Fuzzy Zoeller, a 10-time PGA Tour winner and one of the most colorful golfers in tour history, has died, the PGA Tour announced Thursday, Nov. 27.

Zoeller was 74. No cause of death was disclosed.

Though he blended his golf skill with humor, his racist joke about Tiger Woods created a firestorm.

The controversy took place as Woods was on his way to win the 1997 Masters when Zoeller referred to Woods as ‘that little boy’ and urged Woods not to request fried chicken or collard greens for the Champions Dinner before next year’s Masters at Augusta. Zoeller apologized but the comments haunted him for years.

‘The PGA Tour is saddened by the passing of Fuzzy Zoeller,’ Jay Monahan, commissioner of the PGA Tour, said in a statement posted on X. ‘Fuzzy was a true original whose talent and charisma left an indelible mark on the game of golf. Fuzzy combined competitive excellence with a sense of humor that endeared him to fans and fellow players alike. We celebrate his remarkable legacy and extend our deepest condolences to his family.’

Zoeller attracted galleries as much for his humor as his golf exploits, which were significant in their own right. He won The Masters in 1979 and the U.S. Open in 1984. He also won twice on the PGA Tour Champions.

Racist ‘Fried chicken’ joke haunted Zoeller

Zoeller already had finished his final round at The Masters in 1997 when Woods, then 21, was storming his way to victory and his first green jacket.

“That little boy is driving well and he’s putting well,’’ Zoeller told CNN when asked for his thoughts about Woods, according to the Associated Press. “He’s doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it?’

As he walked away, according to the Associated Press, Zoeller turned back and said, “Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.”

Zoeller apologized a day later but initially denied he called Woods “a little boy.’’

‘I am a fun-loving person,’’ he said.  “I make joke, cut jokes all the time. My apologies if somebody interpreted that into a racial remark.’’

But Zoeller faced continued backlash and issued more apologies.

“I’ve cried many times,’’ Zoeller wrote for Golf Digest in 2008. “I’ve apologized countless times for words said in jest that just aren’t a reflection of who I am. I have hundreds of friends, including people of color, who will attest to that. Still, I’ve come to terms with the fact that this incident will never, ever go away.”

“I think for golf in general it would be better if there was unification,’’ McIlroy, the five-time major winner, told CNBC’s CEO Council Forum. “But I just think with what’s happened over the last few years, it’s just going to be very difficult to be able to do that.’’

McIlroy said LIV Golf, founded in 2021, has spent $5 billion to $6 billion and is facing billions more in expenses. LIV has contracts with some of golf’s biggest names, including Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, with LIV entering its fifth season in 2026.

‘A lot of these guys’ contracts are up,’’ McIlroy said. “They’re going to ask for the same number or an even bigger number. LIV have spent five or six billion U.S. dollars, and they’re going to have to spend another five or six just to maintain where they are.’’

Top players make significantly more on the LIV Golf tour than on the PGA Tour. And with The PGA Tour and LIV Golf having shown no progress toward a merger, MclIroy cited other sports that he said have fractured for a long time.

‘You look at boxing for example, or you look at what’s happened in motor racing in the United States with Indy and NASCAR and everything else,’’ he said, adding that unification would in general be better golf.

Referring to LIV McILroy also said, “I’m way more comfortable being on the PGA Tour side than on their side, but who knows what’ll happen?’’

It’s a bad week to be a turkey leg or, apparently, one of Daniel Jones’ legs.

The Indianapolis Colts quarterback has revived his career this season, leading his team to an AFC South-leading 8-3 record. Now Shane Steichen’s team is set to enter the home stretch with just six more games on tap after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Jones’ Colts have a key division matchup on tap against the Houston Texans in Week 13, but a lower leg injury could present some issues for No. 17.

Here’s the latest on Jones.

Daniel Jones injury update

Jones suffered a fracture in his fibula, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport.

The quarterback was a full participant at Indianapolis’ Thanksgiving practice, which represented an upgrade from his limited session on Nov. 26.

Rapoport added that he was told that Jones, ‘looked good,’ and he will continue to try and play through it. Jones was previously listed with a fibula injury ahead of Week 12, but ultimately played against the Kansas City Chiefs in a losing effort.

The Colts are trying to stave off the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are just one game back with both divisional matchups still to come.

Jones’ team has enjoyed first place all season. He’ll hope that the fibula injury doesn’t ultimately knock the Colts out of it.

Colts QB depth chart

Daniel Jones
Riley Leonard

The Colts are rolling with just two healthy quarterbacks on their active roster. Jones has owned the QB1 since winning the competition over Anthony Richardson during the offseason.

Richardson has been on injured reserve with an orbital fracture, leaving Leonard as the other remaining signal caller on the roster.

Leonard was drafted by the Colts in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft. The Notre Dame product made a brief cameo appearance on Oct. 26 against the Tennessee Titans, but hasn’t seen any other game action in his rookie season.

The secret to getting a contract extension and raise in college football?

Have your name linked to the Penn State opening.

First it was Indiana’s Pennsylvania-raised Curt Cignetti getting a new deal. Then it was Nebraska’s Penn State alum Matt Rhule striking a new pact to stay in Lincoln.

On Thanksgiving, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz was the latest coach linked to the Nittany Lions job to get a new contract to stay put. On Thursday, the Tigers coach posted on X, ‘My family and I are thankful to be ⁦Mizzou. The support from our President, the Board of Curators, AD, boosters and fans is special! Why Stop Now!!!’

Drinkwitz’s new contract runs through 2031 on a $10.75 million average annual deal, per Calum McAndrew of the Columbia Daily Tribune, part of USA TODAY Co.

It’s Drinkwitz’s fourth contract extension since taking over the program and the second time he has put pen to paper on a new deal this year.

The 2023 SEC Coach of the Year, Drinkwitz is in his sixth season at Missouri after one year at Appalachian State. At Mizzou, Drinkwitz has a 45-28 record and will lead the Tigers to a fifth straight bowl game this season.

Missouri is 7-4 this season and reached as high as No. 14 in the polls this year before injury to starting QB Beau Pribula and the rigors of SEC play took its toll.

‘My family and I believe deeply in the vision and leadership from our administration and are incredibly happy to continue calling Columbia our home,’ Drinkwitz said in a release. ‘I’m grateful for the unwavering support of President Mun Choi, the Board of Curators, led by Chair Todd Graves and incoming Vice Chair Bob Blitz, along with our athletics director Laird Veatch. We’re also incredibly thankful for the support of our generous donors and NIL partners. I’m committed to continuing our work to build Mizzou into a championship program.’

Missouri finishes the regular season 3:30 p.m., Saturday at Arkansas.

Meanwhile, Penn State players are openly campaigning for interim coach Terry Smith to get the job full-time, and Penn State’s fired coach James Franklin has already landed on his feet at Virginia Tech.

There will be two Russian athletes at the Milano Cortina Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee said Thursday that three independent neutral athletes, all figure skaters, are eligible to compete at the Winter Olympics in February. Adeliia Petrosiant and Petr Gumennik are Russian and the third, Viktoriya Safonova, is from Belarus.

The three will be identified at the Games as ‘AIN,’ which is the French translation for Independent Neutral Athlete, and will not be allowed to wear their country’s colors or have their flag.

The IOC’s announcement comes two months after IOC President Kirsty Coventry said some Russian and Belarussian athletes would be allowed to participate in Milano Cortina, just as they were at the Summer Games in Paris last year. Russia and Belarus have been banned by the IOC since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but the individual sports are allowed to decide for themselves whether athletes from the two countries can compete as neutral individuals.

Many of the winter sport federations have maintained their bans of Russian and Belarussian athletes. Figure skating is one that has allowed neutral athletes to compete, saying Russia and Belarus could send one athlete in each discipline to Milano Cortina if they qualified.

Petrosiant and Gumennik earned their spots by winning the final Olympic qualifier, held in September in Beijing. Safonova was fourth at the same event. The three then had to be approved by the Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel, which verified there was no record of them supporting the invasion of Ukraine or the Russian Army and that they were in compliance with all anti-doping requirements.

Petrosiant’s presence in Milano Cortina is sure to raise some eyebrows because she is coached by Eteri Tutberidze. Tutberidze also coached Kamila Valieva, who was at the center of a doping scandal at the Beijing Olympics.

The NFL’s Thanksgiving slate in 2025 will conclude with an AFC North battle between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals.

NBC will broadcast the game and will have most of its No. 1 broadcast crew on the call for the game.

However, one notable member of the crew will be absent. Game analyst Cris Collinsworth will not be on the call for the game. Instead, he will be replaced by Jason Garrett, who will work alongside the network’s primary play-by-play guy Mike Tirico on the broadcast.

Why isn’t Collinsworth in the booth for Thursday’s game? Here’s what to know about the 66-year-old’s Thanksgiving schedule.

Where is Cris Collinsworth?

Collinsworth won’t be working on Thanksgiving, but his absence was planned. The veteran color analyst is simply taking the holiday off, just as he did in 2024 and has in other seasons.

Collinsworth was last on the NBC broadcast for the Week 12 ‘Sunday Night Football’ battle between the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That marked the 500th game of Collinsworth’s broadcasting career.

Collinsworth is expected to be in the booth for NBC’s Week 13 ‘SNF’ game between the Washington Commanders and Denver Broncos.

Who is replacing Cris Collinsworth?

Jason Garrett will be replacing Collinsworth in the booth on Thanksgiving. The former Cowboys coach started working for NBC in 2022 as a studio analyst is no stranger to backing Collinsworth up in the book.

Garrett called NBC’s Thanksgiving game in place of Collinsworth last season, working alongside Tirico for the Green Bay Packers vs. Miami Dolphins game.

NBC has also placed talents like Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison and Drew Brees in the booth as backups to Collinsworth.

All the NFL news on and off the field. Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter. Check out the latest edition: Greatest football and food holiday is here.

The University of Louisiana-Monroe is expected to hire SJ Tuohy, son of the family that inspired the hit movie ‘The Blind Side,’ as their next athletic director, The Athletic and Yahoo Sports reported.

Tuohy is currently the deputy athletic director at Oral Roberts University. Previously, he served as the executive director of the University of Central Florida’s official NIL collective. Throughout his career, he has also held positions as the assistant athletic director and director of football operations at Liberty University, as well as the associate director of football operations and player personnel at the University of Arkansas.

Tuohy and his family are known for their relationship with former Ole Miss and NFL football player Michael Oher, who was the subject of Michael Lewis’ 2006 book, ‘The Blind Side’, which was adapted into a movie in 2009. In 2023, Oher filed a lawsuit against Leigh Ann and Sean Tuohy, alleging that they never adopted him but instead created a conservatorship that gave them legal authority over his name and likeness. Oher also claimed that he was not compensated for the movie, while the Tuohys’ other children earned millions in royalties.

The conservatorship was terminated in September 2023, but the lawsuit concerning financial matters is still ongoing.

The Europa League match between Aston Villa and Young Boys was briefly interrupted when objects were thrown from the away section, causing tensions to rise in the stands and prompting a police response.

Tensions escalated after Donyell Malen scored his second goal of the match in the 42nd minute, prompting visiting fans to throw objects onto the field. During Malen’s celebration in front of the away supporters, one of these objects struck him, leaving a mark on his head, which evoked concerns for the safety of both players and fans.

The game was halted for five minutes as police worked to calm the crowd, with dozens of officers in riot gear moving to the front of the away section to prevent further disturbances.

Despite the unease, Villa maintained their lead, even after Young Boys’ Joel Monteiro scored a late goal in the 90th minute. This 2-1 victory marked Villa’s seventh consecutive home win.

The 2025 National Dog Show, hosted by the Kennel Club of Philadelphia, featured 201 breeds competing in this year’s event. This show has been a Thanksgiving Day tradition since 1933 and has crowned a new champion.

The event, founded in 1879, features only purebred dogs registered with the American Kennel Club competing across seven groups: herding, hound, non-sporting, sporting, terrier, toy, and working. The winners from each group then vied for the coveted Best in Show title.

The 2024 Best in Show was a pug from North Carolina named Vito. But in 2025, Soleil, the Belgian Sheepdog from the herding group, took home the prestigious title.

USA TODAY Sports has full results from the broadcast.

2025 National Dog Best in Show

After the Best in Breed selected the best in group from the seven groups, the title of Best in Show was awarded to Soleil, the Belgian Sheepdog.

2025 National Dog Show results

The results of this year’s Best in Breed and overall Best in Show competitions, which will come from these seven groups:

Hound: George (American Fox Hound)
Herding: Soleil (Belgian Sheepdog)
Sporting: Tyler (English Setter)
Non-sporting: Neal (Bichon Frisé)
Working: Dino (Giant Schnauzer)
Toy: Comet (Shih Tzu)
Terrier: Baby Joe (Miniature Schnauzer)

How to watch the 2025 National Dog Show

Date: Thursday, November 27, 2025
Where: Greater Philadelphia Expo Center
Time: 12 p.m. ET – 2 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Stream: Peacock, NBC Sports App

Past Best in Show winners at the National Dog Show

2024: Vito (Pug)
2023: Stache (Sealyham Terrier)
2022: Winston (French Bulldog)
2021: Claire (Scottish Deerhound)
2020: Claire (Scottish Deerhound)
2019: Thor (Bulldog)
2018: Whiskey (Whippet)
2017: Newton (Brussels Griffon)
2016: Gia (Greyhound)
2015: Charlie (Skye Terrier)
2014: Nathan (Bloodhound)

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colorado — His time and where he finished were irrelevant. For the first time since a horrific crash almost two years ago, and the surgeries, setbacks and fears that followed, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was racing.

With fiancée Mikaela Shiffrin watching anxiously in the finish area, the Norwegian made a triumphant return Thursday to the sport he once dominated. When he crossed the finish line, Kilde and Shiffrin both broke into wide smiles.

“They were very overwhelming,” Kilde said of his emotions. “They were — the last, I don’t know how many months, but there’s been a lot of thinking, different scenarios in my head. How is it going to be to be back? Am I going to handle it?

“And honestly, the feeling that I had when I was skiing was just, it was amazing,” Kilde said, smiling and making a chef’s kiss gesture. “I had the best time I’ve had in so, so long.”

Kilde, the 2020 overall champion and two-time medalist at the Beijing Olympics, was going about 90 mph when he crashed within sight of the finish line at a World Cup in Wengen, Switzerland in January 2024. He suffered a deep gash and nerve damage in his calf, and also dislocated his shoulder, tearing multiple ligaments and causing nerve damage.

But that was just the start of the nightmare. A few months after the crash, Kilde developed a persistent infection in the shoulder that led to a case of sepsis and three surgeries between August 2024 and February of this year.

All told, he’s had more than a half-dozen surgeries since the crash, and his shoulder is still not where it was before the crash.

‘I needed a little bit more meat on the bone when it comes to when (the course) is stacking up and it’s deeper and more challenging,’ Kilde said. ‘You can see in the bottom, that’s where I lost most of the time.’

But Kilde was always determined to return to the World Cup circuit and, he hopes, to ski at the Milano Cortina Olympics. He has spent much of the last year rehabbing and building strength, trying to get as close as possible to where he was before the crash.

Kilde had originally targeted next weekend’s races in Beaver Creek, Colorado, for his comeback, beginning a 100-day countdown on social media in late August. But after training at Copper the last few weeks, Kilde announced Wednesday that he was going to race the super-G.

“It’s been going pretty OK in the trainings since we got here, so I was thinking, why not use it as a next step thing? The best training you can get is to do that race,” Kilde said.

Kilde said he was nervous in the start gate, his knees shaking. Shiffrin was nervous too, her eyes fixed on the Jumbotron as her mother, Eileen, hugged her from behind.

Once he was on the course, however, the last 22 months slipped away. Kilde was solid and in control throughout his race, only losing speed at the end of the course. He finished 24th, 1.25 seconds behind winner Marco Odermatt of Switzerland.

Shiffrin put her gloves to her face, crying, as Kilde acknowledged the cheers of the crowd with a wave of his ski pole. When Kilde found Shiffrin in the crowd, she waved at him, joyfully jumping up and down.

“Not as fast as I want to, but that’s going to come later hopefully,” Kilde said. “Only (1.25 seconds) behind is a win for me today. Actually, just being on start is a win for me today.”

Shiffrin was waiting for Kilde as he exited the finish area, and the two shared a long, tearful embrace.

“A lot of weight (lifted),” Kilde said. “From good days to bad days, to crashes to hospitals, to doubting about everything, but also feeling that this is the life we want to live. And everything came at once and I think both of us just were a little bit speechless.

“I couldn’t say much,” he added. “I was just bawling.”

Not every victory comes with a spot on the podium. For Kilde, just getting across this finish line was as big as any win he’s ever had.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.