PASADENA, Calif. -- A month after pledging to double the prize money for the 2023 Women's World Cup to $60 million, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said Saturday that he believes the organization will exceed that goal.

"We have until 2023 to discuss about the prize money," Infantino said. "I think we need to market it as well in a certain way. I'm very confident, I'm sure we can go higher than doubling."

On vacation in California, Infantino spent Saturday as part of the largest domestic crowd to watch the United States women's national team play since 2015. The back-to-back World Cup winners opened their five-game celebratory tour with a win against Ireland in the Rose Bowl in front of 37,040 people.

After taking photos with U.S. coach Jill Ellis and others after the game, Infantino spoke glowingly of the reaction to the recently concluded World Cup in France that he's experienced. He said that the event was a frequent subject of conversation on recent trips he made to Africa and the Middle East, even among people previously unfamiliar with women's soccer.

"This last World Cup in France has really marked a before and an after for women's football," Infantino said.

Infantino also repeated his desire to implement further women's events, including a Club World Cup for professional teams and a world league for national teams. He pointed to last week's fast-tracked ratification of an expanded Women's World Cup field as the first step.

On Wednesday, the FIFA Council approved Infantino's plan to expand to 32 teams in 2023 and reopen the bidding process to host that event.

"I was ecstatic that they increased the number of participants," Ellis said this week. "I think that's a big step. I think with that, you sometimes will get lopsided scores, in terms of teams growing. But we've just seen the velocity at which the women's game has grown over the last four years. ... I think it was a real eye opener to them just to see how marketable, how fan friendly, how exciting the women's game is, in terms of being able to promote it and gain sponsorship."

The issue of equal pay remains a sticking point for both FIFA and U.S. Soccer.

As was the case after the World Cup final, when Infantino was on the field to award medals, fans in the Rose Bowl chanted "equal pay" on multiple occasions during Saturday's game.

Even a substantial increase in the prize money for 2023 would leave the women's event lagging well behind the men's event. The next edition of that tournament in 2022 will feature prize money of $440 million, up from $400 million in 2018. Were FIFA to only double the prize money for the women, the disparity between the two tournaments would actually grow.

In an open letter to his organization's members on Monday, U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro, Infantino's host Saturday, placed some of the blame for the pay disparity between the American men's and women's teams on the slow-to-narrow gap in FIFA prize money.

"Of course the U.S. team, the way they performed, the way they won, the way they come over contributed greatly to the success," Infantino said Saturday of the World Cup he views as such a catalyst for the sport. "Now up to us, together with them, to build something sustainable and meaningful for the future."

The United States women kicked off their World Cup Victory Tour with a 3-0 win over Ireland in front of a rowdy crowd in Pasadena, California, on Saturday night.

Fresh off a World Cup-winning campaign in France this summer -- adding a fourth crown to the Americans' trophy case -- the U.S. wasted no time taking an early lead when Tobin Heath connected with a Christen Press cross at the back post to head the hosts in front.

Lindsey Horan doubled the U.S. lead in the 31st minute, ghosting in for another back-post goal to tap home with another assist going to Press and Carli Lloyd heading in a third to send Jill Ellis' team into halftime with a 3-0 lead.

The scoreless second half was fairly uneventful for the U.S., but Ellis -- who announced she would be stepping down as coach after the Victory Tour -- drew applause more than once with substitute moves like Rose Lavelle coming on and for Lloyd when she was withdrawn from the match.

The U.S. continues its five-game tour with a match against Portugal on Sept. 3 at Allianz Field in Minnesota.

England winger Jadon Sancho starred for Borussia Dortmund on Saturday to help his side beat rivals Bayern Munich 2-0 to win their sixth DFL Super Cup and claim early bragging rights in the curtain raiser for the German Bundesliga.

The teenager was the key man, assisting one goal and scoring the other in front of the Dortmund faithful against a Bayern side looking a little lost without departed greats Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben.

