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NFL coaches diversity report 2024: Head coaches of color hit record high

At the beginning of the 2024 season, nine of the NFL’s 32 teams were led by a head coach of color — the most in league history.

But the complete picture of coaching diversity within the NFL is more nuanced, and complex.

As part of its NFL Coaches Project, USA TODAY Sports once again compiled biographic information — such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, playing background and coaching history — for every on-field coach in the league at the beginning of the season. This ranged from head coaches and coordinators, at the top of the proverbial coaching ladder, to quality control coaches and fellows at the bottom. Strength and conditioning coaches and those who work in analytics or administration were excluded from the data, as were interns.

The 2024 data shows progress in some areas — such as at the position coach level, where non-white coaches now hold nearly half of the roles — but regression in others, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Non-white coaches hold a smaller percentage of offensive coaching roles than they did in 2023, and there were no Black offensive coordinators in the league at the start of the season for the first time since 1988.

In total, the NFL’s on-field coaches are roughly as diverse as they were a year ago, at least on a percentage basis. At the start of the season, non-white coaches made up about 44.3% of the league’s coaching staffs, within 0.1% of last year’s total.

Richard Lapchick founded The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida, where he helped track diversity in the NFL and other sports leagues for more than a decade. He praised the league for its recent diversity initiatives and cited the jump to nine head coaches of color, from six a year ago, as a significant accomplishment that should not be overshadowed by steps backward in other areas, like offensive coordinator.

‘I’m more impressed by the gains than I am (disheartened) by the negative figures there,’ said Lapchick, who has since left Central Florida but remains the president of The Institute for Sport and Social Justice, a nonprofit.

NFL head coach gains

There were eight head-coaching vacancies in the NFL this offseason and half of them were filled by coaches of color: Raheem Morris in Atlanta; Dave Canales in Carolina; Antonio Pierce in Las Vegas; and Jerod Mayo in New England. Pierce was retained after a stint as interim head coach, while Mayo succeeded Bill Belichick with the Patriots, who did not interview any other candidates.

According to USA TODAY Sports research, it was the first time four head coaches of color have been hired in the same coaching cycle since the 2003 implementation of the Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview candidates of color for key positions.

It also meant that, for the first time in NFL history, more than 25% of the league’s head coaching jobs would be filled by coaches of color.

Lapchick said that, while it is important to examine broad trends across the league, diversity at head coach is what should — and does — get the most spotlight.

‘I think that’s where the emphasis needs to be,’ he said. ‘That’s who the team is presenting as their leadership. It’s been the area that there’s been the least amount of growth over a long period of time. So to get this increase and growth of the number of head coaches of color has been a significant accomplishment for the NFL.’

USA TODAY Sports’ data reflects the makeup of coaching staffs at the start of each season, for ease and consistency. The number of non-white head coaches in the NFL has since decreased, with former New York Jets coach Robert Saleh among the two head coaches who have been fired over the past two months. (Dennis Allen, who is white, is the other.)

No Black offensive coordinators

While the league’s uptick in head coaching diversity is notable, so is the step backwards in diversity at the position that often serves as a springboard to head coach: Offensive coordinator.

For the first time in 36 years, none of the 31 offensive coordinators in the NFL at the start of the season were Black. (The San Francisco 49ers do not have an offensive coordinator in title.)

Two of the coordinators of color from 2023, Thomas Brown and Brian Johnson, began the season as passing game coordinators, while a third, Eric Bieniemy, returned to the college ranks at UCLA. Canales left his offensive coordinator position to become head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

Brown became the league’s only Black offensive coordinator on Tuesday when the Chicago Bears elevated him to the role after firing Shane Waldron. The only other offensive coordinator of color in the league is Mike Kafka of the New York Giants. In previous years, USA TODAY Sports had identified Kafka as white, as did the NFL in its own 2022 diversity and inclusion report. A Giants spokesperson said Tuesday that Kafka, whose maternal family is from Puerto Rico, identifies as Hispanic.

While half of the defensive coordinators hired during the offseason were coaches of color, offensive coordinator was a different story. Sixteen of the league’s 32 teams hired a new offensive coordinator last winter, and all of them were white.

Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, was not made available for an interview. But he told The Athletic he hopes the lack of diversity at offensive coordinator proves to be a one-year anomaly.

Data at the lower levels of the coaching ladder gives him reason to hope. The league has two more non-white quarterbacks coaches than it did a year ago and, across the board, nearly half of coaches at the position coach level are diverse.

