COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to bat first in cricket’s T20 World Cup Super 8 match against England at R. Premadasa Stadium on Friday.
A win will earn New Zealand the second semifinal spot from Group 2. Leader England has already qualified after beating Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Victory for England will leave Pakistan with a slim chance of getting into the semifinals via net run-rate if they beat Sri Lanka on Saturday.
South Africa has already qualified from Group 1. The second spot will be decided by the result of the match between India and the West Indies.
New Zealand fielded the same side that beat Sri Lanka comprehensively on Wednesday while England bolstered its spin attack by recalling Rehan Ahmed in place of Jamie Overton.
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Lineups:
England: Harry Brook (captain), Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid.
New Zealand: Mitchell Santner (captain), Tim Seifert, Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Cole McConchie, Matt Henry, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson.
TAMPA, Fla. — The University of South Florida has announced its complete football schedule for 2026.
USF will open the season, its last in Raymond James Stadium before opening its on-campus stadium in 2027, on Sept. 5 at home against Florida International.
An early-season American Conference game is scheduled for Sept. 12 at Army.
The Bulls also play home, non-conference games vs. Delaware State on Saturday, Sept. 19, and Kent State on Saturday, Oct. 17, with the Kent State game designated as Homecoming.
The Bulls’ lone non-conference road contest takes place at Bowling Green on Saturday, Sept. 26.
USF will play a total of eight conference games, including home games with Temple, Alabama-Birmingham, Memphis and its season-ending game against Tulane.
The Bulls went 9-4 last year, with a third consecutive bowl appearance. USF also made the program’s first College Football Playoff ranking appearance and was ranked four times in the weekly Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The team has a new coach this season, Brian Hartline, after Alex Golesh left to become the head coach at Auburn.
MEXICO CITY — FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Thursday he spoke with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and that he has “full confidence” in Mexico as a host country for this year’s World Cup soccer tournament despite violent incidents following the death of a powerful drug lord that left at least 70 people dead.
Last Sunday, the Mexican army killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho”, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CNGJ) sparking several days of violence. Cartel members burned cars and blocked roads in nearly a dozen Mexican states.
“I had an excellent conversation earlier today with Mexico president, Claudia Sheinbaum,” Infantino said. “I reiterated our full confidence in the host country and look forward to it staging all scheduled matches there at what will be the most inclusive and the greatest FIFA World Cup ever.”
Mexico is set to host 13 World Cup matches, four of them in the western city of Guadalajara, in the Jalisco state, the central hub for the Jalisco cartel.
“I spoke by phone with FIFA President Gianni Infantino; we continue working as usual to successfully host the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” Sheinbaum posted on X. “We reaffirm our confidence in the country.”
Sheinbaum has vowed this week there was “no risk” for visitors, but on Thursday the World Cup diving event set to be held in a Guadalajara suburb next week was canceled over security concerns.
Earlier in the week the Portuguese soccer federation said it was “closely monitoring the delicate situation” ahead of a friendly match against Mexico’s national team in Mexico City.
Infantino said earlier this week in Colombia that he was convinced that “everything will go as smoothly as possible.”
Besides the four World Cup matches, the western city of Guadalajara is scheduled to host an international playoff in late March. New Caledonia will play Jamaica and the winner will face Congo for a spot in the tournament.
The president of the Jamaica Football Federation, Michael Ricketts, said this week that his organization is closely monitoring the situation in Mexico ahead of the Reggae Boyz’ scheduled international matches next month.
Minnesota Twins third baseman Royce Lewis was scratched from the team’s exhibition game lineup on Thursday as a precaution because of tightness in his right side.
Lewis experienced discomfort after running the bases in pregame warmups, the Twins said. Lewis had his spring training cut short last year by a strained left hamstring he suffered while running out a groundball. He wasn’t cleared to make his regular-season debut until May 6.
The Twins also announced they’re shutting down right-hander David Festa from throwing for about two weeks to let a shoulder impingement heal, likely meaning he will start the regular season on the injured list. This injury is different than the one that sidelined Festa for the final two months of last season, head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta told reporters at the team’s spring training complex.
Festa, who has made 23 starts for the Twins over the past two seasons, was in the mix for a spot in the rotation or at least a long relief role.
The pitching staff already took a big hit when ace Pablo López hurt his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery that will keep him out for all of 2026. López’s procedure on Wednesday did not require a full ligament reconstruction, Paparesta said, putting him on track to be fully ready for the 2027 season.
The Twins, though, are down to six legitimate candidates for their five starters, with All-Star Joe Ryan followed by Bailey Ober, Taj Bradley, Simeon Woods Richardson, Zebby Matthews and Mick Abel. Ryan’s throwing program has been paused by lower back tightness, but he’s expected to be ready by opening day on March 26.
The Twins also claimed right-handed reliever Zak Kent off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday, placing López on the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man roster.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — IndyCar opens its season with a roaring four races in March, a return to Phoenix Raceway, three new venues and the son of a motorsports icon making his debut in a North American-based series.
The season begins Sunday on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg with a field of 25 drivers led by defending race winner Palou. The Spaniard kicked off his title campaign on the street course a year ago with the win, the first of eight victories that included the Indianapolis 500 and a third consecutive IndyCar title.
He’s back with his Chip Ganassi Racing team intact, the breach of contract lawsuit with McLaren decided, and his eyes on another title. If he wins a fourth-straight, Palou would join Sebastien Bourdais as the only driver in series history to accomplish the feat.
“I think 2025 was so strange, so good, so magical … it’s very hard to get there. That doesn’t mean that nobody can or that I cannot do it again, but you need so many things to go right to get eight wins, to win the 500, to win the championship,” Palou said. “Although I would love to have another season like 2025, I am pretty certain that it’s probably not going to happen again for me. But I’ll try. I’ll try.”
