New England Patriots receiver Stefon Diggs pleaded not guilty to assault charges during an arraignment in Dedham District Court in Massachusetts on Friday.
Diggs, 32, is accused of felony strangulation or suffocation, in addition to a lesser assault and battery charge. He is alleged to have assaulted a private chef over a pay dispute at his home on Dec. 2.
Advertisement
The 11-year NFL veteran was released on personal recognizance and will be due back in court April 1 for a pre-trial hearing.
Outside the courthouse, Diggs’ attorney, Mitchell Schuster, said his client was “completely innocent.”
“He is completely innocent of these false allegations,” Schuster said, via the Providence Journal. He added that full facts being revealed will “paint a very different picture.”
According to court documents filed in December, the alleged victim began working as a live-in chef for Diggs in July 2025. In November, Diggs allegedly told the chef she would not have to work during the week of Nov. 7-14 and that he needed her to vacate her room because he was having guests at his home. However, the chef believed she was still to be paid for that week because she did not request that time off.
Advertisement
Diggs and the chef had been exchanging texts over the pay dispute when he allegedly entered her room on Dec. 2, became angry and then “smacked her across the face,” according to the police report. He is also alleged to have “tried to choke her using the crook of his elbow around her neck.” Told that he still needed to pay her and had to sign off on the payments, Diggs said those were “lies” and he walked out of the room, the report said.
One week later, the chef returned to Diggs’ home to retrieve her belongings and was allegedly told to address the payment issue with his assistant. The assistant said Diggs asked the chef to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being paid. She refused to do so, according to the report.
The chef made a statement to police six days later, but said she did not want to press charges against Diggs, nor did she want to file a restraining order. The following week, after receiving messages from someone believed to be Diggs’ girlfriend saying involving the police wasn’t necessary, the chef decided to move forward with charges, according to the police report.
Advertisement
Diggs was then charged with one felony count of strangulation or suffocation and one misdemeanor count of assault and battery, according to court documents.
The four-time Pro Bowler was originally scheduled to face arraignment on Jan. 23, but a judge granted a request by Diggs’ lawyers to postpone proceedings until February due to the receiver’s professional obligations.
In his first season with the Patriots, Diggs registered 85 receptions for 1,013 yards and 4 touchdowns, helping the team reach the Super Bowl. During his 11-year career, he has also played for the Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans.
MILAN — Every four years, we casual Americans become instant experts in a whole array of winter Olympic sports. We decide we know curling strategy, we debate skiers’ lines down precipitous slopes, we instantly judge snowboarders on moves that would leave us in traction. And man, do we have thoughts on figure skating judges.
Here’s the thing, though: While the Olympians and aficionados can safely ignore pretty much all of our two weeks’ worth of blather, the opinions on figure skating judging stick.
Advertisement
Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates skated the routine of their lives on Wednesday night in figure skating’s ice dance event … only to watch in horror and heartbreak as judges controversially deemed the routine of France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron a more worthy one. Chock and Bates ended up with a silver medal — a titanic achievement, of course, but a “bittersweet” one, in Chock’s words, when you think you ought to have won gold.
On CBS News, Chock called for “transparent judging” to help viewers understand what’s happening. “I think it’s also important for the skaters, that the judges be vetted and reviewed to make sure that they are also putting out their best performance,” she added, “because there’s a lot on the line for the skaters when they’re out there giving it their all, and we deserve to have the judges also giving us their all and for it to be a fair and even playing field.”
The figure skating establishment appears to be shrugging this off as just one of them skating deals, yet another in a long line of what-are-you-gonna-do judging frustrations. It’s not as egregious as the Salt Lake City skating scandal of 2002, when a French judge conceded that she’d been pressured to favor a Russian pairs duo that eventually won gold … right?
“It is normal for there to be a range of scores given by different judges in any panel and a number of mechanisms are used to mitigate these variations,” the International Skating Union said in a statement. “The ISU has full confidence in the scores given and remains completely committed to fairness.”
Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron of France react as they wait for the scores during the free dance competition of figure skating ice dance at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games. (Chen Yichen/Xinhua via Getty Images)
(Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images)
But the fire continues to smolder outside of figure skating’s traditional territory, and the casual fans who are getting a close look at this are asking, rightfully: Just what the heck is going on with the judging in figure skating?
Advertisement
Granted, Americans come into this with no small anti-judge bias. Judging as a means of determining a victor just doesn’t sit well with most American viewers, whether it’s gymnastics, figure skating or the Westminster Dog Show.
