Jaxson Dart’s preseason stats (372 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs) are impressive.
Jaxson Dart is reminiscent of a young John Elway.
Russell Wilson’s time as the Giants’ starting quarterback could be brief.

Yes, we know Jaxson Dart in the preseason was going against future plumbers and Canadian Football League players. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Plumbers make a lot of cash and Canada is lovely this time of year.) Yes, we know it’s preseason. Yes, things will be different when he goes against real NFL defenses. Yes, yes, yes.

All true but just, for a moment, look at these numbers for all of Dart’s preseason:

32 of 47 passing.

372 passing yards.

Three passing touchdowns.

Zero interceptions.

Six rushes for 52 yards and a score.

In 12 drives.

Sorry to go all single paragraph on you with the stats, but that’s a monster preseason. I’m not saying he’s John Elway, but he reminds me of a young John Elway.

Mike, what the hell are you doing? Keep Elway’s name out of your mouth. It’s preseason. Take a Xanax.

I’ve tried to stay calm, but in watching Dart closely this preseason you see in him what you do with young players who eventually become good in the NFL. Or great. There’s a comfort Dart displays that is almost uncanny. He doesn’t get rattled and looks like he’s been in the league for years.

It was clear that Dart was a good athlete. We saw that in college. But many times that athleticism doesn’t translate into the pros. Even in the preseason. But, hoo boy, is it translating for Dart.

New York Giants coach Brian Daboll has insisted that Russell Wilson is the starter, but yeah that won’t last. There’s almost zero chance Wilson starts the entire season, injuries or no injuries. It would be stunning if Wilson lasted past Week 5.

Dude, calm yourself. Calm. Yourself.

You calm down. I’m just telling you what’s going to happen. This is incredibly predictable, and if I’m wrong I know you people won’t hesitate to remind me.

In all seriousness, what he’s done is impressive. He started against the New England Patriots in the team’s Thursday preseason finale and made an impact early when he scrambled and found Gunner Olszewski on a short pass. Olszewski ran for 50 yards. That drive ended with Dart throwing a 7-yard touchdown pass.

Giants receivers dropped five passes, and it didn’t matter to Dart. Learning experience.

Once, he got carried away on a scramble, didn’t go out of bounds, and got hit from behind. Cameras caught Daboll telling Dart: ‘Slide.’ Learning experience.

Preseason is to regular season what a starship is to a shuttlecraft. In preseason, no defensive coordinator is spending the week hardcore game-planning against you. Dart isn’t seeing sophisticated blitzes and schemes. He’s facing complete blandness and not even close to what the NFL has to offer in terms of defensive athletes.

But when I watch him, I don’t feel like the game is above him. Or too difficult, and I think he can adapt.

He’ll make mistakes, sure. He’s a rookie. Dan Marino made mistakes. So did Elway. (There you go with Elway again.)

There will be ups and downs and risks but what he did in the preseason was fairly telling.

Looking at the Giants schedule, the team seems unlikely to start him in the season opener against Washington. That would be a little much. Then come games against Dallas, Kansas City, the Chargers and the Saints. If Wilson is struggling, that Saints game might be a place to make a change.

Yes, we know Jaxson Dart in the preseason was going against future plumbers and CFL players. But watch out, Russell Wilson.

Watch out.

NBA free agent Malik Beasley is no longer the target of a federal gambling investigation, according to his attorneys.
The investigation stemmed from alleged bets placed during the 2023-24 season while Beasley played for the Milwaukee Bucks.
A potential three-year, $42 million deal with the Detroit Pistons stalled after news of the investigation surfaced.

NBA free-agent forward Malik Beasley is no longer the target of the federal gambling investigation, his attorneys told ESPN.

Authorities from the Eastern District of New York were looking at the 28-year-old Beasley for allegations stemming from bets placed during the 2023-24 season when Beasley played for the Milwaukee Bucks.

Beasley was never charged with a crime, but he was the third NBA player that the federal government looked at after gambling allegations arose.

‘Months after this investigation commenced, Malik remains uncharged and is not the target of this investigation,’ Beasley’s attorney Steve Haney told ESPN. ‘An allegation with no charge, indictment or conviction should never have the catastrophic consequence this has caused Malik. This has literally been the opposite of the presumption of innocence.’

Beasley played last season for the Detroit Pistons, where he averaged 16.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and shot 41.6% from 3-point range while playing all 82 games. Detroit was set to offer Beasley a three-year, $42 million deal, but the deal stalled after news of the federal probe leaked.

One of the best running backs in NFL history says the league told teams not to select Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Pro Football Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson spoke with Fred Roggin and Rodney Peete on the ‘Roggin and Rodney’ show on AM 570 LA Sports. The longtime Los Angeles Rams star said he thought the Rams should’ve selected Sanders in the draft.

He added what he heard about messaging to teams ahead of the draft about the Colorado standout.

‘I tell you this much, what I heard from someone that’s in the NFL that the NFL told [teams] don’t draft him, do not draft him,’ Dickerson said. ‘We’re going to make an example out of him. And this came from a very good source, a very good source.’

Dickerson’s source also said that league officials called the Cleveland Browns during the draft after Sanders fell much further than anticipated to change the prior messaging.

The Colorado product was widely viewed as a first-round prospect but was still available by the start of the fifth round where the Browns took him at No. 144 overall.

‘He said that – I won’t say who – somebody called the Cleveland Browns and said ‘don’t do that, draft him,” Dickerson said. ‘Because they weren’t going to draft him either… They were forced into drafting him because somebody made a call to them.’

‘So what was the objective? He doesn’t get picked, he’s an undrafted free agent?’ Roggin asked.

‘That’s exactly what was going to happen,’ Dickerson said. ‘They were going to have him not get drafted to basically show you ‘this is what happens when you do this.’ I mean, look, [Roggin], the NFL’s got all kinds of power, they do all kinds of stuff. You know it and I know it too.’

Sanders was the second quarterback the Browns selected in the draft after taking Oregon’s Dillon Gabriel in the third round, No. 94 overall. Sanders was the team’s final draft selection.

He played well in the Browns’ preseason opener against the Carolina Panthers. He completed 14 of 23 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns in the 30-10 win.

An oblique injury kept him out of the Browns’ second preseason game against the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles but he should be good to go for the team’s finale against the Rams.

Cleveland named veteran Joe Flacco their starter for the 2025 NFL season. It’s now a battle to be his backup between Sanders, Gabriel and fellow veteran Kenny Pickett.

Serena Williams is opening up about her experience with GLP-1 medications. The 43-year-old tennis star has lost 31 pounds on the drug Zepbound, a type of medication typically prescribed for diabetes and now also used for weight management. 

Williams’ struggles with body image began with postpartum changes after she gave birth to her first daughter, Alexis Olympia, in 2017, and continued after her second daughter, Adira River, was born in August 2023. She lost “a lot” of weight in the two weeks after River’s birth, she told People, but afterwards, “never lost another pound.” 

The tennis star’s candor may help to dispel the pesky health inaccuracy that weight loss is a simple matter of exercise. While an active life and healthy eating can help with the process, new research suggests that outside factors like genetics may play a bigger role than previously thought. As arguably one of the world’s greatest athletes, Williams’ decision to share her journey with GLP-1s may help to reshape the image of the drugs.

‘A misconception is that it’s a shortcut,’ she said in the interview. ‘As an athlete and as someone that has done everything, I just couldn’t get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place − and believe me, I don’t take shortcuts.’

Female stars struggle under the spotlight 

In a 2018 interview with Teen Vogue, Williams shared details of the body shaming she’d experienced throughout her career: “People would say I was born a guy, all because of my arms, or because I’m strong. I was different to Venus: she was thin and tall and beautiful, and I am strong and muscular − and beautiful, but, you know, it was just totally different.”

In March 2025, Meghan Trainor also opened up about struggles with body image postpartum. The Grammy winner, 31, told USA TODAY she had been looking forward to getting breast implants since she was a teenager, but pregnancy and two C-sections intensified the desire. 

“It was tough to look at my body,” she said at the time. “I’m always singing about loving myself, and it got harder and harder with all the scars and stretch marks. And then after losing weight, too, these boobs were just purely empty, just flat and just felt like skin on my body.”

