WASHINGTON — The crowd at Nationals Park roared Monday evening, and Juan Soto, savvy veteran that he is, took a couple steps out of the batter’s box as the tribute reached a crescendo.

This was the third time Soto returned to the nation’s capital since the Washington Nationals sent him away in a 2022 trade, yet this time, perhaps for the only time, he was wearing the pinstripes of the New York Yankees. And as is their wont, Yankee fans rolled deep among the crowd of 32,812, to the point that the roar for Soto far exceeded that in the bottom of the inning for top Nationals prospect Dylan Crews, who was making his major league debut.

Such is life for a generational hitter barely old enough to rent a car and about to rake in a free agent haul.

“Twenty-five years old and it’s like, not even a distraction for him,” mused Yankees manager Aaron Boone about the abundant riches that await Soto when he’s eligible for free agency after this season.

“You get the sense right away this guy’s priorities are where they need to be.”

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Right now, that’s putting together a season not quite as historic as his new running mate, Aaron Judge, but one nearly as impactful. Soto’s 1.030 OPS is second only to Judge’s 1.096, his 37 home runs the fourth-most in the major leagues, his 109 walks more than anyone.

Classic Juan Soto things, as they say.

In a sense, it’s remarkable that the man wants for virtually nothing – all at the age of 25. A championship? Won in 2019 with the Nationals. Fortune and fame? He’s a four-time All-Star and Silver Slugger, has a pair of top-five MVP finishes and, thanks to salary arbitration and being so great and so young, has grossed more than $80 million in his career.

Yet that will be a pittance given what’s to come.

Soto seems almost sure to crack the $500 million barrier come winter, and given the heavy deferrals in superstar Shohei Ohtani’s contract, could lay claim to the most lucrative free agent deal ever.

Soto will file for free agency just a couple weeks after his 26th birthday. That puts him in rarefied free agent air – Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are the only players in this era to hit the jackpot so young. They hauled in $327 million and $300 million, respectively, after the 2018 season.

Yet the price of poker has only gone up, especially given that Harper and Machado entered a borderline collusive market that winter and did not join their teams until most of February had withered away.

Soto has a few more hurdles to climb until then. In the interim, he’ll hear cries to stay from Yankees fans and pleas to leave in every other park – and he’s still beloved here in DC, among other places.

What’s a generational hitter to do?

“Play baseball? That’s all I can do, man,” says Soto before Monday’s game. “Right now, I play for the Yankees, I’m happy where I’m at.

“And we’ll see what happens in free agency.”

It’s a curious game in which the Yankees will participate. They’ve already signed Judge to a nine-year, $360 million deal and ace Gerrit Cole is in the middle of a $324 million deal. Judge may break his own American League record of 62 home runs and haul in his second MVP award in three years – and see the guy hitting in front of him haul in a half-billion dollars.

Yet such is life for the early bloomer; it’s easy to forget Judge didn’t hit the market until he was 30.

Soto – just three homers from 200, with a career .959 OPS – is kinda just getting started.

“It’s important every now and then to remind people, in a lot of ways, he’s probably just scratching the surface of who he is becoming as a player,” says Boone. “And that’s scary when you consider the success he’s already had.

“We’re clearly seeing now, still a young man and very much just entering the physical prime of his career, probably. And reaping the benefits of being an experienced player in the league.”

Scary, indeed. Yet Soto stays sanguine through it all, a booming and respected voice in the Yankees clubhouse when he needs to be, but also the playful chap who had a dozen Nationals staffers and players gathered in a semi-circle around him before Monday’s game.

He’s not yet the kid he was then, nor were the vibes quite as immaculate as that championship bunch. But it’s getting there in the Bronx – the Yankees are 78-54 and have a two-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East after their 5-2 win on Monday.

“Nothing’s going to be like what we had with the Nationals in 2019. But this is really close to what we had back then,” he says. “We all get along together very well, play hard, everybody wants to win. More than anything else.

“It’s not about the money, it’s about playing baseball and winning games.”

And no matter how well the latter takes care of itself, the former will come – in bushels.

Before Week 1 of the NFL season can commence, NFL teams must trim their rosters from 90 to just 53. The roster cut deadline came and went at 4 p.m. ET today, and some very tough decisions were made. Veterans beloved in their locker rooms, once-promising young talents, and rookies who just couldn’t quite catch up to the speed of the NFL game were all put on the chopping block.

Those types of moves are expected. However, among the sea of moves that make sense, there are a few that have left NFL fans scratching their heads.

Here are the ten most surprising cuts from the roster cut deadline.

Most surprising NFL roster cuts:

QB Desmond Ridder, Arizona Cardinals

After a failed stint in Atlanta, it was clear that Ridder wasn’t cut out for a starting gig in the NFL, but a backup role was still on the table. At least that’s what we thought before the Cardinals cut Ridder and gave the backup role to Clayton Tune.

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Why? Who knows? But that decision is certainly puzzling given that Tune didn’t show much upside in his limited time as Arizona’s starter a season ago. Perhaps his knowledge of the system is what kept him on the team, but Ridder almost certainly is a better backup option.

WR Terrace Marshall Jr., Carolina Panthers

Terrace Marshall Jr. came out of the same wide receiver draft class as his LSU teammate Ja’Marr Chase. There were even some people who believed that Marshall would wind up being a better pro than Chase. That obviously hasn’t been the case. Marshall has been abysmal, being outshined by guys like Jonathan Mingo. Marshall has been given ample opportunity to shine in a system that hasn’t had very much tough competition.

That said, there is still some belief that Marshall can break out in the right circumstances. Clearly, the Panthers don’t feel the same.

OL Jackson Carman, Cincinnati Bengals

Carman was a second-round pick just a few years ago and was supposed to be part of the revamped offensive line that kept Joe Burrow healthy. Obviously, that hasn’t panned out as planned, and Carman hasn’t been as great as the Bengals needed him to be. Still, he was a more than serviceable backup option and the final year of his rookie contract was coming up after this season.

If the team could’ve stuck with him for another year, they could’ve negotiated a backup salary for him and maintained some young offensive line depth.

WR Noah Brown, Houston Texans

Noah Brown would’ve likely served as the Texans’ No. 4 receiver behind Stefon Diggs, Nico Collins, and Tank Dell. That’s a fine spot for Brown, and he’s actually a pretty good 4. Let’s not forget that Brown had a two-week stretch with over 300 yards just last year when Collins and Dell went down.

Brown is going into his age-28 season and while his contract was worth $4 million, that deal was made this offseason, just for the Texans to cut him before the season started.

S Adrian Amos, Jacksonville Jaguars

Despite his age (31), Amos has been a very solid safety, earning a 71.8 grade from PFF a season ago. Although he was much worse in 2022, he’d still shown some gas in the tank, even if he needed to remain in a backup role.

QB Mike White, Miami Dolphins

Mike White was not a great quarterback for the New York Jets, but he did show some flashes of backup potential. Sure, his 9:13 career TD:INT ratio isn’t great, but it’s still better than the Dolphins’ current backup Skylar Thompson’s – 1:3 ratio. Sure, Thompson might have some rushing upside that White doesn’t, but White had proven capable of throwing for two touchdowns and 200 yards in a regular season game.

WR Isaiah Hodgins, New York Giants

Just a few years ago, Giants’ fans really liked Hodgins as a depth piece at wide receiver. He wasn’t a true No. 1 or 2 by any means, but he had several good flashes, including a five-week stretch between December 2022 and January 2023 where he recorded 25 receptions, 250 yards, and four touchdowns. Those are very solid numbers, and a lot of people expected him to remain a core part of the Giants’ receiving corps for years.

However, in 2023, Hodgins took a major step back. Despite playing in all 17 games for New York, he failed to eclipse his yardage total from just eight games with the team the season prior. In fact, that five-week stretch in 2022 saw Hodgins get more receptions than he would the entirety of 2023. Still, given Hodgins’ proven ability to command some respect in a passing attack, you’d think the Giants, who only have Malik Nabers and a still unproven Jalin Hyatt, would be willing to give Hodgins another shot.

CB Caleb Farley, Tennessee Titans

A first-round pick just three years ago, Farley was an unfortunate victim of the injury bug. After being drafted 22nd overall in 2021, he’d tear his ACL later that year and would only rarely return to the field. In fact, Farley did not see the field at all in 2023.

Given that the Titans added cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie this offseason, there was an abundance of talent at the position, so it makes sense why the Titans would cut Farley. Still, given Farley’s prowess out of college, it’s tough to see him not get another chance during a regular season game.

S Kareem Jackson, Buffalo Bills

Yes, Kareem Jackson was about to enter his age-36 season, so it makes sense why a team like the Bills would want to cut someone so old taking up over $1 million in cap space. That said, the Bills are still contenders despite the absence of Stefon Diggs. They can absolutely compete and Jackson hasn’t been bad in recent years.

In 2023, he started eight games for Denver and still managed two interceptions. Pro Football Focus graded him out at a 67.3, which is actually pretty solid. Sure, he’s maybe lost a step or two in recent years, but Jackson seems to still have some gas left in the tank for any team looking for some depth at safety or an emergency starter.