At the risk of going full Daytona 500, in America, we don’t care much for ties, and we don’t dig on judged sports. If a tie is like kissing your sister, a judgment loss is like kissing a dog, and not even your dog. We like to settle our sporting events on the court, on the field, on the ice … and we don’t like our sports left in the hands of a faceless cabal passing irrevocable judgment.
(Yes, we have instant replay. But we don’t decide the entire Super Bowl on it.)
The issue with judging, of course, is that it’s done by judges — flawed, biased, persuadable, even manipulable human judges. The ISU has attempted a range of fixes in the wake of the 2002 scandal, from eliminating the highly imperfect and inconsistent “6.0” system to making judges’ names public to increase transparency. The ISU Judging System drills down to an element-by-element level, eliminating outliers and averaging scores,
Advertisement
For the most part, the changes work, but if critics want ammunition, well … it’s there if you look at the numbers. Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron finished with 225.82 to Chock and Bates’ 224.39, a difference of 1.43 points. However, in the free dance program, the French duo totaled 135.64, while the Americans finished with 134.67. Again, extremely close, extremely debatable. But keep digging.
In scores documented by SkatingScores on Twitter, five of nine judges scored the USA duo higher than the French one in free dance. Eight of nine judges gave Chock and Bates at least 130.97 points. The lowest score for the Americans? A 129.74 … from the French judge. Hmmm.
Now, consider the French scores. All extremely strong, yes, but the strongest score? A stunning 137.45, again from the French judge. HMMMM.
Put another way: France’s Jézabel Dabois ranked the United States 7.71 points worse than the French duo. This isn’t quite an Indiana-over-Oregon-level differential, but it’s still pretty substantial. Add to that the fact that Spain actually ranked the United States’ routine third, behind France and bronze-medal winner Canada, and you can see why many U.S. fans are saying certain judges are full of merde.
Advertisement
For another perspective, though, check out this data visualization by Sportico’s Lev Akabas:
The immediate point is that the French judge absolutely jobbed the Americans, yes. This sure looks like sandbagging to bring down the Americans’ overall score and help the French team to the gold. Statistically speaking, even if many of the French judge’s individual element scores were thrown out — and they were — there’s still the potential for an artificial manipulation of the final score. And when you’re talking tenths and hundredths of a point, every score matters.
But the larger point of this graph is equally relevant — bias is rampant across national borders. So much so that SkatingScores’ “Bias-O-Meter” shows that virtually every judge showed bias toward the skaters from their home countries. (Aside: The fact that a “Bias-O-Meter” even exists, and is statistically valid, shows exactly how gnarled the judging situation is in figure skating.)
Advertisement
What’s the answer? Perhaps AI can handle this, assuming it doesn’t hallucinate a third skater on the ice. Perhaps a more rigid form of judge recusal — kicking out judges when a skater from their home nation is on the ice, for instance, would be a solid start. Or, hell, just go to a worldwide voting system on the phone. No way that could be manipulated, right?
The maddening aspect of all of this is that it’s welling up just as skating is enjoying a resurgence in the United States. Between the two-time gold medal-winning team, the Quad God and the Big Three, America’s Olympic figure skating looks as good as it has in decades. This isn’t the time for the sport to get mired in familiar, avoidable controversies.
Advertisement
Viewers deserve better. Chock and Bates deserved better. And figure skating as a sport deserves better. That’s not a judgment, that’s straight fact.
MILAN — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal to gain reinstatement to the skeleton competition at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games has been denied.
Heraskevych filed an urgent appeal Friday morning with the Court of Arbitration for Sport over his disqualification from the Olympic Games for refusing to change a helmet honoring fellow athletes who died during Russia’s invasion of his home country.
Advertisement
Heraskevych, according to a CAS statement, argued that the decision to ban him from the Olympics is “disproportionate, unsupported by any technical or safety violation and causes irreparable sporting harm to him.”
Heraskevych registered the appeal with the CAS’s ad hoc division, which is on site in Milan and can rule on cases in less than 24 hours. The CAS appointed a sole arbitrator to “consider the matter with urgency.” Early Friday evening in Milan, the appeal was denied.
“The Sole Arbitrator, whilst fully sympathetic to Mr. Heraskevych’s commemoration, is bound by rules in the IOC Athlete Expression Guidelines,” CAS wrote in a statement. “The Sole Arbitrator considers these Guidelines provide a reasonable balance between athletes’ interests to express their views, and athletes’ interests to receive undivided attention for their sporting performance on the field of play.”
