Club América goalkeeper Luis Ángel Malagón was stretchered off with a potential Achilles injury in a Concacaf Champions Cup game at the Philadelphia Union on Tuesday, March 10.

Malagón lost his footing when attempting to play a pass in the first half and went down in clear pain. After a long delay for the goalkeeper to receive treatment, he had to leave on a stretcher.

América won the game 1-0, but there will be major concern for the club and for Mexico with just three months to go until a World Cup on home soil.

Malagón has become the first-choice goalkeeper under Mexico coach Javier Aguirre, but the 29-year-old is now in serious doubt for the World Cup.

After the game, América head coach André Jardine admitted that he feared Malagón had suffered a serious Achilles injury.

‘It seems like a somewhat serious injury to us, probably an Achilles tendon injury,’ Jardine said. ‘Hopefully it’s not a complete tear, probably a partial tear.’

Malagón has made 19 senior appearances for Mexico since making his international debut in 2023.

He played in 12 games for El Tri in 2025 and was the starting goalkeeper as Mexico won the Concacaf Gold Cup and Nations League.

Should Malagón miss the World Cup, Mexico could turn to Tala Rangel, Carlos Acevedo or 40-year-old legend Guillermo Ochoa as its goalkeeper.

The New York Jets spiced up their outlook at football’s most prominent position by returning to a familiar figure.

The Jets on Tuesday agreed to acquire quarterback Geno Smith from the Las Vegas Raiders as part of a late-round pick swap, according to multiple reports. The Raiders will pay the bulk of Smith’s restructured contract, per reports, while the Jets will pay the passer just over the veteran minimum.

Smith heads back to the team that drafted him in 2013 and for whom he started for two years, until a punch by a teammate sidelined him and eventually cost him his QB1 status.

For the Jets, the swap provides much needed clarity in the form of a viable starter for what could be an extremely challenging season. The Raiders, meanwhile, continue to set the table for expected No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza.

But who won the trade? Here are our marks:

Jets trade grade: B+

So it’s come to this.

After the Justin Fields experiment went awry, the Jets figured to have perhaps the league’s most daunting quarterback setup for 2026. Entering the offseason, Gang Green was linked to the likes of Carson Wentz and Andy Dalton. It was enough to make any fan want to fast forward to next spring – or at least the fall, when they could watch plenty of Arch Manning and the other 2027 draft-eligible quarterbacks.

Going with the Smith 2.0 era will produce plenty of jokes, but this was likely New York’s best option.

Many of Smith’s worst traits bubbled to the surface during his disastrous one-year run in Las Vegas, including a devil-may-care mentality that led him to toss a league-high 17 interceptions in 15 games. At least with the Jets’ solid collection of talent up front, however, he’ll be afforded higher quality protection than he received from the Raiders, who gave up an NFL-worst 64 sacks in total.

That of course still won’t matter if he can’t speed up his decision-making and become an effective distributor, as Fields proved untenable behind center due to the number of sacks he invited. But Smith at least gives the rest of the offense a chance at achieving mere functionality, which is a necessity for evaluating the other parts of the operation heading into a critical 2027 offseason. The price is hardly exorbitant, so … why not give this another shot?

Raiders trade grade: B

Maybe this is generous for a team washing its hands of the quarterback for whom it surrendered a third-round pick just a year earlier. But the Silver and Black were backed into a corner here, and getting any kind of relief for a player who otherwise was headed for a cut is a win. Move on to Mendoza and leave this in the past.

The New York Jets have lost a Super Bowl hero.

Former running back Matt Snell, the first player to rush for more than 100 yards on Super Sunday, has died, the team confirmed March 10. He was 84.

The third overall pick out of Ohio State in the 1964 AFL draft – Snell was also selected by the New York Giants that year, prior to the institution of the common draft in 1967 – Snell rushed for a career-high 948 yards in his first season, when he was named AFL Rookie of the Year.

But he’s best known for his heroics in Super Bowl 3, which capped the 1968 season, when he rushed for 121 yards on 30 carries and scored the only touchdown of the day in the Jets’ monumental 16-7 upset of the Baltimore Colts – still widely regarded as the most important game in NFL history as it gave the AFL credibility a year before it merged with the NFL.

Jets superstar quarterback Joe Namath, who famously guaranteed a victory ahead of the Jets’ landmark win over the heavily favored Colts, was named Super Bowl 3’s MVP and did a masterful job managing the game. But while the Hall of Fame passer’s game management that day and bravado will be long remembered, New York likely doesn’t win without Snell’s performance.

The 1968 Jets are still the only team in franchise history to reach the Super Bowl.

Despite being limited by injuries later in his career, Snell rushed for 4,285 yards during his nine seasons, all with the Jets. Though he spent most of his career in a platoon with Emerson Boozer, Snell, a member of the Jets’ Ring of Honor, still ranks fourth on the franchise’s all-time rushing list – behind Hall of Famer Curtis Martin, Freeman McNeil and Boozer.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver looks more foolish by the day.