Likewise, rugby champion Ilona Maher has used her platform to become a revolutionary body-positive activist and an inspiration for younger generations of women and athletes. 

Williams says it’s important to teach people to be confident at any size, like she tries to be. 

“The size I was before, there was nothing wrong with it. It’s just not what I wanted to have,” she clarified. “I just knew that I wanted to be where I personally felt comfortable.”

“Weight loss should never really change your self image,” she said. “Women often experience judgment about their bodies at any size, and I’m no stranger to that. So I feel like you should love yourself at any size and any look.” 

While the rise of GLP-1s brings a myriad of valid concerns − such as its contribution to disordered eating and promotion of thinness as the ideal body type − Williams’ outspokenness is a crucial, balanced example of healthy and transparent GLP-1 usage.

Celebrities should be transparent about their weight loss

We’re not just in a period of rapid, GLP-1 induced weight loss, we’ve also entered the “undetectable era” of plastic surgery. Cosmetic procedures and filler are no longer obvious on celebrities’ faces, rather more celebrities simply look like they haven’t aged. 

Mental health experts agree that celebrities sharing what work they’ve had done, or how they’ve gone about transformative weight loss journeys, can help fans maintain healthy, realistic beauty standards. The undetectable era may bring less transparency − making it more crucial than ever for people to stop comparing their looks to celebrities’. 

‘It may establish an unattainable ideal, and I think that the more we get comfortable with who we are, the less that becomes an issue,’ psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis previously told USA TODAY. ‘We tend to not compare ourselves with others when we are feeling OK about ourselves.’

Williams wants to have an ‘honest conversation’ about GLP-1s

While the drugs, which have skyrocketed in popularity and ripped through Hollywood, offered Williams the extra boost she needed, she told Vogue she was aware of how much of a stigma remained.

‘I’m not saying any of this lightly, which is why it’s so important to have an honest conversation about this topic,’ she said. ‘I’m the mom of two girls, and I wanted to be very honest about what I’m doing so they can always be the same with me and we can have an open relationship.’

The medications, which work by targeting certain hormones to suppress appetite, have made Williams feel ‘sexier’ and ‘more confident,’ she said. And as for those who say if you work hard enough in the gym, you won’t need the drugs, Williams says they’re misinformed.

‘Sometimes you need help. Your story is your story, and it’s okay to make that choice to do it if you want to,’ she told Vogue. ‘I did, and I’m really happy with it.’

The Indiana Fever and the Minnesota Lynx meet again on Friday, but the rematch of the 2025 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup will be missing some All-Stars.

Fever guard Caitlin Clark (right groin) and Lynx forward Napheesa Collier (right ankle) have been ruled out. Clark has been sidelined 13 consecutive game with a right groin injury. Collier has missed six straight games due to a right ankle injury.

The Lynx will be out for revenge after dropping the 2025 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup to the Fever 74-59 on July 1 despite holding a 15-point lead. The Fever, who were without Clark (left groin), held the Lynx to season-lows in points (59) and field-goal percentage (35.7%) to win their first in-season tournament title.

Minnesota (28-7) has already clinched a playoff bid marking their 14th in the past 15 seasons. Indiana (19-16) is in playoff contention, sitting in sixth place in the standings.

The Fever and Lynx will face each other two more times this season after Friday’s matchup. They will meet on Aug. 24 in Minneapolis and on Sept. 9 in Indianapolis.

Here’s what you need to know about Friday’s matchup between the Fever and Sun:

What time is Indiana Fever vs. Minnesota Lynx?

The Indiana Fever host the Minnesota Lynx in Indianapolis at 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT) on Friday, Aug. 22 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The game will be broadcast on ION.

How to watch Indiana Fever vs. Minnesota Lynx: TV, stream

Time: 7:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. PT)
Location: Gainbridge Fieldhouse (Indianapolis)
TV channel: ION
Streaming: Fubo (free trial to new subscribers)

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

Serena Williams is opening up about her experience with GLP-1 medications. The 43-year-old tennis star has lost 31 pounds on the drug Zepbound, a type of medication typically prescribed for diabetes and now also used for weight management. 

