The Kansas City Chiefs are placing kicker Harrison Butker on injured reserve with a knee injury, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Thursday.

Butker, who appeared on the team's injury report as a limited participant Thursday, needs arthroscopic surgery, sources told Schefter.

By going on IR, Butker will be sidelined for at least the next four games.

The team is signing kicker Spencer Shrader off the New York Jets' practice squad to replace Butker on the 53-man roster, sources told Schefter. Shrader, who was elevated by the Jets to the active roster for their game against the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday, made both of his field goal attempts in a 31-6 loss.

Butker, in his eighth season with the Chiefs, is enjoying another strong season, converting 90% of his field goal attempts (18 of 20) and 95.5% of his extra points (21 of 22).

SAN FRANCISCO -- Golden State Warriors guard De'Anthony Melton has suffered an ACL sprain, the team announced Thursday.

The injury will hold him out of Friday's game against the Memphis Grizzlies, and he will undergo further testing to determine a full recovery timeline.

"He's obviously a really important player for us and is a guy who we envisioned as, and has done a good job at, the starting 2-guard," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "It's a concern, for sure. We'll know more over the next few days."

Melton suffered the sprain during Tuesday's game against the Dallas Mavericks, although it's unclear when it happened. Melton never left the game, and he finished with 14 points, 4 assists and 4 rebounds in 26 minutes.

He had started the previous two games, and Kerr said he wanted to keep Melton in that starting group moving forward.

The Los Angeles Angels and infielder Kevin Newman agreed to a one-year $2.5 million contract with a club option for 2026, the team announced Thursday.

The option also would be worth $2.5 million and carries a $250,000 buyout should the team decline it.

Catcher Matt Thaiss was designated for assignment to free a space on the 40-man roster. The Angels agreed to a two-year deal with catcher Travis d'Arnaud earlier this week.

Newman is in line to be the Angels' starting shortstop to open next season while Zach Neto misses time after surgery performed last week on his right shoulder. Neto sustained the injury while sliding in a game against the Chicago White Sox on Sept. 26, with no exact timetable for his return.

Newman, 31, batted .278 with 17 doubles, three homers and 28 RBIs in 111 games with the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.

He is a career .262 hitter with 26 homers and 199 RBIs in 616 career games with the Pittsburgh Pirates (2018-22), Cincinnati Reds (2023) and Diamondbacks.

Former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig is set to return to South Korea for the 2025 season after he revealed on social media that he signed with the Kiwoom Heroes.

The commitment will require Puig to leave his winter league team, Tiburones de La Guaira in Venezuela, per Kiwoom's request.

Puig, 33, has not played in the major leagues since 2019 when he batted a combined .267 with 24 home runs and 84 RBIs over 149 games with the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians.

In six seasons (712 games) for the Dodgers, Puig batted .279 with 108 home runs and 331 RBIs, finishing second in voting for National League Rookie of the Year in 2013 and playing in his lone All-Star Game in 2014.

In 126 games for Kiwoom in 2022, Puig batted .277 with 21 home runs and 73 RBIs. Last season, he played for El Aguila de Veracruz in the Mexican League and batted .314 with 18 home runs and 43 RBIs in 64 games.

Puig became a United States citizen in 2019. He has faced legal issues in the U.S. that include multiple sexual assault accusations, as well as multiple reports in 2022 that he placed wagers with an illegal sports betting operation.

If Raducanu is picked against Germany as expected, she will be tasked with putting her team ahead in the three-match tie before Katie Boulter plays in the second singles match.

It has been a winning formula. Raducanu and Boulter won three of their four singles matches as GB beat France in April's qualifier.

Boulter, ranked 24th in the world, is the nation's leading player, with Harriet Dart, Heather Watson and doubles specialist Olivia Nicholls completing the team in Spain.

Raducanu, though, has not played since 21 September when she retired from her Korea Open quarter-final against Daria Kasatkina, but on Thursday she insisted she was ready.

"I'm in a place where I feel good and confident to give it my all if I'm to be on the match court," said Raducanu, who is "in discussions" about bringing Naomi Osaka's former fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura into her team.

"I've been training in the last three weeks on it, properly building up and last week I was throwing myself around the court. It's feeling good.

"I'm happy to be in this position especially because it did take longer than we think. I feel really fit."

Raducanu has played just 33 matches this year after returning from the wrist and ankle surgeries which ruled her out of most of last season.

There have been moments of encouragement on her climb back into the world's top 60, but plenty of patience has also been required.

As she recovered from the foot problem, Raducanu used the time away from the match court to "detach".

