The Houston Texans have added another running back into their backfield mix in 2025.

Former Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb has passed a physical and signed with the Texans, the team announced on Monday evening. The official news of the signing comes one day after initial reports first broke.

Houston will be just the second team Chubb will play for in his career. He spent each of his seven previous seasons with the Browns after the team selected him with the No. 35 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Chubb will turn 30 in December and is coming off of two straight injury-shortened seasons.

He suffered a torn MCL and damaged ACL in a Week 2 game that ended his season early in 2023 and kept him out of action until Week 7 last year. The Georgia product made it through eight games in his return as the Browns’ starting running back until he broke his foot in Week 15.

In eight games during the 2024 season, Chubb compiled 332 yards on 102 rushes (3.3 yards per carry) and three rushing touchdowns. He also caught five passes for 31 yards and added a receiving touchdown as well.

Chubb will potentially join a backfield that already features Joe Mixon. Houston is coming off of a 10-7 season and will try to claim its third consecutive AFC South crown in 2025.

The Boston Red Sox called up Anthony, baseball’s consensus No. 1 prospect, Monday before beginning a six-game homestand during a particularly crucial portion of the team’s season, the slugger confirmed as he pulled away from the club’s Class AAA ballpark.

The club later announced it was placing outfielder Wilyer Abreu on the injured list with a left oblique strain. Anthony is batting fifth and playing right field Monday night against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Anthony, 21, had little left to prove at Worcester (Mass.), where he’d hit .288 with a .923 OPS and 10 homers in just 58 games. The final piece of unavoidable evidence came Saturday: A 497-foot grand slam – the longest homer in professional baseball this season – that came screaming off his bat at 115.6 mph, an exit velocity that would rank among the top 20 hardest-hit balls in the majors this season.

And with Anthony joining the Red Sox, a key transition in the franchise’s history is nearly complete.

Anthony, a second-round pick in 2022 out of Florida powerhouse Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, became part of a prospect troika in Boston’s system that represented their ‘big three’ hopes for the future. One of them, catcher Kyle Teel, was peeled off and dealt to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for staff ace Garrett Crochet.

A second, 22-year-old infielder Marcelo Mayer, made his major league debut on May 25. And in the interim, a fourth huge piece developed: Infielder Kristian Campbell, who made the opening-day roster and signed an eight-year, $60 million contract.

That left only Anthony, who in four minor league seasons has a career OBP of .402 and an .879 OPS. On paper, there was nowhere for the 6-3, 200-pound outfielder to play.

And Monday, the three rookies are finally together, on a lineup card at Fenway: Anthony batting fifth, Campbell sixth and Mayer seventh.

This has been a Red Sox season of coloring outside the lines from the jump, what with ongoing Rafael Devers drama – with the franchise player balking at moving to designated hitter and, later, first base – injuries to corner men Triston Casas and Alex Bregman and an imploding pitching staff that ranks 23rd in ERA and that Anthony is powerless to help.

The Red Sox, at 32-35, are already 8½ games behind the first-place New York Yankees and four games behind a large contingent for the AL’s wild card berths. The club apparently saw fit to get all hands on deck, with Abreu’s oblique strain the precipitating event.

Given the pressure to promote Anthony following his most recent blast, many of their fans will surely say it was about time.

President Donald Trump played golf with two prominent college sports figures last weekend.

Who won the round, and what did they discuss?

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said he’ll contain the particulars to those who played in the golf group. Sankey joined Trump and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua for the round of golf. They played at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a Yahoo! Sports report.

“It was helpful for me and for Pete, as well, to hear his thoughts and his perspectives and to share some of ours,” Sankey said Monday during a call with reporters. “I think those are best left for the moment on the golf course.”

The golf outing came amid what Sankey described as an “inflection point” moment for college sports, on the heels of a federal judge on Friday approving the House legal settlement.

The settlement allows NCAA member schools to directly compensate athletes beginning July 1 in the form of revenue-sharing for the use of the name, image and likeness of players. Previously, athletes could earn money via NIL deals with third-party individuals and groups. This settlement allows schools to bring payments to athletes in-house.

