Boston Celtics standout guard.

“Pairing (Jaylen) Brown with Kevin Durant and Alperen Şengünprovides an instant boost to a Rockets half-court offense desperately in need of one,” Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale wrote Friday.  ‘While JB isn't the cleanest initiator for others, he makes up for it with a more versatile shot-making armory than anyone else on the roster—including, at this point, KD.”

“The trickle-down effect alone could be massive in Houston. Job descriptions for KD, Şengün, and Amen Thompson get a lot more manageable. The Rockets could still use a floor-general type with VanVleet headed out the door, but Reed Sheppard might have an easier time gaining head coach Ime Udoka's trust if he gets to play beside yet another jumbo-sized wing who can create his own shot and doesn't give up anything on defense.”

“Offloading Smith's deal and, more critically, the Finney-Smith contract softens the blow. Brown opens up the floor far more than either of them, making him a more palatable fit within lineups featuring both Şengün and Thompson.”

Favale’s full trade idea would send Saddiq Bey, Trey Murphy III, Smith, and the Phoenix Suns’ 2027 first-round pick (via Houston) to the Celtics, VanVleet and the No. 39 overall pick in the upcoming NBA Draft to the Detroit Pistons, Brown and Marcus Sasser to the Rockets, and Finney-Smith, Caris LeVert, No. 21 pick (via Detroit), No. 27 pick (via Boston), Houston's 2027 first-round pick, and a 2029 first-round pick.

Brown would provide Houston with another dynamic, score-first wing who’s already won an NBA championship and understands how to close out tight games.

Brown was brilliant for the Celtics during Jayson Tatum’s extended absence to start the year, averaging 28.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game while shooting 47.7% from the field and 34.7% from three-point land. 

A perimeter-oriented duo of Brown and Durant would give the Rockets one of the most high-powered offensive attacks in 2026-27, making it logical to explore a trade for the established Celtics phenomenon. 

If one thing’s certain, it's that Brown will be involved in trade rumors all offseason long.

More NBA news:

• Knicks predicted to cut ties with Mikal Bridges, acquire $175 million 10-time All-Star

• Jazz, Hawks, Bulls, Nets named top landing spots for $53 million Lakers superstar

• Lakers predicted to cut ties with Dalton Knecht, acquire $175 million two-time MVP

Mike Vrabel avoided the kind of offseason nightmare no Patriots coach wants, because Rhamondre Stevenson’s scary Matt Rife collision could have been much worse.

The moment came during Drake Maye’s first MayeDay Softball Classic at Polar Park in Worcester. The event supported the MayeDay Family Foundation and brought Patriots players, coaches and celebrities together for a good cause.

That is why the play felt so strange. A light charity softball game briefly turned into a real injury scare involving one of New England’s most important offensive players.

Rhamondre Stevenson collision gives Patriots a real scare

The video shared by Dov Kleiman shows Rife sliding headfirst during a rundown before crashing into Stevenson near second base.

The contact hit Stevenson around the hip area and forced his leg into an awkward position. Multiple players reacted quickly because it looked like the kind of freak moment that can ruin a season before training camp even begins.

Stevenson getting up right away was the relief. This was not football contact, but that almost made it more unsettling because nobody expects a Patriots running back to face real danger in a charity softball game.

For Vrabel, the connection is obvious. He is the Patriots head coach, Stevenson is part of his offensive plan, and losing a key veteran in a celebrity game would have been brutal.

Drake Maye charity event briefly turns tense for Mike Vrabel

The MayeDay event was built around community, not controversy. Drake Maye and his wife, Ann Michael, launched the foundation to help children and families facing hardship.

There was a home run derby, a softball game and a strong Patriots presence. Vrabel, Maye, Stevenson, Christian Gonzalez and other familiar names were part of the scene.

That made the collision feel even more bizarre. Rife was there as a celebrity guest, not a defender trying to make a play on Stevenson.

Still, the slide turned a fun night into a tense few seconds. Rife later joked about the play online, but Patriots fans had every reason to flinch first.

Read more:

History appears to be somewhat repeating itself for Ben Griffin, with the American recovering from a slow start to the year to produce a superb performance at the Charles Schwab Challenge this past week.

Of course, Griffin was always going to struggle to replicate his 2025 season this year. He won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Andrew Novak, before going on to triumph at Colonial 12 months ago.

He is still awaiting his first victory of 2026. But he appears to have turned a corner after missing three cuts in a row earlier in the year.

Ben Griffin explains his recent improvement in form

Griffin finished inside the top 10 at TPC Louisiana, before going on to finish third at both the Cadillac Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge.

The 30-year-old did have the clubhouse lead at one stage on Sunday in Fort Worth. However, he ultimately finished one shot adrift of joining Russell Henley and Eric Cole in the playoff.

And Griffin does not appear to be at all surprised by his recent improvement. Speaking to the media after Sunday’s final round, he suggested that he has taken inspiration from Tiger Woods as he looks to get the most out of his game.

“Yeah, I love this time of the year. If you look at my entire seasons on tour or all my, I guess, my career on the PGA Tour, it’s kind of been like this,” he said.

“I haven’t played as great to start the year on the west coast. I’ll probably always have that a little bit. I’m sure I could win AmEx or Waste Management, Farmers, I never play well at Torrey Pines, I’ll have to get over that hump a little bit.

“But golfers we kind of when we pick our schedules we kind of ask ourselves, if I have my C game a week like here versus my C game a week like Torrey, what’s my finish going to be. My C game here could still be a top-10 finish. Whereas, a C game at Torrey Pines is almost always going to be a missed cut for me. So there’s courses like that when I build my schedule that, because I played on tour for a few years now, been able to kind of tell where I play well and where I don’t and build my schedule around that.

“Tiger used to always do it, some of the best players in the game have always done it that way. And, yeah, this time of the year I just, I play well, so I try to play a bunch. That’s why I played a bunch last year. After I won Zurich I just kept riding it and was playing well in the majors and I’m going to keep kind of doing the same thing.”

Ben Griffin grades his performance at the Charles Schwab Challenge

Griffin is arguably one of the names to look out for this week at the Memorial Tournament. He finished second to Scottie Scheffler at Muirfield Village last year. So his return to form could hardly come at a better time.

Interestingly, it appears that he could demand even more from his game.

Griffin was asked to grade his week as he waited to see whether he had done enough to make a playoff or even win the Charles Schwab Challenge in regulation.

“Today was definitely a pretty close to A with the exception of one hole. Just got out of my rhythm and game plan a little bit on 11. But other than that I hit some really high quality shots,” he said.

“The rest of the week was, I would say, B to C. But like we’re hard on ourselves. As golfers, it’s hard for me to actually grade myself. For all I know, I could win this golf tournament and like here I am saying I had my B or C game it’s like, well, if I won, I mean, I guess we can go to A.

“But I don’t know, golfers are so hard, we’re almost perfectionists out there. And I feel like golf’s one of those sports you just got to, you’re going to have bad moments and you just got to let them go and move forward and got to stay positive. I felt like I did a really good job of staying positive today.”

Griffin has proven that he can compete with the world’s best over the last 12 months. And he certainly does not lack self-belief.

So he will definitely have his sights set on a fourth career victory in the near future. There are some big prizes up for grabs over the next few weeks.

Florida State vs. St. John's baseball box score: Live stats from NCAA Baseball Championship Game originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Florida State baseball team is two wins away from an NCAA Super Regional appearance. Getting through St. John's will have to happen in back-to-back fashion to keep the Seminoles season alive. 

FSU is going for a third-straight Super Regional after escaping the loser's bracket with a win over Coastal Carolina and an extra innings thriller over Northern Illinois.

Florida State will have Peyton Manca on the mound to face St. John’s Evan Hoeckele. Expect this one to be wild. There's a 4 p.m. ET battle coming right after a Noon ET first pitch in the first affair. All FSU has to do is win. 

Florida State vs. St. John's baseball box score: Live stats from NCAA Championship

Florida State

• Manca 18 (10 strikes)

St. John's 

• Hoeckele 17 (13 strikes)

How to watch: Florida State vs. St. John's 2026 NCAA Baseball Championship Game

Date: Monday, June 1

Time: Noon ET

TV: ESPN+

More NCAA News

• Saint Mary's vs. UCLA baseball box score: Final stats from NCAA Baseball Championship Game 1
• Milwaukee vs. Auburn baseball box score: Final stats from NCAA Baseball Championship Game 1
• Arkansas vs. Georgia box score: Final stats from 2026 SEC Baseball Championship
• Bill Belichick, Jordon Hudson at Kentucky Derby leaves everyone saying the same thing
• Demond Williams bombshell could have resulted in Lane Kiffin fired by LSU

The New York Giants are reportedly signing veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. following a workout with the team, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported Monday. He, along with three other veteran wideouts, worked out for the club on Monday after a season-ending Achilles tear for veteran receiver Gunner Olszewski last week.

Beckham played the first five years of his career with the Giants after being selected 12th overall by the club in the 2014 NFL Draft. He topped 1,000 receiving yards in four of his five seasons with the franchise and in each of the four seasons he played more than four games. He was then traded to the Cleveland Browns ahead of the 2018 season, where he accumulated just under 1,600 receiving yards in 29 games played.

OBJ, 33, last played in the 2024 season with the Miami Dolphins.

This breaking news story will be updated.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson is signing a deal with CBS to become the network’s newest NFL analyst, per Adam Schefter of ESPN.

While the role is yet to be defined, it had been rumored that Wilson could replace Matt Ryan on The NFL Today after the former NFL MVP was named the President of Football Operations with his former team, the Atlanta Falcons.

Wilson spent one year with the Steelers in 2024. After missing the first six games due to injury, he took over for Justin Fields, who helped Pittsburgh begin the season 4-2. Wilson led the Steelers to four consecutive wins, and went 6-1 in his first seven games as the starter before Pittsburgh lost its final four regular season games and were eliminated in the wild card round by the Baltimore Ravens. Wilson finished the year going 6-5 as a starter while throwing 16 touchdowns to five interceptions.

Wilson spent the 2025 season with the New York Giants, going 0-3 as a starter before being replaced by Jaxson Dart.

Let us know what you think in the comments. Be sure to bookmark Behind the Steel Curtain for all the latest news, breakdowns, and more!

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How to watch PAK vs AUS 2nd ODI match 2026 live: Start time, TV channels and streaming details worldwide originally appeared on Cricket News. Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Australia look to level the series after being bowled out for 200 in the first ODI.
• Labuschagne has gone 11 ODI innings without a fifty, averaging just 12.54 since September 2024.
• Liam Scott is expected to earn his debut as Australia make changes at Gaddafi Stadium.

Where to watch the 2nd ODI between PAK vs AUS at Rawalpindi live worldwide

Australia arrive at Gaddafi Stadium for the second ODI against Pakistan on Tuesday, needing a result after a first-game performance that raised questions about the quality. 

Australia were bowled out for 200 in 44.1 overs on a surface offering significant turn, with debutant Arafat Minhas taking five wickets for 32 runs in ten overs to dismantle their top order.

MORE: Australia squad for Pakistan ODI tour 2026

Matt Renshaw's 61 and a half-century from Matthew Short provided some stability, but the rest of the batting offered very little.

Pakistan chased the target comfortably in 42.3 overs, with Babar Azam making 69 and Ghazi Ghori scoring 65. The series is now 1-0 to Pakistan heading into Lahore.

MORE: PAK vs AUS ODI series 2026 tickets: Prices, guide on how to book tickets

Here's a breakdown of broadcast details of the 1st ODI from different regions globally. 

Where to watch 2nd ODI between PAK vs AUS live in Australia

• TV channel: Foxtel
• Live streaming: Kayo Sports

Foxtel and Kayo Sports offer complete ball-by-ball live coverage for the 1st ODI. 

MORE: Pakistan squad for Australia ODI series 2026

Where to watch the 2nd ODI between PAK vs AUS live in the UK

• Broadcaster: TNT Sports (via discovery+)
• Live Streaming: PCB Live

The match will be broadcast on TNT Sports (via discovery+) and can be live-streamed in the PCB Live app. 

Where to watch the 2nd ODI between PAK vs AUS live in India

• TV channel: N/A
• Online live stream: N/A

No broadcast or live streaming of the match in India.

Where to watch the 2nd ODI between PAK vs AUS live in the US

• TV & streaming: Willow

Willow offers live coverage via cable providers and its official app and website.

MORE:'Absolute nonsense': Jason Gillespie rips apart Kevin Pietersen for rejecting Alastair Cook's opinion on RCB's Jacob Bethell

Where to watch the 2nd ODI between PAK vs AUS live in Pakistan

• Broadcaster: PTV Sports
• Live streaming: PCB Live & Tampad

PCB Live & Tampad will live stream the match in Pakistan. 

2nd ODI between PAK vs AUS start time worldwide

• Australia (AEDT): 9:30 p.m.
• Pakistan (PST): 4:30 p.m.
• India (IST): 5:00 p.m.
• UK (GMT): 12:30 p.m. 
• USA (EST): 7:30 a.m.

To keep up to date with all the latest cricket news and share your opinion on the biggest topics visit our Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter) pages.

The Oklahoma City Thunder's attempt to become the NBA's first repeat champion since 2017-18 came crashing down Saturday when the San Antonio Spurs beat them in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. The Spurs are now headed on to face the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, while the Thunder's season is over one round earlier than expected.

The Spurs have Victor Wembanyama and their swarming backcourt to thank for that.

Thunder big man Chet Holmgren finished as the runner-up to Wembanyama in the Defensive Player of the Year race and earned both his first All-Star and first All-NBA nods this season. He was fresh off averaging 20.0 points on 60.8% shooting, 9.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game in a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Wembanyama caused him to go missing in action for most of the conference finals.

In the seven-game series, Holmgren averaged only 10.7 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 29.9 minutes per game. Wemby averaged 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.7 blocks. He kicked off the series with a historic 41-point, 24-rebound night, while Holmgren never had more than 16 points in any game of the series.

Holmgren’s disappearing act against the Spurs got the hot take machines firing right away.

Should the Thunder consider such a drastic shakeup? That depends on how much they're worried about Holmgren's struggles against Wembanyama and what else they have planned this offseason.

Thunder's Reckoning Is Coming

The Thunder have boasted the NBA's deepest roster over the past two seasons, but their day of reckoning is about to arrive. Both Holmgren and Jalen Williams signed max contract extensions last offseason that kick in this summer, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's supermax contract begins in 2027-28.

A number of teams have struggled building around three players on max deals under the NBA's current collective bargaining agreement, which introduced harsh team-building restrictions for teams that go far above the luxury-tax line. The Thunder have a massive cache of future draft picks, but not even they will be immune to the financial pressures imposed by the NBA's apron era.

Their first decision this offseason is whether to pick up their team options on Isaiah Hartenstein ($28.5 million), Lu Dort ($17.7 million) and Kenrich Williams ($7.2 million). Williams should be an easy no, but Hartenstein and Dort were every-game starters for the Thunder this season.

If the Thunder decline their team option on Hartenstein and he leaves in free agency, Holmgren will become that much more important to them. They do still have Jaylin Williams and second-year center Thomas Sorber, whom they selected with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2025 draft, but they can't realistically rely on either of them to contend with Wembanyama in the near future. (Sorber missed his entire rookie season due to a torn ACL, so he still has yet to even make his NBA debut.)

If the Thunder either pick up their team option on Hartenstein (doubtful given their other salary constraints) or decline it and re-sign him to a longer-term deal with a smaller annual salary (more likely), they might be willing to roll with Hartenstein, Williams and Sorber as their primary bigs. That could make Holmgren expendable, particularly if it's for someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Wild-Card Thunder

Unless the Cleveland Cavaliers offer Evan Mobley or the Philadelphia 76ers offer VJ Edgecombe, Holmgren might be the best player whom the Milwaukee Bucks could realistically hope to receive for Antetokounmpo. He blows anyone whom the Miami Heat or Golden State Warriors can offer out of the water.

The question is whether they need to make a move that drastic—and how much beyond Holmgren it would cost them if so.

Holmgren's projected starting salary on his new extension is $41.25 million, so he and Dort would be nearly a perfect salary match for Antetokounmpo ($58.5 million). However, the Thunder would be hard-capped at the $222 million second apron if they did aggregate those two, which would create some down-the-roster ripple effects for them.

Antetokounmpo, Jalen Williams and Gilgeous-Alexander are set to earn $140.5 million combined next season. Add in Alex Caruso ($19.5 million), Isaiah Joe ($11.3 million), Aaron Wiggins ($9.2 million), Jaylin Williams ($7.8 million), Cason Wallace ($7.4 million), Nikola Topić ($5.4 million), Sorber ($4.9 million), Jared McCain ($4.4 million) and Ajay Mitchell ($2.85 million), and the Thunder would be at nearly $213.4 million in salary.

That's not even counting the cap holds for the No. 12 ($5.8 million) and No. 17 ($4.5 million) picks in this year's draft. Add those two in, and the Thunder would already be over the second apron before re-signing Hartenstein.

The Thunder do have the salary and assets to jump to the front of the line in the bidding for Antetokounmpo. But it wouldn't only cost them Holmgren and Dort, even if the Milwaukee Bucks sign off on a framework built around those two. Since the Thunder would be hard-capped at the second apron, they'd either have to let Hartenstein walk as well, or they'd have to shed enough salary elsewhere so they can re-sign Hartenstein.

Perhaps the Thunder would see the upside of a SGA-Giannis-J-Dub core as justifying the risk of cutting down their depth to that extent. But they also might decide that patience is the prudent path, much as they did throughout their rapid ascension.

How different would the Western Conference Finals have been if Williams (hamstring) and Mitchell (calf) hadn't missed most of the series with injuries? Do they really need to worry about Holmgren being an 82-game player despite winning a championship with him last year? Wembanyama was a uniquely difficult matchup for him, but Wembanyama might be a uniquely difficult matchup for everyone.

As long as Wembanyama stays upright, the Spurs should be a fixture in the championship conversation for at least the next few years. But the Thunder just took them to seven games despite being without two of their three best offensive creators.

According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, league sources "have long maintained that Oklahoma City would not take part in the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes that will dominated the summertime conversation." However, he added that their stunning downfall in the Western Conference Finals "is enough to re-spark that conversation. Nothing should be off the table when the end goal wasn't reached."

Would Giannis be worth it to the Thunder if he costs them Holmgren, Dort, Hartenstein and additional players and/or picks? He's an incredible, one-of-a-kind talent, and he has the size, strength and physicality to give Wembanyama trouble, but he's also turning 32 in December and is fresh off an injury-ravaged season.

The Thunder might not be Antetokounmpo's most likely landing spot, but they could easily outbid other suitors if they do decide to go all-in. They just need to consider the ripple effects on the rest of their roster before they take that plunge.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

Follow Bryan on Bluesky.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

As Longhorns football continues to look for elite talent, they have been busy when it comes to the 2028 class. On Sunday, they added another target to the mix in CB/WR Major Armstrong. The Texas native has drawn interest from over 10 schools and has seen his stock rise over the last few months. 

