The Kansas City Chiefs are playing Friday night’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers with a depleted wide receiving corps. Rashee Rice is suspended to start the season and rookie Jalen Royals is nursing a knee injury.

After their first series on offense, they are down another wideout.

Second-year receiver Xavier Worthy made contact with tight end Travis Kelce on a third-down pass and had to be helped off the field.

He was later seen heading to the locker room with 10 minutes to go in the first quarter.

Xavier Worthy injury update

Worthy was officially ruled out with a shoulder injury. He was originally listed as questionable to return.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid told media post-game that they will know more about Worthy’s status when they return home from Brazil tomorrow. Once in Kansas City, Worthy will have an MRI on his shoulder and the team will go from there.

Worthy was down on the field shortly before walking off under his own power. Trainers were seen working on his arm after he reached the sideline. He was later seen walking to the locker room with trainers with a towel over his head.

Chiefs WR depth chart

Here’s who is active at wide receiver for the Chiefs tonight against the Chargers besides Worthy:

Hollywood Brown
JuJu Smith-Schuster
Jason Brownlee
Tyquan Thornton
Nikko Remigio

This post will be updated with more information when available.

The Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs are locked in a close battle in their season opener from São Paulo, Brazil. It’s a game of fine margins as the Chiefs pulled within one point of the Chargers in their opening drive of the third quarter.

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes scrambled down the right sideline and dove in for the Chiefs’ first touchdown of the game.

They didn’t pull even on points with the Chargers, though, as kicker Harrison Butker’s extra point didn’t make it through the uprights.

While the kick did sail wide right of the uprights, that comment from Eisen may be a subtle reference to Butker’s political leanings. The Chiefs kicker supported President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, calling him the ‘most pro-life president.’

‘I’m supporting the president that’s going to be the most pro-life president, and I think Donald Trump is the most pro-life president,’ Butker said on Fox News. ‘That’s a topic that is the most crucial topic for me. I want us to be fighting for the most vulnerable, fighting for the unborn, and that’s what we should prioritize.’

Butker’s controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College in May 2024 drew a response from many commentators, Eisen included.

‘It’s outrageous,’ Eisen said. ‘Of course he has his right to say whatever he wants to say and that might be his belief system but to say that people who are about to receive their diplomas are being lied to diabolically because they are being told that some title awaits them through their hard work isn’t as rewarding as being a mother or being a homemaker… it’s just an outrage.’

Star running back Christian McCaffrey is listed as questionable for the 49ers’ regular season opener on the road against the Seattle Seahawks. He did not participate in San Francisco’s Friday practice with a calf injury.

He was suited up for today’s practice but went through his own training routine apart from the other running backs.

McCaffrey told reporters after practice that he feels good and plans to play Sunday.

‘I feel great about where I’m at,’ McCaffrey said. ‘Just unfortunately, when you have the injury history that I have, sometimes when you don’t practice things get blown out of proportion. Like I said, I feel great.’

McCaffrey said he wanted to be cautious ahead of Week 1.

‘I felt like it was the smart thing to do to not finish the practice because I’ve been there before and I’ve been my own worst enemy in situations like that,’ he said.

McCaffrey missed the first eight games of the 2024 NFL season with calf and Achilles injuries. A year after winning Offensive Player of the Year, McCaffrey failed to score a touchdown in just four games of action.

The 29-year-old running back appeared to have a healthier offseason in 2025 but this is a setback with less than a week until the 49ers’ first game.

San Francisco traded for running back Brian Robinson Jr. two weeks ago from the Washington Commanders for a sixth-round draft pick. His addition looms larger with this news if McCaffrey is out for extended period or has a reduced snap count.

49ers RB depth chart

Robinson Jr. is one of multiple running backs who could shoulder a larger load of the offense if McCaffrey misses time. Here’s how the depth chart at the position looks ahead of the season opener:

Christian McCaffrey
Brian Robinson Jr.
Isaac Guerendo
Jordan James

The team also has Sincere McCormick signed to the practice squad.