The settlement allows schools to distribute a capped financial allotment to athletes across sports. The cap is estimated to start around $20.5 million per school.

Additionally, the settlement outlines that any Division I athlete who earns an NIL deal or deals worth $600 or more must report those deals to a regulatory system called ‘NIL Go.” This centralized clearinghouse, run by Deloitte, will be tasked with determining whether those deals have a “valid business purpose” and whether the money involved in those deals falls within “a reasonable range of compensation,” whatever those terms are considered to mean.

“This (settlement) brings us to a point of having the opportunity for stability and fairness in the new system,” Sankey said Monday, “replacing what has been a chaotic number of months in a fully unregulated environment – replacing that environment with transparent and enforceable rules that promote consistent opportunities for all and are part of a judicially approved settlement.”

Sankey and other college sports leaders have lobbied for years for federal legislation to regulate the NIL marketplace and supersede the patchwork of state NIL laws. No such federal legislation has emerged.

While Sankey declined to get into the specifics of his golf course talks with Trump, he said he appreciates the president’s “interest in college sports.”

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

Coco Gauff said the French Open was a championship she always wanted to win, so much so that she believes her come-from-behind finals win over world No. 1 Arya Sabalenka at Roland Garros last Saturday was meant to be. The best American women’s tennis player since Serena Williams just didn’t realize the trophy she grew up seeing on television isn’t the one the winner gets — and ‘it’s really small,’ Gauff said.

As Gauff celebrated her second Grand Slam tournament win in recent days, she has also made sure to show off the miniature French Open trophy she got as a prize. In a video posted to her TikTok account from a private jet coming back to the United States from France, Gauff explained that the trophy she was pictured with after defeating Sabalenka remained with the tournament. The 21-year-old then revealed the smaller version she got to bring home and compared it to a small Perrier water bottle and a glass to demonstrate its size.

‘It’s like a mini replica of the trophy and I guess to compare it, it’s really small,’ Gauff said. ‘… but it’s the memories that matter the most.’

Gauff became the first American since Williams to win the French Open, and it comes three years after she took a humbling defeat to Iga Swiatek in the French Open final. Gauff, currently ranked No. 2 in the world, previously won the U.S. Open in 2023, but this title ended up being more dramatic. Gauff lost the opening set to Sabalenka in a tiebreaker before coming back to win the final two sets of the match.

‘That first set was so long. It was like an hour and twenty minute, and then I went to the bathroom, used the bathroom, and I kind of had a mini-panic session,’ Gauff said during an appearance on The Today Show on Monday. ‘I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so close.’ And I was like, ‘Ok, you’ve got to chill out. Still a lot of tennis left to play.’ Just splashed some water on my face and my legs and I went out there and I was like, ‘Let me just leave it all out here and see what happens.’ ‘

What happened were two sets in difficult conditions in which Gauff got the better of Sabalenka, grinding out points by taking advantage of Sabalenka’s mistakes. Gauff said on the ‘Today’ show she felt relief after winning the U.S. Open. When she fell to clay as French Open champion, she noted, there was more pride than anything else because she had set out to prove she could win another major, and particularly this major.

Gauff didn’t yet know that the prize was a lot smaller than she may have pictured in her dreams. But the trophy was already growing on her.

‘It is adorable,’ she said. ‘It looks just like the real one, but smaller.’

In the wake of a federal judge granting final approval June 6 to the settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases against the NCAA and the Power Five conferences, the commissioners of those conferences on Monday, June 9 spoke forcefully about their schools’ commitment to the agreement’s potentially complex terms.

They also continued their campaign for the settlement to be followed by Congressional action that preempts the array of state laws that have been passed regarding athletes’ ability to make money from use of their name, image and likeness.

