Category: Sports

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Reveille X, Texas A&M’s rough collie mascot, had her right eye surgically removed after veterinarians diagnosed her with glaucoma, the university’s president said Wednesday.

The collie — also known as the “First Lady of Aggieland” — was diagnosed with glaucoma after experiencing discomfort and cloudiness in her right eye, President Mark A Welsh III said in a message on the school’s website. The veterinary team removed the eye out of an abundance of caution after discovering signs of abnormal tissue, he said.

“I’m grateful to report that Miss Rev has come through the surgery successfully, has been discharged and is resting comfortably,” Welsh said.

Texas A&M’s Reveille mascot dates back to 1931, when a group of cadets found an injured dog and sneaked her on to campus. The dog barked when buglers played morning reveille, earning her the Reveille name.

Reveille X took over as the latest iteration of the mascot in 2021. A souped-up golf cart known as “Rev Force One” helps transport the collie across campus.

Welsh said Reveille will take a brief hiatus from engagements as she recovers.

“According to her veterinary team, we can expect Miss Rev to be back to enjoying all her favorite activities — cruising on Rev Force One, attending classes, cheering on the Aggies and keeping our campus squirrels in line — this fall,” he said.

__

This story has been updated to correct the breed of the mascot. Reveille X is a rough collie, not a border collie.

Joey Jones, the Welsh soccer hero who won two European Cups with Liverpool and was dubbed “Mr Wrexham”, has died. He was 70.

Jones’ death was confirmed by the Football Association of Wales and Wrexham on Tuesday. The English second-tier team said he had died in the early hours of the morning after a “battle with illness.”

“Wrexham AFC are devastated to learn of the passing of club legend Joey Jones,” the Welsh club said in a statement.

During a decorated career, Jones won five major trophies for Liverpool, including back-to-back European Cups in 1977 and 1978, as well as the English league title in 1977. He also won the UEFA Cup and European Super Cup for the Merseyside team.

“Jones’ attitude and commitment had long earned him the affection of the Liverpool supporters,” the club said in a statement. “The thoughts of everyone at LFC are with Joey’s family and friends at this sad time.”

Jones, a left back, made 72 appearances for Wales between 1975 and 1986.

Before his move to Liverpool in 1975, Jones started his career at Wrexham, where he won the Welsh Cup. He had three spells with the club and also held roles as first team and youth coach, interim manager and ambassador.

“A true club legend, on and off the pitch, with time for everybody he met, Joey will be greatly missed by all who knew him,” Wrexham said.

Jones also played for Chelsea and Huddersfield.

Wrexham said it would honor Jones with a statue outside the stadium.

___

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

WASHINGTON (AP) — NFLPA chief strategy officer JC Tretter is resigning from his position, three days after Lloyd Howell stepped down as executive director of the players’ union.

Tretter told CBS Sports on Sunday that he doesn’t want to be considered for the NFLPA’s interim executive director position and denied he played any role in undermining Howell’s position.

“Over the last couple days, it has gotten very, very hard for my family. And that’s something I can’t deal with,” Tretter told CBS Sports on Sunday. “So, the short bullet points are: I have no interest in being (executive director). I have no interest in being considered. I’ve let the executive committee know that. I’m also going to leave the NFLPA in the coming days because I don’t have anything left to give the organization.”

The 34-year-old Tretter, who played center for eight seasons with Green Bay and Cleveland through 2021, was the player president from 2020 to 2024. He served in his new role since October 2024.

Howell resigned Thursday after two years because his leadership had become a distraction. Howell has come under scrutiny since ESPN reported he has maintained a part-time consulting job with the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm that holds league approval to seek minority ownership in NFL franchises.

That followed the revelation that the NFLPA and the league had a confidentiality agreement to keep quiet an arbitrator’s ruling about possible collusion by owners over quarterback salaries.

The latest issue was an ESPN report Thursday that revealed two player representatives who voted for Howell were not aware that he was sued in 2011 for sexual discrimination and retaliation while he was a senior executive at Booz Allen.

In 2023, a year after the NFLPA sued the owners for collusion, the NFL sued the union after Tretter suggested in an interview that running backs who were unhappy with their contracts could fake injuries, which would be a violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

The grievance also was decided this year and was not shared publicly.

Tretter told CBS Sports he didn’t have access to the collusion grievance and wasn’t involved in the confidentiality agreements.

Tretter was the NFLPA’s player president in 2023 when Howell was elected as the union’s executive director following a vote that changed the union’s constitution and made the search and election process more confidential.

“I’m not resigning because what I’ve been accused of is true,” Tretter said. “I’m not resigning in disgrace. I’m resigning because this has gone too far for me and my family, and I’ve sucked it up for six weeks. And I felt like I’ve been kind of left in the wind taking shots for the best of the organization. … And in the end, what’s the organization done for me? Like, nothing.”

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

The Los Angeles Chargers and Detroit Lions already have kicked off training camp. Rookies for several other teams have also reported. All veterans across the league are due this week.

The NFL season is underway. The road to San Francisco for Super Bowl 60 begins in the grueling summer heat.

Some teams have new coaches. A couple of old coaches have new teams. Star players have switched uniforms. There are position battles to determine.

And, plenty of storylines to watch.

Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles aim for a repeat. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs look to rebound after being denied the first three-peat in Super Bowl history.

Training camp dates

The Chargers and Lions were the first teams to have their full roster in camp. The Cowboys and Chiefs will have theirs on Monday. The rest of the league starts Tuesday. The Falcons and Steelers arrive Wednesday.

Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers face off against Dan Campbell’s Lions in the Hall of Fame game on July 31 in Canton, Ohio.

A pair of division rivalry games will open the season. The Eagles will host Dallas to begin the regular season on Sept. 4. The Chiefs and Chargers meet in Brazil the following night.

New head coaches

Pete Carroll is back in the NFL with the Las Vegas Raiders after just one year out of coaching. Carroll, who turns 74 in September, has a tough task building the Raiders into a playoff contender in a difficult division.

Former Patriots star linebacker Mike Vrabel takes over in New England, replacing Jerod Mayo, who lasted one season after replacing Bill Belichick.

The Bears turned to former Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. The Jets hired former Lions DC Aaron Glenn. Kellen Moore left Philadelphia after one championship season to take over in New Orleans. Liam Cohen’s success as Tampa Bay’s OC landed him the head job in Jacksonville. Jerry Jones gave Brian Schottenheimer a chance to lead Dallas.

Teams with new quarterbacks

The Steelers are going all-in on Aaron Rodgers, hoping the 41-year-old, four-time MVP can take them to the big game.

The Raiders acquired Geno Smith, reuniting Carroll with the quarterback he chose to replace Russell Wilson in Seattle.

Sam Darnold ended up with the Seahawks after a career-year in Minnesota.

Joe Flacco is back in Cleveland where he was the NFL Comeback Player of the Year in 2023. The Browns also traded for Kenny Pickett and drafted Dillon Gabriel in the third round and Shedeur Sanders in the fifth.

Wilson and Jameis Winston ended up in New York, but the Giants also selected Jaxson Dart in the first round.

Justin Fields has a third chance with the Jets.

J.J. McCarthy is the man in Minnesota after he missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury.

Saints rookie Tyler Slough gets an opportunity to replace Derek Carr, who retired.

The Titans have No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward.

Top camp storylines

Some contract issues still need to be resolved.

The Bengals have yet to sign first-round pick Shemar Stewart and they haven’t agreed to a new deal with All-Pro edge rusher Trey Hendrickson, who wants a raise after leading the league in sacks last season.

The dispute with Stewart, a pass rusher the defense needs, isn’t about money; it’s about the team trying to insert language in Stewart’s contract that would trigger the voiding of his salary guarantees with a breach or default by him.

Another contract situation to watch involves Dallas. Micah Parsons is due for a new deal that’s expected to make him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. T.J. Watt currently holds that distinction after Pittsburgh gave him a $123 million extension worth an average of $41 million per season. Jones waited too long on Dak Prescott and ended up making him the NFL’s first $60 million man last season. Now, he’s going to end up paying Parsons more than anyone else who doesn’t play QB.

Quarterback competition

The Browns have to choose between Flacco, Pickett, Sanders and Gabriel. Veteran Daniel Jones is competing with Anthony Richardson in Indianapolis. Richardson, the No. 4 overall pick in 2023, has been injured often and has a lingering shoulder problem.

Shough and Spencer Rattler are battling in New Orleans.

Wilson, Winston and Dart should make it a tough decision for the Giants.

Ward has to beat out Will Levis in Tennessee.

Joint practices

With more teams opting to rest quarterbacks and key starters in preseason games, joint practices have become the way to prepare players for the regular season. A total of 29 teams have scheduled joint practices with other clubs.

On the road

Six teams – the Bills, Cowboys, Colts, Chiefs, Rams and Steelers – will spend their entire camp away from their facilities. Dallas, which trains in Oxnard, California, is the only team going out of state.

Roster cuts

Teams can carry a maximum of 90 players throughout training camp and for all of their preseason games. Rosters must be trimmed to 53 by 4 p.m. EDT on Aug. 26.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

NEW YORK (AP) — Masai Ujiri’s July is shaping up to be quite the rollercoaster ride. The recently-fired former Toronto Raptors executive is navigating his sudden departure from a franchise where he’d spent 13 seasons while also launching the second edition of his private foundation’s Giants of Africa Festival — all within a one-month span.

The humanitarian work, Ujiri pledged, will continue regardless of his employment status. The British-born NBA executive, raised in his father’s native Nigeria, founded Giants of Africa in 2003 — back when he was just starting off as a scout and long before becoming the first African team president of a professional North American sports franchise.

“It’s an obligation for me,” Ujiri said. “It’s a passion.”

The foundation’s ambitions have risen with his own success. Giants of Africa has reached thousands of campers across 18 countries. It has helped build more than three dozen courts on the continent. High-profile supporters include Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s The Archewell Foundation. 2023’s inaugural Giants of Africa Festival united more than 250 boys and girls around a week of basketball clinics, life skills lessons and community building that culminated in a concert headlined by South African superstar Tyla. The goal? A “borderless Africa” as Ujiri likes to say.

The festival returns to Kigali, Rwanda, on July 26 with a lineup featuring Nigerian pop singer Ayra Starr and WNBA great Candace Parker. Two-time NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard — brought to Toronto by Ujiri for the team’s championship-winning 2018-2019 season — will mentor campers and train underserved youth.

Ujiri discussed the upcoming event, and his future, with The Associated Press. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: Why’d you expand Giants of Africa Festival 2025 to 320 young participants from 20 African nations?

A: When we had the last festival, we really focused on — whether it was the basketball, the life skills, the coaching, the mentorship — we focused on culture. We focused on the whole ecosystem of how we feel kids need this opportunity to grow. It really inspired us to think about how we bring this to more countries.

We’re doing this incredible, incredible fashion show showing the print, the threads of Africa, and who we really are. It used to be weird where you’d see somebody wearing cloth from Africa. Now it’s part of the fashion. It’s part of us. It’s just like Afrobeats — it’s part of life everywhere. Everybody wants to wear a boubou. You see a lot of fashion designers from all over the world using our prints. We want to showcase that and give these youth the opportunity to see that this is how they can also expand their minds.

Q: How does it feel to see basketball investments lead to the sport growing across the continent?

A: It’s been unbelievable. With these camps, it started off as basketball development, but you’ve seen that really become something that has really grown even bigger. I saw Pascal (Siakam), I saw (Joel) Embiid, I saw all these guys as youth in camps. Seeing them as 15-, 16-year-old kids in camp, you can’t even project. And that tells you how much talent we have on the continent. I always say Africa’s biggest jewel is the talent of the youth. One out of every four people in the world are going to be Africans by the year 2050 and the median age is 20. We should be investing on the continent.

Q: How does Giants of Africa use sports to get the youth to consider different careers?

A: I’m the prime example of that. I didn’t play in the NBA. I didn’t even play high-level college or high-level Europe. The entry point for me was a scout in the NBA. From then on lots of people helped me to create this path that I’m on still. I go back to Basketball Without Borders, when the NBA gave me the opportunity to be a director. That has led to me becoming an executive in the NBA. That’s the example I want to give.

That’s why we have so many people coming to this festival to really show these kids — whether it’s me or a journalist or a sports doctor or sports lawyer — there’s so many careers. And the start is sports and doing it passionately and doing it well.

Q: How did women’s empowerment become a focus for the foundation’s work?

A: When I first started, I was doing boys camps. Not every kid is going to make it to the NBA. So we started focusing on life skills. That was teaching respect, honesty, being on time. One of the big focuses was respect for women.

So, I’m challenging these boys but I’m not challenging myself. I can’t say “women’s empowerment” and “respect women” and just do these camps for boys. So, we introduced the girls. And it’s not 50 boys and 10 girls just for token. It’s equality. They all have a basketball and they have the same court time. We can’t just say it. We actually have to do it.

Q: What does your recent Toronto Raptors departure mean for your humanitarian work?

A: Job, no job, wherever I am, whatever kind of job I’m doing, Giants of Africa is key. The focus will always be that just because I owe it to the youth of the continent. I owe it to the continent. My goal is not how big does Giants of Africa get. I look at it as: how big are these youth going to become? They’ll go on to do other things. They could go on to become a president or become a governor or become president of a team. The hope is that this experience here will even make them reimagine many of the things that they want to do. So, Giants of Africa will never go anywhere.

___

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — It was a perfect pitch. The ball sped straight across home plate, where it was met with an equally powerful kick. Perryline Jimmie sprinted toward first base after her kick as her teammates erupted in cheers on the sidelines.

Jimmie, 23, is a professional player of kickball, a close cousin of baseball that is beloved by women in Liberia and played all over the country from schoolyards to public squares and dirt fields. Since its introduction in the 1960s, it has become the nation’s second-most popular sport after soccer.

Kickball in Liberia has the rules of baseball but there are no bats, and players kick a soccer ball instead of the larger, lightweight ball used for the game in other places.

There also are no male players.

“In Liberia, (kickball) is our tradition,” said Jimmie, who noted many girls start playing kickball from an early age. “This is why you see women playing kickball in Liberia.”

How kickball came to Liberia

In 1964, Peace Corps volunteer Cherry Jackson noticed that, unlike boys, the students at the all-girls school where she taught in Monrovia, the capital, didn’t play any sports, according to Emmanuel Whea, president of Liberia’s National Kickball League.

Jackson, an American, tried to teach the girls baseball but quickly realized they were much better at hitting the ball with their feet. That was the start of what became a custom for girls in the country of about 5.6 million people.

“When you’re a girl growing up in Liberia, you will play kickball,” Whea said.

Kickball is played in other parts of the world, including in the United States, where it is a common elementary school game for girls and boys. But only in Liberia is there a women-only professional league.

A league for women and peace

The National Kickball League was created in 1994 to bring people together as Liberia was reeling from a civil war.

The league was set up “to bring the ladies together and use them (as part of) the reconciliation process of Liberia,” Whea said. “We had just left the civil war, and everybody had just scattered … So kickball was one of those sports used to bring Liberians together so they could have the time to hear the peace messages.”

Whea has big plans for the league, including expanding it to men and introducing the game to other African countries. However, his mission has been complicated by a lack of resources, especially in a region where women’s sports often are underfunded.

Saydah A. Yarbah, a 29-year-old mother of two, admits it is hard to make ends meet on her athlete’s salary despite playing kickball for 10 years. Her earnings are “not even near” what male athletes earn, she said.

An all-women sport headed by men

In Liberia, many sports, including soccer, are male-dominated. Despite kickball being a sport played by women, the league is led by men, from the coaches to the referees and league officials.

The league encourages women but they really don’t want to be coaches, Whea said.

“Their husbands might have a problem with them working full-time (and) for some, their relationship will not allow it,” he said

Yarbah plans to change that narrative by becoming a coach when she retires, allowing her to share her passion for the sport with others, including her two sons, she said.

“They are not going to play kickball for now,” she said. “But probably in the future, they are going to introduce kickball to men.”

For the moment, kickball remains a women’s game. Men sometimes come during their practice, Yarbah said, but they do not stand a chance.

“They don’t know the techniques of the game,” she said. “So we always win.”

___

For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.