Williams’ struggles with body image began with postpartum changes after she gave birth to her first daughter, Alexis Olympia, in 2017, and continued after her second daughter, Adira River, was born in August 2023. She lost “a lot” of weight in the two weeks after River’s birth, she told People, but afterwards, “never lost another pound.” 

The tennis star’s candor may help to dispel the pesky health inaccuracy that weight loss is a simple matter of exercise. While an active life and healthy eating can help with the process, new research suggests that outside factors like genetics may play a bigger role than previously thought. As arguably one of the world’s greatest athletes, Williams’ decision to share her journey with GLP-1s may help to reshape the image of the drugs.

‘A misconception is that it’s a shortcut,’ she said in the interview. ‘As an athlete and as someone that has done everything, I just couldn’t get my weight to where I needed to be at a healthy place − and believe me, I don’t take shortcuts.’

Female stars struggle under the spotlight 

In a 2018 interview with Teen Vogue, Williams shared details of the body shaming she’d experienced throughout her career: “People would say I was born a guy, all because of my arms, or because I’m strong. I was different to Venus: she was thin and tall and beautiful, and I am strong and muscular − and beautiful, but, you know, it was just totally different.”

In March 2025, Meghan Trainor also opened up about struggles with body image postpartum. The Grammy winner, 31, told USA TODAY she had been looking forward to getting breast implants since she was a teenager, but pregnancy and two C-sections intensified the desire. 

“It was tough to look at my body,” she said at the time. “I’m always singing about loving myself, and it got harder and harder with all the scars and stretch marks. And then after losing weight, too, these boobs were just purely empty, just flat and just felt like skin on my body.”

Likewise, rugby champion Ilona Maher has used her platform to become a revolutionary body-positive activist and an inspiration for younger generations of women and athletes. 

Williams says it’s important to teach people to be confident at any size, like she tries to be. 

“The size I was before, there was nothing wrong with it. It’s just not what I wanted to have,” she clarified. “I just knew that I wanted to be where I personally felt comfortable.”

“Weight loss should never really change your self image,” she said. “Women often experience judgment about their bodies at any size, and I’m no stranger to that. So I feel like you should love yourself at any size and any look.” 

While the rise of GLP-1s brings a myriad of valid concerns − such as its contribution to disordered eating and promotion of thinness as the ideal body type − Williams’ outspokenness is a crucial, balanced example of healthy and transparent GLP-1 usage.

Celebrities should be transparent about their weight loss

We’re not just in a period of rapid, GLP-1 induced weight loss, we’ve also entered the “undetectable era” of plastic surgery. Cosmetic procedures and filler are no longer obvious on celebrities’ faces, rather more celebrities simply look like they haven’t aged. 

Mental health experts agree that celebrities sharing what work they’ve had done, or how they’ve gone about transformative weight loss journeys, can help fans maintain healthy, realistic beauty standards. The undetectable era may bring less transparency − making it more crucial than ever for people to stop comparing their looks to celebrities’. 

‘It may establish an unattainable ideal, and I think that the more we get comfortable with who we are, the less that becomes an issue,’ psychotherapist Stephanie Sarkis previously told USA TODAY. ‘We tend to not compare ourselves with others when we are feeling OK about ourselves.’

Williams wants to have an ‘honest conversation’ about GLP-1s

While the drugs, which have skyrocketed in popularity and ripped through Hollywood, offered Williams the extra boost she needed, she told Vogue she was aware of how much of a stigma remained.

‘I’m not saying any of this lightly, which is why it’s so important to have an honest conversation about this topic,’ she said. ‘I’m the mom of two girls, and I wanted to be very honest about what I’m doing so they can always be the same with me and we can have an open relationship.’

The medications, which work by targeting certain hormones to suppress appetite, have made Williams feel ‘sexier’ and ‘more confident,’ she said. And as for those who say if you work hard enough in the gym, you won’t need the drugs, Williams says they’re misinformed.

‘Sometimes you need help. Your story is your story, and it’s okay to make that choice to do it if you want to,’ she told Vogue. ‘I did, and I’m really happy with it.’

