LaVar Ball, the CEO of Big Baller Brand and father of Lonzo Ball, LiAngelo Ball and LaMelo Ball, has acknowledged reports that he recently had his right foot amputated.

It’s not clear what medical issue led to Ball’s amputation.

His youngest son, Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram last week saying, ‘i love u pops’.

The other two sons – Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball, 27, and social media star LiAngelo Ball, 26 – have not commented publicly on their dad’s health.

LaVar Ball used to be a mainstay in the headlines, regularly hyping up his sons and showing off his larger-than-life personality. But Ball has largely remained out of the public eye in recent years.

Ball was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended Canoga Park High School, where he played basketball, football and ran track. He went on to play one season at West Los Angeles College and later transferred to Washington State, an NCAA Division I school. He averaged 2.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.0 assist in 26 games (six starts) in 1987-88. Ball transferred again after one season to Cal State Los Angeles, an NCAA Division II school where he met his future wife, Tina Slatinsky. They married in 1997.

Following his basketball career, Ball shifted back to football and played tight end at Long Beach City College for one season. He signed with the New York Jets as a free agent defensive end in 1994. He was on the Jets practice squad in 1994 and 1995 under head coaches Pete Carroll and Rich Kotite. He also briefly spent time on the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Despite telling USA TODAY Sports in 2017 that he ‘would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one’ in his prime, Ball’s own athletic prowess didn’t make headlines. It was his boisterous personality and over-the-top promotion of his sons that captivated (or infuriated) the nation, depending on who you ask.

The Ball brothers and their outspoken dad burst onto the scene in 2016 when Lonzo, LiAngelo and LaMelo led Chino Hills High School to a perfect 35-0 record, a state championship and No. 1 overall ranking in the nation. Ball parlayed the family’s fame into the sports apparel company Big Baller Brand, which he co-founded in 2016.

Ball is not the only member of the family who has dealt with medical adversity. Lonzo Ball, the No. 2 pick in the 2017 draft, was sidelined nearly three years with a recurring left knee injury that required three surgeries. He returned to the court for the Chicago Bulls in October after last playing for the team on Jan. 14, 2022.

Tina Ball, mother of the Ball brothers, suffered a stroke in February 2017.

‘I just deal with it. Whatever it is,’ Ball told ESPN at the time. ‘Things are gonna happen in life. Either you are gonna help do something about it or you just gonna let it happen and destroy you.’

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Miami quarterback, Heisman Trophy finalist and No. 1 overall pick candidate Cam Ward is considering letting his tape speak for itself.

According to reports, Ward, the current betting favorite to be the first pick in the 2025 NFL draft, is still uncertain about whether he’ll throw at the 2025 NFL combine. As one of the top two quarterback prospects in his draft class, Ward does not have much to gain by throwing without pads on to receivers he hasn’t worked with in front of scouts in Indy.

The other top quarterback in the class, Colorado prospect Shedeur Sanders, has already declared he’s planning to skip drills at the combine. Instead, Sanders will focus on his interviews in Indianapolis.

Here’s what to know about Ward’s plans for the NFL combine:

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Is Cam Ward throwing at the NFL combine?

NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported on Monday’s episode of ‘Good Morning Football’ that Ward is uncertain whether he’ll throw at the NFL combine later this week.

The Miami product could join Sanders in abstaining from throwing in Indianapolis as two of the highest-rated quarterback prospects in this year’s draft class. Instead, Ward may let his five years of film as a starter at three different schools stand alone before his pro day.

Alternatively, Ward has a chance to further cement himself as the No. 1 quarterback prospect in the class if he does throw in front of scouts at the combine.

His decision will ultimately become clear by the end of this week with quarterbacks scheduled to throw on Saturday.

There is no place for the tortoise in the NFL.

An old Aesop fable, ‘The Tortoise and the Hare,’ is a lovely story about how slow and steady wins the race and the issues that too much confidence can create. In the story, the hare is a cocky individual, ultimately undone by that arrogant nature.

While overconfidence can sometimes be a problem in the NFL, players aren’t going to allow themselves to become the modern version of that classic.

The league is built on speed and strength, bringing together some of the most athletic specimens on the face of the earth. With around 300 players gathering at the NFL combine every year, it’s only natural for players to try and win the race – against the clock.

Competition reigns supreme at the pre-draft workout, where fast times can send a player flying up the draft boards. It’s only natural that slow times would have the opposite effect.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

While the likes of Xavier Worthy and John Ross III challenge speed limits and radar guns for their wheels on the field, other players just want to avoid the fate of being the rotten egg, as the kids would say.

