1st Down: LIV Golf, according to sources, is closing on a deal to be aired on Fox. But it’s not the sort of deal you’d assume. According to the report, the controversial new league would be paying the broadcaster for the air time; a strange arrangement that is not common in the sports world. Greg Norman had earlier stated that four media outlets were in talks with him and the league, but it appears that none of those panned out as he might have hoped. LIV boasts the likes of Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, and Bryson DeChambeau thus far.
2nd Down: With Hurricane Ian headed toward central Florida, a number of schedule changes have been made by college football teams in order to be prepared for the storm. The Gators will be playing on Sunday rather than Saturday against Eastern Washington while Central Florida have taken the same measure for their outing against SMU. South Florida, meanwhile, moved its game against East Carolina from Tampa to Boca Raton. Florida State have so far chosen to ride it out with their date, so we’ll see if they kickoff as scheduled with Wake Forest or not on Saturday in a crunch ACC showdown.
3rd Down: NASCAR have taken punishing measures on William Byron after he and Denny Hamlin had an incident during Sunday’s race at Texas. Byron spun the #11 under caution, which the organization didn’t catch originally, and they have thus decided to fine the driver of the #24 $50,000 while also docking him 25 championship points. That means he has dropped down significantly in the standings with Talladega, the second race in the second round, coming up.
4th Down: Things continue to look bleak for the United States men’s soccer team. Another drab result came on Tuesday evening in Spain as they drew 0-0 with Saudi Arabia in a friendly. It was their last friendly before the beginning of the World Cup in November, too, so it’s pretty disappointing to see them play so poorly. Elsewhere, Brazil battered Tunisia 5-1 in France while Lionel Messi scored twice for Argentina as they beat Jamaica 3-0 to make it 35 games without defeat. Colombia overcame a two-goal deficit at the half to beat Mexico 3-2, further kicking El Tri after a recent run of woes.