Defense still more diverse

There have historically been more coaches of color on the defensive side of the ball than on offense, and that remains true in 2024. More than 54% of defensive coaches at all levels are non-white, compared to just 39% of offensive coaches.

The slight decline in diversity on the offensive side of the ball comes even as the league office continues to push for more non-white coaches to receive entry-level opportunities there. In 2022, the NFL began requiring each team to hire a woman or a coach who is part of an underrepresented racial or ethnic group as an offensive assistant. The league office also provides funding for teams to hire for that role.

Interestingly, the coaching group that has seen the largest jump in its percentage of non-white coaches isn’t offense or defense but special teams. While coaches of color occupy only seven of the NFL’s 32 special teams coordinator jobs, they hold half of the assistant special teams coordinator positions.

Team rankings

For the third consecutive year, USA TODAY Sports also examined coaching diversity by team and found that the teams at both the top (the Pittsburgh Steelers) and the bottom (the Cincinnati Bengals) are unchanged.

The Steelers, whose coaching staff is 63% non-white, are one of seven NFL teams in which coaches of color make up the majority of the staff. Four of the seven had a non-white head coach at the start of the 2024 season.

On the other side of the spectrum are the Bengals, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs — the four teams in the league where 2/3 or more of the coaching staff is white. The Bengals have five coaches of color, including none at the coordinator level or above, among the 21 on-field coaches on their staff.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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Why Spurs are in great shape while Popovich sidelined after stroke

First, get well Pop.

We can’t wait to see you back on the sideline doing what you enjoy doing and doing what we enjoy watching you do: coach the San Antonio Spurs.

Gregg Popovich had a mild stroke before the Spurs’ game against Minnesota on Nov. 2, the team said in a news release Wednesday.

The team said Popovich has “already started a rehabilitation program (and) is expected to make a full recovery. At this point, a timeline for his return to the sidelines has not been determined.”

Take your time Pop. We want to see you back but only when doctors say you can and when you’re up for it.

The Spurs, the NBA and the game will be there when you’re ready to return. Heck, there will even be a sideline reporter relishing the opportunity to ask you a between-quarter, on-court question.

There are probably just a handful of organizations equipped to manage the absence of a Hall of Fame coach and the Spurs are one of them because of investment in continuity and stability from the franchise, starting at the top.

The Holt family has held majority ownership of the team for nearly three decades. Spurs Sports and Entertainment CEO RC Buford joined the franchise in 1988, left in 1992 and returned in 1994 and has been there since in a variety of front-office roles. That’s 34 years.

Buford and Popovich, now in his 29th season as head coach and the NBA’s all-time winningest coach, have created a model that other franchises try to emulate.

Assistant coach Brett Brown, who first joined the Spurs in 1998 and is now in his second stint, and 15th season, has been part of four championship teams. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson, who is serving as acting coach in Popovich’s absence, is in his ninth season with San Antonio. General manager Brian Wright is also in his ninth season. Dave Telep is in his 12th season with San Antonio, now serving as vice president of basketball operations. And director of collegiate scouting George Felton has been with the Spurs since 2006.

It goes on. Head trainer Will Sevening was hired in 1998 and team physician David R. Schmidt has been with the Spurs for 32 seasons.

They would have even more long-serving basketball staffers but the Spurs do such a good job that their employees are hired by other teams.

That’s not to say the Spurs won’t miss Pop during his absence – they will in multiple ways including his famous team dinners – but the engine will run with minimal trouble.

The Spurs have a plan for the team and for individual players, and the staffers that have been around Popovich for so long will be able to carry out those plans. It won’t be the same as hearing it from Popovich, but the players, including second-year star Victor Wembanyama, know the messages originate from Popovich.

And it’s a solid hunch that Popovich will be watching and probably even sending messages to players and coaches.

So, get well Pop. We look forward to your return but we will do it patiently.

Follow Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
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There’s only one way Trump can fix Powell’s opposition at the Fed

Upon taking office in January, President Donald Trump should fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Trump should do so not because he has any policy dispute with the chairman, but to make clear that the Constitution makes all executive branch officials responsible to the president.  

Indeed, to preserve the constitutional legitimacy of the Federal Reserve, Powell and his fellow members of the board of governors should resign. Then, to quiet the inevitable critics, Trump should appoint an outstanding academic economist or experienced banker to continue the campaign against inflation. 

Trump and Powell have long been on a collision course. Trump has already signaled that he might want to fire the Fed chair. In a 2020 news conference, he stated bluntly, ‘I have the right to remove’ him. For his part, Powell has been equally categorical. Asked at a recent news conference whether Trump could fire him, Powell said that that was ‘not permitted under the law.’  

