The Buffalo Bills have locked up right tackle Spencer Brown through 2028. The Bills announced Friday that they've signed Brown to a four-year extension. Brown was selected by Buffalo in the third round of the 2021 draft out of Northern Iowa, and was entering the final year of his rookie contract. The 26-year-old has been a starter since a month into his rookie season, and overall has 41 starts in 44 career games. Listed at 6-foot-8 and 311 pounds, Brown was part of an offensive line that allowed an NFL-low 24 sacks last season.
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.
Much has changed in Buffalo and Arizona in the four years since the teams last met in the desert, when Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray sealed a 32-30 win with a last-second touchdown pass to DeAndre Hopkins. The play was instantly dubbed the “Hail Murray.” The two non-conference teams meet for the first time since to open the season at the Bills on Sunday. In Arizona, Murray is seeking to reclaim his place among the NFL's elite after missing 11 months spanning the 2022-23 seasons with a torn ACL. In Buffalo, the four-time defending AFC East champions are coming off an offseason overhaul that led to the departures of six of eight captains.
HOUSTON (AP) — Stefon Diggs doesn’t really set personal goals before each season, instead preferring to focus on the team.
Jessica Pegula has pulled off a major upset at the U.S. Open by beating No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal. Pegula's victory on Wednesday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium came after she had started her career with an 0-6 record in major quarterfinals. Swiatek served poorly in the first set and her forehand was a real problem. Pegula used terrific defense to keep forcing Swiatek to hit an extra shot. The No. 6-seeded Pegula is a 30-year-old American. She has won 14 of her past 15 matches and will play Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic on Thursday for a berth in the final.
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.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Patrick Queen is well-versed in the labels attached to him. They pop up whenever the Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker happens to search his name in social media.
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.
As they position themselves for a possible new domed stadium, the Cleveland Browns are renaming their current one. The NFL team announced a 20-year agreement with Huntington National Bank, a partnership that includes naming rights. Cleveland’s lakefront stadium will now be called Huntington Bank Field. The Browns open the 2024 season at home on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. The new partnership comes as team owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam consider moving the team out of downtown and into a domed stadium. The team recently unveiled plans for a $2.4 billion dome to be built in Brook Park, Ohio. The team’s lease at its current stadium expires after the 2028 season.
Jessica Pegula is back in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open after a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Diana Shnaider. Monday's win put Pegula in her seventh Grand Slam quarterfinal. Now comes the hard part: Pegula is 0-6 at that stage over her career, and she plays No. 1 Iga Swiatek on Wednesday. The No. 6-seeded Pegula is on quite a run at the moment, having won 13 of her past 14 matches, all on hard courts. That included her second consecutive title in Canada and an appearance in the final at the Cincinnati Open, where she lost to No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka. Also reaching the quarterfinals were Karolina Muchova, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Daniil Medvedev and Jack Draper.
PITTSBURGH — Cam Heyward is running out of time in his playing career. No one is more acutely aware of that than the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle.
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.
Johnny Gaudreau was known as “Johnny Hockey” for his lifelong journey in the sport he loved along with his family. He and his younger brother, Matthew, died when they struck by a drunken driver while riding bicycles not far from their childhood home. Undersized from the time he first put on skates growing up in New Jersey just outside Philadelphia, Gaudreau excelled in college and thrived in the NHL despite being well under 6 feet tall and weighing less than 180 pounds. Those who knew him also remembered him for how he embraced life off the ice.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pitt running back Rodney Hammond Jr. has been declared ineligible and will miss the 2024 season, the school announced Friday.
DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Bubba Wallace, as he usually does after races, received a text from owner Michael Jordan after Daytona last week about his final attempt this week at Darlington Raceway to make the Cup Series playoffs.
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.
Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner have flashed their No. 1 form with powerful performances that moved them into the third round of the U.S. Open. Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka couldn’t quite find the games that once had them on top of the rankings. Swiatek raced by Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-0, 6-1, finishing off the match in 65 minutes. It took the 2022 U.S. Open champion longer than that to play the second set of her first-round match, when she needed a tiebreaker that she eventually closed out in 72 minutes. Sinner downed Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in 1 hour, 39 minutes.
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.