Lucien Favre's side tailed off in last season's title challenge, finishing runners-up to Bayern who clinched a record 29th league trophy and the DFB Pokal. However, they showed their determination to put that right, captain Marco Reus forcing a diving save from Manuel Neuer in the very first minute.

Neuer was then lucky to not be beaten or force the referee to show him a red card when he ran out halfway into his own half after 15 minutes to dive at Paco Alcacer who knocked the ball past the goalkeeper, but it trickled past the open goal.

Alcacer made amends for his miss shortly after halftime. Sancho dazzled the opposition with his footwork on the right before teeing up the Spanish striker on the edge of the box who found the bottom right corner.

Some last-ditch defending stopped Bayern from equalising 10 minutes later, with Kingsley Coman, Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski all denied from close range in a matter of seconds.

But it was Sancho who stole the show, doubling Dortmund's lead after collecting the ball and sprinting from almost the halfway line to slot it expertly past Neuer.

Bayern tried to find openings but were unable to find a way past a stubborn yellow wall, which will this season feature Mats Hummels after his return from Munich. The veteran defender was not able to face his former side due to a knock in training.

For Niko Kovac's men, the result was a reminder that they have areas in their squad to improve and they will no doubt increase their efforts to land young winger and long term target Leroy Sane from Manchester City.

Dortmund, meanwhile, go some way to make up for their 5-0 capitulation to Bayern in April and go into the new Bundesliga season buoyed by winning the first silverware of the campaign.

Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku has been told to delete a tweet that revealed the squad's preseason running stats, sources have told ESPN FC.

On Friday, the striker posted data that showed he had clocked the second quickest top speed during training in Perth behind only Diogo Dalot.

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The tweet was accompanied by the caption "lack of pace" and a laughing emoji. It also showed defender Luke Shaw and midfielder Juan Mata had recorded the slowest times.

Sources have told ESPN FC that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was left disappointed with Lukaku's decision to make confidential data public and ordered the Belgian to delete the post.

The 26-year-old, who has not travelled with the squad for the final friendly of the summer against AC Milan in Cardiff, is keen to leave Old Trafford for Juventus or Inter Milan.

He is yet to feature during preseason as he recovers from an ankle injury.

Negotiations are continuing with both Juventus and Inter Milan with Lukaku's future still up in the air. United value the former Everton man between £80 million and £90m and have rejected an offer of £54m from Inter.

The proposed deal with Juventus could see Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic move to Old Trafford.

Sources have told ESPN FC that talks with Juventus have been held up while Dybala decides whether he is willing to join United.

Most of the attention after India's victory in the first T20I against West Indies in Lauderhill was lavished on debutant Navdeep Saini, Man of the Match for his three-wicket haul that helped restrict West Indies to 95 for 9. The hidden brilliance of that effort, however, was that it nullified an opportunity for West Indies to combat the left-arm spin threat of Krunal Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, according to Carlos Brathwaite.

Speaking after his side's four-wicket loss, the West Indies captain credited Saini and the new-ball pair of offspinner Washington Sundar and fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar for wiping out a left-handed-heavy top five in the Powerplay, thus heaping pressure on the right-handed batsmen in the West Indies middle order. With the side reeling at 33 for 5 after the Powerplay, the right-handed duo of Brathwaite and Kieron Pollard were left to grind runs with the ball spinning away from them when Krunal and Jadeja did finally arrive in the ninth over.

"We're very aware that it was a possibility that they would play two left-arm spinners or a left-arm spinner and a legspinner, hence the batting order was set the way it was set," Brathwaite said. "However, none of the left-handers got out to left-arm spinners, so the match-up eventually didn't happen. But we were cognizant of that fact and we tried to set the team and the line-up in such a way that we can combat that in the middle overs."

Brathwaite also defended the decision to keep Sunil Narine down the order at No. 8. In the time since Narine last played for West Indies in any format - a T20I against England at Durham in September 2017 - he has transformed himself, gaining legitimate all-round credentials with explosive batting on the T20 franchise circuit. That transformation has been seen most notably with Kolkata Knight Riders and Trinbago Knight Riders, and more recently with Montreal Tigers in the Global T20 Canada, where he smacked 59 off 30 balls on July 26. Against India, Narine ended up with 2 off 4 balls, out caught on the boundary.

Brathwaite, however, said the team's plan was to bat Pollard at No. 4, and he saw no reason to change that plan, with West Indies 8 for 2 after two overs and Sundar turning the ball away from left-handers at one end.

"Would you send in a pinch-hitter at 12 for 2?" Brathwaite responded when asked why Narine was not brought in sooner. "Pollard was always slated to bat at four. As we mentioned, with them having two left-arm spinners, the next top-order batsman is Hetmyer, who is also a left-hand batter and Washington Sundar was on.

"So to expose all four left-hand top-order batsmen to the offspinner and then expose all three middle to lower-order right-handers to the left-arm spinners wouldn't have been smart in our opinion, hence why we stuck with Pollard at four. I honestly don't see the necessity of sending Narine at 12 or 10 or 8, however much it was for 2."

Brathwaite praised Pollard and Narine as the duo made their return to maroon colours. Playing his first match for West Indies since the tour of India in November 2018, Pollard top-scored with 49, on the same ground where he scored his career-best 63 not out against New Zealand in 2012.

"Today, Pollard had enough time to bat himself in and get to a well-played fifty in my opinion," Brathwaite said. "As we can see, the top order from India, I don't think they got to fifty between the three, four or five of them. So I think we must give Pollard credit as opposed to thinking what we could have done differently. Sometimes you just got to hold your hand up. We weren't good enough. I don't think we were. They bowled better on the pitch than we did and we didn't get enough runs.

"It was brilliant to have them both back and obviously you see what they bring to the team, Pollard with the bat, Sunil with the ball. That experience is invaluable. He's [Pollard] been doing it in IPL at all numbers from four straight back down to eight, sometimes nine, and it just goes to show he was able to exude batsmanship. He rebuilt it in the Powerplay. Then once the spinners came on, he stroked the ball up and down and got some boundaries in between as well. So it was a fantastic knock by him.

"If the team had supported him a bit more, we'd have gotten to a bigger total and probably he'd have been able to put in a better personal performance. But congrats to him, very very well played and then to Sunil, to come with the ball and do what he did. Obviously we must commend the pacers for setting up the Powerplay the way they did and then building the platform for Sunil to do what he did with the ball."

Brathwaite pointed to shot selection and assessment as factors behind West Indies' defeat, but insisted the side would not give up on attacking, positive cricket.

"We are going to play with positive, aggressive intent, as our instinct as West Indians allows us to play. So the message will continue to be to keep the intent," he said. "However, we need to assess better and be a bit smarter in shot selection. So it's not about not trying to get boundaries, but knowing that if you get a boundary early in the over on a tough pitch, you can settle for 6-7-8 an over. Get deeper (into the innings) and then our power at the back end - myself, Pollard, (Rovman) Powell coming in at the back end in the last five overs or so, we can probably get up to 150 today."

Lancashire Lightning 151 for 6 (Maxwell 73) beat Notts Outlaws 148 for 9 (Parkinson 3-22) by 3 runs

Until this extraordinary evening nothing was more likely to deflate the sails of the good ship Lancashire than the prospect of playing Notts Outlaws in T20 cricket. The distance between Trent Bridge and Emirates Old Trafford means that the counties had only met nine times since 2011 and the best Lancashire had managed in a grisly sequence was two abandonments.

So it is probably a measure of the quality of Lancashire's T20 cricket at the moment that they bucked that trend with a three-run victory which was only sealed when visiting skipper Dan Christian managed only two runs off James Faulkner's penultimate ball of the match. Yet even that late drama hardly begins to tell the tale of a remarkable game in which Lancashire won the toss but had managed only 45 runs for the loss of four wickets after ten overs.

Glenn Maxwell, who was Man of the Match by a mile, and Dane Vilas' fifth-wicket partnership of 107 in 66 balls allowed Lancashire to post a respectable 151 and it was then left to the home side's high quality attack to restrict Nottinghamshire's batsmen. They accomplished that task so effectively that Notts needed 32 off their last two overs but Christian got inside the line of Saqib Mahmood's misdirected deliveries and clipped three sixes over the short leg-side boundary before Faulkner defended 12 off the last over during which Maxwell took his fourth catch of the match. That is a record for a Lancashire outfielder in T20 cricket but the landmark was almost lost amid the good-humoured chaos of the final deliveries and the memory of Maxwell's 46-ball 73 in the first innings. And a few minutes after the victory was completed the rain began to belt down at Old Trafford. Undefeated after seven games and with 12 points already secured, it seemed for a daft moment as if even Manchester's weather was on Lancashire's side.

Such a feeling was understandable when one recalled that Lancashire had lost two wickets in the first six balls of their innings and were 35 for 4 after 8.2 overs with even respectable defeat appearing a distant goal. Alex Davies and Steven Croft were bowled in Luke Wood's first over and Liam Livingstone and Keaton Jennings perished too as the home side sought to accelerate without first stabilising the innings. Wood is one of those bowlers who displays far more gusto in celebrating a wicket than he does in his run-up. The need for discipline in the latter outweighed by immediate exuberance in the former probably explains the division of energy. Livingstone was bowled by Imad Wasim for 3 when imitating the chap who was too fond of ice-cream and went for one scoop too many. When Jennings was stumped off Samit Patel Lancashire were floundering. At which point Maxwell and Vilas changed the game.

As much as anything else the partnership provided yet more evidence of the fitness of most current cricketers. Vilas hit only four fours in his 46 and though Maxwell clubbed a couple of extraordinary sixes on top of seven other boundaries in his 73, that still leaves around 50 sprinted runs in the pair's 11-over stand of 107, which set a fifth-wicket record for Lancashire in T20s. And of course there were the strokes that still bring gasps of astonishment from the crowd. Most of these were played by Maxwell, who can rarely have batted better in short-form cricket; the reverse sweep for four and reverse ramp for six off Harry Gurney were as spectacular as anything we saw on an evening of extroversions on and off the field. Both batsmen fell in Gurney's last over but by that point the crowd knew they had a game on their hands.

Notts Outlaws' innings began quite as dismally as their opponents had when Joe Clarke was pinned in front of his stumps by Richard Gleeson's first ball. Ben Duckett followed three overs later when he clubbed a full toss from the same bowler to Maxwell at mid-on and the remainder of the innings saw a succession of Notts batsmen begin well before falling to Matt Parkinson and Livingstone, who took 5 for 54 between them. The most culpable cricketer was probably Patel, who made a fine 34 before smacking Parkinson straight to Davies at extra-cover, this in the over after Tom Moores had been caught at long on by Maxwell off Livingstone. Until Christian tucked into Mahmood no other Notts batsman had the measure of the task and they were worn down by some superb Lancashire fielding.

So Vilas' team already look well placed to reach the quarter-finals of a Blast which has already served up some wonderful short-form cricket and suddenly appears a format we should preserve rather than shove to an earlier slot in the 2020 season.

But there is a certain convoluted irony about Lancashire's fine start to their Blast campaign. Players regularly talk about the advantages of a team finishing in the top two in their group and thereby earning a home quarter-final in the Blast. Yet for all their success in reaching seven Finals Days, Lancashire have only played three of their 11 quarter-finals at Old Trafford, a tally which includes the rain-wrecked 2009 encounter against Somerset which had to be settled by a bowl out.

Winning 12 points out of their first 14 suggests Lancashire are well-placed for a home quarter-final this year but the four dates set aside for those games clash with the Ashes Test at Old Trafford. ESPN Cricinfo understands discussions are already taking place with the ECB about the club's possible options. Yet as the rain tippled down at Old Trafford this Saturday evening one could forgive Lancashire and their supporters believing that at the moment they can beat anyone anywhere.

India A 190 (Dube 79, Panchal 58, Holder 5-54, Shepherd 3-29) and 278 for 3 (Agarwal 81, Panchal 68, Easwaran 59, Holder 2-51) beat West Indies A 318 (Hodge 65, Cornwall 56, Siraj 3-63, Markande 3-79) and 149 (Ambris 71, Gowtham 5-17, Warrier 3-43) by seven wickets

After clinching a 4-1 series win in the one-day leg of the tour, India A have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match unofficial Test series against West Indies A. The visitors sealed a seven-wicket win with a resounding bowling performance despite conceding a 128-run lead in the first innings. India A then went on to chase 278 for the loss of only three wickets with half-centuries from Priyank Panchal, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Anmolpreet Singh.

Panchal was the top-scorer of the match, following up on his first-innings 58 with a 68 in the second dig. During the chase, he stitched together a 150-run opening stand with Agarwal whose 81 featured 10 fours. The duo fell within the space of five overs and No. 4 Hanuma Vihari followed suit, falling for 1, but an unbroken 100-run stand between Easwaran and Anmolpreet, who struck 59 and 51 respectively, blunted the West Indies A attack and helped wrap up the win.

Chemar Holder, the pick of the West Indies attack, took 2 for 51 in the second innings to add to his first-innings returns of 5 for 54, his second first-class five-wicket haul. In the first innings, the right-arm fast bowler ran through the India A top five as they rolled over for 190, with Easwaran, Vihari and Anmolpreet falling for ducks. Save for Panchal, and No. 7 Shivam Dube (79 off 85), no India A batsman could go past 20. Holder was ably supported by fellow quicks Romario Shepherd and Raymon Reifer, who bagged three and two wickets respectively. This was in reply to the hosts' 318, which they put together on the back of half-centuries from Montcin Hodge, Shamarh Brooks and Rahkeem Cornwall, who scored an unbeaten 56 at No. 8. Mohammed Siraj and Mayank Markande took three wickets each.

West Indies A, however, could only add 149 to their lead as offspinner K Gowtham, who went wicketless in the first four-dayer, took 5 for 17 in only 7.5 overs, helping skittle out the home side inside 40 overs. The early damage, however, was done by Sandeep Warrier, who reduced the opposition to 12 for 4 in the sixth over. Had it not been for Sunil Ambris' 71 and Jermaine Blackwood's 31, the hosts might have struggled to put on a competitive total.

USA's first round of ODIs against Namibia and Papua New Guinea, as part of the new Cricket World Cup League Two structure, are set to be hosted at the Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, beginning from September 13. These ODIs had been originally designated to be played in North Carolina. A USA Cricket board member corroborated the match schedule outline including the change of venue to Lauderhill. These games will be the first ODIs ever played on American soil by any team, making USA the 32nd country to host ODI cricket.

ESPNcricinfo had reported last month that the ODI matches had been pulled from Church Street Park in the Raleigh suburb of Morrisville after the ICC had announced in May that the venue would host these games. Woodley Park in Los Angeles and an under-construction venue at Morgan Hill, California in the Silicon Valley became the frontrunners to land the hosting gig for USA's first home ODIs.

However, the new turf venue at Morgan Hill - which is being paid for by American Cricket Enterprises (ACE) - will not be ready in time. Meanwhile, Woodley Park's recent investment upgrades from ACE funding were not enough to have the venue receive ODI ground accreditation from the ICC in time to host matches in September.

The result is that, in spite of September being the height of the south Florida tropical storm season, the Central Broward Regional Park turned into the default host option due to its ODI ground status listing, which it received from the ICC upon opening in 2008. Despite having had ODI status for more than a decade, the ground has never actually hosted an official ODI. Sunday's 2nd T20I between India and West Indies will be the ground's 10th T20I match since the inaugural T20I was played between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in May 2010.

Multiple sources, however, confirmed that USA Cricket has begun moving forward with plans to host the round of six ODIs at the venue. Sources have also stated that the matches were pushed back a week from their originally announced dates of September 7-14.

A request was made by USA Cricket to both Cricket PNG and Cricket Namibia during the ICC Annual Conference in London last month to push the series back a week due to venue availability issues in Lauderhill, with other vendors having rented out the facility in the week prior. According to a USA Cricket source, the series will now start on Friday, September 13 with USA's first home ODI to be played against Papua New Guinea.

Namibia are not scheduled to arrive from a training camp in South Africa until September 15, meaning the next match in the tri-series will not take place until September 17, when USA take on Namibia. The home side are then penciled in to play back-to-back ODIs on September 19 & 20 against both visiting sides to accommodate USA Cricket's original plans for the squad to leave on September 21 for an extended training camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore, in preparation for the T20 World Cup Qualifier in the UAE beginning on October 11.

Namibia and PNG, meanwhile, will play back-to-back ODIs in Lauderhill after USA's departure to round off the scheduled series. The ODI series dates have been sent to the ICC for confirmation but are expected to be rubber-stamped with all parties in agreement. The two visiting countries also have tentative plans to play one or two T20Is at the Florida venue after the ODI series, as part of their own preparations for the T20 World Cup Qualifier, before flying back home.

USA have played only three ODIs so far. The first two came at the 2004 Champions Trophy in England, where they suffered heavy defeats to Australia and New Zealand. Their third and most recent ODI came this past April in the third place playoff match at ICC World Cricket League Division Two in Namibia. After securing a top-four finish in the league stage, USA's playoff match with Papua New Guinea was given ODI status. Despite having beaten PNG by 10 wickets in a non-ODI in the league stage, USA lost the playoff by five wickets.

Faf du Plessis and Dane van Niekerk, the South Africa men's and women's captains, were named the CSA Cricketers of the Year on Saturday. They were declared winners in the 'Players' Player of the Year' category as well.

Du Plessis also scooped the ODI-Cricketer-of-the-Year Award while fast-bowling allrounder Marizanne Kapp bagged the corresponding honour in the women's category. Quinton de Kock and David Miller were named the men's Test and T20I Cricketers of the Year respectively.

Kagiso Rabada, meanwhile, emerged as the SA Fans Player of the Year. The CSA Delivery of the Year went to Vernon Philander for his dismissal of Azhar Ali during Pakistan's first innings in the third Test, in Johannesburg, earlier this year.

Other winners included quick bowler Shabnim Ismail, the T20I Women's Player of the Year; Tumi Sekhukhune, the International Women's Newcomer of the Year and Rassie van der Dussen, the International Men's Newcomer of the Year, who averaged 73 with a strike rate of 81 in ODIs and 133 in T20Is in his debut season, and was among the few standout performers in South Africa's underwhelming 2019 ODI World Cup campaign.

Dale Steyn, who became South Africa's leading wicket-taker in Tests on the opening morning of the Boxing Day Test in Centurion last year, was honoured with the KFC Streetwise Award for accomplishing the feat and for being among the top 10 wicket-takers of all time, in Test cricket.

Shaun George was named the CSA Umpire of the Year for the third year in a row. The honour in the 'Umpires' Umpire of the Year' category went to Bongani Jele.

Speaking about the winners, CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe said: "Faf and Dane have both had very good years, both as contributors in their specific disciplines and also in the leadership qualities they bring to our two senior national sides. Just how much Dane means to our women's team became evident when she was ruled out of action for a considerable period of time through injury.

"Both our Standard Bank Proteas and our Women's Proteas are well ranked both as teams and individuals across the various formats. I must particularly highlight the Proteas first ever away ODI bilateral series win in Australia. It is quite remarkable that over the past few years Faf has led the Proteas to home and away ODI Series wins over Australia as well as our first ever home Test series win against the same opponents.

"It is also a very special moment for the CSA Family to honour our leading Test wicket-taker of all time, Dale Steyn, with the KFC Streetwise award. He has been a wonderful brand ambassador for both CSA and the Proteas for well over a decade and he has not only been a great leader of the Proteas attack but has also played a key role as mentor of the next generation."

Recipients of CSA 2019 Awards:
Men's Cricketer of the Year: Faf du Plessis, SA Women's Cricketer of the Year: Dane van Niekerk; Test Cricketer of the Year: Quinton de Kock; ODI Cricketer of the Year: Faf du Plessis; Women's ODI Cricketer of the Year: Marizanne Kapp; T20 International Cricketer of the Year: David Miller; Women's T20I Cricketer of the Year: Shabnim Ismail; International Men's Newcomer of the Year: Rassie van der Dussen; International Women's Newcomer of the Year: Tumi Sekhukhune

NAPA, Calif. -- Cliff Branch, a four-time Pro Bowl and three-time All-Pro receiver with the Raiders, has died, the team announced Saturday.

Branch turned 71 on Thursday.

"Cliff Branch touched the lives of generations of Raiders fans," the team said in a release. "His loss leaves an eternal void for the Raiders Family, but his kindness and loving nature will be fondly remembered forever. Cliff's on-field accomplishments are well documented and undeniably Hall of Fame worthy, but his friendship and smile are what the Raider Nation will always cherish."

According to the Bullhead City (Arizona) Police Department, Branch was found dead in his hotel room Saturday afternoon. Police there said an initial investigation revealed no foul play and that Branch died of natural causes.

Raiders owner Mark Davis, who once served as Branch's agent in negotiations with his father, the late Al Davis, was particularly close with the former receiver.

"Cliff was my best friend," the team quoted Davis as saying. "I will miss him dearly."

Branch, with his motto of "Speed Kills," was the epitome of the Raiders' vaunted vertical game in the 1970s and early 1980s. A fourth-round pick in 1972 out of Colorado, where he was also a track star, Branch learned at the knee of Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff, referring to him as "father."

Branch led the NFL with 1,092 receiving yards and 13 touchdown receptions in 1974, and his 12 TD catches paced the league in 1976, when he averaged 24.2 yards per catch. His 99-yard catch-and-run TD at Washington in 1983 is tied for the longest in league history.

In a career that ended after the 1985 season, Branch caught 501 passes for 8,685 yards (17.3 yards per catch) and 67 touchdowns. He was one of only six players to play on all three Raiders Super Bowl championship teams (1976, 1980 and 1983), and had a combined 14 catches for 181 yards and three scores in those games.

He ranks third in franchise history in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown catches, with only Hall of Famers Tim Brown and Biletnikoff ahead of him in each category.

Asked once how he progressed from track star to All-Pro receiver, Branch credited his daily opposition.

"I went through Willie Brown for seven years and then Mike Haynes for three years, and both of those guys are in the Hall of Fame," Branch said in 2014. "So going against the best defensive backs in practice every day made it easy for me on Sundays."

Branch himself never was more than a semifinalist for Hall consideration despite having stats comparable to or better than thos of the Canton-enshrined Lynn Swann.

Branch, who ran in the International Pro Track Association and competed in Tokyo in the offseason, also said he and safety George Atkinson later took up tennis as another form of offseason work after being inspired by Arthur Ashe. Raiders coach John Madden caught them playing in training camp and scolded them, saying they were wasting their legs on tennis rather than football. But it was the other way around, according to Branch.

"Other players were sore after the first few days of training camp practices," he said. "We weren't. We were already in shape because of tennis."

Mark Davis became Branch's agent in 1979, when he negotiated against his father. How did that go?

"I got kicked out of the house," Mark Davis said on 2014. "He wasn't too happy. Then, Cliff gets two touchdowns in the Super Bowl and all of a sudden I was back in the family."

Branch lost his home in the Santa Rosa, California, firestorm of 2017, escaping with only his Super Bowl rings. Destroyed in the fire was a collection of Raiders memorabilia that could have furnished a museum, Mark Davis later said.

Still, Branch was amused with how different the game had become.

"There were no OTAs like there are today," he said. "We were basically six months on, six months off, with two months of training camp. The modern football player? We laugh. We wish we had walk-throughs and practices in shorts and practices with no pads."