Powell says Trump couldn’t fire him even if he tried. If Trump were to remove the Fed chair, perhaps the most politically insulated official in the federal bureaucracy, he would display his seriousness in uprooting an unelected bureaucracy that, in the name of public health and safety, has stifled the economy and seized political power. 

We will not challenge the prevailing wisdom that control of the money supply is best kept out of the hands of elected politicians. Politicians have a short-term interest in lowering interest rates to spur economic growth, even though they might spark inflation that will inflict more severe long-term harm.  

But on similar reasoning, the benefits of policymaking by insulated experts could extend to all the federal bureaucracies – why should bankers remain independent, when generals in charge of the nuclear arsenal are not? For better or worse, however, the Constitution commits to the president the final say in such decisions.  

Even though Trump himself appointed Powell as Fed chair in 2017, their quarrel has simmered for years. It arises out of the Fed’s power over national monetary policy, which includes the effective authority to set interest rates. Although the Fed cannot completely dictate rates, especially for long-term borrowing, it does set short-term rates through its buying and selling of government securities and its lending facilities. 

The Fed’s decisions impact inflation, employment and economic growth, and even determine how much interest the government itself must pay on the national debt. And because the amount of the national debt now is so extraordinarily high – the cost of servicing it, now at $882 billion annually, exceeds national defense spending – an incoming president might well be expected to lean on the Fed to help keep the government’s debt servicing costs down. The Fed is already bringing down short-term interest rates after a period of raising Treasury bill rates sharply, from almost zero in early 2022 to 5.34% in late 2023, to squelch Biden-era inflation.  

In his first term, Trump regularly called for lower rates to stimulate economic growth, and once even suggested negative interest rates. During this year’s election campaign, Trump outlined ambitious plans for government spending on new programs (on some estimates, costing as much as $15.5 trillion over 10 years), even while promising a variety of tax cuts that might increase the deficit further.  

Although the tariffs Trump is proposing might offset those revenue losses to some extent, and substantial savings in governmental efficiency might possibly be achieved as Elon Musk takes a knife to the bureaucracy, Trump’s proposals would likely require large amounts of government borrowing. That borrowing in turn might create serious inflationary pressures while exacerbating government’s debt costs. 

Trump would likely demand that the Fed drop rates further – the success of his entire economic program seems to depend on it. But Powell and his Fed colleagues might resist Trump’s demands for a more relaxed, growth-oriented monetary policy after their failure to stop the once-in-a-generation of the Biden presidency. And if Powell resists, then Trump may want to fire him. The legal question is whether he can.  

Powell is not only politically unwise to claim independence from presidential control, but he is also legally mistaken. Trump can fire Powell under the laws that created the Federal Reserve as well as under the Constitution. The legal question has two aspects, one statutory, the other constitutional. 

Powell is both the chairman of the Fed’s board of governors and a member of the board. Under the applicable statute, members of the board hold office for a term of 14 years ‘unless sooner removed for cause.’ The chairman is to be appointed by the president, with Senate advice and consent, from among the board members, for a term of four years.  

Significantly, the statute provides no express protection against removing Powell as chair – though under the statute, Trump would need ’cause’ to remove him from the board. While there may be an unwritten assumption and a longstanding custom that presidents may not remove Fed chairs from their position, nothing in the text of the statute prohibits them from doing so. Should Trump wish to demote Powell from Fed chairman to Board member, he can. 

But can Trump remove Powell (and his colleagues) from membership on the board, given the statute’s requirement that they can only be removed from those positions ‘for cause?’ Even if that restriction of the president’s removal power is assumed to be constitutional (we argue below that it is not), the term ’cause’ has to be construed in light of the authorities over the executive branch that the Constitution vests in the president.  

So construed, ’cause’ is an extremely broad and flexible term – so broad that it encompasses any valid reason of public policy. ‘Cause’ that is sufficient to meet the statutory standard could therefore be found in the event of major policy disagreements between the president and the board or its chair, or even in a reasonable expectation that such disagreements would arise. While there is no clear Supreme Court case on the meaning of for cause, we think it is not just limited to the commission of a crime or some kind of public malfeasance, but that it also must include refusal to carry out a valid presidential order. 

Powell’s claim that no president can fire him appears foolhardy in light of the Supreme Court’s recent cases curtailing the independence of other federal agencies. Powell is not the first government bureaucrat to claim autonomy from presidential removal – which is the only legal means available to the chief executive to compel subordinates to obey his policies.  