Although Texas would get a boost with Armstrong in the mix, they have a few schools to beat out. That list includes Baylor, Houston, UTEP, UNLV, Missouri State, UCF, Syracuse, ECU, and Lamar. With Armstrong's recruitment just getting underway, more schools will continue to join the mix. 

Congrats to 2028 CB/WR @Majorcuttinup1 on recently reeling in his 11th offer from @TexasFootball 🤘🏾#HookEm#TTSRecruitingpic.twitter.com/d5CTjafjaT

— Touchdown Talent Solutions (@tts_recruiting) May 31, 2026

Over the next few years, it will be interesting to see what position Armstrong sticks to. Part of the reason he is in high demand is because the Marvel High star can play on both sides of the ball. That is an important trait for a team like the Longhorns that has national title aspirations. 

With Armstrong officially on the Longhorns radar, he joins a list of impressive athletes who could end up in the burnt orange. Steve Sarkisian and his staff have also made offers to four-star recruits in the 2028 class, such as Neimann Lawrence, Micah Rhodes, Braylon Clark, Braxton Rein, Jamarios Canton, Kameron McGee, and Keaton Fields. Adding any of those players would be a major win for Sarkisian. 

pic.twitter.com/SugGnH1KDf

— Major Armstrong (@Majorcuttinup1) May 31, 2026

For Texas, the next step is to get Armstrong to campus for a visit. He will then be able to see what a future at the Forty Acres would look like. Until then, the Longhorns will look to continue building their relationship with a talent who has game-changing ability. 

This article originally appeared on Longhorns Wire: Texas football enters recruiting battle for 2028 WR/DB Major Armstrong

LSU football lost a four-star wide receiver to Ole Miss on Sunday. St. Augustine's Miguel Whitley committed to the Rebels, picking Ole Miss over LSU and a handful of big-time offers.

Per Rivals Industry Rankings, Whitley is the No. 205-overall ranked recruit in the country. He's No. 30 at his position and No. 7 in the state of Louisiana. Rivals is the highest on Whitley, ranking him No. 11 at his position. However, opinions differ. 247Sports has yet to give Whitley a fourth star, while ESPN sits in the middle.

At the moment, Whitley is not a major loss for the Tigers. LSU already has two wide receivers pledged in the 2027 class, Ahmari Stevens and Braylon Calais. Both are four stars. And the Tigers remain in pursuit of five-star wide receiver Easton Royal, who Lane Kiffin and Co. hope to flip from Texas. Still, it stings to see an SEC rival walk into Louisiana and take a blue-chip recruit.

LSU football's 2027 class currently ranks No. 11 nationally. Ole Miss sits at No. 15 after the addition of Whitley.

This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: Four-star New Orleans recruit picks Ole Miss over LSU football

Liverpool Centre Back Question Grows After Ibrahima Konaté Exit

Liverpool’s summer already looked demanding before the confirmation that Ibrahima Konaté would leave when his contract expires. On Media Matters for Anfield Index, Dave Davis and David Lynch discussed how that exit changes the scale of the rebuild, particularly with Andoni Iraola expected to arrive as Liverpool boss.

Lynch admitted the Konaté situation had shifted quickly. He said it was “not so much noises from the club” that made him think a new deal would happen, but “the noises from the player’s side.” He added that Konaté’s camp had been “so adamant” and “confident in it for such a long time” that he thought the defender would stay.

The change has left Liverpool with another major issue to solve. Lynch said: “The squad depth now, if you write it out on a piece of paper, I mean, my God, it looks like it needs about ten players adding to it.”

Centre back signing still expected

Davis then turned the conversation towards possible replacements, mentioning reports around young centre halves such as Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni. His concern was clear, asking whether it would be “a massive gamble to go that route.”

Lynch agreed that relying only on young defenders would be risky. He said: “Jacquet is coming to a new league completely and he’s got to adapt and it’s a big ask to just drop him in and he’d be the guaranteed starter.”

On Leone, Lynch added that he is “coming off the back of that big injury,” which creates another layer of uncertainty.

That led to Lynch’s strongest conclusion on the centre back situation. “Liverpool might say that and I think they will show some faith to a degree in these players, but they absolutely need to sign a centre-half for me.”

He then made his view even clearer: “I think they’re foolish if they don’t.”

Young defenders need support

The discussion was not dismissive of Liverpool’s young centre backs. Davis said he was “massively excited to see Leoni and Jacquet and what they can do.” Lynch also accepted that both may have roles to play.

But the concern was about asking too much, too soon. Lynch said Jacquet “will play a lot of games,” while Leone has “potential to play,” particularly in the cup competitions.

That feels very different from expecting either to replace Konaté immediately as a senior starter. Lynch referenced Leny Yoro at Manchester United as an example of a young defender needing time, saying “it took him a while to find his feet.”

For Liverpool, that distinction matters. The question is not whether young centre backs can be part of the plan. It is whether they can carry the plan.

Photo: IMAGO

Virgil van Dijk cannot do everything

Davis also raised the risk around Virgil van Dijk, saying “the threat of Virgil van Dijk at his age playing every single minute or needing to play every single minute worries you a little bit.”

That is the heart of Liverpool’s defensive issue. Konaté leaving reduces experience, physicality and senior depth. If Joe Gomez also has “a big chance to depart now,” as Lynch suggested, the need becomes more urgent.

Lynch said: “I just think they will sign one. More because I hope and I think they need it.”

With Iraola potentially bringing a more intense style, the need for defensive depth only increases. Earlier in the podcast, Lynch said Liverpool must give Iraola “a massive squad” and warned that “you’ve got to have enough of them.”

The message from David Lynch to Dave Davis was therefore clear. Liverpool can trust their young centre backs to develop, but after Ibrahima Konaté’s exit, they still need a senior centre half. Without one, the gamble may be too large for a club already facing a huge summer.

Odell Beckham Jr. is a New York Giant once again.

Beckham Jr. has agreed to a one-year deal with the Giants, returning to New York for his second stint with the team.

Reunion time in East Rutherford: The #Giants are signing WR Odell Beckham Jr. after this morning’s workout, sources tell me and @RapSheet.

Beckham’s second audition for Big Blue results in a signing and his return to the organization almost 8 years after he was traded away. pic.twitter.com/obRlBQrl5i

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) June 1, 2026

The reunion was highly anticipated throughout the offseason. The 33-year-old turned heads at the Fanatics Football Classic on March 21 and met with Giants coach John Harbaugh at the annual league meeting this spring, sparking rumors of a potential return.

The former Super Bowl champion worked out for the Giants on April 20 as a potential outside receiver to complement Malik Nabers next season. He worked out again on Monday following the loss of Gunner Olszewski (Achilles).

Beckham Jr. recorded 55 receiving yards in nine games with the Miami Dolphins in 2024. In 2023, he posted 565 receiving yards with an average of 16.1 yards per reception as a member of the Baltimore Ravens.

Still regarded as an exciting talent, Beckham Jr. will compete for a meaningful role throughout the summer.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: New York Giants make reunion official, sign Odell Beckham Jr.

Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC has launched the Hounds Pass, offering fans standing-room access to 12 home matches for $60.

This new ticket option is part of a fan affordability initiative, with the first eligible match on June 13.

The limited-time and limited-quantity Hounds Pass provides access to Riverhounds matches through the remainder of the 2026 regular season at F.N.B. Stadium. The club stated the pass creates additional opportunities for fans to experience the match day atmosphere through popular social viewing areas, including the Surfside CrossBar and the Goal Line Alley behind the net on the West End, amid continued demand for reserved seating and general admission sections.

Riverhounds President Jeff Garner said the club aims to make match days as accessible as possible. He noted the team’s pride in offering an affordable sports and entertainment experience.

“At a time when many families and fans are feeling the impact of rising everyday costs, we want to continue finding ways to make Riverhounds match days as accessible as possible,” Garner said. “We’ve always taken pride in offering an affordable sports and entertainment experience and the Hounds Pass is another way for us to proactively support our fans while welcoming even more people into the atmosphere that has made F.N.B. Stadium such a special place.”

Pass holders will be able to claim their tickets starting two days before each eligible match, offering a flexible option for fans to enjoy Riverhounds soccer. With 12 tickets included, the Hounds Pass averages $5 per match. The new pass complements existing ticket options, such as season memberships.

The club also introduced a new value concessions option for all fans. This includes a discounted meal combo with a hot dog, chips and a soda or water, available for $9.99 at Center Back Bites behind Section 102.

The affordability initiative will continue with the launch of new value merchandise offerings in the coming weeks. These will include a $15 T-shirt and a $15 hat, providing supporters additional ways to represent the club at an accessible price point.

Garner emphasized the club’s goal to ensure coming to a match feels easy, fun and within reach.

“F.N.B. Stadium is one of the best summer environments in the city,” Garner said. “Whether someone joins us once a year or all season long, we want coming to a Riverhounds match to feel easy, fun and within reach. This initiative is about continuing to serve our fans with great value while creating even more ways for people to experience a night with us.”

The Hounds Pass is available now for a limited time at www.riverhounds.com/houndspass.

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CBS Sports has a new quarterback.

Russell Wilson is finalizing a deal to become an analyst for CBS Sports, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. It's a move that will see the Super Bowl champion and 10-time Pro Bowl signal-caller exchange his helmet and jersey for a microphone and a suit.

Wilson will join a cast that includes James Brown, Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher on "The NFL Today" pregame show on the network.

There had been questions about the state of Wilson's playing career after he started only three games for the New York Giants in 2025.

This story will be updated.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russell Wilson joining CBS as NFL analyst, but not retiring

Former New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson is set to join CBS Sports as an analyst on "The NFL Today," the network's flagship Sunday pregame show.

The agreement represents a new chapter for the 37-year-old veteran, who is transitioning from the field following a 14-year NFL career.

Sources: Ten-time Pro-Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson is finalizing a deal to become a CBS Sports analyst. Wilson won a Super Bowl, the Walter Payton Man of the Year award and now leaves the NFL to become an analyst on the network’s pregame show that includes James Brown, Nate… pic.twitter.com/YEsi3OyDRv

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) June 1, 2026

Wilson, a Super Bowl champion and 10-time Pro Bowl selection, spent the 2025 season with the Giants. He appeared in six games, starting the first three of the season before ceding the starting position to rookie Jaxson Dart.

A combination of limited production and injuries led to conversations about retirement or possibly continuing his playing career as a backup, including interest from the New York Jets.

Instead, Wilson will step into the studio role vacated by Matt Ryan, who left to become president of football operations for the Atlanta Falcons. He will join the established panel featuring James Brown, Nate Burleson, and Bill Cowher, contributing quarterback insights and postseason experience to the broadcast.

The move aligns with Wilson's previous media appearances on CBS and his growing interest in broadcasting opportunities.

Known for his leadership and community work as a Walter Payton Man of the Year recipient, Wilson is expected to bring thoughtful analysis to the show ahead of the upcoming NFL season.

This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Ex-Giants QB Russell Wilson replacing Matt Ryan on CBS' NFL Today

Tommy Fury will face Eddie Hall in a super-charged novelty boxing bout on June 13 in the main event of a Misfits Boxing card from Manchester, England, and says that he keeps driving forward because he wants to be a world champion.

How we’re supposed to think that spending the last three years fighting Jake Paul, KSI, a random club fighter in a six-rounder, and now Eddie Hall in a non-sanctioned bout is pushing him in that direction is a real puzzler, but he said it.

“The only thing that I haven’t achieved in my life is being a world champion. So I think that is the thing that keeps me driving on,” he told DAZN cameras. “Financially making sure that we’re good-good, because I’ve got another kid on the way now. And that’s it, everything’s just for them. You want to make sure they’re financially secure to the best way you can.”

The “financially for the kids” part is something anyone can understand. But the “being a world champion” part should be heard as every bit as delusional and absurd as when Jake Paul says it. Even with the last name, Tommy Fury has proven pretty conclusively, now at age 27, that he is neither serious enough about nor good enough at boxing to win a world title.

Fury (11-0, 4 KO) is just not a serious boxing prospect. Never really has been. He just has a serious boxing last name, and even that ties into one guy and not so much the other seven or 12 Furys who have tried their hand in the pro ranks, hoping the name can carry them.

Realistically, Tommy has proven to be a less ambitious version of the man he narrowly beat, Jake Paul. However ridiculous you may find Paul’s similar claims and statements, he got in there with Anthony Joshua. Tommy Fury has gotten in there with Kenan Hanjalic. These guys are not playing the same game.

I don’t usually do this, but there were a couple of user replies on DAZN’s Instagram post that made me chuckle enough to share them, and I think sum up what a lot of the reaction naturally will be here:

First, directed to Tommy himself: “Jesus, mate! I still haven’t achieved scoring the winning goal for Liverpool in the Champions League final! But that’s the thing that keeps me driving on! I’m 48 years of age! Ya never know! We could both achieve our dreams together!”

And a reply to that: “As long as you keep kicking that ball on the park with the kids, you and Tommy are literally doing the same thing to achieve that end goal.”

Still, I admit to having some curiosity about the Fury vs Hall fight, taken as what it is, and what it is is not serious boxing. I’ll tune in on June 13 just for the visual of seeing Fury combat a human refrigerator.

CARLSBAD, Calif. — LSU coach Jake Amos had booked his team's plane tickets home.

The Tigers sat T-27 out of 30 teams with seemingly 18 holes remaining in their season Sunday. They were 17 shots outside of the projected 15-team cut line at Omni La Costa, and the second-year coach was just hoping to have a safe trip back to Baton Rouge.

"I need to make sure I’m on good flights, and that was kind of the only thing I was thinking about," Amos admitted.

LSU didn't make it on the plane.

The Tigers, ranked seventh in the country, shot 18-under 270 in the third round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Golf Championship. That was the lowest round of the day by nine shots and the third-lowest 18-hole score in relation to par ever at NCAAs, one shot behind UNLV (1998) and Arizona (2000). The largest comeback to make the 54-hole cut at NCAAs before Sunday was seven shots. Now it's 17.

"Tigers don’t quit and we didn’t," Amos said.

LSU begins the final round T-12 at 2 over but only three shots behind Duke, the final team inside the top 8 with 18 holes to play.

Freshman Dan Hayes shot 8-under 64, a round that featured nine birdies and set a tournament scoring record at Omni La Costa. He also bested former LSU individual national champion John Peterson's program record of 65 at NCAAs in 2011.

"I just knew we needed to make birdies," Hayes said. "We were terrible the first round. I think everyone will say it, and we just knew we had to go low, and I think today there was no holding back. Like we had nothing to lose, and we know how good we are. Every single one of us can shoot seven, eight under, so when it all clicks, it clicks."

Jay Mendell (68), Matthew Dodd-Berry (69) and Arni Sveinsson (69) all contributed to the record round from LSU, which last year went home after failing to advance from NCAA Regionals as a No. 1 seed.

Instead of another disappointing finish to the season, the Tigers have a chance to make match play for the first time in 10 years.

"It is just kind of the proudest I’ve ever been of any team," Amos said. "We finally showed the firepower this teamhas.”

Cameron Jourdan is an assistant editor for Golfweek, covering college and amateur golf.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: LSU had a near-record round to stay alive at NCAA Golf Championship

Now it’s about to become very clear just how serious the Bears stadium bid from Indiana really is. 

Despite all-night political negotiations that ran into Monday morning, and weeks of preceding deliberations, the Illinois House of Representatives adjourned without taking up a Bears stadium bill. The state Senate approved that proposal—which would allow certain Cook County towns to create stadium authorities to help support a Bears venue—around 4:40 a.m. ET on Monday.

In the House, though, the depth and complexity of that bill proved to be too much to approach in a legislative session already running into overtime.

“The bill came over from the Senate after many of us had been up for 20 hours and it is not enough time to vet a really important bill,” said Democratic state Rep. Lindsey LaPointe. “Many of us are going to scrutinize anything that is potentially a tax giveaway to the super wealthy or big corporations.”

In the dramatically reworked Senate bill, the Bears would pay for the stadium, but the host town would own it, and the team would not pay property taxes. 

“I remain optimistic. We all share the same goal: finding a solution that works for the Bears, works for taxpayers, and earns the confidence of the General Assembly,” said state Rep. Kam Buckner, a key figure on the stadium negotiations. “[Monday] morning was the end of session. It was not the end of the conversation.”

What’s Next?

The current political reality in Illinois creates a very stark timeline surrounding the NFL team’s attempt to build a $5 billion domed stadium and mixed-use development. The Bears have been clear for months they want to make a final stadium choice by the early summer at the latest, and the team currently has only one fully approved offer on the table: the proposal from Hammond, Ind., that was ratified in February and would fund about 60% of the stadium cost.

In the three-plus months since that approval, there have been some continued whispers that the Hammond bid is merely a stalking horse for an eventual deal in Illinois. That agreement in the team’s current home state, however, still hasn’t happened, meaning three potential scenarios stand out:

• The Bears could adjust their timeline and delay their site decision, primarily to give Illinois more time. That’s a tough prospect given the team has already said the cost of the project likely rises by $10 million with every month of delays. The NFL would also like the Bears to join an accelerating stadium development boom that includes the Bills, Titans, Commanders, Browns, Chiefs, and Broncos. To that end, the Bears said early Monday that its deliberations “remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated.”
• The Bears could accept the Hammond offer. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has already been increasingly confident that will happen, saying even before the latest developments in Illinois that his state had a “65-35” chance of landing the Bears.
• Illinois legislators could find a way to ratify a Bears stadium bill outside of the normal legislative calendar, which doesn’t pick up again until the fall. House Speaker Chris Welch, however, said early Monday that calling a special session to revisit the Bears issue was not planned.

“I think our caucus is used to processes,” Welch said. “Our caucus is used to taking our time and doing it right. … So we’ll get it right. We’ll get it done.”

NFL insiders, however, don’t believe there is much time left, if any, for Illinois.

“Unless there’s a meaningful change in Illinois, and quick, the team is going to Indiana,” Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports consultant who works frequently with the NFL, tells Front Office Sports. “Not only is there disappointment by what’s happened, but there’s been a loss of credibility [in Illinois]. Sports fans in Illinois have now really seen, maybe for the first time, how dysfunctional Illinois government really is. The politicians wasted five months [during the spring session] and didn’t really talk to each other.”

The post Indiana’s Bears Stadium Bid Gets More Real After Illinois Misses Chance appeared first on Front Office Sports.

After a four-year layoff, Serena Williams will be the center of attention in her return to competitive tennis at the Queen's Club in London.

Williams, 44, received a wild-card entry to play doubles at the HSBC Championships, which begin this weekend and serve as a grass-court tuneup for Wimbledon later this month.

Her doubles partner has not yet been announced.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion hasn't played a competitive event since losing to Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic in the third round of the 2022 U.S. Open. However, she is eligible to compete again after rejoining the sport's drug testing pool and reaching the mandatory six-month mark back in February.

When is the Queen's Club tournament?

The Queen's Club tournament, officially the HSBC Championships, is contested at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London.

The grass-court tournament for men and women begins on June 8 and runs through June 14.

