Detroit police confirmed two people were shot, one killed and another in critical condition, following a fight in Eastern Market near Ford Field on Sunday evening.

Detroit Police Chief James White said officers arrested a man from the Oakland County suburb of Oak Park who is in his 30s and is licensed to carry a gun.

Eastern Market is a popular tailgate destination for Detroit Lions fans. Hundreds flock to the market during game days. On Sunday, the Lions hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 1 p.m. local time.

“Tailgating, drinking and guns. They don’t mix,” White said.

White said a fight between two men escalated about 4:30 p.m. at one of the buildings known as Shed 6 at the outdoor market. They put up hands in preparation to fight when the suspect pulled out a gun and fired at least two rounds, White said.

All things Lions: Latest Detroit Lions news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

The man the suspect was fighting — a Detroit man in his 40s — was killed. Another Detroiter, a man in his 20s, was shot and hospitalized in critical condition.Nearby officers directing outbound traffic from the Lions game responded to the shooting, arrested the suspect, and recovered two guns, White said.

On the scene, White was troubled by what he described as a lack of conflict resolution. “It shouldn’t have led to this,” he said.

“You’ve got unfortunately two people shot, one dead. And you have a suspect that’s in custody, that’s, you know, going to be dealing with some very serious charges … likely murder.”

White went on to describe “a gun obsessed society.”

“We bring them out for every minor conflict,” he said. “It’s ridiculous. If you’re going to fight, have a fight. Live to fight another day. But everyone has to have a gun, makes them feel tough.”

Witness says shooting was nothing like she’s ever seen

Cream Powers, 48, and Rhonda Taylor, 50, heard the gunfire. The two run a barbecue stand at the corner of Riopelle and Alfred, a half-block from where the shooting occurred.

“We heard the sound,” Taylor told the Free Press, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.

Then they saw people run.

“I was serving a customer, cutting some meat up, and all of the sudden, all I know is everybody started rushing down here,” Powers said. “Women started running, dogs running under our table. It was really crazy out here, man.”

Prior to the shooting, Powers said it was a typical tailgating scene in Eastern Market, which on typical weekends is packed with people from all over seeking fresh vegetables, fruits, flowers and social time. But Taylor said what she witnessed on Sunday was nothing like she’s ever seen in the 10 years she’s been coming there on game days.

“It was actually beautiful until that happened,” Powers said of the tailgate. 

Andrea Sahouri covers criminal justice for the Detroit Free Press. She can be contacted at asahouri@freepress.com.

LANDOVER, Md. – The first milestone day of Malik Nabers’ career ended in self-described disappointment.

The rookie wide receiver slammed his hands into the sideline with 2:04 left remaining, as he could not haul in a fourth-down pass from Daniel Jones with the game tied at 18. Had the No. 6 overall pick in the draft secured the ball, the Giants would have remained in control of the clock against the Washington Commanders. Instead, the home team drove the ball down the field for a walk-off field goal, and New York opened a season 0-2 for the ninth time since 2013. 

What came beforehand for Nabers – his first 100-yard career game and first career touchdown catch – became an afterthought. 

“I’m disappointed,” Nabers said. “No matter how good of a game you could play, that last play came down to me. I’m hurt that I let those veterans down. They know what kind of player I am.”

The rest of the league is quickly finding out, too. Nabers caught 10 passes, including the score, for 127 yards. 

All things Giants: Latest New York Giants news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

To say Nabers qualified as the centerpiece of the Giants’ passing attack may actually be an understatement. Of quarterback Daniel Jones’ 28 pass attempts, 18 went in Nabers’ direction. He now has 25 targets (of the team’s 65 overall) through two games. 

The Commanders were nonetheless content to leave him in one-on-one matchups, and Nabers took advantage. Twice he and Jones connected on shallow crosses for first-down gains, and twice he beat the defender covering him while running a slant route, catching the pass and spinning the opposite way toward the sideline. He had 73 yards by halftime. 

“I thought he played well … it was a bunch of one-on-one coverage,” Giants head coach Brian Daboll said. 

“I know that I can’t get that play back,” Nabers said, “just got to move on.” 

The throw from Jones on that crucial play wasn’t perfect, and the timing was slightly off as Jones pump-faked to create a bigger passing window.  

“They’re high on me. They’re passing me the ball,” Nabers said. “They know I can make plays, I’m sure. Out of a thousand times, they’re going to continue to call that play and go at me on fourth down again. So, obviously I want to make that play.” 

Of course, the Giants offense even being on the field for the fourth-down play was the result of both poor planning and bad luck; kicker Graham Gano, who entered with a groin injury that had him grimacing during warmups, left following the opening kickoff with a hamstring injury. New York opted not to elevate another kicker to the active roster, and punter Jamie Gillan missed an extra point in the first quarter. 

But if Nabers made his 11th catch of the game for another first down, then the Giants could at least confront their internal processes at 1-1 rather than still find themselves in search for a win.

“I know what kind of confidence they got in me,” Nabers said. “Just letting those guys down, I don’t ever want to let my team down. That’s the main motto in my head, is ‘Don’t let the team down.’ And I let my team down.” 

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is not planning to retire from the NFL following his third concussion in the last three years, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

‘Tua Tagovailoa has no plans to retire, sources say,’ Rapoport wrote on social media site X. ‘He’s already begun seeing concussion specialists and will continue to do so, but there is no timeline to return.’

The NFL Network insider went on to say that the Dolphins’ fifth-year starter plans to play when cleared by doctors.

‘The goal is to get on the field when he is ready. That’s one reason Mike McDaniel would not put a timeline on it. Wouldn’t even address it. Timelines lead to anxiety,’ Rapoport said.

‘As far as the football goes, wouldn’t be surprised if he misses multiple games.’

All things Dolphins: Latest Miami Dolphins news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

How many concussions has Tua Tagovailoa had in his lifetime?

The concussion Tagovailoa suffered on Thursday night was the third he’s had since entering the NFL in 2020, but it’s at least the fourth he’s had in his lifetime.

His first known concussion happened while he was still Alabama’s starting quarterback. In a game against Mississippi State during the 2019 season, Tagovailoa suffered a concussion and broken nose when taking a sack in addition to breaking and dislocating his hip.

In total, the 26-year-old quarterback has had at least four concussions in the last six years.

