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Three sports figures running for Congress captured Republican nominations in the midterms—two for House races, and one for the Senate. Former NFL kicker and broadcaster Jay Feely is running in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District; former Rangers and Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira is running in Texas’s 21st Congressional District; and former NBC and ESPN sideline reporter Michele Tafoya is running for Senate in Minnesota. Their former colleagues in the sports world are injecting money into their races. More than a dozen active team owners donated to one of the three. Other high-profile names include: * NFL commissioner Roger Goodell: $7,000 to Feely * CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz: $3,500 to Feely * Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill: $7,000 to Tafoya and an additional $10,000 to associated PACs * 10-time NBA All-Star John Stockton: $3,500 to Tafoya * Texas Rangers owner Ray Davis: $7,500 to Teixeira
Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving said "you have to stand up" when addressing Wednesday night why he offered to cover Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair's Week 1 NFL fine. Al-Shaair was fined $11,941 after he wore the name Hind Rajab on his eye black during the Texans' season opener against the Buffalo Bills. Rajab was a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza in January 2024. After the news of the NFL's discipline, Irving posted on X, "I'll take care of his fine." "He's a friend of mine," Irving said after the Mavericks' 128-110 season-opening loss to the Houston Rockets. "He's a brother that I consider in this revolution that a lot of this generation is building. It's a selfless act when you can show up for others that don't necessarily have a voice for themselves. ... I think small instances of revolutionary acts like wearing people's names or wearing a child's name like Hind Rajab on your face and taking the fine and stepping up to the plate."
Contessa Brewer: "Yesterday I broke the news that the NFL had filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court against prediction markets saying that the states are better positioned to regulate and they'd like a speedy decision from the Supreme Court. You had also taken a cautious stance against prediction markets. Where do you stand on it today?" Adam Silver: "For us, whether it's called a prediction market, whether it's sports betting, it's the same issues for our league and I think for all the leagues. There's issues around integrity first and foremost. Then for us, it's a desire to capture data so that we can regulate those markets. We see operational behavior, just like with any market, something that's whether inside information, whatever else, we can detect it. So we want access to that data. We also want control over the markets. That's particularly relevant in prediction markets where currently they're taking trades on when a coach might get fired, on odd behavior that you don't necessarily want people placing contracts on or betting on. And so I understand the NFL's position. Putting aside what the right litigation strategy is, ultimately we have the same interest. We want to have control over our intellectual property. We want to make sure we're protecting the integrity of the competition."
Apostolopoulos, a Canadian billionaire, discussed buying the Charlotte Hornets from Michael Jordan in 2023 but instead focused on purchasing the NFL's Washington Commanders. That franchise was later sold for $6.05 billion to a group led by Josh Harris, who also owns the Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's New Jersey Devils.
Steve Aschburner: Had some fun yesterday w. the “Scarface” clip. The reactions it triggered confirmed what I’ve believed all along – this business is all about the people, the friends, colleagues, subjects, sources and readers who made parts or all of this ride so terrific. Can’t be anything but grateful & humble after wrapping a career that cut across so many sports (MLB, NFL, NBA) in so many roles (beats, features, columns) from so many places (Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Chicago) for newspapers when they dominated to outlets in this digital world. Exiting on a high at the right time (I’m out 9/30) is satisfying (though it recalls many scribes who didn’t get a choice). The story was the thing, always, but the people & experiences kept it from feeling like work. Thank you for tagging along. The pleasure has been all mine.
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Oh No He Didn't: Steven Adams with a warning: "I will say: You guys should anticipate November. The performance of the league...league wide. GTA is dropping. So look at NFL, look at all the leagues and watch them plummet mate. Just for the month of November performance is gonna go down, it should come back up...coaching as well"
Both Polymarket and Kalshi are official partners of the NHL, while Polymarket is MLB’s exclusive prediction-market partner and Kalshi is an “authorized prediction market” under MLB’s integrity framework, which has allowed it to do a number of team-level deals. The NBA and NFL have yet to embrace prediction markets. Sources tell FOS the former is closing in on agreements, while the latter remains a staunch holdout.
Kyrie Irving: I’ll take care of his fine. Aaron Wilson: #Texans Pro Bowl middle linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair fined $11,492 for unauthorized message on eye black Sunday vs. #Bills Hind Rajab was a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli military firing several bullets along with six family members in Gaza City on January 29, 2024. Audio recordings of Hind calling for help sparked international outrage. In August, Israeli military confirmed soldiers fired on the vehicle and ordered an internal criminal investigation into the incident. Al-Shaair was previously fined $11,593
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Adam Schefter: The NFL, MLB, MLS, NBA and NHL joined with their respective players’ unions today to crack down on betting-related harassment of athletes, coaches and families. “Threatening the safety of an athlete or their family members over a sports bet crosses a bright ethical and criminal
N3on: You think if you could have made the NFL? Norman Powell: Yeah. At UCLA, the coaches wanted me to try out for the team, but I'm cool with all the… money is not great cuz it's not fully guaranteed. This the health insurance isn't that great. So, I don't rock with how they don't take care of their players in the NFL after retirement. You know, all the CTE stuff. Sweeping it under the rug and stuff like that. So, yeah. I don't mess with the whole industry around football. Even though I love watching it, like I don't like how they treat the players.
“The NBA has circulated a proposal to everybody,” says a prediction-market industry executive who expects announcements before the end of this month. “I would be shocked if they don’t try to announce something before the season. They’re not going to want this news to come out a week before the first game.” What sources are telling FOS lines up with what Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour suggested to RotoWire earlier this week: “you should expect announcements very soon, at least from one of the two remaining major leagues.” The NBA and NFL are the two primary holdouts in U.S. pro sports, and FOS reported last month that the NFL will not have any prediction-market deals in place for the upcoming season.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo: "A lot of these guys are not in the professional leagues is because they either want to be in the NBA or don't want to play professionally. Which is an insane concept because playing basketball, you have such a big privilege because basketball is a global game. It's not like the NFL. The only way you can be a football player is the NFL. It's nowhere else. But basketball, and making a living, you can go anywhere. You can go to Europe, Australia, Asia, Italy, Spain, anywhere you want to go if you're good at it."