0:09
Hincapie second player to be sent off for covering mouth
Ecuador defender Piero Hincapie becomes the second player at this tournament to be shown a red card for covering his mouth while speaking to an opponent in stoppage time of their 2-0 defeat against Mexico.
0:30
Will Sooryavanshi play for India vs England in summer T20 series?
Teenage cricket sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continues to leave fans around the world astounded by his incredible feats, and after India left him out of their series against Ireland and promptly lost, the focus now is on whether he will get his shot against England.
0:55
‘They need to be running out of money soon' – Wolff questions Ferrari upgrades
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff doubts Ferrari will be able to maintain their current scale of car development through the season against the constraints of Formula 1's budget cap, reckoning they should be "running out of money soon".
1:18
Mexico end World Cup knockout drought with last-32 win over Ecuador in Azteca cauldron
They were held up by an electric storm but, after it had cleared, Mexico simply kept the lightning bolts coming. El Tri have broken a hex that had gnawed at the nation’s football psyche for years, winning a World Cup knockout game for the first time since 1986, and the head turner will be the manner in which it happened. Javier Aguirre’s players cut Ecuador apart in a stunning first-half performance that rocked a pulsating Estadio Azteca to its foundations and laid a marker for the round of 16. Thudding finishes from Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez sent them clear and they could manage their way through the remainder, resting legs for their next assignment here on Sunday.
Their likely opponents? England, even if one must not discount the Democratic Republic of the Congo making a statement about that. Whoever travels here next must deal with an atmosphere that, for all this tournament’s self-imposed sterility, sets the hairs on end. They must also find a way to cope with the 17-year-old wunderkind Gilberto Mora, whose performance on a night of such pressure defied belief.
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2:42
New York Times reiterates its view that Dianna Russini's handling of traffic stop was "unacceptable conduct"
The release of the bodycam footage from the Dianna Russini traffic stop put the New York Times in an awkward position. It has now attempted, clumsily, to extricate itself from it.
Although the original article regarding the former Times employee's activities, which uses her tale of FaceTiming an NFL coach to avoid a ticket as its hook, has not been revised as of this posting, the Times has posted another article regarding the bodycam footage.
The new article, written by the same reporters whose names appear on the original article, recounts the contents of the bodycam footage. It also explains that Danielle Rhoades Ha, a spokeswoman for the Times Company, referred New York Times reporters to the prior statement in which Russini's publicly-shared version of the incident (albeit demonstrably untrue) was "unacceptable conduct."
The new article from the Times contains this claim: "It was not certain whether the January traffic stop was the same incident that Ms. Russini described in detail on the podcast."
Russini has publicly said that the traffic stop occurred after the Bills had fired coach Sean McDermott. The bodycam footage, taken on January 19 — the morning McDermott was fired — confirms that fact. Russini's version of the events tracks with the contents of the bodycam footage, with one clear exception: There was no FaceTime call.
The Times is now opening the door to the possibility that Russini was stopped twice that morning. And that, in both stops, the officer said he wasn't a fan of the Giants or the Jets. And that, in one stop, Russini simply showed the officer her texts to the coach of his favorite teams. And that, in the other stop, she FaceTimed the coach of the officer's favorite team.
It's OK to admit a mistake. In this case, the Times assumed that Russini's story was true, without doing the legwork. And, inexplicably, the Times still hasn't corrected its prior story — despite the indisputable standards in its Ethical Journalism rulebook: "It is our policy to correct our errors, large and small, as soon as we become aware of them.”
The Times has avoided that obligation by taking the position that it's not "certain" that there was an error.
And that's certainly laughable.
With all due respect.
5:22
NBA shakes up 2026 NBA Cup Final with move to Hinkle Fieldhouse and Friday slot
The NBA is making changes to the schedule and location for the NBA Cup Final.
The NBA revealed today that the final will move to the 9,100-seat Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The NBA Cup Final has been played in Las Vegas since the first edition in 2023. The game will also be moved from Tuesday night to Friday. The final has been on Tuesday the last two years, though it was on a Saturday night for its inaugural edition.
