NFL
WASHINGTON (AP) – Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder testified before a congressional committee investigating the NFL team’s history of labor misconduct, speaking for more than 10 hours in a deposition held virtually and in private
A spokesman for the US House Oversight Committee and a spokesman for Snyder independently verified his testimony ended after 6:30 pm EDT. It is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., with Snyder appearing via Zoom from Israel.
A committee spokesman said he had no comment Thursday night.
Snyder agreed to testify voluntarily after committee members ironed out some issues with his legal team over the terms of his deposition. The committee had previously agreed to let Snyder testify under the terms of a subpoena it had initially issued.
RENTON, Wash. (AP) – The Seattle Seahawks are expected to sign wide receiver DK Metcalf to a three-year extension worth up to $72 million, according to two people familiar with the deal.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the signing. ESPN first reported the deal, which includes $58 million guaranteed. The deal will run through the 2025 season, when he will have another chance at free agency.
Metcalf is the latest in a string of top pass catchers to lock up new deals this offseason. He is entering the final year of his rookie deal after being a second-round pick by Seattle in 2019, and signing him was a priority for the Seahawks this offseason.
BASEBALL
NEW YORK (AP) – Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 39th home run for his third long ball this season, lifting the New York Yankees over the Kansas City Royals 1-0.
New York was held to one hit before Judge drove a first-pitch fastball from Scott Barlow (4-3) into the Kansas City bullpen with one out in the ninth, a 431-foot drive.
Judge sent the crowd of 43,836 into a frenzy, joining Mickey Mantle as the only Yankees to hit three home runs in a season. Tommy Henrich had two in 1949 plus another off Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe in the World Series opener.
Judge also stole a career-high 10 bases.
CINCINNATI (AP) – Daniel Castano was hit in the forehead by a 104 mph line drive off the bat of Donovan Solano in the first inning of the Miami Marlins’ 7-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
The ball hit the peak of his cap and bounced off the crown, manager Don Mattingly said. The team said Castano was showing mild concussion symptoms and had bruising, and a CT scan was normal.
The 27-year-old left-hander fell to his knees and put a hand to his head as Mattingly, catcher Jacob Stallings and athletic trainers went to the mound to check on him. Castano did not appear to lose consciousness, and the field fence gate opened as a cart prepared to enter the field before Castano left on his own.
The ball was hit so hard that third baseman Joey Wendle caught it on the outside.
TORONTO (AP) – Matt Chapman hit two home runs, Yusei Kikuchi came off the disabled list to pitch five solid innings and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers 5-3 for their 10th win in 12 games .
Chapman hit a two-run homer off lefty Tyler Alexander in the fourth and a solo shot off Angel De Jesus in the sixth, the ninth multi-homer game of his career and first this season. The home runs were his 17th and 18th of the year. Fourteen of Chapman’s 18 home runs have come. He is hitting .306 with seven home runs in July.
Jonathan Schoop and Willi Castro hit solo home runs for the Tigers, who have lost five of eight since the All-Star break.
BASKETBALL
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin warned that a potential prisoner swap with the United States involving American basketball star Brittney Griner must be negotiated quietly without fanfare.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington had offered Russia a deal that would bring home Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan. A person familiar with the matter said the US government offered to trade Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Whelan and Griner.
Asked about the US offer, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said prisoner swaps were usually negotiated quietly behind the scenes.
In a separate statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russian and US officials have held negotiations on possible prisoner exchanges and “there has been no concrete outcome yet.”
GOLF
BEDMINSTER, NJ (AP) — Former President Donald Trump played another round on his home course, this one different from so many others. It was part of the pro-am LIV Golf Invitational, funded by Saudi Arabia, organized by a league it says is creating a “gold rush” for players.
LIV Golf’s third event, which begins Friday at Trump National Bedminster, added four new players to the 48-man field that illustrated how the disruption extends beyond the PGA Tour.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson is among the newcomers, who led the European Tour to strip him of the Ryder Cup captaincy for the 2023 matches in Italy.
Stenson learned during his press conference from a report in the Daily Telegraph, later matched by Golf Digest, that Luke Donald would be Europe’s captain.
With the addition of Stenson (the other three were Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Jason Kokrak), LIV Golf now has 12 former major champions on its roster, though only five in the top 50 in the world rankings.
DETROIT (AP) – Tony Finau, coming off his third career PGA Tour win, and Taylor Pendrith shared the first-round lead with 8-under 64s at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Former US Open champion Webb Simpson, Michael Thompson, Cameron Champ, Lee Hodges and Matt Wallace were two strokes back. Si Woo Kim and Kurt Kitayama, both ranked in the top 70 in the world, were in the group at 67 at Detroit Golf Club.
Finau, who rallied from a five-shot deficit with 11 holes remaining to win the 3M Open by three shots Sunday in Minnesota, opened with a birdie and had five birdies on his front nine. After cooling off with four straight pars, Finau closed with his seventh and eighth birdies in a bogey-free round. He hit all 18 greens in regulation for the first time in 728 rounds of stroke play on the PGA Tour.
AUTOMATIC CARS
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden has been cleared to practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway following his collapse after crashing in Iowa.
Newgarden will be reevaluated Friday after practice to determine if he can compete Saturday at the Indianapolis track.
Newgarden was in the lead and headed for a doubleheader sweep of Iowa on Sunday when his Team Penske car’s suspension snapped and he crashed hard into the wall. The Nashville driver was evaluated at Iowa Medical Center and cleared, but IndyCar officials required a second check Thursday at the speedway.
But not long after leaving the care center, Newgarden lost consciousness and collapsed in the RV lot. He hit his head on the pavement, opening a gash, and was airlifted to a Des Moines hospital and held overnight.
Team Penske stated that all tests on Newgarden had come back negative and they detained him overnight as a precaution. The 31-year-old returned to Nashville on Monday and visited a specialist this week before traveling to Indianapolis.
Team Penske had Santino Ferrucci on standby in case IndyCar said Newgarden can’t race Saturday.
