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AUGUSTA, Ga. — A concoction of sweaty bodies and long-lens cameras was deadlocked in the upper left-hand corner of the No. 15 grandstand at Augusta National as Rory McIlroy’s 7-foot eagle putt slid underneath the cup. At that point in the day, the phoneless Masters Tournament patrons were not unfamiliar with the sound of thousands…

Read Dane Brugler’s 2025 ‘The Beast’ NFL Draft guide. At least beyond Cam Ward, there is no consensus on where each of this year’s crop of quarterbacks may get drafted. After Ward presumably becomes a Tennessee Titan, the rest of the group is a complete mystery. It’s just as likely Ward is the only quarterback we see…

We’re into the defining stretch of the 2024-25 season, with trophies to be won, European spots up for grabs and relegations to be avoided. All of Europe’s domestic leagues and UEFA’s three club competitions are nearing completion, which not only prompts conversation about the end-of-year awards but the next Ballon d’Or too. At its roots,…

Follow live coverage of the final round of the 2025 Masters AUGUSTA, Ga. — The Masters will never be cheugy. It may be a crime of fashion to be overdone, outdated or, gasp, dressed in millenial-core for 51 weeks a year. But for this week, at Augusta National Golf Club during the Masters, the patrons come…

In the end, the news that Mohamed Salah will remain at Liverpool was delivered with a humorous tagline. “More in than out,” read the message across the club’s social media pages at 8am on Friday, around 36 hours after reports in the forward’s homeland of Egypt first suggested he had agreed to extend his eight-year…

If a player hits a running trick shot to save a break point, but later gets broken off three unforced errors and a double fault, is it good tennis? For Carlos Alcaraz, definitely. He delivered a signal example of the tension running through his documentary series, ‘My Way,’ just as Netflix released its trailer. While…

After the NBA fined Ja Morant $75,000 last week for making finger-gun gesture celebrations, the Memphis Grizzlies star has found a new way to commemorate a made 3-pointer. In the Grizzlies’ 141-125 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night, Morant mimicked pulling a pin, tossing a grenade and covering his ears following a made…

The crash was horrifying. During a 2018 IndyCar race, the wheels of Robert Wickens’ car clipped those of Ryan Hunter-Reay’s car, launching Wickens airborne and into the fencing surrounding Pocono Raceway. Among the injuries Wickens suffered were a thoracic spinal fracture, a neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures to both legs, fractures in both hands,…

By Grant Brisbee, Chad Jennings and Levi Weaver Every week,​ we​ ask a selected group of our baseball​ writers​ — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results. Two surprising weekends can make a big difference in football, but small samples mean less in baseball. Keep that…

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After pouring in 19 points for Coastal Carolina in a first-round loss to Southern Miss in the Sun Belt Conference tournament on March 4, Colin Granger went back to the team hotel in Pensacola, Fla., to have dinner with his parents and discuss his future. In football. Granger had told Chanticleers coach…

In 2009, Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke went viral after telling Yahoo Sports he was boycotting Chipotle’s guacamole. “I mean, $1.50 is already pretty darn high. So they changed it to $1.80, and I’ll never again get guacamole,” Greinke said. “It’s not about the guacamole itself. I just don’t want to let them win.”…

The Golden State Warriors’ regular season will end on a Sunday afternoon at Chase Center in one of Draymond Green’s favorite matchups. Against the LA Clippers. It will likely have postseason implications, so Green will no doubt be intense. But it’s not one of his favorites for the matchup against Ivica Zubac, the bruising center…

“Always I have to be careful for the respect for the players that have played incredible roles, but there’s no doubt he’s one of the greatest for sure,” said Pep Guardiola of Kevin De Bruyne’s impending exit from Manchester City. De Bruyne’s impact at City since joining from Wolfsburg in 2015 has been huge, with…

NEW YORK — The New York Yankees’ bats were the story of the team’s franchise-record nine-home run day against the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday. Then came the discussion about the actual bats used by some players in the 20-9 win. The uniquely shaped lumber is the result of two years of research and experimentation with…

By Patrick Mooney, Ken Rosenthal and Sahadev Sharma CHICAGO —  At first glance, the post from an X user named @Brooks_Gate seemed like something a multibillion-dollar company would ignore. It consisted of a chart that used estimated data to illustrate the percentage of revenue spent on player payroll. Rather than sitting at the top with…

One of the four head coaches left working in the men’s NCAA Tournament will win his first national championship Monday night. It could be Houston’s Kelvin Sampson in his 36th season of running a program at age 69. It could be Duke’s Jon Scheyer in his third at age 37. Auburn’s Bruce Pearl is on…

Alexandra Eala had the biggest week of her tennis career at the Miami Open in March. She beat three Grand Slam champions — Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Świątek — on her way to the semifinals, where she had 2024 U.S. Open finalist Jessica Pegula on the ropes in what was ultimately a three-set…

The top of the 2025 WNBA Draft experienced a major shakeup when Olivia Miles entered the transfer portal. Miles was projected to be the No. 2 pick in April’s draft and likely fall no lower than third overall, but instead she has elected to extend her college career, just not at Notre Dame. Even though…

Three years ago, Brandon Halverson had all but given up on his hockey dream. He was delivering UberEats and groceries and working on a farm. He sold his truck. He borrowed money from his parents. Whatever it took to scrape out enough money for rent. Two weeks ago, he stepped into the net with the…

By Tim Britton, Johnny Flores Jr. and Andy McCullough Every week,​ we​ ask a selected group of our baseball​ writers​ — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results, with the average rankings of our panel in parentheses. The first weekend of the baseball season offered its…

Three hundred and four days is a long time for a footballer to go without playing in a game. And 1,135 days must feel like a lifetime for a striker to go without scoring. The former Real Madrid forward Mariano Diaz ended both of those personal droughts within the first 20 minutes of a friendly…

There has been growing excitement within Formula One over the potential return of the V10 engines. That roaring sound is part of the sport’s history and identity. But the calls from senior figures in the F1 paddock, including the FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, to consider returning the loud engines used most recently 20 years…

More than 1,000 Division I men’s basketball players have entered the transfer portal since it opened on March 24. That’s a lot of names and faces to learn as college basketball’s roster management busy season increasingly resembles NBA free agency. This is where The Athletic’s transfer portal rankings come in. The rankings are a living…

PORTLAND, Ore. — Brian Vu has been a fan of the NBA for 14 years, but he has never experienced a game like the one he attended last week in Portland. Not only did his hometown Trail Blazers beat the Memphis Grizzlies, but also for the first time in his life, Vu said he felt…

The NFL offseason is well underway, and while the upcoming NFL Draft will shake things up even more, there has been no shortage of roster-altering moves. The biggest, of course, have come at quarterback. We’re still waiting for one big domino (Aaron Rodgers) to fall, but we’ve already seen huge shifts in the QB landscape….

