It’s the oldest trick in the book for anyone needing to get something done when there’s an active toddler or rambunctious puppy around: Give them a toy or a game, or get them to do a task by making them think it’s their idea. The distraction keeps them busy and happy while you get some peace and quiet.

So it is with President Donald Trump’s new “task force” for the Los Angeles Olympics.

But LA28 needs Trump not to gum up the works over the next three years. By letting him think he’s in charge of … something, Games officials could avoid headaches over athlete visas and fan safety while keeping Trump from meddling elsewhere.

‘We are now focused more than ever on delivery (of the Games) and we can’t do this alone. I want to thank President Trump and the entire administration for their support and their partnership as we work to bring these Games home,’ LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said at the signing, where he doubled down on the flattery by presenting Trump with a set of the medals from the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

It should embarrass us all that the president of the United States can be so easily played. It should embarrass LA28 that it’s willing to be party to it. Yet here we are.

The LA Games, the first in the United States since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, is a multi-billion-dollar effort more than a decade in the making. Organizers are painstaking in their planning, from venues to housing to sponsors.

Yet Trump could ruin it all, the proverbial fly in the punchbowl, given his overreaches on immigration and squabbles with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats.

Trump picks fights with Bass and Newsom every chance he gets, most notably when he needlessly sent the National Guard into Los Angeles. It’s a certainty he’d grandstand in some similar manner during the Games if he didn’t think it would make him look bad, too.

Olympic athletes and their coaches are supposed to be exempt from Trump’s latest travel ban, while Olympic fans are usually greeted with open arms by host countries. Yet the recent refusal to allow Cuba’s women’s volleyball team and Senegal’s women’s basketball team into the United States, along with ICE agents who target immigrants, as well as citizens and tourists, have raised concerns that Olympic athletes and fans won’t have safe harbor for the Los Angeles Games. If those embarrassing visa problems and the harassment were to be pinned on Trump, however, they’re less likely to occur.

By creating the task force and putting Trump ‘in charge’ of it, LA28 is letting him think he’s an integral part of an event where his only real role should be that of a figurehead. It’s organizers’ way of making sure he has a vested interest in seeing athletes arrive without issue, fans don’t wind up in Alligator Alcatraz and the Los Angeles Games go off without any humiliating sideshows.

This isn’t the stuff of normally functioning democracies, and no one should pretend it is. Los Angeles organizers also should not assume they’ve fully protected the Games from Trump’s tirades and pettiness. Anyone who thinks they’ve won a permanent place in Trump’s good graces should remember how well that worked out for Elon Musk.

Sure enough, Trump was threatening to call in the National Guard and other members of the U.S. military to safeguard the Games before Tuesday’s news conference was even over. Insulting Bass in the process for good measure.

But with so much time and money already invested, this is also the least-worst option for LA28 and the International Olympic Committee.

‘We remain incredibly confident in our ability to deliver the greatest Games ever, and that starts with the support of this administration every step of the way,’ Wasserman said.

And before anyone squawks about canceling the Games or moving them, save your breath. The IOC held two Olympics in the middle of a global pandemic and has done business with plenty of other unsavory leaders. It isn’t going to be dissuaded by Donald Trump’s awful policies or inept handling of global issues.

The IOC and its host cities have made going along to get along an art form. Trump’s task force is just more of the same, a reminder that the price tag for the Games includes more than money.

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

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Maybe there’s a message with the haircut.

When last seen in live action, Patrick Mahomes had it thoroughly handed to him by the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowl 59 rout. Three turnovers. Six sacks. No three-peat. It was the most crushing loss of Mahomes’ magnificent career.

And now the Kansas City Chiefs star has a new ‘do, changing his look during the offseason after having a significant amount of hair chopped off. It might make you wonder whether there’s some serious superstition in the mix for a man so keen on the details.

Well, not.

‘I was ready to get my hair cut the last three years,’ Mahomes, grinning, told USA TODAY Sports after a training camp practice last weekend. ‘We had won the Super Bowl two years in a row. I told the guys I was getting a haircut this year, even if we won.

‘I’m turning 30. Wanted to change it up. It worked out. I still have a little bit of curls up top. It’s just not as long as it used to be.’