Earlier judicial precedent might have given Powell reason to hope. To be sure, in Myers v. United States (1926), Chief Justice Howard Taft held that the president must have the authority to remove all executive branch officials, even down to the lowest postmaster, in order to fulfill his constitutional duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed.  

But in Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935), a New Deal court at odds with President Franklin D. Roosevelt upheld limits on the president’s power to remove the members of the Federal Trade Commission. In Morrison v. Olson (1988), Chief Justice William Rehnquist relied on Humphrey’s Executor to uphold the removal protections of the Justice Department’s independent prosecutor – over Justice Antonin Scalia’s greatest dissent, which followed Taft’s Myers opinion to argue that all officials who execute federal law must remain responsible to presidential removal, and hence control. 

As on so many issues, Scalia’s dissent would have its day – with dire results for Powell. For the last two decades, the Roberts court has waged an unrelenting campaign against the independence and power of the administrative state. In 2024’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the court overruled judicial deference to agency interpretations of the law (known as Chevron Deference).  

Powell is not only politically unwise to claim independence from presidential control, but he is also legally mistaken. Trump can fire Powell under the laws that created the Federal Reserve as well as under the Constitution. The legal question has two aspects, one statutory, the other constitutional. 

Two years before, in West Virginia v. EPA, the Court erected a new ‘major questions’ rule that forbids agencies from enforcing regulations that have a major economic, political or social impact without Congress’s explicit authorization. When constitutional historians look back at the Roberts court, they will write that its defining agenda was its assault on the federal bureaucracy. 

The heart of the Court’s effort to limit the agencies has been resurrecting the principle of Myers. In 2020, the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau also claimed independence from the president because Congress forbade his removal except ‘for cause.’ In Seila Law v. CFPB, the court held the CFPB law unconstitutional and declared that the Constitution gave the president the power to remove the agency’s head. Chief Justice Roberts held that Article II must give the president control over any official who exercises such ‘significant executive power.’  

As Myers explained, the Constitution vests ‘the executive power’ of the federal government solely in the president and vests in him alone the responsibility to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.’ The removal power, which itself is nowhere mentioned in the text, must reside in the president so he can ensure that all inferior officers carry out his vision for law enforcement. 

According to the Roberts Court, the Constitution provides only two exceptions to this principle. First, the president need not have removal power over employees who have only ‘limited duties and no policymaking or administrative authority.’ Trump cannot fire all the administrative assistants in the executive branch, for example.  

Second, the Court refused to overrule Humphrey’s Executor. In a classic example of Chief Justice Roberts’ sometimes unprincipled acrobatics, Seila Law held that the president’s removal power would not run to a multi-member board or commission that does not exercise executive authority. For now, the FTC remains constitutionally secure, because the 1935 Court claimed it did not wield executive authority – a view that today’s court will almost certainly reject in the future. 

Scholars have conducted a healthy, sometimes acrimonious, debate over whether the original understanding of the Constitution does indeed recognize this broad presidential power of removal. But regardless of the answer (though we believe that Chief Justice Taft and Justice Scalia got it right), it is clear and obvious that the Roberts court intends to enforce and even expand it.  

Powell might think he can escape the rule of Seila Law because the Federal Reserve operates as a board, rather than an agency with a single head. But he cannot claim that the Federal Reserve exercises no executive authority. It sets interest rates by buying and selling treasuries on behalf of the federal government; its goals of achieving ‘maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates’ is even set by congressional statute. 

Powell’s claim that no president can fire him appears foolhardy in light of the Supreme Court’s recent cases curtailing the independence of other federal agencies. Powell is not the first government bureaucrat to claim autonomy from presidential removal – which is the only legal means available to the chief executive to compel subordinates to obey his policies.  

Congress has also given the Fed the power to regulate the financial markets and the banking industry, and the important authority to supervise ‘systematically important financial institutions.’ These represent core executive functions of enforcing the law toward private individuals and institutions. 

The clear implication of the Supreme Court’s recent administrative law decisions for the Fed recommends a wholly different course for Powell. In his press conference, Powell abruptly dismissed any presidential power to remove him. His curt rejection may be the equivalent of waving a red flag in front of Trump.  

If Trump seeks to take Powell up on his provocation, he will win in court. That outcome will inflict more harm on the Fed’s credibility than even its failure to head off the destructive inflation of the Biden years. If Powell seeks to protect his institution, the better course would be to resign and allow Trump – at the head of a broad nationwide majority that wants a sharp change in economic policy — to replace him and his colleagues. 