Here’s a breakdown of the slowest official 40 times, overall and by position, on record at the NFL combine since 2000.

Slowest NFL combine 40-yard dash time

Regis Crawford has the honor of being the slowest runner in the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine. He never played a snap in the league and while Crawford’s official time is 6.05, the offensive lineman also turned in a 6.07, according to NFL.com, which is the slowest single run in combine history.

The slowest runners all have a common link of being offensive line prospects. Most were undrafted, but Orlando Brown Jr. turned into a Pro Bowl tackle with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Here’s a look at the official top-10 slowest 40 times at the NFL combine since 2000, according to Pro Football Reference.

Regis Crawford, OG, Arizona State, undrafted, 2004: 6.05
Isaiah Thompson, OG, Houston, undrafted, 2011: 6.00
Char-Ron Dorsey, OT, Florida State, Dallas Cowboys, 7th round pick No. 242, 2001: 5.99
Palauni Ma Sun, OG, Oregon, undrafted, 2007: 5.86
Orlando Brown Jr., OT, Oklahoma, Baltimore Ravens, 3rd round pick No. 83, 2018: 5.85
Jonathan Gray, OT, Texas Tech, undrafted, 2000: 5.85
Kurt Sigler, C, Eastern Washington, undrafted, 2004: 5.84
Damien Mama, OG, USC, undrafted, 2017: 5.84
Gus Felder, OG, Penn State, undrafted, 2003: 5.83
Shannon Snell, OG, Florida, undrafted, 2004: 5.82

Slowest quarterback NFL combine 40-yard dash time

Ryan Mallett owns the slowest 40 time for a quarterback at the NFL combine, turning in a 5.37. The quarterback he once backed up for the New England Patriots, Tom Brady, also famously checks in on this list with a time of 5.28.

While Brady was, by far, the most successful quarterback on this list, 40 times for quarterbacks didn’t end up having much of an impact on their ability to be drafted.

Ryan Mallett, Arkansas, New England Patriots, 3rd round pick No. 74, 2011: 5.37
Chris Redman, Louisville, Baltimore Ravens, 3rd round pick No. 75, 2000: 5.37
Toby Korrodi, Central Missouri State, undrafted: 2007: 5.37
Tom Brady, Michigan, New England Patriots, 6th round pick No. 199, 2000: 5.28
Jared Lorenzen, Kentucky, undrafted, 2004: 5.28

Slowest running back NFL combine 40-yard dash time

NFL teams are clearly not fond of slower running backs. Only one player on this list, Kenny Hilliard, managed to get picked in the NFL draft. The Houston Texans took a chance on him in the seventh round, but he never appeared in a regular season game.

Dicenzo Miller, despite posting over 1,000 scrimmage yards during his final two seasons at Mississippi State, never found an NFL home. However, he remains in the history books for his 4.93 time in the 40-yard dash, the slowest by any running back since 2000.

Dicenzo Miller, Mississippi State, undrafted, 2002: 4.93
Destry Wright, Jackson State, undrafted, 2000: 4.84
Jerome Smith, Syracuse, undrafted, 2014: 4.84
Duron Croson, Fort Valley State, undrafted, 2004: 4.83
John Clay, Wisconsin, undrafted, 2011: 4.83
Kenny Hilliard, LSU, Houston Texans, 7th round pick No. 235, 2015: 4.83
Dmitri Flowers, Oklahoma, undrafted, 2018: 4.83

Slowest wide receiver NFL combine 40-yard dash time

Just like running backs, NFL teams aren’t running to the podium to draft slower receivers.

De’Runnya Wilson made sure his fellow Mississippi State alum had company on these lists, turning in an official 4.85 at the combine in 2016. A teammate of Dak Prescott’s, Wilson went undrafted and spent time on the Chicago Bears’ practice squad. Wilson was also known for his basketball skills, earning the title of Alabama Mr. Basketball in 2013.

De’Runnya Wilson, Mississippi State, undrafted, 2016: 4.85
Wendell Montgomery, Wyoming, undrafted, 2000: 4.81
DeVontres Dukes, South Florida, undrafted, 2021: 4.81**
Tavares Martin, Washington State, undrafted, 2018: 4.80
Nate Poole, Marshall, undrafted, 2001: 4.79
Ernest Wilford, Virginia Tech, Jacksonville Jaguars, 4th round pick No. 120, 2004: 4.79

Dukes’ time is courtesy of his pro day since the NFL combine was canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Slowest tight end NFL combine 40-yard dash time

Tight ends have evolved over the years, making the position interesting to look at from a 40-yard dash perspective. Some have elected to pass on running at the combine entirely, especially in recent years.

