Category: Sports

 

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The 50-plus-yard field goals that once were a rarity in the NFL are now as routine as far shorter kicks a generation ago. The range for many kickers now exceeds 60 yards, changing late-game strategy in a major way.

The kicking revolution has sparked questions about whether the balls are juiced.

Not quite, but there is a major difference this year, with teams now having the chance to prepare kicking balls before game day and practice with the same balls they use in games. The added length that gives kickers had Philadelphia defensive coordinator Vic Fangio comparing it to the home run explosion during baseball’s steroid era starting in the late 1990s.

“It’s almost like they need an asterisk here,” Fangio said. “It was the live ball era or the asterisk for those home runs (Barry) Bonds and (Sammy) Sosa and (Mark) McGwire were hitting. The way they’ve changed the ball, the NFL, the kicking ball has drastically changed the field goals.”

Fangio’s comparison might be a bit hyperbolic, with kickers saying the more broken-in balls travel only a few yards farther, but even that could put records for long-distance field goals in jeopardy.

There have already been four kicks made from at least 60 yards this season — one shy of the single-season record — with Tampa Bay’s Chase McLaughlin hitting a 65-yarder against Fangio’s Eagles in Week 4, just 1 yard shy of Justin Tucker’s record set in 2021.

Dallas’ Brandon Aubrey made a 64-yarder in Week 2, and Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell and Minnesota’s Will Reichard also made kicks of at least 60 yards.

Fangio predicted Aubrey will eclipse the 70-yard barrier this year.

Aubrey said he believes the biggest change is the more consistent balls providing more peace of mind.

“The nice part about the rule is now you get to the point where you don’t have to think about the balls,” he said. “You don’t have to be, ‘Is this ball going to be in good shape or not?’ Now it’s, ‘OK, the balls are going to be what they’re supposed to be.’”

NFL has more long kicks than ever

Long distance kicks have become far more prevalent as the quality of kickers has improved thanks to more training and specialized coaching. The NFL has set records in each of the last four seasons for made field goals of at least 50 yards with the total reaching 195 in 2024 — doubling the total from every NFL season until 2015.

Kickers are making 72.5% of field goals from at least 50 yards — nearly double the rate from three decades ago.

“I think it’s definitely an advantage for specialists this year,” said 49ers long snapper Jon Weeks, who is entering his 16th season in the NFL. “You’re starting to see the field goal distance line back up a little bit. That’s just kind of natural. It’ll be exciting to see what some of these big-legged kickers can do.”

While the trend toward longer kicks has been a steady one the past two decades, it has increased even more so far this season following the change in rules for the “K ball,” with the 28 made kicks from at least 55 yards the most ever through five weeks and more than in any entire season until 2022.

History of the K Ball rules

The change this year came after seven teams — Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Minnesota and Washington — made a proposal to reduce the stress on equipment staffs on game days.

Before this season, balls designated for use in the kicking game were shipped directly to the officials and brought to the stadium on game day. Teams then had a 60-minute window to prepare three kicking balls, using only a wet towel, a dry towel and a special ball brush.

Now, teams were given 60 “K balls” before the season to prepare for games, with each team getting three each game that are approved by the referee. No ball can be used in more than three games.

The initial rules for kicking balls were first put in place in 1999 after specialists were allegedly doing all sorts of things to manipulate the ball, including using microwave ovens, dryers and saunas to soften the leather and make them easier to kick.

Initially, only the officials were allowed to prepare the balls and kickers and punters complained they were too slick. That changed following the 2006 season, with teams getting a short window on game day to prepare the balls, after Dallas quarterback Tony Romo dropped a snap as the holder on a potential game-winning field goal in a playoff loss to Seattle.

Now the balls for the kicking game can be prepared in advance — just like the balls for the rest of the game — but teams are mostly limited to using the towels and a special Wilson-branded brush. Balls can’t be subjected to high heat like dryers or microwaves and the shape can’t be altered at all.

What’s the impact of the new balls?

Titans special teams coach John Fassel downplays the impact of the new rules, saying the approximately 20 minutes the equipment staff previously had to prepare each of the three kicking balls was sufficient.

Jets kicker Nick Folk equated the difference in the balls to buying a new baseball glove each week and breaking it in for an hour compared to having a glove that has been broken in over a long period of time and now fits just perfectly.

“I’m happy it happened,” Folk said. “We get to kind of do just like quarterbacks get whatever they want to do to the ball, as long as it looks like a football and the logo’s still there and all that stuff, I think they’re pretty lenient with that. It’s a very welcoming thing to be able to kind of look at a ball and be like, ‘All right, I want to kick this one this week, I want to kick this one this week.’”