The Buffalo Bills filled their 17th and final practice squad spot by signing safety Lewis Cine. Cine was selected by Minnesota 32nd overall in the 2022 draft, and joins the Bills after being released by the Vikings on Tuesday. He broke his leg during his rookie season and was limited to playing a total of 10 defensive snaps in 10 games over his two years in Minnesota. The 24-year-old from Haiti is listed at 6-foot-2 and 199 pounds, and had a decorated college career at Georgia. Cine earned defensive MVP honors in Georgia’s 33-18 win over Alabama in the national championship game in the 2021 season.
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.
Caroline Garcia, a U.S. Open semifinalist two years ago, is drawing attention to the problem of cyberbullying in tennis, particularly by people who bet on matches. Garcia wrote on social media on Wednesday after her first-round loss at the Grand Slam tournament that harassing messages hurt players and can be damaging. Coco Gauff and other players agree this it remains an issue. Garcia offered a few examples of the hundreds of messages she said she was sent after losing recent matches. The groups that run the U.S. Open, Wimbledon and other events started a service this year to monitor players' accounts.
Football’s top division wasn’t even at full strength in 2023. With better luck at the quarterback position, it could be quite a race for the AFC North title this season. Lamar Jackson stayed healthy last year and won his second MVP. He helped Baltimore to the best regular-season record in the league. Joe Burrow of Cincinnati and Deshaun Watson of Cleveland were less fortunate. And Pittsburgh’s passing situation was so unsatisfactory the Steelers made two significant additions at QB. Still, every team in the division finished above .500. All have the potential to succeed in 2024 if they can keep their key players on the field.
Naomi Osaka has defeated Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets at the U.S. Open for her first victory over a top-10 opponent in more than four years. Osaka is a two-time champion at Flushing Meadows but has missed time in recent seasons because of mental health breaks and while having a baby. Her victory over 2017 French Open winner Ostapenko marked the first opening-round matchup at the U.S. Open between two past Grand Slam champs since Serena Williams eliminated Maria Sharapova five years ago. Other winners on Day 2 in New York included No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 1 Jannik Sinner.
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.
With the U.S. Open tennis tournament beginning Monday and college football kicking into high gear, this was supposed to be the week when some expected the Venu Sports streaming service to have a soft launch at least. Instead, the joint venture between ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery has been sidelined by a federal court’s preliminary injunction, and its future is very much up in the air. Before the case goes to trial, though, streaming companies and cable and satellite providers hope the ruling will advance discussions regarding how media companies sell their content.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen remains his playful self while taking a more serious approach entering his seventh season. At 28, he’s now the face and voice of a franchise in attempting to carry over past success on a team in transition after parting ways with six of eight captains this offseason. The mantle of leadership now falls on Allen, who has taken his responsibilities to heart. The quarterback is spending more time with his new group of receivers to work on timing and rapport. And no task is beneath him, whether it's addressing reporters a day after his grandfather died or handling all the passing drills during practice, when the Bills were short-handed at quarterback.
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.
Aaron Judge hit his MLB-leading 49th home run of the season Friday night, helping the New York Yankees to a 3-0 win over the Colorado Rockies. Judge homered for the fourth straight game, sending a 388-foot shot to left-center off Kyle Freeland (3-6) in the sixth inning. In earlier at-bats, Judge grounded into a double play and lined out. He popped out to third base in his final at-bat in the eighth. Judge has eight homers in his last 11 games and 17 homers in his last 34. He is one home run shy of becoming just the fifth player in history to record three 50-homer seasons. Giancarlo Stanton homered for New York in the fourth inning.
BOSTON (AP) — Danny Jansen will become the first major leaguer to appear in a game for both teams when he plays catcher for the Boston Red Sox on Monday in the resumption of a suspended game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
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.
PITTSBURGH — Russell Wilson will start the Pittsburgh Steelers preseason finale against Detroit on Saturday.
Sword, bullhorn stolen from Hall of Fame basketball coach Rick Pitino's St. John's University office
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.
Bryce Young and the majority of the Carolina Panthers' starters will see their first preseason action on Saturday against the Buffalo Bills in the team’s final game before the start of the regular season. Panthers coach Dave Canales had been on the fence about playing his starters. Backup quarterback Andy Dalton also is expected to play for the Panthers. They will face the Bills' reserves. Buffalo coach Sean McDermott said earlier this week that his starters will sit out the preseason finale.
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.