Sports

ESPN reports: Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was taken to a local hospital with head and neck injuries suffered on a second-quarter sack in Thursday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Tagovailoa hit the back of his head on the ground when he was sacked by Bengals nose tackle Josh Tupou, and his arms appeared to seize up almost immediately. …

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports: After Mississippi spent millions of dollars in welfare money on Brett Favre’s pet project, a university volleyball arena, the retired NFL quarterback tried two years later to get additional cash from the state’s welfare agency for another sports facility, new court documents show. The governor at the time, Republican Phil Bryant, texted in 2019 with Favre, …

Hemant Mehta reports at Only Sky: On Saturday, October 8, the University of Massachusetts football team will host Liberty University. The game would likely have flown under the radar of most college football fans… if not for the fact that UMass announced over the weekend that the Liberty game will coincide with “Pride Day.” UMass doesn’t have a particularly good …

The Associated Press reports: FIFA came under pressure Wednesday from several European soccer federations who want their captains to wear an armband with a rainbow heart design during World Cup games in Qatar to campaign against discrimination. France and Germany, the last two World Cup champions, were among eight of the 13 European soccer teams going to Qatar who joined …

The Associated Press reports: Qatar’s ambassador to Germany was urged Monday to abolish his country’s death penalty for homosexuality at a human rights congress hosted by the German soccer federation two months before the Middle East country stages the World Cup. Fan representative Dario Minden switched to English to directly address the Qatari ambassador, Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al …

SB Nation reports: A fan, who Smokey the Bear would beat the hell out of if he had the chance, decided to leave an unattended grill in the parking lot of Hard Rock Stadium following a tailgate party. The result was the complete destruction of at least eleven vehicles, with others in close proximity damaged when a nearby car caught …

ESPN reports: Novak Djokovic, the 21-time major champion and former world No. 1, has withdrawn from the US Open due to travel restrictions into the United States as a result of being unvaccinated against COVID-19. Djokovic made the announcement Thursday morning, shortly before the draw was to be revealed, tweeting, “Sadly, I will not be able to travel to NY …

The Birmingham News reports: A former Troy University football player is suing one of his former teammates and three coaches, alleging a pattern of abuse that he says culminated in a sexual assault with a pool cue. The 29-page federal lawsuit, filed on July 25 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, names three Troy football coaches …

Yahoo Sports reports: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have reached agreement with free-agent defensive end Carl Nassib on a one-year deal, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. Nassib, 29, most recently played two seasons with the Las Vegas Raiders. He’s best known for coming out in 2021 as the NFL’s first active openly gay player. The stint marks the second in Tampa for …

ABC News reports: Hundreds of Black NFL retirees denied payouts in the $1 billion concussion settlement now qualify for awards after their tests were rescored to eliminate racial bias. Changes to the settlement made last year are meant to make the tests race-blind. The use of “race norming” in the dementia testing made it more difficult for Blacks to prove …

Sports Illustrated reports: Minor league pitcher Solomon Bates publicly came out as gay in an Instagram post on Tuesday, the same week that he was released by the Giants. He is the second minor league baseball player to publicly come out as gay, after David Denson did so in 2015. Bates was an eighth-round pick out of USC in 2018, …

NPR reports: A Russian court has found Brittney Griner guilty on drug smuggling and possession charges. The widely expected verdict comes after a monthlong trial and nearly six months after the basketball star was arrested at a Moscow-area airport with cannabis vape cartridges in her luggage. The judge sentenced Griner to nine years in prison. The trial’s outcome was not …

Reuters reports: A Russian prosecutor demanded U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner be sentenced to nine and a half years in prison on drugs charges at a trial that is expected to end in a verdict later on Thursday. Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Feb. …

ESPN reports: Whit Merrifield said last month that he might be willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if it meant playing for a team in contention, even though he had refused to get the shot while playing for the last-place Kansas City Royals. He’ll have to make that decision now. In a unique and potentially unprecedented situation, the Royals traded …

Yahoo Sports reports: NASCAR driver Brandon Brown, whose first name inspired an infamous anti-Biden slogan, is a no-go for this weekend’s race in Indianapolis. He’s lost his full-time seat, at least temporarily, amid his team’s sponsorship woes, according to Yahoo! Sports. “Brown’s team is looking to field drivers who have sponsorship money after a deal with a now-defunct political cryptocurrency …

The Insider reports: Fox Sports is facing criticism after using a the 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero in Manhattan as the background for their baseball night graphics. In the Saturday night showing of a game between the Yankees and Red Sox, the channel superimposed the team’s logos and the network’s “Baseball Night in America” logo onto an image of the …

“It’s an extremely unfortunate situation. Obviously my teammates know how I feel about them and how bad I want to be out there with them. But it’s just an unfortunate that I’m not able to make the trip. “I’m a healthy 31-year-old professional athlete that I just didn’t feel the need to get it. I’ve had COVID a couple times …

The BBC reports: Sir Mo Farah was brought to the UK illegally as a child and forced to work as a domestic servant, he has revealed. The Olympic star has told the BBC he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who flew him over from Djibouti. His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin. He was flown over from …

The Daily Beast reports: GOAT gymnast Simone Biles isn’t letting Trumpland rain on her parade. When ex-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis said Biden awarded the Medal of Freedom to “fellow losers” Biles and Megan Rapinoe, the seven-time Olympic medalist was quick to hit back. “who is Jenna Ellis? Asking for everyone,” the gymnastics star wrote on Twitter. who is Jenna Ellis? …

ESPN reports: Detained WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty on Thursday to bringing hashish oil into Russia, telling a judge that she had done so “inadvertently” while asking the court for mercy. The move is not expected to end her trial in Khimki, Russia, anytime soon. Even with a guilty plea in Russian criminal courts, the judge will continue to …