The impact isn’t solely on field goals. Punts are traveling farther too. After the average dropped by 1.5 yards from 1998 to 1999 when the first “K balls” were put in use, there has been a gradual uptick since the rules first changed in 2007.

The average punt now travels 47.7 yards, which would have been the individual single-season record as recently as 20 years ago.

San Francisco punter Thomas Morstead said he lets the equipment staff deal with the ball preparation but does see a difference, especially compared to when he first entered the league in 2009 and some home teams would try to sneak fresh balls in for the visitors.

“I’m not like a scientist back there measuring things out,” he said. “I just give them general things like, hey, if the leather is nice and soft and the ball’s relatively beat in, and we want to keep the PSI as high as possible, which is 13.5, then I’m good.”

Niners kicker Eddy Pineiro estimates the broken-in balls add maybe 3 or 4 yards to the distance on kicks, calling the difference meaningful but not as impactful as kicking at altitude in Denver.

“It’s normal now to kick a 60-plus-yard field goal,” said Pineiro, who hit a career-best 59-yarder this past week but once kicked an 81-yarder in practice in college at Florida.

“It’s not like, ‘Oh my God. Wow!’ like it used to be. It’s kind of expected. But that’s part of the game. The game’s evolving for the better and kickers are making more kicks in and farther kicks. If you don’t have a broken-in ball it’s a lot harder to hit a 60-yard field goal.”

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AP Pro Football Writers Schuyler Dixon, Rob Maaddi, Teresa Walker and Dennis Waszak Jr. contributed to this report

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LONDON (AP) — The NFL plans to launch women’s and men’s professional flag football leagues “in the next couple of years,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday.

The timeline outlined by Goodell at a sports conference in London would see the leagues created ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which will feature flag football for the first time.

“We’re committed to creating a women’s professional league, and a men’s professional flag league. We’ve had a great deal of interest in that and I expect that we’ll be able to do that, launch that, in the next couple of years,” Goodell said at the Leaders in Sport conference at Twickenham Stadium.

The league has prioritized flag football as a way to attract young fans, both male and female.

“The demand is there. We’re seeing colleges in the states and universities internationally also that want to make it a part of their program,” Goodell said.

“If you set that structure up where there’s youth leagues, going into high school, into college and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That’s an important infrastructure that we need to create.”

Mexico City in 2026

Mexico City has been off the NFL’s rotation of hosts for international games while Azteca Stadium was under renovations ahead of the 2026 World Cup. It’s back in the picture now, though.

“We’ll be back in Mexico City next year, which we’re thrilled about,” Goodell said.

The league is playing a record-high seven games internationally this season — six of them in Europe. Brazil hosted one game.

Goodell reiterated the league’s plan to increase the number of games abroad to 16, and again stated that Asia will be the next region.

Australia has already been announced for a game next season.

“If you’re going to be global, you have to do it beyond Europe, beyond the Americas,” he said. “You need to reach into other areas and territories, and next year we’re going to Australia. We have plans to go to Asia shortly thereafter.”

League officials declined to comment on where in Asia they’re considering.

Football and sports ‘bring communities together’

Goodell said football can be a unifying force.

“We read about different issues and we see the different things that go on in politics and otherwise … and unfortunately negative things like war,” he said. “Again, I think football — and sports in general — I do think bring communities together. That’s a positive thing that we need a little more of.”

Later Thursday at the same conference, Cleveland Browns co-owner Jimmy Haslam expressed a similar sentiment.

“The U.S. is extremely divided today politically,” Haslam said. “The great thing about sports is, no matter who I voted for or who you voted for … for the three hours or two hours we’re watching that game, we’re rooting for our team, and that’s all we care about.”

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DUBLIN (AP) — A formal complaint had not been filed as of Monday in connection to reports that Pittsburgh Steelers player Skylar Thompson was assaulted and robbed in Dublin while his team was preparing to play a game in the city, Irish police said.

The national police, An Garda Síochána, said in a statement it did not have information to substantiate the reports involving Thompson, a reserve quarterback on the Steelers.

The Irish Independent newspaper had reported that “a number of males were involved in an assault on Thompson near the Temple Bar area” and that his phone was stolen.

Police said officers patrolling Dame Street became involved early Saturday when they encountered a man who required medical assistance.

“The male in his 20s was treated and assessed at the scene by emergency services personnel,” police said.