Tagovailoa’s third concussion in three years has prompted retirement speculation

Tagovailoa, 26, suffered the concussion late in the third quarter of the Dolphins’ ‘Thursday Night Football’ clash with the Buffalo Bills. The former Alabama quarterback was scrambling up the middle on a fourth down play in the red zone when he lowered his head into the chest of Bills safety Damar Hamlin.

He remained on the ground for several moments after the hit before walking off of the field. Miami eventually declared him out of the game with a concussion.

The injury, which came with ‘fencing position’ symptoms looked eerily similar to the concussion Tagovailoa suffered against the Bengals in another ‘Thursday Night Football’ game in 2022, immediately prompted speculation that the Dolphins’ quarterback might retire.

‘I’m looking at these concussions, if I’m him, at this point, I’m seriously considering retiring from football,’ Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Gonzalez said on Prime Video’s postgame show Thursday night. ‘If that was my son, I would be like, ‘It might be time.’ This stuff is not what you want to play around with.’

USA TODAY’s Mike Freeman wrote, ‘None of us should tell him to retire. But his family should. His close friends should. Everyone who loves him and cares about him should. Go over the risks again. About CTE. About Parkinson’s disease.’

Tagovailoa has previously considered retirement

In April 2023, months after the NFL season that included the quarterback’s first two concussions as a pro, Tagovailoa told reporters he considered retiring from the sport after the 2022 season ended.

‘Yeah, I think I considered it for a time,’ the former Alabama signal-caller said at the time. ‘Having sat down with my family, having sat down with my wife and having those kind of conversations, but, really, it would be hard for me to walk away from this game with how old I am, with my son – I always dreamed of playing as long as I could to where my son knew exactly what he was watching his dad do. It’s my health, it’s my body, and I feel like this is what’s best for me and my family. I love the game of football. If I didn’t, I would’ve quit a long time ago.’

The image of Florida State coach Mike Norvell frozen in place, almost expressionless as he tried to process his shock and anger over the Seminoles getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff last December, is the moment when everything changed. 

Before that, it all seemed possible for the Seminoles. They weren’t just in the conversation to win a national championship, they were here to stay. The brand had been rescued. The tradition had been re-established. The good times were only beginning. Chop on, baby. 

But what happened on Dec. 3, 2023 had an emotional reach nobody could have anticipated. 

To the sensible, logical college football fan, it was not a massive surprise that 13-0 Florida State — without injured quarterback Jordan Travis — was left out of the playoff in favor of SEC champion Alabama. Maybe it seemed unfair depending on which way your fandom leans, but excluding an excellent team without its quarterback in favor of another excellent team that had taken down No. 1 Georgia was not exactly suspicious. 

And yet, the entire Florida State apparatus — from its fan base all the way up to its athletics director, Michael Alford — treated the snub like one big conspiracy theory. 

It harassed ESPN commentator Kirk Herbstreit, who had nothing to do with it. 

It blamed ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who could not have changed the decision even if he had snuck into the CFP committee room and personally lobbied each one of the members. 

It kicked and screamed and wouldn’t let it go for days, which turned into weeks, which became months. 

And the Florida State program never recovered. 

From 13-0 after last year’s ACC championship game, the Seminoles have now lost four in a row including Saturday’s 20-12 disaster against Memphis, the program Norvell coached for four seasons before landing the promotion to Florida State. 

That means the 2024 season is over in Tallahassee, for all intents and purposes. It means that some of the typical excuses — they weren’t ready to play, they overlooked their opponent, they just need time to gel — are all out the window. 

It’s just a bad team. 

HIGHS AND LOWS: Winners and losers from Week 3 in college football

Across the ACC, there will of course be a lot of laughter and schadenfreude. Florida State is currently suing to get out of the contract that grants the school’s broadcast rights to the ACC until 2036, and if the Seminoles somehow win that lawsuit, it could very well spell the end of the conference as a power player in college sports. Maybe they need to go to an easier league? 

All kidding aside, there’s a more immediate issue to reckon with: What happened to Florida State? 

There are two main theories, which probably work in concert to some degree. 

The first is practical. Heavily reliant on the transfer portal to stack its roster last year with stars like receiver Keon Coleman and defensive lineman Jared Verse, the 17 transfers Florida State brought in this year — led by quarterback DJ Uaigalelei — just aren’t adequately replacing their top-end production. They can’t run the ball at all, they don’t throw it well, and the defense isn’t living up to expectations. Other than that, it’s all working great! 

But severe year-to-year variance may end up being more common in this era where so many programs play the transfer game. Sometimes you’re going to hit the jackpot, sometimes you’re going to make some bad evaluations and come up empty. 

But Florida State’s issues this year seem so profound, there has to be a deeper problem. That brings us to the second theory. 

Is it possible that Florida State, collectively, just never got over what happened at the end of last season? Did the coaches, the administration, the returning players simply fail to mentally turn the page and prepare for 2024 with the same hunger and verve that they had going into 2023? 

Did the College Football Playoff committee, in essence, break the Seminoles? 

The answer to that question is important. Already facing significant financial pressures brought on by its desire to exit the ACC, Florida State cannot snap its fingers and make a coaching change. It will owe Norvell more than $60 million after this season. They are wedded to each other for the foreseeable future. 

But now that the 2024 season is basically in the dust bin, it’s time for a deep dive at FSU. Something has gone seriously wrong in the last 9½ months, and Norvell must fix it. 

Can he? 

That question is why 0-3 Florida State ranks No. 1 on the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of which fan bases are feeling the most angst. 

Four more in misery

Florida: The Seminoles’ in-state rivals are even deeper in the mud than they are, but the only thing saving the Gators from being No. 1 this week is that expectations weren’t high in Gainesville to begin with. Still, it’s a true illustration of Billy Napier’s current predicament that the Gators have failed to even clear the lowest possible bar anyone could have set for them. Saturday’s limp 33-20 loss in the Swamp to Texas A&M was even more one-sided than the final score and illustrated one of the main issues with the Gators. They don’t play hard. They don’t step on the field with as much passion or confidence as their opponents. They have no aura. And this was one of the few games on their schedule that, on paper, they had a great chance to win! But when you are on the wrong end of a 3-0 turnover ratio and make just 2-of-9 third downs, you’re not going to beat anyone with a pulse. 