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MORNING GLORY: Don’t DOGE The Deadline! 

Godspeed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. ‘The Department of Government Efficiency’ (‘DOGE’) has no statutory authority — yet. But it will have the ear of the president-elect and President Donald Trump will have the ears of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune. 
 
Every year that the House and Senate can agree on a budget, they can then deploy the statutory ‘reconciliation’ process to pass laws that impact the implementation of that agreed-upon budget with a simple majority of the Senate. Such bills are not subject to the Senate’s filibuster rules. 
 
It is widely expected that the first budget-reconciliation cycle will be used to extend and revise (and I hope make permanent) the Trump tax cuts from 47’s term as 45. Those tax cuts expire at the end of next year and the engine of economic growth for the decades ahead in the United States lies in that extension. There will be revisions to the tax code as well — to exempt tips from taxable income and perhaps to raise the state and local tax deduction from its very low limits. But the tax package has got to move through the first of the two budget-reconciliation cycles. 

 
Other measures can be added to this ’51-votes-in-the-Senate-is-enough’ bucket of bills. I think the budget could, for example, authorize rapid permitting and construction of ‘Small Modular Reactors’ (advanced nuclear reactors) across the U.S. provided that a very small tax was put on their very large, indeed vast combined output of kilowatt-hours of energy that our AI, national security and high-tech sector generally need in the years ahead. 

I think the federal spending on education that goes to the states can be conditioned on the states that want the aid to provide robust school choice programs and keep boys out of girls sports. (Some deep blue states simply will refuse, and money will be saved for the budget as a result.)  

Certainly spending on National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting can be zeroed out, and federal government-wide ‘reductions in force’ can be authorized ‘notwithstanding any law,’ as can ‘regularization’ of the Dreamers and any other group of migrants already in the country that president-elect wants to regularize upon registration and payment of a fee.  

 

The process could authorize the completion of ‘the Wall’ and expansion of the Border Patrol as well. The budget can also authorize the immediate and necessary turbocharging of our shipyard capacity and Navy shipbuilding plan. That’s the best-term package for the first quarter of 2025. 
 
But the DOGE doesn’t have a plan yet and won’t for some months. Whatever plan Musk and Ramaswamy and their colleagues come up with will rely on statutory changes to make deep and lasting impacts to the behemoth of the federal government. If their proposals don’t make it into statute, there’s a limit to what they can do. If they are in law, only the Constitution constrains them (as it should and surely will.) 

If, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency is merged with the Department of the Interior and, at the same time, the EPA is stripped of its authority to ‘elevate’ Section 404 permits and Section 7 consultations conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the United States Fish & Wildlife Service respectively, those changes would be put into 2026’s budget and reconciliation package.  (There’s a lot of jargon there but believe me this sentence contains worlds of reform and a massive amount of productivity would be unleashed thereby.)  

Want to dis-establish the Department of Education and re-house its remnants in Health and Human Services where it resided until President Jimmy Carter unleashed it on American education in 1979? Use the 2026 budget and reconciliation cycle. It is the ‘magic bullet’ legislative vehicle for DOGE.

Hugh Hewitt is host of ‘The Hugh Hewitt Show,’ heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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UN watchdog warns time to ‘maneuver’ on Iran’s nuclear program is shrinking: report

The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned this week the window to ‘maneuver’ a diplomatic solution to halt Iran’s nuclear development was beginning to ‘shrink.’ 

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, issued an urgent message in an interview with AFP at the COP29 climate summit in Baku.

‘The Iranian administration must understand that the international situation is becoming increasingly tense and that the margins to maneuver are beginning to shrink,’ he said.

‘It is imperative to find ways to reach diplomatic solutions.’ 

The warning came ahead of Grossi’s trip to Tehran this week for ‘high-level’ meetings with Iranian government officials, where he was set to hold ‘technical discussions’ relating to Tehran’s agreement under a March 2023 Joint Statement to adhere to IAEA safeguard parameters.

Grossi landed in Tehran Wednesday, and state media showed the IAEA chief meeting with the spokesperson for Iran’s state atomic energy agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, upon his arrival.

In the lead-up to the meeting, Grossi said in a statement Sunday, ‘It is essential that we make substantive progress in the implementation of the Joint Statement agreed with Iran in March 2023. My visit to Tehran will be very important in that regard.’

