Sports
Darius Acuff Jr. is dominating March but NBA Draft questions remain
Darius Acuff Jr. is no stranger to making history. This season, the 19-year-old Arkansas point guard became the first player to lead the SEC in both points and assists since Pete Maravich in 1970, and third to win both freshman and player of the year.
Indeed, pretty much everything about Acuff screams superstar. He’s more than an electric basketball player. There’s an icy cool charisma to him — the kind Reebok believes is ready to be the face of a franchise, as the company announced on Tuesday that it has signed Acuff to a signature shoe deal (meaning he will have his own shoe when he takes the court for his first NBA game), marking the first time that has ever happened for a male athlete that is still in college.
Anyone who gets the “HIM” endorsement from Allen Iverson is true-hooper stamped, but a necessary caveat is that it is Iverson’s jojb to sell the world on Acuff’s impending stardom. He’s Reebok’s vice president of basketball. For now, this is just marketing. There are no guarantees. What kind of actual NBA player Acuff turns out to be, both in the short and long term, remains to be seen.
And that’s where this gets interesting. Or, if you’re the team that ends up drafting Acuff with a top-five pick, potentially dangerous. Acuff represents what has become the league’s most precarious positional archetype: The small, score-first point guard who can’t defend.
Now, before we go any further, a couple disclaimers. First, Acuff isn’t that small. He’s listed anywhere from 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-3, and at 190 pounds he’s built like an old-school SEC running back — his sturdy frame and straight-line strength is actually one of his most devastating attributes, at least against college players. Yes, he’ll be undersized in a lot of NBA point guard matchups, but so is Jalen Brunson, who one league scout told CBS Sports is one of Acuff’s better NBA comps.
“If you’re going with the more high-end outcomes [for Acuff’s career], I suppose there’s some Damian Lillard in there. Maybe a bigger, stronger Keyonte George on a little bit of the lower end,” the Western Conference scout said, noting the “natural fade” to a lot of Acuff’s midrange pull-ups that remind him of George.
“But yeah, I think Brunson is a probably a good example [of what Acuff can become], just with the way they use their leverage; they get you on their hip, get that shoulder into you, and from there you can’t get them off their line. … Remember, nobody projected Brunson to become what he has. We said the same things, right? Too small. How’s he gonna guard? But there’s no backdown in that guy. … It’s hard to go wrong betting on those kinds of guys.”
Indeed, Brunson is an interesting comp for Acuff — not just for the size and skill similarities (Acuff is a better athlete) but through the prism of defensive deficiency. Even as great as Brunson is offensively, there’s still a question as to whether he can be the best player on a championship team as a weak-link defender, even as the Knicks have tried to insulate him with long wings and rim protection.
Which brings us to the second disclaimer: we don’t know that Acuff can’t defend. We only know that he hasn’t chosen to yet.
It’s partly, if not largely, an awareness issue on tape — he can look like a chicken with his head cut off away from the ball. But in theory, he has the athleticism and physicality to pull his weight. Maybe he’ll figure it out in the NBA. So far, the evidence is not terribly encouraging.
Last Saturday, Acuff had absolutely no chance of staying in front of High Point point guard Rob Martin, but neither did anyone else. Martin is a human bullet. You give that guy a head of steam and 90% of defenders, even NBA ones, are going to become a billboard on an F1 track.
Again, it was the effort and focus lapses that stood out. Acuff’s screen navigation is a real problem. The want-to just isn’t there. He’s too content to fall out of the play, which wouldn’t seem to be in keeping with all the “tough competitor” praise he gets. Watch here as he takes the scenic route around two picks on which he isn’t even touched, just to lazily trail from behind as Martin cruises in for a layup.
Even when Acuff did manage to stay attached to Martin, he still got powered through at the rim by a guy who is generously listed at 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds.
The flip side to this, of course, is that like Brunson, Acuff gives it right back to you — and then some — on the offensive end. He put 36 on High Point. Scored 12 of Arkansas’ final 15 points. Turned a tie game with three minutes to play into a 90-83 lead with a personal 7-0 run. The clutch gene is evident. You can’t teach it. Acuff has it.
Through two NCAA tournament games, Acuff has racked up 60 points and 13 assists. Chris Paul is the only other freshman since 1973 to open his NCAA Tournament career with consecutive 20-point/5-assist games. There would appear to be almost no doubt that Acuff is going to be an offensive weapon at the next level, perhaps even a deadly one.