MIAMI — After two decades of professional tennis, 99 career singles titles and 24 Grand Slam triumphs, Novak Djokovic has become a mystery — to tennis fans and to himself. Both parties are trying to answer the same question, from match to match and tournament to tournament, as his career moves towards an as-yet unknown…

PALM HARBOR, Fla. — There was Viktor Hovland, moments after winning his first PGA Tour championship in 18 months, after storming back from three shots down with five to play to beat a top-10 player in the world for the Valspar Championship. If there was a moment to declare himself back, to say that every…

On average, about one in every 30 corners leads to a goal. The success rate tends to go up dramatically, however, when the goalkeeper and their entire defence are standing outside their six-yard box when a corner is taken. That was the remarkable scene during the UEFA Nations League quarter-final in Dortmund on Sunday. Germany’s…

“My phone kept buzzing with messages, but I was so tired, I went straight to sleep — I hadn’t realised I’d set the record!” For Linfield captain Jamie Mulgrew, last Tuesday night was just like any other. The 38-year-old midfielder spent the evening coaching the club’s under-18s. Once home, he watched the football, then went…

In the 17 months since the Boston Red Sox hired Craig Breslow as chief baseball officer — their fourth leadership change within the past 10 seasons — the organization has undergone sweeping changes, particularly behind the scenes in the front office. Under Breslow’s direction, longtime employees have been fired, while others have left on their…

Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart is this NFL Draft cycle’s most divisive quarterback. Some evaluators think he’s a mid-round pick, while ESPN’s Mel Kiper mocked Dart going No. 9. Kiper may have been trying to be controversial for engagement, but Dart does have an intriguing skillset and one can see how an evaluator could be drawn to…

Get ready for a different kind of free agency this summer: Less wild, perhaps, but weirder. At first, the 2025 NBA free-agent class doesn’t exactly overwhelm you with front-line talent. This isn’t the year for superstars holding meetings in the Hamptons while teams wait on pins and needles for franchise-altering decisions. Only one likely All-NBA…

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Two thick, beefy strong boys with snug polos and holstered pistols walked, chests out, up to the area behind TPC Sawgrass’ 12th green Sunday. As they approached the hill, another security officer smiled at two of the day’s main characters. “It’s the Bash Brothers!” the man joked. The three of…

LOS ANGELES — USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb and her star player, JuJu Watkins, were invited to the annual Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation Blue Diamond Gala in May. In a who’s-who world of L.A. glitterati, Gottlieb was astounded by how many people flocked to Watkins. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and owner Mark Walter wanted to meet…

The Athletic has appointed Chris Weatherspoon as its first dedicated football finance writer. Chris is a chartered accountant who will be using his financial acumen as The BookKeeper to explore the money behind the game. He is starting with a series this week analysing the financial health of some of the Premier League’s biggest clubs. You…

The NCAA Tournament’s 32-game feast across Thursday and Friday is one of the most highly anticipated TV stretches of the sports year. You should watch as many games as you can, but if you need to prioritize, here are the “can’t-miss” ones to watch, informed by full-bracket predictions from The Athletic’s Brendan Marks, C.J. Moore…

TOKYO — During the early innings of a nighttime exhibition between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Yomiuri Giants, Nori Kawana walked through the concourse of the Tokyo Dome in disbelief. As the head of Fanatics’ East Asia operation, Kawana leads MLB’s merchandising in Japan, and the day had already set his company’s sales record in…

TAMPA, Fla. — In September 2021, Will Weatherford stood between green and gold balloons under a white canopy and made the proclamation that could change the trajectory of South Florida football. After playing their first 25 years across town at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ stadium, the Bulls were ready for their own home. Weatherford vowed…

The men’s basketball selection committee had an easy job at the top of the bracket this year. The 2025 NCAA Tournament might have the best collection of No. 1 seeds in March Madness history. By the numbers, it is the best, at least in college basketball’s advanced analytics era, which dates to 1997, when Ken…

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 Men’s March Madness Selection Show Ever the gentleman, Greg Gumbel reached out to offer a welcoming handshake. Ernie Johnson responded with … a fist bump? The awkward exchange — one Johnson still describes, a decade later, as “so embarrassing” — lasted maybe two seconds. To Johnson, a…

There’s not too much shame in a botched March Madness bracket. The NCAA Tournament is compressed chaos in single elimination, upsets are part of the game, and only one entrant can actually win it all. What we can’t forgive is a lazy, uninspired bracket name. The men’s and women’s tournaments give us a wealth of…

You could make a strong case that this year’s Carabao Cup final will see Europe’s most threatening striker come up against its strongest centre-back. Alexander Isak has scored 22 goals in all competitions this season as he looks to surpass a career-best tally of 25, achieved in 2023-24. If he wants to add to that…

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Conchita Martinez, one of the queen bees of tennis, had done just about everything there was to do in the sport. She had won Wimbledon. She had coached Garbine Muguruza to win Wimbledon. She had won five Federation Cup titles as part of Spain’s women’s national team, going on to captain…

We’re doing our NBA Awards Watch every Thursday until the end of the regular season, and each week we’ll emphasize a new award. This week, we’ve got Rookie of the Year. Sandwiched between the class with Victor Wembanyama and the upcoming Cooper Flagg sweepstakes, this rookie class has been one we’ve known isn’t likely to…

MADISON, Wis. — Three hours before the Wisconsin Badgers were set to practice on a Tuesday afternoon in late January, the best coach in the history of women’s college hockey was telling a story about a deer. “I’d like to get in the mindset of a deer,” Mark Johnson said during a coaches meeting inside…

Group sports terms that share a common thread.

