Shedeur Sanders will finally get the reps he deserves. According to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, the former Colorado quarterback will start the first preseason game vs the Carolina Panthers.
This news comes less than a day after Tyler Huntley was signed by the Browns, which left many scratching their heads.
If you Included the injured Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns now have six Quarterbacks on the entire roster. Watson is still recovering from a second Achilles tear and is currently on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
Joe Flacco is not expected to play against the Panthers and believed frontrunner to win the starting job. Huntley could see some snaps as he is familiar with Stefanski’s system from his 2024 stint with the Browns. The health of Kenny Pickett and Dillon Gabriel seems to be somewhat more serious than originally believed.
According to Cameron Wolfe of the NFL Network, Sanders has a very good chance to play most, if not all, of the preseason game on Friday. Pickett and Gabriel are likely to be “out” with both recovering from hamstring injuries that were reported last week.
Both quarterbacks returned to practice after their injuries. However, the concern is big enough to merit sitting both of them for the joint practice on Thursday and the preseason game on Friday.
This is interesting news for all parties involved. Cleveland needs to begin preparing one of these Quarterbacks to start Week 1 of the regular season.
In the last week, Gabriel saw an increase in first team reps and the stat tracking of those reps were objectively not good. Gabriel suffered a hamstring injury late last week. Pickett was sidelined for much of that week due to a similar hamstring injury that is keeping him out of the first preseason game.
Where Shedeur finally ends up on the 53-man roster heading into the regular season is still far from decided. However, his placement within the Browns QB competition was always going to be highly contested until Shedeur could face a team wearing a different jersey. Practice involves many factors, but practice is still ‘simulated football’.
Once the team and fans see Shedeur play another team with players on both sides expected to contribute to the regular season, that test should reveal much more about where Shedeur Sanders is in this QB competition.
The Cleveland Browns will face the Carolina Panthers on Friday night at 7 p.m. ET on NFL Network. This could be the highest-rated preseason game in a very long time.
Fresh off of being named International League Pitcher of the Month for his incredible July, Mets top pitching prospect Brandon Sproat kept things going by starting his August with another terrific performance.
Facing the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate for the Chicago White Sox, Sproat began his outing by filling up the strike zone and pitching a quick 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. He went back out for the second inning and kept pumping strikes while getting around a two-out double.
Sproat needed just nine pitches (all strikes) to get through the third inning. In fact, in the first three innings he threw just five balls.
The right-hander’s command got away from him a little bit as he walked his first batter of the game on four pitches leading off the fourth. He got to three-ball counts on his next two hitters, but retired them both on groundouts before ending the frame with another ball on the ground.
In the bottom half of the inning, Syracuse’s offense erupted for six runs while batting around. The Mets began the inning with eight straight hitters reaching base, including seven consecutive hits against reliever Chase Plymell.
Having spent so much time in the dugout during the big inning, Sproat looked a little off in the fifth and was dinged for three runs after a walk, wild pitch, double and two-run homer.
The 24-year-old righted the ship the following inning and only needed 11 pitches in a clean sixth that ended his night.
Overall, Sproat went six innings and allowed three earned runs on three hits and two walks while striking out four on 84 pitches (53 strikes).
After clearing 100 innings (he now sits at 101 IP), Sproat’s season ERA rose a tick from 4.07 to 4.10, but it was still another impressive start for the Mets’ No. 5 prospect, per SNY’s Joe DeMayo, as he continues to try and earn a big-league promotion this season from his club.
Beasley, 28, was evicted from his high-rise apartment in Detroit on Wednesday, the Detroit News’ Robert Snell reports. An eviction order was filed in the 36th District Court two months after the guard was sued for failing to pay rent on the downtown Detroit residence.
The NBA guard has been sued twice for not paying a total of $21,500 in rent for his apartment at The Stott, the high-rise building owned by Bedrock Detroit, which is part of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s business portfolio.
Beasley did not respond to the second of the lawsuits accusing him of failing to pay $7,355, resulting in a default judgment being filed against him before 36th District Judge Andrew Bradley-Baskin.
The nine-year veteran is currently a free agent and was reportedly set to agree on a three-year, $42 million contract with the Pistons before news of the federal gambling investigation was reported. Beasley’s attorney, Steve Haney, pointed out to reporters that his client has not been charged with any crime.
Following reports of the gambling probe, Beasley was also sued by Hazan Sports Management Group for breach of contract, alleging he owes the agency $650,000 that was unpaid when he terminated his contract.