Scooter Harrington has the slowest time for a tight end on record, checking in at 5.19. He, just like mostly everyone else with a slow time, went undrafted. Harrington would join the Bears as an undrafted free agent but didn’t make the roster and never landed with another team.

Scooter Harrington, Stanford, undrafted, 2021: 5.19**
J.C. Chalk, Clemson, undrafted, 2021: 5.18**
Giles Amos, Arkansas State, undrafted, 2021: 5.14**
Dauntae’ Finger, North Carolina, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 7th round pick No. 205, 2001: 5.09
Anthony Pudewell, Nevada, undrafted, 2007: 5.07

Harrington, Chalk and Amos’ times are courtesy of their pro days since the NFL combine was canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an 80-78 overtime victory against Butler on Jan. 21, UConn men’s basketball coach Dan Hurley attracted national attention not for something his team did, but something he said.

At a stoppage in the game, television cameras cut to the Huskies coach berating a referee over what he believed to be a missed call.

“Don’t turn your back on me,” Hurley said to the official, who had started to walk away while Hurley was speaking to him. “I’m the best coach in the f—ing sport.”

As it turns out, he may not even be the best coach in his own conference.

On Sunday, Hurley’s UConn team fell to Rick Pitino and No. 9 St. John’s 89-75 at Madison Square Garden in New York, giving the Red Storm a regular-season sweep of the two-time reigning national champion. With the loss, the Huskies are 4.5 games behind St. John’s for first place in the Big East, effectively eliminating them from the regular-season conference championship race.

Few, if any, people doubt Hurley’s accomplishments and his abilities as a coach. 

The 52 year old has won at every stop of his career, from Wagner to Rhode Island to UConn. He took over a reeling Huskies program and transformed it into a juggernaut that won each of the past two NCAA championships. UConn not only won the 2023 and 2024 titles, but it was dominant in doing so, compiling a 68-11 record over those two seasons and winning each of its 12 NCAA tournament games across those runs by at least 13 points.

Since famously asserting that he was the best coach in the sport, though, his team hasn’t quite lived up to that standard.

In the eight games since that narrow win against Butler, the Huskies are just 4-4. Prior to that comment, UConn had been 13-5.

The recent rut has included a loss at Xavier, which is widely projected to miss the NCAA tournament cut, and, more concerningly, Seton Hall, which is in last place in the Big East and was just 6-18 before toppling the Huskies. The victory against UConn is Seton Hall’s only win in its past 11 games, a stretch that goes all the way back to Jan. 9.

‘I just wish they’d put the camera on the other coach more,’ Hurley said after the Butler game. ‘…I just wish they would show these other coaches losing their minds at the officials in other Big East games that I’m coaching where I look going into a timeout where I’m not talking to officials. I see these coaches as demonstrative as I am.’

There’s no shame in losing to Pitino, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer who has won national championships with two different programs and could very well lead St. John’s to the Final Four, which would be the fourth different program he had guided to the national semifinals. Hurley’s team hadn’t been playing well even the Butler game, either, having lost two of its previous three after a 12-3 start to the season.

But whether it’s hubris or his reconstructed team continuing to come up short of the lofty benchmark the program had set the previous two seasons, Hurley’s loud claim, true as it may be, hasn’t aged particularly well.

The first season of TGL golf rolls on with its penultimate week of matches and it will be an especially crucial moment for Rory McIlroy, who co-founded this new virtual golf league along with Tiger Woods. If the inaugural TGL playoffs started today, the two teams led by Woods and McIlroy would not qualify for the league’s four-team postseason format.

But McIlroy and Woods have two more chances to work their way into the postseason mix, beginning with a Monday doubleheader that ends with McIlroy’s Boston Common Golf facing Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay and the rest of Atlanta Drive Golf Club. Boston Common Golf, which also features Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama and Adam Scott, is the only TGL team to not win a match yet this season.

The first match Monday at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida will pit Collin Morikawa-led Los Angeles Golf Club against Rickie Fowler, Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Young of New York Golf Club. In an intriguing twist, Tony Finau has signed a one-match deal to play with Los Angeles Golf Club this week.