The game will remain exclusive to Prime Video.
“Hinkle Fieldhouse offers a special setting to capture the excitement and drama of the Emirates NBA Cup Championship,” said NBA Head of Global Events Kelly Flatow in a statement. “Playing the championship in an iconic basketball environment like this will further establish it as a signature moment on the NBA calendar.”
The NBA Cup is unique compared to every other major American professional club tournament other than the Super Bowl because it is played at a neutral site. That was an intentional decision, but it certainly decreased the passion of the crowd. For better or worse, part of what makes the NBA playoffs so special are home crowds. The NBA has faced criticism, especially from Charles Barkley, over the shortcomings in the meaning of the NBA Cup.
The move to Hinkle won’t completely change that, but there is reason to believe that a 10,000-seat arena in Indianapolis will provide a different crowd compared to a 20,000-seat arena in Vegas. The NBA seems to be betting the more “homey” conditions in Indianapolis will bring more passionate fans instead of corporate ones.
Increasing viewership by changing the atmosphere for the NBA Cup might be the goal. The 2025 NBA Cup Final between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks averaged 3.07 million viewers on a Tuesday night, up 3% from Bucks-Thunder in 2024 but down 33% from Pacers-Lakers in 2023. Reflecting Barkley’s criticism, that still pales in comparison to the NBA playoffs, which in 2026 averaged 6.35 million viewers across the entire postseason.
On the other hand, Friday night is known as one of the worst for viewership. Even in the out-of-home measurement era, people are most likely to be out doing other things on a Friday night compared to virtually any other time.
Interestingly, one thing the announcement did not do is say where the semifinals of the NBA Cup will be played. In the first three years, both the semifinals and finals were played in Las Vegas. That could result in some interesting location decisions also intended to improve the atmosphere. Even moving the semifinals to home sites could provide a beneficial effect to the NBA Cup.
The 2026 NBA Cup Final will be played on Friday, December 11.
The post NBA shakes up 2026 NBA Cup Final with move to Hinkle Fieldhouse and Friday slot appeared first on Awful Announcing.
8:38
Yankees–Red Sox deliver Sunday Night Baseball’s biggest audience in 15 years
Viewership is in for the first New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game on Sunday Night Baseball this season, and it is marking a 15-year high for the Sunday-night series.
From the bottom of the fourth inning, when the game was joined in progress by NBC, the game averaged 4.0 million viewers on NBC and Peacock. That is the most-watched regular season baseball game since Yankees-White Sox at MLB’s Field of Dreams game in 2021 (5.87 million) and the most-watched Sunday Night Baseball game since a Yankees-Red Sox extra-inning game in August 2011 on ESPN (4.72 million). Of course, this is Sunday Night Baseball‘s first season airing on a broadcast network in NBC after airing on ESPN since its inception in 1990.
Note that viewership comparisons to previous years are complicated by Nielsen’s shift to its Big Data + Panel methodology in September 2025, which has generally boosted sports viewership compared to prior years. The final viewership number also includes streaming viewership on Peacock measured by Adobe Analytics.
The first 3.5 innings of the game were exclusive to Peacock and NBCSN due to a rain delay in the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship. Viewership for the PGA Tour slightly edged out Sunday Night Baseball, with a 4.2 million average on NBC and Peacock. Viewership for the Travelers peaked at 5.6 million from 8:15 to 8:30, right before Sunday Night Baseball.
Yankees-Red Sox surpassed Diamondbacks-Dodgers on NBC and Peacock from Opening Day (3.16 million) to become the largest regular-season baseball audience of the season. NBC accounts for five of the 10 most-watched MLB games so far this season, and three of the top five.
Viewership for Yankees-Red Sox is also strong relative to the NBA. Only four Sunday Night Basketball windows on NBC averaged more viewers this season (Rockets-Thunder, Celtics-Lakers, Warriors-Lakers and Lakers-Knicks).