The CAS statement went on to note that the sole arbitrator “notes that the goal of this is to maintain the focus of the Olympic Games on performances and sport, a common interest of all athletes, who have worked for years to appear in the Olympic Games, and who deserve undivided attention for their sporting performances and sporting success.”
Advertisement
Heraskevych had already missed the first two runs of the men’s skeleton competition on Thursday after the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation ruled that he could not compete and the International Olympic Committee withdrew his accreditation. He requested the right to make provisional supervised runs until the CAS can reach a decision. Now, Friday’s men’s skeleton in Cortina will go on without him.
Vladislav Heraskevych (Ukraine) speaks at a press conference at the Ukrainian consulate in Milan. (Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(picture alliance via Getty Images)
Heraskevych’s helmet displaying the images of more than 20 Ukrainian athletes and coaches first became an issue on Monday when he wore it during a training run. The IOC explained to his coach and Ukrainian officials that the helmet violates rules stating that “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
When Heraskevych made clear he intended to wear the helmet anyway, the IOC offered him the option to wear a black armband or black ribbon instead of the helmet. IOC president Kirsty Coventry also traveled to Cortina to sit down in person with Heraskevych on Thursday morning in hopes of brokering a compromise.
Advertisement
“The IOC was very keen for Mr. Heraskevych to compete,” it said Thursday in a statement. “This is why the IOC sat down with him to look for the most respectful way to address his desire to remember his fellow athletes who have lost their lives following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Coventry reiterated Friday when speaking to reporters that the basis for the disqualification of Heraskevych wasn’t the content of his message. It was the fact that he insisted upon displaying it while he competed.
“I think that in some ways he understood that but was very committed to his beliefs, which I can respect,” Coventry said. “But sadly it doesn’t change the rules. And the rules were that for certain spaces — the field of play, the ceremonies, the Olympic Village — should be spaces where athletes are safe from both sides and where there is no messaging of any kind.”
When he spoke with reporters on Thursday, Heraskevych said he did not consider racing with another helmet because he believes he’s “not violating any rules.” Heraskevych pointed to “big inconsistencies” of athletes from other countries being able to express their political views during press conferences but him not being able to do so while competing.
Advertisement
“U.S. figure skater, Canadian freeskier, Israeli skeleton athlete who is also here today, they didn’t face the same things,” Heraskevych said. “So suddenly, just a Ukrainian athlete in this Olympic Games will be disqualified for this helmet.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised Heraskevych for sacrificing his Olympic dreams to honor his countrymen. In a social media post, Zelenskyy said that 660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed since the Russian invasion began.
“We are proud of Vladyslav and of what he did,” Zelenskyy said. “Having courage is worth more than any medal.”
The NFL season is over, so it’s time to turn our attention to the NBA. When betting the NFL, the hope with every pick is to bet early on Tuesdays, have a strong number by kickoff and bank on a sharp market to be efficient. The process and results matched. After sweeping three bets on the Super Bowl, the season ended 41-25, hitting 62% of my bets (with average odds of -115), and ending plus-14 units.
The plan for the NBA is mightily similar. I want to beat the closing line in an attempt to gain positive expected value.
Advertisement
Let’s break down NBA All-Star Weekend with a detailed approach to +EV betting that will be a weekly staple when the NBA returns from break.
Victor Wembanyama is back in the mix at All-Star Weekend. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Explaining theoretical hold, how to calculate it and why it matters
Theoretical hold in sports betting refers to the average rake rate or house cut the casino/sportsbook expects to make in a given market. We know books make their money on the house edge obtained by placing a vig on bets customers place. In the most basic sense, if a bettor is hitting 50% of his or her bets on the standard -110 odds, he or she is going to be a losing bettor because of the juice, which requires a 52.38% hit rate to break even.
Advertisement
To calculate the theoretical hold, we take all betting options in a market, convert the odds into implied probabilities represented in percentages, sum the total (which will always be north of 100%) and subtract 100%. The leftover percentage of the summed implied probabilities is the expected house cut. So, when applying this to a game spread or total, we typically see -110 on each bet side. If a -110 correlates to a 52.38% implied probability, then the sum total of two -110 bet options is 52.38 + 52.38 = 104.76%. Subtract 100%, and the book expects to make 4.76% in these standard two-way markets.
