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Pro football leagues XFL and USFL announce intent to merge

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — The XFL and USFL plan to join forces. The spring pro football leagues announced in a statement Thursday they would merge going forward. The statement said details of the new league would come out at a later date. The XFL has eight teams from Seattle, Washington, to Washington, D.C. The USFL also has eight teams that stretch from New Jersey to Memphis. The XFL, first founded in 2001, returned to action in 2020 but had to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The league eventually filed for bankruptcy. It was reborn in February. The USFL played its first season in 2022. Both leagues said the merger was subject to customary regulatory approvals. If the transaction goes through, the new league “will establish best-in-class operations based on the most recent seasons of both leagues,” according to the statement.___AP sports: https://apnews.com/sportsSource

Lightning goalie Vasilevskiy is expected to miss the first 2 months of the season after back surgery

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to miss the first two months of the NHL season after undergoing back surgery.The team announced the stunning injury news Thursday, midway through training camp and with opening night less than two weeks away.General manager Julien BriseBois said Vasilevskiy had a successful microdiscectomy to address a lumbar disk herniation. The recovery could sideline arguably the best goalie in the world for 25 or more games.Tampa Bay was hoping the 29-year-old Russian would be fresh after a first-round playoff exit following three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final. Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy in 2019 as the league’s top netminder and the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2021 as playoff MVP.No one played more hockey from August 2020 through the end of the playoffs last season than Vasilevskiy, who was on the ice for just over 14,769 minutes of game action. He said after the series defeat to Toronto he struggled w...

Tips for defeating winter blues as symptoms start to kick in

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

It’s only fall, but believe it or not, the “winter blues” may already be setting in. Its medical name is seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, and if it’s arrived for its annual visit, there are tips you can follow to combat the symptoms.Dr. Norman Rosenthal is a psychiatrist and clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He said SAD symptoms kick in gradually, so the condition is hard to detect.“We feel more tired, we’ve got less energy, difficulty waking up in the morning, and we begin to eat a little more sweets and starches and gain weight,” Rosenthal said.Those symptoms can have a negative impact on a person’s work life and even personal relationships.According to Rosenthal, who authored the book “Defeating SAD,” some people have a genetic predisposition to the disorder, but for others, a lack of light and stress can be causes as well.To make up for the loss of sun during the cold winter months, special light boxes can help, accordi...

Bavuma confident South Africa can make Cricket World Cup history as de Kock bows out

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

Quinton de Kock will make a last hurrah at the Cricket World Cup in India starting next week as part of an in-form South Africa team which will lean on his experience and a pace-heavy bowling attack as it attempts to win the tournament for the first time.At 30, the wicketkeeper-batsman has already retired from test cricket and this will be his one-day international swansong.It could also be a crowning moment in his career if South Africa can maintain the form that took them from 2-0 down to beat Australia 3-2 in a recent ODI series.South Africa’s best result at the 50-over World Cup has been three semifinal appearances.Temba Bavuma will again captain South Africa and can rely on the counsel of players such as de Kock, who has captained the Proteas in all three formats. Bavuma leads a powerful team diminished only slightly by the absence of fast bowlers Anrich Nortje and Sisanda Magala, who failed fitness tests before the squad left for India.Both played in the series against A...

LeBron will get more help this season from Lakers’ revamped roster, GM Pelinka says

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — LeBron James is once again getting to the gym at dawn and putting in long hours as he prepares to begin his 21st NBA season.Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka believes he has assembled a roster that will allow the top scorer in NBA history to rest a little bit easier this year.“I think we were very intentional about the versatility that this roster has, the depth that the roster has,” Pelinka said Thursday. “I think there’s upgrades (in) spacing and shooting, top to bottom. That was all done knowing LeBron is going into the 21st year. We have to partner with him to help him get all the way to the end, because that’s his goal. Adding the depth, the versatility, the shooting, all of those things are going to help us manage that.”Indeed, the Lakers kept most of last season’s roster and supplemented it with several promising additions in a bid to build a complete contender around James and Anthony Davis, who will lead their teammates back to training camp...

NCAA finds former Air Force men’s golf coach violated rules by wagering on pro and college sports

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — A former Air Force men’s golf coach violated NCAA rules after wagering on professional and college sports, including Falcons football games, the Division I Committee on Infractions released Thursday.The name of the former golf coach wasn’t in the report or released by the school. The report said that over the course of four months in 2020, the golf coach bet $9,259 on 253 occasions. Of which, 107 were on NCAA events and six on Air Force football games. He created an account for online wagering by using his then girlfriend’s identification and his own personal email address, the report said.In addition, Air Force men’s ice hockey program was sanctioned for a recruiting violation. The report said two assistant coaches conducted conversations with a student-athlete who was potentially interested in a transfer but had not yet entered the NCAA transfer portal.Among the penalties Air Force received are three additional years of probation, which will be serv...

Garrett Mitchell returns to Milwaukee lineup as the Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Garrett Mitchell doubled, walked twice and scored in his first big league game since April, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 on Thursday.Corbin Burnes, Julio Teheran (3-5) and Ethan Small combined on a six-hitter for the NL Central champions. Burnes struck out four and walked one in four innings in his final postseason tuneup, throwing 39 of his 66 pitches for strikes.The Brewers (90-69) reinstated Mitchell from the 60-day injured list. The 24-year-old Mitchell, a 2020 first-round pick, hurt his left shoulder on a slide into third base on April 18. He had surgery in May to repair a torn labrum, and it was thought at that time that a return at any point this season would be improbable.“I was trying to put good at-bats together, swinging at the right pitches and taking the bad ones. It felt good to go up there and see some success today,” Mitchell said. “More than anything, I’m just happy that I made it back and I’m healthy.”Mitchell le...

Prescott, Elliott getting used to being former teammates with Cowboys, Patriots set to meet

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Dak Prescott said he felt it in his soul when the Dallas Cowboys released Ezekiel Elliott in the offseason.Together as stars since their rookie year in 2016, the quarterback and running back haven’t really had much time to digest being on separate teams.They’re getting used to it now — just in time.Elliott and the Patriots (1-2) visit Prescott and the Cowboys (2-1) on Sunday, a reunion so significant it’s almost making a footnote of New England’s Bill Belichick needing a victory to become the third coach in NFL history with 300 wins in the regular season for his career.“That’s part of the business,” Prescott said. “We learned that pretty quick, and then seeing him depart, it was part of it. But I’m happy for him, always pulling for him and he’s doing well. Excited for him.”They were fast friends because Prescott, a fourth-round draft pick, unexpectedly became the starter in 2016 when Tony Romo was injured. Elliott, th...

Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez says Houston’s Hector Neris crossed line with his antics

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez says he believes the antics of Houston pitcher Hector Neris crossed a line during a contentious confrontation between the two that led to both benches emptying and has Major League Baseball looking into the incident.The confrontation took place in Wednesday’s game between the Mariners and Astros that Houston eventually won 8-3. Neris struck out Rodríguez to end the sixth inning and determinedly walked and shouted toward Rodríguez after the strikeout.It quickly became a focal point, especially for the Mariners. “I feel like you’ve got to keep it respectful and he was someone I had a lot of respect for and known for quite a long time dating back to 2020 during the pandemic and all that. I just feel like I deserve a little more respect on that,” Rodríguez said before Thursday’s game against Texas.Neris issued a written apology for his actions on Thursday and denied a claim that he used a homophobic slur in the words he said to Rodríguez.“There w...

Man accused of DUI in crash that killed boy and his grandparents

Published Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:00:33 GMT

PUEBLO WEST, Colo. (KXRM) — A suspect was arrested Thursday in connection to a high-speed crash in August that killed three people from Aurora and Denver, including a 12-year-old boy.On the night of Aug. 26, 12-year-old Alonzo and his grandparents, 56-year-old Marie Quintana and 48-year-old Jesus Guerrero Lopez, were on their way back home from visiting friends in Pueblo West when a car heading southbound on North Purcell Boulevard crossed into oncoming traffic, hitting the family's car head-on. Photos released of 2 people of interest in deadly carjacking According to the Pueblo County Sheriff's Office, 32-year-old Kohen Garrett Kyle was driving a BMW 550 at speeds exceeding 100 mph when the crash happened. Kyle's car rolled over, and 12-year-old Alonzo was thrown from his family's car. PCSO said witnesses in the area reported seeing Kyle driving recklessly and passing other cars prior to the crash. On Thursday, PCSO arrested Kyle on a slew of counts, including:Three counts of fir...