The IAEA is further permitted to inspect all nuclear sites as a part of its safeguard duties, but Grossi told AFP, ‘We need to see more.’

‘Given the size, depth and ambition of Iran’s program, we need to find ways of giving the agency more visibility,’ he added.

Concerns over Iran’s nuclear program have remained heightened since the U.S. pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Agreement, in May 2018, despite IAEA assurances that Iran was not in violation of its nuclear agreements. 

Grossi is expected to push Iran for increased access to its nuclear sites and for an explanation regarding the traces of uranium that have been found at undeclared sites, Reuters reported Wednesday. 

The IAEA director general has been sounding the alarm for months that Iran’s nuclear program has essentially run unchecked since Tehran stopped adhering to its commitments under the JCPOA, and it has since increased its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium metals to 60% purity levels, just shy of the steps needed to reach weapons-grade uranium enriched to 90% purity.

Grossi’s trip comes at a pivotal time for geopolitical relations with President-elect Trump returning to the Oval Office come January, where he is expected to take a hardline approach when it comes to Tehran.

During his first term, President Trump maintained that the agreement was a ‘terrible deal’ cemented under the Obama administration by Secretary of State John Kerry and signed by Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the deal.

After the U.S. withdrawal, Tehran claimed the agreement had been voided and said it was no longer bound under the international nuclear agreement.

Despite the withdrawal by the U.S., the other international co-signatories, including Russia, urged Tehran to continue to adhere to the JCPOA, though, by 2022, Moscow dropped its diplomatic encouragement as tensions with the West escalated over its invasion of Ukraine. 

Grossi told AFP the deal now sits as ‘an empty shell.’

According to Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert and senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the best way to stop Iran from pursuing its nuclear ambitions is to move past the Biden administration’s ambitions to restore a nuclear deal and to rely on Cold War-era tactics of nuclear deterrence. 

‘The irreversible and knowledge-based nuclear gains Tehran has made under Biden’s policy of maximum deference are what actually have shut the window for anything meaningful, even if only transactional with Tehran,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘The incoming Trump administration will be faced with an increasingly risk-tolerant Islamic Republic that is either on the nuclear threshold and keen to exploit this status or one that will have weaponized. 

‘Deterring and confronting such a regime will require pushing past Washington’s obsession with a deal and embracing other tools of national power.’

But the IAEA chief said he isn’t worried by the prospect of another Trump presidency despite the tense geopolitical framework he now operates under with the West’s unification against Russia and Iran amid the war in Ukraine and Israel’s fight against Tehran-backed proxies.

‘I already worked with the first Trump administration, and we worked well together,’ he said.

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Watch: Caitlin Clark nearly hits fans after shanking tee shot in pro-am

The WNBA star took part in the pro-am of the LPGA’s The Annika on Wednesday, and she had a near disaster when she teed off one of her shots at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.

She completely shanked the ball and it went right into the crowd of people who were watching her. Fortunately, it didn’t appear that anyone was hit, and the Indiana Fever guard responded with a ‘sorry’ that drew laughter from the gallery.

The camera angle from someone in the crowd near where the ball went looked scary, with the shot just barely going over the heads of spectators.

Thankfully no one was injured, but it is hilarious to look back at it, considering Clark said she only had one goal before the tournament: to avoid hitting anyone in the crowd. Looks like she accomplished it − barely.

While the wild shot definitely shows Clark is human, the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year did nail some impressive shots on the day. She had some great tee shots, showed control on approach shots and had skill with the putter.

Clark played with world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda on the front nine before she partnered with World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam on the back nine. Clark said she had a good time playing on the course.

‘Definitely a fun morning,’ she said. ‘Very lucky and fortunate. Hung in there; did all right. It was a good day.’

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Republicans projected to keep control of House as Trump prepares to implement agenda

The Fox News Decision Desk can project that Republicans will keep their majority in the House of Representatives.

The number of seats the party will hold depends on the outcome in a handful of remaining districts.

There are nine races yet to be called. They are: Alaska’s at-large district, California’s 9th, 13th, 21st, and 45th districts, Iowa’s 1st district, Maine’s 2nd district, Ohio’s 9th district and Oregon’s 5th district.

Republicans soared to the 218 threshold for majority after Republican Juan Ciscomani was elected in Arizona’s 6th District. The first-term Republican won a rematch against Democrat Kirsten Engel, whom Ciscomani narrowly defeated in the 2022 midterms.

In a statement, The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said that the majority win came after a ‘historically tumultuous cycle,’ saying that they ‘never lost focus and never stopped working.’