Here’s how to watch all the TGL action, the upcoming schedule and the standings as Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods try to make a playoff push:

When is Tiger Woods playing?

Woods is not scheduled to play in his scheduled TGL match with Jupiter Links GC on Tuesday, according to Golf Week, after he admitted to having ‘a hard time’ emotionally during his return last week for the first time since his mother’s death.

Jupiter Links GC faces The Bay Golf Club, which has Ludvig Aberg, Shane Lowry, Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee. Tom Kim, Max Homa and Kevin Kisner will represent Jupiter Links GC on Tuesday. The team plays its final regular season match on Tuesday, March 4.

TGL schedule

Feb. 24

Los Angeles Golf Club vs. New York Golf Club, 5 p.m. ET on ESPN 2 and ESPN+
Atlanta Drive GC vs. Boston Common Golf, 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+

Feb. 25

The Bay Golf Club vs. Jupiter Links Golf Club, 9 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+

March 3

The Bay Golf Club vs. Los Angeles Golf Club, 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+
New York Golf Club vs. Boston Common Golf, 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN+

March 4

Jupiter Links Golf Club vs. Atlanta Drive GC, 7 p.m. ET on ESPN and ESPN+

TGL Standings

The Bay Golf Club overtook the Los Angeles Golf Club for the top spot in the SoFi Cup standings with two wins last week. Only the top four teams in the standings qualify for the playoffs.

*Before Feb. 24 matches

The Bay Golf Club, 6 points
Los Angeles Golf Club, 5 points
Atlanta Drive GC, 4 points
New York Golf Club, 2 points
Jupiter Links GC, 2 points
Boston Common Golf, 1 point

TGL format

TGL pits two teams of three players against each other in a mix of simulator and traditional golf. Players tee off from a mat into a 64-by-53-foot screen. There are fairways, rough and sand surfaces to hit from, as well. When the ball lands about 50 yards away from the pin, players transition to the ‘Green Zone,’ a 3,800-square-foot green that can be adjusted for variety on each hole. To increase the pressure, a shot clock is set for 40 seconds; any violation of this time limit results in a one-stroke penalty.

The teams play nine holes of 3-on-3, alternate shot golf. Then, the three members of each team will each play two holes of head-to-head match play with each hole worth one point. If they remain tied, the match goes to an overtime, closest-to-the-pin competition. The overtime continues until one team has the two closest shots.

Teams are awarded two points in the standings for a win, one point for an overtime loss and no points for a loss. The top four teams advance to the TGL semifinals.

How to watch TGL: TV, time for Rory McIlroy match

Date: Monday, Feb. 25
Time: 9 p.m. ET
Location: SoFi Center (Palm Gardens, Florida)
TV: ESPN2
Stream: ESPN+, Fubo

Watch TGL action with Fubo

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After tournament organizers announced in a news release last Wednesday that Williams, 44, had received a wild-card entry into the main singles draw at the 1000-level WTA tournament in Indian Wells, California, Williams clarified her status during an appearance in Denmark on Sunday. She joked the positive response from her alleged commitment almost convinced her to play in the event anyways. It has been nearly one year since Williams last competed in a professional tennis event.

‘That wasn’t true. No, I’m not playing,’ Williams told the crowd in an audio recording from ‘An Evening with Venus Williams’ posted to social media. ‘I found the announcement super amusing because, I don’t know, people seemed to be happy, so maybe I’ll just go with it. I don’t know. I’m actually not going. I’m going to be overseas. I’m going to be here. I’m going to be watching on TV. Sorry, guys.

‘I just had a player text me today, too, like ‘Can you play doubles?’ ‘ Williams added. ‘I’m not playing. I found out about the wild card when you guys did … and I love Indian Wells. I would love to be there, so if I could have accepted it, I would have been like, ‘Yes.’ But I already made commitments.’

BNP Paribas Open tournament director Tommy Haas acknowledged that Williams would not be playing in the event this year in a statement Sunday night. ‘Our team has been informed that Venus is not accepting the wild card this year,’ Haas said. ‘We wish Venus all the best and hope to see her back in Indian Wells in the future.’

Williams hasn’t played in a professional tennis tournament since the Miami Open last March and played in just two singles matches during the 2024 WTA season. She lost first-round matches at both the Miami Open and the BNP Paribas Open last year, when she did accept a wild-card invitation.

The seven-time major champion in singles is currently No. 975 in the world tennis rankings and her immediate and long term future in tennis remain as uncertain as ever now that last week’s announcement turned out to be a false alarm.