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SPIELBERG, Austria ― Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the Formula One season on Sunday, June 28, after a collision with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli on the opening lap of Red Bull’s home Austrian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris won the race from pole position in a McLaren one-two after fending off championship-leading teammate Oscar Piastri.

The four-time world champion Verstappen had started seventh on the grid, with Italian rookie Antonelli ninth, at a circuit where he has won a record five times.

Antonelli, who clearly caused the Turn Three collision, also retired and the safety car was deployed.

‘I’m out, I got hit like crazy,’ Verstappen, third in the championship going into the race, said over the team radio.

‘Sorry about that, I locked the rear,’ Antonelli told his team.

The retirement ended a run of 31 grands prix in the points for the Dutch driver, whose fans throng in their thousands to the Red Bull Ring.

The race had started later than scheduled after Carlos Sainz’s Williams was stuck on the grid as cars moved away for the formation lap.

Sainz eventually got going and returned to the pitlane, where his car’s brakes caught fire before being extinguished by mechanics with smoke still billowing out as he was pushed back and into retirement.

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Nearly all the universal injunctions blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda were issued by just five of the nation’s 94 federal district courts, a statistic that the administration said lays bare the Left’s strategy of lawfare.

Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke at a news conference Friday just after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision that district judges, the lowest-level jurists in the federal system, cannot impose nationwide injunctions. Bondi noted that out of 40 nationwide injunctions issued since Trump retook the White House, 35 came out of five districts perceived as liberal.

‘Active liberal… judges have used these injunctions to block virtually all of President Trump’s policies,’ Bondi said. ‘No longer. No longer.’

Nationwide injunctions are court orders that prevent the federal government from implementing a policy or law. They have a cascading effect impacting the entire country, not just the parties involved in the court case, and have been used against the Trump administration at a vastly higher rate than previous administrations. 

Trump’s first administration faced 64 injunctions out of the total 127 nationwide injunctions issued since 1963, Fox News Digital previously reported. There were 32 injunctions issued against the Bush, Obama and Biden administrations collectively since 2001, meaning the first Trump administration was on the receiving end of double the amount of nationwide injunctions than his two predecessors and successor combined, according to an April 2024 edition of the Harvard Law Review. 

Bondi pointed to the five district courts – Maryland, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, California and Washington state – calling it ‘crazy’ that such an overwhelming number of nationwide injunctions originated in those jurisdictions. Conservatives have accused the Left of bringing their cases in liberal judicial districts stocked with Democratic-appointed judges.

Fox News Digital looked at the five district courts and how judges in them have issued sweeping injunctions that have hampered Trump’s federal policies. 

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

The Supreme Court agreed this year to take up three consolidated cases involving nationwide injunctions handed down by federal district judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state related to Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. 

The U.S. District Court for Maryland was one of the courts nationwide that issued an injunction against Trump’s January executive order to end the practice of granting birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. Maryland U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued the injunction in February following a lawsuit brought by five pregnant illegal immigrant women in the state, which was followed by other district judges in Washington state and Massachusetts ordering injunctions of their own. 

The Maryland district court also issued a separate preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s executive orders ending federal support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in February. 

The court recently came under fire from the Trump administration when the Department of Justice filed lawsuits against each of the 15 federal judges on the Maryland federal bench earlier this month for automatically issuing injunctions for certain immigration cases. The injunctions have prevented the Department of Homeland Security from deporting or changing the legal status of the immigrant in question for two business days.

‘President Trump’s executive authority has been undermined since the first hours of his presidency by an endless barrage of injunctions designed to halt his agenda,’ Bondi said in a press release of the state’s automatic injunction practices.  ‘The American people elected President Trump to carry out his policy agenda: this pattern of judicial overreach undermines the democratic process and cannot be allowed to stand.’

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

Judges on the bench for the Northern District of California have issued at least six significant injunctions hampering policies put forth by the Trump administration this year. The Northern California district court includes counties such as San Francisco, Sonoma and Santa Clara. 

Back in March, Judge William Alsup, for example, granted a preliminary injunction ordering federal agencies to reinstate probationary employees fired under the Trump administration’s efforts to slim down the size of the federal government. Judge Susan Illston granted a temporary pause in May to the Trump administration’s federal reductions in force initiatives, and Judge William Orrick granted a separate injunction in April that prevented the Trump administration from withholding federal funds from areas deemed sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. 

Federal judges on the Northern California bench also issued injunctions to block the enforcement of Trump administration polices related to organizations that promote DEI and LGBTQ programs and to prevent the administration from terminating the legal visa status of international students. 

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has issued at least six signigicant injunctions against the Trump administration this year, including Judge James Boasberg’s March injunction preventing the Trump administration from deporting violent illegal immigrant gang members under the Alien Enemies Act – which received widespread backlash among conservatives.  