‘They said it couldn’t be done, but the American people have spoken. As Chairman of the NRCC it has been my mission since day one to hold our House majority. Today it is clear that we accomplished that mission. Even through a historically tumultuous cycle our team never lost focus and never stopped working,’ NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson said in a release on Wednesday night.

‘Americans are fed up with extreme Democrats who threw open the border, set inflation on fire, and invited drugs and crime to flood our communities,’ he said. ‘With a Republican House majority, President Donald Trump back in the White House, and a new Senate majority, help is on the way. I am looking forward to working with my newly elected colleagues to clean up Democrats’ mess with an America First agenda.’

Mike Johnson, whose rise to speaker last year ended a leadership battle in the House, is likely to continue serving as the 56th Speaker.

It comesdespite a tumultuous term for the House GOP marked by fierce public infighting over government spending and the first-ever ouster of a speaker of the House.

Republicans’ chances of keeping the House majority seemed like a pipe dream in October 2023. Congress was paralyzed while GOP lawmakers fought behind closed doors to select a new leader after ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was booted by all House Democrats and eight Republican rebels.

Those odds improved significantly when Democrats had their own leadership crisis as top liberals pressured President Biden to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate against former President Trump.

Vice President Kamala Harris gave Democrats an enthusiasm and funding boost when she took over Biden’s mantle, but it was not a big enough bump to carry their House candidates through November.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told Fox News Digital late last month that he anticipated the battle for control to come down to roughly 40 or 45 races.

‘There’s really only about 10% — roughly 45 seats — that are truly competitive. And, by that, I mean the really battleground districts are about half Republican-held and about half Democrat-held,’ Scalise said.

‘We’re going around the country helping the incumbents on the Republican side or in tough races. But, also, we’re working on those challengers who have a real opportunity to flip a seat from Democrat to Republican.’

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Patrick Mahomes calls home burglary ‘frustrating, disappointing’

The homes of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce were burglarized within 48 hours of each other in early October, according to multiple reports.

First reported by TMZ, the events took place as the Chiefs’ stars were set to play the New Orleans Saints on ‘Monday Night Football’ on Oct. 7, when Kansas City would improve its record to 5-0.

However, on the night before, Belton, Missouri, police reportedly were called to Mahomes’ residence around midnight on Oct. 6 after a member of the quarterback’s security team called it in.

According to police documents obtained by The Kansas City Star, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office report characterized the incident as “Burglary/Breaking & Entering,’ while calling it an ongoing investigation.

Officials reportedly said there were no signs of forced entry at the Belton estate.

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‘Obviously, it’s frustrating, disappointing,’ Mahomes said while meeting with the media Wednesday ahead of the Chiefs’ Week 11 game against the Buffalo Bills. ‘I can’t get into too many of the details because the investigation is still ongoing. But obviously it’s something that you don’t want to happen to, really anybody, but obviously yourself.’

The same can’t be said for Kelce’s Leawood, Kansas, home, which reportedly was broken into at around 7:33 p.m. local time on Oct. 7, a short time after ‘Monday Night Football’ kicked off. TMZ reported that documents showed that $20,000 was taken from Kelce’s home and the back door was damaged. They added that Kelce and Taylor Swift, who attended the game, elected to stay at a Kansas City hotel afterward in the interest of safety.

The Kansas City Star reported that Leawood Police Department records show a burglary was reported around 1:36 a.m. on Oct. 8 on Kelce’s street in Leawood.

Kelce and Swift were seen in New York City in the days that followed as the Chiefs entered their bye week.

Kelce purchased his home in 2023 and has received plenty of public attention since he began dating Swift.

Mahomes and his family moved into the mansion in 2023. The home was featured on the Netflix documentary, ‘Quarterback,’ when it was still being built.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

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Deion Sanders would step in to prevent son from going to wrong NFL team

For as successful as it has been, there has been a sense of finality to Colorado football’s 2024 season, with quarterback Shedeur Sanders out of eligibility beyond these next two months and Travis Hunter almost certainly off to the NFL.

If Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders has his way, his influence over his son won’t end with coaching him in college.

In an appearance Tuesday on the Fox Sports 1 talk show “Speak,” the elder Sanders said he would intervene if a team that he doesn’t deem to be suitable for his son’s services tries to select the highly rated quarterback in the 2025 NFL draft.

Sanders said he would do so “privately,” not in public view.

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“I’m gonna be dad until the cows come home,” Sanders said. “And with Travis, as well.”

