They say ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,’ but FIFA might have to break the tradition when it comes to the 2026 World Cup draw.

A report from ESPN says that Las Vegas will host the draw for soccer’s biggest spectacle, which will be hosted at venues across the United States, Mexico, and Canada next year. FIFA has yet to officially announce a venue or date for the draw.

The 2026 World Cup will be the first to include 48 teams, and the first to be hosted by three nations. 11 U.S. cities will host games, along with three Mexican cities (Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey), and two more in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver).

Las Vegas submitted a bid to host matches at Allegiant Stadium, but were rejected during the voting process. The draw will be used to sort the 48 teams that qualify for the tournament into 12 groups of four. Mexico (Group A), Canada (Group B), and the U.S. (Group D) have already been placed in their respective groups.

The report says that Canadian and Mexican venues were considered for the draw, but were ultimately ruled out. ESPN cited Pedro Cedillo, an executive at Mexican club CF Pachuca, that he expects to be in Sin City on December 5 to present competing teams with information about training camp bases in the Mexican state of Hidalgo.

Las Vegas also hosted the draw for the 1994 World Cup, the last time the men’s version of the tournament was held on U.S. soil. However, per ESPN’s report, the draw is likely to be held at The Sphere, a 17,500-capacity venue featuring a unique spherical screen. The Sphere, opened in 2023, has rapidly become a Vegas landmark at events like F1’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

World Cup 2026: What cities will host games?

Matches at the 2026 World Cup will take place in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Here is a full list of cities and corresponding venues:

Canada

Toronto (BMO Field)
Vancouver (BC Place)

Mexico

Guadalajara (Estadio Akron)
Mexico City (Estadio Azteca)
Monterrey (Estadio BBVA)

United States

Atlanta (Mercedez-Benz Stadium)
Boston (Gillette Stadium)
Dallas (AT&T Stadium)
Houston (NRG Stadium)
Kansas City (Arrowhead Stadium)
Los Angeles (SoFi Stadium)
Miami (Hard Rock Stadium)
New York/New Jersey (MetLife Stadium)
Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field)
San Francisco Bay Area (Levi’s Stadium)
Seattle (Lumen Field)

World Cup 2026: Which countries have qualified?

Of the 48 spots available at the 2026 World Cup, 13 places have been claimed. Qualifying in each of FIFA’s six confederations is ongoing, but in some cases teams have still clinched their place.

Additionally, the final six places will be determined by an intercontinental playoff in March 2026, with six teams that narrowly missed qualifying directly getting one last shot.

Here is a breakdown of who has already qualified for the 2026 World Cup:

Host nations

Canada
Mexico
United States

Africa (9 direct spots)

No team has yet qualified via the Confederation of African Football (CAF)’s qualifying process.

Asia (8 direct spots)

Japan
Iran
Uzbekistan
South Korea
Jordan
Australia

Asia has one more round of qualifying that will determine the final two nations to secure an automatic berth at the World Cup, as well as the two teams that will battle for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)’s one spot in the intercontinental playoff.

Europe (16 direct spots)

No team has claimed one of UEFA’s 16 berths at the 2026 World Cup. In many cases, qualifying has not even started yet, as the process is staggered based on group size.

North America and the Caribbean (3 direct spots + 2 playoff spots)

CONCACAF has not begun the decisive third round of its World Cup qualifying process, but has at least winnowed a pool of 32 entrants down to a final 12 teams. Canada, Mexico, and the United States did not have to participate in qualifying, as FIFA grants host nations an automatic berth.

Oceania (1 direct spot + 1 playoff spot)

New Zealand

New Caledonia has secured a spot as Oceania’s playoff representative.

South America (6 direct spots + 1 playoff spot)

Argentina
Brazil
Ecuador

While Uruguay and Paraguay have not officially clinched a spot in the 2026 World Cup, both cannot fall further than seventh in CONMEBOL’s qualifying process, meaning the worst either country can do is advance to the intercontinental playoff.

USA TODAY Sports’ 48-page special edition commemorates 30 years of Major League Soccer, from its best players to key milestones and championship dynasties to what exciting steps are next with the World Cup ahead. Order your copy today!