An 11-year-old boy from Los Angeles who pulled the Paul Skenes MLB Debut Patch card will likely sell it for more money than Skenes will make from his 2025 base salary with the Pittsburgh Pirates. With 56 bids as of Wednesday night, the gem-mint PSA 10 graded autographed one-of-one rookie card bearing the patch Skenes…

The Seattle Seahawks have their Geno Smith replacement in Sam Darnold. Now they need to get him some help. Seattle’s agreement with Darnold is a three-year, $100.5 million contract with $55 million guaranteed, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini. On paper, it’s essentially the same deal Baker Mayfield signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last…

Manchester United intend to build a 100,000-capacity new stadium rather than redevelop their existing Old Trafford home. United announced the ambitious plans on Tuesday, with London-based architecture firm Fosters + Partners selected to lead the project. The new-build will be situated on land surrounding Old Trafford, as part of a wider regeneration of the Trafford…

Humans have sailed the oceans for centuries. But, as a spectator sport, sailing has barely made a dent in the public consciousness, outside of the Olympics at least. There’s no denying that it can often be difficult to make sense of what’s going on way out there on the water, for a start. But the…

(Editor’s note: This article is part of the Bracket Central series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s & women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.) Drake’s in, so we can dispense with the arguments about whether Ben McCollum’s Bulldogs would have made the field of 68 without winning the Missouri Valley…

It’s time for another round of the tested, trusted, completely objective, never-been-questioned, all-math, no-bias MLB franchise rankings. First, a change: Rather than span the Wild-Card Era (1995 to present) as we have done previously, the franchise rankings will henceforth cover the past 25 years, a floating time frame that feels right to start this year…

As Canada played through controversy at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, its most beloved and iconic sports star grabbed a microphone and stood up for the nation. The Canadian men’s national team had just come from behind to tie the Czech Republic 3-3 in a heated round-robin match. Wayne Gretzky, the executive director of…

What the 2025 NHL trade deadline lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality. After all, it’s not often we have a prolonged drama like the Mikko Rantanen saga, which took several twists and turns before ending deep in the heart of Texas. And the Panthers’ stunning acquisition of Brad Marchand is one of…

This is supposedly the NFL offseason, but if you’re feeling like you may be suffering from a case of whiplash, there’s a good reason for that. The Super Bowl came and went on Feb. 9. Two weeks later, the NFL world descended on Indianapolis for the annual scouting combine. And next week, free agency kicks…

The expanded Club World Cup begins in 100 days, with the 32-team tournament taking place in the United States from June 14. It is the first time the club edition of the World Cup will mirror the national team version of the tournament. There have been worries about the additional workload on players — FIFPro…

Naomi Osaka showed that she is on the road to recovery from the abdominal injury that forced her out of the Australian Open in January, but getting sharp and match tough is going to take a little more time. Osaka, the four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1, lost to Camila Osorio of…

This article is part of our Rankings & Tiers series, an evaluation across sport about the key players, front offices, teams, franchises and much more. What better way to commemorate the 40-year anniversary of the NCAA Tournament’s expansion to 64 teams than to create a flawless, universally beloved ranking of every men’s basketball champion in that…

The way phenomenal and accomplished athletes’ minds work can often catch regular folks off-guard. How is it that a tennis player like Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1, would ever get to a place where she might question her ability? It happens all the time, even with the all-time…

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — Every once in a while, Derek Bender will send a text to one of his former teammates. Or he’ll call, and leave a voicemail. But, after what happened on Sept. 6, he has not received one text back. Not one call. He’s been left on read, a ghosted pariah to a team…

It’s entirely possible that four or five summers from now, Connor Bedard’s name will be etched on the Stanley Cup. He’ll have won the Conn Smythe Trophy that spring, of course, after a truly absurd playoff run flanked by Michael Misa and Frank Nazar, with Artyom Levshunov logging a heroic 30 minutes a night on…

A few years ago, I got into a lift with a former colleague I knew a little but wouldn’t exactly describe as a close friend. In the way that we all have done hundreds of times, I asked how he was, expecting a variant of the standard response: “Yeah, not bad thanks, mate. How are…

INDIANAPOLIS — Arch Manning is at least a year away from fielding questions at the NFL Scouting Combine. Still, his former Texas teammates fully expect the sophomore quarterback to eventually join them at the highest level. “I think he can,” wide receiver Matthew Golden said Friday. “He has the heart to do it. Arch comes…

No, you’re not dreaming, it is the year 2025. You might be wondering how on earth, then, we are sitting here discussing the possibility of Neymar returning to Barcelona this summer. After all, the Brazilian has just turned 33 years old and has only played 13 games of football in the past two seasons. I’m…

Did March sneak up on anyone else? We have been enjoying the regular season so much that we kind of forgot it’s almost over. But the reality is, the first conference tournament bracket — thanks, Atlantic Sun — is already out. League titles are being clinched. The bubble is bubbling. All of the things! But…

The Athletic’s debate series features two writers breaking down a specific topic. In this edition, Chantel Jennings and Ben Pickman debate which women’s college basketball player should win Player of the Year.   Chantel Jennings: As we head into the final week of the season, there seems to be one overriding theme in women’s college…

SURPRISE, Ariz. — The groundwork for Joc Pederson becoming a Texas Ranger was laid last September, when Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young sat with Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen. The two men were discussing the divergent paths taken by their teams. After meeting in the World Series the year before, the runner-up…

Last Friday night, Spain’s women’s team played their first game since Luis Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final.  Spain came from 2-0 down against Belgium in Valencia with 20 minutes left to win a thrilling game 3-2. Hermoso was not involved, having again…

Who are the best and toughest front offices to deal with in the NHL? Which owners are known for giving players what they need? What does the league need to do to improve? Asking players these questions can yield some pretty good results, but there are limits to that approach. Players have relatively limited exposure…

TAMPA, Fla. — Just days after the New York Yankees amended one of the most recognizable rules in American professional sports, another iconic tradition for the organization will change in 2025. Following losses, the Yankees will no longer play Frank Sinatra’s “(Theme From) New York, New York” as fans exit the stadium. On Sunday at…

Brian Campbell came out on top at the Mexico Open on Sunday night as viewers were treated to some sudden-death playoff chaos between two antithetical player profiles: Campbell, a journeyman and one of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour, and Aldrich Potgieter, the 20-year-old South African prodigy who currently leads the tour in driving…

Back in my early twenties, I was at a party at a rooftop bar trapped in a round of small talk with a friend of a friend. Scrambling around for conversation, I asked her where she came from. “Folkestone,” she said. If you don’t know, that’s a coastal town in Kent, in the south east…

The new MLS season is here and so is a new batch of kits for every team in the league. This year, we’re handing out superlatives for each new design (and lumping together all the ones that offer little more than the current template from leaguewide kitmaker Adidas). Every team has one new design this…

Eagle-eyed viewers of Sky Sports’ coverage of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 win against Manchester United last Sunday will have noticed a change. When head coach Ange Postecoglou was interviewed before kick-off and asked about the lift of having players back from injury, he was described as “Tottenham Hotspur Head Coach”. When the Tottenham starting XI was…

Take two proud hockey countries in a best-on-best final, add a massive dose of geopolitics into the equation, and then conclude the matchup with a historic overtime goal by the game’s best player. It’s a recipe for a historic viewership number — and that’s what we saw with Canada’s 3-2 overtime win over the United…

