Is Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts a ‘supporting-cast merchant?’ Has he been carried to success by his ultra-talented offensive line and the super-group of explosive play-makers the team has surrounded him with?

Not in his head coach’s opinion.

‘I think that’s bulls—,’ Sirianni said of the narrative, according to reports. ‘I mean, he plays the most important position in all sports, and it’s the most ultimate team game there is. And what I admire about him is his selflessness of doing anything we need to do to win.

‘Anybody who plays quarterback is going to want to throw it 50 times a game. But he’ll do anything. If he has to throw 50 times a game, he’s ready to do that. If he has to hand it off 50 times a game, he’s ready to do that.’

As is often the case after a team wins the Super Bowl, the Eagles’ quarterback has been the subject of criticism from fans and analysts alike.

The gravitational pull of running back Saquon Barkley’s prowess moved Philadelphia’s offensive focus toward its run game and away from the pass in 2024. Hurts’ 361 pass attempts and 2,903 passing yards were both career-low marks since he took over as the Eagles’ full-time starter in 2021.

Regardless of how it happened, the Eagles won the Super Bowl earlier this year. Hurts won Super Bowl MVP after completing more than 77% of his pass attempts and scoring three touchdowns – two in the air and one on the ground.

‘Anytime I hear (criticism of Hurts), it’s cool, it’s like a nice debate thing that people like to have,’ Sirianni said. ‘And I get it, there’s a lot of hours that TV shows and radio stations have to fill to be able to fill that debate. I understand that, but we’re talking about the ultimate team game there is and he does whatever he needs to do to win each and every game.’

Sirianni went on to point out other quarterbacks, who are considered ‘great’ irrespective of the immense level of talent around them: Tom Brady with Rob Gronkowski and Steve Young with Jerry Rice being a couple of specific examples.

‘I just think sometimes that’s good debate, I guess. I wouldn’t even say it’s good debate, but it’s debate that people are able to have. But yeah, I guess, my first initial thing was it’s bulls—.’

The Tampa Bay Rays will host any 2025 MLB playoff games at their temporary home of George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged Tuesday, July 15.

Speaking to reporters in Atlanta on the afternoon of the All-Star Game, Manfred acknowledged concerns that have been raised about the stadium’s capacity of just over 11,000 being far smaller than any other potential playoff site. But he cut off speculation that the Rays could move to a larger park in another location for the postseason.

‘Our rule has always been that people play in their home stadiums during the World Series. And I’m not of a mind to change that rule,’ Manfred told the Tampa Bay Times. ‘I understand it’s a unique situation. It’s different, but that’s where they’re playing. That’s where they’re going to play their games.’

According to a report last month in The Athletic, there would be few issues with the Rays hosting a wild card or divisional playoff game at Steinbrenner Field.

However, if the team reached the AL championship series or the World Series, the scarcity of seats would create a number of problems for MLB.

The league office holds thousands of tickets for the LCS and World Series in reserve for a variety of participants and stakeholders. The reduced gate receipts would cut significantly into the players’ share of the postseason revenue. And the networks broadcasting the games wouldn’t have the usual amount of space and access needed to provide expanded coverage.

With a record of 50-47 at the All-Star break, the Rays are in fourth place in the AL East division, 5 ½ games behind the Toronto Blue Jays. They are fourth in the AL wild-card race, 1 ½ games behind the Seattle Mariners for the AL’s third and final wild-card berth.

Manfred said construction is on track to have Tropicana Field ready for the Rays’ 2026 season opener. He added that contingencies are in place, however, if the stadium is not ready by opening day.

Major League Soccer Golden Boot co-leader Sam Surridge, and former league MVPs Hany Mukhtar and Carles Gil are among six players added to the 2025 MLS All-Star roster, the league announced Tuesday, July 15. 

Surridge has been a frontrunner in the MLS Golden Boot race this season with 16 goals – a mark recently tied by Inter Miami All-Star Lionel Messi in the last month – but was a notable snub when the All-Star roster was first announced on June 25. Surridge will make his first All-Star appearance. 

The 2025 MLS All-Star Game will be played on Wednesday, July 23 at 9 p.m. ET (MLS Season Pass on Apple TV), with the MLS All-Stars facing off against standouts from Mexico’s LIGA MX at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas. The additions were made by MLS All-Star head coach Nico Estévez of Austin FC. 

Surridge and Mukhtar, the 2022 MLS MVP making his fourth consecutive All-Star appearance, have been instrumental in helping Nashville SC to second place in the Eastern Conference behind the Philadelphia Union. 

Mukhtar is one of four players in MLS with 10 goals and eight assists this season. He joins the other three already named 2025 All-Stars in Cincinnati’s Evander (13 goals, eight assists) and San Diego’s Anders Dreyer (11 goals, 15 assists) and Orlando City’s Martín Ojeda (10 goals, nine assists). Mukhtar leads all players with 76 goals and 132 goal contributions since joining MLS in 2020. 

Gil, a midfielder for the New England Revolution and  the MLS MVP in 2021, earns his third All-Star nod leading the club with 15 goal contributions (eight goals, seven assists) in 21 matches this season. 

San Jose Earthquakes midfielder Cristian Espinoza earns his second MLS All-Star Game appearance. He has 11 assists and four goals in 20 matches, and has recorded at least 11 assists in each of the last four seasons.

Orlando City SC forwardMarco Pašalić, an All-Star for the first time, has 10 goals and four assists in 22 matches during his first season with the club. 

Seattle Sounders FC midfielder Obed Vargas, who became the third-youngest player in MLS history to appear in a match at 16 in 2022, is also a first-time All-Star. The 19-year-old midfielder has a goal and three assists in 18 starts during the regular season, and is considered one of the league’s most promising young players.

Messi, 38, is the oldest player on the 2025 MLS All-Star roster followed by his Inter Miami teammate Jordi Alba, 36. It’s unclear whether the Argentine World Cup champion and 2024 MLS MVP will participate in the showcase. He did not last year. 

Seven players from the U.S. men’s national team were among MLS All-Stars initially announced: Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte), Max Arfsten (Columbus), Alex Freeman (Orlando), Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake), Miles Robinson (Cincinnati), Sebastian Berhalter and Brian White (Vancouver). 

Austin FC forward Brandon Vazquez won’t participate after he suffered a season-ending ACL tear in his right knee during the US Open Cup quarterfinal match against San Jose Earthquakes on July 8. 

2025 MLS All-Star roster by position and selection mechanism

GOALKEEPERS (3)

Dayne St. Clair (Minnesota United FC / Voted In)
Brad Stuver (Austin FC / Coach’s Selection)
Yohei Takaoka (Vancouver Whitecaps FC / Coach’s Selection)

DEFENDERS (8)

Jordi Alba (Inter Miami CF / Voted In)
Max Arfsten (Columbus Crew / Coach’s Selection)
Tristan Blackmon (Vancouver Whitecaps FC / Voted In)
Michael Boxall (Minnesota United FC / Voted In)
Alex Freeman (Orlando City SC / Voted In)
Jakob Glesnes (Philadelphia Union / Coach’s Selection)
Andy Najar (Nashville SC / Coach’s Selection)
Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati / Coach’s Selection)

MIDFIELDERS (10)

Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver Whitecaps FC / Voted In)
David Da Costa (Portland Timbers / Coach’s Selection)
Cristian Espinoza (San Jose Earthquakes / Coach’s Addition)
Evander (FC Cincinnati / Voted In)
Carles Gil (New England Revolution / Coach’s Addition)
Diego Luna (Real Salt Lake / Voted In)
Hany Mukhtar (Nashville SC / Coach’s Addition) 
Jeppe Tverskov (San Diego FC / Coach’s Selection)
Obed Vargas (Seattle Sounders / Coach’s Addition) 
Philip Zinckernagel (Chicago Fire FC / Coach’s Selection)

FORWARDS / WINGERS (11)