🏀 Darius Acuff Jr.’s sizzling NCAA Tournament
| Stat / Feat | Context |
|---|---|
| 36 points vs. High Point | Second-most by a frosh in NCAA tourney history (De’Aaron Fox, 39) |
| 60 points through first two NCAA Tournament games | Most ever by a freshman through two tournament games |
| 30+ PPG, 5+ APG through two games | First player to hit those marks since Jimmer Fredette in 2011 |
| Multiple 20+ point, 5+ assist games | Joins Chris Paul (2004) and Derrick Rose (08) as only frosh to do it |
The NBA, generally speaking, does not value this type of one-way player — particularly as the face of a franchise — the way it did even five years ago. Trae Young’s outsized salary just got dumped. Nobody wants to touch Ja Morant. It’s hard to imagine any team paying Tyler Herro $130 million today, but in 2022 the Heat did.
Even closer to the roster margins, teams are largely moving away from one-way scorers who bring little else to the table. Cam Thomas is a walking bucket and he just got waived by the Bucks. Jordan Poole has averaged 20 points per game over a season two times and is basically a castoff. Jonathan Kuminga dominated playoff games as a scorer, yet could hardly crack Steve Kerr’s rotation before he was shipped to the Hawks. Collin Sexton was an elite scorer in college and has remained a very good one in the NBA, and nobody is handing him the keys to their team.
There are exceptions. If your name is Luka Dončić, Stephen Curry, Donovan Mitchell, prime James Harden or Lillard, or certainly the aforementioned Brunson, a lot of these size and/or defensive flaws will be tolerated. It begs the question: Is Acuff’s offense that great?
“[It] has a chance to be, in my opinion,” a separate scout told CBS Sports. “It’s not just because of what he does with the ball, but he can [play] off it, too. That’s become so important. I mean look around, how many teams do you see playing that Luka style anymore, where you’re just giving it to one guy and letting him play pick and roll all game long? It’s not many.”
It’s true. Context matters. You’re a lot more exposed as a defensive liability when you’re the face of a team, especially right out of the gate. Keyonte George has it easier than Trae Young did in Atlanta. George isn’t the best player in Utah. At best, he’ll be the third-best player next year. Plus, the Jazz have built their roster to insulate him with bigs everywhere, trading for Jaren Jackson Jr. to put alongside Walker Kessler and Lauri Markannen. And George, an electric scorer, still might be a problem when they start trying to win games. Maybe we’ll find out next year. It’s an interesting litmus test.
For Acuff, a situation like Dallas would be perfect. He wouldn’t be the best player on the team (that would be Cooper Flagg), and Kyrie Irving would allow him to ease into his career in the same way that De’Aaron Fox is doing for Dylan Harper, the second overall pick in 2025, in San Antonio.
CBS Sports lead draft scout Adam Finkelstein has Acuff going in the six to eight range, which is Jazz/Mavericks/Grizzlies/Hawks territory. Would the Jazz put Acuff alongside George, or take him with the plan to move George? The Hawks have a good shot at a mid-lottery pick, too (via New Orleans’ or Milwaukee’s pick), but would they make another bet on a player like Acuff after just having punted on Young? Maybe. Maybe not. Every organization is looking out a different window.
“You try not to put a lot of stock in these generic prototypes, as far as where the league is going or what kinds of players are en vogue at whatever moment,” one Western Conference exec told CBS Sports. “It wasn’t that long ago that centers were supposed to be dying. Everyone was going small. Now everyone is looking for size again. … You really have to just go case by case. What’s good for one team might not be a fit for another. Do the strengths outweigh the weaknesses? And then, can the weaknesses be improved?”
Ah, the improvement card. It’s always a popular one to play around draft time. If you took a shot of tequila every time some analyst said the words “he needs to improve his shooting” on draft night, you’d be in the back of an ambulance before the end of the first round.
For years this led teams to use lottery picks on the likes of Michael Carter-Williams, Elfrid Payton, Kris Dunn, Emmanuel Mudiay, Ricky Rubio, Dante Exum and Frank Ntilikina — all on the assumption that their shooting would meaningfully improve. Not one of them ever made an All-Star team.
