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Hugh Grant is on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's side
There’s at least one fellow Brit cheering on Prince Harry amid the royal’s decision to “step back” from his formal duties alongside wife Meghan Markle.
There’s at least one fellow Brit cheering on Prince Harry amid the royal’s decision to “step back” from his formal duties alongside wife Meghan Markle.
The Raptors looked clueless against Miami's shorthanded zone defense on Wednesday.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe summed it up quite nicely after the game: "We didn't do anything."
Bo Horvat, who scored two goals and an assist in regulation, beat Carey Price with a shot between the legs to secure the 6-5 victory in the Canucks' home opener.
The NHL revealed the Capitals broke protocols with close-contact social interactions and by not wearing masks.
Kyrie Irving looked fine after a seven-game layoff, but the Nets struggled to defend as James Harden took a deferential role Brooklyn's loss to the Cavs.
We're tracking every notable free agent signing in the 2020-21 MLB offseason and giving you the details on the deal. Plus: What it means for your fantasy team.
Signing George Springer will not just help the Blue Jays win more ballgames, it represents an entire paradigm shift for the franchise.
The conference's two best teams in the Chiefs and Bills meet after travelling a collision course to the AFC Championship game.
Hill insisted on Wednesday that he wasn't being a "hothead" or a "diva."
Maybe this concept expands to other fans, even other sports. In a time of division, there is something special about acknowledging a rival by kicking in a few bucks for a good cause.
Zion Williamson got a big win Wednesday.
A.J. Brown appeared to be feeling the effects of anesthesia when he took to Instagram live.
Nurmagomedov spoke after Dana White implied the fighter was considering a return depending on what happens at UFC 257.
The Jacksonville Jaguars hired Trent Baalke as general manager Thursday, removing the interim tag from his title and pairing him with new coach Urban Meyer. Team owner Shad Khan is switching to a coach-centric model in which Meyer and Baalke will both report to him to “have transparency and (fill) the needs and concerns of both parties without really getting filtered or have a chain of command.” Meyer, though, is expected to have final say over the roster and most everything else. “Trent thoroughly knows the NFL and the dynamics of today’s game, has an exceptional eye for talent and I know will have excellent chemistry with head coach Urban Meyer as they begin their mission to bring a consistent winner to our fans in Jacksonville,” Khan said in a statement. Khan interviewed five minority candidates and Baalke for the team’s open GM job. He met with former Houston executive Rick Smith, current ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, former New York Giants GM Jerry Reese, former Cleveland GM Ray Farmer and New Orleans executive Terry Fontenot. Fontenot was named Atlanta’s GM on Monday. Khan, the league’s lone minority owner, made it clear this month that hiring a person of colour to one of the team’s top two spots wasn’t a priority. “I want to get the best person for the job,” Khan said. “I think diversity is very important to me for many, many different reasons. I think we’re going to look far and wide, but I think what’s most important is this inflection point for the franchise we have the best leaders.” Baalke served as Jacksonville’s director of pro personnel in 2020, returning to a front-office role for the first time since San Francisco fired him and coach Chip Kelly following the 2016 season. Baalke spent a dozen years with the 49ers, half as GM. He hired Jim Harbaugh, who led the Niners to the NFC title game in each of his first three seasons and lost Super Bowl 47. Baalke also drafted quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the second round in 2011. Before moving to Jacksonville, Baalke spent three years (2017-19) working as an operations consultant for the NFL. Jacksonville had one of the league’s most attractive coach/GM openings. The Jaguars have 11 picks in the 2021 draft, including four in the top 45, and are nearly $100 million under the projected salary cap. Adding to the appeal: Khan, a billionaire businessman, has shown a penchant for patience and a willingness to spend big. ___ More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Mark Long, The Associated Press
Who would you pick: Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers?
Which mid-career superstars, expiring All-Stars and aging duos could be the next on the trade block?
Matt Harmon delves into the truly unbelievable fantasy mayhem you faced off against this year.
GENEVA — As UEFA prepares a final proposal to change the Champions League format in 2024, the governing body of European soccer joined FIFA on Thursday in warning clubs against breaking away to run their own competition. Players who take part in a Super League-type competition — likely limited to storied clubs — would be banned from representing their countries at the World Cup, FIFA and its six continental confederations said in a joint statement. Real Madrid and Barcelona were linked last year with planning a breakaway Super League inviting famous clubs to enter and increase their own wealth. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin denounced it as a “selfish and egotistical scheme” after Madrid president Florentino Pérez was reportedly seeking financiers to back the project. The reports were seen as trying to put pressure on UEFA during talks to make changes to the Champions League that would favour elite clubs. “Any club or player involved in such a competition would as a consequence not be allowed to participate in any competition organised by FIFA or their respective confederation,” the joint statement said. The UEFA negotiations restarted after initial talks stalled in 2019. Controversy was fueled by a club-backed proposal that would help successful teams retain their Champions League places. The European Leagues group said Thursday that breakaway plans were “similar to those franchise models operating in North America.” FIFA and UEFA reaffirmed Thursday the importance of promotion and relegation giving access to all clubs as a key principle of soccer. “Participation in global and continental competitions should always be won on the pitch,” the FIFA-led statement said. UEFA is expected to announce proposals in the coming weeks for modifying its club competitions’ entry paths and playing formats. The group stage of the Champions League is likely to be changed to give clubs who qualify 10 guaranteed games instead of the current six. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press
When Diogo Dalot signed for Manchester United, the excitement was mixed with regret at missing out on the chance to play with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The veteran striker had departed for what appeared to be a career swan song at the Los Angeles Galaxy just before a teenage Dalot arrived at Old Trafford three years ago. “It was a little bit of a sad moment for me,” Dalot recalls in an interview with The Associated Press. “When you play football, you always want to play with the best players and, of course, Zlatan was a reference.” The opportunity had been missed, or so the Portuguese defender wrongly assumed. As the right back struggled for game time in Manchester, a loan move was needed at the start of this season. Now the 21-year-old Dalot is at the heart of the defence of an AC Milan side which has been propelled to the top of the Italian league by the 39-year-old Ibrahimovic. With 12 goals in eight league games, the Swede’s enduring quality is undisputed — and inspirational for a teammate giving his career a lift in Italy. “He’s very demanding on ourselves,” Dalot said in a video call from Milan. “He’s always one of the first to come in to training ground. So these kind of things help us to see that maybe we need to be as professional as him because, if you want to win as much as he won, you need to be doing this for a long time. “And this is a very good way to see how you want be a success in football, how you want to be in 10 years or in 15 years. And it’s been a very good surprise to work with him.” Surprising because Dalot had not envisaged leaving United — even temporarily — so soon after being acclaimed as the “best young fullback in Europe” when Jose Mourinho brought him to United from Porto in 2018. “It was one of the sentences that I keep with me until this day,” Dalot said. “Coming from him was even more special because we all know that is a fantastic coach, one of the best ever, and it gave me a little bit more responsibility.” A change in manager produced a change in circumstances and Dalot fell down the pecking order under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Ibrahimovic is helping Dalot believe in himself again and improve his game. “He can give you the confidence when he thinks you need (it),” Dalot said. That sometimes means being brutally honest. “'You’re not doing good enough to be at this level'” Dalot says Ibrahimovic will tell players in training or games. "Coming from him we need to listen.” Especially about what it takes to win titles, something Milan has not done in Serie A since Ibrahimovic lifted the trophy in 2011 before eventually moving on to PSG, United and the LA Galaxy. Almost halfway through the season, a resurgent Milan enjoys a three-point lead over city rival Inter and has an unexpected 10-point advantage on Juventus, which has slumped to fifth after eight successive titles. “It will be more special (winning the title), not just because of beating Juve or Inter ... but to put Milan back on the top again, winning titles after so many years,” Dalot said. “We like this kind of pressure. We like to have people down there pushing us and paying attention to us to see, ‘OK, if you lose, we are there.’ So we like these kind of challenges.” Dalot’s focus is on the Serie A prize. But there will be some uncertainty when the season-long loan expires whether he returns to United or secures a longer stay with Stefano Pioli’s Milan. United is also going strongly this season, sitting top of the Premier League and looking to end its own title drought stretching back to 2013. “I am completely focused on what is going on here,” Dalot said. “When I go home and I can rest, I can see Manchester games, Porto games and be happy with them, because they are winning and they are doing fantastic.” Dalot is delighted to be back on the field regularly again, playing 15 times since October and being a key part of a defence that has not conceded in four of the last five games. “I’m a confident person. I know my qualities. I know what I can do, but then if you don’t play that’s not enough," Dalot said. "Feeling the grass again, feeling the games again, winning games and playing 90 minutes ... it’s been fantastic.” ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Rob Harris, The Associated Press
The Winnipeg Football Club is banking on the COVID-19 pandemic improving enough this spring to allow the team to play in front of thousands of fans in fewer than five months. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are slated to open the 2021 Canadian Football League season at home against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on June 10. That is 140 days away. Football club president and CEO Wade Miller said he's confident Manitoba will allow outdoor gatherings to increase over that timeframe from the current maximum of five people to thousands of fans in the stands at Investors Group Field. "In November, before vaccinations, before drugs were approved, we were very hopeful that we would be able to have fans back. Now you're seeing vaccinations roll out and and there's still a lot of time," Miller said Wednesday in an interview. CFL slated to return after pandemic hiatus The COVID-19 pandemic forced the CFL, which relies more on ticket revenue than do other professional sports leagues, to cancel its 2020 season. This year's season was announced in November, which turned out to be the worst month of the pandemic in Manitoba. Code red restrictions imposed on the province in November are only slated to be relaxed now, more than two months later, starting with the tentative return of retail sales, hair salons and small household gatherings on Saturday. Miller said he is optimistic restrictions will recede more rapidly over the coming months, especially with vaccinations underway. The pace of immunizations has been slow in Manitoba, which plans to vaccinate 70 per cent of the adult population before the start of 2022. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, has repeatedly promised every Canadian who wants a shot will get one by the fall. "I'm going to listen to our prime minister that people could be vaccinated by September and everybody could get a shot that wants one," Miller said. "So I'm going to be very positive that we're going to be able to get back on the field with our fans in the stands, like our schedule is right now." Large gatherings likely last to resume The Bombers last played in Winnipeg during the regular season in 2019, weeks before their Grey Cup victory in Calgary. Public health officials, including Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, have repeatedly warned that gatherings the size of sporting events will likely be last aspect of pre-pandemic life to resume. The Winnipeg Jets, for example, are not expecting any fans in the stands at Bell MTS Place at any point during the 2021 season, which started last week. Spectator sports do not just pose a transmission risk. They complicate contact-tracing efforts. Football games, for example, draw fans from all over the province and sometimes beyond, University of Manitoba community health sciences professor Dan Chateau pointed out last year. "You don't want those people to go back to their communities and eventually spread COVID-19 again through each of their individual spheres of social contact," Chateau said in an interview in April, when the pandemic was one month old. Miller said it's too early to entertain the possibility public health authorities won't allow fans in the stands at Investors Group Field in June. "It's January. You know we still have a lot of months ahead of us," he said. "Right now, we have to focus on stomping down the virus." Pandemic-proofing planned for stadium Miller said the football club is planning to make Investors Group Field more safe from a public-health standpoint. The Bombers are also preparing for the prospect of public health allowing the stadium to open at a reduced capacity. "We're contingency planning all the time and looking at every scenario and how we physically distance in the stadium," Miller said, adding the club is looking at reducing touch points and finding ways to keep fans apart as they enter and exit Investors Group Field. Dr. Jillian Horton, a hospital-based Winnipeg internist who was among hundreds of doctors who advocated for tougher pandemic restrictions in the fall, said she can't envision stadium-sized gatherings in the near future. "I struggle to imagine a scenario where hundreds or thousands of people in the stands is either possible or desirable," Horton said in an interview. "I relate to the deep desire people have to see these normal landmarks and milestones come back into our lives," she added. "I don't know how much more disappointment we want to set ourselves up for here. "A much slower, smaller, incremental rise in expectations may be a better idea."