She spent quality time with her grandma who lives in China, brushed up her skills on the piano and read a stack of books.

The mind is rested. But will the body be sharp?

"Sharpness is something which comes with matches and although I haven't played in a while, it will be good to find out," said Raducanu, who lamented not playing enough matches before her painful US Open first-round exit in August.

"On the practice court and practice points, I feel sharp and pretty good.

"I don't feel too far behind even though the second half of the season I have been a lot lighter on tournaments."

WRU chief executive Abi Tierney was appointed permanently in January 2024 by chairman Richard Collier-Keywood and stated she would produce a new strategy in the first half of the year.

A preliminary document was published in June with the promise of the overall document later in the year, but that has still not been published.

"A lot of things are reactive rather than proactive," Jones told Scrum V The Warm Up programme.

"We hear things about a report that should be published and I think we are still waiting.

"You look at the success Wales had since 2005, but did we take it for granted and think of the next move, rather than the one in front?

"We talk about succession of players and coaches, but where is the succession with governance, all that sort of stuff that are obviously now impacting the game?"

Jones says a long-term strategy has to be agreed.

"There are a lot of people out there who want to know what the plan is and we need the communication," said Jones.

"If you can see it, everyone can get behind it, irrelevant of what is happening on the pitch.

"Rugby needs players and supporters, we are all stakeholders, if we are not communicated to, people do not know what's going on.

"We have had too many of these situations now, we just need some sort of plan."

England head coach Borthwick has made four changes from the side beaten by Australia in their last outing, including the reintroduction of full-back Freddie Steward and scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet.

George says both players are "frothing" at the prospect of facing South Africa.

"They are ready to take their opportunity because of all the work they have put in off the field," he added.

"They have trained brilliantly and the nice thing is they are not coming in with one or two caps. They have played at international level and they are frothing at the bit to get involved.

"Whenever that ball goes in the air, the expectation is to catch the ball. Freddie [Steward] retrieves more ball for us than anyone and he is excellent in that area.

"The South African gameplan lends itself to putting the ball in the air a bit more, but there is no better man to have back there."

England have not won at home since March when they beat Ireland in the Six Nations and George says the hosts need a result to match their performances.

"We always feel pressure to win," said the 34-year-old.

"We know that the fans want a win and we want to bring that for them. They have been brilliant and we have spoken a lot about this connection with the fans, but Im aware the performance only goes so far and we need to bring the result.

"I want the Allianz to believe we can win because we believe we can win."

Pablo Piñones-Arce is out as technical director of the Houston Dash less than a year after taking the role, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN.

The reason for Piñones-Arce's exit was not immediately clear, although multiple sources confirmed he will not continue in the role.

His exit continues a tumultuous season of change for Houston that included a three-month absence of ex-head coach Fran Alonso before his departure in September, and the late-July firing of former general manager Alex Singer.

Houston has not yet filled the vacant GM or coaching roles. Dash president Jess O'Neill told ESPN in late July that she wanted to have a new general manager in place by "October at the latest."

A Dash spokesperson provided the following statement on Thursday: "The team is currently meeting with the technical staff as part of the annual end of year review. The team will share an update once all meetings have taken place."

Former Houston Dash player and former Orlando Pride general manager Erik Ustruck has been operating as a consultant -- effectively an interim GM -- for Houston since August, ESPN previously reported.

Piñones-Arce was hired in March to work with Singer to establish "a robust soccer operation framework for the Dash," including oversight of roster construction.

Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told ESPN that Piñones-Arce was considered for the head-coaching job that eventually went to Alonso. Piñones-Arce was later hired for a role that gave him oversight of Alonso.

O'Neill acknowledged to ESPN, in an interview conducted this summer, that Piñones-Arce was part of conversations in the head-coaching search, but O'Neill refuted that Piñones-Arce was a finalist for the role.

"I think there were discussions about the openings and the opportunity, but simultaneously, Alex and I had talked about an additional role to support her and, ultimately, the club, and that either we post something specific and have that kind of conversation, or, as happens, sometimes you sort of stumble upon somebody who might make sense in the role that isn't even posted yet," O'Neill said earlier this year.

"And that's my understanding of how things were clarified. But there was an initial conversation about the fact that we had an opening there [for head coach], but not anything that became a finalist of sorts."

Singer has declined multiple requests for comment from ESPN.

Aitana Bonmatí expressed her dismay at how women footballers in Spain are treated while praising the NWSL and Women's Super League (WSL) for the manner in which they look after their players.

Bonmatí, 26, won her second successive Ballon d'Or earlier this month after a trophy-laden 2024 that saw her win a historic quadruple with Barcelona as well as the inaugural Women's Nations League with Spain.

