TENNIS

The U.S. Open is underway, but unfortunately crowd favorite Venus Williams lost in the first round, her worst loss in 100 career matches at the tournament.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund acquired a minority stake in the Professional Fighters League. The Financial Times reported that the investment would be $100 million (in a league valued at $500 million). Other investors in the league include former NY Yankee Alex Rodriguez, actor Kevin Hart, and rapper Wiz Khalifa.

VOLLEYBALL

The NCAA champion Nebraska volleyball team hosted the largest crowd to ever watch a women’s sports event when they beat Omaha 3-0 on Wednesday.

FOOTBALL

In one of the most obvious NIL (name, image, likeness) endorsement deals, Oklahoma quarterback General Booty signed an underwear deal with Rock ‘Em Socks.

GYMNASTICS

Simone Biles won her eighth US championship on Sunday night, a record for the 26-year-old, who is now the oldest female gymnast to achieve this feat.

FOOTBALL

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh will miss the first three games of the season due to recruitment violations that allegedly occurred during the COVID-19 dead period. During his Monday news conference, Harbaugh called for the need to share TV revenue with college athletes.

SOCCER

The outrage over Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales continues. FIFA provisionally suspended Rubiales after he was seen giving player Jenni Hermoso a kiss following Spain’s World Cup win over England. Rubiales’ mother is defending her son by shutting herself in a church and going on a hunger strike.

TENNIS

Former First Lady Michelle Obama addressed a crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium advocating for equal prize money for female athletes. The Women’s Tennis Association believes they have a path to equal pay at all tournaments by 2033. Currently, there is a large discrepancy. At this month’s Western and Southern Open in Ohio, men’s champion Novak Djokovic and women’s champion Cocoa Gauff earned $1.02 million and $454,500 respectively.

FOOTBALL

Baker Mayfield was named the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for week 1. Mayfield has started for a different team in Week 1 games for the past 3 consecutive years (only the sixth quarterback to do so since 1950). Mayfield was the #1 pick in 2018 and was hyped as the savior for the Cleveland Browns franchise until injuries set in. He will now try and fill Tom Brady’s shoes with the Bucs after Brady retired last season.

BASEBALL

Los Angeles Angels pitcher and superstar Shohei Ohtani will not pitch for the rest of the season after suffering from a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

SOCCER

From the moment Lionel Messi joined the team, Inter Miami has been on a roll. The Club will next appear in the U.S. Open Cup final on September 27th, where they’ll face the Houston Dynamo.

SOCCER

Spain beat England in a 1-0 nail biter to win the women’s World Cup. The victory gives Spain its first Women’s World Cup title.

Lionel Messi scored yet another goal helping Inter Miami beat Nashville SC to win the Leagues Cup. It’s Inter Miami’s first trophy.

FOOTBALL

Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera announced Sam Howell will be their starting quarterback. Howell (fifth-round draft pick out of North Carolina in 2022) has only one career start (a win over the Dallas Cowboys).

BASEBALL

A bat belonging to Babe Ruth in 1923 sold recently for $1.3 million. Earlier this year, another Babe bat sold for $1.85 million.

BASKETBALL

Philadelphia 76er James Harden sold 10,000 bottles of his wine brand in mere seconds on a livestream from China. In China with internet sensation Crazy Brother Yang, Harden sold $300,000 worth of his J-Harden wine. Harden was so excited at the attention he was getting on the Chinese version of Tik Tok, he did a cartwheel on air.

FOOTBALL

Two big NFL moves in the last couple of days. Former Minnesota Viking running back Dalvin Cook agreed to a one-year $8.6 million deal with the New York Jets, while former Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will be playing for the New England Patriots on a one-year deal worth up to $6 million.

Michael Oher, the ex-NFL player who inspired the movie “The Blind Side”, has accused the couple who, according to the movie adopted him and helped launch his NFL career, of cheating him out of millions of dollars. Oher claims Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy (portrayed by Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw in the film), never actually adopted him but had him sign conservatorship papers which gave the Tuohy’s the rights to make business deals in his name. Oher also claims he wasn’t paid for the Oscar-winning film while the Tuohys and their two biological kids made $225K each plus a percentage of proceeds from the film. The Tuohy’s lawyer. Marty Singer, claims Oher is only trying to drum up attention in advance of his upcoming book tour and finally found a lawyer willing to take on his case after being dropped by a number of others.  Singer also points out that the Tuohy’s have a lucrative fast-food franchise, and it would have been ridiculous for them to withhold any money from him.

SOCCER

The Women’s World Cup will feature Spain vs England in what will be both countries’ first final appearances. Prince William gave a shoutout to his nation’s team posting on X “What a phenomenal performance from the @Lionesses – on to the final! Commiserations to @TheMatildas, you’ve played brilliantly and been fantastic co-hosts of this World Cup.”

Brazilian soccer superstar Neymar is set to join Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal FC for an estimated $160 million euros over two seasons.

FOOTBALL

Last week, Michigan and the NCAA appeared to agree upon a four-game suspension for coach Jim Harbaugh for recruiting violations, but now the Committee on Infractions has rejected the resolution. While the NCAA is reevaluating, Harbaugh is expected to continue to coach.

SOCCER

Lionel Messi continues to shine in Miami. The Inter Miami star scored for the eighth time in five games, and the team hasn’t lost in any of the five Leagues Cup matches Messi has played in.

Spain will face Sweden on Tuesday, and England will play Australia on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Women’s World Cup. The finals will take place on Sunday.

BASKETBALL

The Philadelphia 76ers are dealing with a disgruntled James Harden, but are apparently not planning on trading him. Harden isn’t shy about expressing his displeasure and said about Sixers general manager Daryl Morey, “Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr’s son, Nick, is following in his famous dad’s footsteps and will become the head coach of the G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors this season.

GOLF

Spanish professional golfer Jon Rahm said the one thing he’d want changed on the PGA Tour is having more porta-potties on the courses. He said, “I know this is going to sound very stupid, but as simple as having a freaking porta potty on every hole.It sounds crazy, but I can’t choose when I have to go to the bathroom. I’ve told the Tour this many times, as simple as that.”

FOOTBALL

The preseason USA Today Coaches Poll is out, and here are the rankings for the top 10 teams:

1. Georgia-two time defending national champions
2. Michigan-highest ever preseason ranking in this poll
3. Alabama
4. Ohio State
5. LSU
6. USC
7. Penn State
8. Florida State
9. Clemson
10. Tennessee

CONFERENCES

With the Pac-12 conference widdled down to only 4 teams starting in the 2024 season, California and Stanford have made it known they’d be interested in joining the ACC.  The ACC is also considering inviting SMU to join the Conference but needs to access if these schools will help increase its media rights contract with ESPN.

BASKETBALL

Paramore has been known for inviting up one fan every night on tour to sing “Misery Business” with lead vocalist Hayley Williams. On Monday night, Golden State Warrior Steph Curry was invited onstage and crushed it. Check it out

SOCCER

The U.S. Women’s team was eliminated from the World Cup after losing to Sweden in a dramatic penalty shootout. The round-of-16 loss was the earliest the women’s team has ever been ousted from the tournament. Sweden will play Japan in the quarterfinals on Friday.

College sports conferences are rapidly changing. Over the weekend, the Big Ten expanded to 18 teams as of the 2024-25 season. The University of Oregon and the University of Washington left, putting the Pac-12 in jeopardy after USC and UCLA are slated to move to the Big Ten and Colorado to the Big 12 after this season. The PAC-12 Conference has now been widdled down to 4 teams (Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington State).

GYMNASTICS

Simone Biles hasn’t lost a step in the two years since she last competed. Biles won the all-around contest in spectacular fashion at the U.S. Classic. The last time Biles competed was when she withdrew from the Olympic finals in Tokyo. Watch her Yurchnko double-pike, a vault only Biles could make.

BOXING

Jake Paul, who had his first loss against Tommy Fury in February, improved to 7-1 by beating MMA star Nate Diaz on Saturday night.

SOCCER

The US women’s national team advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup and will face Sweden on Saturday.

Tom Brady and his hedge fund manager friend, Tom Wagner, are new minority owners in the British football club, Birmingham City.  According to reports, Brady will take an active role as chairman of the advisory board.

ESPN

The shakeup at ESPN continues with Doris Burke and Doc Rivers joining Mike Breen as ESPN’s top NBA broadcasting crew.  Longtime analyst Mark Jackson has been let go.

GOLF

Tiger Woods joined the PGA policy board, which will give the PGA a bigger voice in the now-merged Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf.