AP Sports

Chiefs, Mahomes agree to restructured deal to include big pay raise, AP source says

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Monday that the Chiefs and NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes had agreed to a restructured contract. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the contract. Mahomes was signed to a 10-year, $450 million deal that would have kept him under contract through the 2031 season. At the time, Mahomes set the market for quarterback pay, but he has been passed over several times as the market inflated. Joe Burrow of the Bengals recently set the standard with a five-year deal averaging $55 million per year.

Josh Allen heads list of QBs who rebounded from poor performances in Week 1

Josh Allen was back to himself after a terrible opener. Daniel Jones and Ryan Tannehill also rebounded from awful games to lead comeback wins. Patrick Mahomes and Geno Smith got back on the winning track. Week 2 was filled with impressive bounce-back performances. The Bills, Giants and Titans avoided 0-2 starts. So did the defending champion Chiefs and the Seahawks. Several other quarterbacks, including Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Baker Mayfield and Sam Howell, stepped up to help their teams get to 2-0.

ABC will air an additional 10 ‘Monday Night Football’ games because of writers and actors strikes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — ABC will be airing more “Monday Night Football” games than originally planned. An additional 10 games originally set to appear only on ESPN will be simulcast on ABC. The move is because of the ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Disney, Netflix, Amazon and others. The strikes, which have been going on for months, have delayed most of the upcoming fall television season. The move also means that ABC has a game all 18 weeks of the regular season along with simulcasts of two playoff games.

Sacks and takeaways keep flowing as the Micah Parsons-fueled Cowboys flourish in a fast start

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The sacks and takeaways keep flowing for Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys. They are flourishing early after cruising to another victory over a New York team. Dallas beat the Jets 30-10 after opening the season with a 40-0 rout of the Giants. The Cowboys have 10 sacks and seven takeaways without a turnover of their own. That’s after Dak Prescott tied for the NFL lead with 15 interceptions last season despite missing five games. Parsons is the sixth player since sacks became an official stat in 1982 to get at least two in 10 games in his first three seasons.

Former NFL player Sergio Brown’s mother is found dead, and now he is missing

MAYWOOD, Ill. (AP) — Authorities are searching for a former NFL player after his 73–year-old mother’s body was found near a creek behind her suburban Chicago home. Relatives told police Saturday that they could not find 35-year-old Sergio Brown, 35, or Myrtle Brown. Officers found Myrtle Brown’s body. She had been injured during an assault. Sergio Brown played defensive back from 2010 through 2016 with the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills. He attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Maywood is about 12 miles west of Chicago.

AP Top 25 Reality Check: Florida, Florida State, Miami ranked together for 1st time since 2017

The state of Florida’s big three is back in the AP Top 25. Florida State, Miami and Florida were all ranked in The Associated Press college football on Sunday. The last time that happened was briefly in September 2017. There was a time when that threesome practically ruled the sport. As recently as 2000, the Seminoles, Hurricanes and Gators all finished in the top 10. Whether all three are trending in the right direction long-term is to be determined, but Reality Check appreciates the Sunshine State optimism.

Minnesota picks Taylor Heise 1st in the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League draft

TORONTO (AP) — Minnesota selected American forward Taylor Heise with the first pick in the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League draft. Tennis legend Billie Jean King, who’s on the league’s board, made the announcement. Toronto selected Canadian defender Jocelyne Larocque second, and Boston took Swiss center Alina Muller third. Muller was the only player not from the U.S. or Canada picked in the first three rounds. Minnesota with its second-round pick drafted American goaltender Nicole Hensley to add to its group led by Heise and free agent signings Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek and Lee Stecklein.

No. 3 Texas a dominant second half team as Longhorns head into Big 12 play

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Slow starts and big finishes. The No. 3 Texas Longhorns have been quite the second half team this season. Texas has scored 21 points in the fourth quarter the last two games against Alabama and Wyoming. The season opener against Rice saw a 21-point third quarter blow open a close game. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said he can see a change in attitude evolving on the sideline as players are believing the big plays will happen in tight games. But the coach also knows Texas needs to find earlier touchdowns heading into the Big 12 season.

Spain women’s coach calls up World Cup-winning players and leaves out Hermoso to ‘protect her’

MADRID (AP) — The new coach of Spain’s women’s team has included 15 of the World Cup-winning players in her squad even though they have not publicly announced an end to their boycott of the national team. Jenni Hermoso was not selected. She was kissed on the lips by former Spanish soccer federation president Luis Rubiales at the World Cup awards ceremony. Spain coach Montse Tomé says she talked to Hermoso and decided not to include her as a way to protect her. The new coach says she talked to all the World Cup-winning players that she selected and expected them to report to training camp on Tuesday.

For Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League, representing Ukraine is a duty to the country

HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Just playing is a small victory for Shakhtar Donetsk but the Ukrainian champions won’t stop there. Team captain Taras Stepanenko tells The Associated Press that Shakhtar’s opening Champions League game against Porto is part of his team’s duty to represent Ukraine and show his country’s resilience. Shakhtar is playing its Champions League games outside of Ukraine following the Russian invasion. It was in Poland last season and will play home games this season in the German city of Hamburg. Stepanenko says “our soldiers fight in the battles and we fight in the sports arena.”