In September, she signed a bumper four-year contract with Barça that, according to ESPN sources, made her the best-paid woman footballer in the world. Despite committing her future to remain in Spain, Bonmatí acknowledges that there are several aspects in which the Liga F lags behind other leagues.

In an interview with ESPN, after finishing top of the ESPN FC Women's Rank, Bonmatí said: "The league in USA, they are doing the things good in terms of marketing and communication and they want to be the top one, as well as [the WSL] also in England. So I think these both leagues are one of the best in terms of treatment, how they treat the women's football, how we deserve.

"I always say the same about my league. I'm not happy how they treat us because I think they have a product ... the footballers, a good product because we are winners of the Champions League three times and also World Cup winners and Nations League winners. So you have the product to explode that in terms of marketing and commercial to make money because it is important to make money to develop.

"And I think there is a lot to do here and I would like to have a more competitive league because this is the best for the people who are watching us and also for us to be better every year. If you compete in a good league, you can compete with the best players, with the best teams and you can be better.

Bonmatí has previously spoken of how Liga F is being overtaken by other leagues, but she doesn't believe the Spanish federation is attempting to follow in the leads of the WSL and NWSL.

When asked what it would to take for change to be affected, she said: "I don't know because we are talking about this every time I have a question about that, I answer the same. We are talking clear[ly] and we are saying what we need, but at least we are doing our job in the field.

"Who has to do their job out of the field? We are not in control. We are not these people. So I would like to have people who are leading these kind of things, that have the capacity to develop this league.

"... Also they have to want because if you want, you will do. If you don't care, [you won't].

While the NWSL has grown to become one of the most popular leagues in the women's game and United States women's national team won Olympic gold this past summer, Bonmatí believes that gap in quality between the USWNT and the rest of the world has significantly reduced. The USWNT suffered its worst-ever performance at the last Women's World Cup but won gold under new coach Emma Hayes.

"I think in the last tournaments, USA was the only favourite of the tournament and I don't see this right now," she said.

"I see them as a very good team. They are capable to win every single tournament also. But there are other teams that are capable too. And if you see the past, you can show USA here and the other teams here. But for me right now there's equality and it can be surprising sometimes."

BARBARA WEITZ SAT at a Nebraska board of regents meeting over the summer, and when thinking about ways to generate revenue to help mitigate recent university budget cuts, she blurted out an idea.

Without much thought or research, Weitz wondered aloud whether passionate Nebraska fans would pay money to have cremated remains stored in a columbarium, a standalone structure with cubbies that house said remains. Even better, with a grass field set to be installed at Memorial Stadium in 2026, what if that columbarium was built underneath the football field as part of the renovations?

"Then grandma or grandpa or sister or brother could be a Husker supporter forever," Weitz said.

Her fellow regents laughed her out of the room. Nobody liked the thought of games being played above a de facto burial ground. The idea was impractical, anyway. If the columbarium was built under the field, they would also have to construct an underground entrance for people to be able to visit, and how exactly would that work?

Feeling discouraged, Weitz went about her other work. But the meeting was public, and soon a newspaper article published her idea. Before long, the emails started coming in. One came from a casket company in Kansas interested in helping make the hypothetical columbarium. Another came from a company in Ireland claiming to have done a similar thing already, for a rugby and soccer club in the United Kingdom. She also learned someone was trying to build a columbarium in South Carolina, near Williams-Brice Stadium, but plans had stalled.

The idea gained enough traction that at a recent football game, someone stopped Weitz and said that if the columbarium became a reality, she would pay to have her husband's ashes housed there. Weitz got plenty of emails from Cornhusker fans to the same effect.

When she blurted out her idea, Weitz did not know just how often fans spread the cremated remains of their friends and loved ones at college football venues across the country, mostly without permission. Choice Mutual, a company that offers insurance policies to cover end-of-life expenses, conducted a survey that asked Americans where they would want their ashes spread if they choose to be cremated.

The survey, published in July, listed the top choice in all 50 states. Sports venues topped the list in 11, including college football stadiums in Arkansas, Idaho, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Anthony Martin, owner and CEO of Choice Mutual, said in an email, "We were definitely surprised by the prevalence of sporting venues as the target. We assumed some sporting venues would show up, but not this many."

"Let's face it. Fan is short for fanatic," said Chris Gerbasi, who helped spread the remains of his good friend, John Burr, at Michigan Stadium in 2005. "He was a diehard, no pun intended. It made perfect sense for him to want his ashes to be on the field. He would have laughed his ass off at us being able to achieve that."

