KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jordan Montgomery allowed one run over five innings to win in his return from a layoff of nearly one month caused by a knee injury, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 Tuesday night.

Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer and scored three runs.

Montgomery (7-5) allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two, throwing 39 of 67 pitches for strikes. The 31-year-old left-hander, signed by the NL champions to a $25 million, one-year contract in March, had been sidelined since June 27 by right knee inflammation. He won for the first time since June 21 at Philadelphia.

“I felt comfortable out there and pain free, and that was nice to be pain free,” Montgomery said. “I think it just messed with my delivery a little bit, where I was yanking everything and I didn’t want to put any pressure on my legs, but I grinded it out and I’m glad to be here now.”

Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said Montgomery was nearing his pitch count when he finished a 1-2-3 fifth inning.

“His changeup was in play, and that’s a very key pitch for him,” Lovullo said. “The first go-round before he got banged up, it was a pitch he was leaving out over the plate. The pitch was very, very effective and he had a lot of confidence in it.”

Montgomery got four swings and misses on 19 changeups and six foul balls.

“It got me through the game,” Montgomery said. “I was a little wild with everything else. My four-seam and my changeup really got me through, got me some swing and miss when I needed it.”

Bryce Jarvis pitched two shutout innings, and Joe Mantiply, Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel finished as Arizona stopped the Royals’ four-game winning streak. Kansas City had won eight of 10 coming in.

Bobby Witt Jr. went 1 for 4 with an RBI double in the first, ending his streak of four straight three-hit games.

Marte hit a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the fifth against Alec Marsh (7-7), who gave up five runs, five hits and two walks in five innings. Marte followed Geraldo Perdomo’s leadoff double with his 21st home run.

“I was trying to down and away with a changeup and he just jumped it,” Marsh said.

Christian Walker’s sacrifice fly and Gabriel Moreno’s two-out, two-run single built a 3-0 lead in the first.

Witt’s double was his 13th hit in 16 at-bats since the All-Star Game, his sixth for extra bases. Salvador Perez had an RBI single in the ninth.

Arizona optioned right-hander Humberto Castellanos to Triple-A Reno and activated Montgomery.

Kansas City agreed to a minor league contract with the sixth overall draft pick Jac Caglianone, a two-way player from the University of Florida.

Arizona RHP Ryne Nelson (7-6, 4.78) starts Wednesday night’s series finale against Kansas City RHP Michael Wacha (7-6, 3.55).

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721813983299.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jordan Montgomery throws from the mound during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jordan Montgomery throws from the mound during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Jordan Montgomery allowed one run over five innings to win in his return from a layoff of nearly one month caused by a knee injury, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2 Tuesday night.Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer and scored three runs.Montgomery (7-5) allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two, throwing 39 of 67 pitches for strikes. The 31-year-old left-hander, signed by the NL champions to a $25 million, one-year contract in March, had been sidelined since June 27 by right knee inflammation. He won for the first time since June 21 at Philadelphia.“I felt comfortable out there and pain free, and that was nice to be pain free,” Montgomery said. “I think it just messed with my delivery a little bit, where I was yanking everything and I didn’t want to put any pressure on my legs, but I grinded it out and I’m glad to be here now.”Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said Montgomery was nearing his pitch count when he finished a 1-2-3 fifth inning.“His changeup was in play, and that’s a very key pitch for him,” Lovullo said. “The first go-round before he got banged up, it was a pitch he was leaving out over the plate. The pitch was very, very effective and he had a lot of confidence in it.”Montgomery got four swings and misses on 19 changeups and six foul balls.“It got me through the game,” Montgomery said. “I was a little wild with everything else. My four-seam and my changeup really got me through, got me some swing and miss when I needed it.”Bryce Jarvis pitched two shutout innings, and Joe Mantiply, Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel finished as Arizona stopped the Royals’ four-game winning streak. Kansas City had won eight of 10 coming in.Bobby Witt Jr. went 1 for 4 with an RBI double in the first, ending his streak of four straight three-hit games.Marte hit a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the fifth against Alec Marsh (7-7), who gave up five runs, five hits and two walks in five innings. Marte followed Geraldo Perdomo’s leadoff double with his 21st home run.“I was trying to down and away with a changeup and he just jumped it,” Marsh said.Christian Walker’s sacrifice fly and Gabriel Moreno’s two-out, two-run single built a 3-0 lead in the first.Witt’s double was his 13th hit in 16 at-bats since the All-Star Game, his sixth for extra bases. Salvador Perez had an RBI single in the ninth.Arizona optioned right-hander Humberto Castellanos to Triple-A Reno and activated Montgomery.Kansas City agreed to a minor league contract with the sixth overall draft pick Jac Caglianone, a two-way player from the University of Florida.UP NEXTArizona RHP Ryne Nelson (7-6, 4.78) starts Wednesday night’s series finale against Kansas City RHP Michael Wacha (7-6, 3.55).

Jordan Montgomery returns and pitches Diamondbacks over Royals 6-2

KANSAS CITY, Mo.
(AP) — Jordan Montgomery allowed one run over five innings to win
in his return from a layoff of nearly one month caused by a knee
injury, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2.
Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer and scored three runs. Montgomery
(7-5) allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two. The
31-year-old left-hander, had been sidelined since June 27 by right
knee inflammation. Bryce Jarvis pitched two shutout innings, and Joe
Mantiply, Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel finished as Arizona stopped
the Royals' four-game winning streak.

PITTSBURGH (AP) —
Rookie Paul Skenes lost for the first time in 12 career major league
starts, giving up Alec Burleson’s tiebreaking single in the ninth
inning that lifted the St. Louis Cardinals over the Pittsburgh
Pirates 2-1. Pitching for the first time since starting for the
National League in last week’s All-Star Game, the 22-year-old
right-hander pitched past the seventh inning for the first time in
the major leagues. Nolan Arenado put St. Louis ahead with a
fifth-inning home run on a first-pitch curveball, and Nick Gonzales
tied the score with an RBI single in the eighth off JoJo Romero.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)
— Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout lasted just two innings
of his first rehab start in the minors due to soreness in his
surgically-repaired left knee. The three-time MVP struck out in his
only at-bat for Triple-A Salt Lake making his first rehab appearance
since tearing the meniscus in his left knee in late April. Trout was
pulled after two innings and the Angels said it was due to knee
soreness and that he was day-to-day. Angels manager Ron Washington
said before their game on Tuesday in Seattle that the plan was for
Trout to play five innings in his first game, would be the designated
hitter on Wednesday and hopefully be ready to play seven innings in
the field on Thursday.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP)
— Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid has a good idea of four of the
five spots on his team’s offensive line. Joe Thuney will be at left
guard, Creed Humphrey at center, Trey Smith at right guard and Jawaan
Taylor at right tackle. The biggest question now falls on left
tackle, where second-year pro Wanya Morris and rookie Kingsley
Suamataia are locked in a training camp competition. And with a
little less than a week of seeing the two players work without pads,
Reid knows it’s too early to declare a winner.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.
(AP) — The San Francisco 49ers have no intention of granting star
receiver Brandon Aiyuk his trade request and remain committed to
getting a long-term extension done with one of their most important
offensive players. General manager John Lynch says there are no
absolutes but that the 49ers expect Aiyuk to be an “integral part
of our team.” The 49ers arrived at training camp on Tuesday, with
Aiyuk showing up with the rest of his teammates, a person familiar
with the situation told The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity because the team didn’t make an announcement. Aiyuk had
skipped the entire offseason program, including a mandatory minicamp.
Aiyuk would have been subject to potential fines if he didn’t show
up.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —
Ohio State coach Ryan Day sounds confident and comfortable discussing
this year’s football team. Never mind the three Michigan banners
hanging over his head and slightly behind the podium where he’s
speaking in Indianapolis. It’s also a not-so-subtle reminder about
the looming stakes when he heads home to Columbus, Ohio. Three
straight losses to Michigan have put Day squarely on the hot seat
despite being 39-3 in conference play since taking over the Buckeyes
program in 2018. Whether it's fair or not, Day understands that
wining every game is the expectation at one of college football's
most storied programs — and beating Michigan is the No. 1 goal
every season.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —
Defending national champion Michigan and 2023 East Division runner-up
Ohio State dominated the Big Ten preseason, claiming a total of seven
of the 12 top positional honors. A media panel selected the players.
It was announced Tuesday as the first of three days of the league's
media days began in Indianapolis. Ohio State safety Caleb Downs,
receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson and defensive
end JT Tuimoloau joined Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham,
defensive back Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland on the
list. Dillon Gabriel, who left Oklahoma for Oregon, was named the
league’s top quarterback.

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP,
Mich. (AP) — Tiger Woods watched his son, Charlie, shoot a 10-over
80 on Tuesday and miss the cut at 22 over through two rounds at the
U.S. Junior Amateur. The 15-year-old Woods, who earned a spot in the
264-player field last month, finished near the bottom of the pack.
The top 64 players advance to match play, which begins Wednesday. The
36-hole championship match is Saturday. Woods did fare better on the
Oakland Hills South Course, which Ben Hogan dubbed “The Monster,”
than he did with an opening 12-over 82 on the North Course.

UNDATED (AP) — An
attorney for the defendants tells The Associated Press the full
settlement agreement of antitrust lawsuits involving the NCAA and
college sports’ wealthiest conferences is expected to be filed with
a federal court by Friday. Seattle-based attorney Steve Berman says
just a few details remain to be worked out. The NCAA along with the
Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern
Conference agreed on May 23 to the framework of a $2.77 billion
settlement of multiple antitrust lawsuits that challenged limits on
college athlete compensation. The settlement includes a plan to allow
schools to pay athletes.

UNDATED (AP) —
More than a decade ago, college sports video games were identified as
an entry point to challenge NCAA rules that prevented college
athletes from being compensated. The lawsuits led to the games going
away as the NCAA and college sports leaders tried to defend
amateurism. Now the games are back. And not only can college athletes
be compensated for being included in the games, a model is in the
works that will allow schools to share millions in revenue with them.

PARIS (AP) — The
French Alps bid to host the 2030 Winter Games has been approved by
the International Olympic Committee with conditions attached. French
President Emmanuel Macron helped present the bid to IOC members and
gave assurances that the national government being formed in office
after the 2024 Summer Games in Paris will underwrite all the
organizational guarantees that must still be signed. IOC members
accepted his guarantees and voted their approval. The French bid was
the only candidate and is a project centered on ski resorts in the
French Alps and ice sports venues in the coastal city Nice.

