BYU shook up its athletic department on Thursday, splitting football off from the other 20 sports.
Head football coach Kalani Sitake will report directly to a university vice president while athletic director Brian Santiago will oversee the remaining programs.
The decision's dramatic timing, nine days before the season's first football game, underscored both the hurtling rate of change in college sports and rumors about friction between Sitake and Santiago.
"BYU Athletics shares a common focus on helping our student-athletes succeed not just on the field, but also in the classroom and, most importantly, in their Christian discipleship," advancement vice president Keith Vorkink said in a statement.
BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake speaks as he's joined by BYU athletic director Brian Santiago during a press conference regarding Sitake's contract extension with the football program, held at the Student Athlete Building on the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News

#Football #kalani #head #university

At least one in four NFL players could develop chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive brain disease linked to repeated head impacts, new research suggests.
Researchers found CTE in 215 of 878 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021, meaning 24.5 percent have died with CTE. The study was led by Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, a physician and researcher at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School, along with researchers from Boston University and other institutions.
That figure may underestimate how common CTE is among former NFL players. Researchers examined the brains of 235 of the 878 players who died during the study period, leaving 643 brains unexamined.
CTE is caused by repeated head impacts and can only be definitively diagnosed after death. It is extremely rare without repeated head trauma. The disease can cause memory loss, confusion, mood changes, impaired decision-making, impulsive behavior and addiction, according to the American Brain Foundation.
CTE was first identified in boxers nearly a century ago and has since been found in other athletes exposed to repeated head impacts, including hockey, rugby, soccer, wrestling and bobsledding. Researchers have also found evidence suggesting military personnel exposed to repeated blasts may be at risk.

#researchers #died

A new study from researchers at Mass General Brigham, Boston University, and the Concussion & CTE Foundation found that at least one in four former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head trauma.
The findings, published Tuesday in The British Medical Journal, examined former NFL players from the hard-shell helmet era and suggest the prevalence of CTE among professional football players is significantly higher than in the general population.
Researchers identified 878 former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021. Of those, 235 donated their brains for study, and 215 of the donated brains, or 91.4%, showed evidence of CTE.
Because CTE can only be diagnosed after death through brain tissue examination, researchers estimated a range for how widespread the disease may have been among all deceased former players. Their most conservative estimate found at least 24.5% of former NFL players who died during that period had CTE. The upper estimate reached 97.7%, though researchers said both extremes are unlikely and the true prevalence is likely somewhere in between.
"Community brain bank studies have shown that CTE affects less than 1% of the general population," said Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, lead author of the study and chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Mass General Brigham. "To find that somewhere between 24.5% and 97.7% of NFL players from that time period had this progressive brain disease is a wake-up call for the NFL and scientific communities."

#died

CHICAGO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Merck and Moderna's success with a personalized cancer vaccine designed to keep melanoma at bay opens a new avenue of treatment that doctors hope will work against many types of tumors.
Unlike chemotherapy, which kills both healthy and cancerous cells, or immunotherapy, which revs up the immune system, personalized cancer ‌vaccines train the immune system to specifically target mutations found only on a person's tumor.
Merck and Moderna said on Wednesday their vaccine helped prevent the return and spread of ‌disease in a large trial involving more than 1,000 melanoma patients. They had localized tumors that were removed surgically, but had a high risk of recurrence. Moderna expects that thousands of melanoma patients could benefit within the first few years of approval.
"It is a big deal for the field in general," said Dr. Ryan Sullivan, director of the Center for Melanoma at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. "With this positive study, there is hope (and likely investment to follow) that these approaches may change the way we treat cancer more broadly."
The trial result is "a monumental leap forward," validating mRNA technology as a cancer treatment, said Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

#cancer #merck #general

Consuming a sugary drink a day may significantly raise the risk of developing stomach cancer, according to new research from Mass General Brigham.
After accounting for other risk factors, the researchers found that one or more sugary drinks per day was linked to nearly triple the risk of gastric cancer compared with fewer than one serving per month.
Roughly two-thirds (63%) of U.S. adults report consuming sugar-sweetened beverages at least once a day, CDC data states.
Beer, Wine Or Liquor? Massive Study Reveals Which Was Linked To Lower Death Risk
While earlier studies linked sugary drinks to higher rates of liver, breast and colorectal malignancies, their specific impact on gastric tissue remained unclear until now.

#sugary #brigham

Former Raiders coach Jon Gruden wanted his claims against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell to be resolved in court. Gruden won. And now he has to fully comply with the court's rules.
The presiding judge suggested on Monday that Gruden has not done so sufficiently.
"I remain concerned with Gruden's, Gruden's side's delays and lack of cooperation, lack of compliance with the rules," district judge Joe Hardy said, via **** le Brigham of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The NFL had complained that Gruden was dragging his feet in the discovery process **** ociated with his lawsuit alleging that the NFL deliberately leaked otherwise confidential emails in an effort to force him out as the Raiders' head coach in October 2021.
"No explanation was proffered by Gruden's side that would address the court's concern about the delays, particularly in light of months ago, when I said, in Gruden's favor and against the NFL's position, we're going forward," Judge Hardy said. "Gruden understandably at least represented to me that their side wanted to proceed expeditiously and has done the opposite of that."

#gruden #wanted #lack

Curtis Brown and his wife Kim's 2-year-old son Haze drowned in the family's pool in Clovis, California
The couple, also parents to four other children, welcomed Haze after a challenging C-section delivery
Police confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident
Former Brigham Young University football star Curtis Brown and his wife are mourning the loss of their toddler son.
The couple's 2-year-old son Haze drowned in the family's swimming pool in Clovis, Calif., on Sunday, July 26, according to the New York Post. A family member noticed that the toddler was unresponsive in the pool and called first responders.

#curtis #brown #wife #year

Utah and Brigham Young are the flagship universities in the Beehive State. Most of the success in college athletics comes from those two schools. However, there are five other institutions in the state that play in Division I that are worthy of attention.
Yes, the exercise of recognizing the 10 greatest college athletes who played in Utah is going to focus on the Utes and Cougars, who both have taken a circuitous patch to eventually reach their current membership in the Big 12 Conference. The Cougars boast a Heisman Trophy winner and several other well-known quarterbacks. The Utes have their own notable success in multiple sports.
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But the list is also going to include some other standouts who didn't play on the biggest stage in the state. Utah State and Weber State respectively produced a Pro Football Hall of Famer who also gained notoriety outside the sporting world and a future Basketball Hall of Famer.
The only Heisman Trophy winner from one of Utah's schools, Detmer was one of the most prolific passers in college football history. He threw for 15,031 yards and 121 touchdowns while setting 59 NCAA records in his time with the Cougars. His biggest moment from the 1990 season came against No. 1 Miami when he passed for 406 yards in an upset of the Hurricanes that kick-started his Heisman run.

#cougars #Football

Everybody has a story about money they missed out on. Amazon shares **** ody bought at $18 in 1997 or Google stock that sold for $85 in 2004 and seemed too expensive at the time. In hindsight it's free money, but at the time it looked like a risk you didn't want to take.
Amplifi LLC Chief Executive Officer Braiden Shaw has built a video around that feeling. Shaw, who played Division I basketball at Brigham Young University and now has 1.5 million Instagram followers, says every generation gets "exactly one window" to build real wealth.
Jeff Bezos backs a platform that lets anyone invest in rental homes for as little as $100 — 6 ways to build wealth like a landlord without actually being one
Dave Ramsey warns nearly 50% of Americans are making 1 big Social Security mistake — here's what it is and 3 simple steps to fix it ASAP
Millionaires under 43 hold only 25% of their wealth in stocks. Here's where their money is actually going

A new study from Mass General Brigham, Boston University, and the Concussion & CTE Foundation has concluded that NFL players have a higher risk of death due to neurodegenerative disease than the general population.
Nearly four times higher.
“This is the clearest population-level evidence we have ever had that NFL players are dying due to neurodegenerative disease at real and measurably higher rates,” said Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, the Chair of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School and director of the HealthSpan Lab. “This study demonstrates that, when looking at athletes who have played in an NFL game, including nearly 20,000 players, across every official cause of death, the result is the same: NFL players are dying of dementia and Parkinson’s disease three to four times more often than they should.”
The broad term "neurodegenerative disease" includes ALS, Parkinson's disease, and dementia.
Length of NFL career, not surprisingly, was a factor. The study found that players with five or more seasons had "nearly double the risk" of neurodegenerative death in comparison to those who spent one-to-four years in the NFL.

Wizards' AJ Dybantsa reveals what his first purchase will be with $69 million NBA contract originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It hasn't even been 24 hours since AJ Dybantsa was named the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but the former Brigham Young University star already knows where his first NBA purchase is going.
Dybantsa was drafted No. 1 by the Washington Wizards last night (June 23) in round one of the 2026 NBA Draft, and his jersey is not the only thing that is changing. He reportedly had a $4.2 million NIL valuation as a guard/wing at BYU to a four-year, $69 million NBA rookie contract per Front Office Sports. After he was drafted, he shared what would be his first purchase after receiving his contract.
"My little sister just got her permit. So if she get her license sometime she might get a car... maybe," Dybantsa told NBA champion, Iman Shumpert.
He later shared with ESPN what it meant for him to go No. 1 in the 2026 NBA Draft.

Fertility may not be a reason for men to avoid GLP-1 medications. In fact, they could see an improvement.
After 24 weeks of treatment with GLP-1s, a class of medications that treats diabetes and is prescribed widely for weight loss, men ages 18 to 65 saw improved testosterone levels, sperm count, and size and shape of sperm, said principle investigator of the study Dr. Pratibha Natesh, a consultant endocrinologist at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire and honorary clinical lecturer at Warwick Medical School in England.
About 15% of couples in the United States have trouble conceiving, and more than half of those couples have a male infertility problem, according to Yale Medicine. Healthcare providers define infertility as not conceiving after 12 months of regular, unprotected ***** ual intercourse.
More studies need to be done before GLP-1s are prescribed as a first-line treatment for male infertility, said Dr. Lidia Mínguez Alarcón, a Spanish reproductive epidemiologist and ***** istant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. She was not involved in the research.
However, the results do suggest that men considering GLP-1s for weight loss or medical conditions may want to ponder possible benefits for their fertility as well, Natesh said.

June 1 (UPI) -- Those born on this date are under the sign of Gemini.
They include:
-- Mormon leader Brigham Young in 1801
-- Actor Frank Morgan in 1890
-- Actor Marilyn Monroe in 1926