Steelers spokesman Burt Lauten said the team was “aware of a situation” involving Thompson on Friday night. He said the team would have no further comment until it and the NFL gathered more information.

The NFL declined to comment on Sunday.

The NFL Players Association said it was looking into the matter.

“As always, our priority is the health and safety of our player members — especially as we continue to work on the player protections and well-being while playing international games — and we will continue to support Skylar in any way he needs,” the association said.

Thompson, 28, has been on injured reserve and wasn’t eligible to play Sunday in what was Ireland’s first regular-season NFL game. The Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings 24-21 at Croke Park. Thompson was at the game.

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The last time LSU and Alabama went an entire season without playing each other, Tigers coach Brian Kelly was a toddler and Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer wouldn’t be born for another 11 years.

During six-plus decades, that annual matchup has had some intense, dramatic moments, such as Kelly’s gamble on a do-or-die, 2-point conversion to end overtime in 2022. Jayden Daniels connected with Mason Taylor, and rapturous fans spilled onto the field in Tiger Stadium.

Under a new scheduling format released by the Southeastern Conference this week, LSU and Alabama won’t play in 2027 — the first time that’s happened since 1963. And next season will be the first time since 1970 that the Tigers won’t play Florida.

“I get it,” Kelly said Wednesday when asked about how unsettling it could be for some to see longstanding, annual rivalries end under the conference’s four-year schedule that was released Tuesday.

But the LSU coach added that he also appreciates the SEC’s goal of having all 16 teams play one another at least once every two years, and how that might mean sacrificing some popular annual fixtures.

“You’re going to pull some of those natural rivalries, but you’re not losing them for a long period,” Kelly said. “They managed this and put this in a spot that allows you to play everybody home and away (within a four-year span) and I think that’s pretty exciting.”

Mississippi coach Lane Kiffin was less enthusiastic about at least one aspect of the new schedule.

While he agreed with keeping LSU and Mississippi State on the Rebels’ schedule each year, he said the inclusion of Oklahoma as an annual opponent was “disappointing” and “doesn’t make any sense — at all.”

“We don’t have anything in common with them or our fans,” said Kiffin, whose program will lose Vanderbilt as an annual fixture on its schedule. “That’s unfortunate with so many great teams that we’ve played for a long time here.”

Each team got three “annual opponents” during the next four seasons, and those could potentially change after 2029.

“Our league has made a business decision,” said Florida coach Billy Napier, who wasn’t yet born the last time the Gators did not play LSU.

Going forward, tailgate parties serving alligator around Death Valley will occur once every four years instead of every other year. Then again, whether that’s good or bad is arguably a matter of taste.

“Obviously, there’s pros and cons,” Napier said. “Some of those things are part of the evolution of the game, part of the evolution of our conference as we add teams to the mix.”

The SEC had the same 12 teams from 1991 until 2012, when Texas A&M and Missouri were added. In 2024, east and west divisions were done away with, and the league increased to 16 teams with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas.

Next year, the conference schedule increases from eight games to nine.

“I love the LSU rivalry game and certainly that’s been one fun one to play in,” Napier said. “We’ve got great history there, but there’s going to be change that comes with nine games, and I think our league has done a good job formatting that in a way where we’ll get exposure to each team.”

Some yearly fixtures might never go away: Alabama vs. Auburn in the Iron Bowl; Mississippi and Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl; Georgia vs. Florida in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party; and the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry between Georgia and Auburn are some examples.

The Red River Rivalry also will remain an annual game, as will the renewed Lone Star Showdown between the Longhorns and Aggies.

“Rivalries matter. It’s a part of the tradition of this game — fan bases pointing to those football games,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said. “It’s been important for (the league) to try and protect some of those special games for universities and their fan bases.”

But Tennessee will be losing a popular annual matchup against neighboring Georgia that has gone uninterrupted since 1992.

“There’s probably some people that are upset” about that, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “It’s a border rivalry.

“It’s hard to keep all the traditional rivalries,” Smart added. “You can only do so many.”

In information distributed among media this week, the SEC stated that while it factored in geography and sought to maintain traditional rivalry games, other aims included increasing the frequency with which teams play all other league schools and promoting competitive balance in a way that might maximize all SEC teams’ chances to qualify for the 12-team College Football Playoff.

“They looked at every possible scenario,” Kelly said, “to come up with equity and fairness.”

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Quarterback Drew Brees and receiver Larry Fitzgerald were picked in their first year of eligibility as two of the nominees among modern era players for the 2026 Pro Football Hall of Fame class.

Brees and Fitzgerald were two of the most prolific producers in the passing game in NFL history with Brees ranking second all time in yards passing and touchdowns, and Fitzgerald ranking second in career receptions and yards receiving.

Eleven other players in their first year of eligibility were picked among the 128 modern-era nominees for this year’s class.

The other nominees in their first year of eligibility are quarterbacks Philip Rivers and Alex Smith; tight ends Greg Olsen and Jason Witten; running backs Frank Gore and LeSean McCoy; offensive linemen David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey; defensive linemen Geno Atkins and Jurrell Casey; and linebacker Thomas Davis.

A screening committee will reduce the candidates to 50 in October with the full 50-member selection committee reducing the list to 25 and then 15 finalists, who will be voted on by the selection meeting before the Super Bowl in February.

Four players have already guaranteed themselves spots in the final 15 after making it down to the final seven players in the 2025 class with Willie Anderson, Torry Holt, Luke Kuechly and Adam Vinatieri taking those spots.

The other returning finalists are Eli Manning, Fred Taylor, Steve Smith Sr., Reggie Wayne, Jahri Evans, Marshall Yanda, Terrell Suggs and Darren Woodson.

In addition to the 15 modern era finalists, the selection committee will consider three seniors, one coach and one contributor for the Class of 2026. Between four and eight new members will be elected in the second year of this current format.

Only four people got in last year for the smallest class in 20 years.

Brees and Fitzgerald are the top new candidates this year.

Brees is second all time to Tom Brady with 80,358 yards passing and 571 touchdown passes. He spent the first five seasons of his career with the San Diego Chargers before signing as a free agent with the Saints in 2006, where his career took off as he helped revive a city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Brees delivered New Orleans its first Super Bowl title following the 2009 season when he won MVP of the game after beating Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Brees made the Pro Bowl 13 times in his career, won AP Offensive Player of the Year in 2008 and 2011, was an All-Pro in 2006 and was a second-team All-Pro four times.

Fitzgerald spent his entire career with the Arizona Cardinals after being drafted third overall in 2004. His 1,432 catches and 17.492 yards receiving in 17 seasons ranks second all time to Jerry Rice.

Fitzgerald topped 1,000 yards receiving nine times — tied for the fourth most ever — and helped the Cardinals reach their only Super Bowl following the 2008 season. Fitzgerald set single-season records that postseason with 546 yards receiving and seven TD catches, including a go-ahead 64-yard score with 2:37 to play before Pittsburgh rallied for a 27-23 win over Arizona.

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The Mike Gundy era is over.

Gundy, one of college football’s most colorful coaches over the last two decades, was fired by Oklahoma State on Tuesday.

The 58-year-old Gundy had a career record of 170-90 at his alma mater, where he was a star quarterback in the late 1980s. He posted winning records every season from 2006 to 2023, but had losing records in his final two years. He entered the season ranked third among active coaches in victories at their current school, trailing only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.

In all, Gundy spent well over 30 years at Oklahoma State as a player, assistant coach and head coach. As a player, he was the undersized gunslinger who balanced the Cowboys’ offense when it featured star running backs Thurman Thomas and Barry Sanders. He ended his career as the Big 8’s all-time leading passer, then had several assistant coaching roles at the school before reviving the program as head coach.

“Cowboy Football reached an unprecedented level of success and national prominence under Coach Gundy’s leadership,” Oklahoma State athletic director Chad Weiberg said in a statement. “I believe I speak for OSU fans everywhere when I say that we are grateful for all he did to raise the standard and show us all what is possible for Oklahoma State football.”

Gundy arrived as head coach in 2005, and the Oklahoma City native’s charm and sense of humor appealed to fans and recruits and helped the Cowboys compete with and often surpass better-funded schools. As late billionaire T. Boone Pickens poured millions into the program, Gundy turned Oklahoma State into an unlikely powerhouse that often affected the national championship race. The Cowboys won the Big 12 in 2011 and played in the Big 12 title game in 2021 and 2023. He led the Cowboys to five New Year’s Six bowl appearances and eight 10-win seasons.

He was capable of capturing the nation’s interest at any time, whether it be with a quip or one-liner, or with his ability to break down complex issues. In his final two seasons, he emerged as a refreshingly open and honest voice about the changes in the sport. During camp before the 2024 season, he’d had enough of talking about money.

“I told the players there’s no negotiating now,” he said. “Portal’s over. All negotiation’s history. Now we’re playing football. Just coaching and playing football.

“The business side of what we do now is, we have to have those conversations with them,” he said. “Tell your agent to quit calling us and asking for more money. It’s non-negotiable now. Start again in December.”

His personality wasn’t enough as college football changed. The transfer portal and NIL made it more difficult for a coach who made his name mining diamonds in the rough. He lost 11 of his final 12 games with the program.

On Monday, Gundy said he wanted to stay.

“Ever since I was hired, I’ve put my heart and soul into this, and I’ll continue to do that until I don’t want to do it anymore, or until someone else says we don’t want you to do it,” he said.

For all his positives, Gundy came with quirks. He is known as much for his “I’m a man, I’m 40” rant that he made defending a player — a diatribe that remains a part of pop culture through a Consumer Cellular commercial — as for his success.

In 2020, he apologized for calling COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus, ” and again months later after he wore a T-shirt featuring the far-right One America News Network that created a disagreement with running back Chuba Hubbard.

All those things were forgiven as the team won. But the Cowboys lost their last nine games last season, the final defeat a 52-0 blowout at Colorado.

This season, Oklahoma State struggled out of the gate against FCS program Tennessee-Martin, winning 27-7 but raising eyebrows with its struggles after quarterback Hauss Hejny went down with a broken foot in the first quarter.

The next week, the Cowboys lost at Oregon 69-3. Ducks coach Dan Lanning said Gundy got his team fired up by talking about how much money Oregon had at its disposal.

After a bye week, the Cowboys lost at home to Tulsa last Friday for the first time since 1951. The fans booed him during the loss, with some chanting “Fire Mike Gundy.”

“If you want to be angry at Coach Gundy, then you can do whatever you want that makes you feel better, but don’t do it to the team,” Gundy said on Monday. “I think that’s what’s best for Oklahoma State football, Oklahoma State’s athletic department and Oklahoma State in general.”

Doug Meacham, one of several coaches Gundy brought in after last season, has been promoted from offensive coordinator to interim head coach. His first game in that new role will be Saturday when Oklahoma State hosts Baylor.

Meacham, 60, will be in charge for the first time. He played offensive line for Oklahoma State from 1983 to 1987 and was an assistant at the school from 2005 to 2012.

He had two stints on TCU’s coaching staff. During the first, he was a finalist for the Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach in 2014. During the second, he was an assistant for the squad that played for the national title after the 2022 season. He has been a college offensive coordinator at TCU, Kansas, Houston, Samford, Henderson State, Jacksonville State and Georgia Military.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season.

Major League Baseball’s 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026.

Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signaled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

New York Yankees outfielder Austin Slater, one of four players on the competition committee, said three voted in favor after getting support from 22 of the 30 teams. All six management reps voted in favor.

“I think with any sort of technology, there’s not 100% certainty of the accurateness of the system,” Slater said. “I think the same can be said of umpires. So I think it’s just coming to grips with the impact that technology is going to have and whether or not we were willing to live with that error that was associated with the system, even if the error is very, very miniscule.”

Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who leads the American League in ejections for the fifth straight year, called the adoption “inevitable.”

“Throughout the year, I’ve been a little not totally on board with it or exactly how it’s going to be implemented but it’s going to be here and hopefully that’s a good thing,” he said. “A lot of the things that Major League Baseball has done I think have been really successful in the changes they’ve made and hopefully this is another one of them.”

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said players will have to adjust.

“You can like it, dislike it, it doesn’t matter,” Vogt said as Cleveland prepared to open a critical three-game series with Detroit. “It’s coming. It’s going to change the game. It’s going to change the game forever.”

ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that year’s Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022.

At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.

MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182).

“I love it. I loved it in spring training,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Not all of the players, but most of the players, if you ask them, they really liked it too. I think it keeps everybody accountable. It keeps everybody on their toes.”

At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.

In the first test at the big league All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna’s calls were successful in July.

Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don’t have challenges remaining.

MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%.

“Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that’s acceptable to players,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today.”

This will be MLB’s first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, larger bases, and restrictions on defensive shifts and pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts.

The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete.

“Unless you have a really good eye … only getting two (challenges), I think a lot of the borderline ones are going to stay the same,” Rangers catcher Kyle Higashioka said. “So it keeps some of the human element in in the game.”

In addition to Slater, the other players on the competition committee are Arizona’s Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, with the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ at Detroit’s Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams.

Bill Miller is the umpire representative. The Major League Baseball Umpires Association declined to comment Tuesday, saying its members “are focused on the 2025 season and postseason.”

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AP Baseball Writer Stephen Hawkins in Arlington, Texas, and AP freelance writers Larry Fleisher in New York, Anthony SanFilippo in Philadelphia and Tom Withers in Cleveland contributed to this report.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Atlantic Coast Conference fined Syracuse $25,000 and issued a public reprimand for the Orange feigning injuries in Saturday’s 34-21 win over conference opponent Clemson.

Play was stopped several times for injuries to Syracuse players during the game at Memorial Stadium in Clemson, which a frustrated Tigers quarterback Cade Klubnik alluded to after the game.

The ACC pointed to one incident in particular with 9:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, saying the Orange violated NCAA Football Rule 3-3-6-b, which addresses the feigning of injuries by players, declaring it “unethical and contrary to the spirit of the rules.”

The ACC said the actions by two players, especially with the concurrent action by the coach in the team area, were a clear attempt to gain an unmerited advantage by stopping the game in order to secure an injury timeout.

The play also was reviewed by the national coordinator of football officials Steve Shaw, who agreed that the action violated the spirit of the injury timeout and fair play and was done in a way to circumvent the new injury timeout rule to avoid the team being charged a timeout.

After the game, Klubnik pointed out that Syracuse seemed to have a lot of injuries on defense after big plays by Clemson’s up-tempo offense.

“They stopped us on third downs and then they would have an injury when we really got going,” Klubnik said. “That’s up to them if they want to be honest about that.”

Later, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was asked about Klubnik’s comments and said: “I saw Cade get frustrated, but you can’t get get frustrated with that. You just gotta play.”

Syracuse coach Fran Brown has not addressed the issue.

The funds from the imposed institutional fine — which are the maximum allowed by the league’s bylaws — will be placed into the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw will retire at the end of this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced Thursday.

The 37-year-old left-hander who got his 3,000th strikeout in July will make his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium on Friday night against the San Francisco Giants.

The 11-time All-Star and 2014 NL MVP is in his 18th major league season, all with the Dodgers, which ties him with Zack Wheat and Bill Russell for the most years in franchise history. Kershaw won World Series championships in 2020 and 2024.

“On behalf of the Dodgers, I congratulate Clayton on a fabulous career and thank him for the many moments he gave to Dodger fans and baseball fans everywhere, as well as for all of his profound charitable endeavors,” Mark Walter, team owner and chairman, said in a statement. “His is a truly legendary career, one that we know will lead to his induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.”

Kershaw has a career record of 222-96 and 15 shutouts, which lead active major league players.

His 2.54 ERA is the lowest of any pitcher in the live-ball era since 1920, and his winning percentage tops all pitchers with at least 200 victories since 1900.

Kershaw’s decision was not unexpected. He has struggled with injuries in recent years and began this season on the IL while recovering from offseason surgery. He didn’t pitch until May, but proved to be a stalwart when the rotation was hard-hit by injuries.

In 2024, Kershaw was forced to end his season in August because of a toe injury that limited him to seven starts and just 30 innings with a 2-2 record and a 4.50 ERA, all career lows.

Kershaw is one of three active pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts, along with former teammate Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. Kershaw could be the last pitcher for a while to reach the milestone — often considered a surefire ticket for Hall of Fame enshrinement. Kershaw would be eligible for Cooperstown in 2031.

He missed the entire postseason, including the Dodgers’ World Series win over the New York Yankees. That spurred him to return this year for what many had speculated would be his final season.

As great as he’s been during the regular season, he’s endured his share of heartache in October. He has a 4.22 ERA in the postseason.

His teammates often cite his work ethic between starts as inspirational, and he is a commanding, if quiet, presence in the clubhouse.

Frequently tabbed as one of the greatest pitchers of his generation, Kershaw built his reputation with a pitching style that relies on deception, movement and velocity changes. He has said he modeled his mechanics after his favorite childhood pitcher, Roger Clemens.

As his velocity diminished in recent years, he found ways to compensate by adapting his approach.

Kershaw is one of the better fielding pitchers and before the National League added a designated hitter, he was known as a decent hitter, too.

He made his big league debut on May 25, 2008.

Kershaw won’t be bored away from the field. He and his wife, Ellen, have four children, with a fifth on the way. His oldest son, Charley, has a locker in the Dodgers clubhouse next to his father. The couple has done humanitarian work in Africa and Los Angeles.

He spends the offseason in his native Dallas, where he and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford were teammates on their high school football team.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB