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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.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY

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.

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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.

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Katie Ledecky’s reign in the 1,500-meter freestyle continues, after she added another gold to her collection at the 2025 World Aquatics Championship in Singapore on Tuesday to remain undefeated in the event.

Ledecky, a nine-time Olympic gold medalist, secured another victory in the 1,500 by finishing the race in 15:26.44. Italy’s Simona Quadarella was runner-up with a time of 15:31.79, while Australia’s Lani Pallister took third place with a time of 15:41.18.

This was Ledecky’s second medal at this year’s world championships, following her bronze in the 400-meter freestyle, where she finished with a time of 3:58.49. She now has a total of 28 career medals from worlds. Ledecky will compete in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay Thursday and the 800-meter freestyle final on Saturday.

How to watch the 2025 World Swimming Championships

The 2025 World Swimming Championships in Singapore run through Aug. 3 and can be streamed live on Peacock. Events start at 7 a.m. ET each day.

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The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after his first choice struggled to gain support.

Susan Monarez, a longtime fixture in Washington who has taken on leadership positions in a number of government public health roles, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday, crossing yet another position off the lengthy and growing number of nominees awaiting confirmation.

Monarez was confirmed on a 51to 47party line vote.

Across her roughly two-decade career in D.C., she has served as deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health within the Department of Health and Human Services and in roles at the White House, including at the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Council.

She is the first CDC director to undergo the Senate confirmation process after a new law changed the requirement in 2023. Prior to her confirmation, Monarez had served as the acting director of the CDC since the beginning of this year.

But Monarez, who has a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, was not Trump’s first pick to lead the public health agency, which is tasked with protecting Americans from public health threats.

Trump tapped Monarez in March shortly after withdrawing his nomination of Dr. David Weldon, a former House member, after it was clear that he couldn’t get enough votes from Senate Republicans to make it across the finish line.

He lauded Monarez’s credentials, and charged that Americans had ‘lost confidence’ in the CDC.

‘Dr. Monarez will work closely with our GREAT Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy Jr,’ he said on social media at the time. ‘Together, they will prioritize Accountability, High Standards, and Disease Prevention to finally address the Chronic Disease Epidemic and, MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!’

But questions also linger on how well Monarez and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might work together.

During her confirmation hearing last month, Senate Democrats grilled Monarez over whether she agreed with Kennedy’s positions on vaccines. Kennedy has long been outspoken about his skepticism regarding vaccines, particularly COVID-19 vaccines.

The CDC has been hit with thousands of staff cuts and resignations and subject to changes in vaccine policy — notably Kennedy’s decision to remove the COVID-19 from the vaccine schedule for pregnant women and healthy children — in the last six months. 

‘I think vaccines save lives. I think that we need to continue to support the promotion of utilization of vaccines,’ Monarez said during her confirmation hearing.

Her confirmation also comes as Kennedy, in his budget request for the HHS, seeks a slash in funding to the CDC of nearly 50%, or from about $9.2 billion to $4.2 billion, for the upcoming fiscal year.

But Kennedy made clear in an X post at the time of her nomination that he supports Monarez to take on the position.

‘I handpicked Susan for this job because she is a longtime champion of MAHA values, and a caring, compassionate and brilliant microbiologist and a tech wizard who will reorient CDC toward public health and gold-standard science,’ he said. ‘I’m so grateful to President Trump for making this appointment.’

And an HHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital, ‘Once Dr. Monarez is confirmed, the Secretary looks forward to working with her to advance common-sense policies that will Make America Healthy Again.’

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NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Stewart Friesen was involved in a multi-car crash on a dirt racing track in Quebec, Canada. He sustained multiple fractures to his pelvis and right leg, which required surgery, according to a post on his social media account.

Jessica Friesen, Stewart’s wife, took to social media to share details from her husband’s CT scans. The scans revealed that while competing in a Super DIRTcar Series race at Autodrome Drummond, Stewart suffered an unstable open-book pelvic fracture and a fractured right leg, both of which will require surgery.

According to NASCAR, the injuries occurred after Frisen’s No. 44 car tipped onto its right side and collided with the end of the outside retaining wall. The impact caused the car to flip and barrel-roll before erupting into flames then being struck by a competitor who was unable to avoid the crash.

Friesen was coming off a Super DIRTcar victory this past weekend at Weedsport Speedway in New York and was looking to continue his winning streak on Monday and Tuesday.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast.Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

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Jack Sawyer is a national champion heading into this rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL.