Despite the gambling investigation and lawsuits, Beasley insists he will play in the NBA next season, whether with the Pistons or other teams. During the past month, he has posted videos on social media of him training in Miami (in addition to going to nightclubs and traveling in Europe).
On Wednesday, he posted a story to Snapchat saying, “We gotta be prepared to come back to the Pistons, or, like I said, there’s some other teams interested as well.”
Malik Beasley on Snapchat
“People were saying some crazy things in the media, people judging me. I’ll tell you one thing I have a chip on my shoulder I’m ready to destroy anyone in front of me, I’m ready to prove again I belong in this league.” pic.twitter.com/qKBDFKKJW7
The Pistons appear to have moved on, signing guard Caris LeVert in free agency and working out a sign-and-trade deal for Duncan Robinson, who presumably fills Beasley’s role as a long-range shooter off the bench.
Last season, Beasley averaged 16.3 points and shot 42% on 366 3-point attempts. He was Detroit’s third-leading scorer and appeared in all 82 games as the Pistons returned to the playoffs after finishing with the NBA’s worst record during the previous season. That performance earned him a second-place finish in NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting.
Beasley, 28, was evicted from his high-rise apartment in Detroit on Wednesday, the Detroit News’ Robert Snell reports. An eviction order was filed in the 36th District Court two months after the guard was sued for failing to pay rent on the downtown Detroit residence.
The NBA guard has been sued twice for not paying a total of $21,500 in rent for his apartment at The Stott, the high-rise building owned by Bedrock Detroit, which is part of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert’s business portfolio.
Beasley did not respond to the second of the lawsuits accusing him of failing to pay $7,355, resulting in a default judgment being filed against him before 36th District Judge Andrew Bradley-Baskin.
The nine-year veteran is currently a free agent and was reportedly set to agree on a three-year, $42 million contract with the Pistons before news of the federal gambling investigation was reported. Beasley’s attorney, Steve Haney, pointed out to reporters that his client has not been charged with any crime.
Following reports of the gambling probe, Beasley was also sued by Hazan Sports Management Group for breach of contract, alleging he owes the agency $650,000 that was unpaid when he terminated his contract.
Despite the gambling investigation and lawsuits, Beasley insists he will play in the NBA next season, whether with the Pistons or other teams. During the past month, he has posted videos on social media of him training in Miami (in addition to going to nightclubs and traveling in Europe).
On Wednesday, he posted a story to Snapchat saying, “We gotta be prepared to come back to the Pistons, or, like I said, there’s some other teams interested as well.”
Malik Beasley on Snapchat
“People were saying some crazy things in the media, people judging me. I’ll tell you one thing I have a chip on my shoulder I’m ready to destroy anyone in front of me, I’m ready to prove again I belong in this league.” pic.twitter.com/qKBDFKKJW7
The Pistons appear to have moved on, signing guard Caris LeVert in free agency and working out a sign-and-trade deal for Duncan Robinson, who presumably fills Beasley’s role as a long-range shooter off the bench.
Last season, Beasley averaged 16.3 points and shot 42% on 366 3-point attempts. He was Detroit’s third-leading scorer and appeared in all 82 games as the Pistons returned to the playoffs after finishing with the NBA’s worst record during the previous season. That performance earned him a second-place finish in NBA Sixth Man of the Year voting.
Plenty of observers from all over the wide world of sports have weighed in with opinions on the ongoing contractual dispute between the Dallas Cowboys and star pass rusher Micah Parsons. Only one of them, though, is the starting point guard for the Atlanta Hawks:
This why you pay the man early, when someone will take less early to stay in a place he wanted to be forever, you do it… the price only goes up now! Get what you deserve bro!
It’s possible, of course, that Trae Young’s post contained no subtext — that it was just a message of solidarity with his fellow star athlete.
It’s just that … well, we couldn’t help but notice Young’s post came about three and a half weeks after he became eligible for an extension of his own contract, on July 6:
That re-up could top out at four years and $229 million — the same deal De’Aaron Fox just got in San Antonio. And … well, we couldn’t help but notice that, a month after he became eligible, Young still doesn’t have that new extension.
“You know, Trae has done a lot to show that he’s invested in the Hawks,” Spears said. “Nickeil Alexander-Walker, [Luke] Kennard — he convinced them to sign with the Hawks … he came to Summer League, and he got to meet with Bryson Graham, the new president, [and] some of the other new front-office guys. There’s a new front office in Atlanta that’s trying to make decisions, but what I’m hearing at this point — and you can tell by Trae’s tweet, and I saw him during the Finals — he’s disappointed that it hasn’t come, it hasn’t been offered. So don’t be surprised at this point [if] he plays this out and sees what happens next summer. But to me, Trae has nothing to prove. He’s a star.”
Young is a star — an explosive scorer and visionary playmaker, a four-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA selection. He led the NBA in assists last season and has averaged more than 20 points and 10 dimes per game in each of the last three seasons. Only Russell Westbrook, Oscar Robertson, James Harden and Isiah Thomas have more 20-and-10 seasons than Young, who led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021.
At issue, though, is whether the Hawks view Young — inarguably one of the NBA’s preeminent offensive engines and perennially graded as one of its least effective defenders — as a star worth paying a full 30% of the salary cap through the end of the decade, a period that will cover Young’s late 20s and early 30s. Especially considering, since that surprise run to the NBA’s final four, the Young-led Hawks have gone from vying for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy to persistently slugging it out in the sullen depths of the Eastern Conference.
The Hawks have changed coaches, co-stars and lead executives around Young, and the results have largely remained underwhelming: a 160-168 record over the last four seasons, eighth best in the East in that span, with four straight trips to the play-in tournament and zero trips past the first round of the playoffs. Fairly or not, Young has served as the face of that middling performance — as the talismanic leader of a team that consistently ranks among or just outside the NBA’s 10 best offenses, but just as consistently ranks among its five-to-10 worst defenses.
Trae Young has a number of reasons for wanting an extension from the Hawks. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Mike Ehrmann via Getty Images
While the results remained underwhelming — an under-.500 finish, another trip to the play-in, another exit before the postseason proper — the underlying process seemed more sound. The Hawks headed into the summer with an exciting core of big, young, talented athletes around Young — Johnson, Daniels, 2024 No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher, Onyeka Okongwu — and proceeded to ace both the draft and free agency, adding Kristaps Porziņġis, Alexander-Walker, Kennard, touted Georgia prospect Asa Newell and an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from either the Pelicans or Bucks.
Suddenly, the Hawks have plenty of size, shooting and defensive acumen surrounding Young — the makings of an ideal build around a diminutive point guard who struggles to get stops, but who ranks among the best of the best when it comes to manipulating a defense and creating great looks for others. (As NBA.com’s John Schuhmann recently noted, the Hawks led the NBA in shot quality last season, but finished just 17th in team effective field-goal percentage, which accounts for 3-pointers being worth more than 2-pointers.) In an East where ruptured Achilles tendons have led to the Celtics, Bucks and Pacers all dramatically reconfiguring their rosters — and likely opened up at least one or two top-six spots in the process — the Hawks have an opportunity to make a significant leap up the standings and possibly even contend for home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
All that’s missing, it would seem, is a renewed commitment to keep Young entrenched at the controls of the squad. That’s a pledge, however, the Hawks don’t have to make right now: Young still has two more seasons remaining on the five-year, $215 million maximum-salaried extension he signed in the summer of 2021. The Hawks can finalize an extension with him at any point between now and June 30, 2026; he’s in line to make $46 million this season and holds a $49 million player option for 2026-27.
Given that runway — and given also-pending extension decisions on Daniels and the just-acquired Porziņġis — new Atlanta general manager Onsi Saleh might prefer to hold off, wait to see how his revamped roster performs with Young at the controls and re-engage later. Given Young’s ability to opt out and hit the unrestricted free agent market next summer, though, that could be a dicey proposition; the possibility, however slim, that he could just walk seems a grim one to consider.
You wonder if a compromise deal — either a four-year pact at less than the max, or a shorter-term, higher-dollar agreement that would allow him to re-enter the market once he’s reached 10 years of service time, a la Luka Dončić — might be in the offing. You also wonder, though, if Young, having just watched the less decorated and productive Fox get the full boat, doesn’t see much value in concession.
If that’s the case, and if Young enters the season without a new deal, it’ll be interesting to see whether whatever disappointment he’s feeling bleeds over — and whether that hovering uncertainty results in more widespread disappointment for a Hawks team that had seemed to have plenty of reasons to be excited for the season ahead.
Plenty of observers from all over the wide world of sports have weighed in with opinions on the ongoing contractual dispute between the Dallas Cowboys and star pass rusher Micah Parsons. Only one of them, though, is the starting point guard for the Atlanta Hawks:
This why you pay the man early, when someone will take less early to stay in a place he wanted to be forever, you do it… the price only goes up now! Get what you deserve bro!
