Could the Bears move to… Northwest Indiana?

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🚨 Headlines

🏈 Tua benched: The Dolphins are benching Tua Tagovailoa in favor of Quinn Ewers, the seventh-round rookie out of Texas. Tagovailoa, the fifth general decide in 2020, leads the league with 15 interceptions this season and is now Miami’s QB3, behind Zach Wilson.

🎾 Alcaraz splits with coach: World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz has parted ways with longtime coach Juan Carlos Ferrero. “We’ve managed to reach the top, and I feel that if our sports paths had to part ways, it had to be from up there,” wrote Alcaraz, who didn’t give a motive for the cut up.

🏀 Knicks will not elevate banner: The Knicks will not raise an NBA Cup banner in the Madison Square Garden rafters as a result of the group is “focused on the bigger picture” of successful their first NBA title since 1973. The Bucks and Lakers, the first two NBA Cup winners, each raised banners.

⚾️ Nats youth motion continues: The Nationals are hiring 31-year-old Phillies assistant GM Ani Kilambi as their new common supervisor. He’ll group up with supervisor Blake Butera, 33, and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, 35.

🏀 Rioux makes historical past: Florida‘s 7-foot-9 freshman Olivier Rioux made his first profession basket in the Gators’ blowout win over Saint Francis, turning into the tallest player ever to make a field goal in a university basketball recreation.

🏈 Could the Bears move to… Indiana?

(Found Image Holdings/Corbis via Getty Images) — (Found Image Holdings/Corbis by way of Getty Images)

The Chicago Bears are considering exterior of the field — er, state — for his or her subsequent stadium, writes Yahoo Sports’ Jack Baer.

What they’re saying: Bears president Kevin Warren despatched a letter to season-ticket holders on Wednesday with an replace on the franchise’s years-long seek for a brand new dwelling after a century at Soldier Field.

In latest years, the marketing campaign has targeted on a website in the suburb of Arlington Heights that the Bears bought in 2023, with Warren saying in September that the group must finalize plans this 12 months.

From the letter:

Stable timelines are vital, as are predictable processes and elected leaders, who share a way of urgency and appreciation for public partnership that tasks with this stage of influence require. We haven’t obtained that sense of urgency or appreciation to this point.

Consequently … we have to increase our search and critically consider alternatives all through the wider Chicagoland area, together with Northwest Indiana. This shouldn’t be about leverage. … Our followers deserve a world-class stadium [and] our group should hold each credible pathway open to ship that future.

Soldier Field in Chicago. (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)

Border crossing: The NFL has by no means appeared to thoughts the location of a stadium not matching a group’s title.

The New York Jets and New York Giants play in New Jersey; the Washington Commanders play in Maryland (although they’re transferring again to D.C.).
Still, a move to Northwest Indiana — the place Gary and Hammond are the two largest cities — can be a surprising final result for the Bears… and the Colts.

Reality examine: Warren says “this is not about leverage,” however after all it is about leverage. The Bears are hoping that the risk of them leaving Illinois forces state leaders to the desk. They do not truly need to move to Indiana. (That mentioned, the longer this drags on — and the louder it will get — the extra believable it turns into that their bluff turns right into a fallback plan.)

The backdrop: All of this lands three days earlier than the first-place Bears (10-4) host the second-place Packers (9-4-1) in considered one of the most significant video games at Soldier Field in years. Talk a couple of bizarre second to remind followers the group could be on the lookout for the exits. I consider the time period is “tone deaf.”

💯 Big numbers

Teammates swarm Draisaitl to celebrate his 1,000th career point. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo) — Teammates swarm Draisaitl to rejoice his 1,000th profession level. (Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo)

🏒 1,000 factors

With 4 assists on Tuesday, Oilers famous person Leon Draisaitl turned the 103rd participant in NHL historical past to reach 1,000 career points, and the first German to take action.

1,000 in a rush: Draisaitl reached the milestone in simply 824 video games, which is the fourth-fastest among active players (Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nikita Kucherov) and the fifth-fastest amongst all gamers born exterior North America (Peter Šťastný, Jari Kurri, Jaromír Jágr, Kucherov).