‘People are shocked by what is going on with the Court System. I was elected for many reasons, but a principal one was LAW AND ORDER, a big part of which is QUICKLY removing a vast Criminal Network of individuals, who came into our Country through the Crooked Joe Biden Open Borders Policy! These are dangerous and violent people, who kill, maim and, in many other ways, harm the people of our Country,’ Trump posted to Truth Social in March following Boasberg extending his restraining order against the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants with alleged ties to gangs, such as Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA).

Federal Judge Loren AliKhan issued a preliminary injunction in January barring the Trump administration’s freeze on federal grant disbursements through various federal agencies; Judge Paul Friedman blocked the Trump administration from targeting foreign service workers’ collective bargaining rights in May; and Judge Ana Reyes granted a nationwide injunction in March barring the Pentagon from enforcing Trump’s executive order banning transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military. 

Judges on the court have also issued injunctions targeting the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle the federally-funded state media network Voice of America, and another that blocked the Bureau of Prisons from implementing a Trump executive order restricting transgender healthcare and accommodations for federal inmates. 

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has issued at least four significant injunctions against the Trump administration this year, including the nationwide preliminary injunction barring Trump’s executive order ending the practice of granting birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. 

Other injunctions issued this year include Judge Julia Kobick this month blocked Trump’s presidential action requiring passports to reflect a person’s biological sex and not their gender identity, and another that involved the Trump administration’s efforts to end a Biden-era parole program for hundreds of thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Latin America and Ukraine.

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

Ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the scope of nationwide injunctions, judges on the District Court for the Western District of Washington issued a handful of injunctions targeting Trump policies, including joining courts in Maryland and Massachusetts earlier this year blocking Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. 

Judge Jamal Whitehead issued a preliminary injunction in February halting Trump’s January executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program. While another federal judge on the bench in March granted a nationwide preliminary injunction blocking Trump’s executive order barring transgender individuals from serving in the military.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington includes counties such as King – home to Seattle – Snohomish and Clark. The two courts for the Western District of Washington and the Northern District of California are both in the 9th Circuit. 

Trump celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling restricting the scope of federal judges’ powers to grant nationwide injunctions as ‘a monumental victory for the Constitution.’

‘The Supreme Court has delivered a monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law in striking down the excessive use of nationwide injunctions… I was elected on a historic mandate, but in recent months, we’ve seen a handful of radical left judges effectively try to overrule the rightful powers of the president to stop the American people from getting the policies that they voted for in record numbers. It was a grave threat to democracy,’ Trump said on Friday. 

SCOTUS’ ruling followed the Trump administration filing an emergency appeal with the highest court in March, when the then-acting solicitor general, Sarah Harris, sounded the alarm that nationwide injunctions had hit ‘epidemic proportions’ under the second Trump administration. She noted that the federal government faced 14 universal injunctions in the first three years of the Biden administration, compared to 15 leveled against the Trump admin in one month alone. 

Universal injunctions were also a sticking point for officials in the first Trump administration, who railed against the flow of injunctions ordered against the 45th president’s policies and laws, including the former chiefs of the Department of Justice. 

‘Courts issued an average of only 1.5 nationwide injunctions per year against the Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, and 2.5 per year against the Obama administration,’ former Assistant Attorney General Beth Williams said in February 2019.  

‘In President Trump’s first year in office, however, judges issued a whopping 20 nationwide injunctions – an eight-fold increase. This matches the entire eight-year total of such injunctions issued against President Obama during his two terms. We are now at 30, matching the total number of injunctions issued against the first 42 presidents combined.’

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller, Breanne Deppisch and Ashley Oliver contributed to this report. 

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Sen. Thom Tillis, one of the two Republicans to vote against advancing President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ plans to retire from the Senate at the end of his term.

The North Carolina Republican announced on Sunday that he would not seek reelection in the 2026 cycle. Tillis would have been among the most vulnerable Republicans running next year and faced threats from Trump to face a challenger after his vote against the president’s agenda Saturday night.

The lawmaker voted against advancing the bill and is likely to vote against final passage, because deep Medicaid cuts inside the colossal bill brought on changes to the Medicaid provider tax rate.

Tillis railed against the slow death of bipartisanship in Washington in a statement.

‘In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,’ he said.

Tillis gave a shout-out to former Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for their unwillingness to not ‘cave to their party bosses to nuke the filibuster for the sake of political expediency.’

‘They ultimately retired, and their presence in the Senate chamber has been sorely missed every day since,’ he said.

‘It underscores the greatest form of hypocrisy in American politics. When people see independent thinking on the other side, they cheer,’ he continued. ‘But when those very same people see independent thinking coming from their side, they scorn, ostracize, and even censure them.’

He said that the choice broke down to spending time with his family, or spending another six years in Washington navigating ‘the political theater and partisan gridlock.’

‘It’s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking re-election,’ he said.

However, Tillis did give himself wiggle room to rebuke Trump over the next 18 months, as he did earlier this year when he refused to support Ed Martin, the president’s pick to serve as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. The decision scuttled Martin’s nomination. 

‘I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit,’ he said. 

His decision to retire tees up what will likely be a competitive race in North Carolina, and one that Democrats will look to pounce on quickly.

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Maeve Coyle said in a statement shortly after Tillis’ decision that his choice ‘not to run for re-election is another blow to Republicans’ chances as they face a midterm backlash that puts their majority at risk.’ 

‘Even Tillis admits the GOP plan to slash Medicaid and spike costs for families is toxic – and in 2026, Democrats will flip North Carolina’s Senate seat,’ she said.  

However, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-S.C., contended that Trump would remain a huge factor in the upcoming midterm cycle given that he has won North Carolina three times and that the state has been represented by two Republican senators for over a decade. 

‘That streak will continue in 2026 when North Carolinians elect a conservative leader committed to advancing an agenda of opportunity, prosperity, and security,’ he said. 

It also comes after Trump spent much of Saturday evening blasting Tillis as a ‘grandstander’ and vowing to interview potential primary challengers, while Vice President JD Vance, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and his leadership team worked over holdout fiscal hawks.

‘Numerous people have come forward wanting to run in the Primary against ‘Senator Thom’ Tillis,’ Trump said on Truth Social. ‘I will be meeting with them over the coming weeks, looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina and, so importantly, the United States of America. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

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Chelsea advanced in the FIFA Club World Cup on June 28, getting three extra-time goals to defeat Benfica 4-1 in their Round of 16 encounter.

Following the victory, Chelsea’s manager wasn’t in a celebratory mood.

Enzo Maresca lambasted the nearly two-hour weather delay that interrupted the match at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, describing it as “a joke,” before launching into broader criticisms of the beleaguered event and FIFA’s decision to stage it in the United States.

With four minutes remaining in regulation, and Chelsea leading 1-0 courtesy of a Reece James free-kick goal in the 64th minute, the match was paused due to lightning in the area. It led to a 113-minute delay, with officials waiting for a storm to pass through the area. The match ended at 8:38 p.m. ET, more than four-and-a-half hours after it began.

After just one goal between the teams before the delay, Chelsea and Benfica combined for four goals the rest of the match. Benfica’s Ángel Di María converted a penalty kick in stoppage time to tie the game and send it into extra time. In the second 15-minute period of extra time, Chelsea scored three goals in nine minutes, with Christopher Nkunku’s 108th-minute goal serving as the game-winner.

“After the break, the game changed completely,” Maresca said after the match when asked about the difficulty of the lengthy delay and its effect on the game. “I think for me, personally, it’s not football. It’s already seven, eight, nine games that they suspended. It’s a joke, to be honest. It’s not football. It’s not for us.”

“You cannot be inside (for that long). I can understand that for security reasons, you are to suspend the game. But if you suspend seven, eight games, that means it is probably not the right place to do this competition.”

With the win, Chelsea will take on Brazilian club Palmeiras at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on July 4 in the quarterfinals.

As Maresca noted, the Club World Cup has been beset by a slew of weather-related stoppages that have disrupted the flow of matches.

Chelsea’s win became the sixth Club World Cup game, and first of the event’s knockout stage, to be subjected to a weather delay. It was Benfica’s second experience with one, as its 6-0 win against Auckland City on June 20 in Orlando was held up by thunderstorms for two hours.

It’s one of several problems the Club World Cup has endured. Ticket sales and attendance have lagged throughout the event, with photos of half-full or largely empty venues circulating on social media. The official attendance for the Chelsea-Benfica game was 25,929 in a stadium with a seating capacity of nearly 75,000. The 48 group-stage games of the tournament had a combined one million empty seats.

Those woeful crowds and persistent thunderstorms have raised questions and concerns about next year’s World Cup, which will be held across 16 cities in North America, 11 of which are in the United States. Seven of the U.S.-based venues are outdoors and lack retractable roofs, leaving them vulnerable to the thunderstorms that are common across the country during the summer months.

“It’s a fantastic competition,” Maresca said. “It’s a Club World Cup. It’s top. We are happy to be in the last eight. We are happy to win all these kind of things. But something happens, six, seven games suspended, probably the one[s] that they decide, they need a reason, because it’s not normal to suspend a game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Zero, probably. In Europe, how many games? Zero. We are here, two weeks, they’re already suspended six, seven games. There is some problem for me, personally.”

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JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – It has been nearly 16 years since Richard Seymour felt the sting of a certain type of NFL business. In the prime of a Hall of Fame career, Seymour was abruptly traded from the NFL penthouse to what must’ve seemed like the outhouse.

The week of the season opener in 2009, the New England Patriots shipped the dominant defensive lineman and his collection of three Super Bowl rings to the Oakland Raiders.