Patrick Agyemang (Charlotte FC / Commissioner’s Pick)
Tai Baribo (Philadelphia Union / Voted In)
Denis Bouanga (LAFC / Voted In)
Anders Dreyer (San Diego FC / Coach’s Selection)
Hirving ‘Chucky’ Lozano (San Diego FC / Commissioner’s Pick)
Lionel Messi (Inter Miami CF / Voted In)
Marco Pašalić (Orlando City SC / Coach’s Addition)
Diego Rossi (Columbus Crew / Coach’s Selection)
Sam Surridge (Nashville SC / Coach’s Addition) 
Brandon Vazquez (Austin FC / Coach’s Selection /Injured)
Brian White (Vancouver Whitecaps FC / Voted In)

The WNBA’s Portland expansion team is reigniting the flames of history ahead of its 2026 debut.

On Tuesday, the league’s 15th franchise announced the team is reviving a familiar name: the Portland Fire.

The organization, owned by RAJ Sports since 2024, is reimagining the name from the WNBA’s original Fire franchise that launched in 2000 before folding after three seasons. ‘Portland is the city where our fire never died, and the passion to compete still burns,’ a video developed for the announcement said.

The revelation confirms a June 2025 report of multiple filed trademark applications related to the team’s nickname.

A new logo and a striking red, blue, brown and pink color palette was also shared, leaning into a modern reimagining of the team’s nickname in the Rose City. The reemergence of the city’s WNBA team also comes with plans for a first-of-its-kind dual-sport women’s performance center to be shared with the NSWL’s Portland Thorns, also owned by RAJ Sports.

‘There’s a vision that is tied to a goal to make Portland the global epicenter of women’s sports,’ interim president Clare Hamill told USA TODAY. ‘So that’s a big vision, and these two teams, the Thorns and the Portland Fire, fit squarely into that. There’s a vision about having an impact and connecting deeply to Portland and the culture of Portland and the fans with this team, and being a part of [the city] again.’

The excitement around the Fire is already heating up. Portland has surpassed 10,000 season ticket deposits and is reportedly on track to surpass a previous WNBA season ticket record set by the Golden State Valkyries earlier this year. The Valkyries have seemingly become the unofficial standard for expansion franchises in the W.

‘They’ve crushed it,’ Hamill said. ‘I mean, they have done a fantastic job. They’ve done it because they’ve focused on the fans and the fan experience and the audiences that they serve.’

Still, the former Nike executive says despite the desire to excel immediately, there also remains a need to be patient to avoid the pitfalls of the past. In Portland’s eyes, it starts with fans and giving them front row access to the team and opportunities to be involved.

‘The biggest lesson is how involved the fans were and how big a fan base [Portland] had. I mean, even for 2001 and 2002, just attendance at the games. I even talked to one of the former players, and all she could talk about was just the fans when she played here. And so I think if we can fill that gap now and say, ‘Welcome back to the Portland Fire and take a look at this new modern future’ … that’s a lesson.’

Portland joins a wave of WNBA franchises expected by 2030. Next season, the Toronto Tempo will make their WNBA debut before Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia begin play in the years that follow. “The demand for women’s basketball has never been higher,’ commissioner Cathy Engelbert recently said.

“This historic expansion is a powerful reflection of our league’s extraordinary momentum, the depth of talent across the game, and the surging demand for investment in women’s professional basketball. We are excited for what these cities will bring to the league – and are confident that these new teams will reshape the landscape of women’s basketball.”

ATLANTA – He has never done this before, never put so much emphasis on what amounts to less than 10 percent of a football season. 

One game. One lousy game is now everything at LSU.

“Because now it’s a goal,” LSU coach Brian Kelly says. “A tangible, specific and difficult goal.”

And a flashpoint to what has become a critical season for Kelly.

When LSU travels to Clemson to begin the season, it’s more than a mega matchup between two blue bloods with national title hopes. More than a crossroads for Kelly’s buildout at LSU. 

It’s a microcosm of the now great unknown of college football.

The Brian Kelly of old would never put so much emphasis on one game, much less sell out for the first game of the season. But the here and now and transitory nature of college football is different, and it demands drastic measures after consecutive losses in season openers to Florida State (twice) and Southern California.

So Kelly had Clemson signage placed all over the football facility at LSU. Logos and paw prints all over the weight room and heavy bags, strategically placed to leave no doubt.

He has preached all offseason that this is the most talented team he has had since arriving at LSU in 2022, seemingly willing his team to embrace the expectations. The message didn’t change during the first day of SEC Media Days.

He says this should be the best offense he has had at LSU (hello, Jayden Daniels), and now believes highly paid defensive coordinator Blake Baker has the personnel to build the unit into the nation’s elite. 

There are no more excuses. In other words, the Clemson game is big. Really big — and Kelly doesn’t care who knows it, or how LSU has prepared for it. 

It can be – and more than likely will be – a season-defining moment before the calendar flips to September. 

“We can’t play like we have in the (previous) season openers,” said LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier. “Everyone knows it, and we’ve embraced it. There’s a sense of urgency on this team.”

Something had to change, had to shake a program that over-delivered in Year 1 under Kelly (beat Alabama, won the SEC West Division), but has struggled to take the next step since. Part of the problem is a lack of elite players, part is the unique circumstances of the ever-changing environment in college football. 

And all of it is sandwiched around the dichotomy of building now vs. building for the future — in the middle of the storm of expectations.

The three coaches at LSU prior to Kelly – Nick Saban, Les Miles, Ed Orgeron – all won the national title by their third season. Kelly’s third season with nine wins was his worst in Baton Rouge.

So why change everything you’ve known as real and tangible in more than three decades of coaching, and bank an entire offseason on one game?   

“Because this team is mature enough to handle it,” Kelly said. 

Which is in direct contrast to Kelly’s previous three seasons in Baton Rouge. When Kelly arrived at LSU, the plan was to build through high school recruiting, and supplement with the transfer portal.

That ended quickly when he got a look at the roster, and realized the heavy lift ahead. It was more than talent, it was philosophy and preparation and intent — and all of it was woefully inconsistent.

LSU had the best player in college football in 2023 (Jayden Daniels), and an historically poor defense. LSU had one of the top five quarterbacks in college football in 2024 (Nussmeier), and a team that failed to consistently zero in on big games.

So Kelly loaded up on impact transfers from the portal, completely revamping the secondary on defense and adding elite pass rushers from FSU (Patrick Payton) and Florida (Jack Pyburn). More important, Kelly added impact players with intangibles off the field to help galvanize the locker room. 

“The guys we added could’ve stayed where they were and still been drafted by the NFL,” Kelly said. “These guys came here to win a championship.”

That, everyone, is the statement of the season. Not a non-conference game that LSU could lose and still advance to the College Football Playoff. 

This is about championship or bust, and the Clemson game is the first step. 

“Every week is about going 1-0,” said LSU wideout Chris Hilton Jr. “Stack those 1-0’s together and see where it ends. The first one is Clemson.”

The flashpoint to a critical season. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg has agreed in principle to sell the team to a group headed by Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski for roughly $1.7 billion, according to a report by The Athletic.

The agreement comes just four months after the Rays backed away from a deal to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg near the site of their longtime home, Tropicana Field.

The deal is expected to be completed as soon as September, an unnamed source told The Athletic, with the club remaining in the Tampa Bay area. However, the source said Zalupski’s group has a strong preference to be in Tampa, rather than St. Petersburg.

Sternberg headed a group that bought the Rays in 2004 for $200 million. He has spent considerable time since then attempting to find a new stadium to replace Tropicana Field, which was built in 1990 and is generally regarded as one of MLB’s worst stadiums.

The most promising opportunity materialized last year with an agreement on a sprawling $1.3 billion ballpark project on essentially the same site. However, a pair of hurricanes devastated Tampa Bay last fall, rendering the Trop unplayable and creating a fiscal and political environment that the club determined was untenable.

As repairs continue in an effort to get the ballpark ready for the 2026 season, the Rays are playing their home games at George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, the New York Yankees’ spring training headquarters.