Quick aside: the reason why it is theoretical is because sportsbooks’ actual handle on a game is rarely 50/50 on both sides, so in a given market, it depends on which side wins and which betting side took the action. But the house edge of 4.76% still exists.
Applying that to NBA All-Star markets
When looking at the All-Star Weekend betting markets — for markets like 3-Point Contest winner, Slam Dunk Contest winner and All-Star Game MVP — there is a large spike in this theoretical hold. If we convert the current odds on all eight possible 3-Point contenders into implied probabilities, sum the total and subtract 100%, we find a theoretical hold in this particular market to be 13.6%. That means the house cut is expected to be nearly three times that in a standard game market.
Advertisement
When the house cut rises, the bettor’s value decreases. Edges need to be bigger in higher hold markets to justify a bet being placed and to obtain positive expected value. In All-Star weekend, it is hard to know who is going to give maximum effort, let alone identify a true edge by studying player vertical for the Slam Dunk contest, or shot-form consistency metrics and release angles for the 3pt Contest. Understanding what theoretical hold is, how to calculate it and how to evaluate the number generated allows you, as a bettor, to evaluate that specific market and if it is worth exploring for edges.
Players I like
Despite this not being a market I chose to bet into, as a high-level NBA bettor and a massive NBA fan, I am happy to offer a few suggestions on players I like. I understand people will negate the need for a true edge on a small and entertaining bet. So here are the players I would most consider:
Devin Booker, 3-Point Contest winner (+550): Booker is having a down year from an efficiency standpoint, but he is a perfect candidate to target. This is Booker’s third time competing, and he already notched a win. Booker has a textbook release that is fit for this contest.
Advertisement
Looking at other candidates: Norman Powell was an instant cross off for me because the release point on his shot is at the top of his vertical, which is difficult to replicate on 30 shots in just 60 seconds. Jamal Murray and Kon Knueppel are making their debuts; no thanks grabbing a first-time competitor with the nerves that are sure to hit. Bobby Portis has the longest odds and offers the biggest payout, but, to put it nicely, I am not sure why he is even in this contest.
Carter Bryant, Slam Dunk Contest winner (+190): No, he is not related to Vince Carter or Kobe Bryant, but hopefully, he pays homage to those former winners. Carter Bryant is nearly a lab-built dunk participant. He has a 40-inch vertical, he is 6-foot-6 with just under a 7-foot wingspan. The measurables are ideal for this contest — Carter Bryant combines a mix of explosiveness and size to finish some awesome dunks. Look him up on YouTube, and you’ll see compilation videos of his dunks with titles like “He’s a Freak.”
Jaxson Hayes was my first easy elimination from this list. His size makes him too big to dunk with finesse. Hayes finished a midgame breakaway dunk through his legs in live action this season — go look it up. It sounds great in theory, but aesthetically, it is underwhelming for a contest.
Advertisement
All-Star Game MVP Victor Wembanyama (+425): Wemby is the talk of the town heading into his first All-Star Game. Last year, he tried to use game theory optimization alongside teammate Chris Paul in the Skills Competition by not even attempting shots and throwing three balls off the racks to qualify as shots and not waste time. While he was disqualified for doing so, Wembanyama is looking for edges and is outspoken that he is going to try.
The big advantage Wembanyama has is that he is a starter who promises effort and has a build that is guaranteed for an incredibly efficient game. Sure, he will probably shoot five-plus 3-point attempts, but those might be his only non-dunks. He will gobble up rebounds and maybe add some defensive stats and assists. Giannis was always my All-Star MVP favorite, and he took one home a few years ago, going 16-of-16 on easy dunks.
The best way to bet All-Star Weekend
Now that you have my picks, I will let you in on the best way to bet on the events.
Advertisement
There are 16 participants in Saturday’s contests, and you can add four possible candidates for All-Star Game MVP. That’s 20 players who can be put into an All-Star Weekend draft. Find a group of four and draft the participants until all the names are taken. You will have a collection of five contestants each, and if you have the winner in any specific market, you win, let’s say, $20 from each of your friends.
If you have Devin Booker, and he wins the 3-point contest, your three friends give you $20 each for a total of $60. Do this for each contest and winner. There are game-theory approaches on taking multiple dunkers in a shorter field or aiming for a diversified set of candidates. By doing this, you have a stake in the action and eliminate house edge and the market holds that are three times worse than game-to-game markets.
If the goal is skin in the game but not a +EV bet, then the All-Star draft accomplishes that.