The Baltimore Ravens are dealing with a key injury to one of their top offensive playmakers early during 2025 training camp.

Tight end Isaiah Likely suffered an injury during the team’s Tuesday practice. It occurred while Likely was engaged in a one-on-one rep with Ravens safety Sanoussi Kane, per The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec.

Likely, 25, was carted off the field because of the injury. He was seen limping into the facility after getting off the cart.

Here is the latest on Likely’s injury and what it might mean for the Ravens.

Isaiah Likely injury update

Ravens coach John Harbaugh announced after practice that Likely had ‘rolled his ankle’ at the end of practice. The fourth-year veteran is slated to have an MRI on Wednesday.

‘We’ll know more tomorrow,’ Harbaugh told reporters of Likely’s injury. ‘It is gonna be a few weeks though.’

Harbaugh also noted it was ‘good’ Likely’s injury happened early during Ravens camp. That may allow the 25-year-old to return to the field with plenty of time to ramp up for Week 1.

Likely set career-best marks across the board for the Ravens in 2024, logging 42 catches for 477 yards and six touchdowns. The Ravens will likely rely on Charlie Kolar – who, like Likely, was selected in the fourth round of the 2022 NFL Draft – to serve as their foil to Mark Andrews as long as Likely is sidelined.

Ravens TE depth chart

Below is a look at the Ravens’ tight end depth chart for the 2025 NFL season.

Mark Andrews
Isaiah Likely
Charlie Kolar
Zaire Mitchell-Paden
Sam Pitz

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, returned to the national limelight this week when a gunman who believed he had the degenerative brain disease killed four people in a Manhattan skyscraper.

New York City mayor Eric Adams said that police suspect the shooter was targeting the NFL’s Manhattan office located in the building but took the wrong elevator.

CTE is linked to repeated head injuries like concussions, according to the Mayo Clinic, which has seen brains of nearly 350 former NFL players after their deaths. Boston University’s CTE center diagnosed 345 cases of CTE in the 376 former NFL players’ brains it’s studied since 2008 – a rate of 91.7%.

Of those 345 former players, there have been many notable playmakers who were diagnosed after their deaths, which is the only time CTE can be formally diagnosed.

Here’s what to know about CTE and its history with notable NFL players:

What is CTE?

CTE, which stands for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a degenerative brain disease that destroys nerve cells in the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic.

It is linked to repeated traumatic brain injury, such as concussions, and has been found in many former boxers, NFL players and military combat veterans after their deaths.

CTE can only be diagnosed after death, with no specific symptoms tied to the disease present while a victim is alive. However, symptoms with possible ties to CTE include memory loss, impulsive behavior and depression. According to the Mayo Clinic, any symptoms that form as a result of CTE form over several years following multiple instances of traumatic brain injury. They will not necessarily be present immediately after a concussion or other similar injury.

Notable NFL players diagnosed with CTE

Linebacker Jovan Belcher

Belcher played for the Chiefs for three full seasons and played in 11 more games for Kansas City in a fourth season before he killed his girlfriend, then himself, in December 2012. ESPN reported in 2014 that a medical examiner determined Belcher’s brain had signs of CTE.

Defensive back Irv Cross

Cross was a two-time Pro Bowler who played in the NFL for nine years. In his rookie season, Cross earned the nickname ‘Paper Head’ for the sheer number of concussions he suffered in the 1961 season alone, according to a 2018 interview he had with the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cross went on to become the first Black sports analyst on national TV after his career.

He was diagnosed with a form of dementia shortly before his death, which he believed could be attributed to CTE. He donated his brain to the Boston University CTE center, where it became one of the 345 from former NFL players diagnosed with the disease.

Offensive lineman Conrad Dobler

Dobler played 10 years in the NFL and appeared in the Pro Bowl for three consecutive years from 1975 to 1977. After he died in February 2023, he donated his brain to Boston University, where he was posthumously diagnosed with CTE.

