Former Oklahoma quarterback Trevor Knight is on a mission to make an NFL roster, and he's hoping the inaugural season of the Alliance of American Football will help him get there.,Other league venues will be Georgia State Stadium (formerly Turner Field) for the Legends, Legion Field for the Iron, Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium for the Express, Spectrum Stadium (University of Central Florida) for the Apollos, Rice-Eccles Stadium (University of Utah) for the Stallions, the Alamodome (University Texas-San Antonio) for the Commanders and SDCCU Stadium (formerly Qualcomm Stadium) for the Fleet.,The AAF features several well-known coaches, including Steve Spurrier (Orlando), Mike Singletary (Memphis), Dennis Erickson (Salt Lake), Mike Riley (San Antonio) and Mike Martz (San Diego), in addition to Neuheisel.,Despite an impressive showing at the NFL Combine two years ago � where he finished first among quarterbacks in the vertical jump (35.5 inches), broad jump (10 feet, 5 inches) and the 40-yard dash (4.54 seconds) � Knight was not selected in the 2017 NFL Draft.,In addition to local stations, TNT will broadcast two games per season (one regular season and a playoff game) and the NFL Network will air two weekly games.

Susan Schmolke is a Los Angeles Dodgers fan and still smarting over their loss to the Boston Red Sox in the 2018 World Series.She was looking forward to the Rams facing the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII on Sunday and winning back a championship for the city.The Red Sox win is still fresh.,A longtime fan, she was excited that the team, which played in St. Louis from 1994 until 2016, had made it to the Super Bowl just three years after its return to Los Angeles.Its a win even just getting here, Schmolke said.,If you follow a team, you should stay with them.Yolanda Ramirez, 42, another longtime Rams fan, echoed similar sentiments.Of course Im sad, she said after Sundays loss, but at the same time, at least we went all the way to the Super Bowl.,He said he and his wife drove from El Paso to watch the game here.He said Rams fans should be proud of what the team accomplished this year, despite the loss.We came all the way from Texas to celebrate with local Rams fans, Larry Agilar said.,We came a long way in a short time, and Im proud of our team we were in the Super Bowl.Agilar wasnt the only one who traveled across the country to watch the game in Los Angeles.Paige Cayon said she flew from Chicago to watch the game with her husband, a corporate pilot who was in California for business and is born and bred Boston.

Without McCoy, who transferred to Texas after he was enrolled in classes for less than three weeks, USC does not have a five-star in the fold for its recruiting class for the first time since 2000, when recruiting services began ranking the top high school players.,Over more recent years, the Trojans have faced more difficulty reeling in five-star talent, largely the prospects from outside California, at times leaving them over-reliant on top players from their own backyard.,The Trojans finished 5-7 last year, their first losing season since 2000, prompting calls from fans for Helton to be fired following his third full season before the embattled coach was retained by Athletic Director Lynn Swann.,But even in the initial seasons under Helton, while the Trojans made consecutive New Year’s Six bowl games, they were unable to pluck five-star recruits from other regions of the country and poach prospects from other blue-blood schools that have had a better recent track record of producing NFL draft picks, especially among offensive linemen.,Gorney and other analysts reasoned that the Trojans have had enough talent in recent seasons to contend for Pac-12 championships, and they won the conference crown in their second season under Helton in 2017.

The traditional signing day Wednesday merely padded Oregon's already stellar recruiting class, the best in school history.,GETTING DEFENSIVE: Washington capped its recruiting class by landing two of the top defensive players on the West Coast.,Washington had seemed to be the favorite for Heimuli for most of the recruiting period, but his Menlo-Atherton team advancing to the state title game in California impacted his ability to make a decision in time for the December signing period.,The abrupt departure of new offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury after 34 days shook up the Trojans' recruiting class and led to the departure of receiver commit Bru McCoy, who spurned USC for Texas.,The day had an international flavor with the Utes bringing in 6-foot-7 offensive lineman Bamidele Olaseni, a native of London who played last year for Garden City Community College in Kansas, and fellow 6-foot-7 offensive lineman Luke Felix-Fualalo, a former rugby player in Australia who played last year for prep powerhouse Mater Dei in California.

But unlike HBO and “Game of Thrones,” WGN and the Cubs aren’t hyping their final season together after 72 years.,In my first year as Cubs beat writer in 1997, WGN televised 144 games.,The following January, the Cubs owners — Tribune Co. — decided to reduce the WGN schedule to 92 games, placing 62 games on CLTV, the company’s local cable news channel.,Fans gradually grew accustomed to watching more games on cable, and in 2003 the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks began their own sports channel, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, which is now NBC Sports Chicago.,WGN will televise the Cubs' season opener — likely for the last time »

'I have more confidence than last year': A healthy Yu Darvish eyes his return to dominance with the Cubs » read more

Foskey, a four-star defensive end from De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif., became the final member of Notre Dame’s 2019 recruiting class, joining 21 players who signed during the early period in December.,The Illini added a pair of linebackers to the 11 players they signed in December, getting the day started by announcing the signing of four-star prospect Shammond Cooper from St. Louis’ Trinity Catholic High School.,Three-star linebacker Tarique Barnes of Memphis, Tenn., brought the class to 13 players.,In terms of average player rating, Illinois’ class ranks seventh in the conference, and its three four-star signees — including cornerback Marquez Beason and quarterback Isaiah Williams — trail only five Big Ten teams.,Illinois was considered a likely landing spot for Cooper thanks to his strong ties with Cory Patterson, his former high school coach who is now an Illini assistant coach, and Williams, his high school teammate who signed with the Illini in December.

R.C. Slocum spent nearly three decades coaching football at Texas AM, and if the rules changed, recruiting didn't.,But money, social media and the pursuit of national glory changed recruiting in the Lone Star State, at least at Texas and AM.,For the first time in 20 years, Texas, AM and Oklahoma will finish in the top five of the 247Sports' composite recruiting rankings.,Now that recruiting budgets at Texas and AM have climbed into seven figures, it's easier for coaches to go national as well as fly recruits in for visits.,Besides 10 Texas recruits this year, he signed players from Georgia, California, Kansas, North Carolina, Arizona, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida and Washington D.C.

IN LATE OCTOBER, owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam summoned all Cleveland Browns employees to the auditorium at team headquarters for a familiar meeting.,TWO MONTHS LATER, Jimmy Haslam is in another familiar meeting -- in the locker room with Browns players after a loss, this time to the Ravens in the regular-season finale.,He made a fortune expanding the Haslam family business of Pilot Flying J truck stops and saw it come to a halt in an FBI raid in 2013, which left him looking for redemption as the owner of the famously hard-luck and comically inept Browns.,For the past six years, as Haslam's former life dissolved, he tightly gripped every aspect of the Cleveland organization, often creating as much chaos as he inherited, according to more than two dozen interviews with current and former Browns executives, coaches, lawyers, scouts and staffers, as well as league executives and other team owners and executives, most of whom requested confidentiality.,Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said the firing of coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley does not mean the team is giving up on this season.

Earlier that month, San Francisco Mayor Elmer E. Robinson had lost a bet to Chicago Mayor Martin H. Kennelly, after wagering that Cal would defeat Northwestern in that year’s Rose Bowl.,A week before the first-ever AFL-NFL World Championship Game in 1967 (known later as Super Bowl I), Donald A. Tilleman, the mayor of Green Bay, Wis., sent a telegram to his counterpart in Kansas City, Mo., betting him a block of Wisconsin cheese that the Packers would win, and proposing that prime steaks would make for a good prize.,After the Packers lost in the NFC championship game to the Giants, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg received a special delivery that contained 10 pounds of cheese spread, 20 aged strip steaks and three pounds of chocolate — plus a pair of cheese-wedge sunglasses for good measure.,Thus began the era of mayors wearing rival teams' jerseys, flying the winner’s flag above city hall or singing the national anthem at their next game.,In April 1997, more than two months after the Packers defeated the Patriots in that year’s Super Bowl, the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported that Mayor Paul Jadin still hadn’t collected the winnings from his bet with the mayor of Providence, R.I., Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr., who would later be sent to federal prison on racketeering charges.

• Oklahoma men's basketball is offering a variety of promotions and incentives for OU students the remainder of the Sooners' home season.,• As part of Suits and Sneakers Week (Jan. 21-27), the Oklahoma coaching staff will join coaches around the country in wearing sneakers (all-white Air Jordan 1 Mids) during the game to raise awareness about the American Cancer Society’s fight against cancer.,• Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger was named council chair of Coaches vs. Cancer this past fall and has been a member of the Coaches vs. Cancer Council since 2007.,• Oklahoma has won 21 of its last 24 games inside Lloyd Noble Center and 23 of its last 26 “home” games (includes victories in OKC and Tulsa).,• The Sooners have won 135 of their last 142 non-conference games in Norman and are 43-4 at LNC against non-conference opponents under Kruger.