His competition will come from within — teammate Scott Dixon, a six-time IndyCar champion, is looking to rebound from last year’s one-win season — as well as traditional heavyweight Team Penske. McLaren hopes to be a contender after Pato O’Ward finished second in the standings last year, and Andretti Global has been bolstered by the addition of former Penske stalwart Will Power and other key hires.
Many eyes will be on Power, who turns 45 on Sunday, same day as his first IndyCar race driving for someone other than Roger Penske since 2009. He was replaced in the Penske lineup by David Malukas, who at 24 has a longer runway than Power.
But Power was quickly snapped up by aggressive new Andretti owner Dan Towriss, who also hired Ron Ruzewski, one of three Team Penske executives fired after an Indianapolis 500 inspection infraction, as team principal of its IndyCar team. Ruzewski and Power know Team Penske inside and out and bring priceless knowledge to an Andretti organization that last won the IndyCar title in 2012.
“It’s really difficult to understand, like, are we missing anything? Are we good or bad? We won’t know that until we actually have our first race,” Power said. “But the end of the first race weekend you’ll start to see, as you always do, ‘OK, we need to work on this, this, this and this.’”
Power won Penske its last IndyCar championship in 2022 and the organization is trying to rebound from a rough season last year. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden didn’t win until the season finale and finished 12th in the standings, while teammate Scott McLaughlin went winless but was ninth in the standings.
“We’ve just got to focus on being more consistent. It’s kind of simple to say that, but that’s just what it will come down to,” Newgarden said. “If we don’t want to finish 12th in the standings, we’ve got to finish more races.”
IndyCar has a healthy 18-race schedule this year, the most events since the 2014 season, and for the first time in years the series won’t go weeks between the opener and the next race.
Penske, who owns IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was able to get a record four races in March by joining NASCAR next weekend for a return to Phoenix. IndyCar last raced at Phoenix in 2018, a race won by Newgarden.
Arlington is one of three new venues on the schedule as IndyCar will move away from downtown Toronto to race on the streets of Markham, Ontario, and a President Donald Trump-backed event in Washington, D.C., to mark the 250th birthday of the United States.
The season will end Sept. 6 with the finale back at Laguna Seca for the first time since 2023.
IndyCar typically features a few new faces every year but none come with the name recognition that Mick Schumacher brings.
Schumacher is the son of seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher and has made the move away from F1 after three seasons without a ride. He drove for Haas in F1 and became a Mercedes reserve driver after losing that seat at the end of 2022.
He hasn’t made an F1 start since and instead competed in the World Endurance Championship. Now the 26-year-old German will give North American open wheel racing a try with a seat at Rahal Letterman Lanigan.
He’ll need to quickly adapt to oval racing, which will be new to Schumacher, who said he’s leaning on teammate Graham Rahal for advice.
“I’m very curious and interested in learning about that,” Schumacher said. “The good thing is we have Graham on board, who has done a couple of these races in his lifetime, and therefore I can learn very much from him.”
Coincidentally, Schumacher will be on the grid this year with Romain Grosjean, the driver he replaced at Haas in 2021. Grosjean returns to IndyCar after a year away with Dale Coyne Racing, the team that first brought him to the series in 2021.
Coyne has an entirely new lineup this year as Grosjean will pair with rookie teammate Dennis Hauger, the reigning INDY NXT champion.
Former NBA star Chris Bosh is opening up about a recent health scare that saw him wake up covered in blood.
“I woke up covered in my own blood,” Bosh, 41, said in an emotional Instagram video shared on Wednesday, February 25. “It was crazy, it was fast, it was instant, there was no warning … I didn’t have any time to prepare for it.”
While the two-time NBA champion didn’t divulge the exact details of his health scare, he said that he fell to the floor while getting ready for a date with his wife, Adrienne, with whom he shares five children.
“The next thing you know, I was on the ground. I won’t get into specifics, but you can kind of see I’m still recovering,” he continued. “I’m not gonna try to hide that one in case I look different, but it was a scary thing.”
Dwyane Wade was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in late 2023, which required surgery to remove. “This past calendar year was probably the first time in my life [that was] unexpected,” Wade, 43, said on the Thursday, January 30, episode of his “The Why” podcast. “When you go through physical elements that you can’t feel, […]
“I’m lucky. I came back,” Bosh said elsewhere in the video. “It was just darkness. It wasn’t anything else. I went to the darkness, I came back. I have no recollection, I have no memory other than coming back here.”
Bosh said the scary incident had given him a renewed perspective on life, encouraging his followers to be bold in following their dreams.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
“It made me really have a different outlook on life and how things go, what we do for ourselves, what we do for our family, how we live our lives. No matter what it is, make sure you don’t wait,” he shared. “That’s the thing that I get [from this]. Don’t wait to take action because it could come fast, it could come quick. … I’m lucky to be alive, and I feel great about that, and now I’m thinking about how I live my day-to-day life. That’s really it.”
“Don’t wait,” he advised. “Don’t wait to take action. You might be wanting to get a promotion, you might want to try out for the team, you might want to go on that vacation. It might be so many different things that people want to do, that we want to do, that we never do, so that’s what I get from all of this. Don’t wait for it.”
The stories of the firing of Michigan’s Sherrone Moore and Ohio University’s Brian Smith have shocked fans of both programs. Smith was fired by Ohio University on December 17, 2025, for “serious professional misconduct and participating in activities that reflect unfavorably on the University.” He admitted to engaging in an affair with an undergraduate student […]
Gabrielle Union, the wife of Bosh’s former Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade, commented on his post, “Praying for you CB! Sending big ❤️ and mighty 🙏🏾.”
Former NBA point guard Nate Robinson wrote, “Praying for you bro… been through life changing health issues myself brother GODSPEED.”
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In February 2015, Bosh was benched for the remainder of the 2014-15 NBA season due to a blood clot in one of his lungs. The Basketball Hall of Famer’s career effectively came to an end the following year when another blood clot was discovered in his leg. Despite attempts to make a comeback, by 2019, he decided to retire.