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It’s not to say improvement can’t happen. Of course it can. In this regard, defense, to whatever degree your size allows, is no different than any other skill. Ben Simmons didn’t give a damn about defense in college, but in the NBA he became the portrait of modern versatility before flaming out of the league for just about every reason other than defense.
Go talk to Darren Erman about Klay Thompson. Erman was an assistant with the Warriors when Thompson came up, and he’ll tell you all the stories you want about Thompson going into the gym and working out for hours without a ball, working on his defense, his movement, his technique, anything and everything until he became one of the league’s best perimeter defenders.
Acuff doesn’t have the size of a Simmons or Thompson, but he can get better if he wants to. Curry did it. You better believe a lot of GMs are trying to make as educated a guess as possible as to whether Acuff will do the same. Like us, they’ll be watching closely when Acuff squares up against top-seeded Arizona, which has NBA players all over, in the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday night.
If his defense is a wreck and the Razorbacks get spanked, will it hurt his draft stock? If he balls out and leads Arkansas into the Elite Eight, will it rise even more than it already has? It’s easy to say teams evaluate the big picture over a small sample of big-stage showings, but evidence often speaks to the contrary. Showing out in the tourney can, and does, influence even the most unemotional of evaluators.
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Sometimes knocking a your marquee audition out of the park proves to be a predictor of NBA success, as was the case with Curry and Brunson, even a Kemba Walker, to name a few tournament darlings. But for every one of those guys, there’s a Trey Burke. A Shabazz Napier. Small guys who were big-time college point guards and showed out in the tourney but never panned out in the NBA.
Acuff is almost certainly going to pan out on some level. It’s impossible to imagine him being a full-on bust. But we’re talking degrees here. He’s probably going to go in the top 10, with the expectation that he will someday soon be not just a statistical darling but an actual star who can influence winning. Those are two very different things and the league is now starkly differentiating between the two.
Which one will Acuff become? Who knows. He’s only 19-years-old. Everything is on the table. His lack of interest in playing defense is a red flag. Ultimately he will have to either fix it or find a way to be so great on offense that the defense does not matter. One team this June is going to make a huge bet Acuff can swing one of the two outcomes. It would be a lot of fun if he could do both.
Suncorp Stadium will play host to Saturday’s
Round 11 NRL game between Parramatta Eels and
Melbourne Storm. The game kicks off at 7:45 pm with Melbourne Storm heading into the game as favourites with the bookmakers. Continue reading for our in-depth preview of the Parramatta Eels vs.
Melbourne Storm
game and give you our free tips and bets.
When: Saturday May 16, 2026 at 7:45 pm
Where: Suncorp Stadium
Bet 💰: Bet On This Match HERE
Parramatta Eels vs Melbourne Storm Odds
Parramatta Eels vs Melbourne Storm Preview
Melbourne snapped its losing run last week but Craig Bellamy will still see areas requiring improvement, particularly through the middle once fatigue began to creep in. The Storm’s defensive structure around the ruck and short side has looked vulnerable at times this season, an issue dangerous against a playmaker like Mitch Moses.
Parramatta enters this clash riding the emotional high of a golden-point victory, though backing up physically and mentally will be the challenge. Moses remains the key, especially with his ability to identify compressed defensive lines and attack narrow edges. If the Eels can hold firm through the middle and avoid gifting Melbourne momentum, they have the attacking weapons to stay within striking distance throughout. The Storm still possesses the class and experience to control key moments, but this shapes as a far tighter contest than the ladder might suggest.
Parramatta Eels vs Melbourne Storm Teams
Eels team: 1. Joash Papali’i 2. Brian Kelly 3. Jordan Samrani 4. Sean Russell 5. Josh Addo-Carr 6. Ronald Volkman 7. Mitchell Moses 8. Luca Moretti 9. Tallyn Da Silva 10. Junior Paulo 11. Kelma Tuilagi 12. Jack Williams 13. Jack de Belin 14. Dylan Walker 15. Saxon Pryke 16. Toni Mataele 17. Charlie Guymer 18. Apa Twidle 19. Teancum Brown 20. Harrison Edwards 21. Araz Nanva 22. Jonah Pezet
Storm team: 1. Sualauvi Faalogo 2. William Warbrick 3. Jack Howarth 4. Nick Meaney 5. Moses Leo 6. Cameron Munster 7. Jahrome Hughes 8. Stefano Utoikamanu 9. Harry Grant 10. Josh King 11. Shawn Blore 12. Ativalu Lisati 13. Trent Loiero 14. Trent Toelau 15. Cooper Clarke 16. Davvy Moale 17. Joe Chan 18. Stanley Huen 19. Preston Conn 20. Josiah Pahulu 21. Manaia Waitere 22. Angus Hinchey
Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.
Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.
Nigeria’s U-17 women’s team, the Flamingos, will leave for Côte d’Ivoire on Wednesday, May 20, ahead of their FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup qualifier against Guinea.
The team, led by head coach Akeem Busari, will continue final preparations before the first-leg match scheduled for May 23.
The Flamingos are currently training at the Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne as they intensify preparations for the important qualifier.
Team officials said the squad travelled from Abuja to Lagos before arriving in Ikenne later in the evening.
Coach Busari and his assistants have been working on the squad after several impressive performances in friendly matches during camping.
The coach invited 36 players to camp in Abuja on April 10, and the team has shown strong form in their preparatory games.
The Flamingos defeated SoloWonders Babes 7-0, beat YAFA 5-0, thrashed Nazareth 6-0 and also recorded a 7-0 victory over Generation Next. Their only draw came against Real Rising in a 1-1 result.
The team also secured a comfortable 5-0 win against Lakesides at the Remo Stars Stadium, boosting confidence ahead of the clash with Guinea.
The Flamingos remain one of Africa’s top women’s youth teams, having reached the semi-finals of previous FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup tournaments while producing talented players for Nigerian women’s football.
The two-legged qualifier against Guinea will decide which team moves closer to qualifying for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco later this year.
With a long-awaited battle with Anthony Joshua looming, Tyson Fury has revealed when he will be fighting once before.
Fury defeated Arslanbek Makhmudov by unanimous decision in April in what was the first ring appearance for ‘The Gypsy King’ since suffering back-to-back defeats to Oleksandr Usyk in 2024.
After that win, Fury was involved in a back and forth with long-term rival Joshua, with it since confirmed that the pair will finally square off later this year.
That is dependent on Joshua first coming through a warm-up bout against Kristian Prenga in July, while Fury also confirmed plans to compete again before the showdown with his countryman.
‘The Gypsy King’ has now revealed when that is expected to be, telling FurociTV that he is set to compete in August before then meeting Joshua a few months later.
“My fight plan this year is three fights. April, August, and whenever the big fight is announced; either October or November.”
Fury also gave an update on his opponent, but insists that it doesn’t matter who he shares the ring with.
“We haven’t got an opponent yet, but it’s never about the opponent. It’s just about me versus me always. Whoever the opponent is whether it’s Joe Bloggs or Mike Tyson. It’s unimportant to me, it’s just a runout to get sharper for the big one.”
Boxing fans will be hoping that both Fury and Joshua can come through their interim bouts unscathed, before then turning their attention to the contest that really matters later this year.
Aaron Rai is our newest major champion, thanks to a stellar performance at the PGA Championship at Aronimink on Sunday.
The 31-year-old from England pulled away from the pack with a sizzling round of five-under 65 to claim the Wanamaker Trophy by three shots over Jon Rahm and Alex Smalley.
Rai, who had seven wins on his resume before his PGA triumph, is a player who does things his own way. He plays with not one but two gloves made by MacWet, an English company that makes sporting performance gloves for outdoor activities like polo, showjumping, horse racing, shooting and more.
Another way Rai stands out from his peers: iron covers. And thanks to Rai, what was viewed as a golf taboo now has some major-championship cred.
;)
After PGA win, Aaron Rai’s Spider is the hottest putter on Tour
Rai has an endearing reason for his iron-cover usage: Growing up, he was cognizant of the sacrifices his parents made to support his golf development. When he received his first premium set of clubs as a child, he wanted to protect them to the best of his ability, so he used iron covers — a habit that continues to this day.
“Although on the PGA Tour, we get given equipment, and we get given everything that we need, it’s more out of principle,” Rai said of his iron covers in the wake of his victory on Sunday. “The value of not losing perspective of what I have and where I am.”
Even if iron covers don’t make sense for use in your daily golf life, there’s no denying that using them for travel is reason enough to invest in a set. And with a price point starting at $22, it’s a low-cost investment.
Check out a selection of iron-cover options below, and click on the link to purchase your set now.
Shop irons covers like Aaron Rai’s
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Iron Covers with a Zipper great protection with a secure hold on your club head. The set includes ten padded covers that fit standard to oversized iron heads, with each cover marked clearly for easy identification. – Includes 3-PW, LW and SW – Fits oversized irons
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This protective, padded design also features a place to display the iron number.
Manuel Neuer has extended his contract at Bayern Munich for another year, keeping the 40-year-old goalkeeping great at the German champion as he mentors his long-term successor.
Neuer will head into another season at Bayern, 15 years since joining the club, and remains the captain and first-choice goalkeeper after impressive performances in the Champions League despite fitness issues this season.
Neuer has played 597 times for Bayern and is set to become the fifth player in club history to hit the 600 mark.
Backup Jonas Urbig is considered Neuer’s long-term successor and has increasingly been given games this season. Neuer’s role includes mentoring Urbig.
The announcement came on Friday ahead of Bayern’s last Bundesliga game of the season on Saturday at home to Cologne.
Neuer’s long-time understudy Sven Ulreich has also signed on for another year.
“Manuel and Sven will continue to support Jonas on his path to becoming the future of FC Bayern,” Bayern board member for sport Max Eberl said in a statement.
Neuer won his 13th German league title with Bayern a month ago and could make it a domestic double for the first time since 2020 if Bayern beats Stuttgart in the German Cup final on May 23.
Neuer has been focused on Bayern since retiring from the German national team after Euro 2024. Oliver Baumann of Hoffenheim is likely to be Germany’s starter at the World Cup next month.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: May 16 2026 | 12:25 PM IST
Sports
Spurs vs. Thunder prediction, odds, spread, time: 2026 NBA Western Conference finals picks for Game 1
The 2026 NBA Western Conference finals get underway when the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs battle the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night. San Antonio is coming off a 139-109 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday to win their semifinal series 4-2, while Oklahoma City downed the Los Angeles Lakers 115-110 on May 11 to sweep their series. The Spurs (62-20), who won the Southwest Division, are looking to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2013-14. The Thunder (64-18), who won the Northwest Division, are looking to win back-to-back NBA championships. De’Aaron Fox (ankle) and Luke Kornet (foot) are questionable for San Antonio.
Tipoff from Paycom Center in Oklahoma City is set for 8:30 p.m. ET. The Thunder are 6.5-point favorites in the latest Spurs vs. Thunder odds from FanDuel Sportsbook, while the over/under for total points scored is 221.5. Before making any Thunder vs. Spurs picks, check out the Spurs vs. Thunder predictions from the SportsLine Projection Model.
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every NBA game 10,000 times and has returned well over $10,000 in betting profit for $100 players on its top-rated NBA picks over the past eight-plus seasons. The model entered the conference finals of the 2026 NBA playoffs on a sizzling 26-10 roll (72%) on top-rated NBA spread picks this season. Anyone following its NBA betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns.
Now, the model has simulated Spurs vs. Thunder 10,000 times and just revealed its coveted NBA picks and betting predictions. You can head to SportsLine now to see the model’s picks. Here are several NBA odds and NBA betting lines for Thunder vs. Spurs:
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Spurs vs. Thunder spread: |
Thunder -6.5 at FanDuel |
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Spurs vs. Thunder over/under: |
221.5 points |
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Spurs vs. Thunder money line: |
Thunder -235, Spurs +193 |
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Spurs vs. Thunder picks: |
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Spurs vs. Thunder streaming: |
Fubo (Try for free) |
Top Spurs vs. Thunder predictions
After 10,000 simulations of Spurs vs. Thunder, SportsLine’s model is going Under on the total (221.5). The Under has hit in six of the last 10 head-to-head meetings, including three of five meetings this season. The Under has also hit in 51 of the last 94 Spurs games with one push when the line is over 205. The Under has hit 25 out of 48 San Antonio road games with one push when the Spurs face teams allowing 102 or more points.
The SportsLine model is projecting just three Spurs players to score 13 points or more, led by Victor Wembanyama’s 24.7 points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is projected to lead the Thunder with 29.7 points scored, but just three Oklahoma City players are forecast to score 16 points or more. The teams are projected to combine for 213 total points as the Under hits in 63% of simulations, making it a great selection for anybody targeting NBA parlay betting. See the Spurs vs. Thunder spread pick at SportsLine, and you can bet the Under in Thunder vs. Spurs at FanDuel here:
How to make Spurs vs. Thunder picks
After simulating each possession of Spurs vs. Thunder 10,000 times, the model also says one side of the spread hits over 50% of the time. You can head to SportsLine to see the model’s NBA picks.