Wide receiver Chris Henry

Henry played for the Cincinnati Bengals for five years – between 2005 and 2009 – before his death in December 2009. The wideout fell out of the back of a moving truck during a domestic dispute and a hit to his head led to his death. Six months later, the Brain Injury Research Institute of West Virginia announced Henry had developed CTE prior to his death.

Tight end Aaron Hernandez

Hernandez played three years for the Patriots starting in 2010. Four years after he was imprisoned for the murder of Odin Lloyd, Hernandez committed suicide in his cell. After his death, Boston University diagnosed the former tight end with CTE. A Hernandez family lawyer said while announcing his diagnosis that the case of CTE was ‘the most severe case they had ever seen in someone of Aaron’s age.’

Wide receiver Vincent Jackson

A former second-round pick by the then-San Diego Chargers in 2005, Jackson played 12 years in the NFL and made three Pro Bowls by the time he retired in 2016. He died in 2021, aged 38, from chronic alcohol use, according to a medical examiner and was diagnosed with CTE by Boston University’s CTE Center.

Offensive lineman Terry Long

Long played his entire eight-year career for the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2005, 14 years after his final season, he committed suicide by drinking an entire gallon of antifreeze shortly after an indictment for arson and fraud charges. His autopsy, performed by neuropathologist and CTE discoverer Bennet Omalu, revealed that he had the degenerative brain disease.

The gunman in Monday night’s mass shooting in Manhattan named Long by name in a rambling note found in his pocket.

Linebacker Junior Seau

Seau’s career spanned nearly three decades – from 1990 to 2009 – and was marked by numerous accolades, including first-team All-Pro recognition six times, 12 consecutive Pro Bowl seasons and a Walter Payton Man of the Year award. His 20-year career included two Super Bowl appearances: one with the Chargers in Super Bowl 29 and another with the Patriots in Super Bowl 42.

Seau committed suicide in 2012, and his family donated his brain tissue to the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. A year later, they revealed the NIH had found signs of CTE.

The linebacker was posthumously enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.

Wide receiver Demaryius Thomas

By the end of Thomas’s nine years with the Denver Broncos, he had risen to second in all-time receiving yards in the team’s history. He won a Super Bowl with Denver after the 2015 season and played four more years that included brief tenures with the Houston Texans and New York Jets. He died in December 2021 from what police called a ‘medical issue’ that stemmed from a 2019 car crash. His brain tested positive for signs of CTE after its donation to Boston University.

Tight end Frank Wycheck

Wycheck was an 11-year NFL veteran who earned three Pro Bowl nods during his career and is a member of the Titans/Oilers Ring of Honor. He was the Titans’ leading receiver for three years (1999-2001) and was the player who threw the famous lateral pass in the ‘Music City Miracle’ play that led Tennessee to a playoff win over the Buffalo Bills. Wycheck died in 2023 after falling and hitting his head. In January 2025, ESPN reported that his family confirmed Wycheck had been diagnosed with CTE after his death.

A mass shooting in New York City perpetrated by a former high school football player, Shane Tamura, has brought renewed attention to the NFL’s handling of head trauma and CTE.
Tamura, who left a note claiming he had CTE, killed four people and wounded another before taking his own life.
The NFL has faced criticism and lawsuits for allegedly misleading players about the risks of CTE and for using race-norming in concussion settlement evaluations.

The mass shooting in New York has once again put the spotlight on the National Football League’s troubling history with how the league deals with head trauma, and more recently, the links with playing football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head.

New York police say Shane Tamura, a 27-year-old Las Vegas resident who played high school football in the Los Angeles area, killed four people, including a New York City police officer, before turning the gun on himself. Mayor Eric Adams said Tamura targeted the league’s headquarters in New York, leaving a note claiming he had CTE.

Tamura also wounded an NFL employee, as police said upon entering the building at 345 Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan, Tamura took the wrong elevator and ended up in a place not originally targeted.

The NFL has been accused of misleading its players about CTE. Thousands of former players have claimed the NFL tried to cover up how football inflicted long-term brain injuries on many players. Here is a look at that history.

Jacked up

While now the league is cognizant of head trauma and has curbed its rules toward the protection of its players, especially the quarterbacks, there was a time when that wasn’t the case. The NFL marketed and sold video highlighting the hardest hits.