“That part of my life is over,” Bosh said in 2019 during an appearance on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” per Sports Illustrated.
He added, “That has been a tough thing to deal with, but I’m good, which has taken a long time [for me to accept]. … I could have kept playing. But man, that time has passed. I’ve made the decision not to pursue it anymore.”
Chaotic starts, tricky overtaking, lifting off the gas on straights. Formula 1’s new era of regulations could upend the series in unexpected ways when the season begins with the Australian Grand Prix next week.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, the two most successful drivers on the grid, were critical in testing of cars whose electrical hybrid systems promote unusual driving styles and make racing more strategic.
Four-time champion Verstappen branded the cars “no fun” and suggested they might be a factor in considering retirement, while seven-time champ Hamilton suggested the rules are too complex for fans to grasp.
It’s a crucial season for F1, which expanded rapidly over the last decade by putting drivers’ personalities center stage and not focusing on technological detail.
“We need to stay calm because, as always when there is something happening as a new regulation, there’s always the doubt that everything is wrong,” F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali said last week at testing.
Despite big changes, the top four teams are the same after Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull all showed promise in testing.
The “big four,” as McLaren boss Zak Brown calls them, seem broadly similar on pace, with Mercedes and Ferrari perhaps having a slight edge in race simulations in testing.
At the final test, Ferrari revealed a rear wing that turns upside down for straight-line speed and an innovative mini-wing behind the exhaust. It also stood out as the fastest in practice starts after other teams, especially Mercedes, were sluggish off the line.
Rivals have praised Red Bull for mastering the electrical power technology, while champion Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri seem consistently strong again for McLaren, which uses a Mercedes engine.
Mercedes’ mix of power and reliability could make George Russell a true championship contender. There’s extra attention on Mercedes’ engine, which was fast in testing following weeks of speculation from rivals about its legality. Mercedes says the design is perfectly legal.
Some teams sacrificed the 2025 season to seek big gains in 2026. It hasn’t worked.
Even with star designer Adrian Newey in charge, Aston Martin was late to testing, unreliable, and often slower than new team Cadillac. Williams and Alpine have also struggled but Haas may be able to challenge the top teams.
The push by the FIA for a 50-50 split between power from the engine and from electrical hybrid technology means driving in 2026 is all about compromise.
Drivers in preseason testing were revving the engines hard on the grid for a fast getaway, lifting off the gas on straights to charge the on-board battery and shifting down aggressively to first gear in corners. The FIA could intervene to tweak the regulations if the first few races throw up bizarre scenarios.
Standing starts off the grid required a tricky procedure in testing because the hybrid system doesn’t kick in until 50 kph (31 mph). After some sluggish practice starts, tweaks have been made to the procedure, but that might not stop Ferrari, which identified the issue early and designed its engine to be quick off the line. Hamilton delivered one of the most eye-catching moments of preseason by blasting past four cars in a practice start in Bahrain last week.
Fast starts might be extra important if overtaking is as hard as some drivers suspect. Get ready to hear about 2026 cars being “energy-starved” on certain tracks, including Australia, which doesn’t have as many heavy braking zones where the battery can charge.
If cars can’t make full use of the hybrid system, the new “overtake mode” with extra power might be a waste of limited energy if it needs several laps to hit full charge and still leaves the overtaking car a sitting duck afterward.
There’s a new team, a renamed team, a new track and a new broadcaster in the United States.
Cadillac joins as the 11th team with veteran race winners Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas, but faces a year of learning after being consistently slow in preseason. Even the Super Bowl ad revealing its eye-catching asymmetric black-and-white livery hit trouble in the form of a lawsuit from Hollywood director Michael Bay.
Sauber is now Audi after a takeover by the German automaker, which is producing its own engines.
The Spanish Grand Prix leaves Barcelona after 35 years for Madrid’s new Madring street circuit. Italy’s second race at Imola makes way and Barcelona stays on as the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Apple, whose studio helped to make last year’s “F1” movie, takes over the U.S. broadcast rights after the end of ESPN’s contract.
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — Sprowls Horizon Sports Park in Pinellas Park is hosting its grand opening this weekend after years of planning.
The complex has six baseball and softball fields, a field hockey rink, a playground and more.
What You Need To Know
Sprowls Horizon Sports Park is home to baseball and softball fields, a multi-purpose field, a field hockey rink and more
Sprowls Horizon Sports Park General Manager Michael Nielsen said the park will bring in 160,000 people a year
The baseball and softball fields are booked every weekend through the end of 2026
Baseball coaches like Sean Rodriguez are thrilled that the kids they coach will have the opportunity to play at the park.
“To say they got to experience their youth on fields like this, it’s going to make it that much more memorable,” he said.
Rodriguez is a co-owner of R3 — With God No Fear.
He had a 13-year major league baseball career, including spending 2010 through 2014 with the Rays.
Rodriguez said they’ve been looking for fields where they could consistently practice for three years.
This sports park is giving them exactly what they’ve been looking for.
“I was walking and just messing around with some of my parents, and they were like, man, this is beautiful,” he said. “I was like, yeah, I’m trying to find Jesus because this has got to be heaven.”
Pinellas Park Community Development Administrator Nick Colonna said the park will be an anchor for the city.
“We offer good food,” he said about the city. “We offer great manufacturing base. We offer a lot of great retail. We offer farms. We offer a lot. Now, we offer a regional sports complex that brings in people that have never seen the region and the city.”
Sprowls Horizon Sports Park General Manager Michael Nielsen said the park will bring in 160,000 people a year.
The park is already booked every weekend through the end of 2026.
“With tournaments every single weekend, including national and regional, and local tournaments, you have people coming from Delaware, Colorado, California, all to see this wonderful city, but also highlighting something for the local community and bringing in people from Tampa or even Lakeland to enjoy the site,” he said.