With the fresh fantasy baseball season approaching, it’s time to get you some tiered rankings from my Shuffle Up series. Use these for salary cap drafts, straight drafts, keeper decisions or merely a view of how the position ebbs and flows. Today’s assignment is third base.
Additional positions will follow regularly through next week.
The numbers are unscientific in nature and meant to reflect where talent clusters and drops off. Assume a 5×5 scoring system, as usual.
More Tiered Rankings
The Big Tickets
Ramírez already has nine toes in the Hall of Fame, and he’s routinely one of the 10 best players in baseball. But you get queasy when you look at the rest of the Cleveland lineup, most of the same names from the team that was 28th in runs scored a year ago. Ramírez is also stepping into his age-33 season, which makes me careful with his stolen-base projection. In short, love the player, hate the setup. I’ll want my first offensive pick to be tied to a loaded offense, and Ramírez won’t have that.
Advertisement
Given all the fanfare attached to Machado when he hit the majors as a teenager, it’s a little funny to appreciate him now, in his boring veteran days. Machado has essentially given us a full season in 10 out of 11 campaigns, building a nice floor. He’s likely to hit for a plus average along with 25-30 homers and 10-15 steals. Third base isn’t particularly deep, either. Machado makes sense at his current 32.0 Yahoo ADP.
Injuries wrecked the last two seasons for Riley, but he’s still just 29 and faces no restrictions as camp opens. His batting-average dip the last two years makes sense given the strikeouts, but he’ll hit 30 homers in a full season and provide decent run production. Riley’s ADP now sits in the high 60s, which is probably too big a correction.
Legitimate Building Blocks
It’s a sort of homecoming for Suárez, who already has 439 Great American Ballpark starts under his belt (.260/.347/.504, with 101 homers). His head should be a lot clearer removed from the Seattle marine layer — his slash in that ballpark was a messy .211/.311/.406. Suárez’s career stats show a bump in the second half, so be patient if he has a slow start. Last year’s finish was muted by Seattle’s park, but he was a .307/.341/.602 monster after the break in 2024, with 20 homers, and he had 29 second-half homers back in 2019.
Advertisement
Chapman is probably a better real-life player than a fantasy one — you get nothing for his angelic defense, and his solid OBP skills are mildly baked into his fantasy value. You’ll give up something in average here, but he’ll pop 25 homers or so and mix in a handful of steals, a skill that’s revived since he left Toronto for San Francisco. Not all of your picks have to be screaming of possible upside; Chapman can likely be a solid par with a Yahoo ADP of 144.2.
Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down
It’s been a bumpy couple of years for Marte, who was suspended in 2024 and demoted to the minors last year. The Reds have shuffled him in the field, too — Marte will open this year as the starting right fielder, and he might see time in center. It’s important to remember that he was once a top-25 prospect and he’s merely entering his age-24 season. His 162-game pace over three seasons hashes out to 18 homers and 21 steals, and he’ll probably be the team’s No. 2 batter to open the year.
Advertisement
It’s fair to worry about Montgomery’s average, which was .239 with the White Sox last year and just .246 during 376 games in the minors. But Montgomery at least does exciting things when he does make contact, conking 21 homers in just 255 at-bats with Chicago. His Baseball Savant page is full of validation, with plus marks in expected slugging, hard-hit rate, barrel rate and bat speed. Montgomery feels like a cinch for 30-plus homers and he’ll get extra volume as the No. 3 hitter in Chicago. Picking him might require some batting average care later, but we can manage that.
It was curious to see Polanco hit a career year at age 31, and in Seattle, no less. Most of his Baseball Savant sliders are supportive, decent plate discipline and good contact numbers. He might open the year as the cleanup man for the Mets. I’m interested.
Some Plausible Upside
Murakami will probably see time at first and third base for the White Sox. He was a take-and-rake player in Japan, slashing .273/.394/.550 over eight seasons but striking out as much as 180 times in a season. His stock peaked after a 56-homer season in 2022, and injuries cost him half a season in 2025. If you have the freedom of daily transactions, look to isolate the lefty Murakami against right-handed opponents.
Advertisement
Esteemed colleague Fred Zinkie lists Correa as one of his third base sleepers, and I know from experience that disagreeing with Fred is not a +EV strategy. But I’d like to point out that Correa’s Yahoo ADP is about 60 spots higher than his global ADP, and he’s always going to carry batting-average and injury risk, in addition to the zero you’ll get in the stolen base column. This is also the weakest Houston lineup we’ve seen in a while; the Astros were 21st in runs scored last season.
