Blog

Green Bay Packers offensive tackle Rasheed Walker was arrested Friday morning after trying to check a bag that contained a gun and ammunition at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

According to the New York Post, authorities took the 25-year-old Walker into custody after he told a Delta Airlines employee that his bag contained a locked box with a 9mm Glock pistol inside. Port Authority police searched the bag and found the firearm along with 36 rounds of ammo inside the box.

Advertisement

Walker has been charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm.

[Get more Jets Packers: Green Bay team feed]

Walker’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said the fourth-year offensive lineman was unaware he couldn’t travel to New York with the firearm, which was legally licensed in Wisconsin.

“It was in a locked box and he disclosed it to the people at the airport,” Aidala told The Post. “He told a person from Delta he was traveling with a firearm. He mistakenly thought because he had a licensed firearm and it was in a locked box that he was able to travel with it. We are confident the case will be dismissed.”

Walker was taken to Queens County Criminal Court for an appearance and released on his own recognizance. He is expected back in court on March 19.

A 2022 seventh-round draft pick out of Penn State, Walker completed his fourth NFL season, all with the Packers. This past season he started 16 of Green Bay’s 17 regular-season games and their wild-card round playoff loss to the Chicago Bears.

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant will miss at least three weeks after sustaining a UCL sprain in his left elbow, the team announced Saturday.

According to the team, Morant is expected to make a full recovery and will be re-evaluated in three weeks.

Advertisement

Morant was injured during the Grizzlies’ 124-122 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.

Morant’s injury comes as his name has popped up in trade rumors ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline. He is under contract with the Grizzlies through the 2027–28 season and is eligible to sign a three-year, $178 million extension this summer.

[Get more Grizzlies news: Memphis team feed]

This is the second major NBA injury in two days after Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who also could be traded this season, is set to miss 4-6 weeks with a strained right calf.

In recent seasons, Morant’s biggest issue has been staying on the court. This season, he has played in just 20 games and recently missed time with a right calf contusion. He also was injured earlier this season with calf and ankle injuries and served a one-game suspension. In his sixth season, he has not played more than 65 games in a season since his rookie year.

Advertisement

During the 2023–24 season, Morant appeared in only nine games after serving a 25-game suspension to start the year and later suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. When he plays, Morant remains productive, averaging 19.5 points, 8.1 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game.

Through 43 games the Grizzlies sit 12th in the Western Conference with an 18-25 record. They next play Sunday at home against the Denver Nuggets before traveling to Houston for a date with the Rockets on Monday night.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have hired Mike McCarthy as their next head coach, the team announced Saturday.

McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native, will replace Mike Tomlin, who stepped down after a 19-season run leading the Steelers. Tomlin was the longest-tenured head coach in the NFL before he resigned.

Advertisement

McCarthy, 62, is the Steelers’ fourth head coach since 1969. He follows in the footsteps of Tomlin, Bill Cowher and Chuck Noll, who were 34, 34 and 37 years old, respectively, when they were given the keys. Noll coached Pittsburgh to four Super Bowl wins over 23 seasons. Cowher delivered a Lombardi in 15 seasons, and Tomlin ushered in another early in his nearly two-decade stay.

The McCarthy hire bucks the trend of the Steelers hiring young up-and-comers. After all, this will be his third head-coaching gig. He previously coached the Green Bay Packers for 13 seasons from 2006-18 and the Dallas Cowboys for five seasons from 2020-24. He led the Packers to a Super Bowl win during the 2010 season, coincidentally over Tomlin’s Steelers in that game.

McCarthy’s quarterback at the time? Aaron Rodgers, whose NFL career took off under McCarthy’s watch, as he won the first two of his four league MVP awards with McCarthy at the helm. The Steelers hiring McCarthy wasn’t about convincing Rodgers to play another season in Pittsburgh, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, but the head coach’s presence could entice the 42-year-old signal-caller to run it back once more.

Advertisement

[Get more Steelers news: Pittsburgh team feed]

In McCarthy’s 18 seasons as a head coach, he’s responsible for 12 playoff trips and a 174-112-2 record. McCarthy guided the Cowboys to a pair of NFC East titles and, before that, the Packers to six NFC North crowns.

He and Steelers general manager Omar Khan crossed paths in 2000, when Khan was working in football operations for the New Orleans Saints and McCarthy was the team’s offensive coordinator.

McCarthy’s Pittsburgh ties run deeper. His father was a Pittsburgh firefighter and owned a bar that McCarthy cleaned weekly before church services, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Additionally, near the beginning of McCarthy’s coaching career, he served as a graduate assistant at Pitt from 1989-91 and, per Schefter, doubled as an overnight shift toll collector on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Advertisement

Under the ownership of the Rooney family, the Steelers have become known for their organizational stability, in part because of their expertise in picking coaches to pilot the franchise.

Pittsburgh’s six Super Bowl titles are tied for the most in NFL history. The New England Patriots matched that total during the second leg of their 21st-century dynasty.

The Steelers haven’t won it all since the 2008 season. They last made it to the Super Bowl during the 2010 campaign, and they haven’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season.

While Tomlin never had a losing season, he lost his last seven playoff games as head coach. Team owner Art Rooney II would have welcomed Tomlin back in 2026, but now that he’s gone, the franchise has hit the reset button. That said, Rooney doesn’t like the word “rebuild.”

Advertisement

He told reporters that the Steelers will try to compete from Day 1.

McCarthy will be tasked with returning postseason success to the Steel City while maintaining the hard-nosed culture and proud tradition his predecessors stewarded.

Saturday’s game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors was postponed after a 37-year-old man was shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the city.

“The decision was made to prioritize the safety and security of the Minneapolis community,” the league said in a statement.

Advertisement

The NBA announced that the game has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET Sunday at Target Center.

The victim was identified by his parents as Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse.

Including the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Good, it was the second fatal shooting and third in 17 days involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis.

The Steelers’ hiring of Mike McCarthy as head coach Saturday is reportedly not intended to convince quarterback Aaron Rodgers to play for Pittsburgh for another season, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.

McCarthy is a Pittsburgh-area native and is the franchise’s fourth head coach since 1969. At 62, McCarthy is the oldest head coach in Steelers history.

McCarthy coached Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers from 2006 to 2018. The pair went 108-62-1 together and won a Super Bowl over the Steelers in 2011. Rodgers also won two MVPs under McCarthy’s leadership.

Advertisement

Rodgers, 42, has not yet announced his plans for next season, as his contract expired at the end of last season. While undecided on his future, the Steelers are reportedly open to bringing him back. While McCarthy’s hiring wasn’t intended to directly lure Rodgers back, it reportedly won’t hurt his chances of returning, ESPN reported.

Rodgers was rejuvenated this past season with the Steelers. After a three-year postseason drought, Rodgers threw for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and 7 interceptions while battling a wrist injury late in the season. He led the Steelers to their first AFC North title since the 2020 season.

Rodgers was vocal about how much he enjoyed his time in Pittsburgh and playing for former head coach Mike Tomlin. After the Steelers’ wild-card loss to the Houston Texans, Tomlin surprisingly stepped down as head coach after 19 seasons.

Steelers owner Art Rooney II told reporters that he was looking to compete rather than rebuild. McCarthy sat out last season after spending his previous five years as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. McCarthy went 49-35 and 1-3 in the playoffs with the Cowboys.

Rick Pitino won his 900th career college basketball game on Saturday as St. John’s topped Xavier 88-83.

The Red Storm took a 25-23 lead midway through the first half, but the Musketeers finished the opening 20 minutes on a 26-12 run for a 12-point lead at the break. The second half saw St. John’s climb back as it outscored Xavier 51-34 to improve to 15-5 on the season.

Advertisement

Junior guard Dylan Darling, who scored all 11 of his points in the second half, hit a key 3-pointer with 53.2 seconds to play.

The milestone victory was extra special for Pitino as it came against his son Richard, who took over the Musketeers’ job in March.

“I don’t like beating him, obviously, but it’s beating Xavier,” Pitino told TNT’s Andy Katz afterward. “Richard did a phenomenal job. … From where they were, losing to Santa Clara, to now is one of the best coaching jobs I’ve seen in basketball. I can’t love him or be more proud of him.”

Dad now owns a 4-1 lifetime record against son.

Advertisement

Pitino, who joined the Red Storm in 2023 and has Providence, Kentucky, Louisville and Iona among his stops on his collegiate coaching résumé, technically has 777 wins in the eyes of the NCAA after 123 wins and a national title were vacated due to infractions while he was with the Cardinals.

Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is the all-time men’s coaching wins leader with 1,202.

The 73-year-old Pitino has won two national titles, reached seven Final Fours, was named the John Wooden National Coach of the Year in 1987, and is the reigning AP national co-coach of the year. He helped the Red Storm return to the NCAA tournament and into the second round last year for the first time since 2019.

Advertisement

Saturday’s win gives the Red Storm an 8-1 record in the Big East, one game behind No. 2 UConn, which knocked off Villanova in overtime 75-67.

“Players get coaches wins, but there’s nothing sweeter than getting 900 because of these guys,” Pitino said.

UConn was 6-7 in games decided by five or fewer points last season. The No. 2 Huskies entered Saturday’s matinee against Villanova 6-1 in those outings this time around.

They pulled out another thriller versus an upset-minded Wildcats team that forced an extra frame. UConn (19-1, 9-0 Big East) scored the final eight points in overtime, fending off Villanova 75-67 at Storrs’ Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.

Advertisement

Dan Hurley’s crew did so despite losing sharpshooting freshman Braylon Mullins to injury. Early in the second half, Mullins took an elbow to the head and didn’t return to the back-and-forth affair.

UConn got 24 points from junior guard Solo Ball, his second most in a game this season. Ball accounted for five of the Huskies’ eight 3s, including one with 2:08 left in OT.

Ball scored 14 of his points in the second half and overtime. Even more so, senior forward Alex Karaban came on late for UConn. He went 0 of 5 from the field in the first half and then supplied 17 points the rest of the way. The veteran hit four free throws during the Huskies’ game-ending 8-0 run.

Advertisement

Villanova (15-5, 6-3), meanwhile, was led by Tyler Perkins, who stacked 16 points and 10 rebounds. Down the stretch of the second half, the 6-foot-4, 212-pound guard played bigger than his size in the paint. Over a four-and-a-half-minute span, he scored eight of Villanova’s 10 points.

The Wildcats wouldn’t have given the Huskies as big of a scare without Duke Brennan. The Grand Canyon transfer forward logged his eighth double-double of the season, pairing 16 points with 14 rebounds. Of his 14 boards, seven came on the offensive glass. And, despite coming in as a 55.3% free-throw shooter, he made 8-of-9 attempts from the charity stripe.

Brennan caused a tie-up that set the stage for a go-ahead Matt Hodge 3, his fourth of the day, with 1:06 to go in regulation. But a tip-in from center Tarris Reed Jr. knotted things up at 61-61.

That was the score heading into overtime, which began with Perkins knocking down a triple but ended with UConn pulling away for its latest triumph.

Advertisement

The turning point came when junior guard Silas Demary Jr. hit the deck for a steal with 3:35 left in the extra frame. He kept his head up and found Reed streaking down the court. The big man deposited a dunk that put UConn’s wheels in motion.

The Huskies are 9-0 in Big East competition, in part because of their brilliance in the clutch this season.

The Miami Dolphins are promoting senior passing game coordinator Bobby Slowik to offensive coordinator, according to multiple reports Saturday.

Slowik, a 38-year-old who previously served as the Houston Texans’ OC from 2023-24, also interviewed for the Philadelphia Eagles’ OC opening this cycle.

Advertisement

Slowik helped Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud hit the ground running in the pros, as Stroud went from Ohio State star to NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2023. Stroud threw 23 touchdowns against just five picks, recording the lowest interception rate in the league while making the Pro Bowl.

Houston went from worst to first in the AFC South and reached the divisional round of the playoffs, starting the best three-season stretch in the young franchise’s history.

But Slowik wasn’t around for the latest leg.

Following his breakthrough 2023 campaign, which was followed by head-coaching interviews and, ultimately, a reported raise from the Texans, he took a significant step back during the 2024 season.

Advertisement

Although Houston won 10 games and the division again, Stroud was sacked a whopping 52 times, the second most in the NFL that season. His numbers were worse in practically every category. Perhaps most notably, his interception rate hiked up from 1% to 2.3%.

The Texans went from being tied for 13th in scoring (22.2 points per game) in 2023 to ranking 19th in that category (21.9 points per game) in 2024. The unit frequently sputtered in second halves. It finished tied for 19th in third-down conversion rate (37.7%) and ranked 26th in red-zone touchdown percentage (49.1%).

And, so, Slowik was fired, along with offensive line coach Chris Strausser and assistant O-line coach Cole Popovich.

It’s worth noting, however, that, even after an OC change, Stroud is still looking to match his rookie-season success. While he played better in 2025 than he did in 2024, his turnover-ridden playoff performances raised eyebrows.

Advertisement

Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans had initially brought Slowik over from San Francisco, where they overlapped for six seasons with the 49ers.

This past offseason, Slowik joined the Dolphins. He worked on Mike McDaniel’s offensive staff and will now serve as Jeff Hafley’s play-caller.

Miami moved on from McDaniel and hired Hafley as its next head coach. Hafley is a defensive coach who spent the past two seasons coordinating the Green Bay Packers on that side of the ball.

Just as it was important for Hafley to find the right OC, it will be critical for Slowik and Hafley to identify the team’s quarterback for next season. With the Tua Tagovailoa era likely over in Miami, the Dolphins will now explore their options at the position.

Pitcher Yu Darvish has reportedly told the San Diego Padres that he intends to retire with three years remaining on his contract, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

However, Darvish’s agent, Joel Wolfe, told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that the veteran pitcher “has not made a final decision yet.

Advertisement

“This is a complicated matter we are still working through,” Wolfe said in response to reports.

Darvish repeated that sentiment in a statement he posted to social media.

“Although I am leaning towards voiding the contract, there’s still a lot that has to be talked over with the Padres so the finer details are yet to be decided,” Darvish wrote.

“Also, I will not be announcing my retirement yet,” he added. “Right now, I am fully focused on my rehab for my elbow.”

The Padres later released a statement from general manager A.J. Preller, who said the team would support Darvish with whatever he wants to do:

“We have been in regular communication with Yu throughout the offseason and his post-surgery rehab. We have great respect for him and will continue to support him in his decision-making process.”

[Get more San Diego news: Padres team feed]

Darvish, 39, has pitched for the Padres for the past five seasons, compiling a 3.97 ERA while averaging 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings. Last season, he recorded a 5.38 ERA and 5-5 record with a strikeout rate of 8.5 per nine innings in 15 starts.

Advertisement

The right-hander is under contract with San Diego for three more seasons with a total salary of $46 million. He signed a six-year, $108 million extension with the Padres before the 2023 MLB season.

Darvish is recovering from UCL surgery that he had in late October. He was expected to miss the entire 2026 season because of the procedure. Turning 40 in August, it was worth considering whether or not a return to MLB was feasible. He was apparently asking himself the same questions in December.

“The way my rehab is going now, I am focused on getting right, not on coming back,” he told the SDUT’s Kevin Acee. “Right now I’m not really thinking too much about the future. Just knowing the way I think, I’m sure I will one day want to throw again. All I’ve thought about in my life is baseball.”

Darvish has made only 31 starts over the past two regular seasons due to elbow difficulties. Yet he pitched well in the 2024 postseason, posting a 1.98 ERA in two starts with seven strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings.

Advertisement

However, Darvish reportedly had an understanding with Preller that surgery on his right elbow would eventually be necessary. The pitcher acknowledged the possibility that he might “get rid of” the remainder of his contract, Acee reported. Darvish considered retiring last March when he was shut down during spring training.

Despite the uncertainty, Darvish has been a regular presence with the Padres, sitting in on meetings with free agents and attending press conferences.

If Darvish does retire, he’ll do so with a career record of 115-93, a 3.65 ERA and a rate of 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings (with 2,075 career Ks) in 297 starts. During his 13 MLB seasons, he also pitched for the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs.

Advertisement

Between his MLB career and seven seasons pitching for the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League, Darvish’s 209 wins are the most for anyone who has played in both leagues. He finished as the runner-up in Cy Young Award voting in 2013 (with Texas) and 2020 (with the Cubs).