MATTER OF TIME: Florida nearing end of Billy Napier era

South Carolina: Where would you start a list of regrets about the Gamecocks’ 36-33 loss to LSU? Blowing a 17-0 lead? Missing a 49-yard field goal to tie the game after a poor play call right before that to not get a little closer for kicker Alex Herrera? A pick-six with six minutes remaining that was called back due to a penalty on the interception return? The ankle injury to starting quarterback LaNorris Sellers? It’s hard to say South Carolina was the better team on Saturday because they committed a whole lot of penalties (13 for 123 yards), had too many turnovers (three) and didn’t have an effective passing game to get them out of trouble (11-of-20 for 155 yard). But there’s little doubt South Carolina should have taken one of the many chances it had to close out LSU, which is a tough pill to swallow when your next three SEC games are against Ole Miss, Alabama and Oklahoma. 

Mississippi State: When athletics directors feel like their reputation is on the line in a coaching search, they will often default to people they know. But sometimes, comfort and familiarity is actually a bad thing because it obscures the truth. And the truth is that no other college program in the country would have hired Jeff Lebby for a job the magnitude of Mississippi State. Zac Selmon did. And he did it largely because of a preexisting relationship from their overlapping time at Oklahoma when Selmon was the athletic department’s No. 2 and Lebby was offensive coordinator under Brent Venables. But the strange thing is, Lebby wasn’t the most popular guy in town for his two years in Norman. And his track record before that includes stints under Lane Kiffin and his father-in-law Art Briles, which is problematic for entirely different reasons. Point being, Lebby never really established offensive bona fides on his own. Now he’s the head coach at Mississippi State who is 1-2 and just lost 41-17 at home to Toledo.

Air Force: There haven’t been a lot of terrible seasons in nearly two decades under Troy Calhoun, but this might be shaping up as one of the worst he’s experienced. The Falcons are 1-2 after a 31-3 wipeout at Baylor in which they gained just 218 yards of offense and tried three different quarterbacks without much success. This came merely one week after Air Force lost 17-7 to San Jose State and had just 197 yards. So there’s clearly a short-term problem that may or may not be fixed this season. But there’s also a bigger picture issue for Air Force, which has won 61 percent of its games under Calhoun. In the transfer portal/NIL era, recruiting is tougher than ever at service academies. And now Air Force leadership has to assess the landscape after key members of the Mountain West defected this week to the Pac-12. Does Air Force stick around in a new-look (but lesser) Mountain West, seek Pac-12 membership or try to join Army and Navy in the American? It’s a lot to think about at a pivotal moment in the program’s future. 

Miserable but not miserable enough

Georgia: So, um, what exactly was that? It wasn’t a loss, thankfully for Bulldogs fans. But a 13-12 win over Kentucky — one week after the Wildcats lost by 25 to South Carolina — raises some questions about the ceiling of this No. 1-ranked team. It’s not totally foreign for Georgia to have a shaky performance early in the season. If you remember two years ago, the Dawgs were fortunate to escape Missouri with a 26-22 win after trailing in the fourth quarter and then rolled to the title. But earlier this week, cornerback Daniel Harris became the sixth Georgia player in 2024 to be arrested for a driving offense. The program has had more than 25 such citations since the start of 2023. It’s an embarrassing trend, and the fact that it hasn’t stopped reflects poorly on coach Kirby Smart. Is lack of discipline off the field seeping into the on-field product? Stay tuned. 

UCLA: It said a lot about the current state of the Bruins that they were underdogs at home to Indiana on Saturday. But even for a program used to underachieving, there aren’t going to be a whole lot of results that stand out more than losing 42-13 to Indiana in the Rose Bowl. Are the Hoosiers really that good? Seems like wishful thinking for Bruins fans. UCLA is just out of its depth in the Big Ten, particularly coming off the Chip Kelly era where the program flat-out did not recruit to a Pac-12 level much less put together a roster that can compete in the Big Ten. UCLA had just 238 yards of offense in this one, and all we can say is good luck to first-year coach DeShaun Foster. He’s going to need it. 

Vanderbilt: Remember all those good vibes from beating Virginia Tech in the season opener? They’re gone, thanks to a 36-32 loss at Georgia State on Saturday. On one hand, why is an SEC team playing a road game against a Sun Belt team in the first place? On the other hand, it wasn’t a complicated assignment. Georgia State barely beat Chattanooga last week and lost decisively to Georgia Tech in its season opener. Still, Vanderbilt finally took the lead with under two minutes remaining and couldn’t hold it as the Panthers marched 75 yards in seven plays to score the winning touchdown with 15 seconds left. Same as it ever was for the Commodores. 

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Travis Hunter ran off the field after Saturday night’s game against Colorado State and stopped to sign some autographs for fans.

One of them tossed him a Colorado helmet to sign from the front row in the end zone. Others threw him jerseys and gear, each hoping to get a piece of what happened here at Canvas Stadium – another virtuoso football performance from a generational star in a 28-9 win for the Colorado Buffaloes.

After the game, his coach, Deion Sanders, called Hunter “phenomenal,” as always. His quarterback, son Shedeur Sanders, said “there’s no ceiling” on Hunter’s ability.

But even Hunter himself admitted that he has a limit after catching 13 passes for 100 yards, scoring two touchdowns, making five tackles and grabbing one interception. At one point in the fourth quarter, the Buffs’ two-way star took himself out of the game to catch his breath after running down a Colorado State player from behind.

“That’s probably the first time I did that,” said Hunter, who rarely came off the field Saturday on offense or defense. “That’s probably the first time. Because normally, when I run him down, I’d be able to catch my breath and get back up, but that time I was just, I don’t know what happened.”

Deion Sanders wanted a decisive win against Colorado State

Other than that little lapse, Hunter said, “I feel good.” He said he planned to get an ice bath back in Boulder afterward.

“And go home to a nice-cooked meal,” Shedeur Sanders said.

It was that kind of night for the Buffaloes (2-1). Coach Deion Sanders almost seemed relieved and didn’t mind rubbing it in with the rival Rams (1-2) in front of a sold-out crowd of 40,099.

“We just really wanted it to be decisive,” Deion Sanders said.

Why was Deion Sanders miffed at Colorado State after the game?

He gave several reasons, including some provocative comments made by Colorado State receiver Tory Horton and quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi. The comments circulated this week a few days before the game but actually had been recorded in an interview before the season on Aug. 14.

