Sports

10:11 AM ET Associated Press CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR’s top drivers have once again unified to form an independent council to gain a collective voice in decisions that affect the sport. The Drivers Advisory Council, announced Friday, is a more organized effort than a previous attempt to unify in 2014. A board of directors has

10:56 PM ET The UFC’s first Fight Night card on the road since 2020 has its new main event. Curtis Blaydes will meet Chris Daukaus in the heavyweight contender headliner of UFC Columbus on March 26 in Ohio, sources confirmed Thursday with ESPN. MMA journalist Ariel Helwani was the first to report the news. ESPN

1:57 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, at long last, are on the verge of a trilogy fight. Canelo and Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing are closing in on a two-fight deal worth upward of $85 million for boxing’s top star to compete on DAZN, sources told ESPN. The first fight of the

7:05 AM ET SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It’s one of the most iconic shots in PGA Tour history, not as much for the feat itself but for the celebration that ensued. After Tiger Woods‘ hole-in-one on the par-3 16th hole on the Saturday of the 1997 Phoenix Open, there were the missed high-fives, beer showering the

3:42 AM ET LOS ANGELES — A troubling loss to the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night led to an uneasy admission within the Los Angeles Lakers‘ locker room: The roster is not working, and something must be done to get the team back on course with Thursday’s trade deadline fast approaching. The suspicion

3:56 PM ET HOUSTON — During Lovie Smith’s introductory news conference as the Houston Texans‘ new head coach, general manager Nick Caserio said the lawsuit by Brian Flores had no effect on the team’s search. “There were conversations with Brian after [the lawsuit] took place, so it really didn’t affect our process at all,” Caserio

8:04 AM ET The NHL’s journey with the city of Las Vegas has been a fascinating one. In a span of five years, we’ve gone from the league discouraging its new expansion team from adopting a name associated with gambling to having NHL players shooting pucks at playing cards on The Strip in a blackjack-inspired

7:00 AM ET ESPN staff Recently our college football reporters examined the biggest strength for every team in our 2022 Way-Too-Early top 25, breaking down what makes the best teams so good. Now we’ll turn the tables and look at each team’s biggest question mark. What could keep them from reaching their preseason aspirations? What

7:00 AM ET Inner-circle Hall of Famers. The best player in the game today. A couple of PED-tainted superstars. Our ranking of the 100 greatest MLB players of all time comes down to the top 25. Dozens of ESPN writers and editors submitted more than 20,000 votes (see full methodology here) to determine the final

1:38 PM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City don’t do cup upsets. Not recently, anyway. And so, while Manchester United were dumped out of the FA Cup by Middlesbrough and both Chelsea and West Ham were made to struggle past Plymouth Argyle and Kidderminster Harriers, Pep Guardiola’s team allowed Fulham to dream for

1:38 PM ET Two title fights are now official for UFC 273. Alexander Volkanovski will defend his UFC featherweight title against Chan Sung Jung, “The Korean Zombie,” in the main event of the pay-per-view card April 9 in Jacksonville, Florida, UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell confirmed to ESPN on Friday. The co-main event will

7:31 AM ET “The Colosseum. Oh, you should see the Colosseum, Spaniard. Fifty-thousand Romans. Watching every movement of your sword. Willing you to make that killer blow. The silence before you strike. And the noise afterwards. It rises. It rises up like … like a storm. As if you were the thunder god himself.” —

11:48 AM GMT Tom Curry has been named as England captain for their opening Six Nations match against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday. Curry takes over from the injured Courtney Lawes, while Joe Marchant has returned to the side on the left wing after completing COVID-19 isolation protocols. 2 Related Curry, 23, is the youngest

7:26 AM ET This is the week the stars come out on the PGA Tour. And not just the celebrities who will be playing alongside the professionals for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which begins Thursday. No, the three golf courses — Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Spyglass Hill and, of course, Pebble Beach — also

11:06 AM ET Nick Parkinson Close •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers•Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years•Appears on BoxNation’s Boxing Matters show Chris Eubank Jr. hopes beating Liam Williams on Saturday will set up a dream fight against Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin at English Premier League team

8:00 AM ET SENSING AN ACROBATIC opportunity, Ja Morant skips with excitement and raises his left hand. He’s already calling for a lob as he approaches the 3-point line on the left wing, with Memphis Grizzlies backcourt mate Desmond Bane crossing half court in transition. Bane picks up his dribble, takes two long strides down

4:16 PM ET Marcel Louis-JacquesESPN NEW YORK — Brian Flores has sued the NFL and three teams — the Dolphins, the Broncos and the Giants — alleging discrimination regarding his interview processes with Denver and New York and his firing last month by Miami. The 58-page lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court Tuesday and

11:54 AM ET Pete ThamelESPN Star quarterback Caleb Williams is transferring to USC, he told ESPN. The move reunites Williams with first-year USC head coach Lincoln Riley, for whom Williams played during his breakthrough true freshman year at Oklahoma in 2021. “I wanted to go somewhere I thought would provide me with the best development

8:00 AM ET BACK IN 1997, when I was in my second year with the Cubs, I vividly recall watching batting practice when Mark McGwire stepped in the cage for the Cardinals. It was awesome. I saw how far the ball flew, and, like so many of us, I suspended disbelief. It was like watching

9:30 AM ET On this date in 2019, the St. Louis Blues were a .500 team that had given up 10 more goals than they had scored. They were outside the playoff picture, struggling to turn their season around under interim coach Craig Berube. They were also about to embark on an 11-game winning streak,