No, Mahomes, whose 30th birthday is Sept. 17, is hardly having an identity crisis. Go ahead, check his pulse. He knows that even with the Super Bowl setback ending what was arguably his most challenging season, he’s still the key reason why the Chiefs are poised to make another run at a championship.

Yet there’s no denying how much the stinging, 40-22 loss in February has driven Mahomes in the months leading to the next season. Long months. To call it motivational fuel may seem trite, but that’s how he puts it. And he’s the one with three Super Bowl MVP trophies. He’s the one who bemoaned his performance in the press conference after the game, then apologized on social media to Chiefs fans. He’s the one who has to live out the high standard that everyone – beginning with himself – has for him.

He’s the one who is such a winner that, fair or not, the seasons are judged on whether or not the Chiefs win the Super Bowl. I reminded Mahomes of what he said in the days leading up to Super Bowl 59, when someone asked him if there was a game that kept him up at night. He didn’t hesitate to identify the Super Bowl 55 loss against the Bucs.

Now consider Super Bowl 59. It might give him nightmares.

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‘When you make it that far and then you’re at the end, it just hurts,’ Mahomes said. ‘You put so much hard work into it. So, losing on that final step is always hard. But it’s how you respond. I thought we responded well after that last Super Bowl loss, just kind of building back and getting even better and winning a couple more championships.

‘So, now it’s about, ‘Where are we going to go now? Are we going to get even better from that loss? Are we going to find ways to make everyone better, not just one person?’ I feel like we’ve done that in camp. But you can’t prove it until you go out there and do it.’

Of course, as great as Mahomes is, it’s never all on one player. Two of the biggest questions in the Chiefs training camp revolve around the overhauled offensive line and the development of the wide receiver corps.

That Mahomes absorbed a career-high six sacks in the Super Bowl – without a single blitz, reflecting how overmatched his O-line was against Philadelphia’s powerful front – was no mere aberration. He was sacked a career-high 36 times during the regular season.

And the problems protecting his blind side stuck out. Kansas City started four players at left tackle last season, including All-Pro left guard Joe Thuney. The patchwork arrangements worked well enough for the Chiefs to reach the Super Bowl, but the deficiency was exposed further when it mattered most.

The overhauled line included the trade of Thuney to the Chicago Bears and the first-round selection of Ohio State product Josh Simmons, the projected answer at left tackle.

Meanwhile, just like last year, the Chiefs hope to add punch with a consistent deep passing game. Injuries undermined the efforts last season (first to Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown, then to Rashee Rice), which is one reason Mahomes didn’t pass for 4,000 yards for the first time since he became a starter in 2018.

Mahomes’ 26 touchdown passes in 2024 tied for the lowest total of his career as a starter, and for the first time since 2018 he wasn’t selected to the Pro Bowl.

So, there were some significant markers that underscored the challenges for Mahomes in trying to establish a consistent rhythm. Sure, the Chiefs finished 15-2 to win a ninth consecutive AFC West title. Yet there were too many close calls for comfort, with games going down to the wire. And too often, Mahomes narrowly missed in connecting for big plays.

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‘There’s stuff we’ve got to get better at,’ Mahomes said. ‘Especially myself. There’s plays on the football field that I didn’t make last year, that I’ve made in previous years. At the end of the day, I’m going to do whatever it takes to win, whether that’s passing for a lot of yards, not passing for a lot of yards. But I think if I play better, that’s going to make it better for the team. So, I’ve got to be better at executing whenever the shots are there, making those throws. Because that’s going to alleviate pressure on our defense and make them play more free and make the team play more free.’

Mahomes knows the formula better than most, with the Chiefs advancing to at least the AFC title in each of his seven seasons as a starter. Now add another dose of fire to the equation, flowing from the Super embarrassment.

‘It just gives you a little extra in some of the workouts and those film sessions, to try to find the little things to get even better,’ Mahomes said. ‘You try to do that when you have success, but at the same time when you have success you can sometimes be complacent. Obviously, you don’t want to lose the game, but it can give you a little bit more motivation to be even better.’

Which is quite the warning for the rest of the NFL.

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell

On Bluesky: jarrettbell.bsky.social

OWINGS MILLS, MD — At first, the bodies tangle. Somebody throws a punch. Then what was a couple of individuals fighting turns into a sea of two jerseys coming together in the middle of an open field, a scene ripped from medieval warfare.