It’s possible, of course, that Trae Young’s post contained no subtext — that it was just a message of solidarity with his fellow star athlete.
It’s just that … well, we couldn’t help but notice Young’s post came about three and a half weeks after he became eligible for an extension of his own contract, on July 6:
That re-up could top out at four years and $229 million — the same deal De’Aaron Fox just got in San Antonio. And … well, we couldn’t help but notice that, a month after he became eligible, Young still doesn’t have that new extension.
“You know, Trae has done a lot to show that he’s invested in the Hawks,” Spears said. “Nickeil Alexander-Walker, [Luke] Kennard — he convinced them to sign with the Hawks … he came to Summer League, and he got to meet with Bryson Graham, the new president, [and] some of the other new front-office guys. There’s a new front office in Atlanta that’s trying to make decisions, but what I’m hearing at this point — and you can tell by Trae’s tweet, and I saw him during the Finals — he’s disappointed that it hasn’t come, it hasn’t been offered. So don’t be surprised at this point [if] he plays this out and sees what happens next summer. But to me, Trae has nothing to prove. He’s a star.”
Young is a star — an explosive scorer and visionary playmaker, a four-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA selection. He led the NBA in assists last season and has averaged more than 20 points and 10 dimes per game in each of the last three seasons. Only Russell Westbrook, Oscar Robertson, James Harden and Isiah Thomas have more 20-and-10 seasons than Young, who led the Hawks to the Eastern Conference finals in 2021.
At issue, though, is whether the Hawks view Young — inarguably one of the NBA’s preeminent offensive engines and perennially graded as one of its least effective defenders — as a star worth paying a full 30% of the salary cap through the end of the decade, a period that will cover Young’s late 20s and early 30s. Especially considering, since that surprise run to the NBA’s final four, the Young-led Hawks have gone from vying for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy to persistently slugging it out in the sullen depths of the Eastern Conference.
The Hawks have changed coaches, co-stars and lead executives around Young, and the results have largely remained underwhelming: a 160-168 record over the last four seasons, eighth best in the East in that span, with four straight trips to the play-in tournament and zero trips past the first round of the playoffs. Fairly or not, Young has served as the face of that middling performance — as the talismanic leader of a team that consistently ranks among or just outside the NBA’s 10 best offenses, but just as consistently ranks among its five-to-10 worst defenses.
Trae Young has a number of reasons for wanting an extension from the Hawks. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Mike Ehrmann via Getty Images
While the results remained underwhelming — an under-.500 finish, another trip to the play-in, another exit before the postseason proper — the underlying process seemed more sound. The Hawks headed into the summer with an exciting core of big, young, talented athletes around Young — Johnson, Daniels, 2024 No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher, Onyeka Okongwu — and proceeded to ace both the draft and free agency, adding Kristaps Porziņġis, Alexander-Walker, Kennard, touted Georgia prospect Asa Newell and an unprotected 2026 first-round pick from either the Pelicans or Bucks.
Suddenly, the Hawks have plenty of size, shooting and defensive acumen surrounding Young — the makings of an ideal build around a diminutive point guard who struggles to get stops, but who ranks among the best of the best when it comes to manipulating a defense and creating great looks for others. (As NBA.com’s John Schuhmann recently noted, the Hawks led the NBA in shot quality last season, but finished just 17th in team effective field-goal percentage, which accounts for 3-pointers being worth more than 2-pointers.) In an East where ruptured Achilles tendons have led to the Celtics, Bucks and Pacers all dramatically reconfiguring their rosters — and likely opened up at least one or two top-six spots in the process — the Hawks have an opportunity to make a significant leap up the standings and possibly even contend for home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
All that’s missing, it would seem, is a renewed commitment to keep Young entrenched at the controls of the squad. That’s a pledge, however, the Hawks don’t have to make right now: Young still has two more seasons remaining on the five-year, $215 million maximum-salaried extension he signed in the summer of 2021. The Hawks can finalize an extension with him at any point between now and June 30, 2026; he’s in line to make $46 million this season and holds a $49 million player option for 2026-27.
Given that runway — and given also-pending extension decisions on Daniels and the just-acquired Porziņġis — new Atlanta general manager Onsi Saleh might prefer to hold off, wait to see how his revamped roster performs with Young at the controls and re-engage later. Given Young’s ability to opt out and hit the unrestricted free agent market next summer, though, that could be a dicey proposition; the possibility, however slim, that he could just walk seems a grim one to consider.