Sorber suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during a workout in Oklahoma City on Thursday, Sept. 4. 

He was the 15th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft in June. The forward/center averaged 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in 31.3 minutes per game in 24 games played at Georgetown last season. 

Sorber was second in the nation in rebounding among freshmen. He had season-ending foot surgery (turf toe) in February with Georgetown.

It’s time to light it up.

AJ Lee has made her triumphant return to WWE after she retired from wrestling 10 years ago. Lee made her comeback during the Sept. 5 edition in SmackDown, joining her husband CM Punk in his hometown of Chicago. The couple faced another married duo in Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch.

After making her electric return, Lee delivered shots to Lynch before the Women’s Intercontinental Champion retreated.

Lee’s arrival comes as her husband has reignited his longstanding feud with Rollins. Punk won the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam in August but Rollins returned from his supposed injury and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Punk to win the title.

The two met again at Clash in Paris in a fatal four-way match, and Punk’s chance to win the title back was thwarted after Lynch interfered and helped her husband retain the gold. At Raw on Sept. 1, Lynch berated Punk and slapped him. Afterward, Punk teased something could be happening at SmackDown, which resulted in Lee’s arrival.

It is believed Punk and Lee will team up to face Rollins and Lynch at WrestlePalooza on Sept. 20, WWE’s first premium live event in ESPN’s livestreaming service.

AJ Lee WWE career

It took a decade, but Lee’s return to wrestling is something fans had been hoping and anticipating for years. Known for her unstable persona along with her elite promo skills and signature skip, Lee is considered one of the best wrestlers in the early 2010s. She was consistently at the top of the women’s division and is a three-time Divas Champion, tied for the most reigns in what was once the top women’s title.

While an accomplished star, Lee’s WWE tenure was rather short, spending only four years on the main roster. After competing at WrestleMania 31 in March 2015, she had her final match the next night on Raw. WWE announced Lee’s retirement from in-ring competition in April 2015. In her memoir ‘Crazy Is My Superpower,’ Lee said damage to her cervical spine and was a factor in her retirement.

Lee hasn’t wrestled since, but she’s stayed around the business. She’s been a writer for movies, TV shows and authored books, but she also was an executive producer for Women of Wrestling from 2021-23.

There was always hope Lee would eventually return to wrestling, especially since she did in the show ‘Heels.’ The belief raised when Punk made his return to the company in 2023, sensing she could also be coming back. Punk has referenced her several time during his current stint with WWE.

Now, Lee is finally back in the ring.

Foster is a member of the Angels’ High-A affiliate, the Tri-City Dust Devils, and was a passenger in a car involved in the accident. He was taken to a local hospital and is in critical condition.

The Dust Devils announced on Friday evening that their game against the Hillsboro Hops has been canceled.

Foster has been with the Angels’ organization since 2023, after he was selected in the 16th round with the 474th overall pick in the draft that year.

(This story will be updated as more information becomes available.)

San Antonio Spurs rookie Dylan Harper underwent surgery on Friday, according to an ESPN report.

Harper needed to have a partially torn ligament in his left thumb repaired in his left thumb. The injury occurred during a workout on Wednesday.

According to ESPN, Harper is expected to be ready for his NBA debut when the Spurs open the season against the Dallas Mavericks on Oct. 22.

The Rutgers standout was the second overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft in June. He averaged 19.4 points, 4.6 rebounds and four assists in 32.6 minutes played in 29 games during his only college season.

Harper was the highest-drafted Rutgers player in the school’s history.

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No matter the sport, some luck is required to win a championship.

The Indiana Fever had plenty of luck this season. It’s just that all of it was bad.

On Thursday night, Caitlin Clark confirmed what was already obvious: She will join Aari McDonald, Sydney Colson and Sophie Cunningham on the list of Fever players whose seasons were cut short by injuries this year. The idea that Clark and the Fever could contend for the WNBA title this year is gone, buried beneath a mountain of MRI results, bandages and ice packs.

