• NLCS Game 4: Brewers 6-4 Dodgers

• Defending champions swept out of playoffs

• Milwaukee roar back from four runs down

• Brewers will face Rays or Guardians in World Series

Jake Bauers started the Brewers’ comeback with a two-run double and Garrett Mitchell hit a go-ahead home run to deliver a 6-4 victory ⁠over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday and send Milwaukee to their first World Series appearance in 44 years.

Bauers added a bases-loaded walk to tie the game in the ⁠fifth inning as the Brewers ⁠rallied from an early ​four-run deficit to sweep the National League Championship Series in four games. The dominating performance came after Milwaukee were swept out of the NLCS by Los Angeles ⁠last season.

• Halpin’s first playoff homer puts Cleveland ahead

• Williams strikes out nine as Guardians win 3-2

• Cleveland bullpen retires 11 of final 12 Rays batters

Petey Halpin hit a go-ahead two-run homer, Gavin Williams struck out nine over five innings and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Thursday to take a 2-1 lead.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Friday, though rain is forecast.

• Former QB says he is looking ‘for next landing spot’

• Aikman and Buck said to have argued over contracts

Longtime Monday Night Football announcer Troy Aikman said he is looking for his “next landing spot” with ⁠his ESPN contract set to expire after February’s Super Bowl.

“I’ll broadcast through this season, and I’ll be ⁠a free agent ⁠at ​the end of the year and kind of see what happens,” Aikman said in a radio interview ⁠with KTCK of Dallas on Thursday morning.

After Russia annexed the Donbas region in 2014, Shakhtar Donetsk have not played at their stadium for 12 years. This season, they will play their Champions League home games in west London. Kieran Jackson sat with the punters – male and female, old and young, friends and family – for an altogether different spectator vibe

The lack of cohesion in the center of the park is evident for the US, with Emma Hayes continuing to try different combinations

The discourse around the US women’s national team may have been a harsh one if not for a fourth-half surge against Spain.

In the latest of their back-to-back bookings, where Emma Hayes’ team plays the same opponent twice, Spain looked far more confident and effective than the four-time champions. Both teams were missing a handful of crucial players; Naomi Girma and Sam Coffey headlining the US’s absentees, while Aitana Bonmatí, Mariona Caldentey and Clàudia Pina were among Spain’s.

With the season approaching its climax, we look at the players who have perfected the art of smack talking through the years

Today, even the most casual of WNBA fans have watched some of the league’s biggest stars talking trash on the court. But while the snarling convos look heated, most of the time, they are good-natured, competitive fun.

Still, we wondered, who are the best trash talkers in the game? Which players over the years have turned talking smack into an art form? Let’s explore.

• Milwaukee rally past Los Angeles for 3-0 NLCS lead

• Bauers and Mitchell homer back-to-back off Blake Snell

• Defending champions face elimination on Thursday

Jake Bauers and Garrett Mitchell hit back-to-back home runs off Blake Snell to reclaim the lead in the seventh inning as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-2 on Wednesday night to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.

The Dodgers had just taken a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth before being stunned. The loss pushed the two-time defending World Series champions to the brink of elimination. They had trailed 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series only once previously in franchise history, when they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1966 World Series.

The protests around an anti-ICE T-shirt show that politics can never be separated from sports, especially now

On 26 September, Daniela Silva was expelled from Austin FC’s match with San Diego FC for wearing a T-shirt reading “Abolish ICE”. She says she was banned from Q2 Stadium for a year (Austin FC said that the ban was issued by the Austin Police Department, not the club, and that they offered to rescind it but that Silva declined).

This happened, really, truly, and you cannot make this up, during Austin FC’s Hispanic Heritage Night. It also happened six days after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents shot a Venezuelan delivery driver, 28-year-old Wilber Garcés Pérez, in the torso in Austin, sparking protests in the city.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is the author of The Long Game: US Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top, or Thereabouts, which is out now. He teaches at Marist University.

• Receiver liable for two counts, not liable on eight others

• Lakeeta Vaccaro alleged abuse by NFL receiver

A Miami jury on Tuesday found Tyreek Hill liable for two counts of battery but not liable for the eight remaining claims made by Lakeeta Vaccaro – ending the high-profile civil trial involving the NFL wide receiver and his estranged wife.

Hill, who has played for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, was found liable for two counts of battery – one stemming from an incident in January 2024, and another from April 2025. The jury awarded Vaccaro $500,000 in compensatory damages but did not award her punitive damages.

Airports’ TSA staff have been stripped of their chairs in the name of ‘professionalism’. Most supermarket staff have never had them. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is seated at his desk – and apparently snoozing

Great news for everyone who is soon to fly via a US airport: the Trump administration has just elevated the travel experience. You still risk getting arrested by immigration agents and thrown into a detention centre, but never mind that! Instead, luxuriate in the fact that none of the poorly paid Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff with whom you interact will be sitting down. The government recently got rid of all the chairs at travel document checking stations, arguing that “maintaining a standing posture helps reinforce professionalism” and strengthens “our security posture and … commitment to hospitality”. Funnily enough, border patrol and customs officers have not adopted the same policy. Perhaps because their job tends to involve being as inhospitable as possible.

TSA agents aren’t the only US workers getting sore calf muscles during their shifts. Unlike their European and British counterparts, cashiers at US supermarkets have traditionally been forced to stand while working. The US’s upright obsession seems to be down to a Protestant work ethic and a lack of labour laws. Sitting apparently conveys laziness to the discerning American consumer. Over the years there have been numerous right-to-sit lawsuits pushing back on mandatory standing but, while things are shifting slightly, seated supermarket cashiers are still unusual. One exception is Aldi, which has been expanding aggressively in the US. Cashiers get chairs at Aldi because (surprise) it’s more efficient when your workers’ feet aren’t aching all the time.

The once heroic boxer showcases a frankness in this compelling new series but also an unwillingness to take accountability for his darkest moments

Mike Tyson never envisioned old age. And yet here he still is, having outlived his parents, Brooklynites of ill repute who died when he was a teenager, and the Brownsville tough guys who teased him for being scrawny and having a lisp. Here he is after doing hard time for rape in his prime, winning and losing great fortunes and battling addiction to drink, drugs and fame. Here he still is, 60 years old and a grandfather now, mixing it up with Jake Paul in the ring, opening up to manosphere-adjacent podcasters, bobbing into an impromptu White House press briefing – Māori face-tattoo unmistakably in the frame – while on a DC visit to buck up his old pal as his party faces a bleak midterm forecast. “I don’t have to exist,” the champ says in Tyson, the latest four-part vanity project on his turbulent life and times. “Some reason, something allowed me to exist.”

In his heyday, Tyson was a mesmerizing sporting event unto himself – the ruthless knockout machine who struck fear into opponents at first sight, felled them in seconds and looked back on the carnage with cool nonchalance. His darkest episodes – the combustive relationship with actor Robin Givens, the six-year prison sentence for rape, biting off Evander Holyfield’s ear – only deepened the public fascination with him, adding to the lore of boxing’s baddest man. In the winter of his life, Tyson’s self-reflection, so deep it tips into self-parody, is the enthralling spectacle now. And if generations of Black comedians have proved anything, it’s that the appetite for Mike Tyson impersonations is inexhaustible.

• Freddy Peralta pitches six scoreless innings in 3-1 win

• José Ramírez error opens door to three-run fourth

• ALCS heads to Cleveland at 1-1 for Thursday’s Game 3

Freddy Peralta pitched six innings of four-hit ball, Liam Hicks lined a two-run single after a fielding error by José Ramírez and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-1 on Tuesday night to level the American League Championship Series at 1-1.

Game 3 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night in Cleveland.

The US were on the verge of losing two straight at home, but second-half goals from Ashley Sanchez and Mallory Swanson salvaged a draw

It was nearly time for the panic button. Maybe not to press it, but to acknowledge that it’s within reach. A listless, shorthanded US women’s national team were struggling against Spain, down 2-0, and facing the ignominy of two straight losses at home after being badly exposed in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat in Washington DC.

Then two players who had just returned to the team after long absences turned the tide. Ashley Sanchez and Mallory Swanson, after international goal droughts of 1,648 days and 801 days respectively, each scored in the second half to earn a 2-2 draw with the reigning World Cup champions.

• Recruiting report prepared for Raiders’ 2024 search

• Lawyers say assessment contains racial stereotypes

• Flores sued NFL over discriminatory hiring in 2022

A recently unsealed recruiting report on Brian Flores contains multiple examples of “racial stereotypes” and amounts to unlawful retaliation for the coach’s discrimination lawsuit against the NFL, according to his lawyers.

The Korn Ferry report, made public on Tuesday and obtained by the Associated Press, lists six strengths and seven weaknesses that Flores’ attorneys say demonstrate the league’s continued reliance on racial stereotypes in hiring and its retaliation against the coach for his lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.

• Former QB fought with 69-year-old last October

• Fox Sports parted ways with Sanchez over incident

• Sanchez was charged over Indianapolis confrontation

Former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports analyst Mark Sanchez has reached an agreement in principle with the truck driver who stabbed him during an altercation last October, according to the Athletic.

Sanchez was stabbed and pepper sprayed by Perry Tole, who was 69 at the time, during the incident in Indianapolis, where the former New York Jets star was due to cover an NFL game between the Colts and Las Vegas Raiders. Prosecutors said Tole used pepper spray and a knife to defend himself ​after Sanchez attempted to enter ‌his truck during an argument over a parking spot.

Sean Duffy targets bike lanes and immigrant truck drivers while steering funds away from addressing lethal US roads

Barbara McCann may have been the first person to notice that the Federal Highway Administration had removed several safety policies from public view.

McCann worked on road safety policy at the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) for more than a decade across multiple administrations, retiring in January 2025 just before Donald Trump’s second term started. After Sean Duffy, the president’s ally and former Fox news host, took the wheel at USDOT, she became increasingly worried as the secretary appeared unmotivated to address pedestrian safety and regularly bashed bike infrastructure.

Away from the public eye, deportation planes at Youngstown-Warren and Akron-Canton airports carry hundreds of immigrants daily amid Trump’s ICE crackdown

Just after 10.30am on a recent weekday morning, a Bombardier CRJ200 Air Wisconsin aircraft landed at Youngstown-Warren regional airport.

Having made the 75-minute flight from Milwaukee, the 50-seater came to a halt and its twin engines fired down next to another Air Wisconsin plane and a larger Eastern Air Express Boeing 737, planes that flew in the evening before from Alexandria, Louisiana.

France’s always-cool winger has crowds hanging on his every move – adulation that means more than any title could

When I was younger, I wanted to be the captain on my football team because back then, I assumed that the armband was given to the best player. It was a goal of mine for so long that, even as my youth teams won tournaments and trophies, and I won top scorer and best player awards, I still felt unsatisfied because someone else always had the armband. Whenever I saw another teammate sprinting around with the armband on, I took it as an indictment.

I had forgotten this childish way of thinking until France v Belgium in the Uefa Nations League last week. Ousmane Dembélé, who was wearing the armband for France, was particularly active. Had it not been for the wastefulness of his teammates, he would have had several assists during his time on the field.

The winger is 28, and younger teammates are rising into the high-pressure spots he has usually occupied

Usually, the second weekend of October sees Christian Pulisic flanked by compatriots as the Star-Spangled Banner plays. Last year, he was involved in US friendlies against Ecuador and Australia. But this year, with Fifa having folded the October window into September, Pulisic didn’t have the chance. On Sunday, his pre-match music was O Generosa, the Serie A anthem, which he observed with a soft smile.

Mark Twain’s first visit to Italy left him describing the country as “a vast museum of magnificence and misery”, and it’s a fitting summary of Pulisic’s three-plus years with Milan. The magnificence: 43 goals and 25 assists in 138 appearances. The misery: just one trophy since he arrived in July 2023, a 2025 Supercoppa Italia held in Saudi Arabia.

• Buffalo Bills 37–34 Los Angeles Rams (OT)

• Allen was 0-7 in overtime coming into game

• Quarterback rushes for 121 yards on wild night

• Rams have field goal blocked in overtime

Josh Allen accounted for 331 total yards and two touchdowns, Tyler Bass made a 45-yard field goal with 1:55 left in overtime shortly after Greg Rousseau blocked the Rams’ own attempt, and the Buffalo Bills outlasted Los Angeles for a 37-34 victory on Monday night.

Allen passed for 210 yards and rushed for 121 more for the Bills (4-1), who rallied to win a frantic game befitting the teams with the NFL’s last two MVPs at quarterback. Allen won an overtime game for the first time in his career – he had previously been 0-7 – by besting Matthew Stafford, who passed for 383 yards and three touchdowns.