However, the former Ohio State football linebacker is still trying to process how the Buckeyes lost to rival Michigan in the regular season finale in 2025. The Wolverines pulled off a major upset with a 13-10 win on Nov. 30 in ‘The Game’ to keep OSU out of the Big Ten Conference Championship game.

The Buckeyes, of course, bounced back and ended up winning the national championship, which was sealed by a game-clinching fumble return for a touchdown by Sawyer, who never beat Michigan during his OSU career.

‘I think they beat us straight up last year, obviously, and the year before, but my sophomore year, we left the field and we were like, ‘This feels weird,’ ‘ Sawyer said during a recent podcast appearance on Not Just Football with Cam Heyward. ‘We lost by double digits, and it felt like we had beat the (expletive) out of them all game. You know, we ran a screen pass that we had never put in – not the formation, not the look, anything. 

‘And you see them on the sideline, they’re doing (the signals), and we change it, we audible to it or whatever, and when we run it, all the D-linemen as soon as the ball is snapped, the linebackers, everybody, they sniffed it out.’

The game Sawyer is referencing is a 45-23 Michigan win in 2022, when both teams entered ‘The Game’ with an undefeated record. However, the Wolverines outscored the Buckeyes 21-3 in the fourth quarter, which included touchdown runs of 85 and 75 yards, respectively, from Michigan back Donovan Edwards.

The 2022 game stands out as it was 11 months before news broke that the NCAA was investigating Michigan over alleged sign-stealing.

‘It’s just good scouting,’ Sawyer said. ‘Come on.’

Conor Stalions responds to Jack Sawyer’s comments

Conor Stalions, the former Michigan analyst who is alleged to have led the sign-stealing scandal, responded to Sawyer’s comments on Tuesday, July 29. Stallions resigned from Michigan in November 2023.

‘Their signal for this play was: The letter ‘Y’ (TE in 99% of offenses), The Delay of Game sign. So ‘Y Delay.’ Wonder what this will be,’ Stalions wrote in a post on X. ‘Jack is admitting they never ran it before. Your head coach already admitted that you changed your signs for us.’

The NCAA is still in the process of giving out the final ruling of the investigation into sign-stealing and advanced scouting. The NCAA sent a notice of allegations to Michigan in August 2024, which included several Level I violations, the most serious offenses in the NCAA rulebook.

Meanwhile, Sawyer earned second-team all-Big Ten honors for the Buckeyes in 2025 and then helped the program win a national title. He was selected in the fourth round of the 2025 NFL Draft by the Steelers.

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Lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee met with stakeholders and law enforcement to address the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S., during a closed-door congressional roundtable on July 22, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The roundtable comes amid growing concerns about antisemitic violence months after recent attacks in Boulder, Colorado, and Washington, D.C., along with growing fears surrounding the potential election of Zohran Mamdani, who has espoused anti-Israel viewpoints, as New York City mayor. 

‘Jewish communities across the country are living in fear, and I am committed to standing with them. This roundtable comes at a critical moment: a far-left activist who has defended the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’ is inching closer to leading a city home to one of the world’s largest Jewish populations,’ Rep. August Pfluger, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee’s counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee, said in his opening statement, obtained by Fox News Digital. 

‘Antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric is becoming dangerously mainstream. We must act now to expose and combat this vile hatred wherever it is spread,’ Pfluger said. 

The roundtable focused on improving interagency coordination, intelligence sharing, training, and enforcement to better prevent and respond to antisemitic violence, according to a House Homeland Security Committee aide.

In particular, the meeting addressed ways to bolster communication between the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, along with state and local law enforcement, according to Michael Masters, the CEO of the Secure Community Network, a non-profit organization focused on the safety of the Jewish community in North America. 

This interagency coordination is absolutely paramount as the Secure Community Network has flagged 500 credible threats to life this year – which all have required immediate law enforcement intervention, according to Masters. 

‘Bad guys don’t respect orders. Bad actors don’t respect jurisdictions, and that means that our intelligence can’t be siloed,’ Masters told Fox News Digital on Monday. 

 

Additionally, the roundtable’s discussion highlighted how extremist rhetoric can spread, especially on college campuses and via social media, the aide said. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, student protests have erupted across college campuses in the U.S., including at Columbia University in New York. 

Likewise, those participating in the roundtable addressed the prevalence of homegrown and foreign-influenced extremism, when one participant highlighted instances where anti-Israel terrorist organizations have disseminated tool kits and talking points aimed at promoting attacks in the U.S., the committee aide said. 