There will be a ribbon-cutting on Saturday to recognize the opening of the park.
The park will open at noon every day.
Nielsen said rental for the baseball and softball fields is $90 per hour.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Vegas Golden Knights were without five players from the Olympic gold medal-game Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL’s return from a three-week break.
Having already ruled out center Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin from the champion United States, the Golden Knights traveled without Canadian forwards Mark Stone and Mitch Marner and defenseman Shea Theodore.
“Well, it’s a challenge to the group, and it’s an opportunity for others, so we still got 20 NHL players in our lineup,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Obviously, less room for error when you’re missing some real difference-makers.”
The United States beat Canada 2-1 in overtime in Milan on Sunday. Eichel, Stone and Marner are Vegas’ top three point producers, Theodore and Hanifin lead Vegas defensemen in ice time and points.
Eichel and Hanifin will join up with the Golden Knights in Washington and are expected to play against the Capitals on Friday night. Cassidy expressed optimism Stone, Marner and Theodore will make the trip from Las Vegas to the East Coast and also be available Friday.
Vegas does have reinforcements coming into the lineup with forwards Brandon Saad (undisclosed) and Colton Sissions (upper body) and defenseman Brayden McNabb (upper body) all having been activated off injured reserve Tuesday.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SAN JOSE – Macklin Celebrini had just finished his first practice back with the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday – after an unforgettable Olympic experience — when he entered a room filled with cameras and reporters.
“Most media we’ve had. Ever,” Celebrini said. “Starting to feel like a Canadian market.”
And a reflection of his growing popularity, as Celebrini’s record-setting performance at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics – capped by a gold medal game watched by tens of millions of fans — raised his profile here at home and across the NHL.
Roughly a dozen news outlets, several more than usual, attended the Sharks’ practice on Wednesday as Celebrini skated with his teammates for the first time since he returned from Italy late Monday night.
Some of those local media outlets were at a Sharks practice for the first time this season, underscoring the team’s growing relevance and Celebrini’s reach as one of the Bay Area’s most recognizable sports figures.
“I know Mack is certainly proud to be Canadian, and he should be,” but we were also proud to represent, you know, San Jose Sharks, the Bay Area, the community around here, the fans, obviously, he’s become, you know, the face of the franchise, in a sense,
Thursday’s game against the Calgary Flames, which begins a six-game homestand, is trending toward a sellout crowd of 17,435.
Tickets are also scarce and pricey for San Jose’s weekend games against McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday and goalie Connor Hellebuyck – who made 41 saves for Team USA in the gold medal game — and the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
The Sharks have already sold out 12 of 26 home games this season, after having capacity crowds in 15 of 41 games at SAP Center last season.
“This was the goal,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “Not to talk to this many media people, but the goal was to get the energy back in the building and get people talking about the Sharks again, and I think the players did a great job of doing that.”
San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini speaks about his experience representing Canada at the Olympics during a press conference at Tech CU Arena in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
“This homestead is going to be pretty much sold out,” Warsofsky added. “Crowds and people are going to be excited to see our team play again.”
As excited as Celebrini was to be back in San Jose, there was still some bitterness as to how the Olympic tournament ended.
Playing alongside the game’s greatest player in Connor McDavid, Celebrini had a tournament-leading five goals in six games, and his 10 points made him the highest-scoring teenager in an Olympics involving NHL players.
While Celebrini on Wednesday expressed gratitude for the opportunity to represent his native country of Canada on hockey’s biggest international stage, where he played with several of the game’s greatest stars, there remained – reasonable or otherwise — a feeling of failure.
Celebrini and the Canadians did enough to beat the United States in Sunday’s gold medal game at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena in Italy. But the heart-stopping final came down to 3-on-3 overtime, where New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes scored the winning goal, handing the Americans a 2-1 win and their first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey since 1980.
For anyone who thought Celebrini would now be past the disappointment of losing the men’s hockey gold medal game, think again.
“A lot of those guys I looked up to my whole childhood, and it was an honor play with them and be around them every single day,” Celebrini said at Sharks Ice. “But it sucks. It’s a little sour that you look back at it and just didn’t get the job done.”
How long does he think that sour feeling will last?
“Forever,” Celebrini said.
San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini (71) and San Jose Sharks’ Vincent Desharnais (5) talk during the first practice after the Olympics at Tech CU Arena in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Now the Sharks are hoping other Olympians, Sweden’s Alex Wennberg, Switzerland’s Philipp Kurashev, and Slovakia’s Pavol Regenda, can use the pressure of an Olympic tournament – and the disappointment that came with it — to their benefit as their playoff chase resumes.
Celebrini said playing with McDavid, the NHL’s leading scorer before Wednesday and a three-time Hart Trophy winner, and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, the league’s second-leading scorer, showed him “where the bar is at.”
“Those guys play with such pace, and they think the game so fast, and the level that they play at, the practice that they play at, probably the fastest practices I’ve ever been a part of.
“Just being around them, practicing with them, playing with them, it’s a different level.”
The Sharks’ homestand is going to be vitally important to any postseason hopes, as they entered Wednesday five points out of a playoff spot with 27 games left to play.
Celebrini’s performance so far this season, with 81 points in 55 games, is clearly a big reason why the Sharks are in the mix for their first playoff appearance since 2019.
“We want to take those next steps, and all this comes along with it,” Celebrini said. “The fans, the attention. We want those expectations. We want that pressure, because that means we’re doing a good thing and we’re trending the right way.
“So I think just at the end of the day, all this comes into it, and hopefully you guys come back more.”
The University of Cincinnati is suing Brendan Sorsby, accusing the former Bearcats quarterback of breaching his name, image and likeness contract following his transfer to Texas Tech.
The university filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on Wednesday.