So who wins Spurs vs. Thunder, and which side of the spread hits over 50% of the time? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the Spurs vs. Thunder spread to back, all from the model that has returned well over $10,000 on top-rated NBA picks, and find out.
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Russell Wilson has had his share of ups and downs in his NFL career.
He helped the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl championship in 2013 and was named to the Pro Bowl four times. But the last few years of his career arguably did some damage to his legacy as he’s spent the last three seasons with three different teams.
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New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Oct. 9, 2025. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)
Wilson is still on the free-agent market as he looks to latch on to a new team for 2026. However, former NFL star Aqib Talib implored Wilson to hang up the cleats.
“Do your TV thing, Russ. It’s over with, man. Once you’ve got to decide, do I even want to play?” Talib said on “The Arena: Gridiron.” “I think you don’t really want to play. I hate when guys get to the later part of their career and then they start doing the bounce-around thing and they’re not going to win. There was no chip in New York. That’s just going to be another stop on your resume.”
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Wilson reportedly garnered some interest from NFL teams.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson stands on the field before a game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA on Oct. 26, 2025. (Bill Streicher/Imagn Images)
He told the New York Post that the New York Jets were one of them.
Wilson also was reportedly a candidate to take Matt Ryan’s spot on CBS’ “The NFL Today” after Ryan left to take a front office job with the Atlanta Falcons.
Wilson has 46,966 passing yards and 353 passing touchdowns in 205 career games, but the 2025 season with the New York Giants was one to forget.
Wilson started three games and made some bizarre decisions in a loss against the Chiefs. Jaxson Dart was named the starting quarterback. As he came in to take a few snaps while Dart was being checked for a concussion, Wilson was booed.
New York Giants quarterback Russell Wilson watches from the sidelines during the second half against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colo., on Oct. 19, 2025. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)
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Should he end up signing with another team, Wilson will be entering his age-38 season.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Former Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer lost his multimillion-dollar arbitration case against the NFL team that fired him with cause in 2021, a person familiar with the legal outcome said.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because both sides signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from discussing the case publicly. The person said the case was settled in 2025, although On3 first reported it on Monday.
The Jaguars declined comment, and a message to Meyer was not immediately returned.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan fired Meyer with cause in December 2021, hours after former Jaguars player Josh Lambo said Meyer kicked him during practice months earlier — the latest in a long list of embarrassments over Meyer’s 11-month tenure in Jacksonville.
Meyer tried to handle a professional team like he was on a college campus. He splashed slogans and catchphrases around the facility, instilled gimmicks in practice and repeated his misguided belief that coaches coach for players and players play for coaches. He brought in motivational speakers and kept blaming assistants for the team’s mounting losses instead of the grown men actually on the field.
One of Meyer’s most damning decisions came following a Thursday night game at Cincinnati in late September. He chose to stay behind with family instead of flying home with his team and then got caught on video the following night behaving inappropriately with a woman at a bar in Columbus, Ohio.
Bailing on his players showed just how out of touch Meyer was with NFL norms. And it was just one of many head-scratching choices for a coach who found so much college success — a combined three national titles — at Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and Ohio State.
Meyer challenged the firing, sending the dispute to arbitration. If successful, Meyer would have received the remainder of his five-year contract worth roughly $6 million annually.
Meyer and Lambo are still involved in a civil suit that is scheduled to go to trial in early August. Lambo voluntarily dropped the Jaguars from the lawsuit earlier this year.
Lambo is seeking more than $3.5 million in salary and damages for emotional distress caused by Meyer. According to the lawsuit filed in the 4th Judicial Circuit Court in Duval County, Lambo claims Meyer created a hostile work environment and says his performance suffered as a result of being kicked and verbally abused by Meyer.
Meyer, 61, is currently working as a college football analyst at Fox Sports and was inducted into the College Hall of Fame in December.
John H Stracey swapped the gloves for a microphone in his second act. Half a century on from his famous world title triumph in Mexico City, the former champion is now hoping a new World Cup song can inspire England ahead of the 2026 tournament.