During a video news conference that involved all five of the commissioners, the Southeastern Conference’s Greg Sankey spoke the most forcefully about the need for all college sports constituents to be willing to adhere to rules and enforcement decisions that will be made a newly announced College Sports Commission. Formally unveiled just hours after the final-approval ruling was released, the Commission will be responsible for the implementing, overseeing and enforcing schools’ compliance with the settlement’s terms.

Sankey pledged that cooperation will occur because school CEO’s, athletics directors and coaches have grown weary of what has become a largely marketplace of athletes being able to transfer schools multiple times without penalty and seek the best financial terms from school-affiliated collectives or, in deals that were contingent on the settlement’s final approval, the schools themselves.

“I’ve asked at every level … our university presidents and chancellors, our athletics directors, our head coaches: If you want an unregulated, open system, just raise your hand and let me know,” Sankey said. “And universally, the answer is: ‘No. We want oversight. We want guardrails. We want structures.’

“Those individuals don’t have the luxury to just say that in meeting rooms. Period. They don’t have the luxury to just be anonymous sources They have a responsibility to make what they’ve sought, what they’ve asked for — to make it work.

 “I’m speaking from one perspective. My expectation is everybody on this video conference has had that same dialogue. And, so, some of this burden shifts back to make this work. And we should be candid about the expectation that’s been established from our members, each of us, and the commitment that we’ve made to make this work.”

HEAVY BURDEN: House settlement won’t work if schools decide to cheat

Those terms include an annual cap on the amount of money that schools will be able to spend on direct NIL deals with their athletes and a system under which athletes’ NIL deals worth more than $600 will have to be reported and then evaluated to determine whether a deal has a “valid business purpose” and is within “a reasonable range of compensation.”

Schools, administrators and coaches are always looking for an edge on their competitors, and, in recent years, they have become increasingly hostile toward investigations and enforcement from the NCAA.

Sankey and the Big 12’s Brett Yormark both said they expect there will “challenges” with the new system.

“But,” said Yormark, “we will meet those challenges and we’ll address them appropriately. …

‘I’ll also say that our schools want rules and we’re providing rules, and we will be governed by those rules. And if you break those rules, you know, the ramifications will be punitive.”

Meanwhile, Sankey, who confirmed that he and Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua played golf with President Donald Trump over the weekend, maintained that even with the settlement, federal intervention in college sports is necessary.

“Congress exists to set national standards,” Sankey said, “and we’re not going to have Final Fours and College Football Playoffs and College World Series with 50 different standards. So that’s the starting point.”

Sankey also said that he believes Congress can pass a college-sports bill, even amid a turbulent and divisive political climate.

“They do have the ability to get things done, even in difficult political times,” Sankey said. “And I think this is a nonpartisan issue, candidly. I don’t think this is about drawing lines between Democrats and Republicans or the House and Senate. I think this is an opportunity for our governmental leaders, our political leaders, to come together around solutions to support our Olympic development program, to support college football and every one of our sports that flows off of that, including those that are labeled as non-revenue sports.”

Sankey’s analysis may be optimistic. In the Senate, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who now chairs the chamber’s Commerce Committee, and Democrats led by Sens. Cory Booker, N.J., and Richard Blumenthal, Conn., have been trying to craft college-sports bills for several years, but have not been able to come to terms. The points of disagreement have included the degree of legal protections the NCAA, the conferences and school want, and the types of benefits for athletes that would become enshrined in law, as opposed to the NCAA’s or conference’s rules books.

However, the Big Ten’s Tony Petitti, expressed optimism that the settlement’s final approval may help the NCAA’s and the conferences’ case. And the commissioner’s noted that another hearing is upcoming this week — one by the a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee..

“We’ve shown that we’re willing to make significant change and modernize our system,” Petitti said. “We’re not just asking for something. We’re actually showing that we are willing to have significant change.”

U.S. Men’s National Team standout Weston McKennie defended teammate Christian Pulisic on Monday after Landon Donovan made indirect comments toward the current captain.

While commentating Portugal’s celebration after the team won the UEFA Nations League final Sunday on Fox Sports, Donovan said, “This is what it means to represent your country. … I can’t help but think about our guys on vacation not wanting to play in Gold Cup. It’s pissing me off.”