MLS’s 30th season kicks off Saturday a few miles away from where the league’s 29th campaign ended. The LA Galaxy won MLS Cup a shade over two months ago, but rival LAFC will lift the curtain on 2025 when they host Minnesota United Saturday afternoon. It marks the start of a season that will feature…

The important thing about the sentencing of Luis Rubiales is not whether he will go to prison, or how many thousands of euros he will have to pay to compensate Jenni Hermoso, the World Cup-winning footballer he kissed without consent while the world was watching. The important thing is that it represents an end to…

When Lewis Hamilton put on his Ferrari race suit for the first time ahead of his maiden test for the team last month, he needed a moment to adjust to his new look. While putting on a set of overalls is automatic for racing drivers, completed thousands of times through their careers, donning the iconic…

BOSTON — When Drew Doughty got his first taste of best-on-best hockey, he was the youngest member of Team Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and things didn’t start so well for him. Naturally, it was a conversation with one of the “veterans” that helped him reverse course and turn the event into a career-shifting…

The graphics sprang up across social media, some in the yellow and blue of Saudi Arabian team Al Nassr, others in the flamingo pink of MLS side Inter Miami. The source of engagement was hardly new: Messi vs Ronaldo, the forever war of global football. Except, this time, it was not about Cristiano and Lionel,…

Not every NFL team is blessed with cap space this offseason. The New England Patriots, for example, have little worry and plenty incentive to spend at an estimated $119 million in cap space, according to Over The Cap. Other teams, such as the New Orleans Saints, with a $51 million hole to climb out of,…

There are a lot of things to admire about Rose Zhang. Before turning pro two years ago, she was arguably the winningest amateur in the history of women’s golf. Now she’s competing on the LPGA and already has a pair of professional wins at age 21. Zhang is as poised as they get and her…

There are some athletes who at a young age simply seem destined to achieve greatness, and Victor Wembanyama is one of them. I haven’t seen the basketball card hobby this exited about a player’s rookie cards since LeBron James’ NBA debut in 2003. Collectors are buying up cards of the San Antonio Spurs’ center with…

Gunnar Nielsen’s Premier League career was brief. Extremely brief, in fact: it lasted 17 minutes. The goalkeeper was introduced as a late substitute for Manchester City against Arsenal in 2010 after Shay Given had aggravated a shoulder injury he picked up a week earlier when diving in vain for Paul Scholes’s late winner in the…

Anterior cruciate ligament injuries. They are four words that strike dread into the hearts of footballers at every level and, at the Premier League level, they are being heard more frequently than ever. In fact, this season is on course for a record number of ACLs since injury data began. According to Ben Dinnery, head…

Sonny Hill recalls a time when he and his childhood friend, Wilt Chamberlain, would go to the movies to watch newsreels where the Harlem Globetrotters often appeared. Seeing players like Reece “Goose” Tatum and Marques Haynes, two of the franchise’s top showmen during that time, resonated with Chamberlain and sparked an ambition. The Globetrotters’ mission…

An NCAA committee recommended on Wednesday adding flag football to its emerging women’s sports program, a significant step toward it becoming an officially sponsored championship sport in all three divisions. The NCAA said at least 65 schools are already sponsoring flag football at either the club or varsity level, with more moving in that direction….

The Athletic has live coverage of Chiefs vs Eagles in Super Bowl LIX, and Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance. The screams startled everyone on the field — and everyone in the stands. It wasn’t yet 9 in the morning and Nick Sirianni was livid. This was back in July 2019, midway through one of those early…

NEW ORLEANS — Spring 1982. Sixteen seconds left in the NCAA final, and a skinny freshman from North Carolina buries a jumper that delivers a championship and changes his life. He showed up in New Orleans that week as Mike Jordan. He left as Michael. By that point, the sprawling steel building that provided the…

Spring training is around the corner, and the free agent market has been stripped of its universal impact. What’s left — with very few exceptions — are players who would barely move the needle on one roster but fill a specific need on another. So, let’s find those guys some uniforms and get on with it….

It’s hard enough when your favorite team’s best player leaves town. It’s even harder to watch that star player join a rival. And nothing in fandom compares to the pain of watching that star take the team you hate to heights your favorite club never reached. When a star jumps from one rival to another,…

Andrea Kimi Antonelli was more nervous than he had been for some time. A racing driver’s career can often hinge on sliding doors moments such as these. The 18-year-old wasn’t trying to secure a Formula One drive. He completed that mission months ago when he signed with Mercedes to replace Lewis Hamilton. He was about…

Major League Baseball recently released a report about pitcher injuries. It was the culmination of interviews with 200 subject-matter experts about the growing rash of arm troubles in the sport, and the word “stuff” was used 47 times. The report includes entire sections about the concept of stuff metrics — like Stuff+ — and how…

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 NBA trade deadline.  The Los Angeles Lakers walked away from the most stunning trade of the century with an unexpected bonus. The Lakers now employ 25-year-old Luka Dončić, and they didn’t even have to part with both of their tradeable first-round picks to land him. Late Saturday,…

The transfer window might have closed on Monday night, but the question marks remain. As you sit here on Tuesday morning, you might be left wondering about the business your team did — or in a lot of cases, didn’t do. Why have they not brought in that extra player? Why did they let one…

While running out onto the field for the first time before Super Bowl LIV’s kickoff in 2020, Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt remembers looking up and seeing a piece of trivia on the video board: If the Chiefs win today, Dustin joins his dad, Craig, and brother, Britton, as a Super Bowl champion. It immediately triggered…

At a time when some events are banning phones to ensure the audience is properly engaged in the experience, the perceived success of the new Champions League format was instead captured by the image of Aston Villa and Club Brugge players huddled around various devices anxiously checking the scores in Barcelona and Zagreb to see…

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It’s a scene inside the Lemerand Center on an unfairly cold Wednesday night in early January. A junior college men’s basketball game is happening in a 1,000-seat gym. Everyone is here for that, including two players who were never supposed to be. But play has been paused. Security is defusing an altercation…

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Faint yellow with a blue screened-in entrance, the house on Cypress Street is squeezed in among the others, easy to miss if you’re driving past. The roof is adorned with exposed rafters beneath the eaves. A blotch of grass buffers a short, black, chainlink fence from the street. Things are typically quiet…

On February 6, 2023, Manchester City were charged by the Premier League with more than 100 breaches of the competition’s rules. As champions in six of the past seven seasons, the eventual verdict of an independent commission will have a seismic impact on the Premier League, regardless of which way their decision goes. Each of…

CHEVIOT HILLS, Calif. — The Palisades Charter High School J.V. baseball team huddled on the all-dirt infield of their temporary home, a makeshift venue for a displaced team. The playing surface and outfield grass were patchy and uneven. With no mound, its primary use was for softball. But it was what they had to work…

