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  • Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr., a likely top-5 pick, says he believes he’s the best player in NFL Draft

    A big topic for many NFL teams entering the draft is how much a prospect loves football.

    Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. will speak their language.

    Bain is one of the players in play to be the second overall pick of the NFL Draft to the New York Jets, along with Ohio State linebacker Arvell Reese and a few others. One theme Bain kept mentioning during his media availability at the NFL scouting combine on Wednesday was how dedicated he is to football.

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    In fact, he said he doesn’t really care about anything else.

    “I eat, sleep and breathe football. That’s all I do,” Bain said at the podium, via Chat Sports. “I don’t have no other hobbies, no other real interests outside of football.”

    That attitude will appeal to teams near the top of the draft. Bain also has the talent to match that mindset, which is why he’s in play for the second overall pick of the draft (in the latest mock draft from Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice, Bain is projected to go second to the Jets).

    Rueben Bain Jr. speaks to the media during the NFL scouting combine. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

    Rueben Bain Jr. speaks to the media during the NFL scouting combine. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

    (Justin Casterline via Getty Images)

    Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza will almost certainly go first overall in the draft, because quarterbacks are in higher demand than edge rushers. But Bain could go second, and it would be a surprise if he falls out of the top five.

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    Bain said he doesn’t care where he goes, but he said he believes he’s the best player in the draft.

    “No matter where I go, I don’t really care for the number,” Bain said. “I just know whatever team ends up picking me will get the best out of me, will get the best player in the draft in my opinion.”

    Bain plays with power, which helped him win ACC Defensive Player of the Year with 9.5 sacks for the Hurricanes. He mentioned his versatility as a plus.

    “I say I’m a football player, I’m not a pass rusher,” Bain said.

    The one knock against Bain might be his arm length. He was asked often about the notion that his arms aren’t long enough at the combine, but he said he hasn’t heard that directly from teams.

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    “None of the teams seem to be too concerned with it,” Bain said. “As long as I just talk the talk, walk the walk, play with technique, nobody really asked me about it.”

    The intangibles with Bain could help him in the draft process. He spoke a few times about his work ethic, and also mentioned his football IQ. He said when he meets with teams it has been comfortable due to his knowledge of the game.

    “I came in knowing what to talk about and what to say, knowing football like the back of my hand, knowing football like my last name,” Bain said.

  • Yahoo Fantasy x Arena Club Basketball Slab Packs Week 18 drop – Luka Dončić KABOOM! Horizontal among chase cards

    We’re back hoops fans with another Yahoo Fantasy x Arena Club drop for Week 18. Yahoo Fantasy Basketball Slab Packs are a brand-new weekly drop featuring real, graded trading cards of the hottest fantasy performers in the NBA.

    If you’re new to Arena Club, here’s the lowdown. Arena Club is the premier online marketplace for sports cards, giving collectors a way to rip packs virtually, buy and sell graded cards and track their entire collection — all in one place. Whether you’re in it for the hobby, the thrill or the chase, Arena Club brings the excitement directly to your screen.

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    [Rip your exclusive Yahoo Fantasy + Arena Club slab pack here]

    Each week, Arena Club curates real, graded NBA cards and builds two types of Yahoo Fantasy Slab Packs:

    Every pack contains a graded card of an active NBA player — but the real treasure is the weekly Chase Cards, featuring some of the top fantasy basketball performers from the past week. These limited-edition hits can reach values up to 20x the cost of the pack.

    Weekly NBA Slab Packs go live every Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET and remain available through Friday at 1 p.m. ET (or until they’re gone). It’s the ultimate mid-week boost for fantasy hoopers and collectors alike.

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    To top it off, use promo code YAHOO at checkout for 20% off your first slab pack or card purchase on ArenaClub.com or the Arena Club app.

    Rip a slab pack today for a chance to pull one of the week’s biggest fantasy basketball stars:

    Nikola Jokić, Nuggets

    Jokić has been working his way back from a knee injury the past month or so and has been more passive on offense. He’s back to his old ways with back-to-back games of 30+ points, including a 35-20-12 line for 94 fantasy points in High Score vs. the Dubs to close out last week.

    Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves

    Ant Man is on another scoring binge with 30+ points in seven of his past 10 games. The T-Wolves remain well-positioned to make the playoffs and avoid the play-in tourney.

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    Victor Wembanyama, Spurs

    Looking 100%, Wemby is back to being more consistent on the fantasy end, posting at least 52 fantasy points in five straight games in Yahoo High Score. San Antonio is on a nine-game heater as a result and eyeing the top seed in the West, trailing the Thunder by just 3.0 games.

    Kevin Durant, Rockets

    KD and the Rockets suffered a tough two-point loss to the Knicks at The Garden last weekend with the forward dropping a game-high 30 points.

    Luka Dončić, Lakers

    Dončić wasn’t very active during All-Star Weekend due to a nagging hamstring issue. He’s played in three straight games since, one of those outings a 38-point effort in a win over the rival Clippers.

    Weekly Drops. Real Cards. Real Value. Real Thrill.

    With new cards releasing every week based on real fantasy performance, the Yahoo Fantasy x Arena Club partnership delivers a constantly refreshing lineup of NBA stars — and the chase cards you’ll be talking about all season.

    Don’t miss this week’s release.

    Rip your slab pack, hit a chase card, and upgrade your collection today!

    [Get your Yahoo Fantasy Basketball Slab Pack now]

  • For the Love of the Game: Mara Brock Akil Recalls Her Rise Through 1990s TV Before Creating ‘Girlfriends,’ ‘Being Mary Jane,’ ‘Forever’

    For the Love of the Game: Mara Brock Akil Recalls Her Rise Through 1990s TV Before Creating ‘Girlfriends,’ ‘Being Mary Jane,’ ‘Forever’

    Mara Brock Akil remembers the moment she gained the confidence to become a showrunner with the precision of someone who has turned it over in her mind a few thousand times.

    She was not long out of Northwestern University, working as a writer’s trainee on the buzzy Fox dramedy “South Central” in 1994. The series, from writer-producers Ralph Farquhar and Michael J. Weithorn, attracted a hotshot writing staff — and on this afternoon all but one of them were preoccupied with other projects.

    Brock Akil sat in a nearly empty writers’ room with Weithorn and one other scribe. Weithorn noticed Brock Akil had a lot of notes in the margins of the script she was holding.

    “‘Mara, if there’s ever a time you have a thought, now would be it,’” Brock Akil recalls Weithorn saying. “He saw the script — and he goes, ‘You could read any of that on there.’”

    Brock Akil was in fact the picture-perfect writer to contribute to “South Central,” having grown up in Compton. A love of writing drove her to earn a degree in journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. After graduating, she returned to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment — specifically television writing, at a time when the field wasn’t very welcoming to Black women. But that was changing.

    Weithorn “gave me that one permission that was critical, just to hear my voice in that room. He provided space and made it safe for me to give my voice when the world said, ‘Don’t do that.’”

    Brock Akil made the most of the wings she grew that day on “South Central.” On Feb. 28, the showrunner and creator — known for such series as “Girlfriends,” CW and BET’s “The Game,” BET’s “Being Mary Jane” and most recently, Netflix’s Judy Blume adaptation “Forever” — will be recognized with the Norman Lear Achievement Award from the Producers Guild of America. She’ll receive the kudo at the 37th annual Producers Guild Awards in Century City. In addition, Amy Pascal will be honored with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award; Jason Blum, producer and CEO of the prosperous Blumhouse film and TV banner, will receive the Milestone Award for his contributions to the industry.

    After “South Central,” Brock Akil wound up working for Farquhar on the UPN sitcom “Moesha.” She had no shortage of story ideas for the domestic comedy that she steadily pitched in the writers’ room. Farquhar had a habit of telling her, gently, “Save it for your pilot.” Finally, one of the ideas that she couldn’t stop pitching became the basis of Brock Akil’s first hit series, UPN/CW’s “Girlfriends” (2000-2008).

    In the 1990s and early aughts, “the culture around making TV was so beautiful. It was so team-oriented and team-spirited,” Brock Akil says. “And having the audience right there can be the arbiter of a note. You can use the audience to help you on different things because sometimes with a script you just don’t know until you know.”

    Brock Akil is juggling multiple project including Season 2 of “Forever.” She’s also focused on working with the next generation of writers and creators, many of whom haven’t had the kind of early-career writing and producing experiences that shaped her into an A-list showrunner.

    “I had a safe place to watch and to understand and to apply all of that knowledge,” she says.
    Now, it’s important to Brock Akil that everyone working on her shows appreciates the privilege of telling stories that travel around the world.

    “It never misses me how many people get to put their fingerprints on it. So I’m very proud, whether it’s 100 people helping us do a show or whether it’s around 400 with ‘Forever,’” Brock Akil says. “Four hundred families are affected by this one story that you sit down and you make. I can’t think of a better way to organize and work — economically, for the community. I think TV is a collaborative art form that really celebrates human ingenuity, integrity, intention, imagination, creativity, just hard fucking work — and coffee and matcha.”

  • Bears reportedly give 2-time Pro Bowl LB Tremaine Edmunds permission to seek trade

    The Chicago Bears have given linebacker Tremaine Edmunds permission to seek a trade, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

    Edmunds became a two-time Pro Bowler with the Buffalo Bills, who drafted him 16th overall out of Virginia Tech in 2018. He’s spent the past three seasons with the Bears.

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    Even though Edmunds missed four games during the 2025 campaign with a groin injury that he sustained late in a Week 11 win over the Minnesota Vikings, he still finished the regular season with a team-leading 112 total tackles. He’s gone over the century mark in that department in each of his eight NFL seasons.

    The Bears have Edmunds under contract for the 2026 season at $15 million, according to The Chicago Tribune’s Brad Biggs.

    He will turn 28 in May.

    This story is being updated.

  • ‘The Traitors’ Breakout Candiace Dillard Bassett Signs With CAA (EXCLUSIVE)

    ‘The Traitors’ Breakout Candiace Dillard Bassett Signs With CAA (EXCLUSIVE)

    Reality star Candiace Dillard Bassett, who first graced viewers’ television screens on “The Real Housewives of Potomac,” has signed with CAA. The move follows Dillard Bassett’s latest reality stint on Season 4 of Peacock’s “The Traitors.”  

    Dillard Bassett made her “Real Housewives” debut in 2018, joining the cast of “Real Housewives of Potomac” during Season 3 of the Bravo series. She remained on the series for six seasons, departing in 2024 following Season 8.

    On the Emmy-winning Peacock show “The Traitors,” which premiered earlier this year, Dillard Bassett added a competition series to her résumé, being tapped as a Traitor alongside fellow “Real Housewives” alum Lisa Rinna and “Love Island” star Rob Rausch. She was banished in Episode 8, after going toe to toe with Rausch, whom she memorably called a “snake.” 

    A multi-hyphenate entertainer, Dillard Bassett’s career has extended to the world of scripted television, where she was a series regular for two season of ALLBLK/WeTV’s drama series “Hush,” Netflix’s “Family Reunion” and BET’s “The Christmas Lottery.”

    In 2021, Dillard Bassett released “Deep Space,” her debut album (and headlined a tour for it). The ‘90s R&B-inspired album earned Billboard chart recognition, and “Drive Back,” the lead single, has amassed millions of streams. She’s toured with Live Nation and Femme It Forward, and made an appearance on Tamar Braxton’s “Love and War 10th Anniversary Tour.”

    She’s also an entrepreneur, having co-founded a beauty and lifestyle brand portfolio and co-hosting the “Undomesticated” podcast in partnership with Audacy. Dillard Bassett was Miss United States 2013, but she began her career in public service as a former White House staffer.  

    She will continue to be represented by Nyerere Davidson.

  • Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston taking assistant job with the Denver Broncos

    Deion Sanders is heading into the 2026 season with two new coordinators.

    According to multiple reports, the Denver Broncos are hiring Colorado defensive coordinator Robert Livingston. The former Bengals assistant spent two seasons in charge of the Buffaloes’ defense.

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    Livingston will serve as the Broncos’ defensive passing game coordinator under Denver defensive coordinator Vance Joseph. The two worked together with the Bengals, as Livingston was the team’s defensive backs coach from 2016 through 2023.

    Colorado went 3-9 in 2025 as the defense allowed 6.1 yards per play and 30.5 points per game. Colorado ranked 112th out of 136 teams in scoring defense.

    The Buffaloes’ defense was much better in 2024. As Colorado went 9-4 and had star defensive back and wide receiver Travis Hunter, the Buffs gave up 23.1 points per game and 5.1 yards per play. Both sides of the ball took a major step back in 2025 as Colorado had its worst season of Sanders’ three in charge.

    Colorado previously hired offensive coordinator Brennan Marion after the 2025 season. Marion came to Colorado after one season as the head coach at Sacramento State — a team moving to the top level of college football and the MAC in 2026.

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    Before he was at Sacramento State, Marion was the offensive coordinator at UNLV. Former NFL head coach Pat Shurmur was the team’s offensive coordinator to start the 2025 season but tight ends coach and passing game coordinator Brett Bartolone was calling plays in November.

    The Buffaloes had an eye toward the future late in the season, too. Freshman QB JuJu Lewis sat out at the end of the year to preserve his redshirt. Colorado started three different quarterbacks in 2025 as Kaidon Salter, Ryan Staub and Lewis all got starts. Staub transferred to Tennessee while Salter is out of eligibility.

  • Former Legendary Exec Deborah Kaufmann Joins Sipur Studios as Global Content Chief

    Former Legendary Exec Deborah Kaufmann Joins Sipur Studios as Global Content Chief

    Former Legendary Entertainment exec Deborah Kaufmann has joined Sipur Studios as its new chief of global content. The position is new for the studio, which recently added former Paramount Global chair Shari Redstone as part of its management team as chair.

    At Sipur, Kaufmann will handle development projects, as well as finding IP for the studio, acquisitions and creative partnerships in film, TV and publishing.

    Kaufmann previously served as senior VP of literary affairs at Legendary, overseeing IP acquisitions for its film and TV divisions, along with its European joint ventures. Projects she bought in included “Alchemised,” and Annie Jacobsen’s “Nuclear War” (for filmmaker Denis Villeneuve).

    “Whether in publishing or in film and television, Deborah’s career has been defined by identifying exceptional stories and the people behind them, and ensuring those stories travel powerfully across borders,” Sipur CEO Emilio Schenker said in a statement. “She is an extraordinary addition to our studio. Deborah brings to us unmatched talent, achievement and industry stature, and with her addition to our team we have gained tremendous strength in realizing our broader ambition of becoming a significant global film and television studio.”

    Recent Sipur projects include Netflix’s “Bad Boy,” the medical thriller “Heart of a Killer,” the Emmy-winning doc feature “We Will Dance Again,” the docuseries “Munich ’72” and the World War II series “Etty.” Film projects include Paul Schrader’s “Oh Canada,” the Marc Maron doc “Are We Good?” and the Cristin Milioti horror feature “Buddy.”

    “Sipur has cemented its place in the industry as a destination studio for some of the most brilliant creative minds in storytelling today, and I am thrilled to join former Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone, Emilio and their stellar team at such a pivotal moment,” Kaufman said. “I look forward to building on these impressive achievements and bringing my deep commitment to cross-cultural storytelling to further champion the company’s bold and original work, which has already positioned Sipur as a true tastemaker on the global stage.”

  • Orioles’ Pete Alonso invites comedian John Oliver’s son to a game after breaking young Mets fan’s heart

    Pete Alonso broke a lot of New York Mets fan’s hearts when he signed with the Baltimore Orioles during the offseason. One fan who was upset was the eight-year old son of comedian John Oliver, who really got into baseball during the 2025 season and was excited for the team’s 8-3 start.

    Of course, the rest of the regular season didn’t go as expected as the Mets finished 83-79 and failed to make the postseason.

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    During an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” this week, Oliver, the host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” told a story how of he had to explain to his son that he couldn’t change his favorite baseball team even when things go bad.

    Things got worse when Alonso, Oliver’s son’s favorite player, left the Mets after seven seasons to sign a five-year, $155 million deal with the Orioles — a move that Oliver said he anticipated was going to happen.

    “Watching [my son] fall in love with this guy — he has a signed ball [from Alonso] — and having to go into his room and say, ‘Pete Alonso’s going to Baltimore,’ and he said, ‘Are you sure I can’t be an Orioles fan?’” Oliver said. “‘We’ve had this discussion.’”

    In an attempt to make up for breaking the heart of a young Mets fan, Alonso took to social media on Wednesday to try and smooth things over — and get Oliver’s son to ignore his dad and convert his fandom to the Orioles.

    “I saw what your son had to say about being upset of me signing with the Orioles, but, hey, he could always become an O’s fan,” Alonso said. “[I] would love to extend an invitation to you and your family to come down to Camden [Yards] for a game this year and you guys can get out on the field for batting practice. Hopefully you guys come down and have some fun. Hope to see you soon. Go O’s.”

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    Alonso will be back at CitiField this season when the Orioles visit for a three-game series in September. The first game back will be sure to be an emotional evening with Mets fans paying tribute to the slugger and Oliver’s son revealing whether Alonso’s influence will have him wearing Orioles gear instead of Mets paraphernalia.

  • NASCAR releases overly complicated rules for 2026 All-Star Race at Dover

    The first All-Star Race at Dover is going to be a marathon.

    NASCAR announced the format for this season’s exhibition race and it’s complicated. The race is also 350 laps long.

    The three-segment race will be divided up into two 75-lap segments and a final 200-lap segment. The overall race is just 50 laps shorter than every Cup Series race held at the track since 1997.

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    Every team will begin the All-Star Race too. The first two segments will contain every driver and team that entered the race. The field will then be whittled down to 26 drivers — there are 36 full-time teams in the Cup Series — for the final 200 laps.

    How the 26 drivers will be decided

    Here’s where it gets complicated. Bear with us here.

    Drivers who have won a race in 2025 and 2026 and all active Cup Series champions and All-Star Race winners are automatically in the third segment.

    Fourteen drivers won a race in 2025 and Tyler Reddick — who went winless last season — has won the first two races of the 2026 season. That’s 15 drivers already with Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Shane van Gisbergen, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Joey Logano.

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    Full-time drivers who are past Cup Series champions and All-Star Race winners are in too. Kyle Busch fits that criteria. Make it 16.

    At the moment, that leaves 10 open spots for the final segment unless a winless driver from 2025 who isn’t named Reddick or Busch wins a race in 2026 before the All-Star Race is held.

    Those remaining spots will be filled by the driver who has the most votes in a fan vote and then via drivers’ average finish in the first two segments. If seven spots are needed to fill the 26-car field, the seven drivers with the best two-stage average finish will make the field if they aren’t already automatically qualified for the final segment.

    Got all that? Good. There’s one more wrinkle too. The top 26 finishers from the first stage will be inverted before the start of the second stage. That means the driver who wins the first stage will start 26th in the second stage.

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    All the machinations are NASCAR’s latest attempt to inject life into the All-Star Race. The race moved to Dover in 2026 after North Wilkesboro Speedway — the site of the last three All-Star Races — was given a points race this season. The All-Star Race is Dover’s only race date of the season as the concrete 1-mile oval hasn’t produced the most thrilling racing in recent seasons.

  • Fantasy Football Video: Which team might benefit the most by signing free agent QB Malik Willis?

    The QB market this offseason is looking pretty thin as we approach NFL free agency, which is set to begin on March 11 with the legal tampering period opening on March 9. One of the top names on the signal-caller list is Malik Willis, who has spent the past two seasons as Jordan Love’s backup on the Green Bay Packers.

    Reports are suggesting Willis could get at least $30 million per season on his next contract. That would put him at the low-end among starting veteran QBs, just below names like Baker Mayfield and Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold.

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    We’ve seen Willis perform well in a small sample filling in for Love, making three spot starts while appearing in 11 total games. In those appearances, Willis has posted great numbers, including a 134.6 passer rating and 78.7 completion percentage on just 89 attempts. He has also carried the ball 42 times for 261 yards and three touchdowns.

    Will an opportunity to start for a new team give Willis the tools to be a top fantasy football contributor in 2026? Matt Harmon and Justin Boone are joined by Yahoo senior NFL reporter Jori Epstein at the scouting combine to discuss Willis’ future on the latest Yahoo Fantasy Forecast.

    Epstein immediately points to Miami as a potential match, looking like “Packers South” after hiring former Green Bay DC Jeff Hafley as head coach after the season. Former Packers exec John Eric Sullivan was also hired as general manager, so both are familiar with Willis from their time in Green Bay.

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    The Dolphins would have to move on from QB Tua Tagovailoa, who was benched late in 2025 and has had serious injury issues throughout his NFL career. He’s also on a lofty contract Miami could try and get out from under.

    The other team Epstein mentions is the Arizona Cardinals, who just hired Mike LaFleur, brother of Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. The Cardinals have a similar situation with their incumbent QB in Kyler Murray, who was essentially benched for Jacoby Brissett last season. Murray is also expected not to return to Arizona similar to Tua in Miami. If that’s the case, Mike could call up his brother and get some intel on Willis as a potential starter.

    Boone points out that Arizona wasn’t very good last season, which resulted in Brissett having to throw the ball a ton. He attempted just over 40 passes per game in 12 starts. That volume really buoyed TE Trey McBride, leading to his mammoth season, along with other pass-catchers like Michael Wilson. If Willis is the starting QB, that would likely mean regression for Cardinals’ pass-catchers.

    Harmon questions both teams’ ability to eat so much dead cap space if they end up cutting ties with their respective QBs in Murray and Tagovailoa, which could make it tough to then go and sign Willis. But there are also ties with Cardinals GM Monti Ossenfort, who was with the Tennessee Titans when the team drafted Willis in the third round in 2022.

    Wherever Willis lands, it will have fantasy ramifications for his new teammates and how we view them in 2026 drafts.