Once such video, ‘The Best of Thunder and Destruction: NFL’s Hardest Hits,’ was released in 1992. Its description, in part, says ‘An all-new look at pro football’s greatest hits – and the game’s hardest hitters. Find out what makes the NFL’s most punishing personalities tick – and what makes them ATTACK! The most memorable tackles in League history are recalled in a rough and tumble review of the League’s ‘hit parade,” and it names two players, Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Atwater of the Denver Broncos and former New Orleans Saints linebacker Pat Swilling, to emphasize its point.

More recently, former ESPN analyst Tom Jackson hosted the segment called ‘Jacked Up!,’ on ‘Monday Night Countdown,’ highlighting the biggest hits from the weekend’s games, with the panelists gleefully repeating the name of the segment when a player delivered a punishing hit. That segment ended after the 2006 season.

Legal battle

The NFL has repeatedly said it cares about the health and welfare of its players. But the league met its reckoning in August 2011, when several players, including lead plaintiff Ray Easterling, sued the league in a class-action lawsuit over how it handled head injuries and accused the NFL of trying to hide links between playing football and brain injuries. It added that the NFL taught players to hit with their heads when engaging an opponent.

Easterling died by suicide in April 2012 at age 62, and the NFL and the players agreed the next year to a $765 million settlement, agreeing to pay for victims’ medical exams and continue research to study the issue of head trauma. Part of the settlement allowed the league to admit no wrongdoing.

But the Washington Post, in a 2024 report, said the NFL hasn’t been holding up its end of the deal, using medical loopholes to try to get out of covering costs.

At the time of the report, the Post said about 900 settlement claims had been approved by the NFL, while another 1,100 were rejected, including ‘300 involving players who were diagnosed by the settlement’s own doctors.’ The Post claimed the collective value of these dementia claim denials could be more than $700 million.

Race norming

While players were struggling to get the funds they needed to treat their respective brain injuries, another issue came to the forefront, as the term race-norming became part of the conversation.

Race norming is the practice of the adjustment of medical test results or medical risk assessments based on a patient’s race. In this case, two players, Kevin Henry and Najeh Davenport, accused the league of discrimination based on race, where it made it harder for Black players to qualify to receive part of the settlement award based on race-based adjustments to neurocognitive test scores.

The baseline for the tests, called binary race norms, has been around for four decades and used different cognitive test baselines when tests were administered on Black and White players, but came with the assumption that Black players started with a lower cognitive function than the white players. Some scholars have said the practice is tantamount to slavery.

That simple discrepancy eliminated thousands of Black players from receiving any monetary compensation to treat their condition.

The NFL acknowledged race-norming, saying in a statement, ‘We look forward to the court’s prompt approval of the agreement, which provides for a race-neutral evaluation process that will ensure diagnostic accuracy and fairness in the concussion settlement.’

Anthony Richardson appears to be leading the Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback competition against Daniel Jones as the two rebounded after performances early in training camp.
Both quarterbacks have improved throughout camp, but Richardson’s play has showcased an ability to make tight throws and navigate pressure.
The Colts’ coaching staff emphasizes consistency as key factors in determining the starting quarterback.

WESTFIELD, Ind. – Anthony Richardson hadn’t even thrown the pass, but that didn’t stop him from jogging across the Indianapolis Colts’ practice field to dap up wide receivers Adonai Mitchell and D.J. Montgomery on separate occasions after they both hauled in long passes during the Tuesday, July 29 session of training camp. 

Pretty soon, Richardson may be running away with the Colts’ quarterback competition he’s currently in with Daniel Jones. 

No decisions have been made. But the first two days of padded practice at training camp saw Richardson assert himself as the leader in the clubhouse, with the fourth overall pick from 2023 mostly running with the first-team offense. 

“Honestly, I can’t really answer that, because it’s not really up to me to decide whether there is any separation,” Richardson said when USA TODAY Sports asked him whether he’d felt like he’d distanced himself from Jones through the first week of camp. “The only thing I can focus on is if I’m doing everything in my power to be right.” 

Richardson said he competes against himself and wants to make the decision for the coaches easy.