• NLCS Game 2: LA Dodgers 4-7 Milwaukee Brewers

• Reigning champions 2-0 down in best-of-seven series

• Guardians take Game 1 of ALCS against Rays

William Contreras hit a tying homer in the fifth and singled home the go-ahead run an inning later as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 on Monday in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

Four relievers combined to retire the last 15 Dodgers batters in order as the Brewers took a 2-0 lead over the two-time defending World Series champions in this best-of-seven series, which heads to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Wednesday.

• Ernest Jones IV was not wearing helmet during incident

• Linebacker will miss game against Commanders

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw was suspended for one game after headbutting Seattle’s Ernest Jones IV in the wake of a late hit on the Seahawks sideline.

The NFL issued the suspension on Monday, saying the headbutt of a player without a helmet during Sunday’s 32-29 win against Seattle was “contrary to the generally understood principles of sportsmanship.”

• NBA star wore jersey during 1998 NBA finals

• Jordan memorabilia has attracted huge attention

A jersey worn by Michael Jordan during the 1998 NBA finals has been sold for $14m, an auction house announced on Monday, in what it said is the highest price ever paid for a piece of basketball memorabilia.

Hunt Auctions said Miami real estate investor Ron Firman had bought the jersey in a private sale. Jordan wore the red jersey in Game 2 of the 1998 finals; he and the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz that night to even the series at a game apiece. Jordan and the Bulls would go on to win the series in six games, the sixth and final title of his Hall of Fame career. That 1997-98 season was the subject of the Last Dance documentary series, which became a hit on Netflix in 2020.

It’s not just that the club’s recent charges themselves are unprecedented – it’s the language used to describe them too

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The language of football is a fine and highly nuanced dialect. The majority of people involved in the game speak it with a high degree of sophistication. Minor deviations from the familiar, almost imperceptible to outsiders, can set off alarm bells: what’s really going on there? Why isn’t he happy? What’s she hinting at? But it’s an argot developed to talk about football, and when applied to other subjects, it can sound extremely jarring.

Erling Haaland is one of the brighter, more engaging players. There’s an appealing quirkiness to him that suggests he has a higher-than-usual level of self-awareness. He doesn’t mind stepping outside the norms, being a bit different. But consider his assessment of Manchester City’s 3-0 win at Liverpool on Sunday.

After three straight game-winning drives, Cleveland’s quarterback was sacked eight times in a dismal defeat that punctured the hype surrounding him

I guess the New York Jets didn’t get the memo. This was supposed to be a Deshaun Watson lovefest. A day where, much to the chagrin of those of us with a moral compass and a functional memory, football fans worldwide could declare Watson was “so back” and that the Browns were in some blinkered, alternate universe, a Super Bowl contender. No such luck, as the Browns looked like the Browns – reminding an otherwise jubilant city of Cleveland that they are trapped in the sports equivalent of the Backrooms.

Limping along for 155 passing yards and one touchdown, Watson fell to Earth harder than David Bowie in a Nicolas Roeg film (yes, I just watched the Dennis Miller Monday Night Football documentary on HBO). He completed fewer than 50% of his passes and ended the day with a 69.6 passer rating. I should also probably mention he got sacked eight times. Yes, eight times. EIGHT TIMES. He only completed seven more passes than he received punishing hits behind the line of scrimmage. It was a performance NBC NFL writer Patrick Daugherty called “unspeakably bad.” Actually, I think the performance was very much speakable, as I’ve demonstrated here. Stick around for another 400 words.

• Turang homers off Skubal as Brewers take Game 1

• Lara’s fifth-inning single breaks 1-1 deadlock

• Milwaukee end seven-game playoff skid against LA

Brice Turang homered off Tarik Skubal and Milwaukee’s bullpen shut down the Los Angeles Dodgers after Jacob Misiorowski’s taxing outing, sending the Brewers to a 2-1 victory in the National League Championship Series opener on Sunday night.

Luis Lara hit a tiebreaking single off Skubal in the fifth inning as Milwaukee took Game 1 in the first NLCS matchup of 100-win teams since the Cincinnati Reds eliminated the Philadelphia Phillies in 1976. The Brewers had lost seven consecutive postseason games against the Dodgers, including a sweep in last year’s NLCS.

