The Minnesota Vikings’ 2026 draft class is in the books, a group nine men deep and headlined by Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks in Round 1. Now, with attention turning toward the summer, ESPN has identified the top remaining question for Minnesota before the start of the regular season: Harrison Smith’s status.

Minnesota drafted safety help, but Smith’s decision still affects the back end of Kevin O’Connell’s roster.

O’Connell’s team may arguably have graver concerns than that, but Smith’s retirement or return takes the cake for ESPN.

The Safety Room Still Revolves around One Decision

Was that really it for Smith?

Vikings’ Top Question after Draft? It’s Smith, Says ESPN

ESPN raised one question per NFL team on Monday, and for Minnesota, Kevin Seifert wrote, “Will safety Harrison Smith return? At the end of the season, all signs were pointing toward the longtime Vikings safety retiring after 14 seasons. But free agency and now the draft have come and gone, and Smith hasn’t made any public pronouncements.”

“The Vikings released him March 11 but have let him know that they would welcome him back if he decides to play in 2026. The team drafted safety Jakobe Thomas in the third round, but there have been no other notable additions at the position. The Vikings will move on if they have to, but they know they will have a better defense with Smith back on the field.”

That question, indeed, has been on Vikings fans’ minds for over three months.

The Latest on Smith

The Vikings drafted Miami safety Jakobe Thomas in Round 3 on Friday night, swerving from a widely expected Dillon Thieneman selection in Round 1. If Smith was waiting to see the fruit of Minnesota’s draft, there’s no Thieneman or Emmanuel McNeil-Warren waltzing in on Day No. 1 to take his job.

O’Connell also updated the Smith return-or-retire agenda last week, saying, “It’s been a few days, but now that you remind me, I’ll probably bug him today. It’s something where we’re still trying to give Harrison as much space as possible, and I think he’s earned that. If it’s anything at this point, it’s seeing how he’s doing, seeing how his family is, seeing how his golf game is.”

Most onlookers expected that Smith would’ve retired by now — if he planned to retire in the first place this offseason. It’s also worth noting that Smith has joked in the past that no one would know when he retired because he wouldn’t be overly vocal about it. Perhaps that’s unfolding before your very eyes.

The Viking Age‘s Brad Berreman on Smith’s future: “As continuing to play has become a year-to-year proposition for him, Smith has usually made a decision to return well before now. It’s never an easy decision to call it a career, of course, but that he still hasn’t decided means retirement is possibly on his radar more legitimately than it has been in previous years.”

“The Vikings surely know which way Smith is leaning, and drafting Thomas isn’t necessarily an indicator that he’s going to retire in the coming weeks or months.”

The Safety Group without Him

Sans Smith, here’s the state of play at safety in Minnesota from head to toe:

And to get you familiar with Thomas, the newcomer, here’s the scouting report from NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein: “A productive, fifth-year safety prospect, Thomas is wired to play forward and race into the action wherever it is present. He overflows pursuit and has too many missed or broken tackles on his stat sheet, but his impact against the run is a net positive.”

“He has good ball production but is fairly average in coverage. He can be way too quick to overlap or bite on bait, which allows receivers to get behind him from single-high and split-safety alignments. Thomas has the potential to develop into a starter as a likely middle-round pick.”

Other Concerns

While Smith’s return is a fair question for Minnesota, the club might have more pressing concerns, or at least ones with similar magnitude. These are examples:

1. Who will the Vikings sign to play an OLB3 role after the Jonathan Greenard trade?
2. Who will the Vikings sign to compete for or play WR3 after drafting no wide receivers?
3. Will Caleb Banks be ready for Week 1?
4. Is Blake Brandel trustworthy at center?
5. How is Christian Darrisaw’s longstanding ACL recovery coming along?
6. Which players will get extensions this summer?

Smith has been a Viking for 14 seasons. Folks will closely monitor his return, probably until Week 1 arrives in the off-chance that he isn’t on the field or hasn’t expressly retired.

Bruno Fernandes is closing in on a Premier League record and his performances for Man Utd this season deserve wider acclaim.

There was a revealing line from Michael Carrick about Bruno Fernandes last week, when the Manchester United head coach discussed the impact his captain has had this season and what he has done to take his game to another level since his appointment in January.

“For me, I like seeing Bruno in attacking positions with a little freedom,” he said. Mischief makers could interpret that as a slight against his predecessor, Ruben Amorim, although Carrick is far too diplomatic to have meant it that way.

The 44-year-old had a season ticket with his family at Old Trafford before his sudden elevation to the top job earlier this year, so we can probably guess at what he thought of Amorim’s decision to play Fernandes in a deeper role this season in a 3-4-2-1 system.

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It should be said that Fernandes himself had no issue with his role under Amorim, and earlier this month, he actually expressed regret at the club’s decision to end his compatriot’s 14-month time in charge so abruptly.

But there is no getting away from the fact that the 31-year-old has been back to his very best since being restored to those attacking positions that Carrick spoke about. He was still producing numbers further back, but in six years at Old Trafford, he has consistently shown that when it comes to attacking midfielders in the Premier League, he is pretty much unmatched.

After setting up Benjamin Sesko’s goal against Brentford on Monday, Fernandes is now up to 19 assists in the Premier League this season. He needs one in his final four games to equal the record held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne. Two would see him set a new benchmark all by himself.

He is also timing his run to perfection when it comes to the end-of-season gongs that will be dished out in May. It might be all about the team for the selfless Fernandes, but his form has him in pole position to win some individual honours as well.

“Hopefully, he does. He deserves it for the impact that he’s had and the moments that he’s created,” said Carrick on Monday night. “Whether that’s creating, whether that’s scoring, whether it’s having another influence within the group. He’s had a big season and it was another good performance from him tonight.”

In 13 games under Carrick, Fernandes has now delivered 11 assists and scored three times. He could have taken the shot on as he ran forward last night, but looked like he was eyeing up a pass and another assist instead.

He’s now registered an assist in six of his last seven games, and he scored in the other fixture. This is a player at the peak of his powers, and the fact that he has played every single minute under Carrick is telling. His influence is enormous on and off the pitch,

Fernandes must now be the favourite to win a few awards at the end of this season. I have voted for him in the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) award, while his peers will surely give him plenty of votes in the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) award. Then there is the Premier League Player of the Season honour, which is decided by a panel.

To put Fernandes’ achievements into context, a United player hasn’t won the FWA or PFA award since Wayne Rooney in 2009/10, while the Premier League honour last went to Old Trafford when Nemanja Vidic won it in 2010/11.

It is rare, although not unheard of, for individual recognition to go to a player who hasn’t won trophies with his team that season. This year looked like being one that belonged to Arsenal, but they have stumbled at the wrong time and have no obvious candidate, really, beyond maybe goalkeeper David Raya or centre-back Gabriel. They don’t have a player who has lit up the Premier League.

Manchester City have someone who fits that bill at the moment, but Rayan Cherki’s spellbinding brilliance has come late in the day and he hasn’t done it consistently enough this season to win an individual award.

So all roads lead to Fernandes, even if his heroics only propel United to third in a 40-game season. This is no lifetime achievement award, but he deserves some kind of recognition for all he has delivered across what will be six-and-a-half seasons at Old Trafford.

While United have suffered some desperate lows during Fernandes’ time at the club, he has rarely let his standards drop, with 106 goals and 106 assists in 323 appearances. Just as importantly, he is almost always available. He has been absent through injury or suspension for just 11 matches since he joined the club.

He could very easily have left the club last summer, and there was confusion over who wanted what amid interest from Saudi Arabia. United will be glad they didn’t decide to cash in and there is no doubt they are desperate for their captain to stay. This might be another trophyless season for United, but Fernandes should at least have some silverware for his cabinet at the end of it.

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

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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.

