Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta is “conscious” after being taken to hospital after being kicked in the face by Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts eight minutes into Saturday’s FA Cup fifth-round clash, in what Palace’s chairman Steve Paris described as “the most reckless challenge” he’d ever seen.

Parish confirmed to the BBC at half-time that Mateta had a gash behind his ear and was at a local hospital receiving further treatment as he expressed his anger at the tackle, which saw Roberts sent off.

After the match, Palace manager Oliver Glasner said that Mateta was “conscious.”

Later on Saturday, Mateta posted on social media to say: “I’m doing well. I hope to be back very soon and stronger than ever. Well done guys for the great job today.”

Roberts rushed outside the 18-yard box and leaped to clear a long ball but his high left-footed follow-through struck Mateta in the side of the face.

Mateta remained on the ground for several minutes and needed lengthy medical treatment before he was fitted with a neck brace and carried off the field toward an ambulance.

“He’s conscious and he’s in hospital, but his ear obviously looks terrible. [It’s a] very serious injury, so of course we hope all the best for him and let’s see,” Glasner said.

Parish gave a more emotional assessment.

“In all the time I’ve been watching football I don’t think I’ve ever seen a worse challenge. If you’re kicking someone in the head then you don’t know what damage may have been done” Parish said.

Referee Michael Oliver initially did not even show Roberts a yellow card despite being only a few yards away from the incident but then brandished a straight red after being called over by VAR to review the incident on a pitchside monitor.

“They’re professionals and they have to treat each other like professionals and have a duty of care for your fellow professionals,” Parish said.

“That keeper has not had one [duty of care]. Credit to the players carrying on and it is difficult for me to think about anything else with JP [Mateta] in hospital.

“In all the time I’ve watched football, someone mentioned there was one like it in the World Cup in 1982.

“Why the referee [Michael Oliver] needed to go to the screen I have got no idea.”

Mateta is Palace’s leading scorer with 12 Premier League goals this season. Despite his lack of firepower up front for the remainder of the match, Palace still earned a 3-1 victory over the 10-man Millwall side.

“Maybe we are not really happy today. We can’t be really happy,” Glasner added.

“Of course, it’s a great win in going into the quarterfinals, but when you lose a player, especially with a foul like this, you have two different feelings in your stomach.”

Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.

The post Mateta ‘conscious,’ in hospital after wild tackle appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he would pardon baseball great Pete Rose and criticized Major League Baseball for barring the all-time hit leader from the sport’s Hall of Fame for gambling.

Rose, who died last year at 83, was banned from baseball for life. He admitted in 2004 that he had bet on games, though never against his own team. Commissioner Rob Manfred in 2015 rejected Rose’s bid for reinstatement.

“Over the next few weeks I will be signing a complete pardon of Pete Rose, who shouldn’t have been gambling on baseball, but only bet on his team winning,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “He never betted against himself, or the other team. He had the most hits, by far, in baseball history, and won more games than anyone in sports history.”

Trump did not say what the pardon would cover. Rose served five months in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges in 1990.

In a statement to ESPN, John Dowd, who investigated Rose for MLB in 1989 and served as Trump’s lawyer seven years ago, noted that MLB is “not in the pardon business nor does it control admission to the HOF.”

Rose, who spent most of his 1963 to 1986 career with the Cincinnati Reds, won the World Series three times and remains Major League Baseball’s career leader in hits, games played, at-bats, singles and outs.

Reuters contributed to this report.

The post Trump says he will pardon baseball legend Rose appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

• 

  Adam RittenbergFeb 28, 2025, 02:11 PM ET

  Close

  College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.

College football teams could soon be charged with a timeout or penalty for players faking injuries well after plays during games.

The NCAA football rules committee has proposed a timeout to be charged whenever medical personnel enter the field to evaluate players after the ball has been spotted for the ensuing play. Teams without timeouts would be assessed a five-yard delay-of-game penalty for each instance.

The proposal is among several that will go back to schools and then go before the NCAA’s playing rules oversight panel for possible approval in April.

Faking injuries has become a significant topic in recent years, with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and others admonishing the practice. The SEC implemented guidelines that included fines and potential suspensions for coaches whose players repeatedly fake injuries. The American Football Coaches Association had proposed requiring any players who need medical attention to miss an entire possession, rather than only one play, but the rules committee instead proposed losing timeouts.

