Author: Shekari Philemon

A joint practice session between the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints in Oxnard, California, descended into a series of fights Tuesday that at one point featured a Saints tight end body-slamming a Cowboys player and helmets being thrown across the field. The confrontations were significant enough that Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer and Saints coach Kellen Moore discussed whether to cancel the session. They ultimately decided to continue after agreeing that further incidents would end the day, and the practice concluded without the situation escalating beyond what had already occurred. Among the most notable incidents, Cowboys cornerback Caelen Carson punched…

Nick Kyrgios has been provisionally suspended from professional tennis after testing positive for cocaine at an ATP event in Mallorca, Spain, in June, the International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed Wednesday. Kyrgios, 31, confirmed the result on Instagram before the ITIA released its formal statement. He said he takes full responsibility for it and asked that it come from him first. A WADA-accredited laboratory confirmed the presence of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in a sample he provided on June 22 during the ATP 250 event in Mallorca. The ITIA announced his provisional suspension after laboratory confirmation. Cocaine is banned under…

The United States Tennis Association announced seven of eight women’s wild cards for the US Open on Tuesday, leaving one spot as to be announced in what appears to be a deliberate pause to allow Serena Williams to decide whether she will play singles at Flushing Meadows. The pattern mirrors what Wimbledon did earlier this summer, when the All England Club also withheld its final women’s selection while waiting for Serena to determine whether she felt ready to compete. She ultimately accepted a Wimbledon entry, lost in the first round to Maya Joint and then suffered a knee injury that…

Jeanie Buss is contesting her siblings’ vote to sell the Buss family’s remaining 17.8 percent stake in the Los Angeles Lakers, with her attorney sending a legal letter warning that the sale would violate a court ruling and constitute a breach of trust, according to documents obtained by ESPN. Five of the six siblings voted Monday to sell the remaining family shares to a group led by Bob Iger and Josh Kushner at a $12.5 billion valuation, the same figure at which Mark Walter recently sold his controlling stake. She was the only sibling who did not vote in favor…

Serena Williams and Venus played their first doubles match together since the 2022 U.S. Open on Monday night at the Cincinnati Open, falling in a match tiebreak the Williams pair nearly won before Venus’s double-fault ended a dramatic comeback attempt. The sisters lost 2-6, 6-1 with the match tiebreak going 10-8 to Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns, a first-time pairing of two 24-year-olds who found themselves in front of a crowd that was clearly pulling for the Williams sisters throughout the evening. It was the Williams sisters’ first doubles appearance in a non-Grand Slam event since the Italian Open in…

The Atlanta Falcons signed veteran edge rusher Za’Darius Smith to a one-year contract on Tuesday, adding a proven pass rusher to a group that has been severely depleted by injury and suspension over the past two weeks. Smith, 33, will earn $6 million on the deal. He played last season with the Philadelphia Eagles, where he had 1.5 sacks in five games, but his career numbers are substantial. He has 70.5 career sacks, three seasons with double-digit totals and a career high of 13.5 sacks with the Green Bay Packers in 2019. He also had nine sacks combined between the…

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he has no doubt that the league will eventually have a team permanently based outside the United States, in what Goodell described as the inevitable international expansion of professional football. The comments came during a Goodell interview with German media outlet RTL/ntv, conducted with former NFL player Markus Kuhn. Goodell said there are international cities that could host such an event. He said the international cities that could host an NFL team could also potentially host a Super Bowl, though he was clear that a permanent team in a foreign market would need to come…

The San Antonio City Council voted 6-5 on Monday to reject a proposal that would have put the city’s planned $489 million contribution to a new Spurs downtown arena to a public vote, clearing the way for the project to advance without a citywide referendum on the November ballot. The decision means voters will not weigh in on the city’s portion of the funding for the proposed $1.3 billion arena at the Nov. 3 midterm election. Bexar County, where San Antonio is located, had already approved $311 million in county venue taxes for the arena in a November vote that…

The NBA’s investigation into the Clippers has found no evidence that owner Steve Ballmer funneled money through team sponsors to pay Kawhi Leonard in violation of the salary cap, according to sources familiar with discussions between the league and the team, a significant development that shapes how the 11-month inquiry appears to be heading toward resolution. Instead, the Clippers’ practice of introducing Leonard to team sponsors is now under scrutiny, with two sources the league is examining whether the organization is guilty of a failure to supervise employees. It remains unclear what specific rule the team would have violated or…

Homeownership among Black Americans posted its largest single year gain of any racial group in 2023, rising to 44.7 percent. The gap with white households widened anyway. That is the whole story in two sentences. Effort was not the problem. Demand was not the problem. First time buyers drove the increase, which is exactly what a healthy market looks like. And the distance still grew. Over the decade from 2013 to 2023, the Black rate climbed 2.8 percentage points, the smallest gain of any group. Hispanic homeownership rose 5.8 points over the same span and Asian rose 5.6. The Black…