Author: Shekari Philemon

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…

Teachers in American public schools do not look like the children in front of them, and the gap is widening in the direction nobody wants.Roughly 15 percent of public school students are Black. Just over 6 percent of the adults teaching them are. Nearly 4 million teachers serve about 51 million students, and close to 80 percent of that workforce is white and female. Fewer than 2 percent of all teachers in the country are Black men. The share of teachers of color climbed steadily for decades, from 13 percent in the late 1980s to 20 percent by 2018. Then…

Von Miller is heading home. The future Hall of Fame pass rusher agreed to a one-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, returning to the state where he grew up and attended DeSoto High School before heading to Texas A&M. The 37-year-old enters his 15th NFL season with 138.5 career sacks, more than any other active player. He recorded nine sacks last season with the Washington Commanders, his highest single-season total since 2021, when he split time between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams. He posted on social media Sunday night to announce the news, showing himself in…

The Indianapolis Colts and the Pacers each donated $125,000 to American Red Cross flood relief efforts in the state on Sunday, joining with the WNBA’s Fever and the G League’s Noblesville Boom in a joint response to flooding that has killed at least seven people and displaced many more across Indiana. The announcement came before the Colts’ afternoon training camp practice at Grand Park Sports Complex in suburban Indianapolis. President Trump has issued an emergency declaration for more than half of Indiana’s 92 counties as the region experiences some of its worst flooding in decades. Colts co-owner Kalen Jackson expressed…

LeBron James has launched a YouTube channel dedicated to golf, debuting the venture with a 90-minute-plus video of a 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers reunion trip to Scotland that took place in June, featuring several teammates from the team that ended Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought. The debut video brings together Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Richard Jefferson, Tristan Thompson and Channing Frye for a golf trip that doubled as a reunion marking the 10th anniversary of the historic championship. The 2016 Cavaliers came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA title, one of the most remarkable…

Tyrese Haliburton said he was shocked to discover that his regular-season return from a torn Achilles tendon, one of the more anticipated NBA comeback stories heading into the new season, was not scheduled for national television when the NBA released its full schedule earlier this week. Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers star, sat out the entire 2025-26 season after tearing his Achilles in Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. He is making his regular-season return when the Pacers open on the road at the New Orleans Pelicans on Oct. 21. The two nationally televised games that day are the Minnesota…