“If we have a player that’s struggling and the official stops the clock to get that player out, we will not invoke the timeout,” said Steve Shaw, the secretary-rules editor for football and the SEC and Sun Belt’s coordinator of football officials. “There’s these plays where the ball’s down, the defense is still trying to get to their side of the ball, and a player falls down. Those are the types of plays that we don’t want, that we think is a bad look, and we think this rule will address it.”

Shaw reiterated that legitimately injured players should stay down and require a stoppage to receive medical attention. But many of the suspicious instances occurred after the ball was spotted for the next play.

“Coaches value their timeouts incredibly,” Shaw said. “Making this a timeout, if a player were to wait and then go down very late, the coaches would really be against unless you’re really injured, and then they may have needed a timeout anyway.”

The rules committee also proposed limiting timeouts in games that reach the third overtime period or longer. Teams currently have a timeout for each overtime period, but the proposal would limit them to one total timeout after the second OT. The Georgia–Georgia Tech regular-season finale in November, which spanned eight overtime periods, included three timeouts after the second session, all before two-point conversion attempts.

“We didn’t want to create a situation where the offense goes out, looks at the defense, calls timeout, then they get back out there, the defense calls timeout,” Shaw said. “You see that in basketball a lot of time. That just prolongs the game. We said, ‘We’re going to give everybody a timeout.’ We’ll continue to monitor it.”

The overtime timeouts proposal was among several that could be tied to recent high-profile incidents. Another proposal would allow offenses to reset the game clock within two minutes of each half when a defense commits a penalty for too many men on the field and participates in the play.

Oregon received a 12-men-on-the-field penalty at the end of an Oct. 12 game against Ohio State, which resulted in a penalty but also removed four valuable seconds from the clock. Trailing 32-31, the Buckeyes tried to get closer for a field goal attempt, but the clock expired on the ensuing play, giving the Ducks the win.

The NCAA soon issued a new rules interpretation that seemingly closed the loophole and is in line with the latest rules committee proposal.

Another proposal would whistle kickoff returns dead any time the return team makes a “T” signal with its arms. The situation surfaced in the Citrus Bowl between Illinois and South Carolina, leading to a testy on-field exchange between coaches Bret Bielema and Shane Beamer.

“We don’t want to try to guess on where trends may be going,” said A.J. Edds, co-chair of the rules committee and vice president of football for the Big Ten. “We want to take real information and cite real instances to help inform perspectives before the committee collectively evaluates and potentially takes action. But not unlike other leagues, when something comes to light, whether it’s a play or a series of play or instances of plays, if there’s a way to improve the way that they’re officiated … that’s certainly at the forefront and the crux of all of our conversation.”

Other proposals included referees only using the terms “upheld” or “overturned” to describe replay rulings rather than “confirmed” or “stands” and the adoption of coach-to-player helmet communication for FCS teams after a successful first year in the FBS.

The rules committee had extensive discussions about targeting fouls and made a recommendation to the conference commissioners on College Football Officiating’s board of managers. But Shaw noted that the targeting rule as it’s defined — and whether to disqualify offenders or overturn — will not change.

“The targeting rule has served us very well,” Shaw said. “We had the lowest number of disqualifications, 0.14 targeting fouls enforced per game this year. I know fans think there’s one in every game, but there’s just not, so we’re going in the right direction. There was no back-away from targeting at all.”

The post Fake injuries could cost teams timeout, penalty appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

The Los Angeles Rams and offensive tackle Alaric Jackson have agreed to a three-year, $57 million contract, with $37 million guaranteed, a source told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler on Friday.

Jackson had been slated to enter free agency next month, but instead will stay in Los Angeles, where he’ll continue to protect Matthew Stafford. The star quarterback agreed to a restructured deal with the Rams earlier Friday.

Jackson, 26, started 14 games for the Rams last season. He was suspended for the first two games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy and was also inactive for the season finale after Los Angeles clinched the NFC West.

The left tackle was tied for the 26th-best pass-blocking grade among all offensive linemen (79.2) and ranked 20th among all offensive tackles in 2024, according to Pro Football Focus.

Jackson was playing on a one-year deal during the 2024 season after signing his restricted free agent tender for $4.89 million.

Jackson, who signed with the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2021, has played in 41 games, starting 35, in his first four NFL seasons.

ESPN’s Sarah Barshop contributed to this report.

The post Source: Rams, OT Jackson agree to 3-year deal appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

• 

  Dave McMenaminFeb 28, 2025, 11:44 PM ET

  Close

  • Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
  • Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.

LOS ANGELES — Lakers guard Austin Reaves exited Friday night’s 106-102 win against the LA Clippers in the first quarter with right calf soreness and did not return.

Reaves will undergo an MRI on the calf Saturday, sources told ESPN.

The fourth-year veteran subbed out with 2:58 remaining in the first quarter with the Lakers trailing 21-13 and went straight to the locker room. He finished with six points on 2-for-4 shooting.

“He was experiencing some tightness in the calf, some soreness,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after the game. “Was held out as a precaution.”

Reaves had been enjoying some of the best basketball of his career, averaging 23.5 points, 6.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds in 11 games in February entering Friday. L.A. went 9-2 in those games.

The Lakers already came into the night down one starter in Rui Hachimura, who was ruled out because of a left knee strain he suffered Thursday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Lakers coach JJ Redick said Hachimura had an MRI on Friday, but did not provide a timeline for the forward to return to game action.

“We’re optimistic this is not a serious injury,” Redick said. “It’s still not quite clear on when he will be available to play. But we’re optimistic.”

Dorian Finney-Smith started the Clippers game in Hachimura’s place. Gabe Vincent started the second half on Friday with Reaves out.

Luka Doncic (31 points, five assists, three steals) and LeBron James (28 points, 13 rebounds) led the way Friday night, with the Lakers’ bench outscoring the Clippers’ reserves 29-14.

The Lakers have won 15 of their past 18 games to surge to No. 4 in the Western Conference standings, just a half game behind the No. 3 Memphis Grizzlies and a game back of the No. 2 Denver Nuggets.

“We’re in a good place, but we’re not comfortable at all,” James said. “We haven’t played our best game we’re capable of playing, honestly. We have a couple injuries and things of that nature that we need to attend to as well. And that’s always very important to be able to keep it going in this league to have that type of luck, too. So, we’ll see what happens.”

The post Lakers’ Reaves exits, will undergo test on calf appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

• Alex Kirkland

• Rodrigo Faez

Mar 1, 2025, 05:14 AM ET

Real Madrid have been hit with a €30,000 ($31,130) fine and a partial stadium closure — suspended for two years — by UEFA over “discriminatory behaviour” by fans in their Champions League game with Manchester City at the Bernabéu last month.

Madrid beat City 3-1 in the Champions League knockout phase playoff second leg on Feb. 19, with forward Kylian Mbappé scoring a hat trick, as Madrid progressed to the round of 16 with an aggregate score of 6-3.

UEFA’s Appeals Body published the decision on Friday, citing a breach of article 14 of its Disciplinary Regulations, which sanctions “any person … who insults the human dignity of a person or group of persons on whatever grounds, including skin colour, race, religion, ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation.”

UEFA did not specify the nature of the fan behaviour which had led to the punishment.

As well as the €30,000 fine, Madrid were penalised with a partial closure of the Bernabéu of “at least 500 adjacent seats” suspended for a probationary period of two years.

The closure would be enforced “if a further offence of a similar nature is committed during the probationary period,” UEFA said.

Real Madrid will play Atlético Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie at the Bernabéu on Tuesday.

The post Madrid penalised for fan behaviour in City CL clash appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

SINGAPORE — Lydia Ko shot a 4-under 68 on Saturday to move from one stroke behind to one stroke in front after three rounds of the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

The 27-year-old South Korean-born New Zealander had a 54-hole total of 10-under 206 on the Tanjong course at Sentosa Golf Club.

Charley Hull, who birdied two of her first four holes, was a stroke behind in second after a 68. Jeeno Thitikul had the best round of the day, a 66, to move into third place, three strokes behind Ko.

A Lim Kim, who led after the first two rounds, moved in the wrong direction with a 73 and was tied for fourth place, four strokes off the lead. Defending champion Hannah Green had a 67 to move 16 places up the leaderboard and was five behind Ko.

Ko had three bogeys with seven birdies, including four on her back nine.

“I made a few mistakes, but I was able to bounce back with a few good birdies as well,” said Ko, the former world No 1. “It really doesn’t matter what the context is, as long as you can put a good score, and under the circumstances, I felt like I playing really solid. So hopefully these past few days will give me good rhythm for tomorrow.”

Ko is chasing her 23rd LPGA title and looking to finally break through in Singapore in 11 appearances. Her best result at the tournament was a runner-up finish in 2015.

Hull is seeking to win her third LPGA tournament.

“My mindset is going to be no different from literally the last three days,” Hull said. “Just go out there, play golf, hole some putts and have fun.”

The Singapore tournament is the second of three events on the LPGA’s first Asian swing of the year. The final event will be played next week at Hainan Island, China.

The post Ko takes lead at LPGA Singapore; Hull 1 back appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

Getty Images

Getty Images

Getty Images

Getty Images

The post McLaren impressive and Hamilton positive – F1 testing analysis appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has acknowledged that it’s been really hard for ace wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant to be watching the ongoing Champions Trophy matches from the sidelines but “that’s the nature of sport at this level”. Pant has not been a part of the playing XI in the last two group games, with India handing over the wicket-keeping duties to KL Rahul, who has performed remarkably well behind the stumps and provided solidity to the middle order. “It’s been very hard on Rishabh not playing. But that’s the nature of sport at this level, Doeschate told reporters on Friday, when asked if having two quality keepers has been a good dilemma.

“KL has been good. He didn’t get many chances… we’ve got to keep Rishabh up and running. We never know when we’re going to need him. But certainly to have two wicket-keepers of that calibre is a nice thing to have.” Doeschate admitted that Sunday’s match against New Zealand could be a contest of spin between the two sides.

“…they (New Zealand) have four spinners as well, so it could be a contest of spin. Coming into the competition, we weren’t expecting such an over-reliance on spin.

“But the guys have bowled nicely and the pitch has helped a little bit, so I’m sure it’s going to be the same for the next game here tomorrow.” The South Africa-born former Dutch cricketer hinted that the team might ring in some changes in the bowling attack for its last group match against New Zealand.

At the same time, Doeschate said the side would not compromise on the balance as it also wants to top the group with an all-win preliminary campaign.

New Zealand have also already qualified for the semifinals after two wins and Sunday’s match will decide the Group A topper.

“We’ve had two pretty tough training sessions, so that’s been the preparation. In terms of the bench strength, I think the priority is making sure that we have our best guys available and fully fit for the second game (semifinal on March 4),” Doeschate said.

“But we also don’t want to rest them for another two days. So to get that balance right, we might just try to share the bowling out a little bit. But we obviously want to win against New Zealand as well.

“It’s important that we keep that momentum going. And obviously to top the group as well. So the balance of those two things I just mentioned for the selection to be thought about,” he added.

Asked about captain Rohit Sharma’s fitness after an injury scare in the game against Pakistan, he said, “He’s all right. You can see he’s batting a little bit further than earlier. It’s an injury he’s had before, so he knows how to manage it really well.” On whether scoring has been difficult on the pitch here, he said, “I won’t say difficult. I think we’ve become used to a standard where you score 320 without thinking too much about it. So getting to 320 has been difficult.

“The pitch has played slightly differently, in my opinion, in those two games. But there are probably like 280-290 pitches if you batter really well. So in the bigger picture, yeah, it’s not like playing in Pakistan, where you expect to get 320-330.

“But you’ve got to adapt yourself and get a score that’s good on these wickets. And we think it’s right about 280-290, judging on the first two pitches.” The India assistant coach also said that he is happy with the amount of rest his players have got since their last game against Pakistan on February 23.

“They’ve had a lot of rest now. But it’s how you back the two games up. So if all the seamers are going to bowl 10 overs, and then say we bowl second in the first game, we’re bowling 36 hours later, we’re bowling first, that’s quite a workload.

“So that’s what I was alluding to. One of the options is to make sure the guys don’t bowl their full quota of overs, if that opportunity allows itself. But we’re ready to manage that in the field and try and keep the guys as fresh as possible for the first and the final,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The post “We Never Know When…”: India Assistant Coach On Preferring KL Rahul Over Rishabh Pant appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.