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Scottie Scheffler was attempting to make homemade ravioli on Christmas Day — with limited equipment in a rental home — when he realized he’d made a serious mistake. He decided to use an empty wine glass to shape and slice his pasta dough. “I had my hand on top of it…

For INEOS, a regime intending to get to grips with Manchester United’s status as a loss-making enterprise, the potential €100million deal to bring Antony to Old Trafford stands out as a particularly acute example of the kind of lavish spending that has put the club in a precarious financial position. With the Brazilian now in…

Welcome to this year’s ranking of the top 100 prospects in baseball. I’ve been compiling and writing such rankings for 18 years now, and those of you who’ve read them before will find the format here similar to those from the recent past. My farm reports covering at least 20 prospects in each team’s system,…

MEDLEY, Fla. — On the eve of WNBA free agency beginning last Tuesday, several league decision-makers gathered under the same roof. Inside Unrivaled’s Wayfair Arena, Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon sat next to a basket stanchion with team president Nikki Fargas to her left, watching the end of the 3×3 league’s opening weekend. Dallas…

USWNT defender Naomi Girma has completed her move from the San Diego Wave to Chelsea and become the most expensive transfer in women’s soccer history. The Athletic reported earlier this week that Chelsea had agreed terms with the Wave for the transfer of Girma for a record $1.1million fee, according to sources briefed on the negotiations…

Everybody wants to cover sports media, but maybe everyone shouldn’t. Mike Florio, “Pro Football Talk” aggregator/insider/gadfly extraordinaire, is on the most watched pregame show, NBC’s “Football Night in America,” every Sunday night, but he fashions himself a little bit of the league’s and media’s police. Some of the stuff he does can be pretty good….

“Me and Michael would always talk, every day, without fail,” says Ethan Devine. On December 30, Devine sent Michael Newberry, the former Newcastle United youngster and his title-winning Linfield team-mate and close friend, a message on his 27th birthday. It will be forever unopened. Michael, a defender with Cliftonville in the Northern Irish Premiership, had…

“This is the one!” Lewis Hamilton could not hide his excitement as he walked among the road cars in the ‘heritage section’ of Ferrari’s headquarters in Maranello, Italy. As he spotted a bright red Ferrari F40, one of the rarest of the manufacturer’s road cars, in the middle of the floor, he paused. Spreading his…

Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews took to Instagram on Thursday, breaking his silence following multiple fourth-quarter miscues — a lost fumble and dropped two-point conversion to tie the game — during the team’s 27-25 AFC divisional loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. “It’s impossible to adequately express how I feel. I’m absolutely gutted…

MELBOURNE, Australia — One moment, they are playing tennis. The next, they disappear from the court, or melt into a puddle, or do a backflip mid-point. Their rackets flail independently from their hands and sometimes disappear completely. Their heads are oversized. They are the best tennis players in the world; they are the undisputed stars…

MELBOURNE, Australia — Ben Shelton, the 22-year-old American who made the Australian Open semifinals Wednesday with a win over Lorenzo Sonego, added his voice to the chorus of players who have been critical of the broadcasters and on-court interviewers in his post-match news conference. “I’ve been a little bit shocked this week with how players…

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — With every Ravens turnover, every field goal forced instead of surrendering a touchdown, and every failed two-point conversion that kept the opponents just out of reach, it marched the Bills closer and closer to what they’ve been yearning to get back to for years. At long last, the Bills have returned…

Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday The Athletic discusses three of the biggest questions posed by the weekend’s Premier League action. During this set of fixtures, Darwin Nunez rebooted his navigation software to lift Liverpool past Brentford, Arsenal gave up a late two-goal lead over Aston Villa to lose ground, Nottingham Forest continued to…

The road to the Super Bowl goes through Kansas City. After dispatching the Houston Texans, the Chiefs will play in the AFC Championship Game for a seventh straight year. They’re now just two wins away from the greatest achievement in the Super Bowl era: a three-peat. Standing in their way are the Buffalo Bills, who…

The Philadelphia Eagles advanced to the conference championship game for the second time in the last three seasons after a snowy 28-22 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Lincoln Financial Field was covered in snow in the second half of the tightly contested NFC divisional matchup, but Philadelphia’s usual strengths — its No….

One evening after the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff concluded with four blowout games staged on campus, ESPN host Scott Van Pelt and football analyst Tim Hasselbeck held a conversation that mirrored many like it taking place on social media and in barrooms. The host teams won by an average of 19.3 points, and the…

MELBOURNE, Australia — A seriously cold December afternoon in midtown Manhattan, in the lobby of a hotel off Central Park. A 23-year-old woman looks up from a club chair near an elevator. She’s wearing a baseball cap, diddling around a bit on her phone. “Hey,” she says. Take another look. Oh, right, that’s Emma Navarro:…

It is 76 days since Liverpool moved back to the top of the 2024-25 Premier League table with a 2-1 home win against Brighton & Hove Albion — a position they haven’t relinquished since. Arne Slot’s side are not always showing imperious form but have still only been beaten once in their 20 league matches…

MELBOURNE, Australia — In 2020, Iga Swiatek won her first Grand Slam title at 19. The following year, Emma Raducanu won her first Grand Slam title at 18. The pair of teenage major winners have followed divergent paths since then. Swiatek has added four more Grand Slam titles to her tally, spending over 100 weeks…

An air of desperation hung over a handful of Premier League clubs last summer. Accounting years were drawing to a close across the top division of English football and the pressure was on to book profits before it was too late. Player sales were a must if a profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) breach was…

Could Ichiro Suzuki become the second-ever player unanimously voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum? Will Billy Wagner pick up the five votes he missed last year to gain entry in his final year of eligibility? Will CC Sabathia make it to Cooperstown on his first try? Heading into the Jan. 21…

Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football. This was the FA Cup weekend when Plymouth Argyle celebrated jettisoning Wayne Rooney by beating Brentford, Manchester City made short work of Salford City, Newcastle United were given a scare by Bromley and…

MELBOURNE, Australia — Here on the island that was once the center of the men’s tennis world — the land of Laver and Rosewall, Emerson and Newcombe and other gods of the game — the strangest of dynamics has emerged. The rest of the globe obsesses about Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Down here, it’s…

Belmont Drive runs parallel to Rocky Lane, a noisy thoroughfare in Liverpool that blurs into West Derby Road, connecting the city centre with Anfield and its famous football stadium. Here, the peeling grandeur of brooding Victorian homes stand incongruously against steel-shuttered shops and their grilles, reflecting the different stages of Liverpool’s past as well as…

The trolls finally got one, but not for long. NBA social media has become a cesspool of negativity, where fans come together to commiserate about why this player is overrated and that team is garbage. Today’s athletes are so inundated with criticism from the anonymous morass that most of them have learned to push it…

“It’s totally feasible that an artificial intelligence (AI) agent could simulate more football in 24 hours than has ever been played professionally in the real world in the entire 150-year history of the game,” says Lee Mooney, who was head of data insights at City Football Group for six years. “Think about how many games…

At last month’s Winter Meetings in Dallas, agent Joel Wolfe held court in front of a large group of reporters and caused a stir when discussing his client, Japanese right-hander Roki Sasaki, who is expected to sign with a major-league team after the international signing period begins on Jan. 15. Speculation about where Sasaki would…

Asked if she felt tired after spending over an hour posing for pictures with hundreds of fans, Ilona Maher channels Taylor Swift with her answer. “I do get tired a lot but, as Taylor Swift said, ‘I get tired a lot but I don’t get tired of it’.” The ‘it’ the 28-year-old rugby union player…

The Mets signed Juan Soto to a record-breaking $765 million deal, the Yankees landed Max Fried with a $218 million deal, and the Diamondbacks once again shocked the baseball world, adding ace Corbin Burnes on a $210 million pact. However, there are still several teams — including the Royals, Twins, Padres, Mariners and Cardinals —…

FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots are making a change at head coach, splitting with Jerod Mayo just one year after he replaced Bill Belichick. Now, a franchise that once exuded stability and success like no other in the NFL is about to have its third coach in just three seasons. New England fired…

It was a conversation with Ruben Amorim at the start of December that goes some way to explaining why Marcus Rashford has been absent from the Manchester United side for the past five matches. United had just beaten Everton 4-0, with Rashford scoring two of the goals in a vibrant display on Sunday, December 1….

At the end of the second set of the final of the World Darts Championship, the biggest game in one of the biggest indoor sports in the world, Luke Littler calmly strolled off stage, gave his family a wry, knowing smile and rubbed his hands together like he had the prescient foresight of the beating…

A mother wipes away tears outside Anfield as she comforts her young son on a bitterly cold night. Liz O’Driscoll, who has travelled to Merseyside from County Kerry in Ireland with eight-year-old Liam, has just been informed by Liverpool staff that the two tickets she bought for the Premier League game against Aston Villa are…

Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold and Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers headline the list of first timers for the 2025 Pro Bowl Games, which the league announced Thursday. The Baltimore Ravens lead all teams with nine Pro Bowl selections, while the Detroit Lions (seven players), Minnesota Vikings (six),…

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Drake head coach Ben McCollum paced in the coaches’ locker room before speed-walking in to address his team. His assistants had told him the players were a little quiet during warmups for the Wildcat Classic, a mid-December game against Kansas State in downtown Kansas City. Star point guard Bennett Stirtz attended…

The famous wrestler Sting, in describing his character change in 1996 from a clear babyface to a darker, enigmatic character, offered the perfect axiom about predicting the future. Noted the Stinger: “The only thing that’s for sure about Sting is nothing’s for sure.” This would be the same for sports media. There are some trends…

GLENDALE, Ariz. — There were two Boise States on the field on New Year’s Eve. One was a conference champion living out a dream season. A team carried to the College Football Playoff on the back of star running back Ashton Jeanty, and a storied program atop the Group of 5 conferences once more. The…

Which front office is the best in sports? In 2024, the answer to that question is the Oklahoma City Thunder, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Ravens. At least according to their front-office peers. At the start of each season this year, The Athletic polled 40 executives and coaches in each of…

The world’s No 1 chess player Magnus Carlsen will return to the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in New York after initially withdrawing as he refused to change out of a pair of jeans. The 34-year-old pulled out from the World Rapid Championship on Friday after breaching the dress code and opting not to…

Oscar Wilde once famously wrote that “to concede one goal direct from a corner is a misfortune, to concede two in eight days looks like carelessness.” The thoughts of Oscar, noted corner-kick scholar, may have been rushing through the heads of anyone associated with Manchester United recently after they allowed not one but two ‘olimpicos’…

Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said Luka Dončić is “doing fine” after the 25-year-old star’s home was burglarized Friday in what was the latest occurrence in a string of break-ins into professional athletes’ homes in the past few months. “I reached out, texted him,” Kidd said Saturday. “He’s doing fine (after) going through that incident….

If you want some long-term relationship advice, I offer you this: Find someone who loves you as much as news outlets love end-of-the-year content. The New Yorker did a piece 11 years ago on why our brains love lists, and it holds up today. Among other reasons: It spatially organizes information and promises a story…

We are now exactly 10 weeks away from the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline. That leaves enough runway for the needs of buyers and sellers to shift before the biggest decisions are made — or for buyers and sellers to switch places. But in a season where there’s already been plenty of trade action, it’s…

Manchester City attempted 683 passes in their 1-1 draw with Everton, but it was one that Nathan Ake refused that revealed the tensions that are gnawing at them.  It came just as another flurry from Pep Guardiola’s side was beginning to settle down. A familiar sense of exasperation was already brewing in the stands —…

Ashton Jeanty was into basketball more than football as a kid. So before he grew up to be a 5-foot-9 battering ram in cleats, his favorite athlete was LeBron James. Jeanty, who bounced around the globe as the son of a Naval officer, spent a chunk of his childhood in Florida when James was on…

Arizona State was picked to finish last in the 16-team Big 12. The Sun Devils are now meeting Texas in the Peach Bowl in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. The player who sparked that incredible run also epitomizes it.  Cameron Skattebo — 1,568 rushing yards, 19 rushing touchdowns, 506 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns…

Happy holidays, and prepare for the greatest gift: tennis returns tomorrow, December 27. In the spirit of looking back on the previous season and remembering all the moments big and small that defined it, here is a compendium of tennis stories of all kinds from The Athletic’s tennis writers, Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare, with…

Pep Guardiola’s list of symptoms is long and unsettling. He has trouble sleeping. He can only take light meals in the evening. On some days, he does not eat at all. He finds it difficult to read because his mind keeps wandering. He feels, at times, intensely lonely. Things can get so bad that they…

Sports stars, celebrities, and even cryptocurrency all have rookie cards… but does Santa Claus? It’s a question you may ask yourself after consuming a little too much nutmeg. And since the season of giving is officially here, I want to spread some holiday cheer by highlighting Christmas-themed trading cards, which is a bigger niche than…

ATLANTA — Michael Penix Jr. looked like an NFL veteran in his first professional start but not as much as he sounded like one when he took the podium after the game. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback was at a local Costco shopping Tuesday night when head coach Raheem Morris informed him he would be making…

