The great in sports

  Atlanta Falcons   coach Arthur Smith said Tuesday that second-year pro   Desmond Ridder   will begin the season as the team's starting quarterback. Smith, speaking with reporters at the league meetings in Arizona, committed publicly to Ridder for the first time since the end of the season, after Ridder went 2-2 over the final four games of Atlanta's season. "The plan is to start Desmond," Smith told reporters in Arizona. "That's our plan going forward right now." Atlanta drafted Ridder in the third round out of Cincinnati last year. He spent the first 13 games of the season backing up  Marcus Mariota  before being named the starter after the team's bye week in December. In those four games, Ridder completed 73 of 115 passes for 708 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. After the season, both Smith and general manager  Terry Fontenot  said they were encouraged by Ridder's progress, but they stopped short of naming him the starter until Mon...

  Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal is being investigated by police in relation to his involvement in a reported confrontation with fans during a game last week. Per  TMZ Sports , the Orlando Police Department is investigating a complaint filed about 24 hours after the Wizards' 122-112 loss to the Orlando Magic on March 22. TMZ noted the altercation began when Beal was walking to the locker room tunnel and a fan yelled to him, "You f--ked me [out of] $1,300, you f--k!" "Beal then turned, walked toward the fans, and appeared to knock the hat off one of the guys' heads in response to the heckle," TMZ reported. "Beal and the fans then jawed back and forth, with Beal calling the comment 'disrespectful.' ... Things were tense between Beal and the group—with the men exchanging a flurry of words—before the Wizards star was ushered into the locker room without further incident."

  Top prospect   Anthony Volpe   will start at shortstop for the   New York Yankees   after an undeniable spring training performance vaulted him to the coveted job, the team announced Sunday. Volpe, 21, will travel back to the Bronx on Wednesday and join the starting lineup Thursday against the  San Francisco Giants  following a spring in which he batted .314/.417/.647 with three home runs and 10 extra-base hits in 17 games. He was  informed of the decision  by manager Aaron Boone on Sunday afternoon. The No. 3 overall prospect in MLB, according to ESPN's Kiley McDaniel, Volpe joined the Yankees out of the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey, as the 30th pick of the 2019 draft. In his first full season, 2021, Volpe established himself as one of the best prospects in baseball, and he followed it with a standout 2022 that ended at Triple-A. In 275 minor league games, Volpe hit .263/.376/.505 with 50 home runs and 89 stolen bases. Still,...

  Bowling Green State University   basketball   player Elissa Brett was struck by University of Memphis player Jamirah Shutes while the two walked through the traditional post-game handshake line following Bowling Green’s 73-60   win   in the Women’s National Invitation (WNIT) postseason tournament on Thursday.   Video of the incident shows the confrontation, with Shutes reaching out towards Brett, and Brett immediately falling to the ground. Shutes was quickly ushered away by a Memphis team member. The episode occurred on the Falcons’ home court in Bowling Green, Ohio. During the post-game press conference, Falcons head coach Robyn Fralick was asked about Brett’s condition and if any words were exchanged between the two players to which Fralick responded, “We’re still kind of figuring all those things out, what happened.” On Friday, Bowling Green’s Athletic Department released a statement which said it was reviewing the incident and that the Bowling Green ...

 The cinderella story for the ninth seeded Florida Atlantic Owls men’s basketball team continues to the elite eight. A team that didn’t have a NCAA tournament win in program history now has three and it’s going to their first elite eight in program history.  In their first round matchup against Memphis, they were the underdogs, but they beat Memphis then they were tested against a team that beat Purdue the number one seed in  No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson they ended up winning by eight ending fairleigh Dickinsons great run.  But this test against Tennessee in the world’s most famous arena Madison Square Garden no less, was easily the toughest matchup they’ve had to save to this point. But a full team effort from the Owls keeps the season alive.   In the box score, Davis was FAU’s leading scorer with 15 points on just 3 of 9 from the field, but 9 of 10 from the charity stripe. Nicholas Boyd also had 12 points on 5 of 11 from the field, including two three-point...

 A letter for Washington football team fans from former quarterback, Tyler Heinicke Before I got the call to come to Washington a few years ago, I thought I was pretty much done playing football. Covid was just starting to take hold, and I was in the XFL, with no real job prospects bubbling up in the NFL. So in my mind it was like:  You know what, this might be it for you.  I was actually trying to become a coach at that point, because I didn’t know what else I’d do after retiring from football. I knew the OC in Washington at the time, Scott Turner. He was someone who believed in me from the beginning of my career, so I called him up and asked if he knew of any coaching opportunities. He talked to me about finishing my degree, and what steps I’d need to take to go the coaching route. And then, right before we got off the phone, he paused for a second and said: “Listen, man … maybe don’t hang up the cleats just yet. Covid is changing everything. And you never know in this ...

The Buffalo Bills have signed former patriots running back Damien Harris to a one year deal While not a true bruiser, Harris (5’11”, 213 pounds) is a hard-nosed runner who has a tantalizing radar for the end zone. Harris, who just turned 26 in February, has been an integral part of New England’s offense since being drafted out of Alabama during Round 3 of the NFL Draft. Harris’ best season to date, all with the Patriots, was in 2021, when he ran for 929 yards with 15 rushing touchdowns. He added another 18 receptions for 132 yards and four receiving touchdowns.  At first glance, it would seem that Harris might fill the void left by running back Devin Singletary, who signed his own one-year deal earlier in the day with the  Houston Texans . Signing Damien Harris doesn’t necessarily mean that Beane and the Bills are done adding talent to the running back room. But this does signal an attempt to shore up a deficiency that’s plagued the offense during the tenure of head coach Sean...

 On Monday the Cowboys made two big additions to their offense signing Dalton Schultz to a one-year deal worth up to 9 million, and signing Devin Singletary to a one-year deal worth up to 3.75 million dollars. Schultz played the 2022 season for the Dallas Cowboys on the franchise tag worth $10.9 million after the sides were unable to close the gaps on a long-term deal. After not missing a game due to injury in his first four years, Schultz missed two games last season with a knee injury that impacted him for multiple weeks. He finished the 2022 campaign with 57 catches for 577 yards and five touchdowns, joining Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews and T.J. Hockenson as the only tight ends to have 50 or more catches for 500 or more yards in each of the past three seasons. A fourth-round pick in 2018 out of Stanford, Schultz became a full-time starter in 2020 and was one of quarterback Dak Prescott's trusted targets. He caught 63 passes for 615 yards and four touchdowns in 2020 and followed th...

After a week of the Cowboys, releasing Ezekiel Elliot the Cowboys have signed free agent, Ronald Jones to a one-year deal.  It doesn't mean Jones, a former second-round pick of the   Tampa Bay Buccaneers , will be Elliott's sole replacement in 2023, but the Cowboys have provided depth as a complement to   Tony Pollard , who is on the $10.091 million franchise tag. Jones spent last season with the  Kansas City Chiefs but appeared in just six games with 17 carries after a four-year stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His best year came in 2020 when Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl, and he finished with 978 yards on 192 carries with seven touchdowns. Jones, who played not far from the Cowboys' practice facility, The Star, at McKinney North High School, signed a one-year deal with the Chiefs last year, but found himself behind  Isiah Pacheco ,  Jerick McKinnon  and  Clyde Edwards-Helaire . For his career, he has 2,224 yards rushing on 507 carries with 19...

 After nine  seasons, Donta Hightower the former first round pick of the 2012 NFL draft announced his retirement on Tuesday via a Post on the players tribune in nine seasons Donta Hightower  is a three time  Super Bowl champion, a second team all pro, two time pro bowler, a member of the New England Patriots all 2010s team, a member of the New England Patriots all decade team. He has 569 career tackles, 27.0 career sacks, 18 career pass deflections, one career interception, 2 career forced fumbles, five career fumble recoveries, and two touchdowns. Below is the letter he wrote on the players Tribune to the New England Patriots fans They say time flies in this league. Boy, they’re not lying. Today, I am officially retiring from the NFL. I know these announcements always feel bittersweet, but I can’t think of a better story than the one I wrote in New England. A decade, three Super Bowls, two Pro Bowls, and the birth of my son — all playing for one franchise. How many ...

 For the fourth time in his nine year career Brandon Cooks  is on the move once again. The former 20th overall pick was traded to the Cowboys for the Cowboys fifth round pick in this year’s draft, and a sixth round pick in next year’s draft. Cooks, 29, had 57 receptions for 699 yards and three touchdowns despite missing four games last season. He slides into a Dallas pass-catching group that also includes  CeeDee Lamb ,  Michael Gallup  and  T.Y. Hilton . Since arriving in the NFL, Cooks has registered at least 42 receptions in each of his nine seasons. Six of his seasons have ended north of 1,000 receiving yards.  Cooks has two years remaining on his contract with an average salary cap hit of $25.5 million during that period.  Houston is left with  Robert Woods  and  Nico Collins  at the position. The Texans are loaded with draft picks as part of the  Deshaun Watson trade, so general manager Nick Caserio has even more fle...

  According to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero the Patriots are retaining free agent defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale. Terms of the deal were not yet reported. Ekuale has been with the team for the past two seasons, logging a career-high in snaps in 2022 (364, 36 percent) while also recording two sacks. With Christian Barmore landing on Injured Reserve during the season, Ekuale stepped up as the team's primary sub interior pass rusher. An active player with a quick get-off, he spent his first two seasons in Cleveland and Jacksonville before signing with the Patriots practice squad early in the 2021 season. He was elevated eight times during the season as he's appeared to have carved out a nice role for himself with New England. Ekluale's reported re-signing follows a trend early in free agency of the Patriots retaining their own players. 10 of their 14 reported signings have been players who were with the team in 2022, including all six of the defensive players. That continui...