• 

  Tim BontempsMar 1, 2025, 12:34 AM ET

  Close

  Tim Bontemps is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com who covers the league and what’s impacting it on and off the court, including trade deadline intel, expansion and his MVP Straw Polls. You can find Tim alongside Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective podcast.

BOSTON — Less than five minutes had passed in Friday night’s final regular-season showdown between the top two teams in the Eastern Conference, the Cavaliers and the Celtics, and the game already felt over.

Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson already had burned his second timeout, the Celtics already had made seven 3-pointers and Boston led 25-3, appearing well on its way to a massive statement win.

“We got punched in the mouth,” Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell said later. “What are we going to do about it? How are we going to respond?”

As it turned out, the Cavaliers responded rather splendidly. And it was thanks in large part to Mitchell, the six-time All-Star who finished with 41 points and five assists in 35 minutes in what eventually became a 123-116 Cavaliers victory at a sold-out and stunned TD Garden.

“I think they trust each other,” Atkinson said. “They trust the message and they trust each other.”

Entering Friday, the Cavaliers hadn’t lost since falling to these same Celtics on Feb. 4 in Cleveland, a game that came less than 48 hours before the trade deadline. In response to Boston largely controlling that contest en route to a 112-105 victory, the Cavaliers went out and acquired De’Andre Hunter from the Atlanta Hawks for Caris LeVert and Georges Niang.

The move was designed to give Cleveland another big wing to throw at the likes of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But by the time Hunter entered Friday’s game, at the 7:11 mark of the first quarter, it looked like his minutes might only come in mop-up duty.

That quickly changed as the first quarter played out. Cleveland cut its deficit to 12 by the end of the quarter. And from there, it kept plugging away at Boston’s lead thanks to multiple sustained runs led by Mitchell and a hot shooting night across the board. The Cavaliers finished 17-for-39 from 3-point range, with eight players hitting at least one from deep.

“It means we got grit,” said Evan Mobley, who struggled for much of the game but finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds overall, including 11 and 8, respectively, in the fourth quarter. “No matter how down we get, we’re going to keep fighting, we’re going to keep going all the way to the end of the game, and tonight we kept fighting and they let us back in the game a few times.”

The win erased any sliver of hope Boston (42-18) had of chasing down Cleveland (49-10) for the top seed in the East. The Cavaliers moved eight games up in the loss column with 23 to play and evened the season series at 2-2.

It also raised the specter of the Celtics’ repeated issue of letting teams back into games.

And while Atkinson repeatedly pointed out that Boston was missing both Kristaps Porzingis (illness) and Jrue Holiday (finger), while Cleveland was fully healthy, the depth of the Cavaliers undoubtedly played a factor.

Cleveland used 10 players, with each seeing at least 12 minutes of action. Boston essentially played only seven, was outscored 33-6 in bench points (Payton Pritchard and Luke Kornet were minus-34 and minus-26, respectively) and was extraordinarily reliant on Tatum (46 points on 19-for-37 shooting, 16 rebounds, 9 assists) and Brown (37 points on 13-for-24 shooting).

“That was one of the most incredible shotmaking performances I’ve seen,” Atkinson said of Tatum’s performance.

Added Tatum: “Just being aggressive in a good rhythm. I think obviously the start of the game on defense ignited our offense and how we were playing. We did a really good job of what we were trying to do, and the actions and the spacing and we were trying to attack. And guys on both ends tonight were making shots. I think in the second half, they made a run in that third quarter, getting some offensive rebounds. They took more shots than we did, so that just kind of gave them some life. And in the moments that we needed to get a stop, we didn’t, and that was tough.”

As a result, Cleveland came away with a victory that instilled further confidence in a young, ascendant team a week after it throttled another potential playoff foe, the New York Knicks, at home.

And as both teams walked out of the Garden on Friday night, they already were thinking about what feels like a fated showdown in the Eastern Conference semifinals come late May.

“For sure,” Darius Garland said when asked if it was meaningful that the Cavaliers had evened the season series, and how they did so, Friday night.

“It is 0-0. Hopefully, we’ll be back here in the summertime, and we’ll see it again for seven [more].”

The post ‘Punched in mouth’ early, Cavs rally to drop Celts appeared first on The Sports Affiliate.