MOST SCHOOLS HAVE strict rules prohibiting the spreading of ashes onto playing surfaces, both to preserve the grass and also simply to limit trespassing. But when you are determined to complete a final wish, you simply find a way.

Like Gerbasi did. He and three others set out for Michigan Stadium in July 2005 to honor Burr, who died following complications from an accident at age 41. Gerbasi and Burr attended Michigan together in the 1980s and went to the 1998 Rose Bowl that clinched a national championship season for the Wolverines.

When Gerbasi was a student, Michigan Stadium was easy to enter. But when he and his companions arrived that summer night, they encountered one locked gate after another. They walked around the stadium, until, Gerbasi says, "It was almost like seeing the light."

A bright light was coming from the east side of the stadium, where renovations were underway. They saw a way in, down the ramp where players walk from the locker room to the field, and made their way to the 50-yard line.

"I don't get excited about too many things, but it was awe-inspiring for the four of us to be standing on the 50-yard line in an empty Michigan Stadium," Gerbasi said.

Burr's brother handed Gerbasi a bag with the ashes.

"There just happened to be a little gust of wind, and I kind of twirled the bag in the air a little bit, and all the ashes flew out, and the wind caught 'em, and they flew down the field," Gerbasi said. "Looking back on it now, it was cool as hell. It was like somebody opened up this door for us."

Parker Hollowell had a similar idea for his dad, Dean Hollowell, who died in 2015 following a car accident at age 72. Dean was a lifelong Ole Miss fan and took Parker to games his entire life. When his stepmom said his father was going to be cremated, Parker knew what he needed to do.

He waited until dusk one night in August that year and drove to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, the place where he and his dad shared so many memories. A new field was being put in, and though workers were still around, nobody said a word to Hollowell and a friend as they made their way to the 50-yard line.

Hollowell said a few words to his dad as he spread the ashes, while his friend took a video.

"I thought it was a tribute to my dad," Hollowell said. "That was our life, that's what we've done as a family. Period. Now my dad's got a 50-yard line seat. He's right there with me when I go to games. I don't see anything wrong with it."

Having done it for his dad, Hollowell now has his final resting spot picked out.

"I am going to ask my son to put me in the end zone. Where Tre Harris scored on LSU [last year]," Hollowell said.

Ann and her husband, Johnny, had a similar conversation at their dinner table in North Carolina years ago. Ann, who asked that her last name not be used, cannot remember how they got on the topic, but they started discussing where they wanted to be buried.

Johnny asked to be cremated and have his ashes scattered in three spots. First, the beach. Easy enough.

Second, Carter-Finley Stadium, home to his beloved NC State Wolfpack. Slightly more challenging, but OK.

And, if possible, Kenan Stadium, home to North Carolina, as friend Theo Manos recalled, "so he could haunt those MFers."

"I thought he was kidding," Ann said. "But then I realized he was serious."

Ann figured she would have time to plan it all out. But Johnny died unexpectedly at age 52 in 2007. A "total shock," Ann said.

She decided she would sprinkle his ashes in their longtime tailgating spot outside Carter-Finley, a picturesque area filled with trees. They had a tight-knit tailgating group -- some had been friends with Johnny since kindergarten. On the day they spread his ashes, they formed a circle and said a few prayers before Ann placed his remains near a spruce tree.

The spot has become a resting place for several others, including their son, Allen, who died in 2017. "I thought that was a good sentimental thing to do," Ann said. Johnny's sister, Nancy, also has some of her remains there, as well as another tailgater in their group.

She noted the spruce tree "shot up out of nowhere" after placing Johnny there. But last year, NC State cut down many trees in their tailgating area -- including that beloved spruce. Ann still brings flowers to every home game and places them on the spot where she sprinkled the remains of her husband and son. The group pours a drink on the ashes and says, "Here's to you, Johnny."

As for Kenan Stadium, let's just say Johnny did make his way onto the field. How and when, well, Ann says that must remain a mystery. But it should be noted NC State is 6-2 in Chapel Hill since Johnny died.

WHEN JASON FAIRES was in his first year as Oklahoma director of athletic fields and grounds in 2019, he spotted a man in the south end zone holding a paper grocery bag, without gloves on, taking handfuls of something unidentifiable and dropping it on the ground.

"I start to lose it, and 'I'm like, 'What the hell are you doing?'" said Faires, now golf course superintendent at Dornick Hills Country Club in Ardmore, Oklahoma. "He goes, 'This is my dad. Just spreading his ashes out here, like he wanted me to.' I'm like, 'Did you get permission to do this?' He didn't think he needed permission, and he's just dropping clumps. I don't know if you've ever seen ashes. It's not just ashes, it's frickin' bone and everything.

