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Former NHL defenseman Steve Montador died at age 35, as first reported by TVA’s Renaud Lavoie. The Mississauga News reports that he was found dead at his home at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. Police do not suspect foul play. Montador last performed in the NHL for the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011-12. He played 571 regular season games spread out between the Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, Buffalo Sabres, Anaheim Ducks, Boston Bruins and Blackhawks. Many may remember him most from his time when the Flames, as he appeared in 20 postseason games during Calgary’s memorable run to the 2004 Stanley...

Russell Wilson has had a solid career so far as an NFL quarterback but his career as a movie critic has gotten off to a rocky start. The Seahawks quarterback went to see 50 Shades of Grey on Thursday night and by Friday morning, his review of the movie was in.

Browns owner Jimmy Haslam claims he didn’t know of Johnny Manziel’s lifestyle when he drafted the former Heisman Trophy-winner last year. “I don’t know how much of Johnny’s personal life was known by everybody then,” Haslam told a press conference on Friday. Manziel currently sits in a rehabilitation facility to transition from his party lifestyle to a sober one. Manziel slipped to the 22nd pick in the 2014 draft based largely on the concerns that Haslam now suggests were largely unknown last spring. College Station police arrested the Texas A&M quarterback on alcohol-related charges after a late-night fight in 2012...

Out-of-work running back Ray Rice has issued a statement thanking the Baltimore Ravens and apologizing for his actions in a February 2014 elevator incident with his now-wife that struck a serious chord with the nation a year ago. Rice's high-profile case was the signature incident of a horrific domestic-violence swell among NFL players last season, and it raised awareness of what appeared to be a growing problem in the league. For his part, Rice apologized for his actions and thanked the city of Baltimore and the team, which released him last season once the full tape of Rice hitting his...

LSU played with one hand tied behind its back in 2014, and that one hand happened to belong to its quarterback, which made for some trouble for the Tigers. It was excruciating trouble, actually. The Tigers had the top-rated defense in the SEC and still lost five games. They were 14th out of 14 SEC teams through the air in the regular season, gaining just 1,967 yards with a muted passing game that looked like it belonged in the year 1967. So the familiar refrain around LSU, the two words you hear most often: If only… If only LSU had...

Any lingering notions of a smooth ride to Vancouver faded away with each French pass in Lorient on Sunday. France delivered the United States women's national team an inescapable dose of reality to accompany the rhythmic dissection. The gulf between the two sides on the day gave the French a deserved 2-0 victory and left the Americans with plenty to ponder ahead of their trip across the English Channel. "It's a big wake-up call for us," USA forward Christen Press told reporters after the game. "We like to win, we don't like to have these kinds of performances, but we...

If you care at all about the players on the Jackie Robinson West Little League team, don’t call them champions. They aren’t. Wednesday’s announcement by Little League International that the team has been stripped of its U.S. title and all its wins from the 2014 Little League World Series tournament is all the proof you need. These are not champions. To say otherwise is a disservice to these kids, and they’ve already been handed a disservice big enough to last a lifetime. So don’t say, “It’s OK, kids, you’re still champions in our eyes.” Don’t say, “We don’t care, you...

Rev. Jesse Jackson, the polarizing civil rights activist, is calling for Little League International to return the U.S. championship to the 12-year-olds from Jackie Robinson West, mere hours after Little League stripped the team of its title. And if that doesn't happen, Jackson said Wednesday afternoon, he may take legal action. Jackie Robinson West — consumed in a vortex of allegations involving ineligible players and illegally redrawing its league boundaries — became a feel-good story in Chicago and across the country on its run to the Little League World Series. An all-black team that was supported by MLB players, Jackie...

Tarkanian, 84, had been hospitalized since Monday for a a respiratory ailment and infection.The towel-chewing coach, dubbed Tark the Shark, had been hospitalized three times in 10 months.He had a second heart attack last April and was treated for pneumonia in November.