The PWHL has already sold out a game at Madison Square Garden next month. Revenue from ticket sales jumped more than 200% in Unrivaled’s second season while merchandise was up 130%. A new study by EDO found that ads during women’s sporting events generated 15% more engagement than ads on prime-time broadcast and cable.

Silver, the WNBA and owners in both leagues, meanwhile, are still dithering over a new WNBA contract, failing to appreciate they’re putting their financial goldmine at risk.

“We need to now move toward the next level of sense of urgency,” Silver said during NBA All-Star Weekend last month, “and not lose momentum in terms of the amazing amount of progress we’ve seen in women’s basketball.’

Looking forward to when that message kicks in. Because right now, there are sloths with greater senses of urgency.

The WNBA had said a new deal needed to be reached by March 10 to prevent the upcoming season from being delayed, yet that deadline is here and we have no agreement.

While the league and its players’ union remain far apart on negotiating revenue sharing and salary cap agreements, the real sticking point has never been about percentages or dollars and cents. It’s that Silver and the NBA, which still owns about 42% of the league, don’t see the WNBA as a legitimate financial powerhouse.

This is not unique to Silver and his owners. The NCAA, FIFA, U.S. Soccer, broadcasters — pretty much everyone who has had the opportunity to cash in on women’s sports — has botched it. They dismiss it as a passing fad or are so ignorant, or outright hostile, to the appeal that they are blind to the market.

Only when the data points, or public shame, become too overwhelming to ignore do they get on board.

With NBA owners, there’s also resentment for all those years they bankrolled the WNBA. (Before you manbabies start yowling, unless you also squawked all those years the NBA was losing money, or are carrying pitchforks about the teams still losing money, zip it.)

Compounding all this is no one thinks women athletes are serious when they say they are determined to get their worth.

‘We’re all just fighting for what we think we deserve. I just want to feel valued,’ three-time WNBA champion Jackie Young said last week. ‘That’s the biggest thing.”

What the players want is not an outrageous ask. They are looking for 25% of gross league revenue, which is about half what NBA players get. (An even split of revenues, or close to it, is standard for the major men’s leagues.) The max salary would grow to nearly $2 million, which is still more than $1 million less than the minimum for an NBA veteran.

The WNBA claims it can’t afford this, which is not surprising. I’ve yet to find a sports league that hasn’t cried poor during labor negotiations.

But the cost of not getting a deal done is going to be far greater, and it’s going to be Silver, the WNBA, the NBA and its owners who will lose most. Because while they’re refusing to give the players their due, others will step into the void. While the W drags its heels on sustaining the moneymaker it already has, sponsors and fans are tripping over themselves to put their money into women’s sports.

Unrivaled said it generated $45 million in revenue this season, up from $27 million in its inaugural season. In addition to sellouts when it took the league on the road to Philadelphia and Brooklyn, it added new sponsors including PwC, Maker’s Mark and Cheez-It.

Denver, which was passed over in the latest round of WNBA expansion, will welcome the PWHL’s Takeover Tour back next week after setting an attendance record at Ball Arena last season. Its new NWSL team, the Denver Summit, has already sold 45,000 tickets for its first game, which will be played later this month at the Broncos’ Mile High Stadium.

ESPN has announced it is replacing “Sunday Night Baseball” with “Women’s Sports Sundays” this summer. Less than a week after acquiring rights to international basketball games, TNT Sports is set to make bank with the U.S. women’s game against Senegal on Wednesday, March 11. Better known as The Return of Caitlin Clark.

The WNBA, meanwhile, is watching from the sidelines.

Women’s sports is not a charity project, it’s a growth business. A massive one at that. And the WNBA is going to get passed by because Silver and his owners don’t get it.

Worse, they don’t seem to care.

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

The Pittsburgh Steelers are keeping around one of their best defenders for at least one extra season.

Defensive tackle Cameron Heyward has agreed to a new, two-year deal with the Steelers worth $32.25 million that keeps him in Pittsburgh through 2027. Heyward had been set to enter the final year of his previous contract, but this new deal fully guarantees Heyward’s 2026 salary and extends his time in the Steel City by a year.

The transaction, which was initially reported by The Athletic’s Mike DeFabo, also frees $5.5 million in cap space, per DeFabo.

Heyward, 36, is set to enter his 16th NFL season in 2026. He has played all 15 years of his career in Pittsburgh, earning seven Pro Bowl nods and four seasons on the All-Pro first team.

With his 92 career sacks, Heyward ranks just behind teammate T.J. Watt (115) for second-most in franchise history. Heyward’s 142 career tackles for a loss are the most by any Steelers defender since at least 1999, per Pro Football Reference.

In 2025, Heyward started all 17 games and recorded 78 tackles (nine for a loss), 3.5 sacks, six pass defenses and a forced fumble.

Cameron Heyward contract details

Here’s how Heyward’s new deal with the Steelers looks:

Length: Two years
Total contract value: $32.25 million
Guaranteed money: $16.25 million
Average annual value (AAV): $16.125 million

Cameron Heyward stats

Heyward is in second place on the Raiders’ list of career sack leaders since at least 1982, when the NFL started tracking the stat. Here’s a look at his career stats:

Tackles (for a loss): 796 (142)
Quarterback hits: 208
Sacks: 92
Forced fumbles: 9
Passes defensed: 64
Interceptions: 2

Heyward has been a Pro Bowl defensive tackle in seven of his last nine seasons. In 2024, he earned his fourth first-team All-Pro nod.

Utah Valley is the favorite to win the men’s WAC championship and go to the NCAA Tournament, and it nearly didn’t get a chance to after the conference demanded it pay — or get excluded from the conference tournament.

The WAC announced on Tuesday, March 10 that Utah Valley ‘has not complied’ with a Utah judge’s order that the university place $1 million in escrow with the court. As a result, the conference board of directors has instructed commissioner Rebekah Ray to not include the men’s and women’s basketball teams in the WAC tournaments since ‘it would be a member not in good standing.’

It added Utah Valley must comply with the court directive by 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday or it will release new brackets without the Wolverines.

More than an hour after the deadline, the WAC said it was assured the payment was in process and would be completed before the tournament began.

‘The WAC board of directors will allow Utah Valley to compete in the WAC basketball tournaments,’ the statement read.

Utah Valley said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports it was working with the court on ‘the proper way to deposit the requested funds’ and no deadline was established by the court.

‘UVU looks forward to competing in Las Vegas this week,’ it read.

Why did WAC demand Utah Valley pay $1 million?

Utah Valley and the WAC have been at odds with each other ever since the university announced in June it would be leaving the conference to join the Big West beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.

In February, the WAC filed a lawsuit in Texas, alleging Utah Valley refused to pay its contractually obligated exit fee of $1 million. As a result, the WAC barred Wolverines athletics from conference tournaments, NCAA tournaments as well as appearing on conference-sponsored television, radio or other media packages. Utah Valley then sued the WAC seeking an injunction to allow its teams to play in WAC tournaments.

A Utah court granted Utah Valley a temporary restraining order to allow its teams to participate in WAC tournaments, and it was just granted a motion for a preliminary injunction for its basketball teams.

Utah Valley was directed to pay the court $1 million to be held during the dispute. The WAC wanted the university to pay the court ahead of the tournament, even though there wasn’t a court-mandated deadline.

Utah Valley WAC tournament

If the Wolverines were taken out of the WAC tournament, it would have had major ramifications, as they wouldn’t be eligible for the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The men’s basketball team was the regular season champion and the No. 1 seed in the tournament. It is slated to begin play on Friday, March 13 in the semifinals. The Wolverines are projected to be a No. 13 seed in the latest USA TODAY Sports Bracketology.

The women’s basketball team is the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament and is scheduled to play Tarleton State in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 12.

Thirteen months removed from their Super Bowl 59 victory, the Philadelphia Eagles are tapping a Seattle Seahawk to fill a hole on defense.

Philadelphia is signing cornerback Riq Woolen to a one-year deal in NFL free agency, according to multiple reports. The one-year deal is worth $15 million, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Jeremy Fowler.

Woolen is entering his age-27 season and is changing to another avian franchise after four years in Seattle. The Seahawks selected Woolen in the fifth round, No. 153 overall out of UT-San Antonio in the 2022 NFL Draft.

He had an immediate impact as a rookie and finished third in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting that season behind Sauce Gardner and Aidan Hutchinson. He led the NFL in interceptions that year with six and returned one for a touchdown. He also added 16 passes defensed and made the Pro Bowl after starting all 17 regular-season games.

Woolen remained a starter on the outside in 2023 and 2024 before eventually losing out to Josh Jobe as the starter opposite Devon Witherspoon in 2025. Though he wasn’t a starter, Woolen regularly played at least 30 snaps on defense through the Seahawks’ run to a win in Super Bowl 60.

Here’s how he may fit in Philadelphia and a look at the Eagles’ cornerback depth chart with him in the building:

Riq Woolen’s fit with the Eagles

Woolen struggled at times in 2025 with penalties and big plays. He gave up six touchdowns in coverage, per Pro Football Focus (PFF) data, tied for a career-high. His quarterback rating when targeted (93.9) and penalties (11) were also career-worsts.

Woolen has been a frustrating player at times for Seahawks fans. He’s one of the longest and fastest cornerbacks in the NFL but those coverage lapses and penalties have come in big moments, notably in the NFC championship game. He was flagged for taunting after stopping the Los Angeles Rams on 3rd-and-12 at midfield. A play later with a fresh set of downs, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford found Puka Nacua for a touchdown.

Woolen can hang in press coverage with most opponents the Eagles will see on a weekly basis at wide receiver. He’s in a good environment as well. Philadelphia is more than set at the other cornerback spots with first-team All-Pros Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Like Witherspoon in Seattle, Mitchell typically follows the opponent’s No. 1 wide receiver. DeJean does enough from the slot to ease the pressure on Woolen on the other side. Philadelphia doesn’t necessarily need Woolen to be a Pro Bowler again. They just need a baseline level of consistency in a talented cornerback room.

Eagles CB depth chart

Here’s how the cornerback room looks with Woolen on board:

Quinyon Mitchell
Cooper DeJean
Riq Woolen
Kelee Ringo
Michael Carter II
Mac McWilliams
Jakorian Bennett

Woolen would theoretically be taking over for free agent Adoree’ Jackson opposite Mitchell on the outside.

The target: The UFC, which helped turn Rousey into a superstar.

She ripped the company for underpaying its athletes and cited legendary fighter Valentina Shevchenko, currently No. 1 in the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings, as an example.

“It’s why there are champions like Valentina are selling pictures… on OnlyFans,’’ Rousey said.

Rousey also said UFC is losing athletes because the company continues to underpay its fighters despite having signed a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with Paramount+, which this year became the UFC’s new streaming partner.

“Why not go into anything else?’’  Rousey said of UFC fighters during a press conference to promote her fight against Carano. “And so they’re bleeding talents because of their short-term greed. They’re thinking about the next quarter.

‘They’re thinking about the shareholders and they’re not thinking about their responsibility to be stewards of the future of the sport.’’

Rousey also said the MMA promotion has been damaged by the corporation taking away power from longtime UFC CEO Dana White.

The fight between Rousey and Carano might be the most watched in MMA history; Rousey indicated she hopes that impacts the UFC, which she said is “not about putting on the best fights’’ and added that “they need to be saved from themselves.’’

Rousey, 39, will be fighting for the first time in a decade. The bout, to be held at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, will be livestreamed by Netflix and promoted by Most Valuable Promotions, co-founded by Jake Paul.

But Rousey said she originally wanted the fight to be held under the UFC’s auspices and was negotiating with White. But a plan to hold the fight on New Year’s fell through when Carano said she needed more time to prepare, according to Rousey.

In January, Paramount+ replaced ESPN as the UFC’s broadcast partner and the subscription model for streaming ended pay-per-view; the deal fell through.

But Rousey said White gave her his blessing to make as much money as she could.

Utah Valley is the favorite to win the men’s WAC championship and go to the NCAA Tournament, but it may not get a chance to after the conference demanded it pay — or get excluded from the conference tournament.

The WAC announced on Tuesday, March 10 that Utah Valley ‘has not complied’ with a Utah judge’s order that the university place $1 million in escrow with the court. As a result, the conference board of directors has instructed commissioner Rebekah Ray to not include the men’s and women’s basketball teams in the WAC tournaments since ‘it would be a member not in good standing.’

It added Utah Valley must comply with the court directive by 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday or it will release new brackets without the Wolverines.

‘The conference regrets that the intentional actions of Utah Valley University have caused uncertainty and harm for institutions, student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans across the WAC — including at Utah Valley University,’ it said in the statement.

USA TODAY Sports has reached out to Utah Valley for comment.

Why is WAC demanded Utah Valley pay $1 million?

Utah Valley and the WAC have been at odds with each other ever since the university announced in June it would be leaving the conference to join the Big West beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.

In February, the WAC filed a lawsuit in Texas, alleging Utah Valley refused to pay its contractually obligated exit fee of $1 million. As a result, the WAC barred Wolverines athletics from conference tournaments, NCAA tournaments as well as appearing on conference-sponsored television, radio or other media packages. Utah Valley then sued the WAC seeking an injunction to allow its teams to play in WAC tournaments.

A Utah court granted Utah Valley a temporary restraining order to allow its teams to participate in WAC tournaments, and it was just granted a motion for a preliminary injunction for its basketball teams.

Utah Valley was directed to pay the court $1 million to be held during the dispute.

Utah Valley WAC tournament

If the Wolverines are taken out of the WAC tournament, it will have major ramifications, as they will not be able to get the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

The men’s basketball team was the regular season champion and the No. 1 seed in the tournament. It is slated to begin play on Friday, March 13 in the semifinals. The Wolverines are projected to be a No. 13 seed in the latest USA TODAY Sports Bracketology.

The women’s basketball team is the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament and is scheduled to play Tarleton State in the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 12.