ATLANTA (AP) — Two teams that have struggled to fill the most important position on the field are taking another crack at settling their quarterback dilemmas.

HOUSTON (AP) — Stefon Diggs doesn’t really set personal goals before each season, instead preferring to focus on the team.

A year after making the cut to successfully resume his football career following a near-death experience, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin reached a new plateau in his comeback in being selected a season-opening starter. Coach Sean McDermott announced the news by saying Hamlin will be paired with Taylor Rapp when the Bills take the field in hosting the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. The fourth-year player was hardly assured of winning a staring job, even with both spots being open. The promotion for the 26-year-old Hamlin comes some 20 months since he went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field during a game at Cincinnati.

Brian Daboll has confirmed what has been obvious for the last four or so months. He is going to call the offensive plays for the New York Giants this season. The third-year head coach has acknowledged that he is replacing offensive coordinator Mike Kafka when it comes to determining what plays Daniel Jones runs. Daboll called the plays in the preseason and the minicamps. The Giants went 6-11 last year. They host Minnesota on Sunday in their season opener.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Cam Heyward isn’t going anywhere.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Spencer Anderson was an underclassman at Maryland when one of his coaches approached him to talk about how injuries had started to pile up along the offensive line.

ESPN has gone off the air on a major carrier for the second straight year during the U.S. Open tennis tournament and in the midst of the first full weekend of college football. Disney Entertainment channels went dark on DirecTV Sunday night after the two were unable to reach a new carriage agreement. The move angered sports fans who posted on social media about the channels going dark, and the U.S. Tennis Association wasn’t pleased with another carriage dispute. ESPN was showing U.S. Open fourth-round action when it went off the air on DirecTV at 7:20 p.m. EDT.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Darren Baker spent much of his childhood around baseball. Sunday was the first time he woke up knowing he was a major leaguer.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic has lost at the U.S. Open one night after Carlos Alcaraz did. Djokovic bowed out in the third round with a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 loss against 28th-seeded Alexei Popyrin of Australia on Friday night. The No. 2-seeded Djokovic was trying to become the first player in tennis history with 25 Grand Slam singles titles. Instead, he finishes a year without claiming at least one major championship for the first time since 2017. Before that, it hadn’t happened since 2010. The third-round exit equals Djokovic’s worst showing at Flushing Meadows. Alcaraz was beaten by 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp on Thursday.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pitt running back Rodney Hammond Jr. has been declared ineligible and will miss the 2024 season, the school announced Friday.

Carlos Alcaraz's surprising U.S. Open loss to Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round is raising questions for the 21-year-old from Spain who was the pre-tournament favorite and already owns four Grand Slam titles. Alcaraz figured he would be able to turn things around at some point during the 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 defeat. So did van de Zandschulp. But it never happened. Afterward, the No. 3-ranked Alcaraz sounded like someone a little worried about what it might mean. Now he will try to learn from this setback and regroup before the next major tournament — the Australian Open in January.

Carlos Alcaraz's 15-match Grand Slam unbeaten run has ended at the U.S. Open with a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 loss to Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round. Alcaraz's exit in New York on Thursday night comes after he won the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July. The 21-year-old from Spain won the U.S. Open in 2022 and was 16-2 at the hard-court tournament in his career. This was his earliest loss at any major tournament since bowing out in the second round at Wimbledon in 2021 as a teenager. Alcaraz has never lost in the first round at a Slam event. He was a big favorite against the 74th-ranked van de Zandschulp.

BOSTON (AP) — Rich Hill came on in relief for the Boston Red Sox on Thursday night and became the only active player to appear in a major league game in each of the last 20 seasons.

C.J. Ogbonna threw for 195 yards and two touchdowns in his first start at quarterback for Buffalo, Jacqez Barksdale added 99 yards rushing and a score, and the Bulls beat Lafayette 30-13 for the program’s first win under new head coach Pete Lembo. Buffalo won its home opener for the first time in three seasons. Lafayette pulled within 23-13 early in the fourth following an 11-play scoring drive and Buffalo fumbled the ensuing kickoff. The Leopards took over at the 18-yard line but couldn’t take advantage as Jack Simonetta missed a 31-yard field goal. Shaun Dolac, who finished with six solo tackles for Buffalo, made an interception with 5:31 left in the fourth and Jacqez Barksdale followed one play later with a 19-yard touchdown run for a 17-point lead.

The Eagles looked as if they were ready to return to the Super Bowl last season after beating the Bills 37-34 in overtime to move to 10-1. Then Philadelphia lost six of its final seven games that included a 32-9 stinker in the playoffs to the Buccaneers. But now the Eagles might be back to form. Many bettors are banking on it. They also believe the Dallas Cowboys might be heading the other way.

A film project has earned former Boston Celtics forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis a temporary reprieve from the start of his three-year prison term for a fraud conviction. Judge Valerie E. Caproni on Wednesday said Davis can wait until October to start serving his three-year, four-month stint for defrauding an insurance plan for NBA players and their families. About two dozen former players and others were convicted of cheating the NBA Players' Health and Benefit Welfare Plan of over $5 million. Davis was to report to prison by Sunday. He sought a delay to complete a documentary film project on his life. Now, he must report to prison by Oct. 22.

Plenty of tennis players at the U.S. Open agree that there are benefits to taking a nap before a match, especially if they are due on court at night. Some catch extra Zs at their hotels. Others opt for the beds in the “Player Quiet Room” down the hall from the locker rooms at Flushing Meadows, where the year's last Grand Slam tournament is being played this week and next. Some are fine with finding any spot they can stretch out because they appreciate the net gains they believe come from dozing off. Matches can begin anywhere from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. — and, on occasion, even later.

Frances Tiafoe is getting the rematch he wants, a second shot at Ben Shelton at the U.S. Open. But there won’t be a second straight Grand Slam title for Barbora Krejcikova. The Wimbledon champion was knocked out of the U.S. Open in the second round on Wednesday, defeated by Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-4, 7-5. Ruse advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time and will play No. 26 seed Paula Badosa, who eliminated American Taylor Townsend 6-3, 7-5. Tiafoe and Shelton both won second-round matches and will meet Friday. Shelton beat Tiafoe last year in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

The U.S. Open tennis tournament will stay on ESPN through 2037 under a 12-year contract that starts in 2026. The network and the U.S. Tennis Association announced the agreement Wednesday. The year’s last Grand Slam event began on Monday and runs until Sept. 8. The new deal expands ESPN’s streaming rights and will include coverage on ABC of the tournament’s two Sundays. ESPN began showing some U.S. Open matches in 2009, splitting the event with longtime broadcaster CBS, before taking over entirely in 2015 under an 11-year deal.

Dan Evans has won the longest match at the U.S. Open since tiebreakers were introduced in 1970, beating Karen Khachanov 6-7 (6), 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-4 in 5 hours, 35 minutes. Evans trailed 4-0 in the fifth set before running off the final six games. The final point, fittingly, was a marathon 22-shot rally. The previous record was 5 hours, 26 minutes, set when Stefan Edberg beat Michael Chang in a five-setter in the 1992 semifinals. Evans improved to 5-0 against Khachanov, a semifinalist at the 2022 U.S. Open, by emerging in a match in which the sets lasted 68, 67, 72, 67 and 61 minutes.

The jersey Babe Ruth wore when he called his shot during the 1932 World Series, hitting a home run to center field, has sold at auction for over $24 million. Heritage Auctions said the New York Yankee slugger’s jersey went for $24.12 million early Sunday after a bidding war in Dallas that lasted over six hours. Heritage says the buyer wishes to remain anonymous. The record-breaking amount the jersey sold for topped fellow Yankee Mickey Mantle’s 1952 rookie card, which the Dallas-based auction house sold for $12.6 million in 2022.

The jersey worn by New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth during his famous “called shot” home run in 1932 could sell at auction for as much as $30 million. Heritage Auctions is offering up the jersey Saturday night in Dallas. It’s been nearly a century since Ruth’s famed, debated and often imitated “called shot” came as the Yankees and Chicago Cubs faced off in Game 3 of the World Series at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. In the fifth inning, Ruth made a pointing gesture while at bat and then hit the home run into center field off Cubs pitcher Charlie Root.

New York City police say they have arrested a 25-year-old man for stealing a ceremonial sword and bullhorn from Coach Rick Pitino’s office at St. John's University. Police Saturday said the Queens resident was arrested Friday, one day after police released surveillance footage showing two men walking down a hallway in the building carrying the stolen items. He faces charges of burglary, petit larceny, trespassing and possession of stolen property. Police say the theft happened Tuesday when two men gained entry to the university athletics department offices. The second suspect is still at large.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — With the offensive line still in flux and the development of the franchise’s rookie quarterback grabbing the majority of the headlines, plenty of attention has been on New England Patriots offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt throughout the summer.

Two thieves have stolen a ceremonial sword and a bullhorn from the office of St. John’s University Coach Rick Pitino. Brian Browne, a spokesperson for the Catholic school in New York City, says the theft happened Tuesday night. He says its not immediately clear if other items were stolen from the Hall of Fame coach’s office or others in the building. The athletics department offices are located above the hardwood at Carnesecca Arena where Pitino’s Red Storm play. Surveillance footage released by police Thursday shows the two suspects carrying the sword and bullhorn while walking in the building's hallway.

A pair of shows will take over the weekday morning timeslot on FS1 formerly occupied by Skip Bayless of “Undisputed.” Most of the time slot will be taken over by “The Facility,” which will feature former NFL players Emmanuel Acho, LeSean McCoy, James Jones and Chase Daniel. The show will air for two hours, beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Sept. 3. “Breakfast Ball” will be FS1’s latest attempt at an early morning show beginning at 8 a.m. ET. “Undisputed” aired Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m. ET from September 2016 until Aug. 2, when the 72-year-old Bayless announced on social media he was leaving the show and the network.