Yes, they can still make the playoffs, clinging to the eighth spot with three games to play. But even if they hang on, they’d get a first-round matchup with the Minnesota Lynx and, well, good luck with that.

“Any time you have to reinvent yourself throughout the course of the season … it’s challenging,” Fever coach Stephanie White said last week.

And the Fever had to do it over and over and over again. Nine starting lineups. Sixteen different players on the roster. Injury setbacks. It’s been a season-long Groundhog Day of bad juju.

After making the playoffs in Clark’s rookie season, and playing the Connecticut Sun tougher than almost anyone expected, Fever management recognized the championship window might have opened earlier than they’d hoped. They went all in in the offseason, upgrading their roster by signing DeWanna Bonner, Natasha Howard and Cunningham and brought back White.

“My expectation is for us to try to win a championship,” Clark said before the season opener, a statement she repeated after she recorded a triple-double in the Fever’s 35-point thumping of the Sky.

Though the Fever started slowly, there were signs they could grow into a team to be reckoned with. They took the defending champion New York Liberty down to the wire when the Liberty were playing as well as anyone, then walloped them by 14 three weeks later. They beat the Lynx to win the Commissioner’s Cup.

Signs of trouble were already lurking, though. Clark, who had never missed a game in her four years at Iowa or in her rookie season, injured her left quad on May 24 and missed the next five games.

She returned June 14 but played only five games before injuring her left groin. Clark came back after five games, only to injure her right groin in her fourth game back. She has not played since.

Bonner and the Fever, meanwhile, were never a fit. She averaged just 7.1 points, less than half her career average, and lost her place in the starting lineup after three games. She left the team after playing nine games, and the Fever would waive her two weeks later.

Despite the loss of Bonner and Clark, the Fever managed to stay competitive. They went on a five-game win streak, led by All-Stars Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston, and rose as high as fifth in the standings on Aug. 3.

And then the wheels came completely off.

Both Colson and McDonald, who initially came to the Fever on an emergency hardship contract, suffered season-ending injuries in the Aug. 7 game against the Phoenix Mercury. Ten days later, Cunningham tore her MCL.

Adding insult to all these other injuries, Chloe Bibby, who joined the Fever on a seven-day contract in July before being signed for the rest of the season, is now out for the year with a knee injury.

‘Everybody in this league undergoes injuries at some point. I’ve never, in my 25 years in this league, seen all of this at once,’ White said earlier this week.

But the WNBA isn’t going to stop the season just because Clark and the Fever are going through it. Indiana has no choice but to keep playing, even as a season that began with such hope limps to a hellish end.

And hope for better luck next year.

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

Week 1 will feature four prime-time games between Thursday and Monday.
The playoff rematch between Buffalo and Baltimore on Sunday night looms as the game of the weekend.
One of our experts picked nearly 73% of the games correctly in 2024.

Since the Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl 59 in February, a full 207 days have passed ahead of their 2025 regular-season kickoff opener against the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night. In between? There was a draft, free agency, Micah Parsons got traded from the Cowboys, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged, Nike rolled out some slick new uniforms … but no legit NFL football.

But now our cups runneth over. Following Eagles-Cowboys, the Week 1 smorgasbord rolls onward Friday night, when Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs face the Los Angeles Chargers in São Paulo, and Swift will reportedly be in attendance at Corinthians Arena.

Sunday’s 13-game stack kicks off with Pittsburgh Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers’ return to ‘JetLife’ Stadium and ends with a playoff rematch between former MVP Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens and reigning MVP Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills.

Week 1 ends Monday night in Chicago, where the new-look Bears will host the Minnesota Vikings in QB J.J. McCarthy’s first regular-season start.

Can’t. Wait.

(But to tide you over in the interim, Week 1 picks from USA TODAY Sports’ panel of NFL experts.)