2024 U.S. Open men’s doubles champion Max Purcell has admitted breaking anti-doping rules and has been provisionally suspended from tennis while under investigation. Purcell has been suspended since December 12, having made the admission and requested to be provisionally suspended December 10. The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) confirmed the suspension December 23, saying that…

HARTFORD, Conn. — As USC’s bench emptied onto the XL Center floor, with the No. 7 Trojans having defeated the No. 4 UConn Huskies 72-70, JuJu Watkins’ hands shot to the sky. Basking in her 25-point performance that lifted USC past UConn for the first time in school history, Watkins turned to the small section…

LOUISVILLE, Ky.  — What’s remarkable is not that two women are coaching for the national championship and one will win a title for the first time in the 44 years of NCAA women’s volleyball. It’s remarkable that these women, Katie Schumacher-Cawley and Dani Busboom Kelly, are the two doing it. Because they are the ideal…

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Matt Murray looked up to the scoreboard above him, counted down the seconds as they disappeared and finally pumped his fist. It had been 638 days since Murray last felt the feeling washing over him. Bilateral hip surgery forced the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie out of the entire 2023-24 season, the final…

Beyond the dust of Liverpool’s dock road and the huge lorries rolling in and out of the city’s port, the glass panels of Everton’s new home at the Bramley-Moore Dock sparkle impressively, radiating ambition. The site, expected to open next year, is a feat of engineering considering the narrow dimensions of the fresh land below…

By Pete Sampson, Joe Rexrode and Seth Emerson SOUTH BEND, Ind. — No. 7 Notre Dame cruised past No. 10 Indiana 27-17 in the first game of the 12-team College Football Playoff on Friday night. The Fighting Irish advance to play No. 2 Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1. Two interceptions in the…

By Zack Rosenblatt, Dianna Russini and Michael Silver Woody Johnson decided to do his own research. The New York Jets’ owner was at his house in Palm Beach, Fla., last February, discussing potential offseason acquisitions with team decision-makers as they watched game tape. Wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, a former Denver Broncos first-round pick, flashed on…

What’s the right moment to hitch your hopes to an up-and-coming tennis player? People were having visions of Carlos Alcaraz’s future when he was 10, the age at which Babolat and the other big racket companies sometimes start handing out equipment and swag. At France’s Les Petit As, the premier tournament for juniors 14-and-under, any…

It was only six months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when, on a balmy September evening in eastern Germany, I came across Mykhailo Mudryk shortly after midnight. This was September 2022 and Mudryk was by then an emerging talent for the Ukrainian champions, Shakhtar Donetsk. He scored and was the team’s major attacking threat in…

Of the many things worth hating about college football, most of them are at least tacitly associated with the most hated people in sports: television executives. They fix games that hurt your team. They don’t fix games that should be fixed to help your team. They find a way to keep those games at four…

The Atlanta Falcons are making the move they clearly did not want to make – replacing veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins with rookie Michael Penix Jr. starting immediately. Falcons head coach Raheem Morris announced the decision Tuesday night in a statement released by the team. “After review we have made the decision Michael Penix Jr. will…

LAS VEGAS – As expected, the upcoming NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco will be a mini-tournament of three teams composed of the top 24 players in the league and the team who wins the Rising Stars Challenge. The new format, announced jointly on Tuesday by the NBA and National Basketball Players Association, will include…

After signing Juan Soto to the richest contract in sports history, people familiar with the New York Mets’ thinking about filling roster holes said the club plans to act “aggressively yet smart.” Such phrasing suggests the Mets will take their shots with some of the talent available on the market but may want to avoid…

Saturday, December 7, Joao Lucas Reis da Silva, a 24-year-old professional tennis player, did about the most normal thing anyone does these days. He posted a couple selfie on Instagram. It was his partner’s birthday, so he posted a sweet carousel of them posing by the water in Rio de Janeiro. “I love you so…

NORTHVILLE, Mich. — Fahad Yousif is two days removed from receiving something called a Certificate of Completion from the National Football League. It is dated Dec. 12. It is signed by Ari Novick, Ph.D., a licensed psychotherapist with a private practice in Laguna Beach, Calif. It is numbered “Cert #216932,” meaning 216,931 others presumably have received…

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — And in the end, after another postseason heartbreak, after an emotionally exhausting offseason, after the drama-filled holdouts and the gnarly wave of injuries and the personal tragedies, after a star player’s lash-out and, with a team’s hopes hanging in the balance, an infuriating and surreal tap-out, the San Francisco 49ers’ 2024…

This wasn’t the way alpine skiing aficionados drew it up when they scheduled men’s and women’s speed races on the famed Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek, Colo., on back-to-back weekends this month. They figured the events held major potential for a celebration of the sport’s golden couple: American Mikaela Shiffrin, who might be…

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — During quiet moments on the sideline, Calais Campbell can still hear his father’s voice. Truth is, it never left him. The words were stored away, hardened into his psyche. Charles Campbell saw his son’s path before his son ever could. Twenty years later, the lessons have lasted. Like the time Calais…

NORTON SHORES, Mich. — There is nothing outside that suggests the machines sitting inside this gray, nondescript building in an industrial office center could disrupt the trading card industry. Sign your name on the clipboard just past the entrance. Walk by a long table with pizza boxes next to a refrigerator and it all feels…

Plans to expand Wimbledon are set to go before the U.K. High Court. The All England Club (AELTC), host of the third Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season, wants to add a third stadium court and 38 further courts to its footprint, tripling its size in works expected to cost over £200million ($254.8million). The Greater…

OLD BETHPAGE, New York — Bruce Bennett may have been to more NHL games than anyone in history, and the 69-year-old’s house offers glimpses into the career that’s put him rinkside so many times over more than five decades. Signed jerseys, sticks and photos of Wayne Gretzky line the living room walls, many inscribed with…

To finish fifth and still stand on the Formula One podium made for an unusual end to George Russell’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. On the other side of the rostrum was Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver who had already been on the podium on Sunday evening after recovering from 19th on the grid to finish…

You may have seen the clips going viral on social media. The fans watching sporting events indoors, on a huge screen that makes them feel as though they are in the stadium of their choice. It’s a venue that has been frequented by the likes of Hollywood actor Danny DeVito and has transformed the way…

When Conor Niland picked up £30,000 for winning the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award three weeks ago, it was double his biggest payday throughout a seven-year professional tennis career. This neatly encompasses what Niland’s award-winning book, “The Racket”, is all about — the reality of being a tennis player outside the elite….