How to watch Serena Williams in HSBC Championships

Serena Williams will be playing in the women's doubles draw at the HSBC Championships.

The draw and official schedule have not yet been announced.

• Date: June 8-14
• TV: Tennis Channel

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Serena Williams returns to tennis at Queen's Club: Dates, TV info

David Watson will join Bolton Wanderers from Kilmarnock, the Scottish Premiership club have confirmed as they thanked him "for his commitment to the club".

The midfielder, 21, is in the final weeks of his contract at Killie and will join Bolton for their first season back in England's Championship. A compensation package has been agreed between the clubs.

This season, Watson made 42 appearances, scoring three goals, as Kilmarnock finished 10th in the Premiership.

"David has been with the club since the age of seven and went on to make 140 senior appearances for the club, becoming Scotland Under-21 captain in that time too," the Rugby Park club said.

"He scored 13 goals and contributed six assists during his time at Killie, playing a major role in the first team set-up over the last three seasons since his breakthrough.

"Everyone at Kilmarnock sincerely thanks David for his commitment to the club, having worked his way through the age groups of our academy, and he departs with our best wishes for his career."

After 14 seasons in the NFL, 37-year-old quarterback Russell Wilson has made a decision on his next career move.

Wilson will join CBS Sports as an analyst, according to a report from Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports. Last month, The Athletic's Andrew Marchand previously reported that Wilson was a candidate to replace Matt Ryan on "The NFL Today." Ryan left the show to join the Atlanta Falcons' front office earlier this year.

Wilson apparently had an offer to join an NFL team as a backup, but he has opted to join CBS.

Wilson's decision to transition to television presumably means his NFL career is over, but NFL Network's Ian Rapoport tweeted that Wilson "may not be retiring." At the very least, Wilson is putting "a pause" on his playing career, according to Rapoport. ESPN's Adam Schefter is tweeting as if Wilson's career is now over.

Wilson, a 10-time Pro Bowler and one-time Super Bowl champion, spent the majority of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, where he went 104-53-1 as a starter before being traded to the Denver Broncos. Wilson went 11-19 as a starter with the Broncos before being benched by coach Sean Payton, who drafted Bo Nix after cutting Wilson in 2024.

Wilson threw for 46,966 passing yards and 353 passing touchdowns while adding 5,568 rushing yards and 31 scores on the ground while playing with four NFL teams from 2012-2025.

Social: Follow Broncos Wire on Facebook and Twitter/X! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans.

This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: NFL news: Russell Wilson makes career decision after 14th season

Glamorgan all-rounder Zain Ul Hassan has signed a contract extension at the club until the end of the 2027 season.

Born in Pakistan, the 25-year-old grew up in the West Midlands and made one appearance for Worcestershire before spending time with the South Asian Cricket Academy.

He earned a Glamorgan contract in 2023 and played in all 14 Championship games in the promotion winning side in 2025.

Ul Hassan features as an opening batter and seam bowler, and he made his career best score of 143 against Hampshire at Southampton in May.

"I'm very grateful to extend my contract," Ul Hassan told the club website.

"I've loved my time in Cardiff and being part of such a great group of players and coaches. We're playing some really good cricket across all formats, and I'm proud to be contributing to that.

"Hopefully I can play my part in even more success for Glamorgan."

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Soccer fans are set to receive complimentary tickets to the FIFA World Cup amid concerns that certain games could be played in front of half-empty stands. Attendance figures are a growing worry for FIFA ahead of the tournament getting underway next week, as the eye-watering cost of tickets continues to deter supporters.

As a case in point, the most affordable tickets available for England's opening game against Croatia on June 17 were listed at $898 on FIFA's official resale platform back in April. Despite widespread criticism, FIFA president Gianni Infantino rather awkwardly stood behind a $2million ticket that surfaced on the resale market.

Saudi Arabian supporters, however, won't need to reach for their wallets at all. Their football association has confirmed it will distribute complimentary tickets to fans throughout the tournament, as per The Mirror.

• Budget-friendly Costco faces backlash with $39,100 FIFA World Cup ticket package
• New York faces potentially challenging World Cup and NBA schedule clash

The move isn't without precedent - at last summer's Club World Cup in the United States, FIFA distributed free tickets to bolster crowd numbers. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia's US Embassy announced: "The countdown begins for the FIFA World Cup!

"On this occasion, Saudi Arabia is offering free tickets for Saudi National Team fans present in the US. We wish our national team the best of luck as it represents the Kingdom with pride, passion, and the full force of a nation behind them."

Every Saudi Arabia supporter stands to receive a complimentary ticket if they've made the journey to North America for the tournament, which they'll launch against Uruguay in Miami. The Sun reports that FIFA approved the approach.

Tickets for Saudi Arabia's group stage fixtures are being sold for as much as $3,000, yet thousands of seats remain available. Georgios Donis' squad will also face Spain and Cape Verde in Group H.

To listen to the latest episode of 'All Out Soccer' - CLICK HERE

Meanwhile, FIFA are confronting a legal battle over their contentious ticketing system. New York and New Jersey attorneys generals are pursuing legal action after supporters alleged that they were deceived about the category of ticket they were buying.

"Being honest about ticket sales is not complicated," New Jersey attorney general Jennifer Davenport declared. "But FIFA has turned buying a ticket to the World Cup into a gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity, and impossibly high prices - all at the expense of consumers and hardworking New Jerseyans."

"We are committed to conducting a thorough investigation of FIFA's conduct, and we are proud to stand together with attorney general James in protecting our consumers. It's an honour to host the World Cup, but the event is not an invitation to exploit our residents and visitors."

New York attorney general Letitia James added: "New Yorkers have been waiting years for the World Cup to come to their backyard, and they deserve a fair shot at affordable tickets. No one should be manipulated into paying sky-high prices for seats, and fans should be able to trust that the tickets they purchase will be the ones they receive."

When approached for a response, FIFA declined to comment.

The NFL Season is 100 days away! Yahoo analyst Joel Smyth shares 10 things to get excited about for fantasy football before the 2026 NFL season.

1. Ashton Jeanty on a new and improved Raiders

In 2025, rookie Ashton Jeanty had the second-lowest yards before contact on average, largely due to the offensive line. Injuries didn’t help, with star left tackle Kolton Miller out for the majority of the season and Jackson Powers-Johnson on IR. Not only will Las Vegas have both return healthy in 2026, but the Raiders added All-Pro center Tyler Linderbaum, a dominant force in the run game, as well as multiple guards via free agency and the NFL Draft. There was no room to run for the explosive rookie, but help has arrived.​

2. Justin Jefferson with a new QB

Justin Jefferson doesn’t need Tom Brady at quarterback; he just needs serviceable. Carson Wentz is not the ideal option for your star fantasy WR, and yet, Jefferson averaged 95 receiving YPG in his five starts, which would have ranked third among wideouts. Kyler Murray may not be everyone’s favorite, but he is no doubt an upgrade from Jefferson’s 2025 QB play as a proven option for fantasy weapons. DeAndre Hopkins is the best receiver Murray has had in his career, with the former Cardinals QB helping him finish as the WR10 over their three seasons together.​

Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2026 NFL season

3. New age of tight ends

From 2019-2023, the tight end position was dominated by three stars: Travis Kelce, George Kittle and Mark Andrews. We’ve seen them begin to fade over the last couple of seasons, but we’ve also begun to see the rise of the next wave. This season, we should see the future stars at the tight end position fully take over and start a new era. Of the first eight tight ends in the early 2026 ADP, the oldest is 26 years old! Trey McBride, Brock Bowers, Colston Loveland, Tyler Warren, Harold Fannin Jr., Tucker Kraft, Kyle Pitts and Sam LaPorta are all under 27 years old and ready to fight it out to finish as a top-three fantasy TE.

4. DeVonta Smith resurgence

With A.J. Brown expected to be traded to New England, WR1 DeVonta Smith's time is finally here. He has the capability but hasn’t always had the full opportunity in a run-first offense. Last season, when A.J. Brown was off the field, Smith was targeted on 29% of his routes versus less than 21% with Brown on. Smith had 75+ receiving yards in all three games without Brown since he was traded to Philly, with 9+ targets in all of them. Makai Lemon was added, but Smith gets his best shot of finishing as a WR1 in PPG for the first time in his career.

5. A healthy Jonathon Brooks?

After coming back from an ACL tear he suffered in college, Panthers RB and 2024 second-round pick Jonathon Brooks re-tore his right ACL in Week 14 of 2024. After missing the entire 2025 season, Brooks looks ready to go for this season with a real opportunity at making an impact. With Rico Dowdle gone in free agency and Chuba Hubbard coming off a career-worst season, Carolina chose to only sign free agent A.J. Dillon as its projected RB4. The Panthers are a surprisingly valuable fantasy RB spot with Dave Canales calling plays the last two seasons, giving Brooks a shot at making a major impact as a late-round pick.  

Play 2026 Soccer Pick 'Em with FOX One and make your picks for the world's biggest soccer tournament

6. Week 17 championship matchups ranks

You can play great for 16 weeks, but if you don’t succeed in Week 17, none of it matters. Here are the top-five games for fantasy football championship weekend to get excited about.​

1. Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals on TNF

2. Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears

3. Philadelphia Eagles at San Francisco 49ers on SNF

4. Kansas City Chiefs at Los Angeles Chargers

5. Denver Broncos at New England Patriots

7. Cam Ward’s second shot

The No. 1 overall pick from a year ago, Cam Ward entered an impossible situation in 2025. No weapons to work with, the head coach fired mid-season and the hardest fantasy QB schedule in the NFL. Sometimes we need to wipe the slate clean and start over. It’s worked recently for first overall picks with similar history, as the last three to score under 12 PPG all rebounded the following season. Trevor Lawrence and Jared Goff went from outside the top-25 to the QB11, and Bryce Young improved by five PPG. With a strong final month, a new, promising coaching staff and Carnell Tate in the building, it should be fun to see Ward have a true shot to show why he was the first selection out of Miami in 2025.

8. Late round rushing QBs available

Every year, the best fantasy pick you can make is a late-round rushing QB. The issue is, they come few and far between. Last season it was Drake Maye (and waiver-wire addition Jaxson Dart), and the year prior was Jayden Daniels. This season, we have options. Kyler Murray, a six-time QB1, is going at QB17 while the most run-heavy QB in 2025 when starting, Malik Willis, is being taken at QB21. You can grab Dart at QB12 or Bo Nix at QB14 as well. The hit rate on rushing quarterbacks and the upside in the later rounds makes it a best bet, as they don’t even have to be a good NFL QB necessarily to succeed in fantasy football.

9. DJ Moore domino effect

DJ Moore heading to Buffalo not only revives his chances of being fantasy relevant, but boost the Bears young trio in the process. The former fantasy WR1 reunites with Joe Brady, who gave his star receiver the sixth-highest target share in the NFL while the two were in Carolina. The competition is minimal with a top quarterback who provided Stefon Diggs with 100+ receptions, 8+ touchdowns and 13+ fantasy PPG in all four seasons in Buffalo. Meanwhile, his vacated targets and role give Bears receivers Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III and Colston Loveland a valuable bump. Moore led the team with 13 end zone targets in 2025 and in routes from the slot. The Chicago offense can support multiple weapons, and with Moore out of the way, the talented young receivers can thrive.

10. Justin Herbert with pass protection

Last year was an impressive — but not easy — season for Justin Herbert. He dealt with the worst pass protection in football after losing both of his starting offensive tackles (and for part of the time, their backups along with it). His two starting OTs are elite, ranking top-10 in pressure rate, but without them, Los Angeles put Herbert under pressure more than any QB. In his four games with LT Joe Alt, Herbert scored 21.7 PPG compared to 16.7 the rest of the season. With a completely replaced interior and a dominant tackle duo back healthy, Herbert could find himself in the exact opposite situation in 2026.

Lakers three-team Austin Reaves trade pitch lands $195 million Pelicans trio originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Even if the Los Angeles Lakers re-sign Austin Reaves this summer (assuming he opts out of his $14.9 million player option), there’s no guarantee he’ll continue his career with Los Angeles. 

If an ideal sign-and-trade scenario presents itself, the Lakers could find themselves swapping Reaves for assets that would help fill the franchise’s notable needs. According to Lakers insider Jovan Buha, there’s a world where Los Angeles could use Reaves to help them acquire the Pelicans’ talented $195 million via a three-team trade.

“You’d essentially be trading Austin and five first-round picks if the Lakers are trading the 2026 25 pick as well,” Buhasaid Friday. “So Austin and five first-round picks forOnyeka Okongwu (Atlanta Hawks),Trey Murphy (Pelicans), Herb Jones (Pelicans),Yves Missi (Pelicans). That’s a lot of picks.”

“I would consider it. “It’s a lot of draft capital, but you are also getting four players, and then you are turning one player into four… I would rather have those four guys than Austin … But it’s coming out of a massive cost with your five first-round draft picks.”

Murphy is the obvious headliner in Buha’s hypothetical trade idea, as the 25-year-old is an emerging two-way star who’s on track to earn his first All-Star nod in 2026-27 (he averaged 21.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.5 steals per game this season, which likely put him in All-Star consideration). 

While not as well-rounded, Jones is a solidified defensive stud who frequently forces opponents out of their comfort zone and takes advantage of telegraphed moves/passes (1.6 steals per game).

Missi is still a work in progress, but he’s proven he can be a durable big man who can protect the rim better than most (1.5 blocks per game), and be effective as a hard roller in ball-screen situations. 

It also wouldn’t hurt to have Okongwu, a 15.2 points and 7.6 rebounds per game Hawks contributor who’s starting to come into his own, as another viable frontcourt option to turn to.

As Buha noted, surrendering five first-round picks would be challenging for the Lakers, but the hefty return could make it worth their while.

More NBA news:

• Lakers named best fit for record-setting $53.8 million star

• Jazz, Hawks, Bulls, Nets named top landing spots for $53 million Lakers superstar

• Lakers predicted to cut ties with Dalton Knecht, acquire $175 million two-time MVP

The Georgia Bulldogs have landed a commitment from three-star edge rusher recruit Olayiwola Taiwo. The elite pass rusher committed to coach Kirby Smart and Georgia over Kansas, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech and Rutgers.

Taiwo is part of a recent Georgia recruiting hot streak. The Bulldogs have landed recent commitments from three-star offensive tackle D.J. Dotson and three-star wide receiver Taurean Rawlins.

The 6-foot-3, 225-pound pass rusher plays high school football for Lovejoy High School in Hampton, Georgia. The talented edge rusher is ranked as the No. 1,356 recruit in the nation and the No. 103 player at his position. Taiwo is the No. 146 recruit in Georgia and is a member 2027 recruiting cycle.

Georgia has been on a recent run of adding three-star recruits, which is very different from what the Bulldogs have done in the past. The Bulldogs appear to be using a different recruiting strategy than normal for the 2027 recruits.

The Bulldogs have just thee commitments from four- and five-star recruits in the class of 2027. The Bulldogs have 11 total commitments including eight from three-stars. Georgia has the No. 26 recruiting class in the country.

Taiwo took an official visit to Georgia from May 29-31. In his highlights, Taiwo flashes explosiveness and strength. The pass rusher is good at defeating offensive linemen with his hands.

Follow UGA Wire on Instagram, Facebook, X or Threads for more Georgia football coverage!

This article originally appeared on UGA Wire: 3-star edge rusher Olayiwola Taiwo announces commitment

The Arizona Cardinals' quarterback situation isn't exactly ideal. They have a presumed starter in Jacoby Brissett embroiled in a contract dispute. They have a backup with a 17-30 career record as a starter. Perhaps the most intriguing part of their quarterback room is having third-round pick Carson Beck.

Beck started 43 games in college at Georgia and Miami, taking Miami to the national championship game last year.

So while some of the focus is on Brissett's absence, there is a lingering question — will Beck get a chance to start as a rookie, and could he end up being the Week 1 starter?

SI.com's Albert Breer gave some insight in his most recent mailbag.

From Kyle (@KyleH10201988): What are the chances Carson Beck is QB1 and starts the season?

Kyle, I don’t think that’ll happen. I think it’ll be either Jacoby Brissett or Gardner Minshew II to begin the year. But I think we will see Beck make starts, plural, this season, as Mike LaFleur and his Cardinals coaching staff assess the position ahead of what could be a pivotal draft next April.

Head coach Mike LaFleur has said during the offseason that Beck getting to sit a while would be ideal. He will delay Beck starting as long as he can, unless he simply is better than Minshew while Brissett is out.

Personally, I give him almost no shot at starting in Week 1. Brissett and Minshew are too experienced and are certainly good enough to start for a bad team. But as bad as the Cardinals are projected to be, it would be foolish not to get Beck out there for a few games, and the schedule at the end of the year lines up perfectly for them to do so with a late bye week followed by lesser quality opponents.

How many starts will Beck get? The lowest total will probably be four.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire's Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: NFL insider weighs in on Cardinals QB Carson Beck starting in Week 1

MSI’s ARC G3 Extreme-powered Claw 8 EX AI+ is a handheld gaming powerhouse MSI has unveiled its next-generation gaming handheld at Computex 2026, the Claw 8 EX AI+. This new handheld uses Intel’s new ARC G3 Extreme SOC, giving it 14 CPU cores and 12 Xe3 GPU cores. With this hardware comes support for Intel’s […]

The post MSI smashes the ROG Ally with its new Claw 8 EX AI+ appeared first on OC3D.

Back in June 2025, PlayStation announced 'Project Defiant,' a new wireless fight stick built for use with PlayStation consoles and PCs. A month later, it was officially revealed as FlexStrike, and now, nearly a year from its original reveal, we have an August 6, 2026, release date set for FlexStrike, alongside the launch of Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls that same day. FlexStrike also isn't the only new PlayStation accessory set to launch this year. Announced alongside FlexStrike's release date is the release date for a new 27" monitor from PlayStation that comes equipped with a 2K QHD display with HDR, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/playstation-flexstrike-monitor-pulse-elevate-release-date/

Vendors have been quick to adopt the latest NVIDIA RTX Spark SoC in their devices, and MSI has deployed it in both mini PCs and laptops. MSI Power EdgeMesa N AI+ Mini PC and Prestige Flip AI+ Laptop With NVIDIA RTX Spark, Delivering a Powerful Arm+Blackwell Combo for Strong Compute and AI Performance With the introduction of the "New era of PC" by NVIDIA, its partners are quickly adopting its recently developed RTX Spark SoC, which brings 20 Arm-based CPU cores coupled with 6144 CUDA Cores based on the Blackwell architecture. The SoC is a powerful chip that brings 128 […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/msi-launches-edgemesa-n-ai-min-pc-and-prestige-flip-ai-laptop/

NVIDIA’s announcement of the RTX Spark has caught the attention of the entire computing industry, including Qualcomm’s, which now needs to find a new way to deal with its latest rival. Then again, the company’s Senior Vice President of Computing, Kedar Kondap, doesn’t appear to be fazed by the unveiling because in a Q&A session with the executive, he expressed a warm welcome to the RTX Spark. The Snapdragon X2 Elite family has a clear advantage over the RTX Spark, but the SoC is severely lacking in one department, which Qualcomm needs to address Kondap was asked what he thinks about […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/qualcomm-svp-wants-to-welcome-nvidia-rtx-spark-to-the-welcome/

Technically speaking, it's true, even if the XBOX Ally X is actually manufactured by ASUS. Okay, maybe Asha doesn't really have anything to do with it - having only picked up the mantle of CEO a few months ago - but it's still an interesting thought. ASUS Launches XBOX Ally X20 Bundle At ROG 20th Anniversary Event The bundle includes the refreshed XBOX Ally X20 as well as the ROG XREAL R1 gaming glasses. For those who don't know, the XREAL R1 glasses connect over USB-C to your device, projecting up to a 171 inch virtual screen in front of […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/the-release-of-the-xbox-ally-x20-bundle-marks-first-hardware-launch-under-new-ceo-asha-sharma/

If you've been playing ARC Raiders since it launched in October 2025, then you've seen evolve into a friendlier sort of extraction shooter. One where players have chosen to play a PvE game, only firing their weapons at robotic ARC enemies instead of other Raiders. Now, a new report from Insider-Gaming points to developer Embark Studios testing a first-of-its-kind PvE map condition called 'Rebellion Incident.' The report claims that the map condition is being tested in China, with discussion of the new map condition having been spotted on Chinese social media platforms. Rebellion is one of two map conditions being […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/embark-studios-testing-pve-arc-raiders-map-conditions-in-china/

The N250M/D5 is a fanless platform, featuring the entry-level Alder Lake N250 processor that comes in a quad core configuration. ASRock Launches N250M/D5 Motherboard With Pre-Installed and Passively Cooled Alder Lane N250 Processor Single-slot DIMM motherboards are pretty rare, but it doesn't matter to ASRock, which has launched a single-slot DIMM platform called N250M/D5. It's a CPU-motherboard combo that brings the Intel entry-level Alder Lake N processor pre-installed. As you can guess from the name, the motherboard has an Intel N250 processor pre-installed and features a fanless heatsink for complete passive cooling. ASRock says the N250M/D5 is ready for "affordable" […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/asrock-silently-launches-n250m-d5/

Dell is bringing the value back to PCs with its XPS 13 laptop that packs Intel's Core Series 3, a bigger display, & a lightweight design, starting at $599. Dell Pitches XPS 13 As The Perfect Laptop & MacBook Neo Competitor For Everyday Use, Delivers Up To 17 Hours Battery at $599 The Dell XPS 13 is an entry-level XPS product that is designed for students and everyday users first. The laptop takes the design of the XPS 14 and puts it in a smaller and lightweight chassis that is meant to be competitive against the Apple MacBook Neo. Starting […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/dell-undercuts-apples-macbook-neo-with-599-usd-xps-13-lighter-brighter-packs-backlit-keyboard/

It has been some time since the release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, but the series is not yet done, as publisher EA itself recently said that there are more stories coming with series protagonist Cal Kestis. According to a new rumor originating from reliable insider Tom Henderson, these stories will feature an older protagonist. "I mean this was like a year a year ago or whatever, but I heard that like Cal was going to be older in the game, so I don’t know if they’re doing like a little time jump or something," said the insider during the […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/star-wars-jedi-3-older-cal-3-years-development/

Türkiye Basketbol Federasyonu (TBF) Disiplin Kurulu, Galatasaray MCT Technic ve Beşiktaş GAİN'e para cezası verdi.

TBF'den yapılan açıklamada, disiplin kurulunun, Türkiye Sigorta Basketbol Süper Ligi play-off çeyrek finalinde 28 Mayıs'ta oynanan Galatasaray-Beşiktaş derbisinde yaşanan "salon ve seyirci olayları" dolayısıyla sarı-kırmızılılara toplam 830 bin lira para cezası uyguladığı aktarıldı.

Kurul tarafından Beşiktaş GAİN İdari Menajeri Murat Mürtezaoğlu'na ise aynı müsabakada "saldırı boyutuna ulaşan fiili müdahalesi" nedeniyle 50 bin 625 lira para cezası verildi.

Akatlar'da 30 Mayıs'ta oynanan play-off çeyrek final serisi üçüncü maçında siyah-beyazlı taraftarların sebep olduğu "çirkin ve kötü tezahüratlar" nedeniyle Beşiktaş'a da 430 bin lira para cezası uygulandı.

Galatasaray'ın Nijeryalı yıldızı Victor Osimhen'in adı Chelsea'yle anılıyordu. Ancak yeni teknik adam Xabi Alonso'dan ilginç bir istek geldi...

TEAMtalk kaynaklı habere göre; Teknik Direktör Xabi Alonso, Chelsea Yönetimi'ne Nicolas Jackson'ın takımdan gönderilmesini istemediğini söyledi. Senegalli forvet, sezon başında Bayern Münih'e kiralanmıştı. Alman devi, satın alma opsiyonunu kullanmama kararı aldı...

İHTİMAL EPEY DÜŞTÜ

24 yaşındaki futbolcunun Chelsea ile 30 Haziran 2033 tarihine kadar sözleşmesi var. İngiliz devinin, Galatasaray'dan Osimhen'i istediği konuşuluyordu. Ancak Xabi Alonso'nun Nicolas Jackson kararının ardından bu ihtimalin epey düştüğü belirtildi. Bu konu aslında sadece Galatasaray'ı bağlamıyor.

FENERBAHÇE İDDİALARI DA VARDI

Nicolas Jackson'ın adı Fenerbahçe'yle de anılıyordu. Teknik Direktör Xabi Alonso'nun yeni sezonda ona önemli görevler vereceği söyleniyor. 1.87 boyundaki futbolcu, kiralık oynadığı Bayern Münih'te 23 lig maçına çıktı. Sahada sadece 1.004 dakika kaldı. 8 gol ve 2 asist üretti.

Bu hafta içinde Galatasaray Teknik Direktörü Okan Buruk ve yönetim bir araya gelecek. Takımdan ayrılacak isimler ve transferler konusunda yol haritası çizilecek.

Galatasaray'da bu hafta itibarıyla transferlerde gaza basılacak. Teknik Direktör Okan Buruk ve yönetim cephesi buluşacak. Kritik zirvede takımdan ayrılacaklar ve muhtemel transferlerle ilgili fikir alışverişinde bulunulacak. Galatasaray'ın iki ayrı planlaması bulunuyor.

10+4 KONTENJANINA GÖRE

Sarı-Kırmızılılar'ın ana planları, Türkiye Futbol Federasyonu'nun yeni sezon için belirlediği 10+4'lük yabancı kontenjanına göre yapılacak. Her ne kadar TFF'den kuralın değişmeyeceğine yönelik açıklamalar gelse de, Kulüpler Birliği'nin başvurusu sonrasında kontenjanda esneme yapılma ihtimali de mevcut...

CİDDİ BİR BÜTÇE OLUŞTURULDU

Sarı-Kırmızılılar, olası bir 10+4 değişikliğine göre de liste hazırladı. Galatasaray'da ezeli rakipler Fenerbahçe ve Beşiktaş'a oranla daha az sayıda takviye yapılması bekleniyor. Cim-Bom'da ciddi bir transfer bütçesi oluşturuldu. Yani birkaç yıldız ismin Sarı-Kırmızılı formayı giymesine kesin gözüyle bakılıyor.

Fenerbahçe'de başkan adaylarından Hakan Safi'nin düşündüğü teknik direktörlerden biri Antonio Conte... İtalyan hoca, zamanında nasıl bir futbol oynattığını ayrıntılı şekilde anlatmıştı.

Antonio Conte, Napoli'yle yollarını ayırmıştı. İtalyan çalıştırıcı şu anda boşta bulunuyor. Fenerbahçe'nin başkan adaylarından Hakan Safi'nin düşündüğü isimlerden biri de o... Eğer Safi seçimi kazanırsa, konuyla ilgili daha resmi adımlar atması bekleniyor. Peki Conte'nin nasıl bir futbol anlayışı var.

HÜCUM ODAKLI OYUN

İtalyan hoca, kendi oyun anlayışıyla ilgili, "Adım adım, tamamen kendime ait ve kesinlikle hücum odaklı bir futbol anlayışı oluşturmaya çalıştım. Bu yolculuk Arezzo Kulübü'nde başladı. Sonrasında Bari, Siena ve Atalanta’da da aynı yaklaşımı sürdürdüm. Ancak bu sistem için belirli profilde oyuncular gerekir" ifadelerini kullanmıştı.

RAKİP EKSİLTEN KANATLAR

Antonio Conte ayrıca, "Yatay biçimde dizilen, ezberlenmiş hareketleri bilen iki santrfor ve rakip eksiltme konusunda güçlü iki kanat oyuncusu şarttır. Çünkü oyunun bütün gelişimi, topu bu oyunculara ulaştırmak üzerine kurulu... Bir teknik direktör, elindeki kadroya göre takımını şekillendirmeyi bilmeli. Juventus'ta yaşanan tam olarak buydu. 4-2-4'ten 4-3-3'e, oradan da 3-5-2'ye geçtik. Oyuncuların özelliklerine uyum sağlamak zorundasınız. İnsanlar üçlü savunmayı defansif bir sistem sanıyor ama bu doğru değil. Takımlarımın her sezon attığı gollere bakın. Hücumda etkili olmak, üçlü ya da dörtlü savunma oynamakla ilgili değil. Mesele takımı ve hücum organizasyonunu nasıl kurduğunuzdur. Oyuncuların özelliklerine saygı duymak ve sistemi buna göre şekillendirmek gerek. Eğer kupalar kazanmak istiyorsanız, takımınızın dengeli olması şarttır" yorumunu da yapmıştı.

Real Mallorca forması giyen eski golcü Vedat Muriqi'in menajeri Utku Cenikli, Kosovalı yıldızın Türkiye'ye dönme talebini iletmek üzere İspanya'ya çıkarma yaptı.

İspanya’nın yüksek tirajlı gazetelerinden Ultima Hora, transfer gündemine bomba gibi düşecek bir iddiayı manşetine taşıdı. Real Mallorca forması giyen Kosovalı golcü Vedat Muriqi, İspanyol ekibinden ayrılmak ve eski takımı Fenerbahçe’ye transfer olmak istiyor.

Muriqi'in menajeri Utku Cenikli, transfer görüşmelerine resmiyet kazandırmak ve süreci hızlandırmak amacıyla doğrudan Mallorca’ya gitti. Kulüp yetkilileriyle masaya oturan Cenikli, oyuncusunun Türkiye’ye dönme arzusunu yineledi.

Fenerbahçe'de yaklaşan başkanlık seçimi öncesinde bu transfer hamlesi büyük yankı uyandırdı. Kulübün eski başkanı ve başkan adayı Aziz Yıldırım’a yakın isimlerin de bu transfere bizzat destek verdiği ve görüşmelerde aktif rol oynadığı öğrenildi.

FIFA Hakem Komitesi Başkanı Pierluigi Collina, penaltılarda değişikliğe gidilmesi gerektiğini söyledi. Onun önerisine göre; kaleciden seken toplar tamamlanamayacak. Oyun kale vuruşuyla başlayacak.

Sky Sport'a konuşan FIFA Hakem Komitesi Başkanı Pierluigi Collina, ortaya çok tartışılacak bir fikir attı. Unutulmaz hakem, "Penaltıyı kullanan oyuncu ve kalecinin imkanları arasında büyük bir fark olduğunu düşünüyorum. İstatistiklere bakarsak penaltı atışlarının %75'i golle sonuçlanıyor. Ayrıca topun kaleciden sekme ihtimali de var" dedi.

YA TEKTE ATARSIN YA KAÇAR

Collina, "Benim çözümüm; normal sürenin sonunda penaltılara giden maçlardaki sistemin 90 dakika içinde de uygulanması... Yani tek şut kuralı... Kaleciden seken toplar tamamlanamaz. Ya gol olur, ya da maç kale vuruşuyla devam eder. Bunun daha uygun olduğunu düşünüyorum" ifadelerini kullandı.

AT GİBİ DİZİLİYORLAR!

Collina ayrıca, "Penaltı atışlarından önce bütün futbolcular ceza alanı çevresinde toplanıyor. Yarış öncesi start çizgisindeki atlar gibi görünüyorlar! Eğer tek vuruş kuralı uygulanırsa, böyle bir şeye de gerek kalmayacak" yorumunu yaptı. Bu fikrin, FIFA tarafından değerlendirileceği konuşuluyor.

Beşiktaş'ın yeni teknik direktörünün kim olacağı merakla bekleniyor. Şu anda Vincenzo Italiano'nun adı ön plana çıktı. Peki İtalyan çalıştırıcının futbola bakışı nasıl?

Beşiktaş'ta yeni teknik adam konusundaki çalışmalar devam ediyor. Sezon sonunda Bologna'dan ayrılan Vincenzo Italiano'nun adı ön plana çıktı. 48 yaşındaki çalıştırıcının İstanbul'a gelebileceği söyleniyor. Peki onun kafasında nasıl bir oyun sistemi bulunuyor?

KENDİSİNİ ANLATMIŞTI

Vincenzo Italiano, UEFA tezinde oyun anlayışını, "Tercih ettiğim sistem 4-3-3. Dikey ve agresif bir futbol anlayışını seviyorum. Takımımın, topu kazandığı anda rakip kaleye en hızlı şekilde gitmesini istiyorum. Geriden oyun kurmak ve rakip savunmanın arkasındaki boş alanları değerlendirmek de temel prensiplerim arasında yer alıyor" şeklinde açıklamıştı.

ÖNEMLİ OLAN DİKİNE OYNAMAK

Italiano ayrıca, "Amacım; bölgesi ne olursa olsun herkesin oyun kurabilen bir futbolcu haline gelmesi. Bunun yolu da antrenmanlarda aynı prensipleri sürekli tekrar ederek oyuncuların düşünme ve karar alma süreçlerini geliştirmekten geçiyor... Asıl önemli olan; oyunu dikine oynamak... Rakibin bıraktığı boşlukları değerlendirmek ve gerektiğinde risk almaktan çekinmemek. Topu kaybettiğimiz anda ise ilk hedefimiz onu mümkün olan en kısa sürede geri kazanmak. Bunun için yoğun karşı pres uygulayıp yeniden hücuma geçmek istiyorum" ifadelerini de kullanmıştı. Elbette Vincenzo Italiano sonraki yıllarda çalıştırdığı takımların oyuncu yapısına göre taktiksel değişikliklere gitti. Beşiktaş'a gelirse neler yapacağı ise merakla bekleniyor.

Milan'ın Portekizli yıldızı Rafael Leão, Premier Lig devlerine göz kırpsa da dünyaca ünlü futbolcu için şu ana kadar masaya oturan ve resmi ilgi gösteren tek kulüp Galatasaray oldu.

Milan'ın Portekizli yıldızı Rafael Leão, geleceğiyle ilgili olarak İngiltere Premier Lig devleri Arsenal ve Manchester United’a sıcak mesajlar gönderip göz kırpsa da, transfer masasında şu an için bambaşka bir senaryo yaşanıyor.

La Gazzetta dello Sport'un haberine göre Leão'nun Premier Lig devlerine olan ilgisine rağmen, hem Arsenal hem de Manchester United cephesinden henüz somut bir hamle gelmiş değil.

Portekizli yıldız için şu an için resmi ve en ciddi ilgiyi gösteren tek kulübün Galatasaray olduğu belirtildi.

Galatasaray'ın eski futbolcusu Felipe Melo, Brezilya kampını ziyaret etti ve Neymar'a Galatasaray forması hediye etti.

Galatasaray'ın eski futbolcusu Felipe Melo, FIFA Dünya Kupası öncesi Brezilya kampını ziyaret etti.

Melo, dünyaca ünlü yıldız Neymar ile bir araya geldi ve 34 yaşındaki oyuncuya Galatasaray forması hediye etti.

İŞTE O ANLAR:

Fenerbahçe Medicana, Aslı Kalaç ile yollarını ayırdıklarını açıkladı.

Fenerbahçe'den yapılan açıklama şu şekilde oldu:

Fenerbahçe Medicana Kadın Voleybol Takımımızın oyuncusu Aslı Kalaç ile yollarımız ayrılmıştır. Oyuncumuza kulübümüze verdiği emekler için teşekkür ediyor, kariyerinin devamında başarılar diliyoruz.

Beşiktaş Kadın Voleybol Takımı, Polonyalı pasör çaprazı Julia Szczurowska ile yollarını ayırdığını açıkladı.

Siyah-beyazlı kulüpten "Teşekkürler Julia Szczurowska" başlığıyla yapılan açıklamada, şu ifadelere yer verildi:

"Kadın Voleybol Takımımızın sporcusu Julia Szczurowska ile karşılıklı anlaşarak yollarımızı ayırmış bulunmaktayız. Julia Szczurowska'ya emekleri için teşekkür eder, bundan sonraki kariyerinde başarılar dileriz."

İspaniya çempionatının (La Liqa) 2026/27 mövsümünün sonuncu iştirakçısını müəyyənləşdirəcək pley-off oyunlarının iştirakçıları bəlli olub.

Arena.az xəbər verir ki, İspaniya Sequndasında sonuncu – 42-ci tur başa çatıb.

Mövsümün bitməsi ilə pley-off mərhələsindəki cütlüklər də məlum olub. Bu komandalar İspaniyanın yüksək divizionuna axırıncı vəsiqə uğrunda mübarizə aparacaqlar.

Müvafiq olaraq 3-6-cı yerləri tutmuş “Almeriya”, “Malaqa”, “Las Palmas” və “Kastelyon” pley-offa vəsiqə qazanıblar.

Yarımfinal cütlükləri aşağıdakı kimidir:

Almeriya – Kastelyon
Malaqa – Las Palmas

Bu komandalar arasında ilk oyunlar 6 və 7, cavab oyunları isə 9 və 10 iyunda olacaq. Çempionatda 3-cü və 4-cü yeri tutmuş komandalar cavab oyunlarını evdə keçirəcəklər. Hər iki oyundan və əlavə vaxtdan sonra heç-heçə olarsa, turnir cədvəlində daha yüksək yeri tutmuş komanda növbəti mərhələyə yüksələcəklər.

Bu iki oyunun qalibləri arasında final da iki oyun üzərində oynanılacaq. İlk oyun 14, cavab oyunu isə 20 iyunda keçiriləcək.

Xatırladaq ki, turnirdə ilk iki yeri tutmuş “Rasinq” və “Deportivo” komandaları birbaşa La Liqaya vəsiqə qazanıblar. “Malyorka”, “Jirona” və “Real Ovyedo” isə 2025/2026-cı illər mövsümünün yekunlarına əsasən La Liqa ilə vidalaşıblar.

İspaniyanın “Vilyarreal” klubunun yeni baş məşqçisi müəyyənləşib.

Futbolpress.az xəbər verir ki, komandanın “sükanı” İniqo Peresə tapşırılıb. Bu barədə La Liqa təmsilçisinin mətbuat xidməti məlumat yayıb.

38 yaşlı mütəxəssislə 2029-cu ilin yayına kimi nəzərdə tutulan müqavilə imzalanıb.

Peres son olaraq “Rayo Valyekano”nu çalışdırıb. Komanda onun rəhbərliyi altında 2025/26 mövsümündə Konfrans Liqasının finalında “Kristal Pelas”a uduzub.

Əlcəzair millisinin DÇ-2026 üçün heyəti açıqlanıb.

Futbolpress.az xəbər verir ki, bu barədə Əlcəzair Futbol Assosiasiyası məlumat yayıb.

Heyətə aşağıdakı futbolçular daxil edilib:

Qapıçılar: Luka Zidan (“Qranada”), Ussama Benbut (“USM Əlcəzair”), Melvin Mastil (“Stad Nyon”), Abdellatif Ramdan (“MK Əlcəzair”);

Müdafiəçilər: Rafik Belqali (“Verona”), Samir Şerqi (“Pariz”), Rayan Ayt Nuri (“Mançester Siti”), Jauen Ajam (“Yanq Boyz”), Ayssa Mandi (“Lill”), Rami Bensebaini (“Borussiya” Dortmund), Zineddin Belaid (“JS Kabiliya”), Aşref Abada (“USM Əlcəzair”), Mohamed Amin Tuqay (“Esperans”);

Yarımmüdafiəçilər: Nabil Bentaleb (“Lill”), Hişem Budaui (“Nitstsa”), Ussem Auar (“Əl-İttihad”), Fares Şaibi (“Ayntraxt” Frankfurt), İbrahim Maza (“Bayer” Leverkuzen), Yasin Titraui (“Şarlerua”), Ramiz Zerruki (“Tvente”);

Hücumçular: Mohamed el-Amin Amura (“Volfsburq”), Nadir Benbuali (“Dyor”), Adil Bulbina (“Əl-Duhail”), Fares Gecemis (“Frozione”), Amin Quiri (“Marsel”), Anis Hac Mussa (“Feyenoord”), Riyad Marez (“Əl-Əhli” Ciddə).

Əlcəzair yığması J qrupunda Argentina, Avstriya və İordaniya milliləri ilə mübarizə aparacaq.

Azərbaycan idmançılarının 2026-cı ilin iyun ayı üçün reytinq cədvəli açıqlanıb.

Futbolpress.az xəbər verir ki, bu barədə Gənclər və İdman Nazirliyinin mətbuat xidməti məlumat yayıb.

Siyahıya apreldə Albaniyanın paytaxtı Tiranada keçirilmiş Avropa çempionatında qızıl medal qazanan yunan-roma güləşçisi Həsrət Cəfərov (480 xal) başçılıq edir.

İkinci sırada sərbəst güləşçi Giorgi Meşvildişvili (460 xal) qərarlaşıb.

“Üçlüy”ü digər sərbəst güləşçi Arseniy Djioyev (420 xal) tamamlayır.

Növbəti sıralarda Zelim Kotsoyev (cüdo,

“Sabah” Futbol Akademiyasının bölgələrdə təşkil etdiyi seçmələr davam edir.

Futbolpress.az xəbər verir ki, “Azərlotereya”nın dəstəyi ilə keçirilən növbəti seçmələr Qusar rayonundakı “Metak Arena”da, 2011–2015-ci il təvəllüdlü uşaqlar arasında təşkil olunub.

30-31 may tarixlərində baş tutan seleksiya məşqlərində 700-ə yaxın uşaq iştirak edib. 1 İyun – Uşaqların Beynəlxalq Müdafiəsi Günü ərəfəsində keçirilən seçmələrin nəticələrinə əsasən, 35 uşaq Bakıda təşkil olunacaq növbəti mərhələdə iştirak etmək hüququ qazanıb.

Qeyd edək ki, akademiyamız bundan əvvəl Zaqatala rayonunda da seçmələr həyata keçirib.

LG Display is reportedly working on a new display technology, High Mobility Oxide (HMO). And Apple is thinking about using this new technology. This technology is still being developed and tested, but it may be used in future Apple devices if it works well.

HMO is used in an important part of a screen, the TFT backplane. This part controls each pixel of the display to help the screen show images properly. If this part works better, the whole screen becomes clearer, smoother, and uses less battery.

Right now, many OLED screens use a technology, LTPO, which already helps save power and improve performance. HMO is being developed as an improvement over this to make oxide-based TFTs work much faster and better.

LG Display is testing this new technology in its 6th-generation production line. The company is using a method, sputtering, which is already used in many factories. This makes it easier to produce the technology on a large scale in the future if it works well.

Reports say Apple may first use this technology in the Apple Watch and also use it in iPhones and other devices. At the same time, Samsung Display is also improving its own OLED screen technology. So there is strong competition between LG Display and Samsung in making better screens for future devices.

However, HMO is still not ready for real products. It is still being tested, and companies need to make sure it is stable, reliable, and good enough for mass production.

The post Apple eyes LG HMO display as Samsung pushes OLED tech appeared first on Sammy Fans.

Samsung has pushed an Android 16-based One UI 8.5 update for Galaxy M16 5G, A16 4G, A06 5G, and M35 5G. The update brings new features and improvements to provide a better Galaxy experience.

One UI 8.5 update for these devices arrives with One UI build versions given below.

• Galaxy M16 5G  – M166PXXU5DZE2 (Korea)
• Galaxy A16 4G – A165NKSU7DZE7 (Korea)
• Galaxy A06 6G – A066BXXU6CZE6 (India)
• Galaxy M35 5G  – M356BXXU8DZE3 (India)

The update is being released in phases, so it may take some time before it reaches all users. Currently, in limited countries, users can download the update. The installation package size of this update is around 300MB.

One UI 8.5 is Samsung’s software interface that runs on top of Android 16. It is designed to make the phone easy to use with a simple layout, smooth animations, and better control settings. This focuses on improving speed, stability, and user comfort without changing the overall design too much.

Users can install the update by going to Settings >> Software update >> Download and install. It is recommended to use a Wi-Fi connection and keep the battery charged before starting the installation. The phone will restart during the update process.

The post One UI 8.5 update rolls out for Galaxy M16, A06, A16 4G and M35 appeared first on Sammy Fans.

The importance of establishing authority through link building has only increased as the surface areas of search expand into LLMs.

Your content is now competing with more sources, including AI results in the SERP and AI-generated content from other publishers.

At the same time, backlinks remain important signals of authority for both Google and LLMs, which treat those placements as indicators that your brand is trustworthy and relevant.

If you’ve been in SEO as long as I have, you probably still get daily LinkedIn messages from “link building agencies” promising a set number of links. That approach misses the point.

The most effective link building strategy is creating content people genuinely want to reference and share. That’s what I call writing content with link intent.

The philosophy driving content with link intent

Link building and content creation should be part of the same process, though I’ve found that’s rare. Treating link building as a separate initiative increases the likelihood that you’ll optimize for links alone without considering down-funnel effects.

Instead, start by thinking about who in your community cares — or should care — about what you’re writing and why.

Content created from this mindset, rather than a quantity-driven “must get links” mentality, has a much better chance of passively earning links and building clout in both traditional and AI search over time.

When your content is genuinely useful and relevant, people naturally want to share and reference it without the need for spammy emails or InMails.

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Where strategic outreach fits

Strategic outreach works best after the relevance work is done. That means identifying the writers, journalists, and creators already covering your topic and showing them why your perspective adds something timely, useful, or differentiated from other sources they could reference.

In many cases, the strongest opportunities come from content tied to reference-intent topics around statistics, benchmarks, reports, or highly relevant industry developments.

If you’re working in content and link building silos, your teams are probably focused on:

• Hitting a target number of links.
• Requesting link swaps.
• Promoting content without considering whether it’s actually useful or relevant.

In my experience, that approach often ignores whether the content genuinely benefits your brand, which runs counter to what good content should accomplish.

Content that provides genuine value and enhances the user experience will naturally appeal to people seeking credible sources for their own work.

If you can produce content strong enough to contribute meaningfully to a topic’s discourse, it will attract links, and Google, ChatGPT, Claude, et al. will recognize its relevance. It’s a much deeper and more integrated approach than chasing raw link numbers.

From what we know about LLMs, they favor content that credible sources treat as the definitive reference on a topic. That means depth and concentrated authority matter more than volume.

Dig deeper: Digital PR examples: 13 powerful campaigns and strategies that work

The business significance of effective link intent

If LLM visibility is your goal, focus your efforts on a smaller number of high-value, deeply authoritative pieces instead of casting a wide net.

I can confidently say I’ve won several clients for my agency because of the content I’ve written (thanks, Search Engine Land!). Many B2B businesses can probably say the same.

Content strong enough to generate passive links also has a strong chance of being shared and driving referral traffic, which remains undervalued in SEO. Valuable content produced with link intent naturally builds links and SEO/AEO equity over time, creating a built-in snowball effect.

Beyond reducing time spent on outreach, it can create a network of related sites and publishers that continue driving referral traffic and long-term value. Think of it as an organic version of affiliate marketing, which continues to grow as a channel.

Dig deeper: Discoverability in 2026: How digital PR and social search work together

Considerations for content that builds link intent

There are good reasons to create content on news-related topics, such as offering a perspective on a new platform release or a product in your industry.

Newsjacking remains a proven PR tactic that can help you earn citations in relevant outlets. But if your content resources are limited, it’s useful to weigh the pros and cons of news-focused versus evergreen topics. News-focused content may generate clusters of links in the short term, but those topics also lose relevance more quickly over time.

Evergreen resources can continue accumulating citations and links long after the news cycle moves on, and that durability carries weight in both SEO and AEO because LLMs aren’t primarily trained on this week’s headlines.

Specificity and timing can increase a piece’s citation potential even when the topic itself is evergreen. Advice targeted to hay fever sufferers during a particularly severe pollen season, for example, is more likely to attract attention and references than generic sleep advice published without context.

Dig deeper: How to produce content that naturally builds AEO clout

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Honing in on intent-driven link building

Todoist is a good example of this approach in practice. Its unique presentation of productivity methods has generated hundreds of referring domains — a number that’s grown 50% year over year and contributed meaningfully to the brand’s growth.

I talk with many SEOs these days who place less emphasis on link building than they did years ago.

In my opinion, that has less to do with links losing importance and more to do with outdated link building tactics becoming ineffective.

A link-intent approach that combines strong content with strategic outreach is more effective, evergreen, and efficient than siloed content and link initiatives.

It also strengthens your brand’s reputation while driving incremental traffic and improving the overall user experience.

Every SEO agency has a hidden context tax. It shows up when a strategist, content lead, or analyst opens Claude and starts rebuilding all the dos and don’ts for that particular account from memory: the brand voice, the keyword cluster killed last quarter, the CMS limitation, the founder’s rejected angle, the competitor the client doesn’t want mentioned.

That’s the part of AI adoption we’re still underestimating. LLMs can help with specific SEO tasks, but the problem with unleashing AI on more complex work is providing enough account context to make it useful without creating more review work.

One solution is a per-client memory system called a “client brain.” It gives account context a place to live, allowing AI to support the work without treating every task like it’s the first day on the account.

Context is the problem

Context is essential for any worker. A senior SEO account lead onboards human teammates onto client accounts by sharing the strategy, history, politics, preferences, constraints, client language, technical limitations, and all the “don’t do that again” lessons that never quite make it into the brief.

LLMs have inherited that same agency problem. The difference is that AI hits it every time it’s asked to support the work without knowing the account.

A lot of the AI conversation in SEO right now is about connecting data sources. Load GSC, GA4, Ads, crawl data, rank tracking, and maybe CRM data into one place, so that we can finally “chat” with the data.

That’s genuinely useful, especially with live alerts. But for agencies, analysis is just one part of the job. AI also needs account context to summarize a technical audit without recommending a fix the dev team already rejected or to write a brief that sounds like the client and fits the strategy.

That kind of work depends on institutional memory: the account knowledge that builds up after months of working with a client and its stakeholders.

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A client brain is the solution

A client brain gives that institutional memory a shared home. The team updates it as decisions are made, feedback comes in, and the account evolves. This isn’t a replacement for human judgment. It’s infrastructure that helps that judgment travel across workflows.

In an agency world, SEO work rarely belongs to one person. The strategist sets direction, the content lead builds the brief, the writer drafts, the analyst checks performance, and the technical SEO reviews implementation.

When context stays in people’s heads, every handoff creates drift. When it’s shared, the work stays aligned. A strategist ramps faster, a writer misses fewer client preferences, and the team spends less time re-explaining the account.

What a client brain is

A client brain is a structured, per-client knowledge base that AI reads before it starts the work. Think of it as the institutional memory of an SEO account, written in a way the machine can use.

Not all client knowledge behaves the same way. Some knowledge is stable: the brand, audience, positioning, voice, product, category, and lines the client doesn’t want to cross. Some knowledge is active: decisions, experiments, objections, failed angles, technical blockers, and lessons from client feedback.

Those two types of knowledge need different homes. A client brain splits them into two layers: the soul and the memory.

• The soul is static, identity-level knowledge: Who the brand is, how they speak, who they serve, what they sell, and what “good” sounds like for them
• The memory is dynamic, experience-level knowledge: What the team tried, what worked, what failed, what the client rejected, and what changed during the campaign

This split keeps the brain usable. If everything goes into one big file, brand principles get buried under meeting notes, and old keyword decisions start looking like the current strategy.

The technical anatomy of a brain

A client brain doesn’t need to be a complicated system. It is built as a simple folder of plain-text Markdown files. You don’t need special software, a database, or a custom interface.

Building core logic of the soul

To get started, go into your existing client project folder and create a sub-folder named brain, then create one more folder inside that named soul. This folder path (brain/soul/) is where the core logic of the system lives. It consists of five files, each doing one specific job:

brain/soul/
├── company-profile.md
├── style-guide.md
├── audience.md
├── keyword-map.md
└── never-do.md

company-profile.md 

This is the operating version of the client, not the polished marketing version. Who is this client? What do they really sell? Who do they compete with? Where do they win? Where are they not trying to play?

Six honest sentences usually beat a six-page deck because the AI doesn’t need the full brand story. It needs enough context to avoid bad adjacent decisions.

A real example, anonymized:

• “[Client] is a DTC Japanese-style kitchen knife brand selling chef knives, paring knives, and care accessories. They serve home cooks who value craftsmanship over price, with an average order value around $180. Their differentiator is free in-house sharpening for life. They compete with Made In and Misen on the tier just below Shun and Global. They don’t sell to commercial kitchens or restaurant supply, those have separate procurement cycles. Their highest-converting traffic comes from long-form reviews and YouTube cooking channels, not paid social.”

That’s enough information for AI to make better SEO choices. It knows not to chase restaurant-supply keywords, not to position the brand as the cheap alternative to Shun, and to weight content toward reviews, comparisons, and care guides.

The point isn’t to sound impressive. The point is to be true.

style-guide.md 

This file is where most teams accidentally write something useless. “Warm but professional” doesn’t help AI much. Neither does “expert but accessible.” What works is concrete instruction: one paragraph on tone, a few examples that pass, and a few that fail.

audience.md 

The audience file is where the team stops writing for demographics and starts writing for people. “Small business owners aged 35 to 55” is a targeting box, not an audience. Useful audience context captures worries, objections, misconceptions, language, and what earns trust.

keyword-map.md 

You do not need to create a 500-row export from your keyword tool. Instead, capture how the brand thinks about the category: primary terms we own, secondary terms we want, competitor-owned terms we approach carefully, and terms we don’t want to touch.

never-do.md 

This is the file I wish I’d had years ago. It’s the list of things AI should never propose, never write, and never recommend.

• Some are brand-level: “Never describe the client as an industry leader.”
• Some are operational: “Don’t suggest content that requires legal approval unless the account lead confirms it first.”
• Some are strategic: “Don’t recommend State X landing pages. The client doesn’t serve that state yet.”

Every “we already discussed this and decided no” should eventually end up here. AI is very good at confidently resurfacing dead ideas. This file stops the team from having the same conversation every month.

Memory captures decisions, patterns, and logs

Memory lives in brain/memory/. It’s organized differently from the soul because it comes from doing the work.

brain/memory/
├── decisions/    — choices made and why
├── patterns/     — things that worked or didn’t, by task type
└── log/          — chronological notes by date

The decisions/ folder stores choices made and why. A memory entry looks like this:

# 2026-04-21 — Content brief for Q2 implant campaign

Decided NOT to target "dental implants near me" as the primary keyword.
Reason: Client doesn't accept Medicaid; the highest-volume "near me" searches in our markets skew Medicaid.
Pivot to "premium implants [city]" framing.
Source: Client strategy call notes, 2026-04-21.
Tags: client:[name], task:content_brief, type:decision

The reason matters more than the decision. If AI only knows “don’t target dental implants near me,” it may avoid that keyword forever, even when the context changes. If it knows why, it can make better adjacent decisions later.

The patterns/ folder 

This stores what the team learns across repeatable work. After enough AI visibility audits, for example, our system started building a pattern file around where those audits tend to break: changing DOM selectors, fabricated review counts, Cloudflare blocking direct fetches, and tools returning partial data without making the failure obvious.

The log/ folder 

Here is where you keep the running journal: meeting summaries (AI transcripts are great here), daily notes, client comments, and small updates that don’t yet deserve to become formal decisions. Most of it won’t be read again. But when something breaks two months later, the answer is often in the log.

One warning: A brain should capture operating knowledge, not raw sensitive data. Don’t turn it into a warehouse for exports, transcripts, credentials, private client documents, or anything the team wouldn’t want surfaced in the wrong context.

Store the lesson, not the raw data.

Building the brain step-by-step

Step 1: Pick the right starting client

Don’t start with every client. Pick the account where context loss is already costing you time.

Usually, that means a long-running client with a strong brand voice, a history of rejected ideas, and multiple people touching the work each week.

Step 2: Block 90 minutes and write the soul together

Get the account lead and strategist in the same room or on the same call. Open the five soul files and write in plain sentences. Use real examples. Don’t try to make it perfect.

The goal isn’t to create a brand book. It’s to write down the context your best account person already carries around in their head.

Step 3: Decide where the brain lives

If you’re solo, a local folder may be enough. If you have a team, you need one shared source of truth.

Technical teams can use git: track the Markdown files, not raw client data. Non-technical teams can use Google Drive, Notion, or another shared workspace. The tool matters less than the rule: one client, one brain, one place everyone trusts.

Step 4: Set ownership rules

Soul changes need friction. That’s intentional. If every passing comment gets added to the soul, the brand layer gets polluted. The account lead should own it, review changes, and decide what becomes stable client truth.

Memory should be easier to update. Anyone working on the account should be able to add a sourced entry when a client rejects an angle, a tactic fails, a blocker appears, or the team learns something that shouldn’t be lost.

Step 5: Schedule maintenance

Memory gets messy if nobody owns it. Every couple of weeks, someone should clean the brain: consolidate duplicates, remove stale notes, surface conflicts, and check whether old decisions are still true.

Then schedule a quarterly soul review and ask one question: “Is anything here no longer true?” A stale brain is worse than no brain because the AI will sound confident while working from old context.

How AI agents read the brain

Once a brain exists, the question becomes operational: Which files should the AI agent read whenit starts a brief, audit, competitor analysis, or reporting summary?

This is where the brain proves its day-to-day value. A strategist, content lead, and analyst may all touch the same client in the same week. Without shared context, the brief drifts from the strategy, the content drifts from the brief, and the audit repeats what the team already knows.

The brain keeps that work aligned without turning every task into another meeting, Slack thread, re-explanation, or rewrite. There are three ways to handle this.

Version A: Load everything

The simplest version is to have the AI read every file in the brain folder before it starts: all soul files and the full memory folder.

For a new client, that might only be a few thousand tokens. For a client active for six months, it can become 30K to 50K tokens per session. That’s a real cost, but often still cheaper than the human time lost re-explaining the account every week.

Start here if you’re testing the idea. Run the same task twice: once with the brain loaded, once without it. Use something real, like a content brief, metadata rewrite, technical summary, or internal linking recommendation. If the brain-loaded version is more accurate, more on-brand, or avoids a mistake the team would normally catch manually, you’ve got your signal.

Version B: Route by task type

The next version is selective loading. Instead of asking AI to read everything, you give it a router file that tells it which parts of the brain to load based on the task.

For example:

# claude.md

At the start of every task, ALWAYS read:
- brain/soul/company-profile.md
- brain/soul/never-do.md

IF the task involves writing copy, ALSO read:
- brain/soul/style-guide.md
- brain/soul/audience.md

IF the task involves SEO content briefs, ALSO read:
- brain/soul/keyword-map.md
- brain/memory/decisions/ latest 5 entries
- brain/memory/patterns/content_briefs.md

IF the task involves debugging a tool failure, ALSO read:
- brain/memory/patterns/tool_failures.md

AI reads the instructions, decides which rules apply, and loads only the relevant files. Token cost drops. Context gets cleaner. This is where most agencies should stop for a while.

It’s still just Markdown. No database. No new platform. No complicated setup. The discipline is in writing useful files, keeping them current, and making sure AI reads them before doing the work.

Version C: Vector retrieval

The more advanced version is vector retrieval. If you’re managing 20 or more active clients, each with deep memory, you can tag entries with metadata, embed them into a vector store, and retrieve only the most relevant items at the start of each task.

AI can also write back to memory, but this needs guardrails. Don’t ask it to summarize every session and dump the result into the brain. That creates noise fast. Write to memory only when something specific happens: a task fails, and the team finds a workaround, a client rejects an angle, the account lead corrects the AI on something client-specific, or a decision gets made that should affect future work.

Event-triggered writes are useful. Session-end summaries usually aren’t. And every write needs a source.

Using the brain across Claude Code, Chat, and Cowork

The surface matters less than the pattern. Whether the team is using Claude Code, Claude Chat, Cowork, or another AI workflow, the rule is the same: AI should read the client’s soul before doing anything important.

• In Claude Code, place the brain folder at the root of your project and add a claude.md instruction telling it to read /brain/soul/ at the start of every task. Treat never-do.md as a hard constraint, not a suggestion.
• In Claude Chat, create one project per client and upload the contents of brain/soul/ into Project Knowledge. Don’t share one project across clients. That’s how one client’s tone, rules, or constraints start bleeding into another.
• In Claude Cowork, use a task template that attaches the brain folder at the start. For repeatable tasks like content briefs, SERP reviews, metadata refreshes, or AI visibility audits, build the brain attachment into the workflow.

You’re not just making AI faster. You’re making the starting context consistent.

Where this breaks (and how to fix it)

Once the brain starts shaping real work, a few failure modes show up quickly. Most aren’t technical problems. They’re maintenance problems, which means they’re fixable if someone owns the review process.

• Drift: AI produces work that’s almost right, but slightly off. Usually, the style guide is too abstract. The fix isn’t more adjectives. It’s better examples: pass/fail pairs, before-and-after intros, weak and strong meta descriptions, or a sentence the client rewrote with a note explaining why.
• Stale soul: The client repositions, changes their offer, shifts into a new market, drops a service, or changes how they want to talk about themselves. Nobody updates the soul, so AI keeps producing work from the old reality. The fix is a quarterly soul review. Ask: “Is anything here no longer true?”
• Memory rot: Some memory entries were true when written, but stop being true later. A client rejected comparison content six months ago, then decided to test it. The fix is to date entries clearly, include the reason behind each decision, and remove or update entries when the account changes.
• Fabrication: This is the failure mode to take seriously. AI can write false memory, not maliciously, but because it’s trying to be helpful. When a task fails or a source is incomplete, the model may still produce a clean-looking note that sounds plausible.

We’ve seen AI fabricate ChatGPT search queries, report review counts that weren’t tied to reality, and create explanations for tool failures that sounded reasonable but weren’t supported by the output. Memory compounds. One false entry can influence future briefs, audits, recommendations, and client-facing work.

The fix is provenance. Every factual memory entry needs a source: a meeting note, client quote, tool output, strategist correction, or linked deliverable. No source, no entry.

A brain is only useful if the team trusts it. Trust doesn’t come from the folder structure. It comes from knowing where the knowledge came from.

How to get started this week

You don’t need the full system to start. Start with one client, one 90-minute session, and one before-and-after test.

• Pick one client. Choose the account where re-explaining context costs the most time.
• Block 90 minutes this week. Write the five soul files with the account lead and strategist. Use plain sentences, real examples, and concrete corrections. Don’t let adjectives do all the work.
• Add a router file. Keep it simple at first. At the project root, add one instruction: “At the start of every task, read everything in brain/soul/.”
• Run a real SEO task twice. Use a content brief, keyword cluster, meta description rewrite, SERP analysis, internal linking recommendation, or audit summary. Run it once with the soul loaded and once without it. Compare the outputs honestly.
• Start writing memory from the next session. When AI recommends a ruled-out keyword angle, a client pushes back on tone, or a technical recommendation gets blocked by the CMS, capture the lesson and the reason.

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AI works better when account knowledge survives

Most teams don’t have an AI intelligence problem. They have a context problem. They haven’t written down what their best account people already know, or separated stable client knowledge from working history. That’s what the client brain fixes.

The agencies that get the most from AI won’t just be the ones with better prompts, models, or automations. They’ll be the ones that preserve the context behind the work: the client history, rejected angles, technical constraints, tone corrections, and small decisions that make an account make sense.

Because speed without memory creates more review, more correction, and more “we already talked about this” moments.

The real opportunity isn’t using AI to push more SEO work through the system. It’s using AI to carry forward the context that makes the work better.

Schema markup has earned its place at the center of the SEO and GEO conversation. Google and Bing have confirmed they use structured data to power AI Overviews, and ChatGPT factors it into product recommendations.

Now, schema markup is becoming part of the infrastructure behind the agentic web, where AI systems increasingly interact directly with websites on behalf of users.

For AI agents, understanding content isn’t enough. They also need to interpret and act on it. Schema markup helps make that possible.

The role of schema markup in the agentic web

In traditional search, schema helps drive visibility by making content more eligible for SERP features and helping search engines better understand entities. That information supports the index and knowledge graph, influencing how results appear to users.

AI agents take this further. They use schema markup not only to identify entities, but also to understand relationships, relevance, and whether content is trustworthy and actionable enough to support recommendations or complete tasks.

Structured data also makes websites easier and cheaper for AI systems to process. Parsing unstructured HTML is computationally expensive compared to reading clean, structured data, especially as LLMs operate within finite context windows and growing inference costs.

As these systems scale, sites that make their content easier to interpret become the path of least resistance for AI agents.

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NLWeb and the infrastructure of the agentic web

Schema markup is the foundation, and NLWeb is built on top of it. Understanding this connection is essential for anyone thinking ahead.

NLWeb, Microsoft’s open-source initiative, enables websites to easily add AI-powered conversational interfaces. It effectively turns any website into an AI app that lets users query content using natural language.

Think of it as the difference between a website a human browses and a website an AI agent can interrogate directly — asking questions, retrieving structured answers, and acting on them without any human in the loop.

To be truly agentic, a site must move beyond being “read” to being queryable. NLWeb is designed to help AI agents interact with websites through natural-language queries and structured responses.

While schema tells an agent what is on the page, NLWeb enables more direct interaction with that information in real time. It’s the difference between an agent reading a static menu and an agent asking, “Do you have a table for four at 7:00 PM tonight?” and receiving a deterministic, real-time answer.

NLWeb was conceived and developed by R.V. Guha, who recently joined Microsoft as CVP and technical fellow. Guha is the creator of widely used web standards, including RSS, RDF, and Schema.org.

The same person who built the vocabulary that defines structured data on the web is now building the protocol that lets AI agents use it. That’s a through-line, not a coincidence.

NLWeb leverages existing structured formats, such as Schema.org and RSS, and LLM-powered tools to create natural language interfaces usable by both humans and AI agents.

It isn’t asking you to rebuild your content infrastructure. It’s asking you to have your schema markup in order so it can take it from there.

5 tips for agentic schema optimization

As a search marketer, you’ve probably been implementing schema markup for years. Here are some new considerations as you optimize for the agentic web.

1. Prioritize completeness over coverage

It’s better to have fully populated schema markup on your most important pages than thin markup spread across your entire site. AI agents prioritize properties that help them answer user queries directly.

For a product page, that means price, availability, ratings, and specifications, not just a product name. Incomplete schema signals uncertainty to agents, while complete schema signals reliability.

2. Automate where you can

Manual schema management doesn’t scale, which is a challenge for teams without dedicated technical SEO resources. Some platforms can handle this automatically for key page types — like product pages, blog posts, events, bookings, and local business information — generating markup by default when content is created. 

This baseline matters for both coverage and consistency. Stale or mismatched structured data actively works against you: If your schema says a product costs one price and your page displays another, agents will distrust both signals. Agents can also trust a signal more when it appears reliably across a site than when it appears sporadically.

3. Use AI to scale implementation

Platform automation handles the baseline — but AI can go further, analyzing your content to generate more specific and relevant markup. With AI, you can scale structured data generation, installation, and validation.

4. Use JSON-LD

This isn’t new advice, but it’s more important than ever. JSON-LD is cleanly separated from your HTML, making it far easier for agents to parse programmatically. Google’s official guidance explicitly recommends JSON-LD for AI-optimized content.

5. Think about your schema as a site-level graph

Agents benefit from understanding how your content connects across your entire site: how articles relate to authors, how products relate to categories, how services relate to locations. This means you should periodically audit your structured data at scale. Take note of:

• Which page types have markup and which don’t.
• Where entity definitions conflict across URLs.
• Whether your Organization or Person markup is consistent.

The goal is a coherent, connected picture of your site’s entities, one that an agent can trust regardless of which page it enters from.

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The window for early mover advantage

AI systems increasingly prefer sources they have already indexed, validated, and found reliable in prior interactions. For agentic optimization, early adoption matters. Content that establishes itself as agent-friendly now builds compounding advantages as agents develop preference patterns.

Schema markup has always rewarded the teams that took it seriously. In the agentic web, the stakes of getting it right — and the cost of ignoring it — are substantially higher. The agents are already crawling. The question is what they find when they get to you.

Archilochus, the ancient Greek poet, wrote a line that has traveled through 28 centuries and now belongs to every Navy SEAL training manual and leadership keynote: We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.

That is where most marketers find themselves with AI right now.

The expectations are enormous. The training is thin. Every vendor has an AI feature. Every conference has an AI keynote. Every analyst has a framework. And every marketing team is being asked to deliver more growth, more personalization, and more efficiency with the same headcount.

The reality, according to Gartner, From Efficiency to Impact: How CMOs Can Achieve Real AI Value, is that CMOs are now allocating an average of 15.3% of their marketing budgets to AI. Yet only 30% of marketing organizations report mature or fully developed AI readiness. The budget is there. The readiness is not.

This is the AI overwhelm that defines marketing in 2026. And it is the reason the most important question for marketing leaders right now is not “what AI should we buy?” It is “are we actually capturing the value of what we have already bought?”

A May 2025 study commissioned by Optimove, “Forrester Opportunity Snapshot AI: Accelerating Marketing Impact Through AI And Agile Workflows,” tells the same story. It found a clear gap between AI ambition and execution. Only 39% of marketers use AI for content creation, 37% for campaign workflows, and just 14% for building audience segments. It indicates that the highest-impact functions are the lowest-adoption.

The McKinsey diagnosis

In the newly revised book, “Rewired: How Leading Companies Win with Technology and AI,” the authors from McKinsey make a sharp argument that applies directly to marketing leaders. Most companies are doing AI wrong. They are chasing isolated pilots. They are confusing experimentation with transformation. They are not capturing measurable value because they have not rewired the way their organization actually operates.

Are you doing this right?

McKinsey identifies six capabilities that distinguish companies that capture value from companies that just spend money on AI:

Transformation roadmap. Move beyond isolated pilots. Tie every digital and AI initiative to concrete financial value and strategic business goals. If you cannot draw a line from an AI tool to a P&L outcome, the tool is not earning its place.

Talent bench. Train the business leaders you have, in tech and AI. Stop outsourcing your core capabilities. The companies winning are building internal talent, not renting it.

Operating model. Break the waterfall. Move to product and platform-based operating models where multidisciplinary teams of technologists and business operators work together as a unit, not as a relay race.

Distributed technology environment. Decompose monolithic IT systems into modular, API-enabled architectures. The point is not the architecture itself. The point is that individual teams can innovate without waiting for a centralized bottleneck to clear.

Data everywhere. Give hundreds of distributed teams easy access to high-quality data products, governed federally. The companies winning at AI have already solved data accessibility. The companies losing are still emailing CSVs (data files) to each other.

User adoption and enterprise scaling. This is where most AI initiatives die. Solve the adoption hurdle by changing how employees actually work. Deliberate change management. End-to-end process transformation. Not just a training video and a Slack announcement.

If your marketing organization is honest, you will recognize gaps in at least three of these six. That is not a failure. That is the starting point.

From AI 1.0 to AI 2.0

AI 1.0 was the productivity era. Tools that wrote faster, generated faster, summarized faster, executed faster. For the teams that did it well, the productivity translated into real business results. Campaigns shipped at the speed of the customer. Messages landed at the right moment.

AI 2.0 is the business outcomes era. It builds on what AI 1.0 made possible, but it measures success differently. Not by time saved. By revenue gained, conversion lifted, retention earned, customer relationships deepened.

Gartner’s data is unambiguous. Only one in three CMOs are seeing the returns they expect from AI investments. Most focus on efficiency. They measure time saved and speed. High-performing CMOs take a next-step approach. They prioritize business outcomes, not just productivity. They measure conversion rates, customer satisfaction, retention, and revenue impact.

Organizations automating more of their marketing work are twice as likely to see ROI from AI. Yet short-term productivity gains rarely translate into meaningful business results unless you intentionally measure and optimize for impact.

By 2028, Gartner predicts that only 10% of CMOs who focus on time savings over business outcomes will secure the budget needed to meet strategic goals. That is the wake-up call. The CMOs still measuring AI by hours saved will lose the budget argument to the CMOs measuring AI by revenue gained.

The companies further along understand this. Gartner found that the most AI-ready marketing leaders allocate 21.3% of their marketing budgets to AI, compared with 15.3% for the average. Investment scales with readiness. Readiness scales with the discipline to measure outcomes.

What this looks like in practice

We have seen what this transition looks like for marketing teams that have done the rewiring. A leading iGaming operator is one of the most telling examples. The team cut campaign execution time from five days to five minutes by combining a unified data foundation with agentic AI for decisioning and orchestration. That was a real productivity gain. And it translated directly into business results, because the team could deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time.

Not to be discounted, that is AI 1.0. Real efficiency, with real customer-facing impact, the foundation for the next horizon.

AI 1.0 built the capability. AI 2.0 builds on it.

The Positionless future

The marketing teams winning in AI 2.0 are Positionless. They are not be locked into rigid roles where the data analyst hands off to the campaign manager who hands off to the creative who hands off to the optimization specialist. They are teams where any marketer can do any task, supported by AI that meets them wherever they are working.

That is the rewiring that matters for marketing.

This is why we integrated AI inside, outside, and on top of the platform. It assures marketing teams are rewired and realize the power of Positionless Marketing. AI inside the platform through Native AI. AI extending into the external tools marketers already use through MCPs. AI-powered custom applications on top of the platform for client-specific business needs.

Three pillars, one execution layer. The marketer chooses where to start. The platform holds the work together.

The marketers who will capture value from AI are not the ones with the most tools. They are the ones with the right operating model, the right data foundation, the right talent, and the right platform to make all of it work together.

The question is not whether your company will be rewired for AI. The question is whether you will rewire it on purpose, or wait for the market to do it for you.

Archilochus knew the answer twenty-eight centuries ago. We do not rise to our expectations. We fall to our training.

It is time to train.

Written by:
By Pini Yakuel, CEO, Optimove

Arne Engels is eager to leave Celtic and being watched by Serie A clubs including Milan, according to reports, but has long been on Gian Piero Gasperini’s list.

The Belgium international will turn 23 in September and has just signed up with a new agency, as he feels this is the time to take the next step in his career.

Engels back on Serie A radar

According to Belgian transfer pundit Sacha Tavolieri, he is being targeted by several Italian clubs including Milan.

It is fairly safe to assume one of the others might be Roma, seeing as Engels was one of the names on Gasperini’s list when he was still the coach of Atalanta in 2025.

Now that Roma have qualified for the Champions League, they could make a case for the player.

A midfielder who can also play at right wing-back, Engels made the €13m move to Celtic from Augsburg in 2024.

He made 46 competitive appearances for Celtic this season, scoring seven goals and providing eight assists.

Oumar Solet has surged to the top of Inter’s priority list this summer because the Udinese defender can play in a variety of roles, and a big obstacle has been removed.

It is no secret that he has been on their radar for many months, since practically the moment he arrived at Udinese as a free agent in January 2025.

He has gone from strength to strength with regular Serie A football, making 38 appearances this season, contributing three goals and an assist.

Inter targeting Solet

Solet is the preferred candidate because of his versatility, as he is capable of playing in any of the roles for Cristian Chivu’s back three.

Personal terms were already reportedly agreed for a contract with Inter until June 2031.

Udinese are asking for €25m, though that could be lowered with the inclusion of a player from the Inter youth team as part of the agreement.

There is also the possibility of a loan with obligation to buy at the end of the season, a way of spreading out the cost.

However, there has been another very recent development that changed the situation and which had been keeping the Nerazzurri hesitant.

In May 2025, Solet was accused of sexual assault by a woman who was at a party at his house in Udine.

The investigation had been hanging over him, but last week the authorities officially shelved the case.

More insulting graffiti and banners have appeared around San Siro aimed at Milan chiefs Gerry Cardinale and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, including some particularly vicious slogans.

The club is in chaos after failing to qualify for the Champions League with a final round home defeat to Cagliari.