Sanders showed it to his team before the game and said the game ‘personal.’

“We just want to play some football,” he said. “The disrespect was uncalled for throughout the week. A  couple of their players took shots at the whole program.”

In the interview from Aug. 14, both Colorado State players mocked the hype surrounding Deion Sanders and the Buffs.

“We’ll see how far Instagram followers gets them,” Fowler-Nicolosi said then.

Deion Sanders asks, ‘How stupid is that?’

On Saturday, Fowler-Nicolosi had even more to say. After running out of bounds with his team down 14-3, the Rams quarterback had some words with Hunter and made a gesture with his arm that suggested Hunter was too small.

“How stupid is that?” Deion Sanders asked afterward. “This is Travis Hunter. Dude, this is Travis Hunter. This is Travis Hunter! Who does that? I wouldn’t allow my kids to do that, and y’all know that. And that ought to be said.”

Sanders also cited an incident before the game during warm-ups when he said Colorado receivers coach Jason Phillips apparently got bumped into or elbowed by somebody from Colorado State.

Deion Sanders called it “uncalled for,” too.

“I just pray that our kids never act in that manner because I know you guys would have a field day if they did,” Sanders told the news media.

Is that why Deion Sanders kept his starters in the game until the end?

Sanders and Colorado could have pulled their offensive starters from the game in the final minutes and then run the ball on every play to run out the clock with a 28-9 lead. But they didn’t. Instead, Shedeur Sanders threw up some deep balls on Colorado’s final series and attempted passes on five of his final seven plays.

Deion Sanders said afterward that the point of that was not to retaliate against CSU’s conduct. He said he just wanted to score.

“The game is about scoring, isn’t it?” Sanders said. “I don’t know protocol… As long as the other team is trying to score, we trying to score. That’s my rule.”

Shedeur Sanders completed 36 of 49 passes for 310 yards with four touchdowns – two to receiver LaJohntay Western in the first half and two to Hunter in the second half.  The Buffs led 14-3 at halftime and surrendered only one sack all game after giving up six last week in a 28-10 loss at Nebraska.

What happened with Colorado’s offensive line?

Six of CU’s offensive linemen appeared in the postgame news conference, lining up like a wall behind Hunter and Shedeur Sanders at the microphones.

This was its best performance in a long time. Last year, Colorado surrendered the second-most sacks in the nation (56) as Shedeur Sanders ended the season with a fractured back.

“I’m truly proud,” Deion Sanders said. “I mean coming down the street from the time we walked out the locker room (last week), I heard how much we sucked. And I hate using that word and that terminology, but that was said…. These guys stood up. C’mon man, we could hear it. We have ears. We have two of them as a matter of fact, and we heard all of the foolishness, and (how) we might as well abandon the season with one darn loss. Do you know many people have lost one game in college football?”

Colorado changed its lineup on the line Saturday, inserting a new starting right tackle: Phillip Houston, a transfer from Florida International. He replaced Tyler Brown, who moved to left guard.

“Our front dominated on both sides of the ball and that’s how we came out with the (win),” Hunter said.

Why this win was critical for Deion Sanders

A loss against Colorado State could have been a disaster for him after getting dominated last week at Nebraska. It would have raised questions about the progress under Sanders in his second year as a coach, especially after the Buffs beat both Nebraska and Colorado State in 2023.

“That was the whole theme of the week – how do you respond?” Deion Sanders said of the Nebraska loss.

The Buffs now enter Big 12 Conference play with momentum and return home next Saturday to play Baylor (2-1). It will be their fourth straight prime-time game on national television, this time on Fox after their previous three games were on ESPN, NBC and CBS.

`First time in the modern era of college football history’

It helps that their defense is finding a groove, too. Colorado has only surrendered nine points in its last six quarters. The Buffs also had two interceptions and two recovered fumbles on Saturday in their seventh straight win against the Rams.

“You see this arrow is headed in the right direction, especially defensively,” Deion Sanders said. “And you know, everybody knows the formula: You protect 2 (Shedeur), you go. It’s simple.”

Then there’s Hunter. He set a school record with his fourth straight 100-yard receiving game. He also did something else that can’t really be tracked in the history books with 13 receptions for 100 yards, five tackles, an interception with a 38-yard return and a pass breakup while playing 123 of 138 snaps from scrimmage, according to Colorado.

‘It’s believed to be the first time in the modern era of college football history a stat line like that has happened,’ Colorado’s communications staff said in an email after the game.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Caitlin Clark set a WNBA rookie scoring record and the Indiana Fever locked up the sixth playoff seed with a 110-109 win over the Dallas Wings on Sunday, as Clark scored a career-high 35 points.

Clark broke an 18-year-old record late in the third quarter on a deep 3, a bucket that gave her 746 regular-season points in her first year as a pro. That topped the previous record of 744 points, set in 2006 by Seimone Augustus. 

Indiana’s 110 points on Sunday was also a season high for the Fever. The victory gave Indiana 20 wins in 2024, its first 20-win season since 2015.

By finishing with 35 points — plus eight assists and three steals, with only five turnovers — Clark now has 761 points going into her final regular-season game on Thursday at Washington. 

Clark shot 10-of-22 from the field, including 6-of-14 from 3. She came into Sunday with more made 3s (114) than anyone else in the WNBA, adding to that total in the win. 

Clark has set numerous records this season, including the WNBA rookie record for assists in a season, the league record for total assists in a season and the single-game assist record. Additionally, attendance records have been set all season in Indianapolis as well as nearly every road arena that Clark has played in. 

It’s possible that Sunday was the last game the Fever will play at home this season. In the WNBA first-round playoffs, lower-seeded teams play at higher-seeded teams’ home arenas for Games 1 and 2; the only way the Fever would host a playoff game is if Indiana upsets the No. 3 seed on the road. 

One of the most anticipated revenge matchups of the 2024 NFL schedule won’t come to fruition.

When the league’s regular-season slate was released in May, many circled the Week 2 showdown between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos. The tilt was set to mark Russell Wilson’s return to square off against Sean Payton just six months after he was unceremoniously released to cap a rocky two-year tenure with the franchise.

But after sitting out the Steelers’ season-opening win due to a calf injury, Wilson again is inactive for Sunday’s highly anticipated game.

Here’s what we know about Wilson’s status and the Steelers’ plans at quarterback:

Russell Wilson injury updates: Latest on QB’s outlook

Wilson will again serve as the team’s emergency quarterback option, as he did in the opener.

All things Steelers: Latest Pittsburgh Steelers news, schedule, roster, stats, injury updates and more.

On Tuesday, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin revealed that his team was preparing as though Justin Fields would start against the Broncos. Tomlin kept the door open on Friday for Wilson to play by listing him as questionable. But his explanation of the designation reinforced that Fields has the inside track to take the reins.

‘So, obviously if his availability is questionable, then starting is less so,’ Tomlin told reporters. ‘But we’ve been in that mindset all week. Like I’ve said, we’ve been focused on getting Justin (Fields) ready to play, and we’ll continue in that mindset as we push forward toward game time.’

Wilson maintained optimism this week that he could make his way into the lineup soon.

‘I feel like I’m getting closer and closer,’ Wilson said Thursday, according to ESPN. ‘I’m just trying to be smart and got to do a lot of work today on the field and everything else, throwing and all that, so just trying to be smart.’

Wilson served as the emergency quarterback for the Steelers’ win over the Falcons and could return to the role if he’s not yet fully ready to play.

Fields completed 17 of 23 passes for 153 yards against Atlanta, but Pittsburgh settled for six field goals in the 18-10 victory.

Russell Wilson’s Broncos split revisited

Wilson was released by Denver in March, just days before his 2025 salary of $37 million was set to become fully guaranteed. His $39 million salary for this season was already locked in.

In moving on from Wilson, the Broncos incurred a record $85 million dead cap hit.

Wilson joined the franchise to great fanfare in March 2022 after the Seattle Seahawks traded him in exchange for three players and a package of picks that included two first-round selections and two second-round choices. But his debut season proved calamitous from the outset, with the nine-time Pro Bowl selection posting a career-worst 84.4 passer rating and first-year coach Nathaniel Hackett getting fired in December after going 4-11.

Payton took the helm the following season and criticized the previous regime’s handling of the veteran signal-caller. While Wilson’s play rebounded, Payton benched him for the final two weeks of the season. The coach maintained the decision was strictly driven by football considerations, though news later emerged that the team approached Wilson during a midseason bye about restructuring his contract and delaying the date at which point his injury guarantee for 2025 would become a full guarantee.

Week 3 in college football had your usual crazy plays, fans who needed to be consoled (here’s looking at you, Florida State and Florida backers), and teams that took out their frustrations on opponents, sending them back home with more than just bruised egos.

It’s Report Card time. The same thing goes as far as grading from last season: High marks will only be given for the spectacular, and failing grades have no chance of being reversed.

Here is the Week 3 analysis of how fans, teams, players, and coaches fared: 

4 million reasons to lose

Kent State’s athletic department is obviously financially savvy — to the point where they can’t tell anyone with a brain that they care about what happens to their team on the football field.  

How else can you explain what has happened in the first month of the season?

After next week’s game against Penn State, the Golden Flashes will have collected $4.05 million in guarantees from their three FBS opponents. Their Happy Valley trip will earn them a cool $1.6 million.

So far, the results from those checks have resulted in a 55-24 loss to Pittsburgh ($1.1 million payday) and a $1.35 million payment for a 71-0 loss to Tennessee in which the Golden Flashes gained a grand total of 112 yards and had just eight first downs — despite not turning the ball over once. The Volunteers, with 740 yards of offense, got in some extra practice before their game next week at Oklahoma.

Oh, Kent State also lost at home to FCS St. Francis (Pa.).

Can’t get mad at the consistency, but at least some of Kent’s MAC counterparts are making out like bandits, with Toledo collecting $1.2 million for pounding Mississippi State and last week’s Northern Illinois upset of Notre Dame earned them $1.4 million.

Make it rain: Expulsion

NCAA has a heart, at least for this week

While the NCAA can be archaic and heavy-handed in its approach to … well, everything—especially rule enforcement—the organization that screams about amateurism will, every once in a while, make the right move. Not only because it makes sense but because if it didn’t, the NCAA would be ridiculed and become more irrelevant than it has already become.

This week, the NCAA approved the use of a helmet this season for deaf and hard-of-hearing players who play for Gallaudet University, a school in Washington, D.C.

The helmet technology lets coaches call plays on a tablet from the sideline. The display screen placed inside the quarterback’s helmet allows the signal-caller to relay that information to their teammates.

‘It’s great that the NCAA has approved it for the season so we can work through these kinks,’ Gallaudet coach Chuck Goldstein said to The Associated Press. ‘We have time, and we’re excited about it — more excited than ever. And I’m just glad that we have these things, and we see what we need to improve.’

Let’s hope the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approves the helmets for permanent use moving forward, just like it approved coach-to-player communications for the FBS level in April.

Good looking out: A+

Don’t hit send

Going to make this one short and sweet. Fox televises college football, but its social media team forgot which teams are actually in the FBS.

Fox’s in-game graphics team had issues as well.

Google is free: F

They said it

Here’s what Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, who is a man and 57 years old, had to say about how linebacker Obi Ezeigbo ended up in Stillwater after playing at Gannon University, a Division II school in Erie, Pennsylvania.

‘Do you want me to go back into coach talk, or do you want the truth? He was very inexpensive,’ Gundy said. ‘The number of players that we go after that were ready to play at this level, we can’t afford.’

***

‘I’m only out here right now so I don’t get fined,’ Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham said in his on-field postgame interview after beating Texas State following a bizarre end-of-game sequence.

***

Colorado State quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, with this week’s Foot In Mouth Award, chiming in about in-state rival Colorado. The Rams lost 28-9, their seventh straight loss in the series, with Fowler-Nicolosi contributing two interceptions to help the losing cause.

‘They got a rude, rude awakening real quick. I think it goes to show the hype, the media train, all that only gets you so far. At the end of the day, you have to line up 11 guys against our 11 guys and we’ll find out who wants it more. We’ll see how far Instagram followers gets them,’ Fowler-Nicolosi said in the lead-up to the defeat.

The worst and best of the rest

It’s called the blind side for a reason:

Sandra Bullock blocking: F

Definition of butterfingers:

Fumble, Fumblelaya, Fumblerooski: A+

Yap, yap, yap, yap:

Giving fans and viewers the business: D-

Seat is hot in Tallahassee:

Picture = 1,000 words: Gap year needed

Pickin’ and sixin’:

Reservations for 6: A+

Quarterback on umpire violence:

Keep on truckin’: Straight to graduation

Feline outgains Air Force:

Cat scratch fever: A

Stats for you

11 – Turnovers for Temple in its three games this season.

17 – Age of Alabama wide receiver Ryan Williams, who had four catches for 78 yards and a touchdown in the Crimson Tide’s 42-10 win over Wisconsin.

66 – Points allowed by Purdue against Notre Dame, the most ever in its 137-year history of playing football.

69 – Combined ages of Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham (34) and Texas State’s G.J. Kinne (35). Dillingham’s team won the game 31-28.

72 – Age of North Carolina head coach Mack Brown, the oldest coach in the FBS.

$1.3 million – Payout Memphis earned for game against Florida State, which the Tigers won 20-12.

The Dog of the Week

(If you want your dog featured, don’t hesitate to send a pic here.)

Now to the game: Northwestern State at South Alabama

OK, you know where this is going. Because South Alabama needed to beat someone after losing its first two games of the year against opponents in the upper echelon of college football, the Jaguars scheduled Northwestern State of the FCS.

The 87-10 destruction that took about three hours is ridiculous on its face but doesn’t even begin to detail the shame in the actual playing of the game — and that the pups had to sit and watch makes this fiasco even worse. The two teams agreed to play an 8-minute fourth quarter, leading to some interesting interpretation of the rules regarding sportsbooks and payouts. After all, the Jaguars were five-touchdown favorites, so betting the over should have been a foregone conclusion.

Besides taking a miserable five-hour bus ride back to their Natchitoches, Louisiana, campus, it certainly could have been worse for the Demons.

South Alabama had six touchdowns called back — yes, six — because of penalties while still setting a Sun Belt Conference record for points in a game.

PHOENIX − The Texas Rangers got off the plane at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, boarded two buses, and drove to their sprawling resort.

The Arizona Biltmore.

The Rangers broke into smiles, a little laughter, that brought back a lot of long lasting memories.

The last time they were here was 10 months and 6 days ago, partying into the night in the courtyard, and then the ballroom until the wee hours of the morning.

‘It was the greatest time,’ Rangers GM Chris Young said. ‘I’ll never forget it. Seeing all of the joy, all of the happiness, the families all celebrating together.’

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The Rangers had just become World Series champions, the first in franchise history, and when they flew back to Dallas the next day, they believed they could be right back for an encore in 2024.

This time, when the Rangers departed Phoenix, they left in silence, swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and coldly reminded they won’t be participating in the postseason.

Once again, for the 24th consecutive year, no team will be repeating as World Series champions.

‘I wish I knew what the answer was,’ Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told USA TODAY Sports. ‘Obviously, I don’t have it figured out.’

Bochy has won four World Series championships as manager − 2010, 2012 and 2014 with the San Francisco Giants − and last year with the Rangers.

But never once has Bochy’s team reached the postseason the following season after winning the title, let alone even reaching the World Series in back-to-back seasons.

‘So, you’re talking to the wrong guy,’ Bochy said, slowly breaking into a grin.

The Rangers, despite winning 15 of their last 25 games heading into Sunday, likely won’t even finish with a winning record this season, spending October at home wondering what went wrong.

‘There’s been a number of reasons why we’re not where we want to be,’ said Bochy, sitting on the visiting bench at Chase Field, looking straight ahead to the spot where he was hoisting the World Series trophy 10 months ago. ‘Every season is different. It takes a life of its own whether guys aren’t having their normal year or injuries.’

Bochy closes his eyes, reflecting back on the seasons after World Series championships, trying to come up with answers. No team since the New York Yankees in 1999 and 2000 have won back-to-back titles, and no National League team has repeated since the Big Red Machine days when Cincinnati won in 1975 and 1976.

‘It shows how difficult it is to win a championship,’ Bochy says. ‘To repeat, a lot of good things have to happen. You need your guys to have a similar year to the year before. You need to avoid injuries. And you need a surprise or two.

‘We didn’t hit on any of them, just being honest.’

The Rangers’ high-powered offense never came close to hitting on all cylinders. The only person who remotely came close to duplicating the same numbers as their championship year was shortstop Corey Seager − hitting .278 with 30 homers, 74 RBI and a .864 OPS − but his season is over after undergoing hernia surgery.

Everywhere you look, up and down the lineup, they failed to get the production of a year ago.

Outfielder Adolis Garcia, who hit 39 homers and drove in 107 runs in 2023, winning the ALCS MVP award, is hitting just .216 with 22 homers and 75 RBI. His .663 OPS is 173 points lower.

Catcher Jonah Heim has had a nightmare of a season, hitting just .227 with a .587 OPS.

Center fielder Leody Taveras had 14 homers and 67 RBI with a .733 OPS last season, which has plummeted to 10 homers, 41 RBI and a .632 OPS.

Second baseman Marcus Semien is hitting .238 with a .704 OPS, compared to an .826 OPS in 2023.

And there were the injuries.

Outfielder Evan Carter, the Rangers’ prized rookie who was instrumental in their World Series run, was plagued with back problems and played in just 45 games, hitting .188.

Third baseman Josh Jung missed the first three months of the season with a broken wrist.

Three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer made just his ninth start Saturday.

Starter Jon Gray pitched in only 102 ⅔ innings before being shut down with groin and foot injuries, going 5-6 with a 4.47 ERA.

And two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom made his season debut on Friday.

‘If we had been able to stay a little bit healthier, especially myself,’ Scherzer said, ‘we’ve been a lot more competitive. That’s what’s tough. Baseball is an ultra-marathon. This is six months every day, and then you play another month of baseball, and after a short turnaround, you’re in another ultra-marathon. That’s why it’s so hard to repeat.

‘We knew it was going to be an absolute challenge coming in, and unfortunately as a team, we haven’t played our best, and with certain guys injured, like myself, it’s frustrating. I feel like if I was healthy, and out there making my starts, that would have given the team a lot better chance.

‘We’re still very good, very talented, but everybody’s got to look into the mirror after the season and wish they could have done more.’