It is fair to say the first full season as a professional head coach for Mark Jones at the Ospreys has been a baptism of fire.

Results will show it has been a disappointing campaign.

Ospreys lie in 11th position in the United Rugby Championship (URC), out of play-off contention with two league games remaining. They were also knocked out of the Challenge Cup at the last-16 stage by Ulster.

That does not tell the whole story. Off the field the Ospreys have endured a torrid time, their very existence threatened.

There has been a turbulent three months which started with the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) announcing Ospreys owners, Y11 Sport & Media, as the preferred bidder to buy Cardiff from the governing body.

Ninety days of discussions followed but came to nothing when the deal collapsed and Ospreys were told last week, along with the other three regions, their future was safe until 2028.

Throughout all that trouble and strife, Jones has been the one constant for Ospreys fans and staff.

He is the man who has had to answer the questions about Ospreys and Y11 and try and reassure his players, coaches and staff. More than just a rugby coach.

“It’s been a hell of a season just reflecting on it,” said Jones.

“I’m just doing my job as I see it and doing the best I can.

“Have I got everything right? No, I probably haven’t. But what I’ve tried to do is just be open and honest with things and as professional as I can.

“It’s been tough but it’s what the job is.”

When it comes to discussing the greatest British fighters of all time, Lennox Lewis and Joe Calzaghe are often the first two names that spring to mind.

Both of them defeated every man they faced in a professional ring, while also becoming dominant world champions in their respective divisions.

At heavyweight, Lewis was crowned the undisputed king in 1999 following his unanimous decision victory over Evander Holyfield, who many felt he deserved to outpoint earlier that year.

Calzaghe, meanwhile, made an astonishing 21 world super-middleweight title defences before moving up to 175lbs and ending his decorated career with a record of 46-0 (32 KOs).

But while many would place these two at the very top of an all-time British boxing list, there are others who argue that Prince Naseem Hamed deserves the No.1 spot.

The Sheffield stylist claimed his world featherweight title in 1995, dethroning Steve Robinson with an eighth-round stoppage on away soil.

Eight consecutive defences then led him to a six-knockdown thriller with Kevin Kelley, culminating in a stunning fourth-round triumph for Hamed at Madison Square Garden.

After that, ‘Naz’ halted the likes of Paul Ingle and Augie Sanchez with solid performances, before suffering his only defeat, against Mexican great Marco Antonio Barrera, in 2001.

Still, it was a phenomenal career that is fiercely celebrated and revered among boxing circles, with Hamed telling talkSPORT that he should be regarded as the best champion in British boxing history.

“I honestly believe that I am the best fighter from this country and the best British boxer that’s ever lived.”

Most would argue that Lewis and Calzaghe deserve to be placed above ‘Naz’ in a list of such nature, though the three of them are certainly among the very best of all time.

After the news that FIFA is set to allow domestic football leagues to play one game a season abroad, German football faces a familiar battle between tradition and growth.

English newspaper The Guardian exclusively reported that new FIFA proposals will allow domestic leagues to have one game a season hosted in a foreign country. The host country will reportedly be allowed to host a maximum of five games from other countries, with the US the favored target.

“I think the German members would object to that and there would be mass protests in the stadium,” Martin Endemann, head of policy at Football Supporters Europe, who advocate for fans on the continent, told DW. “Any football official who would try to do this would have a very, very hard time with those fans in the stadium as well as the members of the respective clubs.”

The discussion of playing domestic league games abroad is not new. Last October, UEFA gave La Liga (Spain) and Serie A (Italy) permission to play a game abroad, but the games were scrapped after local authorities raised concerns. The fallout was ugly.

The new FIFA protocol for moving a competitive game abroad would require approval from all major stakeholders, and FIFA would still have the right to reject the switch.

“It is the formalization of something that has been economically inevitable for years,” Dominik Schreyer, a professor of sports economics at Germany’s Otto Beisheim School of Management, told DW.

“Football has been shifting from a locally anchored product to a globally monetized media asset, and once that transition happens, geography becomes flexible,” Schreyer added. 

“FIFA is not leading here, it is reacting under pressure and trying to regulate a development that was already underway through preseason tours and earlier league attempts to stage games abroad. Framing it as one game per season makes it politically digestible, but economically it starts to normalize the idea that domestic competitions are no longer strictly domestic. You could say, the product has already gone global, now the matches are catching up,” he said.

German football structure different to rest of Europe

While many believe such developments have long been an inevitability for clubs in England, Spain and Italy, German club ownership structure differs to other major European leagues, presenting a more complex conversation.

The 50+1 rule essentially guarantees that 50% plus one share of a club’s total shares must be owned by members, ruling out ownership by rich individuals or even nation states. The power of German fans is not to be underestimated, as was recently seen by the failed attempt to secure investment from a private equity partner.

However, if domestic league games abroad become a reality for clubs in Europe, then the Bundesliga will likely return to walking along the familiar tightrope of tradition and growth.

“Financially, the upside exists but should not be overstated,” Schreyer said of playing league games abroad. The example of the National Football League (NFL) in the US playing competitive games abroad is proof of this. Ahead of the first league game in Germany in 2022, the head of NFL Germany said they could have sold over 3 million tickets. Business and finance source BNN Bloomberg explained that when the Jacksonville Jaguars play in London, the team generates roughly $35 to 50 million (€30 to €42.5 million) in revenue each time they play.

“A competitive match abroad carries more commercial weight than a pre-season game because it combines scarcity, sporting relevance and global media attention. As such, a club like Bayern or Dortmund could maybe expect a low double-digit million euro uplift for a match in the US,” Schreyer said, adding that an exact number is hard to come by. Figures released by Sport Bild in late 2025 suggest that Bayern reportedly makes around €5.7 million per home game in revenue.

“This is about positioning, not payday. That becomes even clearer once you factor in compensation for local fans, especially season ticket holders, who would miss out on a high-value fixture at their home stadium.”

Opposed to the idea, but for how long?

Herein lies the major challenge for German football. The tradition that many football clubs are rooted in in Germany, combined with the 50+1 structure, mean that maintaining the local market remains imperative even in the face of football’s global growth.

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The DFL (German Football League), the organization that operates the Bundesliga, have publicly spoken out against the idea, and have been as far back as 2018 when Christian Seifert was boss. More recently, Hans-Joachim Watzke, the chairman of the DFL supervisory board and a former Dortmund CEO, couldn’t have been clearer when speaking on the topic.

“As long as I am responsible for this league, there will be no match abroad, when it comes to competitive matches. Full stop,” said Watzke.

Bayern Munich’s CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen is also opposed to the idea, but what if these games become a regular reality for the likes of Manchester City, Paris Saint Germain and Real Madrid?

“For German clubs, the real constraint is cultural,” argued Schreyer. “German football still defines itself through local identity, while competitors have fully embraced global market logic. In the short term, Bundesliga clubs will not fall behind simply by abstaining, because media rights still carry the bulk of revenues. But if others consistently monetize international demand through premium events and German clubs opt out, the gap in global relevance will widen, and the money will follow.”

For Germany, this possibility is only really a concern for a handful of clubs.

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“Fans are buying a spectacle, not a league fixture. Nobody will fill an arena in the US for Hoffenheim versus Augsburg. So, this will work for a handful of clubs, not for the league as a whole,” Schreyer said, with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund the obvious two candidates.

While Bundesliga games being played abroad remains extremely unlikely, pressure will grow if other major clubs do take the step.

Edited by: Matt Pearson

NEW DELHI: South Africa spinner Tabraiz Shamsi sent social media into a frenzy with a hilarious post that perfectly captured cricket’s knack for producing uncanny similarities. Sharing a clip from a local match, possibly played in India, Shamsi highlighted a young boy bowling with a distinctly slingy action, reminiscent of two of Sri Lanka’s most unique pacers.