(Odds provided by BetMGM)

Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles
Kansas City Chiefs at Los Angeles Chargers
New York Giants at Washington Commanders
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Atlanta Falcons
Las Vegas Raiders at New England Patriots
Arizona Cardinals at New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers at New York Jets
Miami Dolphins at Indianapolis Colts
Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns
Carolina Panthers at Jacksonville Jaguars
San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks
Tennessee Titans at Denver Broncos
Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers
Houston Texans at Los Angeles Rams
Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills
Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer denies allegations that the team circumvented the NBA’s salary cap rules when signing Kawhi Leonard in 2021.
The NBA is investigating claims that the Clippers facilitated a no-show endorsement deal for Leonard with Aspiration, a company in which Ballmer had invested.
If found to have violated the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Clippers could face significant penalties.

Ballmer is adamant his organization went about its business according to league rules.

‘We did things by the book,’ Ballmer declared in an interview with ESPN that aired on Thursday, Sept. 5, which also served as his first public comments on the matter.

The NBA is investigating allegations made by sports reporter Pablo Torre of ‘Pablo Torre Finds Out’ that the Clippers facilitated a no-show endorsement deal for Leonard worth at least $28 million with Aspiration, a now-bankrupt ‘green’ financial services company that was a prominent team sponsor at the time. Aspiration also received a $50 million investment from Ballmer.

If the NBA finds the Clippers to have violated the salary cap circumvention provisions in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the penalties could be significant based on current bylaws and previous incidents of salary cap circumvention.

The Clippers called the allegations ‘provably false’ and ‘absurd’ in team-issued statements Wednesday after the initial report. Ballmer went into more detail Thursday about the circumstances behind Leonard’s signing, and how the Clippers abided by NBA rules and protocols when dealing with Leonard and his representatives.

The former Microsoft CEO noted, for instance, that Leonard’s four-year, $176.2-million contract with the Clippers was finalized in August 2021 and the franchise’s lucrative sponsorship deal with Aspiration came together in September. Aspiration then approached the Clippers for an introduction to Leonard in ‘early November,’ according to Ballmer.

Among the documents uncovered by Torre was Leonard’s contract with Aspiration, which included a clause that states KL2 Aspire LLC, a company run by Leonard, could ‘decline to proceed with any action desired by the Company,’ which set up a structure for Leonard to potentially receive payments without performing any work. Another clause states that Leonard would receive payments only if he continued to be a player on the Clippers.

‘They did request to be introduced to Kawhi,’ said Ballmer, who added neither he nor the Clippers had control over Aspiration’s business dealings despite their investment. ‘Under the (NBA) rules, we can introduce our sponsors to our athletes. We just can’t be involved. We made an introduction. That was in early November, well past when all of this happens.’

Ballmer said he was instead ‘conned’ by Aspiration, and emphasized he did not know the financial terms agreed to between Leonard and Aspiration. The Justice Department announced in August that Aspiration co-founder Joe Sanberg plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud for defrauding investors and lenders of more than $248 million.

The Clippers had gone through documents and emails related to Aspiration and Leonard in recent months as part of the the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the company, according to Ballmer. He said the Clippers ‘welcome the league investigation. We have nothing to hide.’

The Clippers have already been found to have engaged in impropriety with third-party endorsements under Ballmer. Back in August 2015 – a year after Ballmer’s purchase of the team was finalized – the NBA fined the franchise $250,000 for ‘violating NBA rules prohibiting teams from offering players unauthorized business or investment opportunities’ in their pursuit of then-free agent center DeAndre Jordan.

‘It’s really important to me to communicate to the NBA ecosystem, but particularly Clipper fans, that we’ve been on the up and up,’ Ballmer said. ‘Since the day I bought the team, and you know the circumstances were definitely tough, we’ve emphasized doing things the right way. … I want our fans to really understand that they’ve aligned themselves, they’ve supported an organization that does things the right way.’

USA TODAY Sports reporter Lorenzo Reyes contributed to this report.