When virtually every position player has a down year, with 28 different stints on the injured list, the recipe to repeat is burned in the kitchen.

‘Injuries are not an excuse, every team has to deal with them,’ Bochy said, ‘but they hit us pretty hard with our core players. And our guys will tell you they haven’t had the years they had last year. We weren’t the same team offensively, and it’s hard to explain why. We just didn’t have that same slug as we did last year.’

The Rangers, who received about $20 million less than the $111 million they expected in their TV contract, also didn’t jump into the deep waters of the free-agent pool and allowed postseason hero Jordan Montgomery to walk away. They fortified their bullpen with the signings of Kirby Yates and David Robertson, but largely ran the same team back again.

‘I think we’re all surprised what’s happened there,’ said Montgomery, who signed a two-year, $47.5 million contract with the Diamondbacks. ‘I thought they’d be back, but I remember being with the Yankees and (Anthony) Rizzo kept talking about the World Series hangover they had with the Cubs. Maybe it’s real.’

The team that loses the World Series, well, they still have that burning hunger. The Kansas City Royals lost the 2014 World Series in seven games to Bochy’s Giants, but returned the next year to beat the New York Mets and win it all. The D-backs are in position to pull off the same feat.

‘I think it just speaks to how competitive the game is,’ D-backs first baseman Christian Walker said. ‘It’s not like the Rangers did something wrong to put themselves in a bad situation. You’re talking about a team that had a really, really good season last year. It’s not that they can’t repeat that, but it’s difficult to expect everybody on the team to go out and have another really, really good year.

‘There’s a lot of expectations that come along with winning, and I think it gives the optics that a team didn’t play up to their standards. But it’s just a difficult game and how fast it moves. That team was looked at as an underdog last year, just like we were, and it’s hard to expect that standard every year.’

Indeed, it wasn’t as if anyone expected anything from the Rangers last October. They lost the AL West title the last day of the regular season in Seattle, hit the road and were underdogs against Tampa Bay in the wild-card series, the Baltimore Orioles in the AL Division Series, the Houston Astros in the ALCS until reaching the World Series. Who could have imagined they’d go 11-0 on the road in the postseason?

And who could have imagined their nightmare this year, the latest World Series champion who failed to return to the dance.

‘It’s not as much as to why teams don’t repeat,’ Young said, ‘but how magical it is when it does happen and have everything go right. So, to have all of those things go right for consecutive years, it’s really hard. We certainly experienced that this year whether it be injuries or underperformance. It just hasn’t lined up for us.’

Now, with only two weeks remaining, the Rangers are left hoping to finish strong, perhaps giving them a carryover into spring training next year.

‘Nobody’s happy or satisfied with the way this year has gone,’ said Young, who signed a multi-year contract on Friday to return to the Rangers. ‘But it’s important that we build momentum through the end of the season, which we hope will carry into 2025.

‘If we can have a respectable finish here, we can look back and say that with everything that went wrong, we’re still not far off and be back next year.’

Bochy pulled off the feat three times in San Francisco.

So, why not one more, in what could be the final season of his glorious managerial career?

Let the mantra begin: ‘One for the thumb.’

Slump buster

Aaron Judge, baseball’s greatest slugger who ended his career-long 16-game homerless streak Friday night with his grand slam, has a history of annual slumps.

But when he comes out of them, look out.

Judge, who entered Saturday with 52 homers, has had 11 slumps in his career in which he has hit two or fewer homers in a stretch of 17 to 28 games.

In those slumps, he has hit 19 homers in 268 games, spanning 1,142 plate appearances and 964 at-bats, one homer every 50.7 at-bats.

The rest of his career, he has hit 290 home runs in 712 games, spanning 3,129 plate appearances and 2,561 at-bats, one homer every 8.8 at-bats.

This season, in 105 games from April 24-Aug. 25, he hit 48 home runs in 469 plate appearances and 370 at-bats, one homer every 7.7 at-bats.

In his two bookend slumps, totaling 40 games, he has hit three homers in 179 plate appearances and 147 at-bats, one homer every 49.0 at-bats.

Around the bases

≻ While the Los Angeles Dodgers are not ruling out the possibility of Shohei Ohtani taking the mound if they reach the NLCS or the World Series, the simple idea reeks of desperation.

Ohtani just underwent his second elbow surgery last September, and while he’s rehabbing now, he still has yet to face a single batter.

Is a postseason relief appearance or two really worth a $700 million gamble and a potential third surgery? Oh sure, it would make a nice Hollywood story, and while Ohtani has continually defied the odds in his career, putting him into a situation without pitching in a game since Aug. 23, 2023, would be nothing short of reckless.

≻ Major League Baseball should suspend former Minnesota Twins Class A catcher Derek Bender for at least two years after throwing a game on Sept. 6 against Class A Lakeland when he informed opposing hitters what pitches were coming from starter Ross Dunn so that Fort Myers’ season would end.

The Twins immediately released him after the investigation, and with his horrendous actions so egregious, no organization should ever sign him to play baseball ever again.

≻ Two weeks remain and the San Francisco Giants ownership group still has not decided whether to bring Farhan Zaidi, president of baseball operations, back for the 2025 season in the final year of his contract.

≻ Chicago Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger, who’s in the first year of a three-year, $80 million contract, is fully expected to remain with the Cubs instead of opting out of his contract. He’ll be paid $27.5 million next year.

≻ There are five teams expected to make bids for free-agent outfielder Juan Soto in free agency this winter, baseball executives believe: the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies.

≻ While John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations for the St. Louis Cardinals, plans to step down after the 2025 season, special assistant Chaim Bloom is expected to have much greater authority next season, perhaps even become the top baseball decision-maker.

≻ The Chicago White Sox, who should break baseball’s all-time record of 120 losses this week, plan to cut payroll in 2025 after sustaining substantial losses in revenue during this horrific season.

≻ While Alex Bregman should be the highest-paid infielder in free agency this winter, Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Willy Adames may be the second-highest, with executives believing he’ll earn close to Matt Chapman’s recent six-year, $151 million deal with the Giants.

≻ Enough with all of the wild rumors and speculation. The Oakland A’s are playing in Sacramento next year, and at least through 2027, and no one is going to profit more than the Giants, who never returned the territorial rights the A’s gave them when they nearly moved to Tampa 30 years ago.

≻ When infielder Jose Iglesias was called up by the Mets on May 31, they were 23-33. They have since gone 58-33 and are fighting for a wild-card berth.

Maybe he’s their real MVP.

≻ The Minnesota Twins, whose collapse down the stretch (8-16) has enabled the Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox to hang around the AL wild-card race, played Saturday for only the 18th time this season with Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis in the same lineup.

≻ The Tigers’ decision to dump Jack Flaherty for a modest prospect package from the Dodgers may haunt them all winter. While Flaherty has emerged as the ace of the Dodgers’ staff, the Tigers can’t help but wonder if the trade cost them a legitimate shot to make the playoffs.

≻ Kudos to Tennessee Tians owner Amy Adams Strunk for flying defensive line coach Tracy Rocker and his wife, Lalitha, to Seattle after their practice to watch their son, Kumar Rocker, make his major-league debut with the Texas Rangers.

≻ Arizona Diamondbacks bench coach Jeff Bannister, instrumental in the D-backs’ turnaround from their 110-loss season in 2021, should be on everyone’s short list of managerial candidates this offseason.

≻ There are two weeks of the season remaining, and only five teams have been officially eliminated. The Brewers, the smallest market in baseball, should be the first team to clinch a division title this week with a magic number of five entering Saturday.

≻ While the Dodgers will soon be celebrating their 12th consecutive playoff spot, manager Dave Roberts concedes that much of the joy is stripped with the expectations of his club every year.

“I think whatever is expected,’’ Roberts said, “it certainly takes the elation out of whatever outcome versus if it’s not expected.

‘It’s our cross to bear. It’s where we’re at. We still expect to win and try to win. But I do think it does take the joy out.’’

≻ The National League batting race is virtually over with, yep, Padres infielder Luis Arraez winning it again. He’ll be the first player to win a batting title with three different teams, and, in three consecutive seasons, too.

≻ The Executive of the Year award belongs to Kansas City Royals GM J.J. Picollo, and it shouldn’t even be close, making shrewd moves during the winter and at the trade deadline, turning a 106-loss team to a dangerous postseason team.

≻ The Miami Marlins have used an MLB-record 70 players this season, so, almost two entire 40-man rosters.

No wonder manager Skip Shumaker will be bolting the minute the season ends.

≻ The baseball gods have a curious sense of humor.

It’s quite possible the Mets could wind up spending an entire week in Milwaukee while the Padres spend a week in Phoenix.

The Mets end the regular season in Milwaukee, and if they win the final wild-card berth, they likely will open the postseason one day later against the Brewers in Milwaukee.

The Padres end the regular season in Phoenix, and if they wind up with the second wild-card spot with the D-backs having the top spot, the Padres will open the postseason in Phoenix.

≻ NL Rookie of the Year favorite Jackson Merrill of the Padres is just the sixth player 21 or under to hit at least 23 homers with 25 doubles and six triples. He joins an illustrious group: Hall of Famers Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Robinson along with Mike Trout, Ken Keltner and Hal Trosky.

≻ Kudos to Xander Bogaerts, who reluctantly moved from shortstop to second base at the start of the season for Ha-Seong Kim, swallowed his pride and now is back at shortstop for the Padres.

He agreed to the move simply to get Donovan Solano in the lineup at first base, shifting Jake Cronenworth to second base.

“Everything,” Bogaerts told reporters, “is about winning. I don’t see any other way that you can put it.’’

≻ Congratulations to Tampa Bay Rays infielder Christopher Morel, who received his high-school diploma this week after leaving school at the age of 16 in the Dominican Republic to pursue his baseball career.

“It was more so for my mom,” Morel, 24, told reporters. “I’m the first one born in the family, and I’m the last one getting it. My two younger siblings have already graduated. So, I wanted to do it for her.”

≻ Bowden Francis, meet Dave Stieb.

Dave Stieb, meet Bowden Francis.

Stieb had three no-hitters and a perfect game spoiled in the ninth inning during his career with the Blue Jays before his first no-hitter on Sept. 2, 1990.

It’s still the only no-hitter in Blue Jays history.

Now, Francis is trying to join him, flirting with three no-hitters in three weeks, losing two no-hitters in the ninth inning and another in the seventh inning.

Francis is one of only five pitchers with multiple no-hit bids lasting at least eight innings since 1974, joining Max Scherzer (2015), Nolan Ryan (1974 and 1989), Tom Browning (1988), and Stieb (1988).

≻ Just when you didn’t think the White Sox could get any worse, they are 6-44 since the All-Star break, and have lost 28 of their last 29 home games.

≻ Comeback Player of the Season: Say hello to Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez.

He is hitting .328 and has a major-league leading 22 home runs and 60 RBI since July 1. The first three months: He was hitting .196 with six home runs, 32 RBI and was nearly released.

≻ The last time Atlanta was healthy and able to put their opening-day lineup on the field? Opening day, which lasted only seven innings.

≻ What a cool moment for Twins reliever Griffin Jax, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, to see his brother (Capt. Parker Jax) and his sister-in-law (Capt. Chandler Jax) completing an F-35 flyover before the Twins game against the Los Angeles Angels at Target Field.

When the flyover was completed, Griffin Jax’s twin brother, Capt. Carson Jax, threw out the ceremonial first pitch caught by Griffin.

For an encore, with Jaxes’ parents in attendance, Jax pitched two scoreless innings in the Twins’ 6-3 victory.

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The Week 2 game between the Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders was briefly delayed after a member of the NFL’s chain gang suffered a medical emergency on the sideline.

The chain gang member collapsed with 2:36 remaining the second quarter of the contest. The game was delayed as the Ravens’ medical staff tended to the worker and appeared to administer CPR to him.

Players and coaches from both teams took a knee on the field as the situation unfolded. The employee was eventually loaded onto a stretcher and carted off the field. He appeared to have movement in his hands and arms as he exited the field.

The Ravens provided an update on the chain gang worker shortly after he was taken off the field. The team posted a statement to X (formerly Twitter) that the employee was ‘alert and responsive’ upon leaving the field and was taken to a local hospital.

The emergency didn’t delay the Ravens vs. Raiders game too long. It resumed roughly six minutes after the delay began, with Lamar Jackson throwing a deep pass to Nelson Agholor that was deflected by Raiders defensive back Jakorian Bennett.

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