Sports

Mandatory neck guards are coming to youth hockey in the United States.Already required in Canada and many other countries, USA Hockey, which governs the sport at the amateur level in the U.S., has long held its line at “recommending” laceration protection — namely neck guards, but also cut-resistant socks, sleeves and undergarments.The decision was announced Sunday and will go into effect on Aug. 1, about nine months after the issue was thrust into the spotlight when former NHL player Adam Johnson died of a skate cut to the neck during a game in England.More NHLers have begun to wear neck protection in the months since, either regularly or to try to find something comfortable.“You’re seeing more and more of it,” one player told The Athletic. “I wear the shirt for my wrists. I think you’re ...

After yet another disappointing, early-season loss, Jalen Brunson stood at his locker, ready to speak with the media in Milwaukee.As the point guard turned around, straight-faced as usual following the Knicks’ fourth defeat in six games, he donned a homemade T-shirt, all black and with white lettering on it, that appeared as if it were straight off the Vistaprint presses.Across Brunson’s chest read a familiar idiom: The magic is in the work.“This is a Sandra Brunson production,” Brunson said, referencing his mother, who stamped the family’s longtime motto onto the crewneck. Of course, “The magic is in the work” is not a Brunson family original.Anyone who knows Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has a Pavlovian relationship with that expression. Those 19 letters form his favorite saying. Find ...

It was around noon last Thursday when Bob Lutz walked outside of his work and headed home before the start of his daily radio show. He looked across 17th Street in Wichita, Kan., from the offices of League 42, the nonprofit baseball league he founded in 2013. On a rainy, overcast day, he gazed over toward the Jackie Robinson statue the league had erected in 2021. The statue was a symbol of hope and resilience. Lutz, though, could not see the bronze depiction of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier.For a moment, Lutz wondered if it was covered by fog. He blinked. Looked again. Doubting himself, he called an assistant out of the building to join him. The woman looked and also could not see the statue.Soon they were across the street, where the odd hallucination of a missing statue turn...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The most important run of the night may not have been by Christian McCaffrey. Or Deebo Samuel. Or even by George Kittle on one of his epic catch-and-runs.Nope. It was probably by the game manager. The most momentum-seizing, back-breaking, Lions-taming runs, a case could be made, were by Brock Purdy, the conductor of a 17-point comeback in the San Francisco 49ers’ 34-31 win Sunday over Detroit in the NFC Championship Game.“I’m blocking my man, and next thing I know I hear screaming,” left guard Aaron Banks said from the party in the 49ers locker room at Levi’s Stadium after the game. “And Brock is 20 yards downfield.”One candidate was Purdy’s 21-yard scramble on second-and-11 in the third quarter. He took off up the middle and turned on his baby burners to get away fro...

Update: The Chiefs beat the Ravens 17-10 to earn a trip to the Super BowlIf Mike Macdonald’s ascent to one of the NFL’s hottest coordinators and a legitimate head-coaching candidate feels meteoric, that’s probably because he has never embraced the art of self-promotion.The 36-year-old second-year Baltimore Ravens defensive boss has consented to side media interviews in recent weeks largely because he wants to tout the chemistry and cohesion of his staff, not because he wants any more attention. He likes to call himself a “steward” of head coach John Harbaugh’s vision and will point you in the direction of two dozen others who deserve praise for the Ravens’ success.But it’s impossible to ignore Macdonald’s impact on the AFC’s top seed, which faces the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s conferen...

PHOENIX — The comparison surfaced not long after Kevin Durant finished off the Chicago Bulls on Monday. In the final seconds, the Phoenix Suns forward buried a double-pump, did-he-just-do-that jumper to give the Suns a 115-113 win. WATCHING ON REPLAY ALL NIGHT LONG! pic.twitter.com/EEw60HC8Uf — Phoenix Suns (@Suns) January 23, 2024If you thought Durant’s incredible shot resembled Michael Jordan’s iconic double-pump jumper to eliminate the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 5 of the first round of the 1989 playoffs, you’re not alone. A couple of the Bulls from that very team agree.An analyst for NBC Sports Chicago, Will Perdue watched Monday night’s game from a studio in Chicago. As soon as he saw Durant’s shot drop, he immediately recognized the significance.“That was a double-pump!” said Perdue,...

USA Basketball will be seeking its eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal this summer with the first step coming at the Olympic qualifying tournament in Antwerp, Belgium, from Feb. 8-11. The 12-player roster for that tournament will be the first approximation of the team that will defend the Americans’ gold medal in Paris.Based on the 18 players who have been invited to the national team camp from Feb. 2-4 in Brooklyn, N.Y., the committee has a terrifically challenging task to select that final roster, a decision that will likely be further complicated by the current collegians — primarily Caitlin Clark, but USA Basketball veterans Paige Bueckers and Cameron Brink could also factor in here — who turn pro at the end of the 2023-24 season.The final roster will ultimately make a statement abou...

Every August, after the NBA releases its schedule for the upcoming season, Michael McCullough, the Miami Heat’s chief marketing officer, thinks about the next 82 games. He not only considers ticket sales and promotions but also sets a meeting with the team’s equipment manager and focuses on an essential part of his job: uniforms.Laying out the right jerseys used to be an easy exercise across the NBA. There were just two choices. When Rob Pimental, the Heat’s equipment manager and travel coordinator, began his career with the Sacramento Kings in the 1980s, it was just white and blue: white jerseys at home, dark ones on the road. What to wear didn’t demand a conversation.Today, it needs lots of meetings. It has become one of the benchmark choices a franchise can make each season. Over the la...

For those who know Jason and Travis Kelce best, there’s a familiar quality when listening to “New Heights,” the duo’s wildly popular podcast that launched in the fall of 2022. “It’s awesome because I can turn it on and it feels like I’m back in college hanging out with them,” said Craig Carey, a longtime friend and former teammate of both. “I’m not surprised at how successful it is because I lived it.”The Kelce brothers grew up together in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, less than two years apart in age. But the seeds of their already legendary NFL careers were planted at the University of Cincinnati, where the two became college teammates and roommates. And where they cemented the unique brotherly bond that would forever impact their shared futures, on the field and off. ...

It happened again. Of course it did.Two tennis players, starting near midnight, battling nearly to sunrise in front of a scattering of fans, with a squad of kids in their early teenage years scurrying after balls at nearly four in the morning. Last year it was Andy Murray duelling with Thanasi Kokkinakis until the night sky began to lighten at around 4am. On Thursday, and into Friday, it was Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland doing the tennis version of the 2am jazz set. “I would not have stayed,” Medvedev said in an on-court interview after he completed his comeback from two sets down and eliminated Ruusuvuori 3-6, 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-6(1), 6-0. Judging from the scoreline, Ruusuvuori decided not to and it was hard to blame him.The dynamic would seem absurd if it wasn’t so...