The discussion is expected to inform legislative priorities centered around bolstering officer training, improving data collection, and ensuring ‘robust prosecution’ of antisemitic offenses, the committee aide said. 

Those who participated in the roundtable included representatives from the Secure Community Networks; the Anti-Defamation League, an organization dedicated to stopping the defamation of the Jewish people; the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence & Analysis; and law enforcement officials. 

Pfluger, a Republican from Texas, has spearheaded legislation that would bar any visa holders backing Hamas or other designated terror groups from staying in the U.S. 

He also led a hearing last month on the rise of antisemitic violence in the U.S., following a May shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington and a terrorist attack in Colorado targeting a grassroots group advocating for the release of Israeli hostages.

Antisemitic violence reached a new high in 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 

The group recorded 9,354 antisemitic instances of harassment, assault, and vandalism in the U.S. in 2024 – a 5% increase from the 8,873 incidents recorded in 2023 and a 344% increase in the past five years. Likewise, the number of incidents is the highest the group has recorded since 1979, when the group first started tracking these cases. 

Incidents of antisemitic violence in 2024 were highest in the state of New York, where Mamdani is currently a state assemblyman. 

Mamdani has attracted scrutiny, including from Democrats, for initially failing to condemn the term ‘globalize the intifada,’ a phrase used to back Palestinian resistance against Israel. However, he has since said he will not use the term and will discourage others from using it as well. 

Still, concerns remain over what his potential leadership as mayor could mean for the Jewish community in New York City. Roughly 1.4 million people in the Greater New York Area identified as Jewish in 2023, according to UJA-Federation of New York. 

‘There’s a lot of fear in the Jewish community if this guy becomes mayor,’ New York City Republican councilwoman Inna Vernikov told Fox News Digital. 

‘This is a guy who wants to globalize the intifada,’ Vernikov said. ‘We’ve never seen anything close to this in New York City. We have the largest Jewish population in America, and I’ll tell you Jews are telling me they’re going to run away from New York City, and Jews have contributed a lot to the city and to this country, and the idea that they are now afraid to live here – it’s unacceptable and unprecedented really, this has never happened here.’

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

A former high school football player, Shane Tamura, allegedly shot and killed four people in a New York City office building.
Tamura reportedly targeted the NFL offices but entered the wrong elevator, ending up on a different floor.
He left a note mentioning CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.

The man who police say shot and killed four people Monday, July 28, in New York City was a former high school football player in California, according to multiple reports and information collected by USA TODAY Sports.

Shane Tamura, 27, of Nevada was identified by police as the person who stormed into a Midtown Manhattan office building where the NFL and other prominent businesses are headquartered. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said one NFL employee was shot and seriously injured, according to a memo he sent to NFL staff that was obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday, July 29, that preliminary investigations show the gunman may have targeted the NFL offices on floors 5-8 of the 44-floor building but entered the wrong elevator shaft and ended up on the 33rd floor instead, where he then killed himself.

Tamura left behind a three-page note claiming he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to multiple media reports. CTE is a brain condition experienced by people who have repeated blows to the head, often through contact sports such as football.

Where did Shane Tamura play football?

Tamura played varsity high school football at Granada Hills Charter School, a K-12 school in Los Angeles during the 2015-16 season, according to MaxPreps.com. He also played football at Golden Valley High School in Santa Clarita, California, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Shane Tamura football career, stats

Tamura was a running back and defensive back, according to MaxPreps.com data. He is listed as a senior in 2016 and rushed for 616 yards on 126 carries and had five touchdowns in nine games played. He also had 229 receiving yards for two touchdowns.

On special teams, Tamura had 15 returns for 442 yards and one touchdown.

Shane Tamura video after high school football game

After police identified Tamura as the alleged shooter, a video went viral on social media showing Tamura speaking after a September 2015 game of his senior season.

‘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.’

Did Shane Tamura play in the NFL?

There was no known connection between Tamura and the NFL as of the afternoon of July 29, aside from his mention of the league and its history handling CTE cases.

USA TODAY Sports reached out to the league for comments but did not immediately receive a response.

An NFL employee was seriously injured and in stable condition at a New York hospital on July 28, Goodell told staff in the memo.

‘We believe that all of our employees are otherwise safe and accounted for, and the building has nearly been cleared,’ Goodell wrote in the memo.

Did Shane Tamura have CTE?

It is impossible to determine definitively if a person has chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease often seen in football players and caused by repetitive head injuries, until a brain autopsy is performed post-mortem.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch did state Tamura ‘has a documented mental health history,’ according to law enforcement partners in Las Vegas.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY