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Patriots’ Gonzalez NFL’s Top $ Corner

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FOXBOROUGH – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Completing protracted negotiations, the New England Patriots agreed to a contract extension that makes Christian Gonzalez the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback, multiple media outlets reported late Monday night.

The four-year, $135 million extension reportedly includes $102 million in guaranteed money.

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The pact moves Gonzalez ahead of the Seattle Seahawks’ Devon Witherspoon, who agreed in mid-August to a four-year, $132 million extension with $101 million guaranteed.

The Gonzalez deal comes two days before the Patriots and the Seahawks will clash in a season-opening Super Bowl rematch at Seattle.

Gonzalez, 24, missed two weeks of training camp action in August due to a leg injury, but he has been back at full strength for two weeks.

A 2023 first-round draft pick out of Oregon, Gonzalez played just four games for New England that year due to a right shoulder injury. He returned the following year to log two interceptions, 11 passes defensed, one fumble recovery and 59 tackles in 16 games, all starts.

Last year, Gonzalez recorded 10 passes defensed and 69 tackles in 14 games, all starts. During the Patriots’ postseason run that ended in a Super Bowl defeat, he registered one interception, one sack, one forced fumble, seven passes defensed and 19 tackles in four games.

–Field Level Media

Boston Takes the Fifth (Straight)

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By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief

FENWAY – The Boston Red Sox returned home to Fenway Park this gorgeous Labor Day afternoon with a four-game winning streak after a much-needed, wild card securing sweep over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. Sox starters, Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray and Payton Tolle, buried postseason hopes for their AL East rivals, plummeting the O’s into the divisional basement.

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That four game sweep took the pressure off Sox starter Brayan Bello as he took the mound against the lowly Los Angeles Angels on a 77-degree day in Boston. Bello responded with a respectable 5-inning gem, allowing only four scattered hits, walking two and striking out seven Angels. He threw a heavy 103 pitches (62 strikes) in his shutdown effort, and left the game with a 5-0 lead.

The Red Sox backed Bello with four runs in the 2nd inning. A lead-off home run by Jarren Duran opened up the scoring before Sox catcher Adley Rutschman clocked a three-run homer, scoring Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Roman Anthony who had each reached on the dreaded and deadly base-on-balls. In the 4th inning, the Red Sox added another run when Caleb Durbin singled to center, Duran doubled and Eli White singled in Durbin to make it 5-0, Boston.

After Bello gave way to reliever Wyatt Olds in the 6th inning, LA’s Moises Ballesteros homered to right field. Olds retired the side with three consecutive strikeouts following the solo homer by Ballesteros.

The Angels picked up a run in the top of the 8th as Alec Gamboa and Garrett Whitlock closed out the game from the Boston bullpen. Whitlock secured his third save of the season with the final score, 5-2.

Boston improved to 80-65 while the Angels fell to an MLB low 54-90. The Sox picked up a half-game on the idle New York Yankees and remain two games back of their second place rivals. Bello improved to a 6-7 record on the season. LA starter Grayson Rodriguez fell to 4-7.

The series continues on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, 6:45pm early starts to allow the college crowd to descend upon Fenway.

Sox Surging Once Again

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FENWAY – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Boston Red Sox made a quick exit from Baltimore and look to keep up their winning ways in a three-game series against the visiting Los Angeles Angels beginning on Monday afternoon.

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The Red Sox (79-65) just pulled off a four-game sweep of the Orioles, pitching back-to-back shutouts before capping the series with a 3-1 win Sunday.

After Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray both threw seven shutout innings in the previous two games, Payton Tolle struck out 12 over six innings, standing up teammate Eli White’s three-run home run in the second inning.

“It was an amazing performance by our pitching staff for four days. It was awesome,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “Tolle was fantastic, and the guys coming out of the pen were awesome.”

Aroldis Chapman closed the series, becoming the ninth pitcher in major league history to reach the 400-save plateau for his career.

“To be that elite for as long as he’s been elite is cool to watch,” Tolle said.

White started in center field in place of Ceddanne Rafaela, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Sunday with a right quadriceps strain after missing each of the first three games in Baltimore.

White, a trade-deadline acquisition from Atlanta, is 7-for-19 with eight RBIs in his last six games.

“The first thing you think of if (Rafaela) goes down … you have a really fast, good defensive outfielder that can go out there. But he has hit as well,” Tracy said.

With the Red Sox looking to give their starters an extra day of rest, Tracy said that Brayan Bello (5-7, 5.07 ERA) is “likely” to start Monday.

It would be Bello’s first start since June 4, when he allowed eight runs in a five-inning outing against the Orioles and was then optioned to Triple-A Worcester. The 27-year-old allowed eight runs in 7 1/3 innings in his two most recent relief appearances but has had much more success as a reliever (4-1, 2.03) than as a starter (1-6, 10.35) this season.

Bello is 1-2 with a 5.14 ERA in four career starts against the Angels.

The Angels (54-89), whom the Red Sox swept in a three-game road set in July, have now dropped five straight series and 11 of their last 13 games following their second 1-0 loss in three days to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Despite the Sunday loss to Pirates ace Paul Skenes, 22-year-old rookie Walbert Urena allowed just three hits and a walk over eight innings, which tied for the team’s longest start this season.

“It’s nice to get your starting pitchers wins,” outfielder Wade Meckler said after left-hander Yusei Kikuchi’s six scoreless innings in a 6-1 win on Saturday. “Our starters have been throwing the ball well the last couple of weeks and haven’t been getting wins.”

“(Urena has) been incredible, and he keeps getting better,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said.

Next, Los Angeles turns the ball to Grayson Rodriguez (4-6, 6.03) for his fourth career start against Boston. The first three came with Baltimore during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, when the right-hander went a combined 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA.

Rodriguez is coming off a loss to the New York Yankees on Tuesday, when he allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out seven in six innings. He had allowed no more than three earned runs in any of his prior six starts, though the Angels won just one of them.

Suzuki and the Angels appear to have dodged a bullet regarding the status of three-time American League MVP Mike Trout, who returned to the lineup on Sunday after leaving the previous day’s game when he was hit in the hand by a pitch.

Returning to his typical No. 2 spot in the lineup, Trout went 2-for-4 with a double on which Zach Neto was thrown out at home plate attempting to score.

–Field Level Media

Goodell Gets Multi-Million Extension

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NEW YORK – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The NFL announced Sunday that NFL owners agreed to a four-year contract extension with commissioner Roger Goodell that runs through the 2030 season, ending on March 31, 2031.

The length of the deal is significant because the current collective bargaining agreement between owners and players expires in March 2031.

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One of the main topics to be sorted out between the two parties is the potential introduction of an 18-game regular season. The NFL moved from a 16-game schedule to 17 games in 2021.

Contracts with broadcast partners are also expected to be renegotiated by 2030.

The extension, which was reported last week as certain, is Goodell’s fifth and his first since he signed a three-year deal in October 2023. Goodell, 67, has been NFL commissioner since 2006.

The NFL does not publicly disclose Goodell’s compensation. His most recent reported earnings, for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, were $63.9 million annually.

Owners met in Atlanta last week, but it was reported that a Goodell extension was not discussed. The new deal was announced four days after that owners’ meeting.

“The Compensation Committee notified the full ownership today that an agreement has been reached on a four-season contract extension for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell through the 2030 League season, ending on March 31, 2031,” the NFL said in a release Sunday.

–Field Level Media

TL’s Sunday Sports Notes | Sept. 6

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Alumni Stadium at Boston College (Photo by T. Peter Lyons)

By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Sports Desk

CHESTNUT HILL – After an NCAA Week 0, which included an eyebrow-raising North Carolina (with Coach Big Bill Belechick) win over perennial power TCU and a shocking UMass victory over Big TEN doormat Rutgers, it’s time for the 2026 College Football season. The first “real” Saturday of the season came fast upon us and the results will be unfolding as this column is created (September 5).

This column will rely upon experts such as Phil Steele and his incredible preseason magazine to ESPN pundits to VSiN experts and a few early observations from the brand new armchair placed just yesterday in the Lyons’ den.

Only a handful of early afternoon and a few early evening games are in the scorebooks as of the time of writing. Some early impressions?

  1. Boston College barely made a showing in a 34-15 dismantling by Cincinnati
  2. The powerhouse Top 25 schools mostly saw typical one-sided scores over weak opponenents with the exception of a back-and-forth Oregon win over Boise St. (34-27).
  3. A primetime Clemson v. LSU game was delayed because of weather.
  4. The non-NFL Labor Day weekend bodes well for the schedule. Sunday, September 6 boasts three top notch games, including: Washington St. at Washington, Wisconsin at Notre Dame and Louisville at Ole Miss.

Looking further down the road, there’s some interesting buckets of information tucked into the Phil Steele annual. Consider a few that struck a chord and have been filed away as the season progresses:

Steele’s 2026 Toughest Schedule – Top 10

  1. Texas
  2. Michigan
  3. USC
  4. Arkansas
  5. Oklahoma
  6. Ohio St.
  7. Michigan St.
  8. Mississippi St.
  9. Purdue
  10. Florida

Steele’s Surprise Teams for 2026

  1. Alabama
  2. BYU
  3. Oklahoma
  4. USC
  5. Utah
  6. SMU
  7. Clemson
  8. Louisville
  9. Iowa
  10. Houston

Steele’s POWER Ten Teams for 2026

  1. Notre Dame
  2. Oregon
  3. Georgia
  4. Ohio St.
  5. Texas
  6. Indiana
  7. Oklahoma
  8. Mississippi
  9. Miami (FL)
  10. USC

HERE NOW, THE NOTES: After serving more than seven years as WNBA Commissioner, Cathy Engelbert announced her plan to step down at the end of 2026. The announcement came after severe criticism of the WNBA leadership team, mostly coming from the rank and file WNBA players.

Engelbert led the WNBA through very important times. Among her major accomplishments:

  • Leading the WNBA with the WNBA Players Association to formulate a monumental collective bargaining agreement that will govern the league from its inception in 2026 through 2032.
  • Navigating the league through a season in a bubble during COVID-19.
  • Leading the WNBA efforts for its current, blockbuster and record-setting television and media arrangments. The term runs from 2026-2036 aqnd will generate $2.2 billion from Disney/ABC/ESPN platforms, NBC Universal and Amazon. An additional $281m annually ($3.1 billion) will come from auxillary deals with USA Network, ION and CBS Paramount. The deals will be analyzed in 2028 for possible adjustments.
  • Overseeing the WNBA during unprecedented growth of teh league, including record interest to follow the career of Caitlin Clark.

The burning question surfacing in each and every story of Englebert’s retirement is the uncertain succession plan to name a new WNBA Commissioner. In columns and other media reports, speculation has run the gamut of naming recently retired players, like Swin Cash to sitting Governors (Maura Healy of Massachusetts) to former First Lady Michele Obama.

While they’re all great suggestions, it’s more likely the successor to Englebert will come from either an all-out executive search committee, an internal candidate at the WNBA or a team, or someone currently working in the sports industry. Regardless, it will take time.

The most feasible move for the NBA and WNBA is to lure recently retired Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman back to her old stomping grounds – even if it’s just for a six month interim basis.

Ackerman was the WNBA’s first executive leader, then titled President. Ackerman oversaw the lead-up to the WNBA launch – a year-long barnstorming by the USA Basketball women’s senior national team, leading into the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. It served as the perfect launchpad for the WNBA in the summer of 1997.

Ackerman’s calming presence would be welcomed by both management (WNBA Board) and players. Since the season runs from May until October (2027), the stabilization of the organization between January and June will be an important window of time.

There’s no question, Val Ackerman can get the job done and then sail off to a happy retirement sunset, maybe with a few million dollars from a thankful NBA-WNBA organization together with its players.

Just in case you aren’t familiar with her illustrious career, here’s a quick look via a recent edition of The Sports Business Journal. The SJ paid tribute to her amazing career with a full length story and a sidebar of her accomplishments. WWYI took the liberty to snip Val’s year-by-year C.V., including her education and sports industry high points:

The Val Ackerman File

Born: Nov. 7, 1959, Lakewood Township, NJ

Education: University of Virginia, B.A., political and social thought (1981), basketball, two-time Academic All-American; UCLA, law degree (1985)

Family: Husband, Charlie Rappaport; two daughters, Emily and Sally

Boards: NCAA Women’s Basketball Oversight Committee, member; Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, board of directors; Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, lifetime trustee

The Work of Art:

  • 1981: Union Cosnoise Sportive Basket, player in France
  • 1985-87: Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, corporate and banking associate
  • 1988: NBA, staff attorney
  • 1989: USA Basketball, board of directors
  • 1990: NBA, special assistant to the commissioner; later named vice president of business affairs
  • 1992: USA Basketball organizational liaison at the 1992 Olympics; later has same role for 1994 Worlds and 1996 Olympics
  • 1996: WNBA, president (league’s first); guided the league’s launch the following year
  • 1999: College Sports Information Directors of America Academic All-America Hall of Fame, inductee
  • 2002: Atlantic Coast Conference 50th Anniversary Women’s Basketball Team
  • 2005: USA Basketball, president (4-year term)
  • 2005: Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, member
  • 2005: Women’s Basketball Coaches Association President’s Citation
  • 2006: U.S. representative for men’s and women’s basketball on the Central Board of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA); named to a second term in 2010
  • 2008: John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
  • 2008-13: NCAA, consultant
  • 2012: National Consortium for Academics and Sports Hall of Fame (now called Institute for Sport & Social Justice)
  • 2013: Big East commissioner (as the college conference split from what became the AAC conference of “football schools.”
  • 2013: USA Basketball’s Edward S. Steitz Award for contributions to international basketball
  • 2013: Big East signed 12-year deal with Fox Sports worth $500 million
  • 2014: NCAA Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee, member
  • 2014: Led the relocation of the Big East’s headquarters from Providence, RI to its current site in New York City
  • 2014: Launched Big East Digital Network (BEDN)
  • 2016: Women’s Sports Foundation’s Billie Jean King Contribution Award
  • 2017: U.S. Soccer Federation, at-large board member
  • 2018: Big East and Madison Square Garden signed agreement to keep The Garden as the home of the Big East men’s basketball tournament through 2028
  • 2019: Led negotiations resulting in the University of Connecticut’s return to the Big East, effective 2020
  • 2019: Co-chair of the NCAA Federal and State Legislation Working Group
  • 2020: Oversaw and navigated Big East’s response to COVID-19 epidemic
  • 2021: Naismith Memorial Basketball of Fame, inductee
  • 2023: Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, inductee
  • 2024: Big East entered into a successor media rights agreement through 2031 on multiple platforms – Fox Sports, NBC/Peacock and TNT Sports
  • 2024: Conference and MSG extended venue agreement, keeping the Garden as the home of the Big East men’s tournament through 2032
  • 2024: Sports Lawyers Association Michael Weiner Award of Excellence
  • 2025: Conference entered six-year agreement with ESPN to provide broad coverage of additional Big East competitions on the ESPN+ platform
  • 2025: Big East and Playfly Sports extended multimedia rights partnership through 2031
  • 2026: Big East announced a three-year extension with Mohegan Sun Arena to serve as host of the women’s basketball tournament
  • 2026: Announced planned retirement as Big East commissioner, effective Aug. 31

Will 2027 see Ms. Ackerman return to 645 Fifth Avenue and guide the reestablishment of the WNBA league office while searching for the next WNBA Commissioner?

TIDBITS & NUGGETS: all basketball fans recall the 2000 Olympics and 2002 Worlds and the coming out party for Yao Ming and “The Great Wall of China.” It was an amazing time to see the athletic and versatile 7-foot-6, 310 lbs center play for his national team and eventually the Houston Rockets.

The WNBA might be awaiting a similar story as the possibilities are endless.

China’s Zhang Ziyu – a 7-foot-3 center – is playing for the Chinese women’s national team at the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin. She is among 70 current and former WNBA players dotting rosters. In fact, 15 of the 16 teams competing for the FIBA World Cup for women have a WNBA player on their rosters.

If you remember, Zheng Haixia was the first player from China to play in the WNBA. She was on the opening night roster of the Los Angeles Sparks.

Guinness Dublin barrel lot
Photo by Jessica Johnston on Unsplash

YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: British police are trying to recover 70,000 pints of stolen Guinness stout. Two trailer truckloads of the creamy dark suds, valued at 115,000 pounds ($155,000), were stolen from a depot near Liverpool in northwest England, the Cheshire Constabulary reported Thursday. “It is famously said that ‘Guinness is good for you,’ but that is only the case when it has been bought and paid for,” Det. Sgt. Gary McClatchy said. “We will settle for nothing less than the full recovery of all the items stolen.” The Guinness had been destined for pubs, but was snatched Monday night by two drivers who pulled up to an industrial park in Runcorn and hauled away the trailers containing about 800 barrels of stout.

The Guinness caper comes only weeks after a theft of Pabst Blue Ribbon lager from a Southern California warehouse, valued at $70,000. The company offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery.

Good Good Golf Went Bad, Bad

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FRISCO – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The controversy over an ill-received advertisement promoting a new golf club cost two top Good Good Golf executives their jobs on Wednesday.

The company parted ways with chief executive officer Matt Kendrick and president Joe Flannery, Good Good head of finance and operations Alex Puchala announced.

Puchala’s memo to the company’s staff included, “This is a difficult day for the entire Good Good family. Matt helped build something extraordinary that exceeded all expectations and continues to bring countless new fans to the  sport. What began as a small group of friends playing golf is now a growing global community.”

Nahid Giga, a board member and investor in Good Good, was installed as the interim CEO of the company that began in 2020 as a YouTube channel and rapidly gained popularity as a mainstream golf and lifestyle brand.

Good Good vice president of brand and marketing Jeffrey Lefkovits was fired earlier this week.

Good Good’s troubles began on Aug. 21 with the release of an ad for a driver co-branded with Callaway. The video showed Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark pushing another Good Good personality, Alexis Miestowski, to the ground as she went to pull the club out of his bag. Clark then said, “Do not touch my new driver,” while standing over her.

A swift public backlash, decrying an act of violence against a woman, led to multiple apologies from Callaway and Good Good. Callaway severed its ties with Good Good, which prompted Kendrick to criticize Callaway on social media.

The fallout also led to Good Good no longer serving as the title sponsor of the PGA Tour event scheduled for mid-November in Austin, Texas. Golf Channel canceled a reboot of the “Big Break” show that was to be produced in conjunction with Good Good. Meanwhile, Good Good products were pulled from the shelves of retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Golf Galaxy.

Puchala’s memo added, “We’re encouraged by the continued support of the Good Good community, and we remain focused on moving forward and building the next chapter of the company.”

–Field Level Media

Comcast To Air NFL Red Zone

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PHILADELPHIA – (Wire Service Report) – Comcast, the nation’s second-largest cable television provider under the brand Xfinity, has reached an agreement with Disney to lift the current blackout and resume airing the NFL Network and NFL RedZone to its roughly 11 million subscribers in time for the 2026 season.

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Disney owns 72% of ESPN, which took over NFL Media assets earlier this year. Shortly after the takeover, the contract with Comcast expired and the two parties could not reach an immediate deal.

Xfinity TV subscribers have been in the dark since the end of April.

Financial terms of the agreement were not announced. Disney was believed to have demanded higher fees and additional live game broadcasts, but it is unclear whether Comcast agreed to any of those demands.

The NFL Network was launched in 2003 and, as of June 2023, was available in 51.5 million homes across the United States.

NFL RedZone, hosted by Scott Hanson, was launched in September 2009.
–Field Level Media

Yanks Secure $2.6b in Private Equity

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BRONX – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The New York Yankees are receiving $2.6 billion in a deal with the private equity fund Apollo Sports Capital, the team announced on Tuesday.

The huge capital infusion for Yankee Global Enterprises will allow the team to refinance or retire much of its existing debt and then pursue new ventures, according to The Athletic.

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Hal Steinbrenner remains the Yankees’ managing general partner and the Steinbrenner family maintains full control of the historic franchise. Patriarch George Steinbrenner, who died in 2010, led a group of investors that bought the team from CBS for $10 million in 1973.

“We are continually seeking ways to strengthen our positioning, and this partnership allows us to explore pursuing strategic opportunities,” Hal Steinbrenner said in a news release.

An individual private equity fund can hold no more than a 15 percent stake in a club under the rules of Major League Baseball. The exact percentage of Apollo’s stake was not announced. Forbes’ annual list of MLB franchise valuations listed the Yankees at $8.5 billion in March.

In addition to the baseball team, Yankee Global Enterprises’ assets include the YES Network and stakes in MLS club New York City FC and Italian soccer team AC Milan, all of which could benefit from the new money.

Apollo Sports Capital is a branch of Apollo Global Management, a New York-based firm with nearly $1 trillion in assets under management. Apollo became the majority stakeholder of Spanish soccer power Atletico Madrid in 2025.

–Field Level Media

NFL Schedule: Here’s a Top Ten

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LOS ANGELES – (Wire Service Report) – Not only do the Los Angeles Rams have a reasonable shot at becoming the first team to win the Super Bowl on its homefield twice, the NFC West runner-up is by far the easiest team to find on the NFL’s 2026 broadcast schedule.

Seven times the Rams are positioned for a primetime slot — tying a league record — barring a slip from contender status that would prompt networks to invoke the “flex” option and reassign Sean McVay’s team to an afternoon kickoff.

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You’ve got to appreciate McVay’s offensive machine as much as the next NFL fan, but let’s survey the broader landscape for the 10 games we are circling on the 2026 schedule.

1. Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears, Friday, Dec. 25
Are the Packers still gutted by two heartbreaking losses to the Bears? They’ll never admit it. The drama on the field and sidelines restored one of the  game’s best rivalries. Chicago’s schedule strength adds a degree of difficulty the Bears didn’t face rising from the bottom of the NFC North to a division title in Ben Johnson’s first season. The Packers had owned this series in recent years and want to pull the pendulum northward.

2. Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys, Thursday, Nov. 26
Thanksgiving Day amplifies whatever the state of the Dallas Cowboys happens to be, and this one should be extra spicy. It hasn’t happened since 2014 and will be the third Turkey Day meeting between the teams. Cowboys fans are crossing their fingers the results will be better than the last time (33-10 loss in ‘14) and 1989, when the Eagles used two Randall Cunningham-to-Cris Carter TDs and Philly’s defense ransacked Troy Aikman at Texas Stadium, 27-0. Philadelphia hosts the first meeting of the 2026 season with Dallas on “Monday Night Football” in October.

3. Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots, Sunday, Dec. 6
Josh Allen ran the AFC East for nearly a decade and Drake Maye was more than the new kid on the block in 2025. He played like an MVP candidate — even winning in Buffalo — and the Patriots went 5-1 in the division. The only loss was a 35-31 barnburner at Gillette Stadium won by the Bills on Dec. 14. It was New England’s only loss between Sept. 28 and the Super Bowl.

4. Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks, Friday, Dec. 25
Fine, we can talk Rams, too Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, the NFL wrapped up a matchup between teams who combined for 26 regular-season wins and took the division duel down to the wire last season. Lumen Field won’t be a present for the Rams, but Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay have usually done just fine in enemy territory. The game falls one week after the one-year anniversary of Seattle’s memorable fourth-quarter rally from 16 down, forced overtime and walked it off with a 38-37 victory over the Rams.

5. Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals, Thursday, Dec. 31
Last season wasn’t a typical set of Bengals-Ravens games. The AFC North rivals split with an average margin of victory of 21 points. Rewind to 2025 and unleashed Lamar Jackson vs. bomb-happy Joe Burrow produced scores of 35-34 and 41-38 (overtime). If we get a New Year’s Eve snow game with division and playoff consequences, even better.

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6. New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks, Wednesday, Sept. 9
A Wednesday night opener ahead of the Thursday Rams-49ers matchup in Australia, we’ll find out if the Patriots are better prepared for a Super Bowl rematch with months to prepare. New England oscillated from disjointed to complete disarray in the February loss to Seattle and didn’t have all oars in the water during an offseason when Mike Vrabel’s off-field, ahem, affairs were a constant talking point.

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Chicago Bears, Sunday, Nov. 8
Baker Mayfield vs. Caleb Williams piques our interest in a midseason “Sunday Night Football” matchup with the undercard of Buccaneers head coach and defensive maestro Todd Bowles against Bears coach and offensive brain Ben Johnson. The Bucs fell short of the postseason in 2025 for the first time since 2019, while the Bears are trending upward after the franchise won a playoff game (well, two of them, actually) in January to snap a 15-year drought dating to 2011.

8. Dallas Cowboys at Seattle Seahawks, Monday, Dec. 7
Crossover games with the NFC West add a degree of difficulty to the Dallas schedule this season. While we wait to offer judgment on the revamped defense, the Cowboys are likely to bring all the smoke to test Seattle’s versatile, attacking defense in a game sandwiched between matchups with the Eagles and Rams for Dallas.

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9. Jacksonville Jaguars at Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 20
Some called the Denver AFC West run last season but far fewer anticipated Jacksonville winning 13  games and dealing the Broncos one of the team’s three regular-season losses. First-year head coach Liam Coen reflects many of Broncos head coach Sean Payton’s qualities as a play-caller and designer, adding built-in entertainment value.

10. San Francisco 49ers at Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Dec. 27
What will the 49ers have left in the tank? San Francisco is setting a record for miles traveled in a season thanks to international treks to Mexico and Australia and the closing stretch for the 49ers is some kind of minefield from NFL schedulers. Patrick Mahomes and Brock Purdy are familiar foes but 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has not beaten Andy Reid as a head coach (0-3). Two of those losses were agonizing Super Bowl defeats (LIV, 2020 and LVIII, 2024). After falling short of historical track and expectations in 2025, is the window closed on one or both of these longtime contenders?

–Field Level Media

Sonny Gray Twirls 7 Scoreless in Win

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BALTIMORE – (Wire Service Report) – Boston’s Sonny Gray pitched seven scoreless innings to earn his major league-leading 17th win as the visiting Red Sox defeated the Baltimore Orioles 5-0 on Saturday night.

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The Red Sox (78-65) have won the first three games of the four-game series. The Orioles (69-74) have lost five straight.

Eli White and Isiah Kiner-Falefa each drove in two runs. Trevor Story collected three hits and scored two runs and Nick Sogard had two hits for the Red Sox.

Gray (17-4), who was facing Baltimore for the first time this season, held the Orioles to three hits and three walks while striking out seven.

Jovani Moran, Greg Weissert and Wyatt Olds worked in relief to complete the five-hit shutout. Baltimore struck out 10 times, and three of its five hits were doubles.

Chris Bassitt (6-5) matched Gray until he ran into trouble in the sixth inning. He went 5 2/3 innings and was charged with three runs on five hits and four walks.

The pitchers’ duel marked a second consecutive shutout for the Red Sox, who won 1-0 on Friday night.

White’s two-out, two-run single opened the scoring in the sixth. Connor Wong followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.

Boston, which pulled out one-run victories in the first two games of the series, stretched its lead in the seventh on Kiner-Falefa’s two-out double that pushed across two more runs.