While Donovan didn’t name Pulisic, it’s clear the former USMNT captain was referring to the latest one. Pulisic decided to take the summer off after two straight 50-match seasons with AC Milan instead of joining the national team for the Concacaf Gold Cup later this month. Donovan, himself, also took a brief sabbatical from the team in 2013.

“Obviously, none of us take for granted playing for the national team. None of us want to lose games,’ McKennie told USA TODAY Sports on Monday, from Juventus headquarters in Italy preparing for the Club World Cup. ‘All of us want to compete. And for me, it’s a little bit, I won’t say sad, but as a former national team player, I think as a national team player pool – previous, present – I think it’s more about trying to build or even say something like that to a person directly rather than putting it out there.

“That’s just my opinion because we’ve all been through those moments, even when comments about us losing the Nations League were made by many players from before, but they’ve had the same thing on a bigger stage with not qualifying for the World Cup.”

McKennie is also not participating with the USMNT this summer to help Juventus compete in the FIFA Club World Cup. Juventus is in Group G of the tournament and will play Al Ain (United Arab Emirates) on June 18 in Washington D.C., Wydad AC (Morrocco) on June 22 in Philadelphia, and Manchester City (England) on June 26 in Orlando during the group stage.

Still, McKennie is keeping an eye on his teammates with the national team led by new coach Mauricio Pochettino.

McKennie believes the USMNT has a good group of players who are ambitious with room to grow before World Cup 2026, co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. He believes the team needs to find its identity by practicing in a competitive environment.

“You fight for each other. You run for each other. You sacrifice for each other,” McKennie said. “I think with the group that we have and some of the players that have been there a little bit longer, including myself, need to start not thinking that we’re young anymore. We’re veterans on the team, and we need to start acting like that. And take control.

‘And show the way, and show the culture that the U.S. men’s national team has presented before because we’ve always been known as a country to fight, never give up, maybe not have been the best talented-wise. But now we have a lot more talent. And so now, we just need to add that grit and grind, and competitive nature back into the system.”

As for Donovan’s comments, McKennie sided with Pulisic while reiterating their desire to suit up for the national team because of its significance.

“No names were named,” McKennie said. “Coming off a long season, a stressful season, obviously, some players feel a different way about it, and some players feel another way. But the comments are comments. Everyone has their own opinions, and that’s life, and that’s football.

“Obviously, like I said before, none of us take for granted that we get to represent a national team because it’s one of the biggest honors that we can have in the sport of football. …

“So, any chance that we get, we want to play. But obviously, if you don’t feel like your body is in the right condition, and you don’t feel like your body is in the best form or shape or whatever, to be able to do that at 100%, and you feel like you’re risking injury, then it’s better to let someone else go in that is completely 100%.”

Legal problems for Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco continue to mount.

Already on trial for alleged sexual abuse of a minor, the former American League All-Star was charged Sunday with illegal possession of a firearm, police said.

Franco, 24, was arrested in November following an altercation in a parking lot in San Juan de la Maguana, about 115 miles northwest of Santo Domingo. During the arrest, police found a semiautomatic Glock 19 in his vehicle, according to a statement from the Dominican Public Prosecutor’s Office obtained by the Associated Press.

Prosecutors said the handgun was registered to Franco’s uncle and requested Franco stand trial on the gun charge.

In response, Franco’s attorney said that since the gun was licensed, ‘there’s nothing illegal about it.’

Franco is currently on MLB’s restricted list as his trial on sex abuse charges continues.

The 2023 AL All-Star – who signed an 11-year, $182 million contract with the Rays in 2021 – has not played since August 2023, when he was first accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a then 14-year-old girl in the Dominican Republic. He was placed on the restricted list after he was ordered to stand trial in the Dominican Republic on charges of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of a minor and human trafficking.

Franco faces up to 20 years in prison on those charges and also remains under MLB investigation for violations of its joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy.