The AFC West continues to be the wild west as each team within that division has made significant upgrades. The Las Vegas Raiders have upgraded their pass rush with the addition of Chandler Jones.
Jones signs with the Raiders for a reportedly $17 million a year per NFL Networkâs Tom Pelissero.
Jones has some Hall of Fame-worthy numbers with 107.5 career sacks in 10 seasons. Heâs surpassed the double-digit mark in seven seasons, and three years he didnât was his rookie season when he had six in 14 games and in 2014 and 2020, where he only played in eight and five games, respectively. Also, heâs only two years removed from a career-high 19-sack campaign.
With a division including Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, and Justin Herbert, the Raiders are looking to lean on Chandler to help stabilize those electric quarterbacks.
After two decades working together at Fox Sports, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck are taking their talents over to ESPN to become the new voices of Monday Night Football.
âThe opportunity to be a voice on Monday Night Football, adding to its legacy and being a part of the future of the NFL on ESPN, has me motivated and reflective,â Aikman said in an ESPN press release.
Buck and Aikman will be working together for the 21st season (the same number of seasons that Pat Summerall and John Madden worked together) and will be joined by sideline reporter Lisa Salters, plus John Parry as the officiating analyst.
Itâs been no secret that the worldwide leaders in sports have wanted to improve their Monday night broadcast for some time now. With the two biggest broadcasters in the game, itâs safe to say ESPN has achieved that goal.
Monday nights will continue to include the alternate Peyton and Eli âManningcastâ for 10 games, with the Manningsâ contract with ESPN currently running through the 2024 NFL season.
Kyrie Irving is no magician but he pulled out the bag of tricks in last nightâs 150-108 blow out victory against the Orlando Magic.
Since Irving is only allowed to play half the time, since he canât play in home games due to New Yorkâs covid restrictions, we must appreciate what weâre witnessing.
In Kyrie Irvingâs last three games, he is averaging 44 points. In his last two games, he scored 50 plus and in his last game he dropped a career high 60! Kyrie manhandled the Magics in the Amway Center.
He scored 41 of his 60 points in the first half. Things got started right away. In 23 first-half minutes, Irving went 14-for-19 from the field, 6-for-7 from beyond the arc and 7-for-7 from the free throw line while adding 3 rebounds and 3 assists.Â
Irving finished the game 20-for-31 from the field, 8-for-12 from beyond the arc and 12-for-13 from the free throw line. Along with this being a career high for Irving, he set multiple records in the first-half alone. It was the highest-scoring half of his career and the highest-scoring half for any player this season.
The last player to score as many as Irving in a half was Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, who dropped 51 points in the second half of a March 24, 2017, game against the Boston Celtics. Booker finished that game with 70 points.
Irvingâs 41 points is the most one player has scored in one half against the Magic in the franchiseâs history. The Netsâ 86 first-half points are also a franchise record. It was also the most the Magic have ever given up in one half.
Kyrieâs Tuesday 60-point performance and Durantâs 53 points in Sundayâs win over the New York Knicks, but the teammates in the record books. They became the first teammates in NBA history to score 50 or more points in back-to-back games.
Kyrie Irving, and the NBA has been on tear as of late. In this month alone, Kyrie 60. Karl Anthony-Towns dropped 60. Lebron James put up 56 and 50 respectively. Jayson Tatum dropped 54. Kevin Durant dropped 53 and Kyrie dropped 50 in his last game.
How can you not appreciate this caliber of basketball? Whoâs going to be the next to score big? Let us know what you think.
LeBron James continues to make NBA history. The Los Angeles Lakers forward became the first player in league history to reach 10,000 points, rebounds and assists.
King James reached the milestone with an assist in the second quarter of Sundayâs game against the Suns in Phoenix.
âMy last year will be played with my son. Wherever Bronny is at, thatâs where Iâll be. I would do whatever it takes to play with my son for one year. Itâs not about the money at that point.â
The 37-year-old sits at over 36-thousand points on his storied career and sits behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone on the NBAâs all-time regular season scoring list.
Share your thoughts on LeBron James making history as the first player to reach the milestone of 10k points, rebounds and assists.
Iâm not sure of the Guinness world record for the shortest retirement stint, but youâll have to consider Tom Bradyâs. After the 2021-2022 season the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback called it quits. Tom made his retirement official on February 1, and 40 days later, he made it unofficial.
Brady took it to Twitter to share his thoughts on being out of football and reflecting on coming up short of a Super Bowl last season.
Last season, Brady finished completing 67.5 percent of his passes in 2021 for 5,316 yards and 43 touchdowns. He also led the Bucs to a record of 13-4 and a trip to the divisional round where they lost 30-27 to the eventual champs, the Los Angeles Rams.
During his 21 season, Brady will turn 45 during training camp. He has played in 365 games, won 278 of them, including 35 in the playoffs. There have been 67 game-winning drives and 710 touchdowns.
Deshaun Watson is the hottest available quarterback left on the market, and two NFC teams are in play for his services. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers have made separate offers to the Houston Texans for Watson.
Rapoport also stated that the Saints plan to meet with Watson and his representatives soon.
On Friday, a Harris County (Texas) grand jury did not find enough evidence to charge Watson with a crime following allegations of sexual misconduct stemming from massage therapy sessions. Watson, 26, is also facing 22 civil lawsuits. Still, Fridayâs news paved the way for accelerated trade discussions for Watson, who remains under NFL investigation and is subject to potential discipline under the leagueâs personal-conduct policy.
Watson requested to be traded from the Texans before the allegations, and he was inactive for all 17 of the Texansâ games during the 2021 NFL season.
With some of the legal troubles behind him, the market for Watsonâs services is expected to ramp up. Watson has a no-trade clause in his contract, so he would have to sign off where he plays next. The Texans are also standing by their stance of no minimum of three first-round picks in exchange for Watson.
Tom Brady had a change of heart and is officially coming out of retirement. Brady took to social media to announce his short-lived retirement from the NFL is over, and he will indeed run it back for his 23rd season in league with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In a statement Sunday evening, Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht said the team had been preparing for the announcement in recent days.
âWe are thrilled that Tom has decided to come back this season,â Licht said. âWe said we would leave all options open for him should he reconsider his retirement and todayâs announcement is something we have been preparing for in recent days. Bruce and I have had plenty of conversations with Tom recently that led us to believe there was a realistic chance he would want to come back. Tom is the greatest quarterback of all time who is still playing at an elite level. With this decision now made, we will continue to move forward with our offseason plans to reload this roster for another championship run.â
Brady sees the landscape in the NFC isnât that strong, and the possibility to return to the playoffs and Super Bowl is a lot easier in the NFC. The Buccaneers can now assemble a championship roster again via free agency and the upcoming NFL draft.
WWE superstar Big E suffered a broken neck live on air during the latest episode of Friday Night Smackdown. Big E was teaming with Kofi Kingston against Sheamus and Ridge Holland when he took an overhead belly-to-belly suplex from Holland, landing on his head.
After the match, fans expressed their concern for the former WWE champion on social media, with the wrestler then posting a video where he gave an update on his condition and confirmed he had suffered a broken neck.
âcan move all of my digits,â he said while wiggling his fingers at the camera. âyou see that thatâs nice, thatâs always a good thing. Strength feels fine.
âBut unfortunately, right now, they tell me my neck is broken. So thereâs that. But, once again, thank you, everybody, Iâm going to be all right. Iâl lbe good, donât worry, go to sleep, donât worry about old me. But, for real, thank you. And I appreciate all of you, for real.â
Big E has subsequently posted another update revealing that his C-1 and C-6 discs are fractured. Still, there is no damage to his spinal cord or ligaments, meaning no surgery is necessary, and he remains upbeat.
âAs bad as a broken neck sounds, they donât always require surgery,â says Sutterer. âDepending on where the fracture is⊠sometimes they can simply be treated by wearing a hard cervical collar, which we saw Big E already wearing.â
No timetable as to if or when Big E will return to the ring. WWWEâsbiggest show of the year, WrestleMania, is three weeks away. Big Eâs involvement in that show seems to be unlikely.
Two of the most common reasons behind athletes going broke after their professional career: bad investments and money management. On last monthâs âI Am Athleteâ podcast, guest and retired NFL linebacker D.J. Williams revealed his former financial advisor invested $1.2 million dollars in various bad investments early in his career that included an investment of $300,000 dollars into the music career of former Bad Boy Records artist, Sara Stokes.Â
âRemember when Puffy Daddy had âMaking The Bandâ? Yaâll remember Sara Stokes? The one ⊠the light-skin girl, â Williams begins to explain the investment at the podcastâs 22:06 minute mark of season 3 episode 21. âPuffy Daddy had âMaking The Band,â there was a young lady on there named Sara Stokes. She was a singer. She was like young, like I donât want to throw her age out there but she had like three four five kids. All I knew was I invested $300,000 dollars into her music career.â
Williams would claim the investment was in result of leaving his finances to a power of attorney given to his financial advisor while he focused on playing professional football.Â
âWhat Iâm saying was because of the amount of time and energy that I put into football,â he continued. âIâm going into these meetings and Iâm sitting across from this man and Iâm taking his word. And Iâm just ⊠Okay, yeah, that sounds good, that sounds good. What Iâm saying is is if you already a million, relax, chill. Stop trying to rush to become a billionaire.â
Drafted in 2014 â 17th overall by the Denver Broncos â D.J. Williams received a $2.4 million dollar signing bonus his rookie year after signing a five-year deal valued at $9 million dollars â according to Spotrac.com. The linebacker would play ten seasons with the Broncos, earning over $35 million dollars. Williams played 12 seasons in the NFL before retiring in 2014 with the Chicago Bears.
It was never revealed throughout the interview if Williams was ever reimbursed for his investment. Stokes was signed to Bad Boy Records from 2002 to 2005.Â
Sara Stokes, 44, is a Detroit, Michigan recording artist, actress, journalist, best known as the singer in the former Bad Boy Recordâs group Da Band. Formed in 2002, Da Band released their gold-selling debut album, Too Hot For TV, in 2003, which spawned hit songs âBad Boy This, Bad Boy Thatâ and âTonight.â The six-member group had their journey documented on reality television for three seasons aired on MTV 2.
After Da Band, Stokes, mother of three, released multiple solo singles, independently, throughout the years, like 2015âs âSneak Peekâ featuring Babs Bunny and 2016âs âFragile Heart.â Outside music, Stokes embarked in an acting career, known for roles in recent films, The Many (2019), The Enemy (2019) and Facade: Chapter 4.Â
News of the investment comes during a slew of other trending stories going viral right now surrounding Sean âLoveâ Combs with old clips from the popular 2000s MTV rap competition series Making the Band, which Combs executive produced, and several former music mogulâs artists releasing public criticism about the harsh treatment they endured their time on the reality show and under Diddyâs Bad Boy Records.Â
Freddy P, who was Diddyâs first choice when putting together former group Da Band, took to Instagram last week to criticize his former mentor and revealed him responsible for the Florida nativeâs multiple suicide attempts, all stemming from recounts of his time under Diddyâs tutelage.Â
âThis year alone Iâve contemplated suicide three or four times,â he says in the video. âI done pictured my brother walking in and finding me dead. I cried a few times thinking about leaving my son because I just get tired of life. But no matter what you gotta do you just gotta keep at it ⊠thereâs n-ggas that wanna see you fall.â
He added: âLike this n-gga Puffy is the main muthafuckinâ reason why I hate fucking life, dawg. People donât even understand. Like, I donât even give a fuck. Iâve never been to a point where I thought of suicide my whole life, never. I mean, Iâm a gangsta. I donât even know how I started thinking like that. I done had it all and I fell to the bottom. How do you come back from that when you battling a giant? It ainât got nothing to do with your skill no more âcause your skill is 90 percent better than any n-gga thatâs out there right now and the world knows it. But it ainât your skills ⊠the world is built on relationships.â
Freedyâs rant sparked reactions from fellow Da Band member Babs Bunny, who simply responded in an interview that the group just signed a âshitty contracts,â and Willie Taylor, formerly of the Making of the Band-created R&B group Day 26, who chimed in with the belief that the show and group was set up to âfail.â
The 52-year-old billionaire with ownership in Ciroc and his own television network, Revolt, addressed the claims of his former proteges last Monday via social media. On an Instagram Story, he writes, âSTOP ALL YOUR CRYING, BITCHING & MOANING. HUSTLE HARDER OR GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR WAY. â LOVE.â
All parties involved have not issued a statement on Williamsâs revelation at press time.Â
Watch the latest episode of the I Am Athlete podcast below.Â
A little over a decade ago, Puerto Rican boxing champion Hector âMachoâ Camacho was shot and killed while sitting in a car in his native country. Today(March 10), four of the five assailants who were wanted in connection to the shooting were flown to San Juan, Puerto Rico to stand trial for his murder.
âJustice! Justice has been done,â shouted the former WBC Featherweight championâs mother MarĂa MatĂas. âThey gave me justice..I can sleep in peace. I can eat and drink a little cup of coffee in the morning.â
The fifth suspect, Juan Figueroa Rivera, was already locked up in Puerto Rico on another charge. According to the authorities, two other suspects were killed in unrelated events in 2013 and 2015.
According to several police reports, Camacho was killed while sitting in a car with friend AdriĂĄn Mojica Moreno, who possessed nine small bags of cocaine in his pocket and a 10th bag that was open at when they were both shot and killed.
Public prosecutor janet Parra says that she cannot reveal the motive hehind the Camacho killing.