DEATH VALLEY
NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Ninety-seven runners have pushed off
in desolate Death Valley for an annual ultramarathon billed as the
world’s toughest foot race. The men and women ranging in age from
19 to 69 and hailing from 21 countries and 26 U.S. states started the
Badwater 135 on Monday amid an excessive heat warning. Over 48 hours,
the participants will run amid daytime temperatures reaching over 120
degrees Fahrenheit and night heat above 100 F. They will travel over
roadways open to traffic and pass through places with names like
Furnace Creek and Devil’s Golf Course. The race started in 1987 and
is always run when temperatures peak in mid-July.

Cincinnati	at	Atlanta	6:05
p.m.	(Postponed)

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721294994442.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo.
(AP) — Jordan Montgomery allowed one run over five innings to win
in his return from a layoff of nearly one month caused by a knee
injury, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Kansas City Royals 6-2.
Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer and scored three runs. Montgomery
(7-5) allowed three hits, walked one and struck out two. The
31-year-old left-hander, had been sidelined since June 27 by right
knee inflammation. Bryce Jarvis pitched two shutout innings, and Joe
Mantiply, Ryan Thompson and Kevin Ginkel finished as Arizona stopped
the Royals' four-game winning streak.PITTSBURGH (AP) —
Rookie Paul Skenes lost for the first time in 12 career major league
starts, giving up Alec Burleson’s tiebreaking single in the ninth
inning that lifted the St. Louis Cardinals over the Pittsburgh
Pirates 2-1. Pitching for the first time since starting for the
National League in last week’s All-Star Game, the 22-year-old
right-hander pitched past the seventh inning for the first time in
the major leagues. Nolan Arenado put St. Louis ahead with a
fifth-inning home run on a first-pitch curveball, and Nick Gonzales
tied the score with an RBI single in the eighth off JoJo Romero.SALT LAKE CITY (AP)
— Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout lasted just two innings
of his first rehab start in the minors due to soreness in his
surgically-repaired left knee. The three-time MVP struck out in his
only at-bat for Triple-A Salt Lake making his first rehab appearance
since tearing the meniscus in his left knee in late April. Trout was
pulled after two innings and the Angels said it was due to knee
soreness and that he was day-to-day. Angels manager Ron Washington
said before their game on Tuesday in Seattle that the plan was for
Trout to play five innings in his first game, would be the designated
hitter on Wednesday and hopefully be ready to play seven innings in
the field on Thursday.ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP)
— Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid has a good idea of four of the
five spots on his team’s offensive line. Joe Thuney will be at left
guard, Creed Humphrey at center, Trey Smith at right guard and Jawaan
Taylor at right tackle. The biggest question now falls on left
tackle, where second-year pro Wanya Morris and rookie Kingsley
Suamataia are locked in a training camp competition. And with a
little less than a week of seeing the two players work without pads,
Reid knows it’s too early to declare a winner.SANTA CLARA, Calif.
(AP) — The San Francisco 49ers have no intention of granting star
receiver Brandon Aiyuk his trade request and remain committed to
getting a long-term extension done with one of their most important
offensive players. General manager John Lynch says there are no
absolutes but that the 49ers expect Aiyuk to be an “integral part
of our team.” The 49ers arrived at training camp on Tuesday, with
Aiyuk showing up with the rest of his teammates, a person familiar
with the situation told The Associated Press on condition of
anonymity because the team didn’t make an announcement. Aiyuk had
skipped the entire offseason program, including a mandatory minicamp.
Aiyuk would have been subject to potential fines if he didn’t show
up.INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —
Ohio State coach Ryan Day sounds confident and comfortable discussing
this year’s football team. Never mind the three Michigan banners
hanging over his head and slightly behind the podium where he’s
speaking in Indianapolis. It’s also a not-so-subtle reminder about
the looming stakes when he heads home to Columbus, Ohio. Three
straight losses to Michigan have put Day squarely on the hot seat
despite being 39-3 in conference play since taking over the Buckeyes
program in 2018. Whether it's fair or not, Day understands that
wining every game is the expectation at one of college football's
most storied programs — and beating Michigan is the No. 1 goal
every season.INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —
Defending national champion Michigan and 2023 East Division runner-up
Ohio State dominated the Big Ten preseason, claiming a total of seven
of the 12 top positional honors. A media panel selected the players.
It was announced Tuesday as the first of three days of the league's
media days began in Indianapolis. Ohio State safety Caleb Downs,
receiver Emeka Egbuka, running back TreVeyon Henderson and defensive
end JT Tuimoloau joined Michigan defensive tackle Mason Graham,
defensive back Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland on the
list. Dillon Gabriel, who left Oklahoma for Oregon, was named the
league’s top quarterback.BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP,
Mich. (AP) — Tiger Woods watched his son, Charlie, shoot a 10-over
80 on Tuesday and miss the cut at 22 over through two rounds at the
U.S. Junior Amateur. The 15-year-old Woods, who earned a spot in the
264-player field last month, finished near the bottom of the pack.
The top 64 players advance to match play, which begins Wednesday. The
36-hole championship match is Saturday. Woods did fare better on the
Oakland Hills South Course, which Ben Hogan dubbed “The Monster,”
than he did with an opening 12-over 82 on the North Course.UNDATED (AP) — An
attorney for the defendants tells The Associated Press the full
settlement agreement of antitrust lawsuits involving the NCAA and
college sports’ wealthiest conferences is expected to be filed with
a federal court by Friday. Seattle-based attorney Steve Berman says
just a few details remain to be worked out. The NCAA along with the
Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern
Conference agreed on May 23 to the framework of a $2.77 billion
settlement of multiple antitrust lawsuits that challenged limits on
college athlete compensation. The settlement includes a plan to allow
schools to pay athletes.UNDATED (AP) —
More than a decade ago, college sports video games were identified as
an entry point to challenge NCAA rules that prevented college
athletes from being compensated. The lawsuits led to the games going
away as the NCAA and college sports leaders tried to defend
amateurism. Now the games are back. And not only can college athletes
be compensated for being included in the games, a model is in the
works that will allow schools to share millions in revenue with them.PARIS (AP) — The
French Alps bid to host the 2030 Winter Games has been approved by
the International Olympic Committee with conditions attached. French
President Emmanuel Macron helped present the bid to IOC members and
gave assurances that the national government being formed in office
after the 2024 Summer Games in Paris will underwrite all the
organizational guarantees that must still be signed. IOC members
accepted his guarantees and voted their approval. The French bid was
the only candidate and is a project centered on ski resorts in the
French Alps and ice sports venues in the coastal city Nice.DEATH VALLEY
NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — Ninety-seven runners have pushed off
in desolate Death Valley for an annual ultramarathon billed as the
world’s toughest foot race. The men and women ranging in age from
19 to 69 and hailing from 21 countries and 26 U.S. states started the
Badwater 135 on Monday amid an excessive heat warning. Over 48 hours,
the participants will run amid daytime temperatures reaching over 120
degrees Fahrenheit and night heat above 100 F. They will travel over
roadways open to traffic and pass through places with names like
Furnace Creek and Devil’s Golf Course. The race started in 1987 and
is always run when temperatures peak in mid-July.TUESDAY SCORESMAJOR LEAGUE
BASEBALLINTERLEAGUEFinal	Miami	6	Baltimore	3	Final	N.Y.
Mets	3	N.Y. Yankees	2	Final	Philadelphia	3	Minnesota	0	Final	Arizona	6	Kansas
City	2	Final	Boston	6	Colorado	0	AMERICAN LEAGUEFinal	Cleveland	5	Detroit	4	Final	Tampa
Bay	4	Toronto	2	Final	Texas	3	Chicago
White Sox	2	Final	L.A.
Angels	5	Seattle	1	Final	Oakland	8	Houston	2	NATIONAL LEAGUECincinnati	at	Atlanta	6:05
p.m.	(Postponed)Final	San
Diego	4	Washington	0	Final	St.
Louis	2	Pittsburgh	1	Final	Milwaukee	1	Chicago
Cubs	0

Wednesday Sports Headlines and Scores presented by Barton Community College

Sonny Vaccaro knew nothing about the law. He did know a lot about college sports and was sure the athletes who were driving millions of dollars in revenue to their schools should be paid.

Michael Hausfeld knew nothing about college sports, but it didn't take long for the attorney who built his reputation challenging oil companies and Swiss banks to conclude the way the NCAA was doing business looked illegal.

“I went to him and said, ‘I think these (athletes) are getting screwed,’” said Vaccaro, the former sports executive perhaps best known for helping Nike sign Michael Jordan out of college. “Then (Hausfeld) said to me something that really wasn’t on my mind. He said, ‘Well, now you gotta find me a guy who’s gonna sue.'”

Searching for an entry point to challenge a system they viewed as unfair to college athletes, Vaccaro and Hausfeld found it in former All-America basketball player Ed O'Bannon, the MVP of UCLA's 1995 national championship team. He signed on as lead plaintiff of a lawsuit in 2009 after seeing his image in a popular video game from EA Sports authorized by the NCAA that he was not being paid for.

O'Bannon challenged the NCAA's right to make money off the use of athletes' names, images and likenesses and other plaintiffs in the antitrust case included Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell. Vaccaro was there in 2014 when they won.

“I just wanted to right a wrong,” O’Bannon said then.

The games went away; EA Sports didn't want to risk further legal exposure. But after a 10-year hiatus, the college football version of the game has returned with great fanfare. EA Sports said more than 2.2 million users had played College Football 25 even before its official broad release last week.

The athletes in the game are clearly identified — and they are being compensated.

A decade after that court ruling, the NCAA's longstanding collegiate model of amateurism is pretty much dead, with the association and five major conferences agreeing in May to a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement that includes a plan to share revenue with athletes.

The settlement announcement and the return of EA Sports within weeks of each other was a coincidence, but symbolically it couldn't be more appropriate.

“We knew from the very beginning that we were going to be undertaking a challenge to the concept of amateurism as it was masqueraded by the NCAA,” Hausfeld recently told The Associated Press.

O'Bannon's complaint was born from playing EA's college basketball game and noticing a nameless avatar suiting up for UCLA that looked and played an awful lot like him. Because of the lawsuit in his name, O'Bannon has become synonymous with the demise of the NCAA and the unmasking of big-time college athletics as a billion-dollar industry running on unsalaried labor.

It's not a legacy O'Bannon actively embraces, and he declined an interview request by the AP.

“I knew something had to be done,” he told Sportico in May. “I figured once people began to look under the hood of NCAA rules, they’d realize those rules really didn’t add up. Why can’t a video game company pay college athletes to be in a video game, when that same company pays NBA and NFL players? It just doesn’t make any sense.”

A college football player also played a vital role: Quarterback Sam Keller noticed when he transferred from Arizona State to Nebraska that the avatar that represented him in the video game also appeared to switch schools. Keller filed suit a few months before O'Bannon.

Robert Carey, an attorney at Hagens Berman, said it was a former Michigan football player named Chris Horne who first tipped him off to how the video game was using the players' likenesses without permission. Carey and his colleagues dug into the details and figured they had a potential class-action lawsuit.

“We put in a ton of time matching up (real) rosters with (video) game rosters, and had an understanding that you had to be within 1 inch of the height or X percent of the weight, so that it would exclude anyone who doesn’t match up, because there were people that didn’t match up," Carey said. "That was a tremendous undertaking."

Carey said they quickly realized a case would be about more than just a video game. He said the firm was cautious about taking on the NCAA and the beloved enterprise of American college sports.

“The NCAA ... they were not minor litigators. They went in full, full bore, with high-powered firms and high-cost lawyers, high-dollar lawyers," Carey said.

The Keller lawsuit sought damages for players whose images had been used in the game for years, differing from the O'Bannon approach of challenging NCAA rules that prevented the players from being compensated.

“This was a theft of property case," Carey said. “Theirs was a market constraint case.”

The two cases were merged, but the Keller case ultimately settled for $20 million. The O'Bannon attorneys pushed ahead and found U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken from the Northern District of California unsentimental about preserving the status quo of college sports.

“She got it. She understood what the arguments the NCAA were trying to make and shut down almost all of them, all their defenses related to amateurism,” said Jon Solomon, who was a reporter at the time covering the trial and now works for the Aspen Institute Sports &amp; Society Program.

On Aug. 8, 2014, Wilken ruled against the NCAA. It took a year for the ruling to be upheld by an appeals court and another six months before the Supreme Court decided to not hear the case.

The NCAA at the time framed the decision as losing a battle but not the war. That spin and the slow pace of the legal system seemed to shield the enormity of the ruling from public perception.

Those following closest understood a significant domino had been tipped.

“I thought eventually there would be a reckoning,” Solomon said.

Not until 2021 did the NCAA finally lift its ban on athletes earning money from their celebrity. Now thousands of athletes are earning millions of dollars in endorsement deals big and small. But while NIL has become something of a stand-in for athlete salaries, more antitrust lawsuits followed and a 2021 Supreme Court ruling essentially stripped college sports of all its defenses and made clear athlete compensation is here to stay.

Finally, the NCAA and leaders of college sports conceded. Concerned that another court loss could potentially bankrupt the industry, college athletes are on course to receive a cut of the billions in revenue their sports generate, perhaps as soon as 2025.

“Now, it’s over. The game is over,” Vaccaro said, referring to NCAA amateurism.

Ironically, for many, the game is back and better than ever.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721756209049.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;FILE - Ed O'Bannon arrives at the world premiere of "Air" on March 27, 2023, at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles. O'Bannon challenged the NCAA's right to make money off the name, image and likeness of athletes in college sports video games. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;FILE - Ed O'Bannon arrives at the world premiere of "Air" on March 27, 2023, at the Regency Village Theatre in Los Angeles. O'Bannon challenged the NCAA's right to make money off the name, image and likeness of athletes in college sports video games. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)</figcaption>
 </figure>Sonny Vaccaro knew nothing about the law. He did know a lot about college sports and was sure the athletes who were driving millions of dollars in revenue to their schools should be paid.Michael Hausfeld knew nothing about college sports, but it didn't take long for the attorney who built his reputation challenging oil companies and Swiss banks to conclude the way the NCAA was doing business looked illegal.“I went to him and said, ‘I think these (athletes) are getting screwed,’” said Vaccaro, the former sports executive perhaps best known for helping Nike sign Michael Jordan out of college. “Then (Hausfeld) said to me something that really wasn’t on my mind. He said, ‘Well, now you gotta find me a guy who’s gonna sue.'”Searching for an entry point to challenge a system they viewed as unfair to college athletes, Vaccaro and Hausfeld found it in former All-America basketball player Ed O'Bannon, the MVP of UCLA's 1995 national championship team. He signed on as lead plaintiff of a lawsuit in 2009 after seeing his image in a popular video game from EA Sports authorized by the NCAA that he was not being paid for.O'Bannon challenged the NCAA's right to make money off the use of athletes' names, images and likenesses and other plaintiffs in the antitrust case included Oscar Robertson and Bill Russell. Vaccaro was there in 2014 when they won.“I just wanted to right a wrong,” O’Bannon said then.The games went away; EA Sports didn't want to risk further legal exposure. But after a 10-year hiatus, the college football version of the game has returned with great fanfare. EA Sports said more than 2.2 million users had played College Football 25 even before its official broad release last week.The athletes in the game are clearly identified — and they are being compensated.O'Bannon case impactA decade after that court ruling, the NCAA's longstanding collegiate model of amateurism is pretty much dead, with the association and five major conferences agreeing in May to a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement that includes a plan to share revenue with athletes.The settlement announcement and the return of EA Sports within weeks of each other was a coincidence, but symbolically it couldn't be more appropriate.“We knew from the very beginning that we were going to be undertaking a challenge to the concept of amateurism as it was masqueraded by the NCAA,” Hausfeld recently told The Associated Press.O'Bannon's complaint was born from playing EA's college basketball game and noticing a nameless avatar suiting up for UCLA that looked and played an awful lot like him. Because of the lawsuit in his name, O'Bannon has become synonymous with the demise of the NCAA and the unmasking of big-time college athletics as a billion-dollar industry running on unsalaried labor.It's not a legacy O'Bannon actively embraces, and he declined an interview request by the AP.“I knew something had to be done,” he told Sportico in May. “I figured once people began to look under the hood of NCAA rules, they’d realize those rules really didn’t add up. Why can’t a video game company pay college athletes to be in a video game, when that same company pays NBA and NFL players? It just doesn’t make any sense.”Building a caseA college football player also played a vital role: Quarterback Sam Keller noticed when he transferred from Arizona State to Nebraska that the avatar that represented him in the video game also appeared to switch schools. Keller filed suit a few months before O'Bannon.Robert Carey, an attorney at Hagens Berman, said it was a former Michigan football player named Chris Horne who first tipped him off to how the video game was using the players' likenesses without permission. Carey and his colleagues dug into the details and figured they had a potential class-action lawsuit.“We put in a ton of time matching up (real) rosters with (video) game rosters, and had an understanding that you had to be within 1 inch of the height or X percent of the weight, so that it would exclude anyone who doesn’t match up, because there were people that didn’t match up," Carey said. "That was a tremendous undertaking."Carey said they quickly realized a case would be about more than just a video game. He said the firm was cautious about taking on the NCAA and the beloved enterprise of American college sports.“The NCAA ... they were not minor litigators. They went in full, full bore, with high-powered firms and high-cost lawyers, high-dollar lawyers," Carey said.The Keller lawsuit sought damages for players whose images had been used in the game for years, differing from the O'Bannon approach of challenging NCAA rules that prevented the players from being compensated.“This was a theft of property case," Carey said. “Theirs was a market constraint case.”The two cases were merged, but the Keller case ultimately settled for $20 million. The O'Bannon attorneys pushed ahead and found U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken from the Northern District of California unsentimental about preserving the status quo of college sports.“She got it. She understood what the arguments the NCAA were trying to make and shut down almost all of them, all their defenses related to amateurism,” said Jon Solomon, who was a reporter at the time covering the trial and now works for the Aspen Institute Sports &amp; Society Program.On Aug. 8, 2014, Wilken ruled against the NCAA. It took a year for the ruling to be upheld by an appeals court and another six months before the Supreme Court decided to not hear the case.The falloutThe NCAA at the time framed the decision as losing a battle but not the war. That spin and the slow pace of the legal system seemed to shield the enormity of the ruling from public perception.Those following closest understood a significant domino had been tipped.“I thought eventually there would be a reckoning,” Solomon said.Not until 2021 did the NCAA finally lift its ban on athletes earning money from their celebrity. Now thousands of athletes are earning millions of dollars in endorsement deals big and small. But while NIL has become something of a stand-in for athlete salaries, more antitrust lawsuits followed and a 2021 Supreme Court ruling essentially stripped college sports of all its defenses and made clear athlete compensation is here to stay.Finally, the NCAA and leaders of college sports conceded. Concerned that another court loss could potentially bankrupt the industry, college athletes are on course to receive a cut of the billions in revenue their sports generate, perhaps as soon as 2025.“Now, it’s over. The game is over,” Vaccaro said, referring to NCAA amateurism.Ironically, for many, the game is back and better than ever.

How college sports video games dismantled the NCAA's amateurism rules

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer

Andy Reid has three Super Bowl rings, leads two different franchises in victories and he’s still going strong after a quarter-century as a head coach.

Those impressive credentials made Reid a unanimous choice by The Associated Press for the NFL's No. 1 coach in a preseason poll.

A panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five coaches, basing selections on current status entering the 2024 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

Reid has led the Kansas City Chiefs to consecutive Super Bowl victories and three titles in five seasons.

John Harbaugh, Sean McVay, Mike Tomlin and Kyle Shanahan each received two second-place votes.

Doug Pederson, Dan Campbell, Matt LaFleur, Sean McDermott and DeMeco Ryans also received votes.

Reid and Mahomes are halfway to the six Super Bowls Bill Belichick and Tom Brady won together. Reid was the most successful coach in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles before going to Kansas City and turning the Chiefs into a dynasty. Under Reid, the Chiefs have had 11 straight winning seasons, made 10 playoff appearances, won eight consecutive AFC West titles and reached four Super Bowls in the past five years.

