Toledo cornerback Quinyon Mitchell overcame every doubt with emphatic answers on his path to the 2024 NFL Draft. Critics and doubters questioned almost every area of Mitchell's game the past 12 months but he arrives on the doorstep of the 2024 draft as the top-ranked cornerback in this class by leaving no room for naysayers along the way. Mitchell dominated in the MAC with six interceptions and 45 pass breakups the past two seasons with the Rockets. Some wondered if he could have the same impact against Power 5 prospects. Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy, who had other top-ranked draft prospects at the position turn down invitations to the annual pre-draft showcase in Mobile, was an early supporter of Mitchell and provided the stage Mitchell needed in January. Mitchell said he went t…
1) Brief respite of on-field business for Manchester United
As Manchester United’s team bus left Luton on Tuesday night, a dissident band of fans broke into a chant. “What do we want? Sancho!” they bellowed. Ed Woodward’s ears undoubtedly burned as the chances of Jadon Sancho’s arrival now appear low. United’s frankly dreadful performance last Saturday against Crystal Palace increased fears among supporters that this will be another summer in which unsatisfactory transfer business takes the club backwards. Each of United’s peers in the top four have strengthened and appear willing to do more business. A similar flop against what has looked a more than useful Brigh…
Australia captain Sam Kerr has become the first female footballer to feature on the cover of a global version of the hugely popular Fifa video game. The Matildas striker is pictured alongside France star Kylian Mbappé on the cover of Fifa 23 Ultimate Edition.
The cover art was revealed by a tweet on Monday that said: “Two phenomenal forces up front. One ultimate strike partnership.”
Mohamed Salah and Sam Kerr win PFA player of the year awardsRead more
Both players are in their club kit, Chelsea for Kerr, Paris St Germain for Mbappé, who featured on his own on the front of the 2021 and 2022 issues. Prior to that Lionel Messi was often the cover star with Cristiano Ronaldo also featuring in recent years.
ASHWORTH’S ARBORETUM
As the days get longer and the temperatures warmer, there’s plenty to be getting on with for those of a green-fingered bent. Vegetable beds need to be prepared, seed potatoes need to be chitted ahead of planting and fruit crops need to be netted to protect them from our hungry feathered friends. Once you’ve taken care of all that grunt work, your winter-flowering shrubs and wisteria will need pruning, while heaven forfend you should forget to cut back your deciduous ornamental grasses to make sure there’s plenty of room for spring’s new growth. With so much to do and so little time to do it, Dan Ashworth can consider himself lucky to have been put on gardening leave by his employers at…
Cleveland Browns wide receiver Amari Cooper received a $5 million raise and will make $20 million in the final year of his five-year, $100 million deal, ESPN reported on Tuesday. Cooper, who turned 30 last month, will receive half of the $20 million guarantee in a signing bonus to conclude the deal he signed in 2020 while with the Dallas Cowboys. He'll be an unrestricted free agent after the upcoming season. Per the report, Cooper was at the team's practice facility on Tuesday, when Browns veterans were scheduled to report to training camp. Cooper skipped a mandatory minicamp in June, three months after the Browns traded for wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, who signed a three-year, $58 million extension. Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said at the time that Cooper's absence wa…
Well, this trade deadline was crazy. The Dodgers continue to throw insane amounts of money at every problem they have. The Yankees teased the Red Sox by picking up Anthony Rizzo. So, why don’t we just take a small step back from all the trade talk and talk instead about someone who’s not getting nearly enough attention this season. Milwaukee starting pitcher Freddy Peralta currently owns the third-best ERA in all of baseball among qualified pitchers. He’s got a record of 8-3. Those three losses are tied for the second-fewest among qualified pitchers. Across Peralta’s 19 starts this year, he has had six in which he’s allowed only one hit. He’s had six more where he’s allowed only two hits. Basically, in 63 percent of his starts, Freddy Peralta has been damn near unhitta…
As our national men's soccer team looks to be a lost cause, may we suggest throwing all of our support behind our new U.S. elephant polo squad? The World Cup bummed us out, and we now have a chance with a new sport to do it right this time. Why do we think this? Because the U.S. team seems to have a secret weapon. From the Houston Chronicle: For a moment at the King's Cup Elephant Polo Championship — one of the circuit's Big Three — it seemed the upstart Yanks from the Washington area might finally charge onto the scoreboard. Then something really did stir from Thong Kao — a hail of dung that left the pursuing Italians dodging for cover. But then, tragedy struck. And just as Zenz yanked back her mallet, Thong Kao accidentally stepped on the polo ball, squashing i…
Well-proportioned Romanian phenom Simona Halep is reportedly planning breast-reduction surgery, because her superhuman chest somehow doesn't help her play tennis. Or is she? Reports of the demise of her fantastical cans arrived earlier this week, but were based on garbled internet translations of obscure European newspapers. Halep—who lost in the second round of her first French Open this week—was definitely talking about her lady lumps and is clearly aware of the the, uh … logistical complications that they create for a bouncy, quick-moving tennis player, but it's not entirely clear that she's ready to drop her most famous assets. So maybe she'll dial them down next offseason or maybe she won't, but either way the world will be leering. I mean, watchin…
Commissioner Roger Goodell received $35,017,000 in compensation in 2013, according to the NFL's most-recent tax return, as reported by That's roughly the same as 2012, when Goodell's $44.2 million payout included $9 million in money deferred from previous years. "The Commissioner's total compensation in 2013 is a fair reflection of his leadership and contributions during the year," Falcons Owner Arthur Blank, Chair of the Compensation Committee, said in a prepared statement. The amount was decided by the three-owner compensation committee (Blank, Jerry Richardson, and Robert Kraft) during the owners' meetings following that season—meaning Goodell's payout for a disastrous 2014 will be determined next month. [ SBD] …
Football injuries are random but inevitable. Every year, some teams will spend the season in an MRI machine, and others will end up pretty much unharmed (outside of thousands of micro-concussions). Just as predictably, some coaches will try to obfuscate their team's health to screw with their opponents' game plans, while still adhering to the NFL's flawed injury-reporting regulations. So which teams got hit the worst by injuries in 2012? And which coaches were the most misleading about the health of their players? To answer these questions, we turn to Pro Football Reference, which has compiled 2012 injury report information in a series of delightful colored charts. The graph below is based on their data, showing, by team and injury tag, the number of players per week p…