• Daniels’ late scramble leaves Washington unable to kick

• Giants rally from 14 down but settle for 27-27 draw

• Maye throws four TDs as Patriots rout Raiders 45-17

• Jaguars stun Eagles in London with one second left

Jayden Daniels took off on an ill-advised scramble in the closing seconds of overtime with the Commanders in field-goal range, and Washington were unable to stop the clock before time expired, settling for a 27-27 tie with the New York Giants on Sunday after both teams made critical mistakes in the extra period.

Washington (1-3-1) got the ball with two minutes left in overtime when Daron Payne stripped the ball from Cam Skattebo with the Giants in range for a game-winning field goal. Daniels quickly moved the Commanders to the Giants’ 24-yard line, but with 12 seconds left and Washington out of timeouts, he held on to the ball and went down for no gain. Washington lined up to spike the ball, but the clock ticked down to zero and coach Dan Quinn ripped off his headset in disgust.

• Mavericks star dazzles in return from ACL tear

• Irving scores 17 points in Dallas’s 132-115 win

• Dusty May hails nine-time All-Star as an ‘artist’

Kyrie Irving waited nearly 600 days for his return to the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks didn’t keep him waiting any longer for his welcome-back basket.

Irving scored a reverse layup on the game’s opening possession on Sunday night, setting the tone for a team-high 17 points in the Mavericks’ 132-115 pre-season win over the Houston Rockets in Macau.

The unbeaten 49ers edged the Super Bowl champion Seahawks 32-29 after the Packers thrashed the Bears 31-7 in week five of the NFL

TOUCHDOWN! Bengals 7-0 Dolphins 14:03, 1st quarter

J Burrow to M Gesicki for four yards

J Croskey-Merritt 33 yard rush

• Little hits 57-yard winner as time expires in London

• Jaguars snatch 19-17 victory after late Eagles lead

• Sirianni shoulders blame for costly kickoff decision

• Week five roundup: Giants salvage tie, Vikings roll

Cam Little grew up playing soccer and watching Premier League games every weekend. So lining up a game-winning kick for the Jaguars in London was something special.

Little connected from 57 yards as time expired and Jacksonville beat the Philadelphia Eagles 19-17 in a wild finish at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

How will the Seahawks and 49ers fare today? Here is what to know, including kick-off time, TV channels and live stream options

Last winter, two games between the 49ers and Seahawks decided the shape of the NFL season. The two teams played each other in the Bay Area on the last weekend of the regular season, and Seattle’s win secured the NFC West and homefield advantage when the teams met later in the NFC divisional playoffs. Seattle’s advantage only got more lopsided at home, and a 41-6 win proved to be the launching pad that sent the Seahawks flying through the rest of the playoffs, ending with a Super Bowl victory. The Niners watched from home.

Now they meet again in one of the most anticipated games of the 2026 season to date. The 49ers take an unbeaten record on the road against a 3-1 Seattle team who have kept the train on the tracks despite Sam Darnold getting hurt early in Week 1 and missing a game. Whoever wins here will claim divisional favorite status as we move into the second quarter of the season, and they’ll also give themselves a good shot to claim a head-to-head tiebreaker that may be important in the league’s most competitive division.

• Knibb overtakes Norwegian rival in final kilometer

• Defending champion Løvseth collapses while leading

• France’s Vincent Luis wins men’s title on Kona debut

American triathlete Taylor Knibb has won her first Hawaiian Ironman world title after one of the most dramatic finishes in race history.

With a mile left, Norwegian defending champion Solveig Løvseth led Knibb by more than a minute and looked rock-solid, having taken the lead from her inside the final 10km of the 42.2km marathon run.

• Williams fans 12 as Cleveland win decisive Game 5

• Ramírez’s two-run homer provides only scoring

• Guardians to face Rays for place in World Series

Gavin Williams struck out 12, José Ramírez homered on a pitch just above home plate and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Chicago White Sox 2-0 on Saturday night to complete a comeback from a 2-0 deficit in their best-of-five American League Division Series.

Cleveland open the American League Championship Series at Tampa Bay on Monday night, seeking their first World Series appearance since 2016. The Guardians/Indians franchise have not won the title since 1948, the longest drought among MLB teams.

