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Ohtani continues to put his brilliance on display in different ways. View the original article to see embedded media. Even when Shohei Ohtani is not throwing jaw-dropping pitches and rattling off home runs every night, the Angels star pitcher and designated hitter continues to leave his mark on the game. On Tuesday, with the Angels up 5-2 against the Yankees in the bottom of the fifth, Yankees pitcher Joely Rodríguez struck out Angels infielder Jared Walsh. After striking out Walsh, Angels' Phil Gosselin manages to steal second base while Ohtani avoids being tagged out by Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez at home plate to secure the run. Ohtani became the first Angels player to steal home since Francisco Arcia on Aug. 7, 2018. This was Arcia's only career steal. The 26-year-old did not pitch in Tuesday's game because of soreness in his right hand after he was hit by a pitch by Padres' Ryan Weathers on Saturday. Ohtani leads the majors in home runs (42) and the Amer

Fisher's contract extension would raise his salary to more than $9 million per year. Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M are reportedly finalizing a new contract extension that would raise his yearly salary to more than $9 million per year, according to ESPN. The Houston Chronicle was the first to report the news.  When Fisher came to Texas A&M from Florida State after eight seasons in 2017, he initially signed a 10-year, $75 million contract. With the new extension, Fisher will be worth more than $90 million and will remain in College Station through 2030, according to the Chronicle .  Entering the 2021 season, Fisher—one of the highest paid coaches in college football—is ranked No. 6 in USA Today Sports AFCA Coaches Poll . Fisher's deal will make him the second highest-paid college football coach in the country behind Alabama's Nick Saban. The Crimson Tide head coach made $9.1 million in 2020 and earned another raise and extension this offseason. The Aggies went 9–1

Fall played his first two seasons with Boston, averaging 2.7 points, 0.9 blocks, 2.6 rebounds in 26 games. View the original article to see embedded media. The Cavaliers agreed to a one-year, non-guaranteed deal with former Celtics big man Tacko Fall, according to The Athletic 's Sham Charania .  Fall, 25, played his first two seasons with Boston, averaging 2.7 points, 0.9 blocks, 2.6 rebounds in 26 games. He also spent time in the G-League with the Maine Red Claws in his transition to the NBA. With the Red Claws, Fall averaged a double-double of 12.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game while also earning All-Defensive G League honors in recording nearly three blocks per game.  The 7-foot-5 big man entered the league undrafted out of the University of Central Florida in 2019. In Cleveland, Fall will play alongside Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley, Dean Wade and Kevin Love. More NBA Coverage: Danny Green Dishes on Ben Simmons’s Future in Philadelphia 2021 NBA Offseason Awards Ma

After Zverev increased his winning streak to 12 matches, he threw an autographed tennis ball to a familiar NFL face. View the original article to see embedded media. Alexander Zverev, the No. 4 tennis player in the world and the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, signed several tennis balls before throwing one into the crowd of spectators after winning his first round match at the 2021 U.S. Open. The spectator who caught his pass was free agent wide receiver Dez Bryant. In true Bryant fashion, he caught the ball with ease. Following the celebratory gesture, Zverev will look to win his first Grand Slam to add to his Olympic gold medal. The 24-year-old won his first-round match against Sam Querrey 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 on Tuesday.  With the victory against Querrey, Zverev extended his winning streak to 12 matches. The German finished runner-up in the 2020 U.S. Open final.  As for Bryant, the three-time Pro Bowler has yet to sign with a NFL team for the 2021 season. However, in July, Bryant

The Red Sox shortstop marks the tenth team member within the franchise to either test positive (eight) or be deemed a close contact (two). View the original article to see embedded media. The Red Sox pulled Xander Bogaerts during the second inning against Tampa Bay after getting news that he had tested positive for COVID-19.  The shortstop marks the tenth team member within the franchise to either test positive (eight) or be deemed a close contact (two).  During manager Alex Cora’s pregame Zoom press conference call on Tuesday, he started it by saying "[Hirokazu] Sawamura tested positive" before any questions were asked. The outbreak started on Friday's opener in Cleveland when Kiké Hernández tested positive and Christian Arroyo was subsequently identified as a close contact.  Two days later, Arroyo tested positive.  A domino effect occurred. Before Monday's game, relievers Matt Barnes and Martín Peréz tested positive, and during the game, lefty Josh Taylor