Last summer, nearly 23 years after he lost one of the most famous tennis matches in history to Jimmy Connors, Aaron Krickstein finally made the phone call he had always been too nervous to make. He and Connors hadn’t spoken since Labor Day 1991, when Connors beat Krickstein in five raucous sets at the U.S. Open. The match has lived longer than any other in tennis, with annual rain-delay reruns and a recent ESPN documentary. Krickstein decided the time had come for a rematch—and a new beginning to a friendship that went kaput when Connors won. On Tuesday here, Krickstein,...

CHICAGO (AP) — Little League International has stripped Chicago's Jackie Robinson West of its national title after finding the team falsified its boundary map. The league made the announcement Wednesday morning, saying the Chicago team violated regulations by placing players on the team who didn't qualify because they lived outside the team's boundaries. Little League International also suspended Jackie Robinson West manager Darold Butler from league activity.

The Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin offers $220 million towards a new Bucks arena, if Gov. Scott Walker changes his mind about a Kenosha casino

Retired NFL great Brett Favre has some advice for current NFL great Peyton Manning who is considering whether or not to retire before next season. “I think the numbers he’s put up the last few years are staggering. Can he do that again? I guess that’s a question these teams have to ask if he chooses to play.” “Initially he said this is gonna be a quick decision and it hasn’t been so quick,” said Favre. No one knows better than the NFL great how tough it is to decide to retire following a legendary career. The multiple-MVP quarterback is...

Big Ten mascots, you’ve done it again!When it comes to sticking together and joining forces on fun projects, few conference’s mascots rival the Big Ten’s. There’s this, this and this. And, who can forget their “Call Me Maybe” parody? Actually, we’re just going to go ahead and say the Big Ten boasts the best mascots.New proof of this fact surfaced Monday, when the mascots – all but Testudo, Willie the Wildcat and Nittany Lion – released their entertaining “Shake It Off” parody.For those of you who don’t know, “Shake It Off” is Taylor Swift’s catchy and highly addicting new hit.

Dean Smith, the coaching innovator who won two national championships at North Carolina, an Olympic gold medal in 1976 and induction into basketball's Hall of Fame more than a decade before he left the bench, has died. He was 83. The retired coach died "peacefully" at his North Carolina home Saturday night, the school said in a statement Sunday from Smith's family. He was with his wife and five children. Smith had health issues in recent years, with the family saying in 2010 he had a condition that was causing him to lose memory. He had kept a lower profile...

NEW YORK -- Ed Sabol, the NFL Films founder who revolutionized sports broadcasting and reimagined pro football from an up-and-coming league to must-watch theater, has died. He was 98. Sabol died Monday at his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, the NFL said.

The domestic-abuse case against Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy was dismissed on Monday because the court's witness refused to testify. Hardy was convicted at a bench trial on July 15 of misdemeanor charges of communicating threats and assaulting a female. The decision was immediately appealed and a jury trial date was set for November. After a continuance, Hardy's trial was rescheduled for Monday, but the court was never able to convince Hardy's ex-girlfriend to testify.

Survivors described it as a corridor of death: a narrow route of high, chain-link security fences and barbed wire that thousands of soccer fans were filing through before entering the stadium to watch their team play. Then, mayhem broke out. Those at the front of the line were turned back by police. Those in the back continued to press forward. Jittery police fired tear gas into the middle of the crowd, creating what survivors said was "like a whirlpool" — sucking people into a crush of bodies with no way out. The stampede killed 22 people Sunday night at the...

It was a year ago - the Sunday after Super Bowl XLVIII at 8pmET - that Michael Sam turned speculation into reality: One of college football's best players, and a top NFL prospect, was gay. In the coming months he was showered with praise. Eric Dickerson would offer him congratulations. Michael Irvin would call him his friend. Robert Quinn welcomed him to the Rams. Even the President of the United States, Barack Obama himself, would laud him.

New York Knicks owner and Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan told a fan to "start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks don't want you" in a contentious email exchange. In the email, Irving Bierman criticized Dolan over decisions made during his tenure as owner of the Knicks. Dolan responded by telling Bierman to root for the Nets and attacked him personally. An MSG representative confirmed to ESPN.com that the emailed response was written by Dolan.