According to the lawsuit, Sorsby signed an NIL agreement in July 2025 covering the 2025 and ’26 seasons and that there would be a $1 million buyout if Sorsby transferred, payable within 30 days. Sorsby announced on Dec. 15 that he was entering the transfer portal and announced on Jan. 4 that he would be attending Texas Tech.
Sorsby received the most lucrative deal of the portal period — a reported $5 million — to return to his home state for his final season.
“Cincinnati Athletics is proud to partner with its student-athletes and honors the contractual commitments it makes to them. We expect student-athletes and their representatives to do the same,” the university said in a statement. “In his lucrative NIL agreement with Cincinnati Athletics, Brendan Sorsby committed to stay and play for two seasons as a proud Bearcat representative. He also agreed that if he left the university before that time, he would pay the university a specific amount for the substantial harm that his breach would cause. Cincinnati Athletics intends to enforce that contractual commitment.”
Sorsby’s agent, Ron Slavin, said pursuing legal action against his client is misguided and that Sorsby intends to fight the lawsuit and any resulting damages.
Sorsby passed for 2,800 yards, 27 touchdowns and five interceptions last season. He also ran for 580 yards and nine TDs. The Bearcats started 7-1 before losing their final five games.
Slavin said Sorsby was paid $875,800 by Cincinnati under its revenue-sharing structure for the 2025 season.
“In that time, he generated millions in value for the program. Attempting to recover those funds now sends the wrong message to current and future student-athletes and risks damaging the long-term credibility of Cincinnati football,” Slavin wrote in an email. “This is further disappointing given that Brendan parted ways with UC in what was a mutually agreeable manner. The money the university seeks to recover from him is nothing more than an unlawful penalty under Ohio law.”
This is at least the third case this year in which a school has sought a legal remedy related to an NIL deal with a quarterback.
Duke sued Darian Mensah were engaged in a legal fight until reaching a settlement last month. Mensah signed a two-year contract in July 2025 before he led the Blue Devils to their first outright Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1962. A judge granted Duke’s request for a temporary restraining order to block Mensah from doing anything beyond entering his name into the transfer portal until both sides came to an agreement.
Mensah ended up transferring to Miami.
Demond Williams Jr. had planned to transfer from Washington, then changed his mind two days later as the Huskies were preparing to file a lawsuit to enforce a buyout of nearly $4 million.
Sorsby began his career at Indiana before transferring to Cincinnati. In 35 career games, including 31 starts, he has passed for 7,208 yards and 60 touchdowns, along with 1,295 rushing yards and 22 TDs.
Sorsby and the Red Raiders, who won the Big 12 last season and reached the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history, will play at Cincinnati on Oct. 24 during the university’s 100th homecoming celebration.
PEORIA, Ariz. (AP) — Cal Raleigh has already gone deep this spring, yet the switch-hitting Seattle Mariners catcher isn’t focused on trying to hit 60 home runs again this season.
Raleigh, who had an MLB-leading 60 homers last year, hit a 427-foot homer against the Chicago White Sox in an exhibition game Tuesday. His first spring homer came in his third game.
“I think the elephant in the room is 60 home runs. That’s not something I’m setting out to do,” Raleigh told Seattle Sports this week. “To me, I’m just trying to be as consistent as possible, trying to do what I did last year.”
His 60 homers last season were the most for a player who was primarily a catcher, having started 119 games behind the plate and another 38 at designated hitter. The 29-year-old Raleigh, nicknamed “Big Dumper,” also had a career-high 125 RBIs and finished second in the American League MVP voting behind New York Yankees slugger and third-time winner Aaron Judge.
Judge and Raleigh are both set to play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, which begins pool play next week. Judge set the AL record with 62 home runs in 2022.
They are among only seven players with a 60-homer season, and Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are the only ones to do so in consecutive seasons (1998 and 1999). McGwire and Sosa are the only players with multiple 60-homer seasons, and Sosa had a third in 2001.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Lightning’s Jake Guentzel It Wasn’t Right Time For White House … ‘Dream Come True To Go’
Published
While a good amount of the U.S. men’s hockey team visited the White House following their gold medal win over Canada in the Winter Olympics, a handful of players like Jake Guentzel opted to pass on the opportunity … and the Tampa Bay Lightning winger said he was absent due to a “timing thing for me and my family.”
Guentzel — along with Brock Nelson, Kyle Connor and Jake Oettinger— was not spotted when President Donald Trumpwelcomed the team to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate their huge win. But the Stanley Cup champion made it clear there was no political message behind it.
“I was definitely not denying the request to go,” Guentzel said. “It was a dream come true to go, I was fortunate to go in 2017 when Trump was in office.”
“We’ve got a lot of games coming up the rest of the year, gonna be a tough schedule,” he continued. “So, two weeks of Olympic break, thought it good to come home, rest and recover and try to spend some time with my family before we get going.”
Despite the members of Team USA partying their tails off since their win over Canada … it’s easy to forget there’s still an NHL season to finish — and games are set to resume on Wednesday.
None of the other players who skipped the White House visit have commented on why they chose not to go, but it’s fair to assume the quick turnaround played a role.
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For the players who did go, Trump made sure their experience was memorable. The White House played “Free Bird” as they walked along the West Colonnade … and brought them along to the State of the Union — where they received a massive ovation.
Canada’s Sidney Crosby (87) reacts after Canada lost to the United States in a men’s ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
The club placed its longtime captain on injured reserve on Wednesday. The move comes after Crosby sustained a lower-body injury during the Olympic hockey tournament at the Milan Cortina Games.
Crosby will have to miss at least a week, though it’s likely he will be out for considerably longer.
The injury comes with the surprising Penguins in second place in the Metropolitan Division. Pittsburgh is looking to return to the postseason for the first time since 2022.
Crosby has been his usually productive self this season. He leads the Penguins in goals (27), assists (32) and points (59) and is on pace to extend his NHL record of averaging at least a point a game to 21 years and counting.