 “I just got to make sure I’m doing my part so they do decide ‘OK this is the guy,’” Richardson said.

Richardson completed 8 of 13 passes during his 11-on-11 reps, according to Nate Atkins of the Indianapolis Star (part of the USA TODAY Network), and he fit his throws into some tight windows. On one play, he cleanly sidestepped pressure in the pocket and added some air to a throw so Anthony Gould could adjust his route and maneuver under the ball for the completion. 

Shane Steichen and his staff, for their part, have talked about Jones and Richardson as a unit rather than individuals. Neither Richardson nor Jones – owner of a 22-44-1 career record with one playoff appearance during parts of six seasons with the New York Giants – began camp on a strong note. But like Richardson, Jones also played better Tuesday. 

“We just want to see progress every single day as we go through camp, and both of them had a really nice day today,” Steichen told reporters Monday, July 28. 

Jones said he felt good entering camp based on his spring with the Colts, who signed him to a one-year, $14 million contract – serious money for a backup that signaled their intent on having an open competition for the “QB1” job. But everything resets upon returning to training camp. The reps are faster and the intensity is higher. 

For the most part, Jones said, his process is unchanged by the competition.  

“I feel like it’s something made a bigger deal by, kind of, the story of it and the attention it gets,” Jones said. “When you’re in it and part of it, you’re preparing like you do at any point to play well.” 

The competitive nature in human beings sparks curiosity. Jones said it’s natural to think about his standing in the race. 

“I think you do your best to avoid it and stay as focused as you can on what you’re doing, I think that’s the biggest challenge,” said Jones, who said the Colts were transparent about the competition process from the time they signed him and throughout the spring. “It’s a competition, and they want to see who’s going to play well most consistently.”

What will decide the race is a better question for Steichen, Jones said. But what has been explained to them is that the quarterback who consistently shows up and makes the best decisions will earn the coaching staff’s trust to be the starter.

The competition is one that has been watched across the league. Would the Colts move on from their top pick in favor of Jones, who’d been cast aside in New York after six seasons and picked up off the scrap pile by the Minnesota Vikings to end the 2024 season? That Richardson was on a ‘pitch count’ during spring workouts due to a shoulder injury – he hasn’t been limited at all in training camp – made it all the more interesting.

Moreover, Richardson was benched halfway through last season. The team went 3-3 in his first six starts of the season (he missed two games with injury) but he completed 44.4% of his passes during that span with four touchdowns and seven interceptions. The critical juncture came during a Week 8 loss to the Houston Texans when he asked to come out of the game on a third-down play because he was tired. The move upset the locker room and Steichen benched him for two weeks in favor of Joe Flacco before reinstating Richardson until a back injury cost him the last two weeks of the season. He has missed 19 of a possible 34 starts in the NFL since being drafted. 

‘We’re not frustrated at all’: Bears’ offense was never going to be overnight sensation

This offseason, Richardson recommitted himself to being a leader, his mechanics and mastering the offense, he said. Steichen said he was pleased with Richardson’s heightened understanding of the offense entering Year 3. 

“Each guy’s had his moments for sure,” defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo told USA TODAY Sports, “so it’s going to be fun to see how it plays out.” 

Every year, Richardson said, quarterbacks have to prepare as if somebody is coming for their job. A new quarterback is on the roster every season. Not all of them are former first-rounders with a playoff victory under his belt, like Jones, but it doesn’t matter who it is – even Tom Brady, as Richardson said. 

“He’s the greatest, I just got to work and try to beat him,” Richardson said. “It’s a me versus me type of thing.” 

When is the NFL Hall of Fame game in 2025? Date, time

Richardson said he is rooting for Jones to play his best because they are in the grind together and he respects that he’s working just as hard as him. 

“He’s making plays, I’m proud of him. I’m making plays, he’s proud of me,” said Richardson, who said whichever QB brings success to the team and wins is the one the Colts need. 

Hyping up teammates is coming easy to Richardson in 2025. Richardson said All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson talked about bringing the requisite energy during a team meeting the other day. “I feel like I’m just trying to do my part,” Richardson said. “I’m just excited for guys to make plays because I know that’s going to translate to the game. I know that if it happens in a game, I’m going to do the same exact thing.” 

Except once the regular season rolls around, Richardson hopes it’s him who’s throwing the passes that ignite the celebrations.

Any team acquiring Morton will get a 41-year-old sage, a two-time World Series champion and a master of reinvention who has turned a deceptive fastball and tight curve into an 18-year career.

They will also get a player unlike any other, one whose early-season underperformance exacerbated the Baltimore Orioles’ disappointing descent into last place, yet whose talent and self-awareness extracted himself from that morass into an asset desired by other teams.

Perhaps more than any big leaguer, Morton feels every dip and ascent deeply. And this season was a four-month journey that at times delved into guilt and remorse, doubt and denial – while wondering whether he should continue accepting his $15 million salary while his wife and four kids were home without him.

Those emotions won’t be far beneath the surface this week if the trade winds propel Morton to yet another destination.

“It wasn’t like, ‘Is your stuff good enough?’ It was a question of, morally and ethically, am I obligated to just shut it down because my performance wasn’t good enough? Was that the right thing to do?” Morton tells USA TODAY Sports a day before his July 29 start, which could be his final home outing at Camden Yards.

“You have a team where there’s a lot of expectation and you’re a big part of the reason why the team’s struggling. Once every five or six days I go out there and I stink, then you start thinking, how long is this going to take to work out?”

Turns out it was less than a month.

‘Is this right or wrong?’

While the Orioles would find greater depths, rock bottom for Morton came April 20, an Easter Sunday start in which he gave up seven runs but recorded just seven outs against the Cincinnati Reds, a 24-2 throttling that portended grimmer things for the 9-12 Orioles.

Morton’s plight was even uglier. After five starts, his ERA was 10.89. Opponents were batting .352 and reaching base at a .442 clip. His fastball still crackled and his curveball snapped, but he was getting pummeled, the details still fresh in his mind.

“I remember taking off my jersey after the Reds start – I think I gave up seven or eight runs in two innings – and that’s when I started to think, man, is this right or wrong?” he says.  “Which is crazy to think about. That out of how many hundreds of games I’ve pitched in my professional career, that after five starts, you still allow yourself to question how good you are. How bad it is. Or how much better it can be.

“It’s really irrational. At the same time, it’s not. You’ve only got so much time. You only have so many starts in a season. The team only has so many starts it can give the ball to you before, ‘Alright, Charlie…’

“But I think the emotional part of it was more, I’m now paying my time and worth to be here. Instead of at home with my family. I continued to play because there were some personal reasons and personal feelings I had where I felt like I wasn’t done yet.

“So when you’re sitting here on a 12 ERA after five starts and you’re thinking, there’s our owner and our general manager, our manager, our pitching coach and my teammates, the fans. All those people are counting on you. Your kids are counting on you at home.

“And so you’re paying the price of time to be here. And the team is giving you their time and money to be here. It’s a very philosophically conflicting place to be. That’s what made it hard.”

Thankfully, crawling out of it wasn’t as emotionally heavy as falling in.

‘The reason you’re there is because you stink’

Morton has pitched for a half-dozen franchises since his 2008 debut, including two stints with Atlanta, toiling for double-digit pitching coaches. He’s lived the modern pitching evolution, debuting two years before the iPad hit the market and persevering long enough to see pitchers rely on it like an infant needs their binkie.

To this point, he gives significant credit to Orioles pitching coach Drew French for his emotional bandwidth and possessing, as Morton says, “a feeling you have, a trust in the best ones I’ve worked with.

“It’s not just, can they talk about executing a pitch at the knees or spinning a breaking ball, or, can you read a Trackman chart. Most of ‘em, it’s found in the personality and the character of the person. For me, Frenchy was a really big deal for me this year, talking me through some stuff.”

Yet some things can only be solved from within.

With Morton still averaging better than 94 mph on both his four-seam fastball and sinker, the problems were not with his arm, or his pitch grip or repertoire, nor anything that he said could be found “on a skeletal model or on video.”

Instead, it was buried within the subtle elements that have enabled Morton to win 144 career games and continue hearing his phone ring each winter, with contract offers good enough to lure him from his Connecticut home.

Touch and feel. Balance. Timing. Those things can get lost in the early-season blitzkrieg, where bad starts compounded and a trip to the bullpen was truly the only way Morton could slow it down and recalibrate.

Morton’s ego could handle the demotion, save for what it represented.

“The reason why you’re there is because you stink. Because you’re not good enough to pitch in the rotation,” he says. “And someone that literally just signed you two months ago thinks you’re not good enough to pitch in the rotation. Or would benefit from pitching out of the bullpen.

“That’s a whole different cycle, a whole different process. It’s emotional, it’s mental, it’s physical – a whole new set of challenges.

“I was allowed to go through a process that I could start to really feel what I was doing. And try to find that feeling again – the balance in my lower half. The tempo that I’m used to. And that really kind of makes me who I am.”

His resurrection occurred far quicker than could be imagined on his Easter nadir. He still remembers the moment – a bullpen session in Anaheim on May 10, his father’s birthday – where the touch and the feel and the balance were there.

Morton pitched two perfect innings that day, returned to the rotation two weeks later and has been mostly superb since. In 13 games, including 10 starts, he’s struck out 71 batters in 63 ⅔ innings, posted a 3.53 ERA and given up seven home runs – after giving up five in his first 20 innings pitched.

He’s also pitched just 95 ⅓ innings, offering a relatively fresh arm for a contender with November dreams.

‘There’s just regret’

It’s been a decade since Morton’s been traded, a December 2015 swap in which Pittsburgh shipped him across the state to Philadelphia. It was then that Morton began a transformation that wouldn’t fully take until he signed with the Houston Astros before the 2017 season.

And they still call him Charlie Bleeping Morton (complimentary) in Houston.

He went 29-10 in two seasons there, most notably pitching the last four innings of World Series Game 7 in 2017, a Fall Classic where he gave up one run in 10 ⅓ innings.

Two seasons in Tampa Bay brought a raucous 2019 playoff run and a trip to the COVID bubble World Series in 2020. Morton was still coming down from that emotional six-game loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers when Atlanta GM Alex Anthopoulos called, asking if he wanted to be a Brave.

One year later, he started Game 1 of the World Series at Houston, but a Yuli Gurriel line drive struck him in the right leg. Morton steeled himself against the pain, threw 16 pitches and finished the fourth inning, retiring three batters.

On a broken fibula.

The Braves would win the game and the World Series, and it’s not just the extra jewelry Morton would bring to a contender seeking pitching.

And yet, there’s still the lingering feeling of what could’ve been in Baltimore, dampening any excitement he might harbor about gaining a few spots in the standings via trade, let alone the uncertainty of getting uprooted.

“Really, the only way I think I can explain it is, how would you feel?” he says. “Maybe younger guys, there’s more excitement in the anticipation. I’ve gotten to pitch in a few World Series. Got to pitch in a bunch of playoff games. Got to be on a bunch of really good teams.

“For me, having actually contributed to the successes of teams in the past, being here right now, getting to know everybody here, I want them to feel that, too. And that, for me, is sad. Because I know I didn’t do my part for that to happen. I finally start to get to know everybody in here, start to feel that connection with everybody in the room, and if that’s the direction the team’s going, it’s too late.

“It’s too late on the baseball side. It’s not too late on the friendship side. That’s more where I am mentally and emotionally. There’s just regret.”

By week’s end, there may be a seventh team added to Morton’s career grid, or perhaps a return engagement in Houston or Philly. Either way, come November, he’ll converse with his family, “weigh everything through the lens of a husband and a father,” he says, and decide whether he wants to do this for a 19th season.

His children are now 12, 10, 8 and 6, Morton and his wife taking on the impossible task constructing a cost-benefit ratio of another year of a well-paying job versus the pull of home life.

“And then it’s like, well, OK, is it the right fit?” says Morton. “Is it the right place? Is it something we can make work?”

Morton almost always seems to pull that part off.

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The gunman who killed four people at a New York City office building Monday had an extensive prep high school career.

Authorities say 27-year-old Shane Tamura was targeting the headquarters of the National Football League at 345 Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan, but took the wrong elevator bank and ended up on the 33rd floor instead of floors 5-8, where the NFL offices are located. Tamura killed four people, including an off-duty New York City police officer.

Tamura’s athletic career was limited to high school football, and videos show him speaking after a September 2015 game his senior season, when he played for Granada Hills Charter School in Los Angeles.

“Right before the play, coach asked me if the 2-screen was open,” Tamura said. “I told him ‘yes. I got this coach.’ I caught the pass and weaved my way down and then broke free. I ran as hard as I could.”

“We kept our heads up,” said Tamura, who had 21 carries for 95 yards in the game. ‘The coaches told us to let it all go. We had to keep our heads and keep playing. There was a lot of emotions and anger about this game. We wanted to win this one real bad. We worked hard and practiced extra late for this game. This rivalry has been around longer than I have been alive. It’s a big one.”

According to MaxPreps, Tamura, listed at 5-foot-7, 140 pounds, had 126 carries, 600 rushing yards, and five touchdowns during his senior season at Granada Hills.

‘Granada Hills Charter (GHC) is aware of the tragic event in Manhattan involving a former student who attended the 2015 Fall Semester and has had no connection with the school since his withdrawal a decade ago,’ the school said in a statement. ‘Because student records are protected under FERPA, we cannot release additional personal or academic information.

‘We are horrified by the violence in New York. It is heartbreaking, and we extend our deepest sympathies to the victims, their families, and affected communities. Because this remains an active investigation, we are deferring to the NYPD and federal authorities for all further details.

‘Granada Hills Charter will cooperate with law enforcement as necessary. We will not be releasing any further statements or facilitating interview requests.’

Dan Kelley, a coach at Golden Valley High School, where Tamura played for three seasons before transferring to Granada Hills, told the Los Angeles Times that he remembered Tamura as “a good athlete.”

Investigators said Tamura had a history of mental illness and left a note that was found on his body suggesting a grievance with the NFL. In the note, he claimed to suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive neurodegenerative disease, usually linked to repeated blows to the head, and can only be diagnosed after death.

This story has been updated with new information.

The database shows CMU involved in an investigation that began on Oct. 31, 2023, the same day as photos were posted online that appeared to show then-Michigan defensive analyst Connor Stalions on the Chippewas’ sidelines for the school’s season-opening game against Michigan State in 2023.

The individual in the photos disguised his appearance with facial hair and was dressed similarly to members of the Central Michigan coaching staff. The person also wore sunglasses with a light in the corner, strongly suggesting the use of a recording device.

Stalions didn’t recall attending “a specific game there,” he said during an interview for a recent Netflix documentary. “I don’t even think this guy looks like me.”

In a statement provided last November in the wake of the documentary’s release, Central Michigan said, “We are aware of inferences made in the new Netflix documentary regarding former University of Michigan football staff member Connor Stalions accessing the CMU sidelines during our opening game last September. For the past ten months, CMU has fully cooperated with the NCAA’s ongoing investigation, and we will continue to cooperate with the NCAA as it works to complete its investigation.”

Multiple reports have linked Stalions to the purchase of tickets to games involving Michigan opponents, which he allegedly sent to collaborators who would record videos of the teams’ signals. Stalions would then decode the signals by matching them to offensive and defensive plays, theoretically providing the Wolverines with an unbalanced advantage.

The NCAA enforcement arm is expected to announce a decision on possible penalties at some point before the start of this season. Michigan has taken preemptive steps to mitigate the severity of any ruling, including by handing coach Sherrone Moore a two-game suspension this September. Moore was one of former coach Jim Harbaugh’s top assistants when the sign-stealing endeavor was alleged to have occurred.

At the time of Stalions’ alleged appearance at the Michigan State game, CMU was coached by former Michigan offensive coordinator Jim McElwain. The Chippewas’ quarterback coach at the time with Jake Kostner, who previously overlapped with Stalions as a student assistant with the Wolverines from 2015-18. Kostner resigned before the start of the 2024 season and McElwain retired at the end of the season.