Call it a classic Bill Belichick move. Cut ties too early rather than too late. Nothing personal, just cold NFL “bidness” that fetched the premium return of a first-round draft pick. And Seymour never saw it coming.

His world was flipped upside down to such a degree – Richard and his wife, Tanya, had four young children, and the new school year was starting – that it prompted then-Raiders owner Al Davis to fire off a “five-day letter” threatening a season-long suspension when Seymour didn’t immediately report.

And look at him now.

Seymour, 45, owns a piece of the Las Vegas Raiders. His deal to purchase a stake of the franchise from Mark Davis – reportedly a 0.5% slice  – was approved by NFL owners in October 2024 at the same time Tom Brady’s package with Knighthead Capital Management’s Tom Wagner for a 10% share was finalized.

Turns out, that stunning trade worked out much better than Seymour would have imagined at the time. Talk about another type of NFL business.

“Sometimes, you don’t know what God has planned for you,” Seymour told USA TODAY Sports, reflecting during an expansive interview at a suburban Atlanta coffee shop. “If I never got traded, I don’t think I’d have become an NFL owner.”

An NFL owner. Let that sink in. Seymour didn’t generate the type of headlines that Brady did in buying into the Raiders, and his share doesn’t compare to Brady’s slice, yet it is so significant on multiple levels. In a league that has never had a Black majority owner, Seymour is part of a growing number of limited partners with stakes in NFL franchises who happen to be Black, the lineup including former athletes Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Serena and Venus Williams, Warrick Dunn and Charles Woodson, in addition to financial power broker Mellody Hobson and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

That Seymour had significant support during his lengthy process from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, among other NFL heavyweights, is no coincidence. Goodell has repeatedly talked up the desire to increase ownership paths for minorities, and in Seymour’s case apparently backed up the sentiment as a key resource.

“Obviously, it’s important to have representation when we speak about a league that is 70% Black,” Seymour said, referring to the player population. “You want representation at every level, from ownership to management, front office, whatever it is. You just want to make sure it’s the right people and that voices are heard.”

Now consider the pure business play. The Raiders ranked as the NFL’s seventh-most valuable franchise in 2024 on Forbes’ annual list with a valuation of $6.7 billion. That’s nearly double what it was deemed worth when Seymour and Davis began discussing the possibility of doing business in 2020, the year the franchise moved from Oakland with a sweetheart deal that includes a swank, publicly-subsidized stadium.

“What we’re seeing in terms of the growth in these valuations is only going up because of the impact of live sports in the entertainment space,” Derrick Heggans, CEO of Shepherd Park Sports Properties, told USA TODAY Sports.

Heggans, a former NFL attorney who was not involved in Seymour’s deal with the Raiders, matched Woodson with Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, leading to the Hall of Fame defensive back’s recent purchase of a 0.5% stake in the Browns. Heggans also facilitated the deals that allowed former NBA stars Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter, and former MLS star Jozy Altidore, to purchase stakes in the Buffalo Bills from Terry and Kim Pegula. And he brokered the transactions that resulted in former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes and prolific film producer Will Packer buying stakes of the Atlanta Falcons from Arthur Blank.

“Think about it: It doesn’t matter if you paid $50 million for a limited partner stake or if you’re the controlling owner, you’re an owner of the asset,” Heggans said. “So, as it increases, whatever amount you put in increases. So, if I were looking at it purely as an investment and I could see that year-to-year, the growth could be anywhere from 15 to 20 percent, and there’s a long history that this is only going to continue to go up, it’s an investment that most people don’t have the opportunity to get access to. But if you do, it can do tremendous things for you.”

Flying beer cans. The NFC East. Super Bowl opponents. Nothing is stopping Howie Roseman

Seymour said that Al Davis, who passed away in 2011, promised him a role in the front office after his playing career ended. The two developed a tight bond, including frequent chalk-talk visits, during Seymour’s four seasons playing for the Raiders. Yet after he finished his 12-year career, Seymour was more committed to raising his children than working in the front office. He ultimately sought an equity stake instead.

“It was a dream for me,” said Seymour, a Gadsden, S.C. native who starred at Georgia. “My relationship with Al opened the door to me and Mark’s relationship.”

There were times, though, when Seymour wondered whether his bid would fall through. At one point, he was aligned with a partner. Then, when other NFL franchises sold, the value of the Raiders – and conceivably the value of buying in – increased. Plus, with Brady pursued by Davis for a stake separate from Seymour’s, there may have been questions about the value formulas and other conditions of the respective shares.

And, of course, to pass muster with the NFL’s finance committee, there was extensive vetting.

Seymour, also co-founder of a venture capital firm, 93 Ventures, would not divulge financial details of his Raiders purchase, but allowed: “It started one way, but then, in business, things kind of shift and change. Teams sell, whether it’s the Broncos (a then-record $4.65 billion in 2022) or the Commanders (a record $6.05 billion in 2023), and the landscape of the NFL changes, too. So, I had to adapt to the new landscape. I stayed competitive to make sure we got a deal done.”  

He also leaned on a long-term relationship. Seymour said that Patriots owner Robert Kraft helped him navigate through the process.

“It was to the point that Mark even said we should get Mr. Kraft involved,” Seymour said.

Kraft provided insight for big-picture matters, including long-term sustainability, Seymour said. And as a member of the finance committee chaired by Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, Kraft was crucial in helping to structure the financial terms of Seymour’s deal.

“He made sure I had my ducks in order in terms of the legalities of what was going to be looked at, what they wanted and how,” Seymour said. “Just the order of the process, and he kind of helped me streamline.”

Heggans knows all too well about the NFL’s strict standards and what can be involved in the vetting.

“It’s very extensive,” he said. “They asked one of my LPs recently about parking tickets when he was in college.”

Of course, the conduct of NFL owners – the principal ones — can be subjected to much scrutiny. And for far more serious matters than parking tickets. Buzz has escalated in recent days after it was revealed that a report from an independent arbitrator suggested collusion by team owners to resist fully guaranteed contracts for players. Stay tuned.

In Seymour’s case, though, the scrutiny of a different type was worth it to gain admittance in an exclusive club. When he was enshrined in Canton in 2022, he became Hall of Famer No. 360 – the Pro Football Hall of Fame assigns each inductee a number that undoubtedly amplifies the prestige of the honor – and now he’s in an even more exclusive club.

“As I ask regular people, if you will, when was the last time you had access to 30 billionaires, most people can’t say that they do,” Heggans said. “But once you’re approved by the NFL you are one of a very small number. Whether you have a limited stake or a controlling stake, you’re in the same club. And there are a lot of people that do different types of business together.”

As much as Seymour expresses pride in achieving a milestone, he hardly sees his Raiders stake as the ceiling. He is just getting started, while Davis and Larry Delson, a Raiders board member, have afforded him the opportunity to take a “holistic approach” into the business of the franchise.

He has visions of owning stakes in NBA and MLB franchises, which is what Johnson, the NBA legend with whom he has consulted, has done with a vast portfolio built over decades, which now includes the NFL.

A rising star coach. Will the NFL let him shine?

The ultimate goal? Seymour wants to someday become the majority owner of an NFL franchise.

“But you’ve got to take steps toward that,” he said.

Asked if he has $10 billion laying around to make that happen, Seymour chuckled.

Then, he replied, “I know people that have it.”

Seymour’s calls multi-billionaire Robert F. Smith, a mentor. Smith has long been considered a leading candidate to become the first Black majority NFL owner, and was in the running to purchase the Broncos, which were ultimately sold to the group headed by Rob Walton.

“What I’ve learned about deals is that it’s best to get in,” Seymour said. “And once you get in, it’s better to navigate from the inside instead of trying to fight from the outside. To grow and to get more. You’ve got to have a seat at the table first. I’ve done several other deals where it may not have been where I wanted to be in deal originally, but five years later you look up and can see where you’re headed.”

In other words, history has shown Seymour that trading up can be a great option.

Follow Jarrett Bell on social media: On X: @JarrettBell

On Bluesky: jarrettbell.bsky.social

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Corrections and clarifications: England won the World Cup in 1966. An earlier version of this story stated an incorrect year.

Whatever is wrong with the U.S. men’s national team, and pull up a chair because there’s lots to discuss, diversity isn’t it.

That’s not just an aspirational statement. There are studies to prove it. In fact, researchers who’ve looked at both club and national teams across the world recently found diversity actually made squads better.

‘Previous research, they found a negative impact, not because of the diversity itself but how to put the team together. When you merge several players from different countries with different language, you create a barrier that makes it, at some extent, difficult to perform,’ said Thadeu Gasparetto, author of a paper published earlier this month titled ‘Multicultural teams: Does national diversity associate with performance in professional soccer?’

‘More recent research is showing pretty much the opposite, where the diversity provides a set of different skills … different codes that tends to be positive.”

With less than a year until the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, which U.S. Soccer officials hope will be as transformative for the game as the 1994 tournament was, the ‘golden generation” of the U.S. men’s national team is struggling. To put it nicely.

Most of their top players, led by Christian Pulisic, are playing in Europe. Several on top teams, no less. Their coach is Mauricio Pochettino, who took Tottenham to the Champions League final.

Yet the USMNT skidded into the Concacaf Gold Cup on a four-game losing streak, its longest since 2007. Then team reached the quarterfinals of the tournament, but Sunday’s game against Costa Rica will be the first real test.

As players, fans and pundits look for answers, former USMNT player and pot stirrer extraordinaire Alexi Lalas blamed the team’s diversity. In addition to players from across the United States, the USMNT — like many other national teams — has multiple players who were born or raised overseas.

“But getting 11 men to represent this great country of 350 million people and all be on the same page, that is very, very difficult.”

Except it’s really not. And there is both data, and anecdotal evidence, to prove it.

Gasparetto examined six professional leagues in Europe — England, Belgium, Germany, Cyprus, Latvia and the Netherlands — between the 2015-16 and 2020-21 seasons and found that each foreign player on a team correlated with a 0.42% increase in win percentage.

“It’s much more about how well or how qualified the players are rather than where he or she’s from,” Gasparetto said.

His findings are similar to those in a study by Michel Beine, Silvia Peracchi and Skerdilajda Zanaj that looked at ancestral diversity and its impact on a national team’s performance. ‘Ancestral diversity and performance: Evidence from football data,’ published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization in September 2023, found ethnic diversity can lead to an additional goal scored per game.

“The idea is, basically, that more genetic diversity is going to allow more complementary skills between players,” Beine said. “Soccer is a game in which complementary skills is very important because you have different positions and these different positions, they require different type of skills. … These complementarities, these different type of skills are going to be beneficial for the team.”

Look at France. Les Bleus won the men’s World Cup in 2018 and were runners-up in 2022 with a team that was a melting pot. In addition to players whose parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and — you get the idea — were born in France, about half the team was born in Africa or the French Caribbean, or had parents who were.

England, much to the country’s consternation, endured decades of frustration after winning the World Cup in 1966. But it has reached the final at the last two European Championship and got to the semifinals of the 2018 World Cup with a multiracial team. Belgium had its best finish ever at the World Cup in 2018, third place, with a team that reflected the influence of immigration to that country in the 1950s and 1960s.

Conversely, teams that are homogenous — Iceland, for example, or Japan — don’t fare as well.

“This mixing, in terms of skills, in terms of genetic endowment, we show in the statistical analysis that, over time, countries benefited from immigration flows and diverse immigration flows. … They improved their soccer performances,” Beine said. “On the contrary, you have countries who had very little immigration flows and who have kept quite a homogeneous population … maybe they have less benefited from this.”

Soccer is a global game — and not only because it’s played everywhere in the world. Players routinely move from country to country in their club careers, and that is likely to have far more influence than the country in which they were born or the neighborhood in which they grew up.

Lionel Messi was born in Argentina, moved to Spain at 13 and spent two decades at Barcelona before going to France to play for Paris Saint-Germain. Now he’s in the United States, playing for Inter Miami. Do you really think him being from Rosario has more of an impact on Argentina’s national team than what he learned at Barcelona?

‘The evidence is very clear that diversity is something that can be beneficial. And it is a little bit overlooked by people,” Beine said. “I think that sometimes people are not looking at the evidence. Or they are closing their eyes on what is really obvious.”

And that is that. The USMNT, much like the country it represents, is better for its diversity.

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

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One more month, he prayed.

Please, let him be healthy enough to get to Cooperstown, New York, to be inducted July 27 into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

If not, at least keep him alive so he could hear his son present his speech.

He fought so courageously since hearing the news in December that he was elected to the Hall of Fame. He was in and out of physical rehab centers these past six months, losing part of his leg battling this dreadful Parkinson’s disease, leaving him confined to a wheelchair.

Two weeks ago, when he left his last rehab center, he was informed nothing more could be done.

Hospice intervened.

And on Saturday morning, the man they called ‘The Cobra,’ was gone.

Parker was 74.

“Man, I am crushed,’ former Oakland Athletics teammate Dave Stewart, one of Parker’s closest friends, told USA TODAY Sports. “He’s one of the greatest teammates I’ve ever had. He had such a presence when he walked into the room.

“He was always the biggest in the room with his size (6-foot-5, 230 pounds),’ Stewart said, “but when you add in his personality, he’s suddenly 7 feet tall. Just an unbelievable human being and was so charismatic. Everyone loved him.’

Barry Meister, Parker’s long-time agent, called him one of the greatest personalities in baseball history.

“There was no player in baseball with more magnetism than Dave Parker,’ Meister said. “The hair on your arms would stand up when he walked into that room. Everyone was aware that The Man had arrived.’

Parker, the former MVP, seven-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner, two-time batting champion and two-time World Series champion, was nearly as well-known for his swagger and friendly braggadocio as his accomplishments.

He created the phrase: “When the leaves turn brown, I’ll be wearing the batting crown.’

And he would drop: ‘The sun is going to shine, the wind is going to blow, and Dave is going to go 4-for-4.”

He once wore a Star of David necklace, and when asked about it since he wasn’t Jewish, he said, “I’m a David. And I’m a star’

When notified in December that he and Dick Allen were voted in by the Classic Baseball Era Committee into the Hall of Fame, his initial reaction was, “Why did it take so long?’

Few in the game of baseball had Parker’s personality. He was one of the first professional athletes to wear an earring, a two-carat diamond earring. He was the first baseball player to earn $1 million per season. And he was among the first who was unafraid to bring a powerful personality into a clubhouse.