2. JOHN HARBAUGH, Baltimore Ravens

Harbaugh led the Ravens to the NFL’s best record, 13-4, and has 14 winning seasons in 16 years. Harbaugh beat his brother to earn his only Super Bowl ring following the 2012 season. But Baltimore is 3-6 in the playoffs since that victory and twice couldn’t advance to the Super Bowl despite earning the AFC’s No. 1 seed.

3. KYLE SHANAHAN, San Francisco 49ers

Shanahan has led the 49ers to NFC championship victories with Jimmy Garoppolo and Brock Purdy and a pair of losses in the conference title game with both QBs. He’s 0-2 in the Super Bowl — the only coach in the top five without a ring — but has taken Purdy from "Mr. Irrelevant" to franchise QB and the 49ers again are favorites to win the NFC.

4. MIKE TOMLIN, Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers haven’t had a losing season in Tomlin’s 17 seasons. They finished 10-7 last season and made the playoffs despite using three starting quarterbacks. Tomlin won a Super Bowl in his second year and lost one in his fourth but his team is 0-4 in the playoffs since 2016.

Coming off perhaps his best all-around coaching season, McVay claimed the No. 5 spot. He guided a rebuilding team to 10 wins and a playoff appearance last season, getting the most out of his younger players. McVay has five double-digit win seasons in seven years and has won and lost a Super Bowl.

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football WriterAndy Reid has three Super Bowl rings, leads two different franchises in victories and he’s still going strong after a quarter-century as a head coach.Those impressive credentials made Reid a unanimous choice by The Associated Press for the NFL's No. 1 coach in a preseason poll.A panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five coaches, basing selections on current status entering the 2024 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.Reid has led the Kansas City Chiefs to consecutive Super Bowl victories and three titles in five seasons.John Harbaugh, Sean McVay, Mike Tomlin and Kyle Shanahan each received two second-place votes.Doug Pederson, Dan Campbell, Matt LaFleur, Sean McDermott and DeMeco Ryans also received votes.1. ANDY REID, Kansas City ChiefsReid and Mahomes are halfway to the six Super Bowls Bill Belichick and Tom Brady won together. Reid was the most successful coach in the history of the Philadelphia Eagles before going to Kansas City and turning the Chiefs into a dynasty. Under Reid, the Chiefs have had 11 straight winning seasons, made 10 playoff appearances, won eight consecutive AFC West titles and reached four Super Bowls in the past five years.2. JOHN HARBAUGH, Baltimore RavensHarbaugh led the Ravens to the NFL’s best record, 13-4, and has 14 winning seasons in 16 years. Harbaugh beat his brother to earn his only Super Bowl ring following the 2012 season. But Baltimore is 3-6 in the playoffs since that victory and twice couldn’t advance to the Super Bowl despite earning the AFC’s No. 1 seed.3. KYLE SHANAHAN, San Francisco 49ersShanahan has led the 49ers to NFC championship victories with Jimmy Garoppolo and Brock Purdy and a pair of losses in the conference title game with both QBs. He’s 0-2 in the Super Bowl — the only coach in the top five without a ring — but has taken Purdy from "Mr. Irrelevant" to franchise QB and the 49ers again are favorites to win the NFC.4. MIKE TOMLIN, Pittsburgh SteelersThe Steelers haven’t had a losing season in Tomlin’s 17 seasons. They finished 10-7 last season and made the playoffs despite using three starting quarterbacks. Tomlin won a Super Bowl in his second year and lost one in his fourth but his team is 0-4 in the playoffs since 2016.5. SEAN MCVAY, Los Angeles RamsComing off perhaps his best all-around coaching season, McVay claimed the No. 5 spot. He guided a rebuilding team to 10 wins and a playoff appearance last season, getting the most out of his younger players. McVay has five double-digit win seasons in seven years and has won and lost a Super Bowl.

Chiefs' Andy Reid lands the lead spot in AP head coach rankings

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association released its 2024 Preseason Polls for football on Tuesday, July 23 at its annual Football Media Day in Kansas City. The Tigers were picked fifth in both the in the Coaches Poll and Media Poll. Central Missouri, co-champion of the MIAA in 2023, was picked first in both polls.

FHSU tied for fifth in the MIAA standings in 2023, finishing with an overall record of 7-4. All of the Tigers' losses in 2023 were to the teams that finished in front of them in the conference standings. The Tigers had a strong bounce-back season from a tough 2022, reaching the seven-win mark in a season for the seventh time under head coach Chris Brown.

The conference will consist of only 10 teams in 2024 after Lincoln's departure to the Great Lakes Valley Conference and Northeastern State electing to play as an independent in football. The Tigers will have two non-conference games on their schedule this year, which includes a solid Angelo State team for the season opener in Hays in late August and then a meeting with Northeastern State in mid-September in Hays. Angelo State was an NCAA Playoffs team in 2021 and 2022 and finished 7-3 in 2023.

Both polls were nearly the same, with the only difference being Emporia State picked fourth in the coaches poll and sixth in the media poll, while Missouri Western was picked fourth in the media poll and sixth in the coaches poll. Central Missouri (1st), Pittsburg State (2nd), and Northwest Missouri State (3rd) were the top three teams in both polls. Central Missouri and Pittsburg State tied for the MIAA regular season title last year and both played in the NCAA Playoffs.

The Tigers return 20 of their 22 starters from the 2023 season, which includes all 11 on offense and nine on defense. The Tigers also boast 16 of their 17 all-conference players returning from a season ago. John Johnson, Myles Menges, Mason Perez, Kobe Rome, Parrish Terry, Makel Williams, Trevion Mitchell, and Sam Brandt were all-conference performers for the Tigers on the defensive side of the ball, while offensive players earning selections included Trevor Watts, Jack Dawson, Josh Shaw, Jayden Horace, Cale Cormaney, Dawson Reynolds, and Kofi Karikari. All-conference kicker Carson Arndt also returns.

Fort Hays State had the second-best total defense (300.1 yards per game) and third-best scoring defense (21.5 points per game) among MIAA teams in 2023. On the flip side, the Tigers had the fourth-best total offense average (420.2 yards per game) among conference teams.

Fort Hays State plays at home six times in 2024, which includes their two non-conference opponents mentioned above. The first MIAA opponent of the 2024 season for FHSU will be Missouri Western on September 7 in Hays. The Tigers will also host defending MIAA co-champion Central Missouri in Hays for Homecoming on October 5, Washburn on October 12, and Missouri Southern on October 26.

Get your season tickets today by contacting the FHSU Athletic Department at (785) 628-4050 or drop by the office in person.

2024 MIAA FOOTBALL PRESEASON COACHES POLL

2024 MIAA FOOTBALL PRESEASON MEDIA POLL

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721755890172.jpeg" alt="FHSU Athletics" />
 <figcaption>FHSU Athletics</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association released its 2024 Preseason Polls for football on Tuesday, July 23 at its annual Football Media Day in Kansas City. The Tigers were picked fifth in both the in the Coaches Poll and Media Poll. Central Missouri, co-champion of the MIAA in 2023, was picked first in both polls.FHSU tied for fifth in the MIAA standings in 2023, finishing with an overall record of 7-4. All of the Tigers' losses in 2023 were to the teams that finished in front of them in the conference standings. The Tigers had a strong bounce-back season from a tough 2022, reaching the seven-win mark in a season for the seventh time under head coach Chris Brown.The conference will consist of only 10 teams in 2024 after Lincoln's departure to the Great Lakes Valley Conference and Northeastern State electing to play as an independent in football. The Tigers will have two non-conference games on their schedule this year, which includes a solid Angelo State team for the season opener in Hays in late August and then a meeting with Northeastern State in mid-September in Hays. Angelo State was an NCAA Playoffs team in 2021 and 2022 and finished 7-3 in 2023.Both polls were nearly the same, with the only difference being Emporia State picked fourth in the coaches poll and sixth in the media poll, while Missouri Western was picked fourth in the media poll and sixth in the coaches poll. Central Missouri (1st), Pittsburg State (2nd), and Northwest Missouri State (3rd) were the top three teams in both polls. Central Missouri and Pittsburg State tied for the MIAA regular season title last year and both played in the NCAA Playoffs.The Tigers return 20 of their 22 starters from the 2023 season, which includes all 11 on offense and nine on defense. The Tigers also boast 16 of their 17 all-conference players returning from a season ago. John Johnson, Myles Menges, Mason Perez, Kobe Rome, Parrish Terry, Makel Williams, Trevion Mitchell, and Sam Brandt were all-conference performers for the Tigers on the defensive side of the ball, while offensive players earning selections included Trevor Watts, Jack Dawson, Josh Shaw, Jayden Horace, Cale Cormaney, Dawson Reynolds, and Kofi Karikari. All-conference kicker Carson Arndt also returns.Fort Hays State had the second-best total defense (300.1 yards per game) and third-best scoring defense (21.5 points per game) among MIAA teams in 2023. On the flip side, the Tigers had the fourth-best total offense average (420.2 yards per game) among conference teams.Fort Hays State plays at home six times in 2024, which includes their two non-conference opponents mentioned above. The first MIAA opponent of the 2024 season for FHSU will be Missouri Western on September 7 in Hays. The Tigers will also host defending MIAA co-champion Central Missouri in Hays for Homecoming on October 5, Washburn on October 12, and Missouri Southern on October 26.Get your season tickets today by contacting the FHSU Athletic Department at (785) 628-4050 or drop by the office in person.2024 MIAA FOOTBALL PRESEASON COACHES POLL1. Central Missouri [8] - 80 points2. Pittsburg State [2] - 73 points3. Northwest Missouri - 58 points4. Emporia State - 56 points5. Fort Hays State - 55 points6. Missouri Western - 42 points7. Central Oklahoma - 31 points8. Missouri Southern - 24 points9. Washburn - 16 points10. Nebraska Kearney - 15 points[#] - Number of First-Place Votes2024 MIAA FOOTBALL PRESEASON MEDIA POLL1. Central Missouri [20] - 254 points2. Pittsburg State [6] - 231 points3. Northwest Missouri - 199 points4. Missouri Western - 158 points5. Fort Hays State - 155 points6. Emporia State - 145 points7. Central Oklahoma - 94 points8. Missouri Southern - 81 points9. Washburn - 60 points10. Nebraska Kearney - 53 points [#] - Number of First-Place Votes

Tigers Picked Fifth in 2024 MIAA Football Preseason Polls

By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer Patrick Mahomes has separated himself from all the other quarterbacks.

The three-time Super Bowl MVP was a unanimous choice by The Associated Press for the NFL's No. 1 quarterback in a preseason poll.

A panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five players at QB, basing selections on current status entering the 2024 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.

Despite a subpar regular season — by his lofty standards — Mahomes had another exceptional postseason, leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a repeat Super Bowl victory and their third title in five seasons.

Josh Allen, reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, C.J. Stroud and Brock Purdy each received second-place votes.

Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Tua Tagovailoa, Matthew Stafford and Justin Herbert also received votes.

1. PATRICK MAHOMES, Kansas City Chiefs

Mahomes posted the lowest passer rating (92.6) of his career last season, throwing for 4,183 yards, 27 touchdowns and a career-high 14 interceptions. But he stepped up in the playoffs, leading the Chiefs to a rout over Miami, road wins in Buffalo and Baltimore and an overtime victory in the Super Bowl against San Francisco.

Mahomes only turns 29 in September and already has a chance to become only the fourth quarterback to win four Super Bowls.

Despite being plagued by playoff frustrations, Allen earned the No. 2 spot in the AP rankings with four second-place votes and appearing on seven of eight ballots. Allen threw for 4,306 yards with 29 TDs and a career-high 18 picks last season while also rushing for 15 scores.

The Bills have won four straight AFC East titles but have lost in the divisional round of the playoffs in three consecutive seasons.

3. LAMAR JACKSON, Baltimore Ravens

Jackson was a near-unanimous choice for his second NFL MVP award following an outstanding regular season in which he threw for 3,678 yards and 24 touchdowns and ran for 821 yards and five scores while leading Baltimore to 10 wins over teams that finished with a winning record.

But Jackson and the Ravens lost to Mahomes and the Chiefs in the AFC championship game, a bitter ending to a fantastic season. The Ravens fell to 2-4 in the playoffs under Jackson, who was left off two ballots.

Burrow was slowed by a calf injury at the start of the season before wrist surgery ended his year in November. Still, he earned the No. 4 spot with two third-place votes and three fourth-place selections.

Burrow had 2,309 yards passing, 15 TDs and nine interceptions in 10 games. He had regained his Pro Bowl form prior to his injury, posting a 106.5 passer rating in his final six starts.

When healthy, Burrow led the Bengals to consecutive AFC title games and a Super Bowl loss.

The No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft turned into the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. Stroud threw for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, five interceptions and had a passer rating of 100.8, third best by a rookie. He helped the Texans go from worst to first place in the AFC South and led them to a playoff win in the wild-card round.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721755607778.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;FILE - Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) calls a play against the San Francisco 49ers in NFL Super Bowl 58 football game Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Doug Benc, File)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;FILE - Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) calls a play against the San Francisco 49ers in NFL Super Bowl 58 football game Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Doug Benc, File)</figcaption>
 </figure>By ROB MAADDI AP Pro Football Writer Patrick Mahomes has separated himself from all the other quarterbacks.The three-time Super Bowl MVP was a unanimous choice by The Associated Press for the NFL's No. 1 quarterback in a preseason poll.A panel of eight AP Pro Football Writers ranked the top five players at QB, basing selections on current status entering the 2024 season. First-place votes were worth 10 points. Second through fifth-place votes were worth 5, 3, 2 and 1 points.Despite a subpar regular season — by his lofty standards — Mahomes had another exceptional postseason, leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a repeat Super Bowl victory and their third title in five seasons.Josh Allen, reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, C.J. Stroud and Brock Purdy each received second-place votes.Aaron Rodgers, Jalen Hurts, Dak Prescott, Tua Tagovailoa, Matthew Stafford and Justin Herbert also received votes.1. PATRICK MAHOMES, Kansas City ChiefsMahomes posted the lowest passer rating (92.6) of his career last season, throwing for 4,183 yards, 27 touchdowns and a career-high 14 interceptions. But he stepped up in the playoffs, leading the Chiefs to a rout over Miami, road wins in Buffalo and Baltimore and an overtime victory in the Super Bowl against San Francisco.Mahomes only turns 29 in September and already has a chance to become only the fourth quarterback to win four Super Bowls.2. JOSH ALLEN, Buffalo BillsDespite being plagued by playoff frustrations, Allen earned the No. 2 spot in the AP rankings with four second-place votes and appearing on seven of eight ballots. Allen threw for 4,306 yards with 29 TDs and a career-high 18 picks last season while also rushing for 15 scores.The Bills have won four straight AFC East titles but have lost in the divisional round of the playoffs in three consecutive seasons.3. LAMAR JACKSON, Baltimore RavensJackson was a near-unanimous choice for his second NFL MVP award following an outstanding regular season in which he threw for 3,678 yards and 24 touchdowns and ran for 821 yards and five scores while leading Baltimore to 10 wins over teams that finished with a winning record.But Jackson and the Ravens lost to Mahomes and the Chiefs in the AFC championship game, a bitter ending to a fantastic season. The Ravens fell to 2-4 in the playoffs under Jackson, who was left off two ballots.4. JOE BURROW, Cincinnati BengalsBurrow was slowed by a calf injury at the start of the season before wrist surgery ended his year in November. Still, he earned the No. 4 spot with two third-place votes and three fourth-place selections.Burrow had 2,309 yards passing, 15 TDs and nine interceptions in 10 games. He had regained his Pro Bowl form prior to his injury, posting a 106.5 passer rating in his final six starts.When healthy, Burrow led the Bengals to consecutive AFC title games and a Super Bowl loss.5. C.J. STROUD, Houston TexansThe No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft turned into the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. Stroud threw for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, five interceptions and had a passer rating of 100.8, third best by a rookie. He helped the Texans go from worst to first place in the AFC South and led them to a playoff win in the wild-card round.

Patrick Mahomes is unanimous choice top spot in the AP quarterback rankings

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs hope to make “some significant progress” on determining their future home after the lease for Arrowhead Stadium expires in January 2031 and club chairman and CEO Clark Hunt on Monday made it clear remaining in metropolitan Kansas City is the primary objective.

“We have a special connection with the community and with the Chiefs kingdom. And our focus is very much on finding a solution here in the metropolitan area,” Hunt said during his annual training camp news conference on the campus of Missouri Western State University.

Jackson County voters in April rejected the extension of a 3/8-cent sales tax that would have contributed to remodeled Arrowhead Stadium and a new ballpark for the Kansas City Royals.

The Chiefs have now expanded their options beyond remaining in their home for the past 52 seasons, including a potential move to the Kansas side of the state line where the legislature has approved a bond proposal that would allow the state to fund up to 70% of the cost of a new stadium for the Chiefs. But Hunt hasn’t closed the door on remaining in Missouri or in Arrowhead Stadium.

“We’re glad to have some options, we really appreciate what the Kansas legislature did in passing the upgrade to the star bond bill that potentially would give us an opportunity to look at a stadium over there,” Hunt said.

“And we’re going to work very hard over the coming months and years to come up with a solution that makes sense for the organization, for the team, but also one that makes sense for the community. So we’re approaching it very much with an open mind and look forward to talking to leaders on both sides of the state line.”

The plan rejected by voters in April would have tied the Chiefs to Arrowhead Stadium for 25 years, which Hunt has said is the expected remaining life for the facility. Voters in 2006 rejected adding a rolling roof that would have been shared with next door neighbor Kauffman Stadium but Hunt said that remains an option.

“I do think we’ll look at it again,” Hunt said. “I mentioned the possibility of a new stadium, also on the Missouri side. And I think if we went that route, certainly we would have to look at a dome. A dome gives you an ability to host a lot of other events, which could be important for the community.”

Arrowhead Stadium isn't the only team facility in need of modernization. Hunt concedes the team has outgrown its headquarters and training complex. The Chiefs were graded poorly on the NFL Players Association report card issued in March for a willingness to invest in facilities.

Hunt notes that every NFL team has grown in terms of the number of people, players and coaches, a trend he expects to continue. In the nearly 15 years since the team moved into its headquarters and training complex, the organization has more than doubled its headcount to more than 300, excluding players.

“It would either be a major renovation of our existing training facility, or the construction of the new training facility that would help us accommodate not only the size of the organization now, but also where we’re likely to grow over the next couple of decades,” Hunt explained.

Hunt speaks to his team at the opening of training camp each season, and there are certain messages he reinforces every year.

“I want them to understand the culture of the club. The mission statement, obviously our goal, our goal is to end up in New Orleans, getting to play for another Lombardi Trophy. But the challenge this year is going to be the distractions. There’s going to be a lot of talk about us going back to back to back.”

Hunt told his team they must focus on the task at hand and the next team on the schedule and not let the distraction of a “threepeat” knock them off course.

“Every team we play is going to give us their best shot. When you’re the defending champion, that game is really important for the teams that you played. They circle it on their calendar as a chance to take out the defending champion."

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo delivered a similar message Monday when asked what worries him about the upcoming campaign.

“The Baltimore Ravens,” Spagnuolo said, referencing the team’s Week 1 opponent on the opening night of the NFL season. “That’s all I’m thinking about right now to be quite honest with you. Listen, we know they’re gonna be all fired up, and that’s a good football team. So that’s one thing.”