RedBird patron Cardinale responded within 24 hours by sacking coach Max Allegri, director of sport Igli Tare, CEO Giorgio Furlani and technical director Geoffrey Moncada in one fell swoop.

The only survivor of the cull was RedBird special advisor Ibrahimovic, who now seems to be tasked with finding replacements for all those figures.

Milan fans attack old guard

However, the ultras are not satisfied, calling for a complete revamp including the sale of the club to new investments.

New graffiti and banners appeared outside San Siro today, sending a clear message, reading ‘Cardinale bloodsucker’ and ‘Cardinale go home,’ notably both written in English.

The ones aimed at Ibrahimovic were in Italian, but no less harsh, reading ‘Ibra saboteur, go away’ and ‘get these s**ts out of our Milan.’

There was also one for Jovan Kirovski, who is in charge of the youth academy and struggling Milan Futuro second squad, which was relegated from Serie C into the semi-pro league.

‘Kirovski amateur, resign instantly’ was the message for him.

Parma are reportedly set to activate their €4m option to buy USMNT talent Benja Cremaschi outright from Inter Miami.

The creative midfielder turned 21 in March and arrived in Serie A last summer on loan with an option to make it permanent.

At the time, it was suggested that clause was worth €4.5m, but now transfer pundit Fabrizio Romano maintains the cost of the operation will be closer to €4m.

Injury stalled Cremaschi progress

Cremaschi made only nine appearances in the Parma jersey between Serie A and the Coppa Italia, starting three of those games.

He sustained a meniscus injury in his knee in March and was ruled out for the rest of the season.

Despite his young age, Cremaschi already has three senior caps for the USMNT squad, making his debut in September 2023.

It would seem he has done enough to impress Parma coach Carlos Cuesta, who is prepared to give him more playing time in his second Serie A campaign.

Italy are through to the Final Four of the European Under-17 Championship after a 3-3 thriller with Denmark and will face Spain in the semi-final.

The tournament kicked off on May 25 in Estonia and the Azzurri swept through the group phase.

They beat France 1-0 in the opening fixture, then earned a 3-0 victory over Montenegro.

Italy entertain with Denmark

While France thrashed Montenegro 5-0 today to finish on six points, the Italians came back from a goal down in a 3-3 thriller with Denmark to top Group B on seven points.

Mikkel Bro Hansen had opened the scoring, turned around by Edoardo Biondini, Lorenzo Dattilo and Andrea Donato to lead 3-1 by half-time.

Denmark fought back again with Tobias Baden Ekstrand and the stoppage-time Omran Khatar equaliser.

This means the semi-finals on Thursday June 4 will be Belgium vs. France and Italy vs. Spain, but the kick-off times are yet to be confirmed.

The Final is then set for Lillekula Staadion on Sunday June 7.

Italy won the European Under-17 Championship in 2024 and then took bronze in the Under-17 World Cup.

Roma could reportedly make a move to sign Julian Brandt on a free transfer once his Borussia Dortmund contract expires, and the latest updates in Italy claim that both Donyell Malen and former sporting director Ricky Massara have been on the phone in an attempt to secure a deal. 

Roma keen to reunite Brandt and Malen in 2026

Brandt, 30, is expected to leave Borussia Dortmund once his contract expires on the 30th of the month. He has spent the last seven years of his career at Signal Iduna Park and formed a productive partnership with Roma striker Malen during the four seasons that the Dutchman spent in Germany. 

Between them, Brandt and Malen provided 73 goals and 62 assists in three-and-a-half seasons for Dortmund, and according to Corriere dello Sport, the two attackers have a great relationship away from the pitch as well. 

According to the Corriere dello Sport report, Brandt is a player that Roma have been monitoring for several weeks, and former sporting director Massara had reportedly been in contact with the player with the hope of bringing him to the Stadio Olimpico on a free transfer. 

Monday’s report claims that Malen spoke to Brandt two days ago, before teaming up with the Netherlands national team squad for their World Cup preparations. Corriere dello Sport claims that Malen asked whether Brandt is still keen on the idea of joining Roma and that the German responded positively. 

He earns a salary which is considered significant, but not out of the question for Roma, with salary requests believed to be in the region of €4m per season. 

Roma are also hoping to strike a deal for talented Bosnia and Herzegovina teenager Kerim Alajbegovic, who is expected to cost in excess of €25m, although a string of impressive performances at the upcoming World Cup might hike those figures up.

The Steam Deck used to be the go-to x86 gaming handheld, but after the recent ridiculous price hike, it’s hard to recommend. There are alternatives like the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, which launched last year at $1,000 (24GB/1TB). This used to be a lot of money, except the 16GB/1TB OLED Deck is $950 now. In our review of the Xbox Ally X, we pointed out some major cons for such an expensive handheld, e.g. having an LCD instead of an OLED panel and the iffy analog sticks. We have some good news and some bad news – the new Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundle solves both issues. Wait, a bundle? Well,...

The past weekend I had the incredible opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Budapest. Better yet, I was able to attend the biggest game in this season's club football – the UEFA Champions League Final, featuring French side Paris Saint Germain from France and England's Arsenal. Oppo, which is an official global partner of UEFA for the tournament were kind enough to offer me a ticket for the game so I figured I'd use the opportunity to test the Find X9 Ultra's camera and the teleconverter from its Earth Explorer Kit and how well it can serve on my travels. Now don't expect any...

HYPE has entered the breakout stage of its prevailing bull pennant setup with an upside target near $105, with strong fundamentals backing the bullish case.

The Kelp DAO exploiter laundered about $220 million worth of remaining stolen funds in a bid to make them untraceable, excluding the $71 million frozen by Arbitrum’s Security Council.

The world's largest public Bitcoin holder reduced its stash to 843,706 BTC, while raising $128.3 million through Class A stock sales.

Gnosis Pay faces an active exploit in its delay module as co‑founder Martin Köppelmann walks back a warning urging users to withdraw funds and vows to repay those affected.

Cristiano Ronaldo has remained one of the best players in the world, excelling as a goalscorer for Al Nassr. As a result, he will be Portugal’s starting striker at the 2026 World Cup, arriving at the tournament at 41 years old but still in excellent form. Although this appears to be his final edition of the competition, head coach Roberto Martínez has surprised everyone by backing the veteran forward’s participation in the 2030 edition.

“He will fight for it. I think no one should doubt that, at least he has earned that right. Don’t think that this isn’t a topic of discussion and conversation within the coaching staff, because we would love to be able to pass on Cristiano Ronaldo’s example to all young soccer players in Portugal,” Roberto Martinez said, via El Larguero.

While Roberto did not confirm that Cristiano will be part of the 2030 edition, he did maintain a respectful stance toward his legacy, refusing to rule out his participation. With a contract running until 2027 at Al Nassr, the 41-year-old star may not currently be thinking about reaching that edition of the tournament, but his participation at UEFA Euro 2028 cannot be ruled out. However, that could depend not only on his performances, but also on his own willingness.

Unlike previous seasons, Cristiano Ronaldo has undergone significant minute management at Al Nassr. While he played 3,164 minutes during the season, he often did not feature in the early stages of the AFC Champions League Two, while also being rested for some away matches in the Saudi Pro League. With this in mind, he may choose not to target the 2030 World Cup, instead focusing on making a major impact at the 2026 edition.

Cristiano Ronaldo could target best-ever World Cup run with Portugal

Despite remaining one of the best players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo has not enjoyed a particularly outstanding record at the World Cup. After playing 22 matches for Portugal in the tournament, he has scored only eight goals, finding the net just once in the 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2022 editions. Only the 2018 tournament stands out as a prolific campaign, with four goals. At 41 years old, he could be aiming to produce his best World Cup performance in 2026.

With one of the strongest national teams in the world, Cristiano’s Portugal enter as one of the clear favorites to win the tournament. With players such as Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes, and Nuno Mendes capable of elevating the team’s collective play, the 41-year-old striker would only need to focus on his goalscoring duties, giving him a better platform to shine. If he were to finish as the tournament’s top scorer, he could silence doubts about his impact.

Match Overview

Already qualified for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, Austria and Tunisia will use this international friendly to continue their preparations for soccer’s biggest tournament. Austria is building toward its return to the global stage, while Tunisia aims to carry over the momentum from its recent World Cup success.

With both teams looking to refine tactics, evaluate players, and build confidence, this matchup offers an important test before the tournament begins. Don’t miss this exciting showdown between two World Cup-bound nations.

When the New York Jetsacquired cornerback Jarvis Brownlee from the Tennessee Titans midseason last year, he immediately played a versatile inside-outside role as needed. Brownlee played exclusively outside for the Titans despite being undersized. The Jets got him and occasionally made him a nickel corner.

Heading into the 2026 season, Brownlee's first full campaign with the Jets, he's expected to play nickel almost on an exclusive basis. After an offseason of change, the Jets now have Nahshon Wright at outside cornerback in addition to Brandon Stephens and Azareye'h Thomas.

That doesn't mean Brownlee can sleepwalk into the every-down nickel role. The Jets also drafted D'Angelo Ponds in the second round. Head coach Aaron Glenn recently confirmed at OTAs that Ponds will initially play nickel, despite being versatile.

"We'll start him [Ponds] out at nickel, see how he operates and then we'll put him outside and see how he operates there," Glenn responded to a question about Ponds' primary position at OTAs.

Ponds is a highly instinctual cornerback who plays the position with high football IQ. That makes him an excellent fit to thrive as a nickel NFL defender. The role currently belongs to Brownlee, but expect Ponds to apply pressure throughout OTAs and training camp.

This article originally appeared on Jets Wire: Jets rookie D'Angelo Ponds should put fast pressure on Jarvis Brownlee

John McGlynn says Falkirk have added a "wealth of experience" to their squad by signing Scott Tanser after the left-back's five-year spell at St Mirren came to an end.

The 31-year-old defender has penned a two-year deal with the Bairns, who marked their return to the top flight with a top-six finish last term.

Manager McGlynn says the former St Johnstone man's Scottish Premiership experience will be valuable to his side.

"He's an attacking left-back who loves to get forward," the Falkirk boss added.

"He has good quality in the final third to deliver good crosses for our attacking players in the box.

"He has a good delivery from set-pieces, as he displayed in our last game against St Mirren at the Falkirk Stadium, when the Saints scored from a corner.

"He is more than capable of moving into a left centre-back position if required, so he is a definite advantage to us."

Meanwhile, the departure of Calvin Miller is expected to follow the arrival of Tanser, with Hearts hopeful of concluding the signing of the winger in the next 48 hours.

The Metropolitan Police said it is investigating six stabbings that took place after the Arsenal Champions Parade in London.

The force said a total of 24 people were arrested after more than 500 officers were deployed across the event on Sunday, alongside specialist search and drone teams.

Officers thanked the vast majority of people for “celebrating responsibly”, but said investigations continue.

Up to a million Arsenal fans were estimated to have lined the route surrounding the Emirates Stadium in Islington for the parade, which marked the north London club winning the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.

The arrests included 10 people on suspicion of assaulting police, with one officer suffering a slash wound to the hand and another hit on the head by thrown objects.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, and one person was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm. Everyone arrested was taken into custody.

Damage was also caused to four police vans in Islington, causing broken lights and dents, but no arrests have been made.

The Met said it dealt with six stabbings “on the parade footprint” after most of the crowds had dispersed in the evening.

Most of the victims were not seriously injured, but one man in his twenties was taken to hospital in a life-threatening condition at around 8.30pm. He is now in a stable condition.

A Section 60 order was authorised overnight in the area to help prevent further offences and give officers additional stop and search powers.

The London Fire Brigade also confirmed its crews had rescued around 75 individuals from various elevated positions throughout the event, urging fans to avoid climbing onto rooftops.

Commander Stuart Bell, who led the Met’s public order operation over the weekend, said: “I would like to thank the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of Arsenal supporters who attended the day to celebrate safely and responsibly.

“There was a police presence along the route throughout the event, supporting event organisers and stewarding operations.

“However, we had been clear that violence and other criminality would not be tolerated and, unfortunately, there were pockets of anti-social behaviour and incidents where officers needed to intervene, including assaults on their colleagues.

“As the evening progressed and the majority of the crowds made their way home, there was sadly further violence, including gang-related incidents.

“Officers were swiftly on scene to each stabbing and investigations are ongoing.”

Chief Superintendent Jason Stewart, who leads policing in Islington, added: “This, of course, was a huge and significant event for our community and Arsenal fans more widely, and we worked closely with the local authority and other partners to plan for the event and then throughout the day.

“Our officers are back out on patrol today to provide visible reassurance, and our investigation teams are working hard to identify offenders and bring them to justice. We stand with our local communities against violence.”

LONDON (AP) — Serena Williams is returning to professional tennis at age 44 after nearly four years away from the sport.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion has accepted a wild card invitation to play doubles at the upcoming Queen’s Club grass-court tournament, the WTA Tour announced Monday.

The Queen’s Club tournament starts June 8

Williams has not competed since bidding farewell at the 2022 U.S. Open. At the time, Williams said she didn’t want to use the word “retiring” and instead declared that she was “evolving” away from tennis.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

Liverpool famously did it once and it even brought silverware to Coventry City - but the managerial double act remains a footballing curiosity.

At Lincoln City, it is now the way of the future.

When League One title-winning head coach Michael Skubala was recruited by Bristol City last week, Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw were promptly promoted from their roles as assistant coaches and named as the pair to replace the 43-year-old.

Joint-bosses are a rarity - one history would suggest rarely works – examples being the few fractious months Gerard Houllier and Roy Evans shared the dugout at Liverpool in 1998 or the underwhelming campaign for which Doug Livermore and Ray Clemence were in charge of Tottenham earlier that decade.

However, John Sillett and George Curtis did work wonders at Coventry when together they guided the Sky Blues to to FA Cup glory in 1987.

As a club with a modest League One budget who had not played in England's second tier for more than six decades, Lincoln's promotion under Skubala last season was a tale of how daring to be different and willing to be innovative could deliver success.

But the appointment of Cohen and Shaw, however bold the move might seem, is an attempt to be groundbreaking, according to Imps' chief executive Liam Scully.

"We acknowledge that there will be questions about this structure and that it isn't football convention," he told BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

"We certainly didn't start this process saying 'how do we break football convention?' - that wasn't the intention.

"Equally, what we weren't going to do is not let what we thought was the right and best solution be the one we put in place just because of football convention."

• Cohen and Shaw to take joint charge at Lincoln
• Bristol City appoint Lincoln boss Skubala
• Listen to BBC Radio Lincolnshire's Red Imps Club podcast

Shaw and Cohen, both 39, played a major part in Lincoln's promotion in 2025-26 as assistant coaches who regularly oversaw training sessions and would lead in meetings.

Scully said the pair, alongside Skubala, "developed a real collegial way of working" - sharing responsibilities and collaborating on what was a milestone season that ended with the Imps topping the table with 103 points.

The hierarchy at Lincoln knew what was achieved under Skubala would make the former England futsal head coach a boss in high demand this summer.

And for that reason, the club's management succession committee had plans in motion to find a successor.

While Lincoln offered Skubala an improved deal to try to keep him after Bristol City triggered a release clause, there was already a low-key search under way to find his replacement playing out in the background.

"In this scenario, when you put over 100 points on the board and take the club to a Championship level after 65 years, it wouldn't take a crystal ball to foresee that there was going to be a lot of interest in Michael," Scully said.

"As soon as the last ball was kicked in the season, that process speeded up.

"While the speed of this decision looks relatively quick from the outside, it's because of the preparation that has been going on. And I want to be really clear in saying that Chris and Tom have beaten external candidates to this as well."

Not a 'romantic' appointment

While Shaw has previous experience as a first-team boss, having had a spell as manager of non-league side Gainsborough Trinity, Cohen has spent his senior coaching career to date as an assistant at Luton Town, Southampton and Stoke City.

Before that, Cohen's coaching career started with a stint as the under-23s manager at Nottingham Forest, the club where he retired as a player in 2018.

It is the years of work the duo did under Skubala at the LNER Stadium and the part each played in getting the Imps up, that convinced club officials the pair would be the best ones to take the club into the Championship next term.

"The thing we continually asked ourselves through this process was 'what is best for Lincoln City?' This is above any individual, this is above the people and this isn't romantic," Scully said.

"This has been done seriously considering how we put together the strongest possible campaign we can in what will be the club's first season in the Championship for over 65 years."

He added they thought this was the "least risky option" given it is "enabling us to deliver continuity".

It is the working relationship that Cohen and Shaw already have with each other and their intimate understanding of how Lincoln operate that may hold the key to this coaching partnership flourishing where others have failed.

"It's very seldom now in football that a decision is made on the pitch that is just one person's gut feeling or intuition. It's often data-led and often scenario-planned," Scully said.

"Looking at our structure over the past 12-15 months, I think a large strength of what Michael did was that he empowered Chris and Tom to do what they were very good at. This is a very close continuation of that.

"We didn't start from a place of trying to do something different - it was just the fact that when we worked this through and talked about this, we felt that retaining a lot of the structure of what we did in the past is the best thing we can do going forward."

Jun. 1—Moser, a senior, won a Class 2A state title in the shot put with a toss of 40 feet, 10 1/4 inches on May 23. Moser became the first Clinton athlete to win a state title in a field event, and only the second ever to win a state title after Payne Turney won the 800-meter run in 2019.

"It meant a lot to get Athlete of the Week to represent the small town that will always have a spot in my heart. Getting stronger in the offseason and putting in work in the weight room really helped out this season. I had a lot of fun with my team at the state meet, and I'm really sad that it's over, but it was my goal this year to be a state champion, so meeting that goal showed my hard work paid off."

"The Proposal."

I like pretty much like anything but country.

Faith Jackson.

rugby.

to fly so you can get places faster.

I like to put braids in my hair, and I like energy drinks. Mainly Alani.

becoming a state champion.

riding in a hot air balloon. I think it would be pretty at sunset, and I love being in the air.

Samantha Brown and Jamia Esther, Danville track and field; Addison Lucht, Milford/Cissna Park track and field; Madalyn Marx, Mahomet-Seymour track and field.

Fan, a senior, and LaFave, a sophomore, advanced to the Class 1A state tournament after winning the doubles title at the 1A Centennial Sectional on May 23. Fan and LaFave did not drop a set en route to the sectional title. At the IHSA state meet from last Thursday through Saturday in the Chicago suburbs, Fan and LaFave reached the final day of the three-day tournament, compiling a 4-2 record and advancing to the consolation semifinals.

"I was really happy to win Athlete of the Week. It just meant that family and friends from home locked in for us to get the votes. On the court, it was just having a big presence and applying as much as pressure on the opponent as we could. I was really happy to win sectionals last week. The biggest reward was it got us a seed at state, which was helpful. At state, it was a lot more rewarding because I wasn't fully expecting it to make as far as we did."

"The Godfather."

is Frank Ocean, and I like R&B.

Jameson LaFave

cross-country.

teleportation. It seems convenient.