For the first time in more than 60 years, the NASCAR Cup Series will host an international points-paying race, with a visit to Mexico in June 2025.

Announced during a press conference in Mexico on Tuesday, the event will be on the 2.674-mile, 17-turn Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course on Sunday, June 15. The weekend will also feature the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Mexico Series.

Prime Video will air the Cup Series race. The CW will carry the Xfinity Series broadcast.

‘This is a historic moment for our sport, and specifically for the NASCAR Cup Series, in being able to expand our footprint to Mexico,’ said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer. ‘We’ve been bold about our intentions to grow on a global scale, and there isn’t a better place to take the next step in that journey than at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City.’

The circuit, which was built in 1959 and remodeled in 2015, is an annual stop on the Formula 1 calendar and hosted the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2005 through 2008.

NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and Curtis Turner participated in La Carrera Panamericana road race across Mexico in 1950.

NASCAR has not held an international Cup Series race since July 18, 1958, at Canadian Exposition Stadium in Toronto. The first international Cup Series race was held July 1, 1952, at Stamford Park, Niagara Falls, Ontario.

“At OCESA, we are dedicated to entertaining people, and this has positioned us as the most powerful live events platform in Mexico and Latin America, as well as one of the most important globally,” said Alejandro Soberon, founder and CEO of OCESA. “The arrival of the NASCAR Cup Series to our country reflects the significant growth that motorsports has experienced in Mexico, an achievement in which Escuderia Telmex has played a major role by promoting the NASCAR Mexico Series and supporting drivers like Daniel Suarez.”

Mexico joins a host of other events confirmed for the 2025 season.

NASCAR has previously announced the dates for The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium (Feb. 2), the Daytona 500 (Feb. 16), the All-Star Race (May 18), the Coca-Cola 600 (May 25), Atlanta Motor Speedway (June 28), and Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 2).

The full 2025 schedule has not been announced.

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Time for a quick prediction, just for the record.

With the NFL’s major overhaul of the kickoff – the look, feel, rules, strategies are all so different this season – how’s that strike Cordarrelle Patterson?

“If I break that first line, it’s over with,” Patterson, who joined the Pittsburgh Steelers as a free agent in March, told USA TODAY Sports. “They’d better have a great plan to stop us, because I know we’re going to be aggressive. Hopefully, we can take five or six to the house this year.”

Talk about seeing the glass as half-full.

Then again, Patterson has credible reasons for such swagger. The 13th-year vet owns NFL records for most career kickoff-return touchdowns (nine) and for longest kick-return (109 yards). His career mark (29.26 yards) is third-highest in history and the best since Gale Sayers set the record (30.56) from 1965-71.

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But still. This new “dynamic” kickoff, as the NFL calls it, is such a makeover that even the league’s most accomplished kickoff returner could be hard-pressed to find his groove and prove that he’s still as lethal in the return game as he has been for the bulk of his career.

“He’s a stud,” Danny Smith, the Steelers special teams coach, told USA TODAY Sports. “But he’s going to get different types of balls. That’s what I’m going through with him. Those nice kicks to him on the fly? That hang-time is non-existent now. We’re all stationary until that ball hits the ground or it’s touched.

“He’s going to have to field balls all over the place. Number one, because of the rule. And number two, because of who he is. They ain’t letting him camp under the ball and come back.”

Smith is well aware of Patterson’s resume, and how he was such a threat that the league’s longest-tenured special teams coach instructed Steelers kickers not to kick to him to avoid the return. Now, with the new rule, if kickers don’t boot the football to returners positioned in a “landing zone” between the goal-line and 20-yard line, the offenses will begin drives at the 30- or 40-yard lines.

The NFL was inspired to craft a new kickoff formula after the rate of returns hit an all-time low in 2023. Preseason results suggest the new rule, adopted for a one-year trial, is promoting the intended trend. League-wide, 70.5% of kickoffs were returned (296 of 420), compared to a 54.8% rate for the 2023 preseason. The average drive start increased to the 28.8-yard line (24.2 in 2023) and although there were zero kickoff return TDs, there were 18 runbacks of at least 40 yards, compared to nine in 2023.

Adjustments for all parties remain a work in progress.

“We’re working on stuff,” Smith said. “He’ll get better at it, and we’ll go with it. I’ve got to get a couple (touchdowns). He’s got to make me look good.”

Patterson, 33, realizes that he could be digging a lot of footballs out of the dirt, so to speak, before getting up to full speed on any given return. He sounds to be up for such a challenge.

“Oh yeah, it’s crazy,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of rules to follow, too (on kick-coverage units). They can’t just kick it how they want to.