NOTES: First-round draft pick Xavier Worthy was absent from practice Monday because of an illness, the team said. Worthy, who delivered the highlight play of Sunday’s opening training camp practice after hauling in a deep throw from Patrick Mahomes, is also returning from a hamstring injury sustained during the offseason. ... Seven other players did not participate in Monday’s workout. Cornerback Kelvin Joseph was excused for personal reasons. Left guard Joe Thuney (pectoral), who remains on the physically unable to perform list, worked on the sideline in the training tent during practice. Also on the PUP list are defensive end Charles Omenihu (knee), defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi (tricep) and cornerback Jaylen Watson (shoulder). Safety Justin Reid and defensive end B.J. Thompson are on the non-football injury list.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs hope to make “some significant progress” on determining their future home after the lease for Arrowhead Stadium expires in January 2031 and club chairman and CEO Clark Hunt on Monday made it clear remaining in metropolitan Kansas City is the primary objective.“We have a special connection with the community and with the Chiefs kingdom. And our focus is very much on finding a solution here in the metropolitan area,” Hunt said during his annual training camp news conference on the campus of Missouri Western State University.Jackson County voters in April rejected the extension of a 3/8-cent sales tax that would have contributed to remodeled Arrowhead Stadium and a new ballpark for the Kansas City Royals.The Chiefs have now expanded their options beyond remaining in their home for the past 52 seasons, including a potential move to the Kansas side of the state line where the legislature has approved a bond proposal that would allow the state to fund up to 70% of the cost of a new stadium for the Chiefs. But Hunt hasn’t closed the door on remaining in Missouri or in Arrowhead Stadium.“We’re glad to have some options, we really appreciate what the Kansas legislature did in passing the upgrade to the star bond bill that potentially would give us an opportunity to look at a stadium over there,” Hunt said.“And we’re going to work very hard over the coming months and years to come up with a solution that makes sense for the organization, for the team, but also one that makes sense for the community. So we’re approaching it very much with an open mind and look forward to talking to leaders on both sides of the state line.”The plan rejected by voters in April would have tied the Chiefs to Arrowhead Stadium for 25 years, which Hunt has said is the expected remaining life for the facility. Voters in 2006 rejected adding a rolling roof that would have been shared with next door neighbor Kauffman Stadium but Hunt said that remains an option.“I do think we’ll look at it again,” Hunt said. “I mentioned the possibility of a new stadium, also on the Missouri side. And I think if we went that route, certainly we would have to look at a dome. A dome gives you an ability to host a lot of other events, which could be important for the community.”Arrowhead Stadium isn't the only team facility in need of modernization. Hunt concedes the team has outgrown its headquarters and training complex. The Chiefs were graded poorly on the NFL Players Association report card issued in March for a willingness to invest in facilities.Hunt notes that every NFL team has grown in terms of the number of people, players and coaches, a trend he expects to continue. In the nearly 15 years since the team moved into its headquarters and training complex, the organization has more than doubled its headcount to more than 300, excluding players.“It would either be a major renovation of our existing training facility, or the construction of the new training facility that would help us accommodate not only the size of the organization now, but also where we’re likely to grow over the next couple of decades,” Hunt explained.Hunt speaks to his team at the opening of training camp each season, and there are certain messages he reinforces every year.“I want them to understand the culture of the club. The mission statement, obviously our goal, our goal is to end up in New Orleans, getting to play for another Lombardi Trophy. But the challenge this year is going to be the distractions. There’s going to be a lot of talk about us going back to back to back.”Hunt told his team they must focus on the task at hand and the next team on the schedule and not let the distraction of a “threepeat” knock them off course.“Every team we play is going to give us their best shot. When you’re the defending champion, that game is really important for the teams that you played. They circle it on their calendar as a chance to take out the defending champion."Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo delivered a similar message Monday when asked what worries him about the upcoming campaign.“The Baltimore Ravens,” Spagnuolo said, referencing the team’s Week 1 opponent on the opening night of the NFL season. “That’s all I’m thinking about right now to be quite honest with you. Listen, we know they’re gonna be all fired up, and that’s a good football team. So that’s one thing.”NOTES: First-round draft pick Xavier Worthy was absent from practice Monday because of an illness, the team said. Worthy, who delivered the highlight play of Sunday’s opening training camp practice after hauling in a deep throw from Patrick Mahomes, is also returning from a hamstring injury sustained during the offseason. ... Seven other players did not participate in Monday’s workout. Cornerback Kelvin Joseph was excused for personal reasons. Left guard Joe Thuney (pectoral), who remains on the physically unable to perform list, worked on the sideline in the training tent during practice. Also on the PUP list are defensive end Charles Omenihu (knee), defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi (tricep) and cornerback Jaylen Watson (shoulder). Safety Justin Reid and defensive end B.J. Thompson are on the non-football injury list.

Chiefs owner Hunt focused on stadium solution in KC metropolitan area

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. fell a single short of the cycle, Salvador Perez and Hunter Renfroe also homered, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-4 on Monday night for their fourth straight victory.

Witt tripled in the first inning, doubled in the third and drilled a three-run homer to deep left-center in the fourth to get the hard part out of the way.

“It's hard to describe,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “The power he displays, the poise at the plate, it’s like he’s playing a different game.”

The crowd arose chanting “Bobby! Bobby!” when Witt came to the plate in the sixth in anticipation of a single and the first cycle by a Kansas City player in 34 years, but Arizona reliever Humberto Castellanos hit Witt with his first pitch, drawing loud boos.

“It's really unfortunate that he got hit,” Quatraro said. “I don't know what to think about the intent behind it.”

Witt got another chance in the eighth but was retired on a fly ball to right field. The last Royals player to hit for the cycle was Hall of Famer George Brett at Toronto on July 25, 1990.

“I definitely wanted to do it for the fans. These fans are awesome out here,” Witt said. “I choked at the end, but whatever.”

Witt, who was named American League Player of the Week earlier Monday, is 12 for 15 since playing in his first All-Star Game and finishing as the Home Run Derby runner-up, raising his average to .341. It was Witt’s fourth straight three-hit game, matching Johnny Damon in 2000 for the second-best such streak in franchise history, behind only Brett’s six games in 1976.

One inning after Witt was plunked, Royals reliever John Schreiber hit Gabriel Moreno with a pitch. Both benches were warned, and Arizona manager Torey Lovullo was ejected for arguing with plate umpire Jordan Baker and had to be held back. Royals catcher Perez appeared to exchange words with Lovullo during the scrum near the plate.

“I never said a word to Salvador Perez,” Lovullo said. “I just wanted him to hear what I was going to say to Jordan. I told him, ‘If you think in my right mind I was going to ask my team to hit the future of Major League Baseball, one of the best players in the game, you’re crazy. You lost control of this situation, and you got it wrong.’ I wanted Salvy to hear that and take it back to their dugout.”

The Royals (56-45), who are in position for a wild-card playoff berth, matched their win total from last season.

Cole Ragans (7-6) survived a shaky third inning to record his second straight win and his eighth quality start in nine. He allowed six hits, two walks and three runs in six innings.

The Diamondbacks took a 3-1 lead in the third when Kevin Newman and Alek Thomas hit back-to-back doubles and Ketel Marte followed with his 20th homer, a two-run shot to left.

The Royals responded in the bottom half with Witt’s double, Vinnie Pasquantino’s RBI single and Perez’s two-run homer to center for a 4-3 lead.

Witt's three-run shot off reliever Miguel Castro in the fourth made it 8-3.

“Castro is no easy right-hander to face,” Quatraro said. “He comes in there and that first pitch, you don't expect him to hit a homer, but I guess you maybe start trying to expect it. It's incredible, what he's doing right now. Absolutely incredible.”

Renfroe homered in the sixth, Kyle Isbel had three hits and two RBIs, and Pasquantino had three hits for the Royals.

After giving up only one run in six innings in each of his first two major league starts, Arizona's Yilber Diaz allowed seven runs and nine hits in three-plus innings.

“He couldn’t locate his secondary stuff and became predictable with his fastball,” Lovullo said.

Diamondbacks: Lovullo said LHP Jordan Montgomery (knee) would come off the injured list and start Tuesday. RHP Merrill Kelly (shoulder) and LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (shoulder) will each throw a bullpen session Tuesday and are on track for simulated games, Thursday for Kelly and Friday for Rodriguez.

Royals: OF MJ Melendez (ankle) is close to returning, Quatraro said. Melendez is eligible to come off the IL Friday.

Alec Marsh (7-6, 3.55) will start for the Royals against Montgomery (6-5, 6.44).

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721727686240.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr., right, is doused by Salvador Perez (13) at the end of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Kansas City, Mo., Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Kansas City Royals' Bobby Witt Jr., right, is doused by Salvador Perez (13) at the end of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Kansas City, Mo., Monday, July 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. fell a single short of the cycle, Salvador Perez and Hunter Renfroe also homered, and the Kansas City Royals beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-4 on Monday night for their fourth straight victory.Witt tripled in the first inning, doubled in the third and drilled a three-run homer to deep left-center in the fourth to get the hard part out of the way.“It's hard to describe,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “The power he displays, the poise at the plate, it’s like he’s playing a different game.”The crowd arose chanting “Bobby! Bobby!” when Witt came to the plate in the sixth in anticipation of a single and the first cycle by a Kansas City player in 34 years, but Arizona reliever Humberto Castellanos hit Witt with his first pitch, drawing loud boos.“It's really unfortunate that he got hit,” Quatraro said. “I don't know what to think about the intent behind it.”Witt got another chance in the eighth but was retired on a fly ball to right field. The last Royals player to hit for the cycle was Hall of Famer George Brett at Toronto on July 25, 1990.“I definitely wanted to do it for the fans. These fans are awesome out here,” Witt said. “I choked at the end, but whatever.”Witt, who was named American League Player of the Week earlier Monday, is 12 for 15 since playing in his first All-Star Game and finishing as the Home Run Derby runner-up, raising his average to .341. It was Witt’s fourth straight three-hit game, matching Johnny Damon in 2000 for the second-best such streak in franchise history, behind only Brett’s six games in 1976.One inning after Witt was plunked, Royals reliever John Schreiber hit Gabriel Moreno with a pitch. Both benches were warned, and Arizona manager Torey Lovullo was ejected for arguing with plate umpire Jordan Baker and had to be held back. Royals catcher Perez appeared to exchange words with Lovullo during the scrum near the plate.“I never said a word to Salvador Perez,” Lovullo said. “I just wanted him to hear what I was going to say to Jordan. I told him, ‘If you think in my right mind I was going to ask my team to hit the future of Major League Baseball, one of the best players in the game, you’re crazy. You lost control of this situation, and you got it wrong.’ I wanted Salvy to hear that and take it back to their dugout.”The Royals (56-45), who are in position for a wild-card playoff berth, matched their win total from last season.Cole Ragans (7-6) survived a shaky third inning to record his second straight win and his eighth quality start in nine. He allowed six hits, two walks and three runs in six innings.The Diamondbacks took a 3-1 lead in the third when Kevin Newman and Alek Thomas hit back-to-back doubles and Ketel Marte followed with his 20th homer, a two-run shot to left.The Royals responded in the bottom half with Witt’s double, Vinnie Pasquantino’s RBI single and Perez’s two-run homer to center for a 4-3 lead.Witt's three-run shot off reliever Miguel Castro in the fourth made it 8-3.“Castro is no easy right-hander to face,” Quatraro said. “He comes in there and that first pitch, you don't expect him to hit a homer, but I guess you maybe start trying to expect it. It's incredible, what he's doing right now. Absolutely incredible.”Renfroe homered in the sixth, Kyle Isbel had three hits and two RBIs, and Pasquantino had three hits for the Royals.After giving up only one run in six innings in each of his first two major league starts, Arizona's Yilber Diaz allowed seven runs and nine hits in three-plus innings.“He couldn’t locate his secondary stuff and became predictable with his fastball,” Lovullo said.TRAINER’S ROOMDiamondbacks: Lovullo said LHP Jordan Montgomery (knee) would come off the injured list and start Tuesday. RHP Merrill Kelly (shoulder) and LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (shoulder) will each throw a bullpen session Tuesday and are on track for simulated games, Thursday for Kelly and Friday for Rodriguez.Royals: OF MJ Melendez (ankle) is close to returning, Quatraro said. Melendez is eligible to come off the IL Friday.UP NEXTAlec Marsh (7-6, 3.55) will start for the Royals against Montgomery (6-5, 6.44).

Bobby Witt Jr. homers, triples and doubles in the Royals' 10-4 win over Arizona

KANSAS CITY, Mo.
(AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. fell a single short of the cycle, Salvador
Perez and Hunter Renfroe also homered, and the Kansas City Royals
beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-4 on Monday night for their fourth
straight victory. Witt tripled in the first inning, doubled in the
third and drilled a three-run homer to deep left-center in the fourth
to get the hard part out of the way. He needed a single for the first
cycle by a Royals player since George Brett in 1990 but was hit by a
pitch and flew out to right in his final two at-bats.

PITTSBURGH (AP) —
Nick Gonzales hit a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning after
Mitch Keller allowed one run in the first seven, and the Pittsburgh
Pirates won for the seventh time in eight games, 2-1 over the St.
Louis Cardinals. Bryan Reynolds led off the eighth with a single to
left before advancing to second on a wild pitch. With one out,
Gonzales sneaked a slow dribbler off John King through the right side
of the infield. Keller gave up six hits in seven innings, striking
out three and walking two. Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect eighth
for the win in this matchup of NL wild card contenders.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP)
— The Chiefs hope to make “some significant progress” on
determining their future home after the lease for Arrowhead Stadium
expires in January 2031 and club chairman and CEO Clark Hunt made it
clear remaining in metropolitan Kansas City is the primary objective.
“We have a special connection with the community and with the
Chiefs kingdom. And our focus is very much on finding a solution here
in the metropolitan area,” Hunt said during his annual training
camp news conference on the campus of Missouri Western State
University.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.
(AP) — Connor Stalions is set to share his side of the story from
an alleged sign-stealing scheme within Michigan’s football team
before the Wolverines went on to win the national championship.
Netflix announced Monday that the fourth season of “Untold” will
include "Sign Stealer" on Aug. 27, when Stalions breaks his
silence on the scandal that shook college football. Stalions was on
coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff until resigning in November, accused of
purchasing tickets to scout future opponents and sending people to
those games to digitally record teams signaling in their plays.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) —
Wisconsin will begin selling alcohol in general seating areas at Camp
Randall Stadium this season. The university’s decision leaves
Nebraska and Northwestern as the only two schools who aren’t
allowing general seating alcohol sales in the now 18-team Big Ten.
Wisconsin will also allow alcohol to be sold at UW Field House, home
to the women’s volleyball and men’s wrestling teams. It was
already available at Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena. The alcohol sales
begin with the home opener against Western Michigan on Friday, Aug.
30.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)
— Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips says the
league will fight “as long as it takes” in legal cases against
Florida State and Clemson as those member schools challenge the
league’s ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars to leave
the conference. Speaking Monday to start the league’s football
media days, Phillips called lawsuits filed by the schools “extremely
damaging, disruptive and harmful” to the league. Most notably,
those schools are challenging the league’s grant-of-rights media
agreement that gives the ACC control of media rights for any school
that attempts to leave amid a TV deal with ESPN running through 2036.

CINCINNATI (AP) —
Joe Burrow and his surgically repaired wrist have been cleared for
contact and the Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback is ready to go
for the opening of training camp on Wednesday. Burrow was sidelined
last season when he suffered a torn ligament in his right wrist in
the 10th game, a loss to Baltimore on Nov. 16. He had surgery on his
wrist Nov. 27.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)
— Jordan Love won’t be practicing with the Green Bay Packers as
long as the quarterback’s negotiations on a contract extension
remain unresolved. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said
Monday that Love reported to camp last week but wouldn’t be working
out until a deal is reached. Love’s contract is set to expire at
the end of the season. Gutekunst remained optimistic the Packers and
Love could reach a deal soon. He noted that Love is participating in
all other team activities.

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) —
Khyree Jackson was supposed to report to training camp this week with
the rest of the Minnesota Vikings draft class. The team is instead
grieving the death of the fourth-round pick out of Oregon. Jackson
was killed with two friends in a car crash in Maryland on July 6.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell spoke with the rookies and other early
reports about the plans to honor the gregarious 24-year-old
cornerback. The Vikings are sending a contingent to his funeral and
covering more than $20,000 toward the cost. Players will wear helmet
decals with Jackson's number 31 on them this season.

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP,
Mich. (AP) — Charlie Woods shot a 12-over 82 on Monday in the U.S.
Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills. The 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods
birdied both of the par 5s on the Oakland Hills North Course but
otherwise struggled, making five double bogeys and four bogeys. Woods
will have to have quite a turnaround Tuesday on a course known as
“The Monster” to be among the low 64 scorers from a field of 264
players from 40 states and 35 countries. He earned his spot in a
qualifier last month in Florida.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718617262520.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo.
(AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. fell a single short of the cycle, Salvador
Perez and Hunter Renfroe also homered, and the Kansas City Royals
beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-4 on Monday night for their fourth
straight victory. Witt tripled in the first inning, doubled in the
third and drilled a three-run homer to deep left-center in the fourth
to get the hard part out of the way. He needed a single for the first
cycle by a Royals player since George Brett in 1990 but was hit by a
pitch and flew out to right in his final two at-bats.PITTSBURGH (AP) —
Nick Gonzales hit a go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning after
Mitch Keller allowed one run in the first seven, and the Pittsburgh
Pirates won for the seventh time in eight games, 2-1 over the St.
Louis Cardinals. Bryan Reynolds led off the eighth with a single to
left before advancing to second on a wild pitch. With one out,
Gonzales sneaked a slow dribbler off John King through the right side
of the infield. Keller gave up six hits in seven innings, striking
out three and walking two. Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect eighth
for the win in this matchup of NL wild card contenders.ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP)
— The Chiefs hope to make “some significant progress” on
determining their future home after the lease for Arrowhead Stadium
expires in January 2031 and club chairman and CEO Clark Hunt made it
clear remaining in metropolitan Kansas City is the primary objective.
“We have a special connection with the community and with the
Chiefs kingdom. And our focus is very much on finding a solution here
in the metropolitan area,” Hunt said during his annual training
camp news conference on the campus of Missouri Western State
University.ANN ARBOR, Mich.
(AP) — Connor Stalions is set to share his side of the story from
an alleged sign-stealing scheme within Michigan’s football team
before the Wolverines went on to win the national championship.
Netflix announced Monday that the fourth season of “Untold” will
include "Sign Stealer" on Aug. 27, when Stalions breaks his
silence on the scandal that shook college football. Stalions was on
coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff until resigning in November, accused of
purchasing tickets to scout future opponents and sending people to
those games to digitally record teams signaling in their plays.MADISON, Wis. (AP) —
Wisconsin will begin selling alcohol in general seating areas at Camp
Randall Stadium this season. The university’s decision leaves
Nebraska and Northwestern as the only two schools who aren’t
allowing general seating alcohol sales in the now 18-team Big Ten.
Wisconsin will also allow alcohol to be sold at UW Field House, home
to the women’s volleyball and men’s wrestling teams. It was
already available at Kohl Center and LaBahn Arena. The alcohol sales
begin with the home opener against Western Michigan on Friday, Aug.
30.CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)
— Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner Jim Phillips says the
league will fight “as long as it takes” in legal cases against
Florida State and Clemson as those member schools challenge the
league’s ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars to leave
the conference. Speaking Monday to start the league’s football
media days, Phillips called lawsuits filed by the schools “extremely
damaging, disruptive and harmful” to the league. Most notably,
those schools are challenging the league’s grant-of-rights media
agreement that gives the ACC control of media rights for any school
that attempts to leave amid a TV deal with ESPN running through 2036.CINCINNATI (AP) —
Joe Burrow and his surgically repaired wrist have been cleared for
contact and the Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback is ready to go
for the opening of training camp on Wednesday. Burrow was sidelined
last season when he suffered a torn ligament in his right wrist in
the 10th game, a loss to Baltimore on Nov. 16. He had surgery on his
wrist Nov. 27.GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP)
— Jordan Love won’t be practicing with the Green Bay Packers as
long as the quarterback’s negotiations on a contract extension
remain unresolved. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said
Monday that Love reported to camp last week but wouldn’t be working
out until a deal is reached. Love’s contract is set to expire at
the end of the season. Gutekunst remained optimistic the Packers and
Love could reach a deal soon. He noted that Love is participating in
all other team activities.EAGAN, Minn. (AP) —
Khyree Jackson was supposed to report to training camp this week with
the rest of the Minnesota Vikings draft class. The team is instead
grieving the death of the fourth-round pick out of Oregon. Jackson
was killed with two friends in a car crash in Maryland on July 6.
Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell spoke with the rookies and other early
reports about the plans to honor the gregarious 24-year-old
cornerback. The Vikings are sending a contingent to his funeral and
covering more than $20,000 toward the cost. Players will wear helmet
decals with Jackson's number 31 on them this season.BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP,
Mich. (AP) — Charlie Woods shot a 12-over 82 on Monday in the U.S.
Junior Amateur at Oakland Hills. The 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods
birdied both of the par 5s on the Oakland Hills North Course but
otherwise struggled, making five double bogeys and four bogeys. Woods
will have to have quite a turnaround Tuesday on a course known as
“The Monster” to be among the low 64 scorers from a field of 264
players from 40 states and 35 countries. He earned his spot in a
qualifier last month in Florida.MONDAY SCORESMAJOR LEAGUE
BASEBALLINTERLEAGUEFinal	Minnesota	7	Philadelphia	2	Final	Kansas
City	10	Arizona	4	Final	Colorado	9	Boston	8	AMERICAN LEAGUEFinal	N.Y.
Yankees	9	Tampa Bay	1	Final	Detroit	8	Cleveland	2	Final	Texas	4	Chicago
White Sox	3	Final	Oakland	4	Houston	0	Final	L.A.
Angels	3	Seattle	1	NATIONAL LEAGUEFinal	Pittsburgh	2	St.
Louis	1	Final	N.Y.
Mets	6	Miami	4	Final	Cincinnati	4	Atlanta	1	Final	Chicago
Cubs	3	Milwaukee	1

Tuesday Sports Headlines and Scores presented by Barton Community College

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Adrian Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton were pegged as athletic phenoms from a young age and all three lived up to expectations with their induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were so sold on Beltré early on that they broke MLB rules to sign him before he turned 16.

Beltré reached the big leagues just after his 19th birthday and was quickly considered one of the best prospects in sports as a teenager.

In Beltré’s induction speech, he said he played for his first team at age 13 and was a second baseman because his dad told him that was the position he should play.

After a teammate asked him to switch and play third base, Beltré obliged and the decision paid off.

Beltré played 21 years for the Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers. He became a five-time Gold Glove winner and is the first third baseman with at least 450 home runs and 3,000 hits.

During his playing days, Beltré made it clear that he did not like anyone touching his head so of course, his teammates ignored the request and made a habit of touching his head anyway. At Sunday’s ceremony, fellow Hall of Famer David Ortiz continued the tradition by touching Beltré's head prior to his speech.

“That never relaxes me,” Beltré said with a laugh. “(But) it was a little cute to go back to my playing days. …It’s just part of being in this fraternity. Even though I don’t love it, I don’t like it, but it felt like I’m open to people to be able to play around with me. I always like that.”

Mauer was a high school phenom in both football and baseball in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was named USA Today’s High School Player of the Year in football in 2000 and baseball in 2001.

He was drafted by his hometown Twins with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft.

“It was truly an honor to be a (Minnesota Twin) and represent my hometown team,” Mauer said.

The future six-time All-Star catcher spent just three years in the minors before spending all 15 years of his big league career with the Twins.

Mauer finished with one Most Valuable Player award and three batting titles, and is the only catcher in history with at least 2,000 hits, a .300 batting average and a .380 on-base percentage.

Mauer noted the emotion he felt seeing all the Minnesota fans throughout the weekend.

“It’s not easy to get to Cooperstown and especially with the events that have happened this last week,” he said. “But to see that many Twins fans out there, I just felt the love and I was just hoping that I could deliver the speech that I wrote down.”

Helton was also a football and baseball star and played both sports at the University of Tennessee.

Despite his dominance in both sports at an early age, Helton never felt comfortable in the spotlight or felt like a Hall of Famer.

“Those of you who know me know I’d be more comfortable doing anything other than standing up here talking about myself,” Helton said to open his speech. “I’m just a ballplayer and anyone in the media can attest to that fact.”

Helton’s claim to fame could have been that he was the quarterback at Tennessee between future first-round NFL draft picks Heath Shuler and Peyton Manning, but he was destined for bigger things on the baseball diamond.

After a knee injury in 1994 paved the way for Manning to become Tennessee’s quarterback, Helton shifted all his focus to baseball, where he was named the winner of the Dick Howser Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association and named Player of the Year by Baseball America.

Helton was selected by the Colorado Rockies with the No. 8 overall pick in the 1995 amateur draft and never left the Mile High City.

After becoming the starting first baseman in 1995, Helton finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and posted a .315 batting average with 25 home runs and 97 RBIs.

He went on to become one of just three players to record multiple seasons with 100-plus extra-base hits in his career and helped the Rockies reach the 2007 World Series.

While Helton began the weekend feeling out of place, the second Rockies Hall of Famer knows he is where he belongs now.

“Just standing back there waiting to go up onto the stage, the guys were so kind, but they all came by and offered me advice,” Helton said. “For me, that was the beginning of feeling that I belong. But we have a players-only dinner tonight and I’ll probably feel like I belong after that.”

Jim Leyland was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. He managed for 22 seasons, won three Manager of the Year awards, the 1997 World Series, had a 1,769-1,728 career record as a manager and was the manager of the U.S. team in 2017 when the Americans won their only World Baseball Classic crown.

Leyland made sure to acknowledge the importance of the fans to the game of baseball.

“No matter which Hall of Famer you’re here to support today, or which team you cheer for, your presence is always felt,” Leyland said. “On your feet in the ninth with the home team clinging to a one-run lead, turning on your television for the first game in the World Series and seeing 50,000 fans hoping and praying that this may be their year, or a little boy or girl getting their first autograph scurrying back to the stands to show mom and dad what they just did. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s you. That’s baseball. And this is the Hall of Fame.”

Beltré led this year’s class with 95.1% of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote in his first year on the ballot. Helton followed with 79.7% in his sixth year of eligibility and Mauer received 76.1% in his first year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/7/1721642412828.jpeg" alt="&nbsp;Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Jim Leyland, left, Todd Helton, center, and Adrián Beltré, right, holds their plaques at the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Cooperstown, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)" />
 <figcaption>&nbsp;Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Jim Leyland, left, Todd Helton, center, and Adrián Beltré, right, holds their plaques at the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Cooperstown, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)</figcaption>
 </figure>COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Adrian Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton were pegged as athletic phenoms from a young age and all three lived up to expectations with their induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.The Los Angeles Dodgers were so sold on Beltré early on that they broke MLB rules to sign him before he turned 16.Beltré reached the big leagues just after his 19th birthday and was quickly considered one of the best prospects in sports as a teenager.In Beltré’s induction speech, he said he played for his first team at age 13 and was a second baseman because his dad told him that was the position he should play.After a teammate asked him to switch and play third base, Beltré obliged and the decision paid off.Beltré played 21 years for the Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers. He became a five-time Gold Glove winner and is the first third baseman with at least 450 home runs and 3,000 hits.During his playing days, Beltré made it clear that he did not like anyone touching his head so of course, his teammates ignored the request and made a habit of touching his head anyway. At Sunday’s ceremony, fellow Hall of Famer David Ortiz continued the tradition by touching Beltré's head prior to his speech.“That never relaxes me,” Beltré said with a laugh. “(But) it was a little cute to go back to my playing days. …It’s just part of being in this fraternity. Even though I don’t love it, I don’t like it, but it felt like I’m open to people to be able to play around with me. I always like that.”Mauer was a high school phenom in both football and baseball in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was named USA Today’s High School Player of the Year in football in 2000 and baseball in 2001.He was drafted by his hometown Twins with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft.“It was truly an honor to be a (Minnesota Twin) and represent my hometown team,” Mauer said.The future six-time All-Star catcher spent just three years in the minors before spending all 15 years of his big league career with the Twins.Mauer finished with one Most Valuable Player award and three batting titles, and is the only catcher in history with at least 2,000 hits, a .300 batting average and a .380 on-base percentage.Mauer noted the emotion he felt seeing all the Minnesota fans throughout the weekend.“It’s not easy to get to Cooperstown and especially with the events that have happened this last week,” he said. “But to see that many Twins fans out there, I just felt the love and I was just hoping that I could deliver the speech that I wrote down.”Helton was also a football and baseball star and played both sports at the University of Tennessee.Despite his dominance in both sports at an early age, Helton never felt comfortable in the spotlight or felt like a Hall of Famer.“Those of you who know me know I’d be more comfortable doing anything other than standing up here talking about myself,” Helton said to open his speech. “I’m just a ballplayer and anyone in the media can attest to that fact.”Helton’s claim to fame could have been that he was the quarterback at Tennessee between future first-round NFL draft picks Heath Shuler and Peyton Manning, but he was destined for bigger things on the baseball diamond.After a knee injury in 1994 paved the way for Manning to become Tennessee’s quarterback, Helton shifted all his focus to baseball, where he was named the winner of the Dick Howser Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association and named Player of the Year by Baseball America.Helton was selected by the Colorado Rockies with the No. 8 overall pick in the 1995 amateur draft and never left the Mile High City.After becoming the starting first baseman in 1995, Helton finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and posted a .315 batting average with 25 home runs and 97 RBIs.He went on to become one of just three players to record multiple seasons with 100-plus extra-base hits in his career and helped the Rockies reach the 2007 World Series.While Helton began the weekend feeling out of place, the second Rockies Hall of Famer knows he is where he belongs now.“Just standing back there waiting to go up onto the stage, the guys were so kind, but they all came by and offered me advice,” Helton said. “For me, that was the beginning of feeling that I belong. But we have a players-only dinner tonight and I’ll probably feel like I belong after that.”Jim Leyland was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. He managed for 22 seasons, won three Manager of the Year awards, the 1997 World Series, had a 1,769-1,728 career record as a manager and was the manager of the U.S. team in 2017 when the Americans won their only World Baseball Classic crown.Leyland made sure to acknowledge the importance of the fans to the game of baseball.“No matter which Hall of Famer you’re here to support today, or which team you cheer for, your presence is always felt,” Leyland said. “On your feet in the ninth with the home team clinging to a one-run lead, turning on your television for the first game in the World Series and seeing 50,000 fans hoping and praying that this may be their year, or a little boy or girl getting their first autograph scurrying back to the stands to show mom and dad what they just did. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s you. That’s baseball. And this is the Hall of Fame.”Beltré led this year’s class with 95.1% of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote in his first year on the ballot. Helton followed with 79.7% in his sixth year of eligibility and Mauer received 76.1% in his first year.Players who fell short of the 75% threshold for election included Billy Wagner (73.8%), Gary Sheffield (63.9%), Andruw Jones (61.6%) and Carlos Beltrán (57.1%). Sheffield was on the ballot for the 10th time without reaching the 75% mark and is no longer eligible for BBWAA consideration.Joe Castiglione and Gerry Fraley were also honored during Hall of Fame weekend. Castiglione has been the Boston Red Sox radio broadcaster for a record 42 seasons and received the Ford C. Frick Award. Fraley was posthumously honored with the BBWAA Career Excellence Award for his work as a writer. Fraley covered the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers, and also worked as the national baseball writer for the Dallas Morning News.