The injury comes at a busy time for Pittsburgh, which opens the post-Olympic break at home against New Jersey on Thursday. The matchup with the Devils is the first of 13 games in a 24-day stretch for the Penguins.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Micah Robinson scored 20 points, Xavier Edmonds added 17 and TCU rolled to a 90-78 victory over Arizona State on Tuesday night.
TCU took the lead for good with about six minutes to play before halftime led by as many as 18 points in the second half.
Edmonds and Robinson each made three of TCU’s eight 3-pointers. Brock Harding shot just 1 of 10 from the floor but made 8 of 11 free throws and finished with 10 points and distributed 11 assists for the Horned Frogs. Tanner Toolson added 12 points and Liutauras Lelevicius scored 10.
TCU (18-10, 8-7 Big 12) has won five of its last six and four straight against Arizona State (14-14, 5-10).
Maurice Odum scored 21 points and had 10 assists to lead the Sun Devils. Anthony Johnson added 18 points and Massamba Diop 13.
Edmonds scored 14 points and Lelevicius added nine to help TCU take a 33-30 lead to halftime. With 13:30 left, TCU started a 9-0 surge for a 58-46 lead and the Horned Frogs held a double-digit advantage for most of the remainder.
Former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin was seen caring for her boyfriend, New York Rangers legend Ron Duguay, amid the athlete’s battle with cancer.
In an Instagram video shared by Duguay’s daughter, Shay Thomas, on Tuesday, February 24, Palin, 62, was filmed feeding spoonfuls of food to Duguay, 68, as he rested in a hospital bed. The politician was also tagged in the video by Thomas.
The footage was shared the same day that Thomas and her sister, Amber Stavros, whom Duguay shares with ex-wife Robin Bobo, launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the former ice hockey player’s ongoing cancer treatment.
Palin, who began dating Duguay in 2022, was featured a second time within Thomas’ video, posing alongside her boyfriend as the pair smiled for a selfie. The clip otherwise focused on Duguay’s cancer journey, compiling photos and videos that showed the athlete undergoing varied treatments across multiple hospital visits.
David Livingston/Getty Images Since going public with stage III non-Hodgkin lymphoma in November 2024, Dave Coulier has been candid about his illness, treatment and prognosis before his second diagnosis. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that affects the patient’s lymphatic system, with “white blood cells called lymphocytes [that] grow abnormally and can form growths […]
Page Six reported on Tuesday that Duguay was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer that “started in the colon.” The diagnosis was presented about a year ago, per the outlet.
Us Weekly has reached out to Duguay for comment.
Thomas offered further insight into the family’s recent experiences via the post’s caption. “Update on my dad @ronduguay10. One of the hardest things we’ve learned through this journey is that cancer doesn’t fight fair. Just when you think you’ve found something that’s working, just when hope starts to grow again, it tries to show up somewhere else. It forces you to keep pivoting, keep adjusting treatments, and keep changing cocktails and protocols,” the mom-of-three wrote.
Ron Duguay and Sarah PalinCourtesy of Shay Thomas/Instagram
“Cancer wears on you mentally, emotionally, and physically. The highs bring hope, the lows can feel overwhelming. But through all of it, my dad keeps showing up. And more than anything, he keeps leaning on God.”
Thomas, whose GoFundMe target of $50,000 had soared past the halfway point (approximately $28,400) at the time of publication, then detailed the various treatments her father had undertaken in the hope of attacking cancerous cells.
“He is doing everything he possibly can … from living antioxidant water, blood ozone therapy, IV vitamin drips, ivermectin, methylene blue, and countless holistic approaches, while also continuing [Californian hospital] City of Hope’s chemo protocol and undergoing major surgery on both his liver and colon,” she detailed. “He is all in. Every single day. And through it all, his faith has never wavered.”
Palin has mostly kept her romance with Duguay away from the public eye, however the pair have attended public events together in the past, including the “Save America” rally in Anchorage, Alaska, in July 2022. The New York Post also published photos of the pair linking arms while attending a Rangers game in New York City in April 2025.
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Palin, who divorced Todd Palin in 2020 after more than three decades of marriage, told the Post in 2022 that her relationship with Duguay was “safe and comfortable.”
While addressing her 2017 defamation lawsuit against The New York Times — which alleged that the NYT incorrectly linked her political committee to a 2011 mass shooting (the lawsuit was dismissed in 2022 and an appeal also found the NYT not liable in 2025) — Palin told the Post that Duguay served as a healthy distraction throughout the ordeal.
“Ron is the first person that I’ve ever even talked to about a lot of this personal stuff. So it’s been helpful and refreshing to have Ron to talk to about not just politics, because he’s got more common sense in his little finger than the collective in D.C., but just about life,” she said before adding that her boyfriend was “really handsome.”
STUDIO CITY — After a shoe malfunction, Harvard-Westlake’s Joe Sterling switched his sneakers at halftime and proceeded to dominate the third quarter along with Amir Jones. The Wolverines turned a two-point halftime deficit against visiting La Mirada into a 13-point lead.
La Mirada’s Gene Roebuck attempts a shot while being defended by Harvard-Westlake’s Amir Jones during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
La Mirada’s Andrew Castro attempts a shot while being defended by Harvard-Westlake’s Cole Holden during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
La Mirada’s Gene Roebuck and Harvard-Westlake’s Pierce Thompson scramble for the ball during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
Harvard-Westlake’s Tre McNeely and La Mirada’s King-Riley Owens collide while going for the ball during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
Harvard-Westlake’s Barron Linnekens defends against La Mirada’s Gene Roebuck during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
Harvard-Westlake’s Pierce Thompson drives toward the basket while being defended by La Mirada’s Cisco Munoz during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
Harvard-Westlake’s Joe Sterling brings the ball up the court while being defended by La Mirada’s Tristan Partida during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
La Mirada’s Gene Roebuck attempts a shot while being defended by Harvard-Westlake’s Amir Jones during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
La Mirada’s Andrew Castro drives toward the basket while being defended by Harvard-Westlake’s Dominique Bentho during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
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La Mirada’s Gene Roebuck attempts a shot while being defended by Harvard-Westlake’s Amir Jones during a CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball semifinal at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Photo by Mark Savage, Contributing Photographer)
Those eight minutes changed the momentum for good, as Harvard-Westlake finished with a 71-57 victory over La Mirada in the CIF Southern Section Open Division semifinals on Tuesday.
Harvard-Westlake, which won the Open Division title in 2024, will play in the championship game Saturday. It will take on Sierra Canyon at the Toyota Arena in Ontario at 6 p.m.
Sierra Canyon defeated Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, 70-46, in the other semifinal Tuesday night.
Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo talks about playing for the Open Division title after pulling away in the second half to beat La Mirada, 71-57 pic.twitter.com/0PpBft4kww
Sterling, a University of Texas commit, scored 10 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter. Jones, a Georgia Tech commit, nailed two clutch 3-pointers during a quarter where the Wolverines outscored the Matadores 22-7. They limited the Matadores to just two field goals during the period.
Jones finished the game with 16 points.
La Mirada coach Randy Oronoz said his team didn’t meet the moment in a close game.
“Third quarters have been good for us all year. I was surprised, to be honest,” Oronoz said. “They hit two 3s to start the quarter and we didn’t defend very well. We started playing hero basketball and that’s why we only had seven points.
“The ball didn’t move well, and against a team like that you can’t take quarters off. This is the Open Division, you have to play four quarters to win games like this.”
Who knows if it was the sneakers, but clearly Sterling came out ready to make a statement in the second half.
“The bottom of my shoe, the sole, fully came off. It was in two pieces, I couldn’t wear them,” said Sterling, who missed the final minute of the second quarter with his shoe problem. “I changed it at halftime and then we came out hot in the second half.”
Sterling didn’t like how Harvard-Westlake played during the first 16 minutes of the game.
“We just wanted to come out strong in the second half and blow the game open,” Sterling said. “We knew it was too close in the first half and we could have played better. So, we wanted to come out with some energy and we got a big lead.”
Harvard-Westlake’s Joe Sterling finished with 25 points in their 71-57 victory over La Mirada. He changed his shoes at half and came out on fire in the third. pic.twitter.com/0Zm9LGfV2B
The Matadores opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run to pull within six points, but the Wolverines countered with a 12-2 run and that was that.
Matadores junior Gene Roebuck finished with a game-high 29 points and Cisco Munoz finished with 12, but they couldn’t get a rhythm going in the second half.
Plus, the combination of Sterling and Jones, along with Cole Holden’s 14 points, were too much.
Harvard-Westlake coach David Rebibo thought it was simply a matter of details.
“I thought we settled in offensively and the ball started moving,” Rebibo said of his team’s play in the second half. “Defensively, we kind of settled in and made some catches difficult for their guys. It pushed them a little further out of position and made their shots a little different than they like to do and that helped us.”
The Wolverines held Roebuck to 12 points in the second half, and clearly made an effort to make him work for every shot.
“He’s a really good player, we tried to make his catches as difficult as possible,” Rebibo said. “I think we kind of wore him down a little. You’re not going to stop a guy like that, you’re trying to slow him down as much as you can.”
The Matadores (24-8) had a remarkable run in the Open Division. They were the 12th seed in the 12-team pool and all of their Open Division games were on the road. They gave themselves a chance to reach the final before appearing to run out of gas.
La Mirada will now wait for the state playoffs to begin March 3.
“I want the guys to watch film of this game,” Oronoz said. “At times we played together and at other times we didn’t. If we’re going to have a chance in the state playoffs, we have to be better.”
For the Wolverines, it is kind of an unexpected trip to the finals. They finished fifth in the Mission League and were the No. 7 seed in the Open Division. But they have gone undefeated in the playoffs and now have a chance to win their second Open title in three years.
When they take on Sierra Canyon, it will be the first time two teams from the same league meet for the Open Division title.
Rebibo realizes they will be underdogs, but maybe the familiarity will help.
“It’s a testament to these guys, we’ve got a great group of young men who stayed the course,” Rebibo said of reaching the championship. “They handled adversity and they battled through it. We’re excited, we’re not surprised, we’re just happy for the opportunity (to play for the title).
There were seven lead changes in the first half.
The Matadores fell behind 14-9 after Holden buried a 3-pointer. But they didn’t let the Wolverines go anywhere. Roebuck got fouled on a 3-pointer and made all three shots. That was followed by Tristan Partida’s 3-pointer to give the Matadores a 15-14 lead.
It went back-and-forth until Munoz’s lay-up tied the score 19-19 to end the quarter.
The Matadores scored the first seven points of the second quarter. Roebuck followed a driving lay-up with a 3-point play to give them a 26-19 lead. But just like the Matadores answered when they fell behind, the Wolverines did the same.
Holden scored five straight points to make it a two-point game. Even when Castro’s dunk gave the Matadores a six-point lead in the final minute, the Wolverines scored the final four points of the half to trim the Matadores’ lead to 36-34 at the break.
NEW ORLEANS – Tuesday night’s promotion at Smoothie King Center was “Y2K,” where Usher’s music blasted through the speakers and the half-empty crowd were given 2000s-style bird hats to wear.
On the court, the Warriors and Pelicans decided to also pay homage to that low-scoring era of hoops by throwing up copious amounts of bricks in the Warriors’ 113-109 loss to New Orleans.
Golden State shot just 40% and 23% from behind the arc, while the Pelicans had a 43% accuracy rate from the field.
The Warriors got as close as 104-103 with 1:47 left in the game, but Saddiq Bey pushed the lead back to four with a scooping and-one reverse layup. Three De’Anthony Melton free throws got the deficit back to three after another Pelicans score, but the Pelicans held on for the win after a few empty Warriors possessions.
Melton scored a season-high 28 points and threw down a shocking poster dunk in the second half, while Moses Moody continued to shoot well and scored 24. Brandin Podziemski came off the bench to score 16 and grab 16 rebounds. Zion Williamson led the Pelicans with 26 points.
The Warriors were without Steph Curry (runner’s knee) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness) as neither man made the trip with the team.
That lack of firepower was apparent in the first half, as the visitors shot just 31.3% from the field and made a ghastly 23% of their triples over the first 24 minutes. Melton’s off-the-bounce game and some timely shotmaking by Moody were the only things keeping the Warriors offense afloat.
It was only through sheer effort – and ineptitude from the cellar-dwelling Pelicans – that the Warriors were down just 46-39 at halftime.
The Warriors even took a 58-57 lead with six minutes left in the third, but a Derik Queen layup gave the Pelicans back the advantage with three minutes remaining. The Pelicans led 77-72 while Dejounte Murray played his first game of the season.
The Warriors ran out of steam down the stretch, while the talented but raw Pelicans made enough shots to stretch out the advantage.
The Warriors (30-28) will play at Memphis on Wednesday, and then have two days off before facing LeBron James and the Lakers on Saturday.
Draymond Green returns
After missing Monday’s game with lower back soreness, Draymond Green made his return to the starting lineup against New Orleans. The results were uneven in the first half.
On one side of the floor, Green was his vintage self while matchup up against Williamson. He denied the Pelicans star advantageous position while also flying around as a weakside help defender.
But on offense …. It was a night to forget for Green. Yes, he scored 11 points, but the Pelicans did not care. Green’s defender routinely sagged 5-to-10 feet off Green even when he had the ball, inviting harmless drives into the paint.
That changed in the second half, when Green handled the ball far less but remained active as a screener and option for layups in the dunker’s spot.
Green ended the night a plus-5 while shooting 5-of-11 to go with seven rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots.
Former Warriors on Pelicans
A couple of familiar faces dotted the Pelicans roster when the Warriors tipped off. Center Kevon Looney and guard Jordan Poole lined up against the team they helped win a championship.
Looney did not play a single minute, having been surpassed in the rotation by Queen and DeAndre Jordan. Poole got more playing time, coming in off the bench and scoring 12 while grabbing six rebounds.
Kuminga’s Hawks debut
After almost three weeks of waiting and anticipation, former Warrior Jonathan Kuminga made his debut for the Hawks on Tuesday night.
The Warriors had sent Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta in exchange for Porzingis. In his first game back from a bone bruise that had sidelined him since January, Kuminga wowed the Hawks crowd.
He scored 27 points on an efficient 8-of-12 shooting from the field, coming off the bench and sparking the offense in a 119-98 Atlanta victory. Hield did not play.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The New York Jets don’t plan to let running back Breece Hall hit the open market at the start of the league year, while the futures of other top running backs such as Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III and David Montgomery remain more in flux.
Jets general manager Darren Mougey said Tuesday at the NFL scouting combine that the team plans to use either the franchise tag or the transition tag on Hall before the deadline on March 3.
Hall would be guaranteed a salary of about $14.5 million next season with the franchise tag and about $11.7 million with the transition tag. Another team could sign Hall to an offer sheet with the Jets having five days to match the offer or receive two first-round picks as compensation with a franchise tag or no compensation with a transition tag.
“The tags are an option,” Mougey said. “Ideally we find a way to get a deal done to keep Breece around. I think I’ve said that for the last year since I got here. Breece is a good player, we want to find a way to keep him around. We’ve been going through that process and are still doing so and we have a week to find out if we can’t get to an agreement, which way we’ll go.”
Hall was drafted in the second round in 2022. He rushed for a career-high 1,065 yards last season for New York and ranks 12th in the NFL with 2,935 yards rushing the past three seasons.
Only one running back in the NFL is scheduled to make at least $14 million in cash next season with 2024 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley set to be paid $16.75 million from the Philadelphia Eagles.
Walker’s status is more uncertain after he capped his fourth season in the NFL by winning Super Bowl MVP for Seattle when he rushed for 135 yards in the win earlier this month over New England.
Walker is coming off the second 1,000-yard rushing season of his career and averaged 104.3 yards per game rushing in the playoffs when he showed he could carry a heavy load after Zach Charbonnet went down with a season-ending knee injury in the divisional round.
General manager John Schneider declined on Tuesday to answer whether the team would use a tag to keep Walker locked up for 2026.
“We’d love to have Ken back, we’d love to have everybody back,” Schneider said. “But he knows this better than anybody, it’s about our 70, our collective, and what it’s going to look like. And we’ll have those meetings down here. We’ll start, you know, talking to all the agents and, yeah, we’ll have a better feel of where we’re going to go toward the end of the week. But, obviously, we’d love that (having Walker back). When you get something special like that, let’s run it back.”
Montgomery is still under contract in Detroit through the 2027 season and is owed about $6 million in 2026, but could be on the trade market as Jahmyr Gibbs has emerged as the featured back for the Lions.
Montgomery, who turns 29 in June, is coming off career lows of 158 carries for 716 yards last season as Detroit’s offense revolved more around Gibbs, who is eligible for a contract extension this offseason.
Montgomery had rushed for 1,790 yards and 25 touchdowns his first two seasons with the Lions as the team’s starter but came off the bench in all 17 games last season.
“I’ve been in touch with David’s agent, his representation,” Lions GM Brad Holmes said. “We love David. He’s a great player. We’d love to have him. Kind of want to put last year in the rear view and just move forward. But, obviously, a player has to want to be in a certain place as well. So those conversations are still fluid and we’re just trying to see how it goes.”
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