“Last year, I didn’t have a good year with kick returns,” he added, mindful that during an injury-marred season he averaged a career-low 21.9 yards on a career-low seven returns. “So, maybe they’ll think, ‘He’s 33. He ain’t got it no more.’ Hopefully, they’ll take that approach.”

If Patterson rebounds, the Steelers stand to benefit in myriad ways. One of the NFL’s most versatile players, he’s listed as a running back while also equipped to take snaps at what used to be his primary position, wide receiver. He could wind up being the ultimate X-factor for a team trying to reignite its offense behind new quarterback Russell Wilson and build off last season’s cameo playoff appearance.

The Steelers are also Patterson’s sixth NFL team since he came into the league with the Minnesota Vikings in 2013 as a first-round pick (29th overall). Why Pittsburgh? Arthur Smith, the new offensive coordinator, is a key factor. Patterson was with the Atlanta Falcons for Smith’s entire three-year tenure as coach.

“I get asked all the time: How is Arthur going to use me?” Patterson said. “He’d better use me like he did that first year in Atlanta or me and Arthur are going to have some problems.”

Patterson then let out a hearty laugh.

“Nah, man, he’s a great guy,” Patterson said. “That’s the main reason I came here. I know what he believes in. He’s one of the smartest (expletive) around. He knows everything from the history to any damn thing you can think of. He’s smart as hell.”

The comfort zone is mutual.

“We’ve just been together so long – like an old married couple,” Arthur Smith told USA TODAY Sports. “We can chip at each other, we can be best friends and everything in between. I love CP.”

It’s doubtful that Patterson will carry the type of large role that he had under Smith in 2021, when he played about half of the offensive snaps, logged a career-high 153 carries, matched his career best with 52 receptions and scored a career-high 11 TDs. Last season, he played just 19% of the offensive snaps.

Now he’s is pegged to be the No. 3 running back behind Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren. But Patterson demonstrated that he still has some explosiveness during the preseason finale at Detroit, when he ripped off a 31-yard TD run. It’s also possible he could log significant snaps lining up in the slot or out wide, which means that during a typical work week he could wind up in multiple meeting rooms.

“CP is such a unique player,” Arthur Smith said. “So, he’s been in so many meeting rooms with us on offense. He knows what I want. In multiple spots.”

Maybe Patterson will be the first Steeler to officially touch the football, on a kickoff return, to christen the regular season on Sept. 8 – in Atlanta of all places. It would be quite symbolic. In each of the three seasons Patterson played under Smith, the Falcons finished 7-10.

“We had some good times,” Patterson said. “And we had some bad times, because we couldn’t win for the city of Atlanta. If anybody ever had doubts about that, we did everything in our power, week in and week out, to help that team get a championship. We just couldn’t get the job done. It was unfortunate for it to happen the way it did. But I’m happy to be where I’m at. It’s a great opportunity.”

Especially if he can break through the first line of defense.

One year ago, Connor Stalions was an anonymous staffer for the Michigan football program, a figure who was indistinguishable from the more than 100,000 people who cram inside Michigan Stadium for Wolverines home games.

Now, he’s one of the more notorious and fascinating figures in recent college football history.

Stalions was the central actor in the Michigan sign-stealing scandal last year that became one of the defining storylines of the Wolverines’ run to their first national championship since 1997. Now he’s the subject of Netflix’s ‘Sign Stealer,’ which aired Tuesday as part of the streaming service’s ‘Untold’ sports docuseries.

Though details have come out about Stalions’ life and his involvement in the alleged scheme, he has remained quiet since last October, when he was suspended and ultimately resigned from his job as a Michigan analyst shortly after news of the NCAA investigation into the Wolverines’ potential sign-stealing became public.

A man who was thrust into the spotlight only to gradually fade from it is now back in it. And this time, he’ll be speaking. The release of “Sign Stealer” coincides with Michigan receiving its notice of allegations from the NCAA following the organization’s probe into the matter.

This season of “Untold,” which also features episodes covering the murder of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair and the life of former United States women’s national soccer team goalie Hope Solo, was teased earlier this month.

With Stalions back in the news, here’s what you need to know about “Sign Stealer,” including when it’s released and how to watch it:

Connor Stalions Netflix release date

Date: Tuesday, Aug. 27

“Sign Stealer,” the documentary delving into Stalions and the Michigan sign-stealing saga, was released on Tuesday, Aug. 27 and is available now to stream via on Netflix.

How to watch ‘Sign Stealer’ on Netflix

Streaming: Netflix

“Sign Stealer” is available exclusively on Netflix, the streaming service that is the home for the entire “Untold” series.

Netflix offers several plans to potential subscribers, including a standard version with ads that’s $6.99 per month and an ad-free standard plan that’s $15.49 per month.