⚽️ $50 million

Next 12 months’s World Cup will function the largest prize in the historical past of the match, with the winner taking home a record $50 million. That’s up from $42 million 4 years in the past and $2.2 million again in 1982, the first 12 months FIFA publicized the prize cash.

Full payouts: Champion ($50M); runner-up ($33M); third place ($29M); 4th place ($27M); Fifth-Eighth place ($19M); Ninth-Sixteenth place ($15M); Seventeenth-Thirty second place ($11M); Thirty third-Forty eighth place ($9M).

🏈 14 coaches

A whopping 14 head coaches, coordinators or assistants on College Football Playoff-bound groups are departing for different applications at the finish of the season, notes Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. That listing spans eight of the 12 CFP groups, with Ole Miss “leading” the means at six departing personnel. Texas A&M and Oregon have two every, whereas Ohio State, JMU, Tulane and Alabama have one. (Congrats to Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Georgia and Indiana for avoiding the teaching carousel!)

What they’re saying: “We’ve got to fix the calendar,” mentioned Tulane assistant Will Hall, who will change Jon Sumrall as head coach after the Green Wave’s playoff run ends. “We are the only sport in the world where free agency for players and coaches begins in the middle of the season.”

Rivers celebrates a touchdown pass during last week's game. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images) — Rivers celebrates a landing cross throughout final week’s recreation. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

🏈 5 years

Philip Rivers’ shocking return to the NFL means he and his household at the moment are eligible for five more years of league-sponsored health insurance, which was in any other case set to run out subsequent August. On the one hand, he is made $244 million in his profession, so he can actually afford his personal insurance coverage; on the different, he has 10 youngsters between the ages of two and 23. Those premiums ain’t low-cost!

Hall of Fame clock reset: Rivers’ insurance coverage is not the solely factor with 5 additional years of runway. He additionally should now wait 5 extra years earlier than turning into eligible for the Hall of Fame, regardless of having already been named a semifinalist for the Class of 2026.

🏀 100 wins

Duke’s victory over Lipscomb on Tuesday was the one hundredth win of Jon Scheyer’s profession, making him the fastest head coach to succeed in the century mark in ACC historical past (122 video games). That’s six video games sooner than Duke’s Vic Bubas (1959-69) and 7 video games sooner than North Carolina‘s Roy Williams (2003-21).

Who acquired there sooner? In the previous 45 years throughout all of Division I, solely Butler’s Brad Stevens gained 100 video games sooner than Scheyer, reaching the milestone in his one hundred and twentieth recreation again in 2011.

⚽️ $1 million

Sophia Wilson (née Smith), who missed all of the 2025 NWSL season after giving beginning to her first youngster, has exercised her player option with the Portland Thorns price $1 million — the first seven-figure wage in league historical past.

More to come back? The NWSL approved a new measure last week that can permit groups to pay choose stars as much as $1 million above the wage cap, so offers like Wilson’s ought to grow to be extra widespread transferring ahead.

🥊 Joshua to Paul: “I can kill you”

(Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images for Netflix)

Anthony Joshua has made it clear that he plans to show Jake Paul no mercy on Friday of their polarizing Netflix boxing match.

Joshua: “If I can kill you, I will kill you,” the former heavyweight champion mentioned Tuesday forward of his bout towards the YouTuber-turned-boxer. A day later, when pressed on these phrases, he doubled down:

“It’s my job — we fight. We have a license to kill. … When you’re in that ring, it’s a dangerous place to be and anything can happen. You hope your opponent leaves the ring safely, but if they don’t, you still have to go to bed at night knowing that you’ve just done your job, it wasn’t personal.”

To which Paul responded: “Let’s f***ing go, bro. Let’s put on a show for the fans. Let’s go to war. … I want his hardest punches. I want there to be no excuses when it’s all said and done, and let’s f***ing kill each other. … This is going to be the biggest upset in the history of sports, and you guys get to witness it.”