The NFL documented 190 concussions in 2024, the lowest since the league began tracking them in 2015.
The league attributes concussion decline to its new ‘dynamic kickoff’ rule and two other factors.
The NFL also says unsportsmanlike gestures, including sexual ones, were up 133% in 2024. Reducing them is a point of emphasis in 2025.

The NFL conducted a video call with reporters Thursday in a bid to share updates on player health and safety along with the league’s game operations. And, boy, did the information provided run the gamut.

The good: The league is thrilled with the results of its ‘dynamic kickoff’ alterations and has permanently adopted the measure with further tweaks for 2025.

The better: Player concussions dropped to their lowest level – the 2020 season impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, notwithstanding – since the league began tracking them in 2015.

The ugly: Players performing sexual gestures and other taunts during games rose 133% last season. (More on that later.)

NFL concussions are down, but why?

Jeff Miller, the league’s executive vice president in charge of player health and safety, revealed that 190 concussions were suffered by players in 2024 – that figure including preseason, regular season and postseason games along with practices. That represented a decrease from 227 in 2023. Over the previous 10 seasons, the high-water mark was 291 in 2017. (There were 178 in 2020 during the pandemic. The league canceled preseason that year, had a virtual offseason and highly modified training camp that included extensive social distancing.)

Miller attributed the decline in concussions to increasingly safer helmets, the broader use of Guardian Caps in practice – players were also permitted to start wearing them in games in 2024 – and the implementation of the dynamic kickoff set-up, which precludes players from sprinting downfield and fueling dangerous collisions at top speed.

He noted that helmet technology has improved so much that some shells are safer on their own than older helmets covered by a Guardian Cap, the padded device players often wear to reduce concussive hits. In collaboration with the NFL Players Association, the league is hoping to convince roughly 30% of its players to transition into the highest-performing helmets.

Seven older models were outlawed this season. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is among the players who have been forced to don a newer, safer helmet, and he hasn’t been shy about sharing his complaints.

‘Dynamic kickoff’ here to stay

After installing the new format last year, the league has moved to its new kickoff architecture permanently. Previously, the kickoff had been the game’s most dangerous play, Miller saying the injury and concussion rates spiking two- to fourfold compared to plays run from scrimmage. Injuries and concussions suffered on the dynamic kickoff, per Miller, had essentially become aligned with the risk level that occurs on plays from scrimmage.

There were other benefits from dynamic kickoff:

About one-third of kickoffs were returned last season after the figure had fallen to about one-fifth in 2023, when the league became concerned the play had basically become ceremonial. Super Bowl 58 between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers included 13 kickoffs, none of them returned.

Fifty-nine returns covered at least 40 yards in 2024, the most since 2016. Seven returns resulted in touchdowns, the most since 2021.

Due to the frequently improved field position created by dynamic kickoffs, the punting rate also dropped 4.5% in 2024, which had the added benefit of reducing what had been the game’s second-most dangerous play, per Miller.

Touchbacks will be brought out to the 35-yard line this year (not the 30) in an attempt to provide further incentive for returns.

A team trailing in a game can also now declare an onside kick at any point. Last year, they could only be attempted by the trailing team in the fourth quarter.

Sportsmanship to be a point of emphasis in 2025

Back to those inappropriate gestures − the league doesn’t want to see them and plans to enforce its rules to curb their increasing occurrence.

“Sportsmanship is a point of emphasis and clarification for the players and the clubs this year,” said Walt Anderson, the league’s officiating rules analyst and formerly an NFL referee for 17 seasons.

“Our taunting was up about 55 percent last year. Unsportsmanlike gestures – whether they were either simulating or either shooting a gun or brandishing of a gun or inappropriate gestures like a throat slash or unfortunate sexual gestures that were made – those were up almost 133 percent.’

Former Seahawks star Marshawn Lynch became infamous for the commonly used sexual gesture, even performing it as an exclamation point during his legendary ‘Beast Quake’ touchdown run in Seattle during the 2010 playoffs.

“It’s just one of those areas that the league wants to work actively on. There are plenty of (other) ways for players to be able to celebrate,’ continued Anderson. ‘We want them to focus on those and not the inappropriate areas.”

Unsportsmanlike fouls result in 15-yard penalties on the field and can also result in fines, particularly for repeat offenders.