The New York Jets lost in a 24-16 fashion to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their 2026 NFL preseason opener at MetLife Stadium on Friday.As is always the case during the exhibition season, the contest had plenty of ups and down as head coach Aaron Glenn begin analyzing his roster to determine who will make the final 53-man roster. On both sides of the ledger, what did the Jets put out on the field against the Bucs?With that, here is Jets Wire's instant analysis from Week 1 of the preseason: What went right?Here is a quick list of what went right for the Jets against the Buccaneers: It was fourth-round rookie Cade Klubnik getting the start under center for the Jets and he stood out with a strong opening drive. Receiver Omar Cooper Jr. impressed with catches and the dirty work, like forcing a defensive pass interference call. Cooper finished with two catches for 31 yards. Running back Braelon Allen had a 31-yard touchdown for the Jets' only touchdown of the game.Mory Bamba, remember the name. The UDFA rookie free agent cornerback had four passes defended including a breakup in the end zone. Chris Banjo's special teams unit picked up right where it left off, but it still feels like Jason Sanders is the leading candidate to be the Jets' kicker. Will McDonald ended the Bucs' opening drive with a sack. What went wrong?QB Geno Smith did not play in this one. After the contest, head coach Aaron Glenn revealed Smith is currently dealing with a sore ankle. Bailey Zappe could have played his way off the roster. He finished with two interceptions thrown, including a pick-six on his first pass of the game. The backup offensive line looks rough, which is the case with many national teams. No takeaways, no interceptions by the Jets defense. What's the bottom line?We did not learn a whole lot from this game. Cade Klubnik was always a roster lock as a Round 4 pick and he has cemented his status as the backup quarterback. It's just the preseason, but no takeaways, and specifically no interceptions (again) for the defense is worth noting... but let's not overreact yet.What's next?The Jets hit the road to face the Pittsburgh SteerThis article originally appeared on Jets Wire: Instant analysis: What went right, what went wrong in Jets' loss to the Bucs

MADISON Ahead of a gauntlet of early-season challenges, Wisconsin volleyball had anything but a challenge in the three sets of its exhibition match that officially counted.The Badgers bested Butler in straight sets, 25-14, 25-10, 25-13, in an Aug. 14 exhibition at the UW Field House. The Bulldogs put up much more of a fight in the unofficial fourth set until UW pulled away with a 30-28 win.Wisconsin had a 38-11 advantage in kills while hitting .338 in the three consequential sets. Six UW players finished with at least four kills. No Butler player had more than one kill until the third set.Here are three takeaways from the Badgers highs and lows of the exhibition win:Grace Lopez, Grace Egan set tone at service lineGrace Lopez wasted little time in making a statement in her first match against another collegiate team since missing more than a year with a knee injury.The former Miami (FL) transfer had four service aces in the first set alone as Butler had seemingly no answers for her topspin serve.In case anybody has forgotten what kind of talent she is, I think that was a reminder today of what we knew that we were getting when she decided to come here, Sheffield said.Wisconsins other topspin-serving player, Grace Egan, delivered another two aces. Lopez and Egans combined six aces were in addition to other plays where the topspin serve seemed to keep the Bulldogs out of sorts.Our spin servers set the tone at the beginning of the match Grace times two and just really put a lot of pressure until our float servers could get a little bit more comfortable behind the service line, Sheffield said.The Badgers other servers eventually found their groove as well, helping the Badgers finish with 14 aces in the first three sets. (Had it not been an exhibition, the Badgers would have neared the program record for service aces in a three-set match 16 in a 1989 win over Northern Illinois.)Other players with aces included setters Charlie Fuerbringer and Isabelle Hoppe with two each. Egan had another two aces in later sets to match Lopezs team-high four. Kristen Simon and Natalie Wardlow each had one ace.Egan had another two aces later in the match and finished the first three sets with a team-high nine kills while hitting .467. That was while playing two sets at opposite hitter and one at outside hitter.Wisconsin overcomes 'sleepy' start in fourth setButler a team that posted a 12-17 overall record and 5-11 Big East record in 2025 had the Badgers reeling early in the fourth set.The Bulldogs forced an early Sheffield timeout as they jumped to a 10-2 lead. They also held a 12-4 lead and had more kills in that stretch than they did in the first two sets combined.I thought we came out a little bit sleepy in the start of the fourth set, Sheffield said.At the same time, Sheffield thought the Kyle Shondell-coached Bulldogs showed a lot of fight in the fourth set and made us work for it.Kyles out there fighting along with his team and just gave us exactly what we were hoping we were going to get tonight, Sheffield said.Then the Badgers, as Sheffield aptly put it, dug in. UW won 12 of the next 17 points to cut the deficit to one. Butler pulled ahead and faced set point four times. Wisconsin ultimately won the nail-biting set, 30-28.Freshman outside hitter Audrey Flanagan, who was coming off a 17-kill performance in the alumni match, recorded nine kills in the extra long fourth set. UC-Santa Barbara transfer Eva Travis had six kills in the set.The ability of never giving up on yourselves or the team or what it is is a quality that elite teams have to have, Sheffield said.It was all in front of a Field House crowd officially measured at 6,261 people that brought plenty of enthusiasm at key moments.The crowd always does a really good job pouring into us, Simon said. Their energy means so much to us at every point, especially when they get up on their feet. Every time that they just stand up and cheer for us, I think it really fires us up a lot and keeps us going.How Wisconsin fared at middle blocker without Jaela AugusteWisconsin kept Jaela Auguste the 2025 third-team All-American and Florida transfer out of the lineup for both the alumni match and exhibition. Sheffield said earlier in the week that her and Halle Thompsons injuries arent long-term things, but certainly we want no setbacks right now.Sheffield thought the other middle blockers looked a little sluggish in the exhibition against Butler while partly taking responsibility for that.We put them through a pretty tough practice yesterday a lot tougher than what we typically do going into a match, Sheffield said. And I think it probably showed a little bit.Natalie Wardlow finished with four kills while hitting .800 in the three sets that officially counted. Sheffield noticed "a couple really, really nice swings" from the sophomore whose past playing time was often in serving situations.And then her serving got a little bit better in the second half of the match when she started adding her drop serve, Sheffield said.Freshman Lynney Tarnow had seven kills and two blocks although Sheffield thought UW was not setting her as high as what she kind of needs. Fellow freshman Kymora Scott appeared in the third set and the unofficial fourth set and had one kill and one attack error in each set.Weve got some talent in that middle, Sheffield said. I feel comfortable with any one of those three, and certainly Jaela getting in the lineup and her potential is exciting.This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 takeaways from Wisconsin's exhibition win, surprising fourth set

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Friday, Aug. 14 was a good day to be a baseball player named Kirk who wears No. 30.On the same night Toronto Blue Jays slugger Alejandro Kirk went yard and got a Gatorade shower after a 3-1 win over the New York Yankees, 2,477 miles away in San Bernardino, California, his younger cousin, Noah Kirk, pitched a gem as his Southern California squad secured the final spot in the Little League World Series.All Systems GO pic.twitter.com/xCsW35AqIJ Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 15, 2026Twelve-year-old Noah, starting on the mound and batting leadoff for Sweetwater Valley Little League out of Bonita, struck out six batters through four scoreless innings. But it was the fifth where Noah Kirk had his best moment.Sweetwater Valley had opened up a 5-0 lead, but Kirk gave up back-to-back singles to start the penultimate inning before Waika Doctolero took him deep for a three-run home run that cut SoCal's lead down to just two runs. Rush Pegeder walked the next at-bat, and it looked like Kirk was spiraling with his pitch count creeping closer to the 85-pitch limit.He responded by striking out Shane Schoettler for his seventh K of the game. Now at 83 pitches, Kaikea Saiki was all but guaranteed to be the final batter Kirk would face, and Kirk made it count. Kirk fell behind 3-1 in the count but managed to work it back full before getting Saiki to hit a comebacker to the mound. Kirk fielded the ball, threw Pegeder out at second, and Mateo Ruiz fired it to first baseman Jesus Cuadra to get a crucial inning-ending double play.Not a bad night for the Kirk family pic.twitter.com/QzuT7BVAl6 Andrs Soto (@TheAndresPablo) August 15, 2026Sweetwater Valley Little League went on to defeat Kawaihau Community Little League 11-3 to advance to Williamsport. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alejandro Kirk's little cousin pitches gem to send team to Little League World Series

Giannis Antetokounmpo gets brutally honest about what he wants to do in the 2026-27 season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.With the trade they made for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Miami Heat are ready to be competitive. They might have traded away a lot of good players, but it is worth it because they have a new superstar to build around. At the same time, Giannis is also forming a fearsome duo with Bam Adebayo.Many NBA fans know about how Antetokounmpo can be a dominant player. He already has two MVPs under his belt alongside his shiny Finals MVP from the Milwaukee Bucks' 2021 championship. Now, he wants to do the same in South Beach.Giannis Antetokounmpo vows to dominate in the 2026-27 seasonThe Heat are one of the toughest teams to gauge in the 2026-27 season. The roster was gutted to get Giannis, which has led to a lot of people overlooking the rest of the roster beyond their star frontcourt. However, that is a mistake the NBA community must not make because the Heat still have a good roster.Apart from Adebayo and Antetokounmpo, they have players such as Davion Mitchell, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Pelle Larsson, who can all surprise people. They could pull off some good moments in the 2026-27 season, and with Spoelstra leading the charge as the head coach, anything is possible.MORE:Erik Spoelstra loves Giannis Antetokounmpo's fit within the Miami Heat systemAntetokounmpo is clearly the number one guy now because he is seen as one of the best players in the league. With his impact on both ends of the floor, it is clear why he has two MVPs under his belt. He can dominate for the Heat, and that could pan out well for the team, especially since he is locked in."This season I will dominate. The things I want to prove are that Im one of the best players in the NBA. To the fans, I want to say, were bringing back the Heat. My new season mindset is winning. When the opportunity comes, I will dominate. Miami, get ready for an exciting season," Giannis said ahead of the 2026-27 season with the Heat.It will be challenging for the Heat to beat all the top teams in the Eastern Conference. They have gotten much better in the past few weeks, but it seems the Heat are ready to cement themselves as the team to beat in the East.More NBA news:Nikola Jovic remains untouchable in potential Klay Thompson trade talksDoc Rivers believes Erik Spoelstra and Steve Kerr already belong in the Hall of Fame with himDavion Mitchell has benefited from Erik Spoelstra's belief in him as the starting point guardNorman Powell speaks on why he never got to play alongside Giannis AntetokounmpoThe Heat are blocking Giannis Antetokounmpo's opportunity to play for Greece's national team

Preseason high school football is a wrap in Palm Beach County! FHSAA teams completed Kickoff Classics across the state on Friday, Aug. 14 while teams in the SSAA hosted their first games of the 2026 regular season. Here's as local results roll in from the opening week of the fall gridiron campaign: Get discount to stream games on NFHS NetworkFriday FHSAA (Kickoff Classic preseason)Vero Beach 28, Cardinal Newman 7 Miami Carol City 24, West Boca Raton 23 (OT) Dr. Joaquin Garcia 34, Palm Beach Gardens 13 Pahokee 9, Santaluces 3 Benjamin 33, Dwyer 6Glades Central 17, Martin County 12 SSAA (Week 1 regular season)Jupiter Christian 19, Somerset-Canyons 12 King's Academy 20, Florida Christian 14American Heritage-Delray 44, Calvary Christian 6Oxbridge Academy 24, Master's Academy 8 Okeechobee 42, Glades Day 15Thursday FHSAA (Kickoff Classic preseason)Jupiter 62, Seminole Ridge 13 Saint Andrew's 28, Boynton Beach 14 Palm Beach Lakes 42, Boca Raton 0Monarch 35, Spanish River 22 Eric J. Wallace is deputy sports editor for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at ejwallace@usatodayco.com. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Kickoff Classic scoreboard: Palm Beach County football scores, results

Preseason high school football is a wrap in Palm Beach County! FHSAA teams completed Kickoff Classics across the state on Friday, Aug. 14 while teams in the SSAA hosted their first games of the 2026 regular season. Here's as local results roll in from the opening week of the fall gridiron campaign: Get discount to stream games on NFHS NetworkFriday FHSAA (Kickoff Classic preseason)Vero Beach 28, Cardinal Newman 7 Miami Carol City 24, West Boca Raton 23 (OT) Dr. Joaquin Garcia 34, Palm Beach Gardens 13 Pahokee 9, Santaluces 3 Benjamin 33, Dwyer 6Glades Central 17, Martin County 12 SSAA (Week 1 regular season)Jupiter Christian 19, Somerset-Canyons 12 King's Academy 20, Florida Christian 14American Heritage-Delray 44, Calvary Christian 6Oxbridge Academy 24, Master's Academy 8 Okeechobee 42, Glades Day 15Thursday FHSAA (Kickoff Classic preseason)Jupiter 62, Seminole Ridge 13 Saint Andrew's 28, Boynton Beach 14 Palm Beach Lakes 42, Boca Raton 0Monarch 35, Spanish River 22 Eric J. Wallace is deputy sports editor for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at ejwallace@usatodayco.com. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Kickoff Classic scoreboard: Palm Beach County football scores, results

MADISON Ahead of a gauntlet of early-season challenges, Wisconsin volleyball had anything but a challenge in the three sets of its exhibition match that officially counted.The Badgers bested Butler in straight sets, 25-14, 25-10, 25-13, in an Aug. 14 exhibition at the UW Field House. The Bulldogs put up much more of a fight in the unofficial fourth set until UW pulled away with a 30-28 win.Wisconsin had a 38-11 advantage in kills while hitting .338 in the three consequential sets. Six UW players finished with at least four kills. No Butler player had more than one kill until the third set.Here are three takeaways from the Badgers highs and lows of the exhibition win:Grace Lopez, Grace Egan set tone at service lineGrace Lopez wasted little time in making a statement in her first match against another collegiate team since missing more than a year with a knee injury.The former Miami (FL) transfer had four service aces in the first set alone as Butler had seemingly no answers for her topspin serve.In case anybody has forgotten what kind of talent she is, I think that was a reminder today of what we knew that we were getting when she decided to come here, Sheffield said.Wisconsins other topspin-serving player, Grace Egan, delivered another two aces. Lopez and Egans combined six aces were in addition to other plays where the topspin serve seemed to keep the Bulldogs out of sorts.Our spin servers set the tone at the beginning of the match Grace times two and just really put a lot of pressure until our float servers could get a little bit more comfortable behind the service line, Sheffield said.The Badgers other servers eventually found their groove as well, helping the Badgers finish with 14 aces in the first three sets. (Had it not been an exhibition, the Badgers would have neared the program record for service aces in a three-set match 16 in a 1989 win over Northern Illinois.)Other players with aces included setters Charlie Fuerbringer and Isabelle Hoppe with two each. Egan had another two aces in later sets to match Lopezs team-high four. Kristen Simon and Natalie Wardlow each had one ace.Egan had another two aces later in the match and finished the first three sets with a team-high nine kills while hitting .467. That was while playing two sets at opposite hitter and one at outside hitter.Wisconsin overcomes 'sleepy' start in fourth setButler a team that posted a 12-17 overall record and 5-11 Big East record in 2025 had the Badgers reeling early in the fourth set.The Bulldogs forced an early Sheffield timeout as they jumped to a 10-2 lead. They also held a 12-4 lead and had more kills in that stretch than they did in the first two sets combined.I thought we came out a little bit sleepy in the start of the fourth set, Sheffield said.At the same time, Sheffield thought the Kyle Shondell-coached Bulldogs showed a lot of fight in the fourth set and made us work for it.Kyles out there fighting along with his team and just gave us exactly what we were hoping we were going to get tonight, Sheffield said.Then the Badgers, as Sheffield aptly put it, dug in. UW won 12 of the next 17 points to cut the deficit to one. Butler pulled ahead and faced set point four times. Wisconsin ultimately won the nail-biting set, 30-28.Freshman outside hitter Audrey Flanagan, who was coming off a 17-kill performance in the alumni match, recorded nine kills in the extra long fourth set. UC-Santa Barbara transfer Eva Travis had six kills in the set.The ability of never giving up on yourselves or the team or what it is is a quality that elite teams have to have, Sheffield said.It was all in front of a Field House crowd officially measured at 6,261 people that brought plenty of enthusiasm at key moments.The crowd always does a really good job pouring into us, Simon said. Their energy means so much to us at every point, especially when they get up on their feet. Every time that they just stand up and cheer for us, I think it really fires us up a lot and keeps us going.How Wisconsin fared at middle blocker without Jaela AugusteWisconsin kept Jaela Auguste the 2025 third-team All-American and Florida transfer out of the lineup for both the alumni match and exhibition. Sheffield said earlier in the week that her and Halle Thompsons injuries arent long-term things, but certainly we want no setbacks right now.Sheffield thought the other middle blockers looked a little sluggish in the exhibition against Butler while partly taking responsibility for that.We put them through a pretty tough practice yesterday a lot tougher than what we typically do going into a match, Sheffield said. And I think it probably showed a little bit.Natalie Wardlow finished with four kills while hitting .800 in the three sets that officially counted. Sheffield noticed "a couple really, really nice swings" from the sophomore whose past playing time was often in serving situations.And then her serving got a little bit better in the second half of the match when she started adding her drop serve, Sheffield said.Freshman Lynney Tarnow had seven kills and two blocks although Sheffield thought UW was not setting her as high as what she kind of needs. Fellow freshman Kymora Scott appeared in the third set and the unofficial fourth set and had one kill and one attack error in each set.Weve got some talent in that middle, Sheffield said. I feel comfortable with any one of those three, and certainly Jaela getting in the lineup and her potential is exciting.This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 3 takeaways from Wisconsin's exhibition win, surprising fourth set

Broncos coach Sean Payton has a history with Atlanta, dating back to the intense rivalry between the Saints (whom he coached from 2006 through 2021) and the Falcons. Payton's current team was back in Georgia tonight for a preseason game.And Payton couldn't resist making a crack about the crowd in Atlanta, or the lack of one."There's a lot of people dressed up as empty seats today," Payton said at a halftime interview, via Awful Announcing.The official game book for the Broncos-Falcons contest lists attendance at 68,183. That may have been the tickets sold, not the tickets used.Whether the seats will be filled during the Falcons' regular-season home games depends on whether the team performs better than it did on Friday night. Preseason or not, the Falcons trailed 24-0 at the half. The final score was 27-7.The Falcons have reason for optimism. They finished in a three-way tie for the NFC South crown. If they can get something/anything out of the quarterback position, they could win the division in 2026.They'll need to win early in the season to get the fans on board. Three of the first four games are on the road, and three of the first four teams they play made it to the playoffs in 2025.

Diana Taurasi's hopes of joining the Mercury ownershipin the next year or two wouldn't be the first time an athlete has joined a team's ownership group.In fact, many former athletes are still vying for championships in a different role than before. Many leagues, including the WNBA, have former and current athletes as part of ownership groups. Here are some of the athletes in ownership groups.Michael Jordan, Charlotte HornetsJordan became the first former player to be a majority owner in the NBAwhen he bought the then Charlotte Bobcats in his home state of North Carolina in 2010.Sue Bird, Seattle StormBird, Taurasi's former UConn teammate and longtime best friend, joined the Storm's ownership group, Force 10 Hoops, ahead of the 2024 season. Bird retired in 2022 following 19 seasons with the Storm and is the WNBA's all-time leader in games played and assists.Tom Brady, Las Vegas Aces, Las Vegas Raiders, Birmingham CitySeven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Bradyacquired a minority stakein the Aces in 2023 and, in 2024, was approved for a minority stake in the Raiders. Both teams share a majority owner inMark Davis.Brady is also aminority ownerof Birmingham City, a club in English soccer's second-tier Championship.Alex Rodriguez, Minnesota Timberwolves, LynxThe former MLB player, who starred with the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees, became a co-owner of the Timberwolves and Lynx in 2025.David Beckham, Inter MiamiBeckham exercised an option from his five-year contract with the LA Galaxy to buy an MLS expansion team for $25 million after he retired and chose Miami in 2014. He's been part of the ownership group since.Renee Montgomery, Atlanta DreamMontgomery, who played from 2009-19, became the first former WNBA player to hold a team ownership stake and an executive role after purchasing the Dream in 2021.She was part of the three-member ownership group with Larry Gottesdiener and Suzanne Abair.Magic Johnson, Los Angeles DodgersIn 2012, Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson waspart of a group that bought the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has since been part of three World Series titles.Dwyane Wade, Utah Jazz, Chicago SkyThe Miami Heat great purchased an ownership stake in the Utah Jazz in 2021, and then became a minority owner of the Chicago Sky in 2023.Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh PenguinsThe former NHL star played parts of 17 seasons between 1984 and 2006 for the Penguins, who drafted him No. 1 overall. He took ownership of the team in 1999 and for several seasons was a player on the team he owned.Reach the reporter or send tips for stories atjenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com,as well as@jennarortizon X.Catch the best high school sports coverage in the state. Sign up forAzcentral Preps Now.And be sure to subscribe to ourdaily sports newslettersso youdon'tmiss a thing.This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Former athletes joining sports ownership groups