The post Yankees–Red Sox deliver Sunday Night Baseball’s biggest audience in 15 years appeared first on Awful Announcing.
11:00
Tennis has moved on but Serena devotion at sporting vigil is still at a high | Jonathan Liew
Williams’s comeback at Wimbledon elicits disbelief and reverence among fans during her defeat by Maya Joint
The shapes and the silhouettes are the same. The movements are effortlessly familiar. The way she gathers the ball before she serves: not so much bouncing it as toying with it, batting it around her ankles, as if considering what an appropriate punishment might be. All this is as it ever was, like the words of a song you know by heart. So why does it still feel so strange?
It is a little before half past seven on a warm Wimbledon night when Serena Williams comes back from the dead. And no, this is not literally true (although she has cheated death more than once), but not a million miles away from what it feels like. Some spectators have brought old photos of her, and are holding them up as she walks on to court, like mourners at a vigil. As if they’ve managed to summon her through the force of their collective devotion.
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12:14
Belgium’s leaders backed to disprove ‘has beens’ tag in Senegal challenge
Belgium rode a 5‑1 wave past New Zealand to clinch the Group G lead, setting up a last‑32 clash with Senegal. The win gave them a clean path forward, but coach Rudi Garcia was still simmering. He’d just been tagged “has‑beens” after a French paper likened Kevin De Bruyne to a washed‑up actor following a flat showing against Iran.
Garcia didn’t let the jab slide. He leaned into the mic, made sure his voice cut through, and told the room he wasn’t buying the label. The coach wants the team to shed the doubt and prove they’re still among the world’s best. Senegal now looms as the next test, and Belgium’s squad looks eager to answer.
13:05
Freddy, beloved German World Cup fan, deletes account after heartbreaking loss
German supporters left Boston shell-shocked on Monday after their World Cup squad fell to a scrappy Paraguay team in a penalty shootout during the Round of 32. The devastation, it seems, has broken even the team’s most optimistic and joyful supporter.
Freddy, or @FreddyLA7 as his handle would read, became the viral sensation of this World Cup. A wide-eyed German youngster, Freddy gained a (seemingly organic) following in the lead-up to the World Cup by posting his travels throughout the United States, discovering the innocent joys of late-night Taco Bell, diverse landscapes, and Ella Langley as he and his German buddies traversed the country.
Freddy’s X account skyrocketed in popularity as the month of June went on, and the anonymous German started meeting with the likes of JJ Watt and NASA astronauts, and seemingly any other person or brand looking for an instant injection of free publicity.
But now, fewer than 24 hours of Germany’s defeat, Freddy’s account is nowhere to be found. It appears as if Germany’s early exit from the World Cup officially broke Freddy.
The German soccer fan Freddy appears to have deactivated his Twitter account. pic.twitter.com/UqjrvNeae3
— Sports TV News & Updates (@TVSportsUpdates) June 30, 2026
The Freddy saga has inspired some wild conspiracy theories. Some found his positive outlook too pure to be true, questioning if he was some sort of plant designed to engage in guerilla marketing tactics for the brands, people, or even states that he was posting about. Others thought the anonymous Freddy was some sort of social experiment designed to play out in front of hoards of social media followers.
It would appear the truth is far less interesting. Freddy took to his still-active Instagram account to explain why he deactivated his X page.
— B (@bama_bran) June 30, 2026
In an Instagram story, Freddy explained that it was his plan “all along” to delete the X account following his World Cup trip. And although he announced plans to stay in the United States until after the World Cup final in mid-July, he chose to delete the account early because “too many people seem[ed] to have a problem with us having a genuinely good time here in the country.” He later added that X is “just too toxic,” making posting on the platform no longer enjoyable.
If that’s the case, good on Freddy for letting it go, despite the rip-roaring success his account has seen in the past month.
The post Freddy, beloved German World Cup fan, deletes account after heartbreaking loss appeared first on Awful Announcing.