Unvaccinated players face stricter protocols, and if deemed a high-risk close contact or test positive for COVID-19, they would miss substantial time. View the original article to see embedded media. Urban Meyer commented during a press conference Tuesday that a player's COVID-19 vaccination status was taken into consideration for the Jaguars' roster cuts.  "Everyone was considered," Meyer said. "That was part of the [considerations such as] production, let's start talking about this, and also is he vaccinated or not? Can I say that that was a decision-maker? It was certainly in consideration." Following Meyer's comments, the NFLPA launched an investigation into the matter, according to ProFootball Talk . There's a significant difference in COVID-19 protocols between vaccinated and unvaccinated players. If deemed a high-risk close contact or test positive for the virus, an unvaccinated player would miss substantial time compared to a v

The donations will go towards The Greater New Orleans Foundation, the United Way of Southeast Louisiana and the American Red Cross. View the original article to see embedded media. The Ravens announced that they and The Stephen & Renee Bisciotti Foundation are donating $1 million to Hurricane Ida relief funds, which will assist The Greater New Orleans Foundation, the United Way of Southeast Louisiana and the American Red Cross. "The Ravens have a special connection with New Orleans, which is filled with wonderful people who are now in great need," the franchise said in a statement . "The community treated our organization with first-class hospitality throughout the week of Super Bowl XLVII. We have great affection for the city and its people, so it was especially important for us to aid their recovery efforts." Ida made landfall in the Gulf Coast on Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, and according to CNN , five people have died so far. Even though hundre

Báez scored the Mets final run to secure the victory two days after the thumb down controversy. View the original article to see embedded media. Mets fans had no trouble voicing their displeasure with Javier Báez on Tuesday as the crowd at Citi Field rained boos toward New York’s infielder before his first at-bat of the afternoon. Tuesday’s rude reception comes in the wake of a new scandal in Flushing. Báez was one of multiple Mets to flash a thumbs down during Sunday's win over the Nationals, a gesture he explained later was directed at the fans for their booing. Watch MLB games online all season long with fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial! "We're not machines," Báez said postgame on Sunday night. "We're going to struggle seven times out of 10. It just feels bad when I strike out and get booed, you know, it doesn't really get to me but I want to let them [fans] know that when we're successful, we're going to do the same thing to let

Roy Johnson was fired as head coach of Bishop Sycamore and founder Andre Peterson says the school is not a "scam." Bishop Sycamore , the school that has gained national attention for potentially being a fraudulent program, has fired its head coach. The news was first reported by  USA Today Sports's Chris Bumbaca . The team made headlines on Sunday when it was blown out by IMG Academy (Florida), the No. 2 high school football team in the country, on a nationally televised game via ESPN 58–0. The blowout was not the issue, but whether or not Bishop Sycamore was actually a legitimate school.  The school's address is listed as a P.O. box and it claims to be based in Columbus, Ohio, but it is not affiliated with the Ohio High School Athletic Association. The roster includes postgraduate players as old as 19 or 20 who have possibly already played in junior college football games. Coach Roy Johnson was investigated for fraud and he has an active bench warrant for faili

The UFC president discusses how he put together the upcoming MSG card, his role with 'The Ultimate Surfer' and the next heavyweight title fight. View the original article to see embedded media. UFC is coming back to Madison Square Garden. The UFC 268 card was announced over the weekend, and it is loaded. Scheduled for Nov. 6 in New York City, the card is headlined by welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, who is defending his title in a rematch against Colby Covington. The night will also feature strawweight champ Rose Namajunas against former champ Zhang Weili, as well as Justin Gaethje meeting Michael Chandler in a bout that should determine the next top lightweight contender for either Charles Oliveira or Dustin Poirier after their lightweight championship encounter. In addition to putting together a jam-packed card for MSG, UFC president Dana White is branching out with new responsibilities in television as the executive producer of ABC's  The Ultimate Surfer. Speak

Michael Thomas will miss at least the first five games of the season as the Saints will reportedly place him on the physically unable to perform list. View the original article to see embedded media. Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas will miss at least the first five games of the season as the franchise is expected to place him on the physically unable to perform list, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter. Thomas will be unable to practice until the first six weeks of the season have passed, but due to the Saints having a bye week in Week 6, he will initially miss just five games. The first game Thomas could appear in is against the Seahawks on Monday Night Football in Week 7.  Thomas had his ankle surgically repaired in June and had long been reportedly expected to miss the start of the 2021 season.  However, head coach Sean Payton recently said Thomas was "ahead of schedule" in his recovery. The three-time Pro Bowler played in seven regular-season games in 2020

The Patriots are now all-in on Mac Jones, and they may have found a potential star hiding in plain sight. Bill Belichick is probably right, because Bill Belichick is usually right, and so we should pause now to ponder what it means if he is. Belichick just stuffed the rest of his career into Mac Jones’s pocket, just four months after Jones was the fifth quarterback taken in the draft. We are left with the astounding but increasingly likely possibility that Belichick outsmarted the league yet again. The Patriots might have found a star hiding in plain sight: a national-championship winning, All-America quarterback at the nation’s most successful college program. We’ll see how Jones does—next week, next month, next year. But if he excels, I would not want to be the general manager who has to explain how I missed on that guy. Well … uh … I know he showed he could do all this at Alabama … but ... um … you see … Eric Hartline/USA TODAY Sports Maybe Belichick is wrong. But if he’s

Why will it just be the brothers on the ‘Monday Night Football’ alternate telecast? 1.  It was reported Monday that ESPN’s alternate Monday Night Football telecast featuring Peyton and Eli Manning, which will air on ESPN2 for 10 weeks this season, will not have a host or play-by-play person. The broadcast will just feature the two Mannings with an array of guests. Sources have told me that just two people auditioned with Peyton and Eli: Good Morning Football ’s Kyle Brandt and ESPN’s Mina Kimes. Both reportedly performed very well, but on Aug. 23, Peyton and Eli called the Jaguars-Saints Monday Night Football game without a host as a test. The brothers apparently knocked it out of the park and convinced ESPN and Peyton’s Omaha Productions that a host wasn’t needed.  While it would've been great to see Brandt react to an Angry Run in real time , this isn’t totally shocking. The alternate broadcast was always going to be The Peyton Manning Show and a host, no matter who it w

Francisco Lindor and Javier Báez apologized for giving fans thumbs down as a form of celebration. Mets players Javier Báez and Francisco Lindor apologized on Tuesday for their comments and for giving fans a thumbs down . Báez explained on Sunday the thumbs down was directed toward the home crowd for their boos of the team.  "I just felt like we were alone, Báez said. "Obviously the fans want us to win and they pay our salary like everybody says, but we want to win too and the frustration got to us. I didn't mean to offend anybody, and if I offended anybody we apologize." On Sunday, after a game where Báez homered and celebrated with a thumbs down,  he explained during a postgame press conference that the meaning behind the thumbs down celebration was in retaliation to Mets fans for routinely booing him and his teammates for their struggles at Citi Field.  "We're not machines," Báez said Sunday. "We're going to struggle seven times out

The Sixers guard joins The Crossover podcast to talk about offseason moves and the top contenders in the East. It’s been a great offseason for Sixers vet Danny Green, who signed a rich new contract and married his longtime girlfriend, Blair Bashen. The three-time NBA champ discusses his decision to return to Philly, the Sixers’ title hopes, the fate of Ben Simmons and much more. The following transcript is an excerpt from The Crossover NBA podcast . Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com . Howard Beck: So as we sit here in late August discussing all this and training camps are about a month away, there's obviously like the one big—and this is the elephant in the room in this whole discussion of contention in the East and everything else—we don't know the future of Ben Simmons. You decide to re-sign with this team that’s built around two stars. One of those stars, we don't really know what's going to happen, if he's going to

Rookie Mac Jones is thrust into a starting role and the effects will be felt across the offense for fantasy managers The quarterback battle in New England is over, and it ended unexpectedly. Cam Newton was released Tuesday morning , and rookie Mac Jones was named the Patriots' starting quarterback. Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports Newton, the 2015 NFL MVP, was entering his second year with the team and was trying to hold off Jones, the Patriots' first-round draft pick out of Alabama, for the starting job. With Jones behind center, the fantasy stock of every skill position player in New England rises, and he becomes a viable fantasy backup option. Jones's weapons aren't much on paper, but he has a diverse running back group, a solid crop of receivers, and two talented tight ends. He's also insured by one of the best offensive lines in football. Jones similarly had great protection at Alabama, which gave him the time to efficiently and effectively spread the b

It became clear the rookie came along faster than expected, so the gig had to be his. While there was a bit of a rush to paint Tuesday’s news of the Patriots’ releasing Cam Newton as either some kind of non-vaccination revenge or general evidence of Belichickian cold heartedness, there exists another scenario that might be worth exploring. For starters, Mac Jones outplayed Cam Newton this preseason. Jones, depending on who you ask, outplayed almost all rookie quarterbacks this preseason. The ball was out on time. He looked comfortable in the pocket. He nestled snugly into an offense that asks him to perform the kind of unsexy, mechanical tasks that he does particularly well. If you followed the diligent work of the New England football beat, you saw Jones begin to accumulate a larger share of the reps, which is another tell that Belichick’s mind was close to made up. He is a coach who crafted a legend not out of being evil, but out of being open to running a meritocracy. Eric H