Pre-fight studying (by way of Uncrowned):

⚾️ Take me out to the (jail) ballgame

The gates at Old Joliet Prison in 2011. (Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)

The Frontier League’s Joliet Slammers will play an exhibition recreation subsequent season inside the walls of Old Joliet Prison. And for any beginner baseball historians on the market, it ought to come as no shock to you that the Veeck household has a hand on this stunt.

“The Big House Ballgame”: The Slammers will face the Gateway Grizzlies on April 30 in the identical Chicago-area yard that when housed criminals reminiscent of Leopold and Loeb, John Wayne Gacy and, most famously (albeit fictitiously), “Joliet” Jake Blues in 1980’s “The Blues Brothers.”

How are the Veecks concerned? William “Night Train” Veeck (pronounced veck) joined the Slammers final 12 months as a advertising and marketing govt and part-owner. His father, Mike, and actor Bill Murray are additionally a part of the possession group, and this upcoming exhibition is simply their newest foray into the household custom of promotional showmanship.

Just a number of examples: In 1951, as proprietor of the Browns (Orioles), he drummed up gross sales by sending 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to the plate as a pinch hitter; in 1979, as proprietor of the White Sox, he and Mike threw the notorious and harmful “Disco Demolition Night.”

Why Old Joliet? The correctional facility has a longstanding connection to baseball, which was introduced to the prison in 1914 by a warden who sought to enhance morale and encourage good conduct. Inmates continued enjoying there till the jail closed in 2002, and April’s recreation is the official kickoff for the centennial celebration of Route 66, the historic freeway from Chicago to Los Angeles that opened in 1926.

📺 Watchlist: Thursday, Dec. 18

The Rams won their first meeting this season, 21-19. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) — The Rams gained their first assembly this season, 21-19. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

🏈 Rams at Seahawks

The two finest groups in the NFL simply so occur to play in the identical division, giving additional weight to this NFC West conflict (8:15pm ET, Prime). Tonight’s recreation may decide which group will get the bye as the No. 1 seed, and which is compelled to go on the highway throughout Wild Card Weekend as the No. 5-seed.

A league of their very own: With all due respect to the Broncos (12-2) and Patriots (11-3), no groups have appeared as constantly nice as the Rams (11-3) and Seahawks (11-3), who’ve by far the finest scoring differentials in the NFL, at +163 and +159, respectively. The Pats are in third at +106.

🏐 NCAA Volleyball Final Four

The semifinals are tonight in Kansas City, the place the path to a championship is suddenly wide open after undefeated Nebraska‘s beautiful defeat in the Elite Eight. First up is No. 1 Pitt vs. No. 3 Texas A&M (6:30pm, ESPN), adopted by No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 3 Wisconsin (9pm, ESPN).

Trophy case: Pitt and Texas A&M are looking for their first nationwide championships, whereas Kentucky (2020) and Wisconsin (2021) are looking for their second.

More to look at:

🏀 NBA: Clippers at Thunder (8pm, NBA) … OKC (24-2), coming off a loss, hasn’t dropped two straight video games since April.
🏈 NCAAF: Missouri State vs. Arkansas State (9pm, ESPN2) … The Xbox Bowl in Frisco, Texas.

Today’s full slate.

🏈 NFL trivia

The Dolphins have benched Tua Tagovailoa, making him the solely QB of the 4 taken in the first spherical of the 2020 draft who’s now not his group’s starter.

Question: Can you title the different three?

Hint: LSU, Oregon, Utah State.

Answer at the backside.

📸 Photo end

🇺🇸 Columbus, Ohio — Blue Jackets goalkeeper Elvis Merzlikins locks eyes along with his son, Knox, by the glass earlier than Columbus’ recreation towards the Ducks. And sure, his “Sonic the Hedgehog”-inspired facemask is for Knox, who’s an enormous fan.

Core reminiscence, unlocked.

Trivia reply: Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Jordan Love

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Could the Bears move to… Northwest Indiana?

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🚨 Headlines

🏈 Could the Bears move to… Indiana?