Shedeur Sanders is widely regarded as one of the top quarterbacks in the upcoming draft class, if not the No. 1 quarterback on the board.

In 20 games at Colorado, Sanders has completed 70.9% of his passes for 6,112 yards, 51 touchdowns and nine interceptions. This season, while playing behind a slightly improved offensive line, he’s completing 72.9% of his throws for 2,882 yards, 24 touchdowns and six interceptions. He has helped lead the Buffs to a 7-2 record and a No. 20 ranking in the US LBM Coaches Poll, putting them in position for a potential berth to the College Football Playoff.

Sanders’ success has drawn plenty of interest from the NFL and has many wondering if he could be a savior for a franchise at the next level. In the latest USA TODAY Sports mock draft, Sanders is the No. 2 overall selection of the New York Giants, making him the first quarterback taken. Hunter, at No. 1 overall to the Jacksonville Jaguars, is the only player ahead of him.

When asked by “Speak” co-host Keyshawn Johnson if there were any regions in which he wouldn’t want his son playing, Deion Sanders declined to answer, but did go on to outline his criteria for the situation he’d want for Shedeur.

“Somebody that can handle the quarterback that he is, somebody that can handle understanding what he’s capable of, someone that has had success in the past handling quarterbacks or someone in the organization who understands what they’re doing and not just throwing you out there among the wolves when you don’t have support in the infrastructure of the team,” Sanders said. “Forget the (offensive) line. He’s played with lines that haven’t been great, but he’s been able to do his thing. But the infrastructure of the team and the direction of where we’re going. He can deal with anything.”

Though he’d undoubtedly receive criticism for doing so, Sanders stepping in to try to influence where his son gets drafted wouldn’t be unprecedented. Famously, Eli Manning, another son of a former NFL star, was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the then-San Diego Chargers in the 2004 NFL draft, despite Manning’s agent informing the team he would sit out his entire rookie season if he were drafted by the franchise. Ultimately, the Chargers traded Manning to the Giants.

During his own pre-draft process in 1989, Sanders refused to take a two-hour psychological assessment with the Giants, telling the team — which had the No. 18 overall pick — that he wouldn’t be on the board for them to select and that “I ain’t got time for this.” Sanders went on to be taken by the Atlanta Falcons with the No. 5 overall selection.

When it comes to his own son — as well as Hunter, who he often says is like a son to him — Sanders is confident in what he can do in the NFL, which is why he’s particularly careful about where he might get drafted.

“This kid loves this game and he has an insatiable appetite to win,” he said. “I want somebody to able to propel him to the next level, as well, not just get drafted by a team because we ain’t having it.”

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Where is ‘College GameDay’ for Week 12? Guest picker, what to know

Georgia’s season will be on the line Saturday when the 7-2 Bulldogs host the 8-1 Tennessee Volunteers. The pivotal SEC matchup is drawing the ESPN ‘College GameDay’ crew.

The Bulldogs dropped to No. 12 in the College Football Playoff rankings and fell out of the projected 12-team playoff bracket on Tuesday after being upset 28-10 upset by Mississippi last weekend. Georgia must rebound against the Volunteers to stay in contention. Meanwhile, No. 7 Tennessee is coming off a 33-14 win over Mississippi State.

This marks the second week in a row that ESPN ‘College GameDay’ will showcase a SEC matchup. Last week, the crew was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for Alabama’s win over LSU.

Here’s what to know for Week 12 of ‘College GameDay,’ from how to watch to who is the guest picker:

Where is ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ this week?

‘College GameDay’ is set to broadcast live from Myers Quad at the University of Georgia on Saturday for the 10th time in the pregame show’s history. It will mark the ‘GameDay’ crew’s first time in Athens, Georgia since November 2023, when Georgia defeated Ole Miss 52-17.

Who is the ‘College GameDay’ celebrity guest picker this week?

The celebrity guest picker hasn’t been revealed yet.

When is ESPN’s ‘College GameDay?’

‘College GameDay’ will air from 9 a.m. ET to noon ET on Saturday, Nov. 16.

How to watch ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’

‘College GameDay’ will air on ESPN and be available to stream on ESPN+ and Fubo. 

Stream College GameDay with Fubo

ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ crew

Recently retired Alabama coach Nick Saban is a new addition to ‘College GameDay’ this season. Alongside Saban will be:

Rece Davis
Kirk Herbstreit 
Lee Corso
Desmond Howard
Pat McAfee
‘Stanford’ Steve Coughlin

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