"So out of respect for him, I said, 'OK.' As soon as he left, I had to go out there and kick him around, spread him out. I felt weird doing that. I started telling that story at a meeting, and they're like, 'Oh yeah, that happens a lot.'"

Plenty of field managers across conferences have stories about encountering fans evading gates, waiting out security personnel or downright trespassing in their quest to make it onto the field to spread ashes. While it is not technically illegal to scatter ashes, most states require permission be granted if remains will be spread on private property -- like football stadiums -- or on public property or national parks. Some states require a permit to spread ashes in public areas.

"When I worked at LSU in 2007, it was about 2:30 in the morning after the Virginia Tech game and we saw someone leaning up against the goal post," said Brandon Hardin, now the superintendent of sports turf at Mississippi State. "We were like, 'Hey, what's this guy doing?' He had a book in his hand, and he opened it and dumped ashes out on the ground and had his moment. Then he turned around and walked off. Never saw him again."

At Texas A&M, too, where Nick McKenna serves as assistant athletics director of sports fields. He recalled the time the Yell Leaders at Texas A&M had a former leader's ashes spread at Kyle Field without permission, upsetting their longtime facility manager.

"So he had the head field manager go out, vacuum them up, put them in a jar, and he took them to the Yell Leader and said, "Y'all left someone out there on the field the other day. Just wanted to return him to you," McKenna said.

Another time, someone had spread ashes in the outfield before a baseball game.

"I remember having to talk with our center fielder because there was this cloud ring of remains," McKenna said. "He was like, what in the heck? I was like, 'You're out there basically playing in a ring of death.'"

As all three turf managers explained, fans are unaware of how much goes into caring for the fields across all their athletics venues. That includes resodding the fields after a set amount of time. Oklahoma, for example, resodded the field last summer. Texas A&M does it every 12 to 15 years.

"So the majority of these relatives who have been spread on that field are down on the left side of the driving range at the OU golf course because that's where all the material goes when we redo the field," Faires said. "You don't say that or anything, but you kind of feel bad for them."

When grounds crews see ashes that have been left on a field, they quickly work to limit the damage. The ashes are either vacuumed up or blown around with a backpack blower. Some will run water through them to flush them through. What grounds crews want to avoid is their sophisticated and expensive lawn mowers picking up bone fragments, which could damage the equipment.

Hardin says he has gained a newfound perspective on spreading ashes to fulfill a loved ones' request, after he did it for his dad last November in the Arkansas mountains.

"It's very special to the person that does it, so we try to be very understanding," Hardin said. "We tell people no, and then they still find a way to do it, because it was somebody's last wish. People need that closure.

"It's not going to hurt the grass, but if you ask certain people within organizations or schools, it gives you the heebie-jeebies knowing that it's there and visible."

That makes the columbarium idea all the more appealing to Weitz. She has tried to brainstorm other ideas than having it under the field -- could it be outside the stadium? In the tunnel leading to the field?

"These responses I got after the meeting said to me this is creative and there are ways to do these things," Weitz said. "So it really encouraged me in a lot of ways, but I haven't come up with any new ideas."

Putting a columbarium under the field might not be practical, but burial grounds for mascots do exist both inside and outside stadiums. In fact, Mex, a brindle bulldog who was Oklahoma's mascot in the 1920s, is buried in a casket under the football stadium. Bully I, Mississippi State's first mascot, is buried on stadium grounds. Other Bully mascots have had their ashes spread on the football field.

Texas A&M has a burial ground for its Reveille mascots on the north end of Kyle Field. A statue of the SMU mascot, Peruna, is on the burial site of Peruna I outside Ford Stadium. Sanford Stadium has a mausoleum dedicated to its UGA mascots.

McKenna remembers reading about Weitz and her columbarium idea over the summer.

"I don't know where you would put it logistically, but as somebody who's encountered people spreading ashes and understands how often it happens and the nuances, it's not the worst idea in the world," he said.

Weitz will keep thinking about it. Others will keep finding ways to honor their loved ones and their passion for college football. Loved ones such as Fred "The Head" Miller, who once asked former Florida State alumni association president Jim Melton if his head could be buried underneath the Seminole logo at midfield.

"True story," Melton says.

Miller played fullback at Florida State from 1973-76 and then became the ultimate super fan -- painting the Seminoles logo on his bald head for every home game, beginning in 1981. Hence his nickname.

He died in 1992 at age 38 of a heart attack and was cremated. Miller asked his family to scatter his ashes at Doak Campbell Stadium.