Please note: Ross discusses suicide during the Mr Vegas section of this week's podcast. Please listen or skip as best fits your situation.
A rush of Reading news besets the boys this week, both on and off the field. There's a recap of the preseason friendlies with Newport County and Woking – both of which Ben attended. Then off the field, Reading release a new kit and announce a new front-of-shirt sponsor: gambling site Mr Vegas.
And in horse news, Long Kelvin leaves RG2 and English shores altogether, signing with Danish club AC Horsens. Is this good business, and how hard will Ehibhatiomhan be to replace?
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Thank you to The Amazons for providing the theme song.

#reading #field #county #woking

Florida football will enter the 2026 season with one of the best running backs in the SEC, if not the country.
Gators junior Jadan Baugh rushed for 1,170 yards and 8 TDs last season, ranking third in the SEC and becoming UF's first 1,000-yard rusher since Kelvin Taylor in 2015.
What can Baugh do for an encore? Under new Florida coach Jon Sumrall and offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner, the possibilities are limitless. Faulkner recruited Baugh out of Columbia High in Atlanta when he was at Georgia Tech and understands the strengths of the 6-foot-1, 228-pound running back who began his high school career as a linebacker.
"He always told me these are the things we can do with you, play can play running back, quarterback, receiver, whatever you want to do," Baugh said, "Being with an offensive coordinator like that, to have so much creativity and being able to put players in great positions, I feel like it's very exciting."
At 1,843 career rushing yards, Baugh has a chance to surpass 3,000 career rushing yards with a big junior season. That would put him among the top five UF rushers of all time, a list that includes Fred Taylor, Earnest Graham, Neal Anderson, Emmitt Smith and Errict Rhett.

#baugh

The New Orleans Saints built a deeper, more balanced roster in the team's second offseason under head coach Kellen Moore. They made additions across the offense and defense that appear to have raised the team's ceiling ahead of training camp.
Keep in mind that these rankings weigh production, talent, depth, and upside. Positional value is not considered, as you can see from the highest-ranked position. This is strictly about the quality of each room.
Travis Etienne Jr. produced 1,399 scrimmage yards and 13 touchdowns with the Jacksonville Jaguars last season. Pairing him with Alvin Kamara and several capable backups makes this the roster's deepest room. Even a player of Kendre Miller's talent and upside is at risk of getting cut.
Kelvin Banks Jr., David Edwards, Erik McCoy, Cesar Ruiz, and Taliese Fuaga are a starting five that has no weak link other than injury and availability. This line, if it can stay fully healthy, has a top-10 ceiling. There shouldn't be any issues with time-to-throw for Tyler Shough.
Chris Olave is coming off of a season that saw him catch 100 passes for 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns. Now, Jordyn Tyson arrives via pick No. 8 in the 2026 NFL Draft. Adding Bryce Lance, Devaughn Vele, Mason Tipton, Bub Means, Ja'Lynn Polk, and others to this group — and that's what makes it fall into the top three.

#talent #upside #season #orleans

On Sunday, we discussed the potential of the 2026 Detroit Lions offense. Almost everyone agrees that it will be a top-10 unit in the NFL this season, and per the poll we ran on this site, 90 percent of our audience believes the Lions will have a top-five offense.
I'm guessing Lions fans will be a little less optimistic about the other side of the ball.
The Lions defense has been an issue for most years under Dan Campbell. While they've been able to add some blue chip players like Aidan Hutchinson, Jack Campbell, Kerby Joseph, and Brian Branch, the unit hasn't been able to put together a full season of strong play. Sometimes, it's been injuries. Other times, it feels like Detroit is being overcoached. Certainly the lack of a pass rush has been culpable at times. Regardless of the reasoning, the defense has regularly let the Lions down.
But could 2026 bring some extra hope? Detroit finally invested in their defensive line, and the players along that front are entering training camp healthier than ever. Additionally, Detroit has fortified their depth at linebacker and safety. And young players like Tyleik Williams, Jack Campbell, and Ennis Rakestraw could elevate their games and jump in their development.
That said, there are huge questions about health and starters in the secondary, and Detroit still needs to show they can account and adjust to the losses of DJ Reader, Roy Lopez, Al-Quadin Muhammad, Alex Anzalone, and Amik Robertson. And defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard has a lot to prove in his second season at that position.

#detroit #players #offense

The New Orleans Saints saw one of their NFC South rivals significantly weakened on the defensive side on Thursday. Carolina Panthers edge rusher Nic Scourton suffered an ACL injury during practice with the team on Thursday and will miss the entire 2026 NFL season. This was first reported by Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network. The Athletic's Joseph Person observed Scourton being carted off during team drills at Panthers practice on Thursday. Trainers were focused on Scourton's right knee. Later in the day, it was determined that Scourton had suffered an ACL tear that will cost him his entire season.
After earning a first team All-SEC selection in 2024 with the Texas A&M Aggies, Scourton was drafted 51st overall in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Scourton tied for the 2025 Panthers team lead with 5 sacks as a rookie. He had 15 pressures and 9 QB hits while adding a forced fumble and 7 tackles for loss among his 47 total stops. In two games against the Saints last season, Scourton had 1.5 sacks and 5 QB pressures. New Orleans won both games. However, the Panthers would win the NFC South with an 8-9 record before going on to lose to the Los Angeles Rams, 34-31, in the first round of the NFL playoffs.
Carolina finished 2025 ranked 16th in total defense. Scourton's loss thins out a pass rush that had just 30 total sacks last season. The Panthers signed Jaelan Phillips in free agency this offseason to team with Scourton in hopes of improving that pass rush. Princely Umanmielen, a third round choice in the 2025 NFL Draft, is the favorite to take Scourton's place in the lineup.
New Orleans faces the Panthers at home on Nov. 15 and at Carolina on Dec. 13. The Saints have a potentially strong tackle duo in Kelvin Banks Jr and Taliese Fuaga. More bad news for a Panthers squad hoping for a repeat division ***** le might help New Orleans' chances. Either way, this unfortunate injury for Scourton is a good reminder of how quickly plans can fall apart in such a physical sport.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Panthers lose star edge rusher after first training camp practice

#saints

A "well-funded" group's proposed investment into Northampton Town is "pretty much agreed", the League Two club's chairman has said.
The scale of the investment - first announced in April - is not yet known and the identities of those involved have not been disclosed.
"We are in decent shape with the investment," said Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas. "My last update said things would be sorted hopefully by the start of the season, and that's still the aim as far as we are concerned."
Thomas said the deal was awaiting approval from the EFL and the newly-established Independent Football Regulator.
"We are one of the first clubs to go through both processes," said Thomas.

#chairman #first #cobblers #kelvin

The New Orleans Saints spent the offseason building around soon-to-be second-year quarterback Tyler Shough. Now, it seems their work is beginning to earn national recognition, as The Athletic's Ted Nguyen recently included New Orleans among five offenses poised to break out heading into the 2026 season.
"The Saints have quietly put together a strong offense through the draft," Nguyen wrote. "They drafted both their young, talented tackles: left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. this year and right tackle Taliese Fuaga in 2024."
Shough is the most important piece of the Saints' offensive foundation, though. The 2025 second-round pick finished second in NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year voting after helping New Orleans to win four of its final five games. Another year in Kellen Moore's offense should help Shough continue to develop, but improved protection might be even more important. The Saints finished 29th in pass-block win rate last season, while Shough ranked 41st among qualifying quarterbacks in pressure-to-sack rate.
Nguyen added: "With a season of development for Banks and Edwards playing inside of him, the offensive line should do a better job of keeping Shough clean, which is vital. If the Saints can protect Shough, he has a chance to produce like a tier 2 quarterback."
The Saints also signed David Edwards, whom Nguyen considered the best guard available in free agency, to strengthen their interior offensive line. Edwards will join Banks and Fuaga in a unit with the potential to improve considerably in both pass protection and run blocking. Into the skill positions, Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson, selected in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, was added to the Saints' receiving corps led by Chris Olave. Tyson possesses legitimate No. 1 receiver upside, although his health will be worth monitoring after a lingering hamstring injury limited his participation during organized team activities.

The Kansas City Royals have usually been bad for the past, oh, three, four decades for a litany of reasons, but one consistent contributing reason has been that they just don't know when to say goodbye to a player in service of the greater good. David DeJesus. Joakim Soria. Danny Duffy. Kelvin Herrera. Whit Merrifield. Scott Barlow. All those players were true premium trade pieces at one point, but the Royals didn't pull the trigger on leveraging any of them until after their value tanked. Add Kris Bubic and Cole Ragans to the list, while we're at it.
Why would teams want to trade their good players? It's pretty simple: good players have a lot of present value, and good prospects have a lot of future value. Depending on how talented your team is, you might want to exchange some of that future value for present value or vice versa. Trading big league players for prospects is a way for bad teams to make use of their talent in a way that works better for their timeline.
But just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. Have you ever had to go to your boss and explain that you and your team screwed up so badly that you're recommending your company lose money now with the hope that they make more in the future? That's what it's like for general managers to sell these decisions to ownership. Still, that's part of the job, and if you have players that could be interesting trade **** ets, it makes it easier.
Fortunately for the Royals, they have a few players who are could be trade **** ets. Chief among them are starting pitchers Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo. Wacha has arguably been the singular most reliable starting pitcher in the American League for the last three seasons, while Lugo has pitched decently and is two years removed from being the Cy Young runner up. Kansas City is also a very bad baseball team who sealed its fate months ago; it simply doesn't matter if they lose 90 or 120 games this year because they're not making the playoffs and they can't guarantee any spot in the draft thanks to the lottery system.
Are the Royals thinking about trading either? The answer is, predictably, no; get off their lawn.

Packed with nine prelims, the UFC 329 undercard has its own fair amount of intrigue.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion Robert Whittaker had one of the most successful moves up in weight class of all time, so it makes sense he'd try that trick again, as he's now up at light heavyweight against Nikita Krylov in the featured spot. Right below that, former Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson makes his UFC debut; he gets a layup of a matchup and is still quite raw, but provides some much-needed fresh blood at heavyweight. Past that is a solid mix of well-matched action, even if there's not clearly much in the way of immediate stakes; Adrian Yanez should make for a fun matchup against former bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt, and a flyweight bout between Tracy Cortez and Cong ******* could put the winner in position for a big fight with a strong performance.

Light Heavyweights
Odds: Whittaker (-148), Krylov (+124)
Whittaker's move up to middleweight paid off more than anyone could've imagined, so it's understandable that he'd want to try things up at light heavyweight, even if it might not work at this point in his career. Australia's "Reaper" won the one-off “TUF: Smashes” season that pitted Australia against England, and he kicked off his UFC career as a fairly anonymous welterweight, splitting his first four fights before an eventual move up to 185 pounds in 2014. It immediately became apparent that Whittaker made the right move; his boxing popped more than ever with his newfound speed advantage, and his increased cardio made him an absolute terror in terms of overwhelming his opponents -- if he didn't simply just knock them out in short order. Years 2015 and 2016 saw Whittaker begin to stand out as one of the UFC's first stars in the Oceanic region, and a breakthrough win in 2017 over Ronaldo Souza made it apparent that Whittaker could be champion sooner rather than later; that fight saw him break out a high-level wrestling game for the first time, essentially leaving him as a fighter with no clear weaknesses, even at a high level.

Whittaker was indeed clearly the best 185-pound fighter in the world within a year, but he never got the true coronation he deserved, owing to a streak of bad luck. Whittaker won an interim ******* le over Yoel Romero, but never wound up getting a unification bout; Georges St-Pierre came out of retirement to beat champion Michael Bisping and eventually retired rather than face Whittaker, who was simply named the now-undisputed champ. Whittaker also never got his big return home as a conquering hero; cards in Australia were built around Whittaker ******* le defenses against Luke Rockhold and Kelvin Gastelum, only for Whittaker to pull out due to injury before each fight, including a career-threatening hernia hours before the Gastelum bout. By the time Whittaker got his first ******* le defense on Australian soil, it came against New Zealand's Israel Adesanya, who had clearly stole

Schubert BMW driver Kelvin van der Linde was incredibly lucky during his horror crash in Saturday's DTM race at the Norisring. Former DTM champion Rene Rast believes that if his BMW M4 GT3 Evo had been further into the Grundig-Hairpin, the impact from Maximilian Paul's unbraked Lamborghini would have had much worse consequences.
"Of course Kelvin was extremely unlucky to get hit, but on the other hand, he was also extremely lucky because if he had been five meters further into the corner, the angle would have been completely different," Rast told ran.de. "He could have been hit much more from the side."
In fact, the South African had just turned in when the Lamborghini hit the area of the left front wheel and the left door at high speed. Had he been at the apex, the impact would have occurred at a right angle, meaning the chassis would have taken the full force of the hit.
Rast also sees the fact that the Lamborghini Temerario GT3, which weighs around 1,400 kilograms including the driver, is a mid-engine car as a positive factor. "If the car had been a Mercedes or a Ford, for example, with the engine in the front and where the nose is much higher than the Lamborghini, it would have ended very differently."
The low Lamborghini hit the BMW at a more favorable spot, and furthermore, the front of the Italian sports car gave way, which would have been completely different with an engine in the front of the car.

The final day of June marks 75 days until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2026 regular season. New Orleans will be on the road to start the year, playing at the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Sept. 13. Right tackle Taliese Fuaga wears No. 75 for the Saints as he enters his third year in the NFL.
Fuaga teams with left tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. to give the Saints a formidable pair of bookends along the offensive line. He's also the 14th player to wear the 75 jersey for New Orleans. Our countdown to kickoff series continues with a look at each.
DT Mike Rengel (1969)
OT Mike Richey (1970)
DE Mike Crangle (1972)

Only 75 days remain until the New Orleans Saints begin their 2026 regular season. The Saints will be on the road to start 2026, traveling to face the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Sept. 13. Third-year offensive tackle Taliese Fuaga wears No. 75 with the Saints.
Fuaga has lived up to the expectations of a first round pick so far. He and second-year tackle Kelvin Banks Jr. gives the Saints a top-tier pair of edge blockers on the offensive line. Our Saints Player of the Day features continue with a look at Fuaga.
Name (age): Taliese Fuaga (24)
Hometown: Tacoma, Wash.
Position: Offensive tackle

Welcome to an episode of Roker Rewind, where we take a look back at some of the people, games, myths, legends, incidents, and occurrences that combine to create the history of Sunderland AFC.
On today’s show, we take a look at the legend of the Little General, and explore just what makes Bobby Kerr such an influential figure in Sunderland history – aside from lifting the FA Cup!
Martin, Kelvin, Andrew and Chris explore
• The circumstances leading up to Kerr’s appointment as captain by Alan Brown
• His early days at Sunderland
• The influence of Brian Clough
• His breakthrough into the first team
• And his injuries that disrupted a promising early career
All this and more! Get subscribed to Haway The Podcast so you never miss another episode of our free daily show.

We have an early leader from part one but who will come out on top?! Martin, Andrew and Kelvin line-up with Chris as host and we compete our Summer Quiz! On today’s show…
What was strange about the Ivor Broadis transfer?!
When did the FA Cup first arrive on Wearside?!
How will the lads get on with guessing attendances?!
How many League winners can you name?!

Who is Emanuel Sharp? Sacramento Kings land Houston legend with unique international background in NBA Draft originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Sacramento Kings added one of college basketball's most accomplished shooters in the second round of the 2026 NBA Draft, selecting Houston guard Emanuel Sharp with the No. 45 overall pick.
Sharp leaves Houston as one of the greatest players in program history after helping Kelvin Sampson turn the Cougars into a perennial national championship contender. While his outside shooting immediately stands out, his remarkable family background and international upbringing make him one of the more fascinating stories in this year's draft class.
Here's everything to know about Sacramento's newest rookie.
Few players have enjoyed a career at Houston quite like Sharp. By the time his four seasons came to an end, he ranked as the second-winningest player in school history, helping the Cougars pile up victories while becoming one of the faces of one of college basketball's premier programs.

As Iowa football heads into the summer months, the Hawkeyes extended an offer to 2028 EDGE prospect LeRoi Kamtio, a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder out of Gardner Edgerton in Gardner, Kan.
Per his X account, Kamtio registered 53 tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack and one pressure during his sophomore season in 2025.
"Words cannot express my emotions right now!! After a great camp with (Iowa) and a convo with (Coach Kelvin Bell), I have received my first D1 offer to the University of Iowa! Huge thanks to the staff at Iowa for running a great camp and everyone who has supported me!" Kamtio wrote in his social media announcement of the offer.
Though Kamtio is currently an unranked prospect, his offer from the Hawkeyes will undoubtedly gather other programs' attention and recruiting experts' eyeballs as well.
Here's a look at Kamtio's sophomore season highlights:

Vikings attached to a new offensive tackle in 2027 early mock draft

The 2027 NFL Draft will take place in Washington, D.C. next year. In that draft, the Vikings still have their first-round pick, but a lot could happen in the next 12 months. Before then, though, there will be plenty of speculation and buildup for the team and who they may add to the roster through the draft in a class that many are saying could be one of generational wealth.
Sharp Football's Ryan McCrystal recently released the latest way-too-early 2027 NFL mock draft of the cycle, which has the team going with a replacement for one of their star tackles. He projects them to land Texas offensive tackle Trevor Goosby in a move that leads to some questions about the future of the roster.
McCartysal explains the Goosby pick, writing, "Goosby took over for Kelvin Banks Jr. at left tackle in 2025, and the transition was nearly seamless. The 6-foot-7 lineman is built like a prototypical left tackle and could be in the top-10 conversation if his development continues."
Goosby is my top tackle heading into the Fall after completing Summer Scouting on him. He moves so well, has sound mechanics, and has the athleticism the league has started to enjoy from their tackles. If the team moves on from one in a weird twist, Goosby would be the top choice.
This article originally appeared on Vikings Wire: Trevor Goosby attached to the Vikings in a new 2027 mock draft

https://sports.yahoo.com/a...

Houstons Kelvin Sampson makes his decision amid retirement rumors

At 70 years old, Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson has reached the point where he'll get asked if he's retiring entering every offseason. And after the Cougars were defeated in the Sweet 16 by the Illinois Fighting Illini on Thursday, rumors arose once again.
But once again, Sampson isn't done, telling CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein that he will not retire and he'll return for the 2026-27 season. He put a ****** on on his decision to return, revealing an increased enthusiasm to continue coaching.
"I'm excited as I'v