The teams combined for five hits through five innings. The Orioles threatened in the third after Colton Cowser’s leadoff double. He advanced to third on Jackson Holliday’s lineout to right but was thrown out at home on Blaze Alexander’s fielder’s-choice grounder.

Baltimore, which was held to six singles Friday, stranded two runners in the first inning.

–Field Level Media

Rock the Gasper

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BALTIMORE – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Boston starting pitcher Ranger Suarez fired seven sharp innings and recent call-up Mickey Gasper homered in the first, lifting the Red Sox to a 1-0 victory against the host Baltimore Orioles on Friday night.

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Suarez (6-4) limited the Orioles to five hits and one walk while striking out three across a 91-pitch effort. He won for just the second time in his past nine starts.

Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman each pitched an inning in relief to complete the shutout. Chapman notched his 32nd save, and second in as many nights, by working the ninth.

The Red Sox (77-65) earned their second victory in a row, but only their fourth in a 10-game stretch. The Orioles (69-73) took a fourth consecutive loss.

Gasper had two of Boston’s five hits.

Orioles starter Shane Baz (5-15) lasted 6 1/3 innings, yielding one run on four hits and two walks. He struck out six in an unsuccessful bid for a second straight win following an 0-8 run in a 12-start stretch.

Blaze Alexander registered three of Baltimore’s six hits, which were all singles. The Orioles left six runners on base but had only three batters go to the plate with a runner in scoring position.

Boston stranded 10 runners, going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

Gasper was the game’s second batter and he homered on a first-pitch fastball. His eighth long ball of the season was the only extra-base hit in the game.

The Red Sox threatened by loading the bases with two outs in the seventh inning on a single, a walk and a hit batter. However, reliever Alex Hoppe retired Adley Rutschman, the ex-Oriole who homered twice on Thursday in the series opener, on a flyout to end the scoring chance.

Josh Walker and Cam Sanders each pitched a shutout inning in relief for Baltimore, which would need to win the next two games in order to split the four-game series.

–Field Level Media

1 + 1 = 2 for Adley

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BALTIMORE – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Catcher Adley Rutschman homered twice against his former team and then scored on Nick Sogard’s go-ahead two-run blast as the visiting Boston Red Sox defeated the Baltimore Orioles 6-5 on Thursday night to begin a four-game series.

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Sogard’s fourth homer of the year broke a 3-3 tie in the eighth inning. Roman Anthony added a solo shot with two outs in the ninth which proved critical when Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth for Baltimore.

Rutschman missed the prior three games with a lingering elbow injury but he looked fine in his return to Baltimore, where he was the only Red Sox player with more than one hit.

Erik Miller (4-0) picked up the win with one shutout inning in relief after Boston starter Jake Bennett gave up three runs on five hits across six innings.

Luis Robert Jr. and Pete Alonso smashed back-to-back home runs to lead off the bottom of the fourth inning for the Orioles (69-72). Aroldis Chapman was credited with his 31st save despite giving up the homer to Encarnacion-Strand.

Baltimore starter Brandon Young pitched 6 2/3 innings and was charged with three runs on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Luis De Leon (0-2) took the loss, though Yennier Cano surrendered Sogard’s homer.

Rutschman’s blasts in the first and sixth innings are his second and third homers since joining the Red Sox (76-65) in a trade from the Orioles on Aug. 3.

Rutschman, who was the first overall selection by the Orioles in the 2019 MLB Draft, had Boston’s only two hits until Eli White’s two-out double in the seventh inning. Isiah Kiner-Falefa followed with a game-tying RBI single.

Anthony’s third homer came in the 35th game of his injury-interrupted season.

Both teams scored in the first inning, with Rutschman’s homer the first blow with two outs. The Orioles responded to tie the game when Blaze Alexander scored on Alonso’s sacrifice fly.

–Field Level Media

 

Crawford Powers Seattle Over Sox

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FENWAY – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The visiting Seattle Mariners rode a pair of four-run innings to an 8-3 win over the Boston Red Sox in the rubber game of their three-game series on Wednesday. J.P. Crawford went 3-for-3 with two runs scored to lead four multi-hit performances for Seattle (66-74). Jhonny Pereda had two RBI and scored another run on his 2-for-3 day.

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All of the Mariners’ runs came in the third and sixth innings.

Seattle used four relievers behind Bryce Miller, who scattered seven hits in 4 2/3 innings of one-run ball. Cooper Criswell (3-2) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the win.

Roman Anthony (home run) and Wilyer Abreu (two doubles, run) logged three hits apiece for the Red Sox (75-65), who went just 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position on the way to their sixth loss in eight games.

Both teams had 12 hits.

Boston starter Patrick Sandoval (1-4) did not record an out in the fifth inning, allowing four runs (three earned) and five hits.

The Red Sox started fast with three straight one-out singles in the first inning, but could not score after a relay from Seattle left fielder Randy Arozarena to Pereda cut down Mickey Gasper at home on Abreu’s knock.

After two 1-2-3 innings from Sandoval, the visitors broke it open for a 4-0 lead in the third. Weston Wilson and J.P. Crawford opened the rally with back-to-back singles, and a wild pitch brought Wilson home.

Dominic Canzone extended the inning with a two-out walk, leading to Julio Rodriguez’s line-drive RBI single to center. Josh Naylor dropped his own run-scoring hit into a left-center field gap before left fielder Jarren Duran’s errant throw in allowed Rodriguez to slide in at home to cap off the frame.

The Red Sox broke onto the scoreboard on Trevor Story’s two-out, ground-rule double down the left-field line in the fourth. Abreu led off the inning with his own double off the Green Monster.

After Miller departed, Jose A. Ferrer extinguished Boston’s second straight threat with two runners in scoring position.

In the sixth, the Mariners loaded the bases with just one hit before Pereda drove a two-run single through the middle. Arozarena followed with an RBI single to the base of the left-field wall before Canzone ripped a double off it in center.

The Red Sox made another dent in the seventh. Anthony lined a one-out, opposite-field homer to left, and Gasper and Eli White combined for back-to-back doubles, bringing in another run.

–Field Level Media

Mariners Swinging Hot Bats vs Sox

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FENWAY – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Hanging on the fringe of the American League playoff race, the Seattle Mariners will look for a series win when they meet the host Boston Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon. Seattle (65-74) has 17 runs on 25 hits in the first two games of the series, quickly brushing aside a previous four-game stretch during which the team was shut out twice and scored just four runs.

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Randy Arozarena hit his second home run in as many games in the Mariners’ 9-6 win on Tuesday, giving him seven RBIs in the series. Dominic Canzone and Lazaro Montes also went deep for Seattle, with the latter recording a multi-hit, multi-RBI game in his MLB debut.

“His energy is already felt,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said of Montes, 21, the organization’s No. 5 prospect.

Montes, who helped Seattle snap a five-game losing streak, became the first Mariner to record multiple hits in his MLB debut since Hall of Fame outfielder Ichiro Suzuki in 2001.

“I can’t describe how I feel in this moment right now. But I feel like I made it,” Montes said.

The Mariners on Wednesday will start right-hander Bryce Miller (4-8, 4.12 ERA), who has allowed five or more runs in three straight starts and had been set for a short-term return to the bullpen before an injury to Emerson Hancock (adductor) earlier this week.

Miller labored through 4 1/3 innings on a season-high 104 pitches on Aug. 23 against the Chicago Cubs, allowing six runs on two homers and seven walks in a 19-2 loss.

“I acknowledge that the last couple of outings definitely haven’t gone how I wanted them to. I think that just comes down to executing a pitch here, a pitch there, and getting outs … in the high-leverage situations,” Miller said.

He has lost all four of his career starts against Boston (0-4, 6.64 ERA), although he tossed five one-run innings on June 19.

A night after rallying for a 9-8, series-opening win in 10 innings, the Red Sox (75-64) made things interesting again on Tuesday, scoring the final five runs to trim a 9-1 deficit. However, it was too little, too late in their fifth loss in seven games.

Before Eli White and Jahmai Jones drove in two runs apiece to force in Seattle closer Andres Munoz on Tuesday, Mickey Gasper continued an incredible stretch with his seventh homer in 13 games. The New England native is hitting .394 with a 1.686 OPS over that span.

“I don’t assume (he’s going to hit a home run every game), but it’s been impressive,” Boston interim manager Chad Tracy said. “He’s taking great swings.”

Jones also cleared the wall as a pinch hitter in the ninth.

Trevor Story and Roman Anthony posted multi-hit games as they continued to reintegrate into the Boston lineup. Both were reactivated from injury stints on Sunday.

“At this point, there’s one goal,” Anthony said. “There always is, but I think even more so now entering September. Your eyes are kind of on one thing, which is playoff baseball.”

Boston’s Patrick Sandoval (1-3, 4.20 ERA) will start for the first time since losing 1-0 on Friday in the opener of a four-game set against the New York Yankees. The left-hander still is in search of his first win since Aug. 4th.

Against the Yankees, Sandoval matched a season high with seven strikeouts while allowing one run, three hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings. The lone run was a Paul Goldschmidt blast.

Sandoval is 0-5 with a 3.04 ERA in nine career starts against the Mariners, who were an American League West rival for his six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.

–Field Level Media