You wonder if a compromise deal — either a four-year pact at less than the max, or a shorter-term, higher-dollar agreement that would allow him to re-enter the market once he’s reached 10 years of service time, a la Luka Dončić — might be in the offing. You also wonder, though, if Young, having just watched the less decorated and productive Fox get the full boat, doesn’t see much value in concession.
If that’s the case, and if Young enters the season without a new deal, it’ll be interesting to see whether whatever disappointment he’s feeling bleeds over — and whether that hovering uncertainty results in more widespread disappointment for a Hawks team that had seemed to have plenty of reasons to be excited for the season ahead.
In November, Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels confirmed that HBO Max (which was known as “Max” for a few years but is now HBO Max again) would soon start cracking down on password sharing. The news, while disappointing, was far from shocking, seeing as rival platforms like Netflix and Disney+ had already rolled out similar policies.
Wiedenfels said HBO Max would begin shutting down password sharing over time, starting with “very soft messaging” over “the next few months,” then clamping down harder moving into 2025 and through 2026. You might have noticed this, if yours is among the accounts HBO Max has targeted with a warning.
But if you’re used to being able to easily dismiss messages about not sharing passwords, things are about to change.
HBO Max’s anti-password sharing policy
HBO Max’s “gentle, early messaging” on password sharing has been in effect since December, with the company targeting password-sharing users it believes are “in the higher tier of usage.” HBO Max hasn’t been guessing who that is, either; rather, the company has been collecting data on its users to figure out which ones are actually sharing their passwords, versus the ones using their accounts while traveling. (Personally, nothing makes me feel more valued as a customer more than being spied on, especially when the end result is potentially charging me more money.)
In practice, that means if HBO Max detected your account was being used frequently, especially across multiple devices outside your “household,” you were more likely to experience this “gentle messaging,” as opposed to someone who watched their HBO Max account sparingly at home.
We now appear to be nearing the end of the “gentle messaging phase.” On the company’s earnings call this week, JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games for Warner Bros. Discovery, announced that this messaging is about to get “aggressive.” Perette says the company now has a good idea which users are legitimate account holders, and which are not, and that’s giving the company the confidence to push its plans further. Perette didn’t go into specifics about the messaging itself, but reading between the lines, it’s likely some users can soon expect to be blocked from accessing HBO Max accounts that they aren’t directly paying for.
Perette is sticking to that original timeline, too: He expects by Q4, the crackdown on password sharing will be continuing “in a much more aggressive fashion,” and will likely extend into 2026. So if you’re still sharing a password with someone outside your household, savor it while you can.
How you might be able to get around HBO Max’s password sharing crackdown
Based on the info we have now, HBO Max isn’t yet planning to start locking users out of an account if they try logging from outside the household. However, it’s good to be prepared.
While HBO Max has yet to detail how exactly it plans to enforce its rules, we can expect the strategy to mirror the one Netflix employs. Netflix considers the TV or streaming device you use to log into your account as your “household.” Any device connecting to your account within the household (i.e. via your home wifi) will work fine. It’s when you try to access the account on a device outside of your household where things get tricky.
While Netflix is a stickler for logging in on smart TVs, it’s more lenient for mobile devices like phones, tablets, and computers: As long as you use your mobile device to access Netflix while its connected to the account holder’s household wifi, it should work when you’re outside the household for at least the next 30 days.
Though there are no guarantees, I imagine HBO Max will employ a similar process, so if you’re sharing passwords with friends or family across town who you visit often, you might not have much to worry about. If you’re using the password of someone who lives a few states away, however, it might be time to get your own account.
Allen Iverson and Dwyane Wade are going to walk in with him — they were announced as his presenters for the Hall of Fame.
Filled with gratitude. My journey was different, but finding the balance through all the ups and downs made this moment possible. And if you stay true to who you are then the journey is always worth it. Thank you @Hoophall for recognizing 32 years. #STAYME7Opic.twitter.com/Xkrom37rD8
Each year, those about to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame are asked to pick previously inducted members to be their presenters. This year, for the ceremony on Sept. 6 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Anthony selected Iverson, one of his teammates from Denver, as well as one of his best friends in the league in Wade.
NBA Top 75 All-Time Player, Class of 2025 Naismith Hall of Famer, 3-Time Olympic Gold Medalist, and now NBC Sports Analyst.