Negotiations between officials from Sacramento State and the Mid-American Conference have intensified over an expansion agreement that is now nearing a vote from the league’s presidents.
In deep discussion with the California-based FCS school for more than a week now, MAC executives are reaching the point of a final decision on a move that would bring a windfall to current member schools. Sacramento State’s entry fee is expected to be more than $15 million.
Advertisement
Multiple sources with knowledge of the potential agreement spoke to Yahoo Sports under condition of anonymity. Officials at Sacramento State declined to comment. Those in the MAC also declined comment, citing a standard policy of not discussing expansion.
Sacramento State is in the midst of an aggressive effort to join an FBS conference, as detailed last week in a Yahoo Sports story. Over the last several months, university executives have proposed a multi-million-dollar offer to multiple leagues in a move to elevate its football program from FCS, including forgoing a portion or all of conference distributions.
While many FBS leagues have rebuffed the proposal, such as the Mountain West and the Pac-12, MAC officials began exploring the possibility in an endeavor that has now reached more serious negotiations. The idea has been socialized with high-ranking administrators across the conference, and a decision by league presidents is expected in the coming days.
If a deal is struck, Sacramento State would represent the second such FCS-to-FBS move this month, following the Mountain West’s acquisition of North Dakota State last week — also a pricey decision. NDSU is paying $12.5 million to the Mountain West and another $5 million in a standard FBS entry fee.
Advertisement
The Bison continued the recent trend of buying into a conference. Memphis proposed a $200 million entry fee into the Big 12 last summer before the league decided against further expansion. Two years ago, SMU, Cal and Stanford agreed to forgo a portion of conference distribution as an incentive for an ACC invitation.
For months now, Sacramento State executives — athletic director Mark Orr and university president Luke Wood — have made it publicly known that they want to elevate to FBS in football. In fact, the school’s waiver to play as an FBS independent this season was denied last summer. A waiver is necessary for those seeking to move from FCS to FBS without an invitation into a conference.
The school’s athletic department transitions this year from the Big Sky to the Big West, which does not sponsor football. The shift puts the Hornets football program in an awkward position of competing in FCS as an independent. The program has scheduled seven football games for 2026 so far, with six of those FCS opponents.
The MAC has yet to release its 2026 conference football schedule. The league loses Northern Illinois this coming year and added UMass last year to remain at 12 member schools. The conference also has upcoming negotiations with ESPN for its new television deal.
Advertisement
Under the plan, Sacramento State’s other sports would remain with the Big West — a model, as it turns out, similar to Northern Illinois, which left the MAC to play only football in the Mountain West with most other sports in the Horizon.
At a time of financial stress for universities — most notably the low-budget schools in the MAC — Sacramento State’s proposal is attractive and lucrative.
Part of the California State System with an enrollment of about 30,000 students, Sac State is located in a burgeoning metropolis of more than 2 million people that is ranked 20th nationally among television markets, according to the latest Nielsen ratings.
Advertisement
Led by a non-traditionalist president intent on competing in major college football, the university’s athletic department has made significant investments for athletic promotion. Renovations are planned for its football stadium to reach FBS standards and plans for a new stadium have been in the works. The university hired as its men’s basketball coach Mike Bibby, a 14-year NBA veteran, and announced Shaquille O’Neal as the program’s voluntary general manager.
In football, the team is led by coach Alonzo Carter, a first-year coach who’s won multiple recruiting and coach-of-the-year awards over a 27-year career. Carter replaced Brennan Marion, a long-time power conference assistant who left for a position on Deion Sanders’ staff at Colorado. Marion earned more than $1 million in salary in his one year at the school, dwarfing many of his counterparts in FCS.
His roster featured several power conference transfers as the program’s NIL-related funding was believed to be on par with many programs in the lower reaches of FBS. The school has a recent history of dominant football success. In three years under Troy Taylor, the program won three consecutive Big Sky championships and advanced to the FCS quarterfinals in 2022 with a 12-1 record. However, before 2019, their last conference title was 1995 as a member of the American West Conference, then 1-AA.
Lindsey Vonn said Friday she will need at least one more surgery before going home from a hospital in Treviso, Italy.
In a message posted on social media, the 41-year-old American skier thanked supporters who have sent encouraging letters and stuffed animals while she remains in a Treviso hospital after fracturing her left leg during last Sunday’s Olympic downhill race. She said that she is scheduled for a fourth surgery on her leg Saturday and could possibly return home to the U.S., where she will require another procedure.
“It’s been quite a hard few days in the hospital here,” Vonn said. “I’m finally feeling more like myself, but I have a long, long way to go. [Saturday], I’ll have another surgery and hopefully that goes well and then I can potentially leave and go back home, at which point I’ll need another surgery. [I] still don’t know exactly what that entails yet until I get some better imaging. But, it’s kind of where I am right now.”
Vonn injured her leg in a crash 13 seconds into her run at the Alpine downhill competition. The injury required Vonn to be airlifted off the mountain and is expected to be career-ending for the three-time Olympic medalist.
Advertisement
In a previous update, Vonn said that she’d sustained a complex fracture of her tibia. Per Yale Medicine, a complex fracture is “when the bone breaks into bits and pieces, when the soft tissue surrounding the bone is severely damaged, or when the patient has other illnesses or injuries that complicate treatment and healing.”
Vonn’s right arm got caught in a gate at the top of her run, sending her flying through the air at a high rate of speed and crashing into the ground.
Advertisement
She previously wrote that her ACL tear had nothing to do with her crash.
“I was simply 5 inches too tight on my line when my right arm hooked inside of the gate, twisting me and resulted in my crash,” Vonn wrote. “My ACL and past injuries had nothing to do with my crash whatsoever.”
As she’s been in hospital, the performance of American athletes at the Olympics has lifted Vonn’s spirits. After thanking fans for their support in her recovery, she shouted out Team USA for its success in Milan Cortina.
“Good job, team, and keep crushing it,” Vonn said.
The class-action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against the NFL filed by former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores, later joined by former Arizona Cardinals coach Steve Wilks and longtime assistant Ray Horton, can be tried in open court, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled on Friday.
The ruling upheld previous decisions by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan and U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni that stated Flores would be able to take his lawsuit to court, rather than go through arbitration that would have been overseen by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
“The court’s decision recognizes that an arbitration forum in which the defendant’s own chief executive gets to decide the case would strip employees of their rights under the law,” Flores’ attorneys, Douglas H. Wigdor and David E. Gottlieb, said in a statement. “It is long overdue for the NFL to recognize this and finally provide a fair, neutral and transparent forum for these issues to be addressed.”
Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL, Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Houston Texans alleges racial discrimination in the league’s hiring process for coaches.
Advertisement
An assistant for 11 years before being hired as the Dolphins’ head coach, Flores was fired after the 2021-22 season. While pursuing other head-coaching opportunities as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he alleged that the Giants and Broncos only interviewed him to accommodate the league’s Rooney Rule that mandates teams consider minority candidates for head-coach openings. The suit claims that those teams did not view him as a legitimate candidate for those jobs.
“The significance of the Second Circuit’s decision cannot be overstated,” Wigdor and Gottlieb added. “For too long, the NFL has relied on a fundamentally biased and unfair arbitration process—even in cases involving serious claims of discrimination.
“This ruling sends a clear message: that practice must end. This is a victory not only for NFL employees, but for workers across the country—and for anyone who believes in transparency, accountability and justice.”
Flores provided evidence in his filing showing text messages from former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick congratulating him for getting the Giants’ head-coaching job. However, Flores told Belichick that he had not yet interviewed for the position. Belichick believed his messages were going to Brian Daboll, who was hired by the Giants.
Advertisement
Wilks joined the class-action suit with claims against the Cardinals. He was fired as Arizona’s head coach after only one season, after which the team hired Kliff Kingsbury. Wilks alleges he was only viewed as a one-year “bridge” during the 2018 season.
Horton named the Titans in his claims, alleging that the team had already decided to hire Mike Mularkey in 2016 when interviewing him, then the defensive coordinator, for its head-coaching position.
The NFLPA will no longer compile team report card rankings after the NFL prevailed in its grievance filed against the NFL Players Association, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The NFL released a statement on Friday.
“We are pleased with the decision from the arbitrator, upholding the parties’ collective bargaining agreement and prohibiting the NFLPA from disparaging our clubs and individuals through ‘report cards’ allegedly based on data and methodologies that it has steadfastly refused to disclose. … We remain committed to working in partnership with the NFLPA and an independent survey company to develop and administer a scientifically valid survey to solicit accurate and reliable player feedback as the parties agreed in the CBA.”
In response, the players union released its own statement saying the program “is not going away.”