After several street scuffles as a small lad in Bethnal Green, Stracey’s father marched him through the doors Repton Boxing Club at 11 years old.
He moved through the amateur ranks impressively – schoolboy, junior, senior – and represented his country at the Olympics in 1968, losing in the last 16 to eventual gold medallist Ronnie Harris of the USA.
If his Olympics run didn’t end as he wanted, it would still prepare Stracey for his own World Cup final. He turned over to the paid ranks five days before his 19th birthday and won the British and European welterweight titles before landing a shot at Mexican great José Nápoles in the sweltering, high-altitude cauldron of Mexico City for the WBC world title in 1975.
“I was very, very confident. Extremely confident. I actually preferred being away from home. When you’re defending a title at home, there’s so much pressure. But when you go abroad for a title fight, everybody expects you to lose anyway. If you lose, they say, ‘Well, he boxed 5,000 miles away.’ But if you win, that’s the great thing about it.
“Mexico suited me because I’d already boxed there as an amateur in the Olympics. Chris Finnegan won gold there, and we had some really good fighters.
“But the big thing was the altitude. It was 7,500 feet above sea level, so you couldn’t just arrive and start training hard the next day. You had to ease yourself into it. If you look, I’m the only British boxer ever to win it in Mexico, no one’s ever done it, and I don’t know if it’s because they don’t prepare properly.
“When we went there for the Olympics, we arrived two weeks early. For the Napoles fight, I made sure I got there three weeks before. I knew if I was going to have any chance at becoming champion, I had to be there long enough to become accustomed to it.”
Stracey recovered from a first-round knockdown in front of 42,000 fans at the Plaza de Toros – just 24 of whom, he says, had travelled from Britain – to stop Nápoles in the sixth and become world champion. After all deductions, he walked away with £2,000 and a car, but, more importantly, he had fulfilled a lifelong ambition to win the title. Yet boxing was never the only thing Stracey imagined himself doing.
Long before he became world champion, he had dreams of becoming a singer. In fact, when he mentions a talent competition trophy he won at 12 years old, it’s easy to imagine it sitting proudly alongside the green and gold WBC belt today.
“Music had always been there. In fact, before boxing, I wanted to be a singer. I won a talent competition in 1962 at a holiday camp. That’s what I wanted to do originally, but singing became number two and boxing number one.”
After retiring in 1978, Stracey swapped the buzz of the ring for the stage, alongside various business ventures. He’s proud to point out that he has shared stages with the likes of Johnny Mathis, Tony Christie and Russ Abbot, and performed, as he once fought, in Las Vegas. Today, he writes songs and takes his act all over the country, drawing great satisfaction from sing-alongs at retirement homes, sometimes changing his stage name so boxing doesn’t dominate the conversation.
This year, the national pride born from his boxing days and his passion for singing collide with the release of ‘66 All Over Again’, a catchy World Cup anthem backing the Three Lions to bring the trophy home 60 years on from their last success, which Stracey, now 75, watched as a 16-year-old amateur fighter.
“Oh, I loved it [watching in 1966]. Alan Ball became my favourite player. It was such a special time to be English.”
“The song actually started years ago, around 2010. I wrote the lyrics and a mate of mine helped with the music because I can’t write music myself. I can hear the tune in my head, though.
“Nothing really happened with it for years, but recently some people heard it and loved it, so now we’re releasing it for the 2026 World Cup.”
If Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham, Declan Rice et al. need extra motivation, they perhaps won’t look to the lyrics or the tune, but to the man singing and what he managed to achieve back in 1975 on away soil.
Indeed, the former world champion points out that if England makes it through the group, there’s a chance they’ll play in the thin air of Mexico City during the knockout stage. He’s not unaware of the synchronicity and would happily return to the place so vital to his story to share the moment.
“If they flew me over, I’d be right in my element.
“When we boxed in Mexico as amateurs, we went to the Plaza de Toros bullring to watch bullfighting. We hated it and walked out. I remember saying, ‘I’ll never go into a bullring again.’
“Years later, my world title fight against Nápoles ended up taking place in that exact same arena.”
If Stracey was to go and perform for the team, 7,500 feet above sea level, the question becomes how the nerves of the first notes stack up against those of a ring walk. He says there is no comparison.
“Oh, singing’s much easier. You can forget the odd word, but you mustn’t forget the odd punch.”
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