The scripted movie is inspired by Dennis Rodman's midseason trip to Las Vegas during the 1998 season. View the original article to see embedded media. NBA Hall-of-Famer Dennis Rodman is getting the Hollywood treatment and one of his most famous storylines will be made into a movie. During the 2020 documentary The Last Dance , the series revolving around the Bulls of the 90s, it was shown that Rodman once asked coach Phil Jackson if he could have some time off in the middle of the 1998 season. And when Jackson approved of his 48-hour vacation, Rodman went off to Las Vegas and the team didn't hear from Rodman for more than the allotted time.  But now, Lionsgate will be creating a movie titled 48 Hours in Las Vegas that chronicles the trip.   The   scripted movie will be   produced by Phil Lord, Chris Miller and Aditya Sood for Lord Miller, according to Deadline's Justin Kroll . Ari Lubet, Will Allegra and Rodman will executive produce and the screenplay will be writte

The 2021 NFL season begins soon and it's time to find an edge in the betting market on season-long player prop over/under totals With  SI Sportsbook  opening soon paired with my season-long and weekly NFL stat projections, my natural progression is to find flaws and opportunities in the betting lines to beat the books on futures and player props. The goal is to set a fair outlook on each team’s offense and each player's injury risk and upside. By doing over four months of research, I hope to find betting opportunities on player props. RB Mike Davis, Atlanta Falcons Dale Zanine/USA TODAY Sports There are two excellent betting opportunities posted at the sportsbooks with Davis. My last set of projections have him rushing for 649 yards on 180 carries with six rushing touchdowns. His over/under in rushing yards is 800.5. I don’t view Davis as a season-long answer at running back. Over his six years in the league, he averaged only 3.7 yards per rush while also lacking exp

Cam Newton issued a statement Tuesday morning shortly after multiple reports of his release, thanking Patriots fans for their support. View the original article to see embedded media. Shortly after reports surfaced that the Patriots were releasing Cam Newton , the veteran quarterback issued a statement thanking fans for their support. "I really appreciate all the love and support during this time, but I must say...please don't feel sorry for me," Newton wrote in an Instagram post. Newton struggled last season, his first with New England, as the franchise finished 7—9 and missed the playoffs. In 15 starts, Newton averaged a career-low 177.1 passing yards per game and finished the season with eight passing touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also had 592 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. The 32-year-old Newton spent the first nine seasons of his NFL career with the Panthers, making three Pro Bowl appearances and winning the MVP award in 2015, becoming just th

He is stepping in for the Gamecocks after quarterback Luke Doty injured his left foot during preseason practice. Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports South Carolina is turning to its coaching staff for help on the field in 2021 as graduate assistant Zeb Noland is listed as the starting quarterback for Week 1 on the Gamecocks' depth chart. Noland will guide South Carolina on Saturday, when the school hosts Eastern Illinois in its season opener. He will replace Luke Doty, who was slated to be South Carolina's starting quarterback before suffering a foot injury during preseason practice.  Although South Carolina's situation is a bit odd, Noland enters Week 1 with legitimate credentials under center. Noland appeared in nine games for Iowa State from 2017–18, tallying six touchdown passes. He appeared to complete his playing career in May, when he served as a backup quarterback at South Dakota State. But with South Carolina now in a pinch, Noland is putting the pads o

Unpaid bills. Over-age players. No classes. The situation keeps getting stranger. View the original article to see embedded media. It just keeps getting worse The most fascinating story in sports right now is the saga of Bishop Sycamore. In case you’ve missed the drama of the past few days: Sycamore faced athlete factory IMG Academy in a game on Sunday as part of ESPN’s week-long high school football showcase. Sycamore was touted as a program loaded with Division-I talent, but during the 58-0 blowout, it quickly became clear that its players couldn’t hang with IMG. ESPN’s Tom Luginbill, who called the game, said on Twitter afterwards that it was a “total scam.” That’s the short version. The long version is that Sycamore, despite claiming to be based in Columbus, is not affiliated with the Ohio High School Athletic Association. The address it provides to recruits is the address for the library of Franklin University, where, the university told the Columbus Dispatch , it had previ