• Sandell’s 47-yard kick seals 27-24 upset in Dallas

• Sooners overcome offensive struggles to stun Texas

• Manning throws three TDs but two costly picks

Tate Sandell kicked a 47-yard field goal on the final play and Oklahoma overcame their continued offensive ineptness with touchdowns on special teams and defense in a 27-24 win over No 1 Texas in the Red River rivalry game on Saturday.

The Sooners (3-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) beat a No 1 team for the first time since a 38-17 win over Missouri in 2007. They had been 0-4-1 when facing a top-ranked Texas team.

• Guijarro and Navarro score in opening 14 minutes

• US midfield and defensive lapses exposed by Spain

• Yohannes misses penalty as US fightback falls short

In less than a year’s time, the United States and Spain will almost certainly arrive in Brazil as the top two contenders to win the Women’s World Cup. Spain, holders of the top spot in Fifa’s rankings for the past 60 weeks, are the defending champions; the second-ranked US won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This month’s pair of friendlies between the two sides are taking place with caveats. Both sides are missing several of their most important players to injuries. The opening match in Brazil is 258 days away. Spain have booked their place, but the US still have to actually qualify for the World Cup, through a regional tournament that begins next month.

The sports-mad city has embraced its new superstar, even as he choppers in from Manhattan and makes no secret of the fact that Philly was never his first choice

Philadelphia has always had an instinctive affinity with athletes who embrace the grind over the glamour. In a place where sports mean a little too much, commitment has traditionally counted for more than celebrity. What it demands above all, sometimes unreasonably, is the sense that they have bought in, that the city and its fortunes matter to them as much as they do to the people who devote their lives to backing its teams.

Few embodied that ethic more completely than Lane Johnson, the Eagles’ revered right tackle and best player for more than a decade, who abruptly announced his retirement Tuesday after 14 seasons, two Super Bowl titles and a career spent neutralizing some of the most freakish physical specimens to walk the earth. Johnson’s quotidian greatness on the offensive line was almost perversely workmanlike. According to Pro Football Focus, he allowed just 10 sacks across close to 7,000 pass-blocking snaps in the last 13 years, going entire seasons without letting his man bring down the quarterback. The Eagles won nearly two-thirds of their games when he played and lost nearly two-thirds when he didn’t.

Order for workers to remain standing to ‘reinforce professionalism’ draws rebuke amid plunging morale

Union officials have launched a campaign to allow airport security staff to sit once more after the Trump administration unilaterally removed all the chairs for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff at checkpoints.

“People are pissed,” said Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) TSA council 100 and president of AFGE local 1040, which represents TSA workers in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The first league of its kind in 70 years brought players from all around the world to Illinois for eight weeks, writing a new chapter in the history of women’s sports

On the morning of 14 September, Rocky Henley sat at her rental home’s dining room table amid scattered rulebooks, colorful markers and graph paper. The New York Heights manager drew a chart on a large poster – her method of sketching plays for the evening’s playoff game. Her assistant manager, Jackson, trudged in from the kitchen in flannel pajama pants and a Heights hoodie and watched her work. He also happens to be her son.

After years of mockery and doubts about her game, Reese has helped carry Atlanta to the WNBA’s biggest stage. Her critics might want to start forming an apology queue

A lot of folks owe Angel Reese an apology after Friday night. They should probably form an orderly queue.

Not that the bad-faith take merchants who have spent three years gleefully circulating her missed layups, likening her occasionally awkward footwork to “Bambi on ice” and marveling at the supposed comic genius of “mebounds” are likely to join it. The right-wing culture warriors who turned one of the WNBA’s most naturally gifted rebounders into a joke were never particularly interested in an honest assessment of her basketball abilities. But after Friday the punchline has never worn thinner.

Multiple hospitalized after Avianca flight from Medellín to New York had to divert to Miami due to strong turbulence

At least eight people were injured when an Avianca flight encountered severe turbulence and had to make an emergency landing in Miami early on Friday.

Miami-Dade fire rescue said one person was rushed to a trauma center with severe injuries while seven others were taken to area hospitals in ambulances.

Mike Ditka, the fiery former NFL player and coach who led the Chicago Bears to their lone Super Bowl title and became one of the most recognizable figures in American sports, has died aged 86

• Mike Ditka, legendary Chicago Bears head coach, dies at 86

• Hall of Famer led 1985 Bears to Super Bowl title

• Coach was known for tough, gruff demeanor

• The Super Bowl Shuffle to SNL: a life in pictures

Mike Ditka, who won NFL titles as a player and coach with the Chicago Bears, has died at 86, his family announced Friday.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Mike Ditka,” the family said. “While the world knew Mike as a Hall of Fame football player, legendary coach, and leader of the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl XX championship team, we knew him as the heart of our family. Mike will be missed beyond measure and remembered forever.”

Crystal Palace’s American import had never lived anywhere but Utah before moving to London. Now, he’s aiming for more Premier League minutes

Much has changed in Zavier Gozo’s life since May.

Back then, Gozo was a day removed from learning he wasn’t among Mauricio Pochettino’s 26 selections for the World Cup, having just made what proved to be his third-to-last appearance with boyhood club Real Salt Lake.

• Irving rushes for career-high 165 yards and two TDs

• Rookie Daniels impresses in second NFL start

• Prescott throws two picks as Dallas fall to 2-3

Bucky Irving already had his first 100-yard game since his rookie year in 2024 when the Tampa Bay running back finished off the Dallas Cowboys with a run that gave him a career high.

Jalon Daniels, the undrafted rookie filling in for franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield, enjoyed the view while doing plenty himself to get the Buccaneers their first win of the season in just his second start.

• James scores 10 points in 18-minute Sixers debut

• Jaylen Brown leads Philadelphia with 18 points

• Nets pull away in third quarter for 114-108 victory

NBA superstar LeBron James delivered a solid first-half performance in his first pre-season game for Philadelphia on Thursday, but the new-look 76ers fell 114-108 to the Brooklyn Nets.

James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, announced in July that he had signed a two-year, $8m deal with the 76ers, ending weeks of speculation over where the four-time NBA champion would land as a free agent after eight seasons and one title with the Los Angeles Lakers.

How will the Buccaneers and Cowboys fare today? Here is what to know, including kick-off time, TV channels and live stream options

The bad news for the Buccaneers: Their 0-4 start has been an unmitigated disaster that, in normal circumstances, would have already evaporated their playoff chances. The good news for Tampa Bay, however, is that they play in the NFC South, meaning they’re still just two games out of a tie for the lead in what is often the worst division in the NFL. All is not quite lost yet.

If the Bucs want to join the 1992 Chargers and become the second team to make the postseason after an 0-4 opening, they’ll need to stop the bleeding on Thursday night in north Texas. They’ll have to do it without Baker Mayfield, who continues to nurse an injury to his throwing thumb.

• Aminata Seck released on $2,500 bond after two months

• Chinese player Qingfang Pang detained since September

• Mississippi Valley State express concern for player

A Kentucky State University women’s basketball player from Senegal who was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been released after spending two months in custody.

At a hearing on Tuesday, a judge granted Aminata Seck a $2,500 bond, which was posted on Wednesday after ICE declined to appeal, according to Hishem Alsalman, managing attorney of Alsalman Law Office.

• Confederation president clarifies his intentions to staff

• Canadian was eyed as potential rival to Gianni Infantino

Victor Montagliani has told Concacaf staff he intends to stand for re-election as the confederation’s presidentnext year, which will rule him out of going up against Gianni Infantino for the top job at Fifa.

The Canadian businessman is understood to have relayed the message to most of the 41 members of Concacaf, the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation.

The US have been defined for so long by the next singular player. This past perfect window shows that era may be over

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In 1990, then-United States men’s national team manager Bob Gansler made a critical and somewhat controversial choice. He left three of the program’s laureled veterans at home and brought a young and little-tested team to the World Cup in Italy, the USA’s first in 40 years.

As Gansler recalled later: “I was thinking not only for ’90, but I was thinking about the 90s.”

Some of the biggest names in European football will bid for a franchise in ESL-style league, now due to launch in 2028

The launch of NBA Europe will be delayed 12 months until 2028, with a pre-qualifying competition planned for next year to find four temporary members to join the 16-team league’s inaugural season alongside 12 permanent franchises.

The NBA is planning to invest about $10bn (£7.6bn) over 10 years in what sources have described as the sporting world’s biggest-ever startup competition. It is understood to have received multiple offers for the 12 franchises that exceed their targets, with prices expected to range from $500m to more than $1bn for the London franchise.