Except this was 2025 Baltimore Ravens training camp, featuring the Indianapolis Colts in a joint practice Tuesday before the two teams face one another in their first preseason game on Thursday.

For a moment, it was a literal slugfest. During a special teams period, with both sides going all-out, Baltimore’s Keyon Martin and the Colts’ Tyler Goodson started shoving each other after they’d ran down the field to cover and block a punt return, respectively. Martin pushed late, Goodson responded, and that was all Ravens second-year cornerback Nate Wiggins needed to see to insert himself, apparently.

Wiggins darted off the sideline and began unleashing uppercuts to the facemask of Goodson. In a flash, both sidelines cleared, whistles blared and the futile effort to break up the fighting began. Eventually, everything calmed down. Practice continued. The specter of another skirmish did too. Nothing materialized despite the heightened tensions, however.

Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said the message to his team after the fight would be the same it was going into the joint practice: play it like a game.

‘And we did, 99 percent of the time, but we didn’t on that play,’ Harbaugh said.

Video shooting wasn’t permitted during most of Tuesday’s practice including when the fight happened.

Harbaugh, Colts head coach Shane Steichen and Colts general manager Chris Ballard all agreed afterward, according to Steichen, that these training-camp squabbles usually occur on special teams and almost always have the same culprit: the gunners, the players who run the length of the field on punts.

‘You can pretty much chalk it up, predict it, because it’s one of those full-field, competitive drills,’ Harbaugh said. ‘But it should be a learning experience opportunity for our team, too. You don’t have to throw a punch.’

‘I thought the guys handled it good,’ Steichen told reporters after practice. ‘You never want to see a fight. We always talk about that in the meetings. ‘We’re not fighting.’ And obviously one skirmish broke out there, but thought the guys handled it well and everyone broke it up and we went back to practice.’

Wiggins had to sit out the rest of practice and watched through a glass window from the Ravens’ facility.

At least his teammates were excited.

‘I heard Nate was slugging somebody or something,’ defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike said after practice. ‘But it was crazy.

‘I was far away.’

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson knows that if a fight breaks out, the camera will find a way to be pointed at him. So he makes sure to keep his distance as well.

‘I’m chilling,’ the two-time MVP said, ‘… but I feel like our guys held their own.’

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The Connecticut Sun’s reported move to Boston has hit a snag.

News broke Aug. 2 an investment group led by Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca reached a deal with the Mohegan Tribe to purchase the Sun for a record $325 million, with plans to relocate the franchise to Boston as soon as 2027. But USA TODAY Sports confirmed Tuesday that Pagliuca’s bid wasn’t presented to the WNBA Board of Governors, who ultimately approves the sale. Front Office Sports first to reported the news.

The WNBA does not distinguish between teams relocating and expansion, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The league’s Board of Governors, not existing team owners, select the cities the WNBA will operate in. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.

In a statement, the WNBA said ‘no groups from Boston applied for a team’ during the expansion bidding process that took place in Jan. 2025. Teams that weren’t awarded a franchise ‘have priority over Boston.’

In addition to paying $325 million to purchase the Sun, Pagliuca and his group pledged to contribute $100 million for a new practice facility in Boston with plans to have the team play home games at TD Garden, home of the NBA’s Celtics and the NHL’s Boston Bruins, according to the Boston Globe. But Pagliuca released a statement that said ‘approval has not been obtained thus far, and we cannot proceed without it.’

‘Central to our proposal is enabling the Sun to play in larger capacity arenas in New England,’ Pagliuca wrote in his statement shared to social media on Sunday. ‘We believe our record-setting offer and deep commitment to growing the WNBA in the region that is home to the most passionate basketball fans in the nation will significantly benefit the league, the team, and all its fans.’

The Sun have sold out two a regular-season game at TD Garden in consecutive seasons, most recently when the Sun hosted Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on July 15, highlighting an active fan base in the area. TD Garden has a capacity of 19,000 for basketball games, compared to 10,000 at the Sun’s current home at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Pagliuca’s group isn’t the only party interested in purchasing the Sun. An investment group led by former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry reportedly made a bid for the team with plans to keep the Sun in Connecticut with home games to be played at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, the Hartford Courtant reported.

Similarly to Boston, the Hartford group didn’t apply for an expansion franchise in the recently completed bidding process and doesn’t have priority, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

The WNBA awarded Cleveland (2028), Detroit (2029) and Philadelphia (2030) expansion teams, bringing the league to 18 teams by 2030, following the additions of the Golden State Valkyries (2025), Toronto Tempo (2026) and Portland Fire (2026).

‘Each location was selected based on an analysis of market viability, committed long-term ownership groups, potential for significant local fan, corporate, media, and city and state support, arena and practice facilities, and community commitment to advancing the sport, among other factors,’ the WNBA said in June.

St Louis, Kansas City, Austin, Jacksonville, Nashville, Houston, Miami, Denver, Charlotte and Milwaukee also submitted bids for an expansion team, according to the Sports Business Journal, and would have priority. The league remains in ‘active conversations’ with cities that applied for a franchise, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert hinted Houston could be the next city to have a WNBA team. Following the league’s expansion announcement in June, Engelbert said the WNBA has ‘our eye on’ Houston because it has ‘such a strong history in this league,’ referencing the Houston Comets franchise (1997–2008).

‘We’ll stay tuned on that,’ Engelbert added.

The Mohegan Tribe purchased the Orlando Miracle for $10 million in 2003 and relocated the team to Connecticut.

The Sun have never won an WNBA championship, but have made four Finals appearances (2004, 2005, 2019, 2022) in franchise history. Connecticut has made the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons, representing the longest active postseason appearance streak in the league, but the Sun will likely miss the playoffs after starting the season 5-22.

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The Los Angeles Chargers are adding a familiar face to the fold ahead of the 2025 NFL season.

Veteran wide receiver Keenan Allen agreed to a one-year deal with the Chargers on Tuesday, Aug. 5, according to multiple reports.

Allen, 33, spent the first 11 seasons of his career playing for the Chargers and recorded 10,530 receiving yards with them, second-most in franchise history behind Antonio Gates’ 11,841. He was traded to the Chicago Bears ahead of the 2024 campaign before returning to Los Angeles for the upcoming season.

Allen recorded 70 catches for 744 yards and seven touchdowns last season in Chicago, and finished second on the team in targets (121) behind only DJ Moore (140). What can be expected of him in 2025? Here’s a look at how the veteran might fit in on Los Angeles’ wide receiver depth chart.

Chargers WR depth chart

The Chargers released their first unofficial depth chart before news broke that they were signing Allen. It isn’t clear exactly where the veteran fits into the pecking order, but he might battle with second-round rookie Tre’ Harris for a top-three receiver job behind Ladd McConkey and Quentin Johnston.

Below is a look at where Allen could land within the top-listed receivers on Los Angeles’ depth chart.

Ladd McConkey*
Quentin Johnston*
Keenan Allen
Jalen Reagor
Derius Davis
Tre’ Harris
KeAndre Lambert-Smith

The Chargers have a relatively young receiver room to which Allen adds much-needed experience. The only question is whether he will win a top-three receiver job – which would make him likely to play a plurality of the team’s offensive snaps – or whether he will serve as an experienced super-sub off the bench.

Allen’s status may depend on the type of shape he is and how ready some of the Chargers’ young receivers, like Harris and fellow rookie Lambert-Smith, are to make an impact. The second- and fifth-round rookies figure to climb the depth chart as the preseason continues.

Allen’s presence shouldn’t have a major impact on McConkey, who will remain Los Angeles’ No. 1 receiver after generating 82 catches, 1,149 yards and seven touchdowns as a rookie. That said, it will be worth monitoring which of them plays primarily in the slot, as both played a majority of their snaps inside last season (Allen 52.8%, McConkey 63.8%).

It’s also worth noting the Chargers kept seven receivers on its 53-man roster entering the 2025 NFL season, so Los Angeles could keep all seven of the receivers listed above. Brenden Rice might end up being the player most impacted by Allen’s signing, as the 2024 seventh-round pick now faces increased competition for a roster spot.

Other receivers battling for spots within the Chargers organization include Dez Fitzpatrick, Jaylen Johnson, JaQuae Jackson, Luke Grimm and Dalevon Campbell.