Buster Posey held the San Francisco Giants’ record for the largest contract in franchise history. In Posey’s first major move as the club’s president of baseball operations, he did not hesitate to smash it. The Giants agreed to terms with free-agent shortstop Willy Adames on a seven-year, $182 million contract on Saturday, reshaping the left…

The Jameis Winston experience reached heights never seen before with the Cleveland Browns’ loss to the Denver Broncos on Monday night. The Browns aren’t your typical 3-9 team, which the Pittsburgh Steelers already know well. Should the first-place Steelers be on upset alert again in Week 14? Our writers Mike Sando, Zak Keefer and Jeff…

Utah will be one of the NHL’s highest-scoring teams? The Stars Stanley Cup winners? Dylan Larkin — and many others — 40-goal scorers? Heading into the 2024-25 NHL season, The Athletic asked its hockey staff for bold predictions, and two months later, some are holding up well while others look to have been a bit…

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Atop the Mercedes hospitality unit at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, cooled by nearby fans working hard in the midday heat, Lewis Hamilton sat at a table with his race engineer, Peter Bonnington, for some pre-race weekend planning. It was a routine they’d been through plenty of…

Russell Wilson playing for a new contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers ranks among the top quarterback storylines heading into the 2024 NFL season’s final weeks. There are many others of interest, which makes this a good time to check in on all 32 quarterback situations. As I usually do this time of year, I’ve grouped…

The 2025 Club World Cup will feature 32 clubs from across the globe who will go through group stages and then knockout rounds. This differs from the previous format, which saw one team each from six continental confederations and the league champions from the host nation fight it out. There have been concerns over the…

By Bruce Feldman, Antonio Morales and Ralph Russo UCF has inquired about the availability of USC coach Lincoln Riley as it searches for a replacement for Gus Malzahn, three people who have been privy to those conversations told The Athletic on Wednesday. There has been no indication Riley is interested in making the move, the…

University of Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich did not hold back his disappointment upon learning that his Hurricanes were ranked No. 12 in Tuesday’s latest College Football Playoff rankings, and thus out of the 12-team field in favor of No. 11 Alabama, who earned the last at-large bid in this iteration. Michigan AD Warde Manuel,…

Florian Wirtz is a jewel of German football and was central to Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten domestic double last season, winning the Bundesliga’s player of the year award. Alongside Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala, he has become the great hope of Julian Nagelsmann’s national team, too, and will be fundamental to Germany’s challenge at the 2026 World…

UConn star Paige Bueckers continues to make history. On Monday, Nike named Bueckers as the first name, image and likeness athlete to design and launch a player edition sneaker, with the brand debuting Bueckers’ Nike G.T. Hustle 3 on Saturday. “It’s definitely motivating to wear your own shoe,” Bueckers said in a statement. “I grew…

Shopping for sports fans can be harder than one might think. Chances are the fan in your life already has a variety of hats, jerseys and who knows what else to rep their favorite teams and players. But there’s a massive array of sports related items out there that the person on your list may…

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Arizona State Sun Devils gathered at midfield, an enormous mass of maroon and gold celebrating Saturday’s 49-7 win against rival Arizona at Arizona Stadium. Suddenly, Cam Skattebo broke from the pack, lifting the Territorial Cup in his right hand and charging for the stands where Arizona State fans awaited. Skattebo had…

A report commissioned by FIFA has concluded football’s governing body “has a responsibility” to compensate workers who suffered during the hosting of the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The long-awaited report from FIFA’s sub-committee on human rights and social responsibility — finally published on Friday at midnight Central European Time — says the governing body “took…

FIFA, the world governing body for football, released on Friday night its evaluation report for Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the men’s World Cup in 2034, awarding the nation a higher score for bidding requirements than it granted the successful Canadian, American and Mexican joint bid for the 2026 edition, while declaring the risk assessment…

Friday, November 29, 2024, marks the 125-year anniversary of the formation of FC Barcelona. To mark the occasion, The Athletic is running a series of pieces, celebrating the people and the moments who have helped make the club what it is today. We have told you about the story of Joan Gamper, the man who…

Ten months ago when the nights were longest, Ned Rice emailed total strangers to share his family’s unthinkable dilemma. These were doctors across the country who had not met and did not treat his 3-year-old daughter. Wynnie had brain cancer. This was how Rice, a Phillies assistant general manager, coped. He had to gather as…

As the season approaches its final two weeks, jostling for at-large bids continues for teams in the upper echelon of College Football Playoff competition. At this point, there are teams with CFP hopes both as a conference champion and as an at-large. There are others, such as Big 12 contenders BYU and Colorado, which need…

Marie-Philip Poulin stood on the blue line at the Bell Centre, fighting back tears. She had just been introduced to a world record crowd in Montreal and the fans were giving her a deafening ovation. Poulin, the best women’s hockey player in the world for almost a decade, typically gets the loudest pregame cheer, especially…

How does one of the best male players in tennis history choose a new coach? Pick somebody who has been there with you — and who you beat to get there. Novak Djokovic’s decision to hire Andy Murray for at least the Australian Open has renewed interest in one of the most interesting psychological relationships…

The low point of Brian Kelly’s 38 games as head coach at LSU came in Gainesville two weeks ago, with a third consecutive loss and two heated sideline exchanges with his players. The first sideline interaction looked familiar: Kelly got in the face of wide receiver Chris Hilton with a stern lecture that featured a…

Dr. Rajinikanth and his wife Dr. Padma would regularly play chess together for fun at their family home in India. Always at their side, watching wide-eyed, observing intensely as each piece was strategically moved on the board, was their son, Gukesh. The young boy was captivated by the calculated black and white dance before him….

Tom Marchitelli worked as an accountant for a hedge fund for eight years before setting up a side hustle that soon became his full-time business. Marchitelli started a custom menswear clothing business called Gentleman’s Playbook a decade ago. Since then, he has accrued approximately 500 clients, the majority of whom are professional athletes in the…

You can officially count the New York Giants among the teams whose offseason will be built around finding its next franchise quarterback. Daniel Jones’ being benched and then released is just one development highlighting league happenings leading up to Sunday’s Week 12 action. The Giants host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with fan favorite Tommy DeVito…

All eyes will be on Kansas City, Missouri this weekend when the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit face off in the NWSL championship on Sunday. In a way, it will bring the season full circle with CPKC Stadium hosting an action-packed finale. The stadium’s opening in March marked a historic moment for the NWSL,…

We’re about a month into the NBA season, and while the injury bug has bitten nearly every team in one way or another, there are other worries that are worth … well, worrying about. The Athletic asked its NBA staff for each team’s biggest concern at this point. The responses covered the full spectrum, from…