“The ruling upholds our right to survey players and share the results with players and clubs. While we strongly disagree with the restriction on making those results public, that limitation does not stop the program or its impact.”
The NFL filed the grievance against the NFLPA in August. The league’s grievance stemmed from CBA Article 51, Section 6, which requires the NFLPA and league management council to “use reasonable efforts to curtail public comments by Club personnel or players which express criticism of any club…”
Advertisement
The league also alleges the report card surveys interfere with the union upholding Article 39, Section 5, which mandates the league and union jointly conduct an anonymous survey at least once every three years regarding players’ opinions on medical care and staff. The CBA also mandates the parties “commission independent analyses of the results of such surveys.”
Despite the NFL filing the grievance, the NFLPA continued to survey players for the 2025 report cards in November.
Since 2023, team report cards ranked teams from best to worst based on criteria such as treatment of families, food/dining, locker room and ownership. Last year, nearly 1,700 players participated in the 2025 NFLPA report card survey.
J.J. Watt, who played in the NFL for 12 seasons, questioned why the NFL won’t allow players to grade their workplace when the NFL allows player rankings to be displayed on national TV.
The surveys were anonymous and were an attempt for players to hold NFL clubs, owners, coaches and other personnel accountable. The NFL argued that the survey’s negative anecdotes and feedback emerged from the report cards.
Advertisement
Last year, the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings ranked as the top two teams for the second straight year, while the Arizona Cardinals were at the bottom.
Chris Paul officially ended his 21-season career as one of the NBA’s greatest point guards, announcing his retirement on Friday on Instagram.
“This is it! After 21 years I’m stepping away from basketball,” Paul wrote in the social-media post. “As I write this, it’s hard to really know what to feel, but for once — most people would be surprised — I don’t have the answer lol! But, mostly I’m filled with so much joy and gratitude!
“While this chapter of being an ‘NBA player’ is done, the game of basketball will forever be engrained in the DNA of my life.”
The fourth overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft out of Wake Forest, Paul ranks second on the NBA’s all-time assist list — his 12,552 assists trail only John Stockton’s 15,806. He is also second behind Stockton in steals. He leaves as a 12-time All-Star, 11-time All-NBA point guard, five-time single-season assists leader, nine-time All-Defense selection and a member of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.
Advertisement
For his career, Paul averaged 16.8 points, 9.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds. He was also a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. men’s national team. His next stop will be the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
In a statement, NBA commissioner Adam Silver called Paul “one of the greatest point guards in NBA history and a true steward of our sport.” Silver also credited Paul for his role as president of the NBPA.
Paul and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James are the only players with at least 20,000 points and 10,000 assists in their careers.
“Playing basketball for a living has been an unbelievable blessing that came with lots of responsibility,” Paul also said in his Instagram post. “I embraced it all. The good and the bad. As a lifelong learner, leadership is hard and is not for the weak. Some will like you and many people won’t. But the goal was always the goal, and my intentions were always sincere (Damn, I love competing!!)”
Paul had previously announced this would be his final season, a farewell tour of sorts, after he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers in the offseason. The Clippers struggled to a 5-16 start and then sent him home from a roadtrip on Dec. 3, saying they planned to part ways with him after he reportedly clashed Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue and president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank.
Advertisement
The Clippers kept Paul on the roster until trading him to the Toronto Raptors at the trade deadline earlier this month. There was never an expectation Paul would play for the Raptors, and the team waived him on Friday shortly before his retirement announcement.
The final game of Paul’s career was a 140-123 loss to the Miami Heat on Dec. 1 in which he had eight points and three assists in 14 minutes. He averaged a career-low 2.9 points, 3.3 assists and 1.8 rebounds in 16 games with the Clippers this season.
This was Paul’s second stint with the Clippers. He also played for the San Antonio Spurs, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets after beginning his career with the New Orleans Hornets.
Last season with the Spurs, Paul was the oldest player in NBA history to start all 82 games. It was only the second time in his career Paul played all 82. He finished his career having played in 1,370 regular-season games and 149 playoff games.
Advertisement
Despite Paul’s success and longevity, he never won an NBA championship. Untimely injuries sometimes limited his advancement in the playoffs, including in 2018 when he missed the last two games of the Western Conference finals as the Warriors beat his Rockets. He reached the NBA Finals for the first time in 2021 with the Suns and took a 2-0 lead over the Milwaukee Bucks only to lose the next four games.
