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BYU opened spring football practice on Monday, probably for the first time in February, and head coach Kalani Sitake says he liked what he saw from almost every group of positions on the team before a player threw or caught a pass, or to participate in training.

This is because it seems that the Cougars have achieved one of their main goals in the off-season – which is to get bigger and stronger everywhere.

“It’s pretty obvious that our team has gotten a lot bigger and stronger over the last few months, working,” Sitake said.

“We tested our boys in the weight class and I really like the numbers from the whole group, so overall as a team I’m really happy with the strength numbers and we’ll see how it goes on the football field.”

Shitake said defenders, who have been heavily criticized for failing to effectively stop running away from losing to UAB, have indeed stepped up.

Caden House, Earl Tuyot-Mariner, Tyler Bathy, Josh Larson, Gabe Summers and John Nelson are among the returnees who celebrated a significant time last year.

“I think the boys just came to the gym with a different kind of attitude, and that’s evident in the numbers, the tests showed,” Sitake said.

“Each position group has become stronger and that should help us.”

The coach hopes that the renewed focus on weightlifting will help the Cougars avoid injuries, which led to the exhaustion of defense at the end of last year.

“Strength training doesn’t get enough credit for preventing injuries in the program,” Sitake said.

As for the first training session, Shitake said it was “a really good day” and seemed to suggest that the attack was ahead of the defense, which was expected.

“I’m really impressed with Jaren (Hall) and the attack and the weather,” he said. “Defense, we have to go through some things. … I like a lot of the new bodies we see in defense, and a lot of the guys are back (bigger and stronger). ”

After spending the first day of spring camp for the seventh time in BYU, Shitake said it was one of the most experienced teams he had, unlike last year, when Zach Wilson and many of his guns moved forward. .

Speaking of Hall, the starting quarterback declared himself 100 percent healthy and ready to go, recovering well from the ankle / foot injury that protected him from the cup game.

The fifth teenager said he suffered three broken ribs against Arizona in the first game last year and played through the pain against Utah and Arizona State, while also suffering a chest injury.

“It was fun to see everyone come back and go again and see the wheels start to spin a little bit,” Hall said.

His fellow quarterback Jacob Connover said all defenders received representatives on Monday, including himself, Cade Fenegan, Sol-Jay Mayawa-Peters and Nick Billups.

Neither Fenegan nor Bilups participated in the team part of the training, which was watched by the media.

“The first day was great,” Conover said. “I mean, the spring ball is meant to be enjoyed, and everyone bought it today and got rid of their worries for the first day, so it was fun.”

Some other developments and / or surprises in the list:

• Offensive striker Keanu Saleapaga returns to the team after missing all but one match in 2020 with injuries and throughout 2021 for undisclosed reasons. The former starter, set at 6 feet 6, 310 pounds, started in 19 games and appeared in 22.

“Adding it to the deep O line is really good for us and we’ll see how much we can use it,” Sitake said. “He was limited in training today, which is really good for us. We need to get to autumn healthy and there are many other boys who can use more repetitions in 11-on-11 things (from Saleapaga).

• In the part of the training for watching the media, the defensive back Mika Harper took safety positions. Harper was a defender in his first year, 2020, and started in five games. He suffered a serious knee injury at spring camp last year and missed the entire 2021 season.

“All our corners will play safety, and all our safety devices will play corner,” Shitake said when asked if Harper’s move to safety was permanent.

• Several players changed the numbers of the shirts, as usually happens every year. Dalin Holker moved from No. 32 to No. 5 and midfielder Ben Baywater moved from No. 33 to No. 2.

It’s hard to imagine a worse Monday for the Nets.

Hours after they were told there would be no exceptions for Kyrie Irving, they lost Steve Nash to health and safety protocols. They then suffered a 133-97 loss to Toronto before 17,112 at the Barclays Center, which was doubly damaging.

The eighth Brooklyn (32-30) missed a game he had to win, losing a vital place to the Raptors and lagging even deeper behind them in the game rankings. The Nets are seventh behind Toronto with two full games in 20 upcoming games and the home and home rematch set for Tuesday at the Scotiabank Arena.

“Yes, we are two games behind seventh place. So yes, it’s huge, “said Bruce Brown. “We have to win this victory in Toronto, especially after they came here and did what they wanted in our gym. This is unacceptable, so we have to go there and take it to them. ”

The Nets received this on Monday.

After losing to Nash just moments before the warm-up before the game, they came out and looked in a terrible mess.

The Nets were ignited by Toronto’s Scotty Barnes, who scored 28 points in 12 of 14 shots and 16 rebounds, both of the highest in the game. Although they managed to keep Pascal Siakam by only eight points in 2 of 14 shots, they still blew away, such was their unfortunate game in almost every other aspect.

The Nets were just 38.4 percent overall and made 23 turnovers to give the Raptors 31 points. LaMarcus Aldridge had just 15 points, and Brown and Cam Thomas added 14 in one awful offensive night.

Brooklyn fell 39 points behind Utah Watanabe’s 3-pointer for Toronto’s 129-90 lead with 3:37 left.

The Nets are 3 ¹ / ₂ behind the inactive sixth-placed Boston Celtics and the final guaranteed place in the Eastern Conference playoffs. But at this point, the Nets – losing 14 of 17 – should be more concerned about Tuesday’s quick turnaround against the same Raptors.

“[That’s] very useful “, said the assistant Jacques Vaughan, who will act as head coach until Nash’s return. We hope our boys are ready for this and look forward to going to Toronto and dealing with the fact that we could have played better tonight and will play better. [Tuesday]”

The Nets will not have any of their new Big 3 of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving or Ben Simmons for Tuesday’s rematch in this match, and facing the prospect of being eliminated three games behind with 19 games played is daunting.

“I want to say that for us at the moment every game is important. “We know how it goes,” said James Johnson. “We have to take them all, and that’s the bottom line. I feel like once we get there, I like our chances against everyone.”

The highest ranked Ukrainian tennis player in the world Elina Svitolina announced today that due to the Russian invasion in her country she will not play “a match against a Russian or Belarusian [sic] tennis players until our organizations make that necessary decision. “

That decision, she said, should be up to the ATP, WTA and ITF to treat Russian players, as the IOC does, as “neutral athletes, without displaying any national symbols, colors, flags or anthems”. Svitolina is currently ranked 15th in the world. Her opponent in the first round of the Abierto GNP Seguros WTA tournament in Monterey, Mexico today was to be Anastasia Potapova, who is Russian.

Potapova answered shortly afterwards, saying: “Even as a child, I dreamed of playing tennis without choosing a match, country or partner in the game … for me there is no opponent from any country, I am fighting for victory, my best game, my best result … Unfortunately, we, the professional athletes, are now essentially hostages to the current situation … I am against grief, tears and war. “

It wasn’t just the players who took action.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine’s 38-year-old tennis federation secretary Yevhen Zukin slapped Tennis Europe chief executive Thomas Hammerl over a dispute over what he described as a “shamefully weak” statement by Tennis Europe about the conflict.

Although the statement called for the suspension of the youth tournaments in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine and called on “the international tennis community to show solidarity with players from the respective nations”, it did not explicitly condemn the invasion.

Zukin told the Telegraph Sport about the incident at an event aboard Tennis Europe: “I read the statement, finished my dinner, got up, turned around, saw him [Hammerl] I was sitting at five tables next to me and I asked him, “How can you do this?” He said, “Get out.” I slapped him lightly and left. “

FIFA and UEFA worked together to remove Russian teams from international football competitions on Monday as world sport closed its doors to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

The most powerful organizations in football have joined the International Olympic Committee in action after days of growing protests. Removal means Russia will not be able to face Poland in the semi-finals of the World Cup playoffs next month, while its women’s team will also be banned from the European Championship this summer in England and the remaining club team in the European competition Spartak Moscow is no more. to compete in the Europa League.

In a joint statement, the two organizations said: “FIFA and UEFA have today jointly decided that all Russian teams, whether national teams or club teams, be suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice.

“These decisions were adopted today by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee, respectively by the highest decision-making bodies of the two institutions on such urgent matters. Football here is fully united and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine. Both presidents hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can once again be a vector of unity and peace between people.

UEFA has also announced a second major move, confirming that it has canceled a long and lucrative sponsorship deal with Gazprom. The Russian gas company has sponsored the Champions League for a decade, and the final of this year’s competition was to be played at Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg.

Last week, however, UEFA moved the match to Paris and has now severed ties altogether. “UEFA has decided today to end its partnership with Gazprom in all competitions,” the statement said. “The decision takes effect immediately and covers all existing agreements, including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA national teams and Euro 2024.

On Sunday, FIFA said Russia could continue to compete in World Cup qualifiers if it changes its name and plays in neutral matches. The action, described by FIFA as taking “initial measures”, was fiercely repulsed by Poland, Russia’s opponents in the World Cup qualifiers. Poland’s position has been supported by a number of other European nations, including the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland.

As pressure on FIFA increased on Monday, the change in direction was signaled by IOC intervention. Citing the Olympic Movement’s mission to “contribute to peace through sport and unite the world in peaceful competition beyond all political disputes”, the IOC issued a long resolution calling on all sports organizations to act.

“To protect the integrity of world sports competitions and the safety of all participants,” the resolution said. officials in international competitions ”.

However, the IOC has added a condition that could still mean that Russia is competing in the Winter Paralympic Games, which begin in Beijing this weekend. In situations where the short notice “for organizational or legal reasons” means that Russia and its ally in the invasion of Ukraine, Belarus, cannot be ruled out, they “should only be accepted as neutral athletes or neutral teams,” he said. IOC. This will be a sanction similar to the one applied to Russia at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, where “no national symbols, colors, flags or anthems should be displayed.”

The Ukrainian delegation for the Winter Paralympic Games is yet to arrive in Beijing for the invasion, and on Monday night the British Olympic Association called on Russian athletes to be banned from competing immediately.

“Together with the German National Olympic Committee, [we demand] the immediate exclusion of Russia and Belarus from the international sports family until further notice, “BOA said. “We call on the international sports federations to ban the competitions of athletes representing Russia and Belarus for the time being and to remove Russian and Belarusian officials from their positions.

Additional questions are likely to be asked now about the participation of Russian athletes in non-Russian teams, as well as in individual sports. One of the most striking examples is Daniil Medvedev, who took on the mantle of Novak Djokovic’s No. 1 men’s tennis player on Monday and issued a statement calling for peace over the weekend.

Seva Kevlich, a member of the Tennis Federation’s board, told Reuters that Medvedev should not be eligible to participate in Grand Slam matches. “I allow [Medvedev] “He plays in the ATP Tour, but the Grand Slam tournaments are ITF events, and if you lose the opportunity to play in the Grand Slam, he will never be number one in the world,” Kevlic said. “He should not play in the French Open, US Open and Wimbledon.

Kevlich’s words reflect a broader, broader agenda for action against Russia, issued by Ukraine’s Ministry of Sports. Arguing that “Russian authorities use sporting achievements to propagate their own ideology” and as “a tool to promote the ideas of harassment, murder and destruction”, the ministry called not only for athletes to be excluded from the competition, but also for Russian officials to be removed from the governing bodies and Russian companies from the right to act as sponsors.

The 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational starts Thursday at the Bay Hill Golf Course in Florida. The 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational field includes a strong combination of proven champions and novice superstars eager to leave their mark on the PGA Tour.

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LOS ANGELES – A group of former owners and team leaders of the original USFL are suing Fox Sports to stop the launch of the new spring football league of the same name, claiming that the new USFL uses inappropriate branding of the old league.

The lawsuit, filed in California on Monday, alleges the new league violates trademark, false advertising and false association. The group seeks an order to prevent the new league from using names or logos associated with the non-existent league.

The original USFL played games from 1983 to 1985, and the group that sues the new league claims that Fox Sports and its partners did not use the league’s trademarks and other intellectual property properly. The suit called the new league a “shameless forgery”.

Former owners and executives are seeking an order to prevent Fox from calling its league the USFL or using the names and logos of one of the 18 teams in the original league. All eight teams in the new league use the names of 1980s USFL teams.

The league consists of eight teams divided into two divisions. The Northern Division has the Michigan Panthers, the New Jersey Generals, the Philadelphia Stars and the Pittsburgh Maullers. The Birmingham Stallions, Houston Gambles, New Orleans Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits are in the Southern Division.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Major League Baseball lockout imposed by the owner is on the verge of compromising the regular season. Monday marked the league’s self-imposed deadline for a new collective bargaining agreement before the regular season’s matches are canceled. This will be the first time in 27 years that competitions in the regular season have been affected by work stoppages. (The 2020 season was changed by the pandemic.)

Instead, the MLB and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) talked deeply during the night and then until the next morning before extending the deadline. It was 2:27 a.m. Tuesday when news broke that the two countries had finally announced the night in Jupiter, Florida. The new deadline you must meet before you decide to cancel your regular season matches is 17:00 ET on Tuesday, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.

As for the progress made during the marathons on Monday / Tuesday early in the morning, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that there has been “some progress” but “major gaps remain in key areas”.

The meetings started seriously at 10 am on Monday, although it was on a sour note. MLB informs MLBPA that it is ready to miss the games for a month and took a more threatening tone, reports Evan Drelic of The Athletic. Earlier this month, Commissioner Rob Manfred said the missing games would be a “catastrophic result” for the sport, words that sound hollow in the weeks to come.

Throughout the day, however, reports of ongoing conversations seem to show some progress. Until 20:35 ET, report by Drelic pointed out that there is a movement towards a deal. The owners presented the players with two options according to the report:

1. Fourteen playoff teams, a minimum salary of about $ 700,000 and about $ 40 million in a bonus pool split between the best players before the arbitration.

2. Twelve playoff teams, a minimum salary of about $ 675,000 and about $ 20 million in the pre-arbitration bonus fund.

Hours later, numerous reports said the two sides had agreed on a playoff format with 12 teams. Even if both sides agreed on option two above, the issue of the balance sheet tax (also known as the luxury tax) – and the related sanctions for exceeding that threshold – discussions continued. More trivial issues, such as restrictions on moving to defense, were also reportedly part of the discussions.

In total, there were 13 personal meetings between the two countries at the spring training base in Jupiter for more than 16 hours. Again, there seems to be progress, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

The bottom line is that there is a glimmer of hope that the season will start as planned on March 31, but hard work must be done on Tuesday when the parties meet again.

CBS Sports provided a timeline of the block here, but the short version is that the owners put the padlocks on when the previous CBA expired. They were not obliged to do so, but this was described as a defensive maneuver. The league then waited more than six weeks to make its first offer. Since then, the two sides have held a number of personal talks, some of which are major obstacles, including a tax on the competitive balance; revenue sharing; the breakdown of players qualifying for Super Two status in arbitration; and the league – the minimum wage.

CBS Sports provides live updates for the talks Monday and now Tuesday. You can find them below.