“He probably had more impact on young players,’ former Cincinnati Reds teammate Eric Davis said in a statement, “than any player I’ve ever been around.”

Davis was too distraught to talk, heartbroken that his close friend wouldn’t be in Cooperstown. So many friends and family members already planned trips, but even without Parker’s presence, most plan to still go, making sure everyone is aware of the impact he had on their lives.

Kellye, Parker’s wife, expressed to many of them Saturday how terribly difficult life has been for Parker these past few months. They’re comforted knowing he is now in a better place. No more pain. No more doctors. No more Parkinson’s.

“He was having such a hard time,’ Stewart said. “He had the ability to stand up, but not stand up for long periods of time. I remember when I talked to him after he got elected, I told him how happy I was for him, that it was long overdue, and how it should have happened long ago.

“All he could really say is, ‘Thank you Stew. I appreciate it. I love you brother.’

“I knew he was happy, but when you have Parkinson’s, you can’t really tell the emotion in people.’

Parker was diagnosed in 2012, and his family chooses to remember the good times: the healthy Parker, the vibrant Parker, and, oh, the hysterical Parker.

“He was always so funny,’ Stewart said. “He had you laughing all day. Parker had all of the leadership qualities, but he knew how to keep a clubhouse loose. In the worst of times, he always found something inspiring to say. In your personal worst of times, he would always make you laugh at yourself.’

Said Meister: “He was the funniest guy who ever played the game. He always had insults.’

The last time Parker saw Stewart, he noticed that Stewart was wearing a black shirt, black pants and a black jacket, blending in with his skin color, and blurted out: “Man, go put some clothes on! Why you walking around here naked?’

Oh, and he had nicknames for everyone.

Pitcher Greg Cadaret: “Dippy,’ for his big chin.

Catcher Terry Steinbach: “Home plate face.’

Pitcher Dennis Eckersley: “Pretty Pony.’

“I remember the time he and John Candelaria met up one night in spring training,’ Meister said, “and they really got after it. They hit the town hard. Well, Dave comes in the next day, and goes to sleep on the trainer’s table.

“They wanted him to pinch-hit late in the game, so they woke him up, he goes to the plate, and he hits this monstrous home run. The reporters asked him after the game, ‘What did you hit Dave? Was that a fastball? A curveball? What was it?’

“Dave says, ‘Well, I couldn’t really see. It looked like the guy was throwing three baseballs at once. So, I just swung at the middle one.’

That was Parker, always full of life, always colorful, and oh, so talented. He hit 22 home runs with a team-leading 97 RBIs when he helped lead the A’s to the 1989 World Series. He was 38 years old.

“They just don’t make them like that anymore,’ Meister said. “They really don’t. He’s one-of-a-kind. Believe me, everybody in baseball took a loss for this one.’

“Yes,’ says Stewart, “but we’re all better for having known him, and being such good friends with him.

“He will never be forgotten.’

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

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A crowded leaderboard and plenty of golfers already going low should make for an exciting final round of the PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club.

Entering play on Sunday, 20-year-old South African Aldrich Potgieter was the leader by two strokes over Max Greyserman and four others, with 19 other golfers within four strokes of second place. Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa is lurking four shots back in a tie for 10th.

Potgeiter carded a 7-under 65 on Saturday to move to the front of the pack and reclaim the lead he held after shooting an opening-round 62. He is looking for his first PGA Tour victory, though he did prevail in a Korn Ferry Tour event last year.

LIVE SCORES: PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic

How to watch Rocket Classic Round 4

Follow final-round action Sunday, June 29, from Detroit Golf Club on Golf Channel, CBS and various streaming platforms.

TV: Golf Channel (1-3 p.m. ET), CBS (3-6 p.m. ET)
Streaming: ESPN+, Paramount+, Fubo

Rocket Classic purse, payouts

The total purse for the PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club is $9.6 million, with $1.728 million going to the winner. The total payouts are as follows:

1st: $1,728,000
2nd: $1,046,400
3rd: $662,400
4th: $470,400
5th: $393,600
6th: $348,000
7th: $324,000
8th: $300,000
9th: $280,800
10th: $261,600
11th: $242,400
12th: $223,200
13th: $204,000
14th: $184,800
15th: $175,200
16th: $165,600
17th: $156,000
18th: $146,400
19th: $136,800
20th: $127,200
21st: $117,600
22nd: $108,000
23rd: $100,320
24th: $92,640
25th: $84,960
26th: $77,280
27th: $74,400
28th: $71,520
29th: $68,640
30th: $65,760
31st: $62,880
32nd: $60,000
33rd: $57,120
34th: $54,720
35th: $52,320
36th: $49,920
37th: $47,520
38th: $45,600
39th: $43,680
40th: $41,760
41st: $39,840
42nd: $37,920
43rd: $36,000
44th: $34,080
45th: $32,160
46th: $30,240
47th: $28,320
48th: $26,784
49th: $25,440
50th: $24,672
51st: $24,096
52nd: $23,520
53rd: $23,136
54th: $22,752
55th: $22,560
56th: $22,368
57th: $22,176
58th: $21,984
59th: $21,792
60th: $21,600
61st: $21,408
62nd: $21,216
63rd: $21,024
64th: $20,832
65th: $20,640

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The third Grand Slam event of the 2025 tennis season is at hand as the best players in the world convene in London for The Championships at Wimbledon.

The 138 edition of the storied grass-court tournament takes place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

The top-ranked players automatically qualify for the main draw, which includes 32 seeded players in both the men’s and women’s pool. A total of 128 players comprise the field in each bracket. Play continues throughout the fortnight, with only one scheduled day off on Sunday, July 6. However, that day is frequently used to make up matches delayed or postponed by rain.

Here are the essentials to get you ready for Wimbledon 2025:

When is the 2025 Wimbledon tournament?

The 2025 Wimbledon tournament will begin on Monday, June 30, 2025 and be played over 14 days before concluding on Sunday, July 13, in London.

How to watch the 2025 Wimbledon tournament

The 2025 Wimbledon tournament will be broadcast on ESPN, ABC, and the Tennis Channel. Fans wanting to stream the action can watch matches on ESPN+ or Fubo.

Who are the defending Wimbledon champions?

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain is the two-time defending men’s singles champion at Wimbledon and just won the French Open men’s singles title for the second year in a row on the clay at Roland Garros. A three-peat would cement the 22-year-old Alcaraz with some of the all-time greats at the All England Club. Since the Open era began in 1968, only Roger Federer (2003-07), Pete Sampras (1993-95; 1997-2000) and Bjorn Borg (1976-80) have managed to win Wimbledon three years in a row.

On the women’s side, Barbora Krejčíková of the Czech Republic is the defending singles champion after she outlasted Jasmine Paolini in three sets to become the second consecutive Czech winner. Markéta Vondroušová shocked the tennis world by becoming the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon when she prevailed in 2023.

Who are the top seeded players at Wimbledon?

Italian Jannik Sinner, the reigning Australian Open and U.S. Open champion is this year’s top seed on the men’s side at Wimbledon. That’s despite losing to Alcaraz in an epic French Open final. Alcaraz is seeded second, followed by No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, and No. 4 seed – and hometown favorite – Jack Draper of the United Kingdom.

Aryna Sabalenka is the No. 1 women’s seed ahead American Coco Gauff, who is the No. 2 seed despite beating Sabalenka in the 2025 French Open final. American Jessica Pegula is the No. 3 seed in the bracket.

WIMBLEDON 2025: Complete men’s, women’s singles draw

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Colorado football coach Deion Sanders has been rehabilitating in a weighted vest with the help of his son Deion Jr. as he tries to come back from an unspecified health issue and return to his job in Boulder.

Sanders, 57, provided two recent updates on Instagram, including one on Saturday that showed him wearing a weighted vest next to Deion Jr.

“Every little step I take My son @deionsandersjr has been there so we’ve decided to keep on stepping!” Sanders wrote in the post Saturday. “#CoachPrime coming to a stadium sold out soon.”

In another post from June 26, he used his situation to promote an energy drink sponsor in the same vest.

“1 step closer Everyday,” he wrote. “I’m Walking it out! Our Team is working their butts off therefore I’ve got to match that (fire) they have!”

Sanders Sr. has been away from his coaching job since April as he dealt with his health issue at his estate in Texas. He did not attend Colorado’s annual youth and high school camps in June even though operating such camps is listed in his Colorado contract as one of his official duties.

In May, he was unable to attend the wedding of former Colorado two-way star Travis Hunter in Tennessee.

“He know why we couldn’t be there,” Sanders Jr. said on his YouTube channel after Hunter’s wedding.

Sanders Sr. also canceled a speaking engagement in Florida scheduled for June 8.

The timing of his return to campus remains unclear, but he is scheduled to appear at a Big 12 Conference media event in Frisco, Texas on July 9.

Wearing weighted vests helps build strength and endurance. They also help stimulate the growth of new bone cells, according to Harvard Medical School.

Deion Jr. said in a video posted on YouTube June 21 that his father was “back active, moving around” and has made progress.

Sanders Sr. previously said on social media on June 11 that “everything is OKAY” and that he would provide a full update upon his return to Colorado.

In late May, Sanders Sr. appeared on a podcast with former NFL cornerback Asante Samuel and said that “what I’m dealing with right now is at a whole ‘nother level” but said he’s coming back after losing about 14 pounds.

Sanders previously battled issues with blood clots in his legs and had to miss a Pac-12 Conference media event in Las Vegas because of it in July 2023. 

Colorado opens the 2025 football at home against Georgia Tech Aug. 29.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

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