I usually go in and listen to some music, stretch and get a full warmup in. In between matches, I try to put on my headphones and do a 10-minute NSDR.

winning the three matches that we did on Friday at the state tournament this year. I didn't expect it to happen, and we had to play through three match tiebreaks to get it done.

to eat omakase, a fancy form of sushi, in Japan.

"Winning Athlete of the Week feels like it's a good representation of the amount and work Kyle and I have put in. We worked the best together by staying aggressive and staying focused on the task at hand and not thinking ahead too much. The goal for everyone is to try to make it to the last few matches of the season, and it feels amazing to come through with wins in three grueling matches like we did on Friday at state."

"Space Jam."

Metro Boomin.

Kyle Fan.

basketball.

the ability to never get tired.

I try to quiet my mind and focus on the task at hand by taking deep breaths.

qualifying for the final day of the state tournament like we did this year. It's a dream, and it's why you compete.

to attend all four of the tennis Grand Slam tournaments.

Kamden Flenner, Tuscola track and field; Hunter Madigan, St. Thomas More tennis; Mason Makaya, Centennial track and field.

Britain's leading female golfer, Lottie Woad, is doing everything she can to capitalise on LPGA-winning form before this week's Women's US Open near Los Angeles.

The 22-year-old Englishwoman competes at the famed Riviera Country Club fresh from last month's victory at the Kroger Queen City event in Cincinnati, which lifted her to fifth in the world rankings.

It was her first professional win in the United States and was arguably the biggest step Woad has taken since joining the paid ranks last summer, when she won the Scottish Open on her pro debut.

But she has not been sitting back to bask in the glory of this latest triumph, instead flying coach Luke Bone from his base in Farnham, Surrey, to Florida to intensify preparation for this week's event, traditionally the biggest on the women's golf calendar.

Woad decided to swap last week's Shoprite LPGA tournament in New Jersey for time on the range with Bone, with whom she has worked since her junior days at Farnham Golf Club.

"We were just doing some work here in Tallahassee," Woad told BBC Sport. "It was good, just kind of a little reset.

"The last time I saw him was Chevron [the year's first major in April] and he was at an event before that. But it was kind of nice to do some work away from the tournament.

"He usually comes to the majors, but I decided I wanted to try him coming a week before. I'm still kind of working out what I like best.

"You know, I'm still very new to pro life. The US Open is a very hectic week and I feel like that you're limited to what you can actually get done on that week. So it's nice to go into it having done a lot of the work."

She has flown early to the west coast of the US to be fully acclimatised for this week's major, imbued with the confidence of her Ohio triumph.

And the key to that victory on 17 May was worked out by the player herself. She had been bemused by an uncharacteristically erratic performance on the greens while missing the cut at the Mizuho Americas Open earlier in the month.

"My putting was pretty poor and I'd been putting pretty good this year," Woad said. "OK, it could be me, it is probably is me, but, I thought I'll check the putter.

"The grip was just a tiny bit off, but obviously as golfers, we're pretty specific. So it was bugging me a little bit. I got it regripped and then, yeah, all good."

Woad beat a quality field, holding off South Korea's Haeran Ryu to win by two shots, with major winners Miyu Yamashita and Ruoning Yin trailing in her wake.

The spectacularly in-form Nelly Korda and former world number one Lydia Ko shared eighth place.

"I think it was probably a more important win for me than the first one," Woad said. "The first one [in Scotland last July] was obviously amazing, but it all happened so quickly.

"I had just turned pro right before that one and then went off and played loads of events. I didn't really get time to reflect on it.

"I don't know how many events I've played now, but a lot more events, playing each week, travelling each week. Seeing the competition, seeing how good everyone is.

"I think to win again, to get the second one was more important for me."

Remarkably for someone ranked so highly, Woad will compete in the US Open as a professional for the first time. She does so having posted high finishes in the past three majors.

As an amateur, she shared third place at the Evian Championship last July, narrowly missing out on the play-off, won by Grace Kim.

She backed that up by finishing joint-eighth at the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl and was tied for seventh at the Chevron.

On current form, Woad is Britain's best hope to emulate Dame Laura Davies (1987) and Alison Nicholas (1997), the only other UK winners of America's national championship.

Professional life has been such a whirlwind that Woad does not readily recognise her encouraging form in the five biggest events on the women's calendar. "I kind of forgot," she smiled.

"They're so spread out, it's kind of hard to remember where you finished in the majors. But yeah, I've been playing pretty nicely in them.

"US Open, I'm assuming, is going to be set up tough like it always is. So Riviera, I've heard great things. I'm just really excited to go see that course and, yeah, ready for the challenge that is US Open."

Always as much a test of tenacity as technique, Woad is bidding to keep the Harton S Semple Trophy in European hands after Maja Stark's victory at Erin Hills last year. Kettering's Charley Hull is the other big British hope but missed the cut in New Jersey last week.

Woad appears to be revelling in tour life. The hardest question for her to answer concerns the worst bits of being pro golfer. "I don't know, I mean, I love it," she said.

"It's pretty cool for me to play golf and it'd be my job, but obviously there's a lot of travel involved. I think it's probably the worst bit.

"You know, we play a pretty rigorous schedule in the LPGA. I've already been to Asia twice this year and I've been to the West Coast to do two different swings.

"I live in Florida. So a lot of travel that maybe doesn't quite flow as well as it as it should, but I know they're working on that."

Nevertheless, Woad describes her mood as "relaxed and pretty confident" and she is buoyed by the way her beloved Leeds United comfortably preserved their Premier League status.

In women's golf, she is one of the in-form players heading into the sport's biggest week. Woad is comfortable, though, that Chevron champion Korda will command most attention in the build-up to the Pacific Palisades event.

"She's obviously going to be one of the favourites and always is at most events she plays," Woad said.

"I will try and go under the radar a little bit. I'm not sure if I'll be able to or not, but I think for this year, I have been able to kind of quietly get on with things a little bit more than I could do last summer."

Given Woad's explosive start to her pro career, it is perhaps prudent to question how much longer that will remain the case.

The Illinois legislature passed a new $55.9 billion budget late on Sunday night ahead of a midnight deadline. But that budget did not contain a provision for a new stadium for the Chicago Bears, despite a final-minute push from the Illinois Senate to try and keep the team in the state.

As a result, the future of the Bears in Illinois remains in doubt.

Following the midnight deadline, the Illinois Senate approved a modified budget bill by a vote of 37-17, which contains a provision allowing certain municipalities to create local stadium authorities. That modified bill passed around 4:00 a.m. local time Monday morning, breathing new life into the effort to keep the Bears in Illinois, at least for a moment, at a proposed new site in Arlington Heights.

The foundation of this new proposal is a publicly owned stadium, similar to the proposal being advanced in Indiana. The Bears would finance the construction of a new stadium, but then turn the stadium over to a new municipal stadium authority, which would lease the stadium. Under this framework, no property taxes would be paid on the stadium, giving the Bears a major component that the team is seeking in a new stadium site.

The Senate bill also establishes a special Bond District for retail and entertainment development near the potential site in Arlington Heights, allowing anticipated growth in sales taxes to help fund the project.

But the Illinois House did not take up a vote on the modified bill, and the legislative session came to an end. As of Monday morning, there is no indication that a special session would be called to bring the legislators back into session to take up the modified bill.

“There’s a lot of work still ahead of us,” said House Speaker Emmanuel Welch. “We’ll continue discussions on a number of issues, including our approach to the Bears stadium question, this summer.”

According to several reports, “[i]nternal polling of the supermajority House Democratic caucus indicated the measure didn’t have the votes to pass.”

The developments come in the wake of a strong push from Indiana lawmakers to lure the Bears to Hammond, in Northwest Indiana. The proposed stadium site sits just across the Illinois border, roughly 25 miles from the team’s current Soldier Field home.

The Indiana Senate voted 45-4 back in February to approve the establishment of a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority in Hammond, along with increased county taxes for the project. Indiana officials have stated that approximately $1 billion in tax revenue from those increases would fund the stadium infrastructure.

Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed that measure into law less than an hour after it was passed.

Critics of the potential move to Indiana have highlighted the fact that the proposed stadium site is located near several hazardous waste sites, including a Superfund site at the former Federal Metals smelting facility. According to this report last month, “where elevated levels of lead and arsenic were found” at the site.

Returning to Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker released a statement through his office, following the developments in the Illinois legislature.

“Governor Pritzker is a responsible steward of taxpayer dollars who has always wanted the Bears to remain in Illinois and been open to a sensible deal, so the Governor’s Office needs to carefully review this new bill that was recently made public overnight,” read the statement.

Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham, the sponsor of the stadium authority bill that cleared the Illinois Senate, expressed some hesitation that his bill would eventually be signed into law.

“I have talked to all of them,” said Cunningham. “I can’t tell you that they said they were supportive of it. They said they were interested to see the language [of the bill].”

Unless a special session is called, the Illinois legislature will not reconvene until November.

As for the Bears, the team released a statement overnight as well.

“We will finalize our evaluation of both Arlington Heights and Hammond, and remain on the late spring/early summer timeline that we have previously communicated,” according to a Bears team statement. “We will provide an update when we have a decision to share.”

Man Utd Step Up Mateus Fernandes Pursuit as West Ham Face Crucial Summer Decision

Manchester United’s interest in Mateus Fernandes is gathering momentum, with the midfielder emerging as one of the most coveted young talents in the Premier League ahead of the summer transfer window.

According to Caught Offside, Manchester United have accelerated discussions regarding a potential move for the West Ham star, who has attracted widespread attention after an impressive campaign despite his club’s struggles. The 21-year-old has become a standout performer in difficult circumstances, and his future now appears increasingly likely to lie away from east London.

West Ham signed from Sporting CP last summer in a deal worth around €44 million. Less than a year later, the Portuguese midfielder is being linked with some of Europe’s biggest clubs, with Man Utd leading a queue that also includes Arsenal, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid.

Photo IMAGO

Mateus Fernandes Emerges as Priority Target for Man Utd

There is a growing sense that Man Utd view Mateus Fernandes as a key part of their midfield rebuild. The club have been searching for greater energy, technical quality and composure in the centre of the pitch, and Fernandes appears to fit that profile perfectly.

The original source reports that Manchester United’s transfer committee has “accelerated talks” with the player’s representatives as they look to gain an advantage over rival suitors. Fernandes is also believed to be attracted by the prospect of playing Champions League football, which could strengthen United’s hand in negotiations.

At just 21 years of age, Fernandes combines maturity with significant room for development. His ability to dictate possession, progress the ball through midfield and contribute defensively has made him one of the most highly regarded young midfielders in England.

For Man Utd, the appeal is obvious. The club are looking beyond short-term fixes and identifying players capable of becoming long-term pillars of the squad. Fernandes fits that vision.

West Ham Confront Difficult Financial Reality

West Ham’s position is complicated by the financial consequences of a disappointing season. While the club remain keen to maximise their return on one of their most valuable assets, market realities could ultimately force their hand.

The original source states that West Ham have placed a valuation of between €50 million and €60 million on Mateus Fernandes. However, that figure could fall as the summer develops, particularly given the financial pressures facing the club.

Fernandes remains under contract until 2030 and reportedly has no release clause. That provides West Ham with some leverage during negotiations, but long-term contracts do not always guarantee a player’s future when elite clubs come calling.

A significant offer from Man Utd or another European heavyweight may prove difficult to resist, especially if West Ham need to reshape their squad ahead of the new campaign.

European Giants Join Race for Portuguese Midfielder

While Manchester United are currently regarded as frontrunners, they are far from alone in their admiration for Mateus Fernandes.

Arsenal continue to monitor the midfielder closely as they assess options to strengthen their own engine room. Chelsea have also entered the picture, while Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid remain attentive to developments.

Interest extends beyond England and Spain. Italian giants Inter Milan, Juventus and Napoli are all reported to be keeping tabs on Fernandes as they weigh potential moves.

Such widespread interest reflects the midfielder’s growing reputation. Clubs across Europe recognise the qualities he has displayed in the Premier League, even while operating within a struggling side.

Competition for his signature is therefore likely to intensify as the transfer window progresses.

Summer Transfer Saga Set to Intensify

Mateus Fernandes appears destined to become one of the defining transfer stories of the summer.

For Man Utd, securing his signature would represent a statement of intent and a major investment in the future. For West Ham, any decision regarding the midfielder could have significant implications for both their finances and their ambitions on the pitch.

The player himself will be eager for clarity. After proving his quality under difficult circumstances, he now faces an important career decision that could shape the next phase of his development.

Whether he ends up at Old Trafford or elsewhere, one thing seems certain. Mateus Fernandes has established himself as one of the most exciting young midfielders in European football, and the battle for his signature is only just beginning.

Raymond Berry, the legendary Hall of Fame wide receiver whose telepathic connection with quarterback Johnny Unitas forged one of American football’s most formidable passing duos, has died at the age of 93.

Berry, a pivotal figure in the Baltimore Colts’ historic 1958 championship victory over the New York Giants, passed away on 25 May, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced on Monday.

His family confirmed in a statement that Berry died peacefully at his home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, surrounded by loved ones, including Sally, his wife of 65 years.

A 20th-round draft pick from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1954, the Texas native embodied the virtues of relentless hard work and unwavering determination. Despite possessing average speed, legs of differing lengths, a troublesome back, imperfect eyesight, and oversized feet that earned him the high school nickname "Skis," Berry transformed himself into a superstar. His ascent was fuelled by exhaustive preparation, from strengthening his fingers with Silly Putty to meticulously simulating entire games during practice.

He was renowned as one of the most reliable receivers in league history, rarely dropping a pass and fumbling only twice throughout his career, according to Pro Football Reference.

Berry himself claimed to have developed 88 distinct routes to get open, a level of discipline so intense that even his coach, Weeb Ewbank, once tried to intervene.

"One of his drills was to throw nothing but bad balls to him," Ewbank told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. "I used to have to run John (Unitas) off — ‘John, you’ve had enough throwing today’ — and he’d say, ‘Yeah, talk to that guy out there.’"

Over 13 seasons, Berry amassed a then-record 631 receptions (a mark since surpassed by Jerry Rice), scoring 68 touchdowns. He led the NFL in receptions three times and earned six Pro Bowl selections.

A cornerstone of one of the league’s premier offences, alongside Unitas, running back Lenny Moore, and offensive lineman Jim Parker, Berry played on championship-winning teams in 1958 and 1959, and was a runner-up in 1964.

He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1973 and was named to the league’s 50th and 75th anniversary teams. The Colts retired his uniform number, 82, while SMU retired his college number, 87.

Berry’s performance in the 1958 championship finale against the Giants at Yankee Stadium remains legendary. This overtime classic, nationally televised, is often cited as one of the sport’s greatest games and a catalyst for the NFL’s subsequent rise. Against the NFL’s toughest defence, Berry caught 12 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown, including three consecutive receptions during the 86-yard drive that tied the game 17-17 in regulation. He then made two crucial grabs during the 80-yard drive that secured the Colts’ 23-17 victory, the league’s first championship to conclude in overtime.

"We worked and got to know each other and developed timing you just can’t get any other way," Berry later told the radio programme Sports & Torts. "He (Unitas) knew I was going to be there when I was supposed to be there and he knew I was going to catch it."

After retiring as a player in 1967, Berry transitioned to coaching, serving as a wide receivers coach for the Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, and New England Patriots.

He took the helm as head coach of the Patriots from 1984-89, achieving a 48-39 record, including an 11-5 season in 1985 that led to an appearance in Super Bowl XX. However, the Patriots suffered a crushing 46-10 defeat to the Chicago Bears.

Following this, the Boston Globe revealed that several New England players had drug problems, with Berry acting as a source for the story. His subsequent push for the team to implement drug testing was met with strong opposition from the NFL players’ union.

A deeply religious man who abstained from alcohol and tobacco, Berry’s advocacy for drug treatment stemmed from personal experience. His former Colts teammate, All-Pro defensive tackle Gene "Big Daddy" Lipscomb, had struggled with addiction.

"They didn’t help him, they just cut him," Berry told The Patriot Ledger in 1986. "Three years later, he was dead."

Born in Corpus Christi in 1933, Berry married fellow Texan Sally Crook in 1960, and they had three children.

He credited some of his success to his high school coach, his father Mark Raymond Berry, who taught him the fundamentals of football despite not playing him extensively. After a year at Schreiner College, he transferred to SMU, where two fumbles in a crucial game spurred a vow never to repeat such mistakes in the professional ranks.

His rookie season with the Colts saw him catch only 13 passes, but the following year, the team signed a free agent quarterback cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers – Unitas. The two soon began their practice sessions.

"I didn’t know my butt from first base about how to run pass routes," Berry recalled to Sports & Torts. "If you saw both of us in training camp in 1956, you may have gone away sobbing. We were two pitiful football players, good grief."

Hickory starter Evan Siary allowed one run in five innings of work, striking out seven. Aneudis Mejia threw a shutout inning. Owen Proksch threw two scoreless innings with a strikeout.

Hector Osorio had one of the two Crawdad hits.

Hickory box score

D.J. McCarthy went three innings in his start for Hub City, allowing six runs, including four home runs, striking out five and walking two. Case Matter faced four batters, striking out two and walking two. Joey Danielson struck out one and walked one in a scoreless inning.

Gleider Figuereo was 4 for 4 with a homer.

Hub City box score

Frisco starter Dylan MacLean allowed one run in five innings, striking out seven and walking two. Bryan Magdaleno struck out one in a scoreless inning. Wilian Bormie struck out the one batter he faced.

Rafe Perich was 2 for 4 with a homer. Dylan Dreiling had a walk and a stolen base. Keith Jones II had a hit and a stolen base. Arturo Disla had a pair of hits.

Frisco box score

Ryan Brasier started for Round Rock and went one inning, walking three, giving up a homer and allowing three runs. Jose Corniell walked four and struck out two in 3.2, allowing three runs. Thomas Ireland allowed two runs in 2.1 IP, striking out two. Joe Ross and Michel Otanez each threw a scoreless inning.

Wyatt Langford continued his rehab assignment, going 0 for 3 while playing left field. Cody Freeman was 2 for 5 with a homer. Cam Cauley had a double and a stolen base.

Round Rock box score

The NL East leading Atlanta Braves, who have acquired their 40th win on May 30th when it took them until July 9th last year, have made half an interesting active roster move on their off day.

Anthony Molina has been optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. Molina was called up for the weekend series but never used. He will return to Gwinnett along with Carlos Carrasco apparently. Carlos Carrasco has been selected to the Braves and designated for assignment three times already. He will park the Cookie Carrasco Caravan in Lawrenceville for now until needed to soak up some innings. Today is an off day for both the Braves and Stripers and no corresponding move has been announced for either team. Rolddy Munoz looks to be the most appealing Gwinnett Striper on the Braves’ 40-man roster at the moment. Munoz has a 2.72 FIP for the season in Triple-A, and has a 13/6 K/BB rate with no homers in May. Also, Hurston Waldrep starts rehab today.

Hurston’s 2026 season never got off the ground, as he required surgery for loose bodies in his elbow. I don’t believe we know the timeline for Waldrep, but things are definitely happening.