Free Republic

The most off-putting thing about the NFL asking two teams to fly 16 hours to the other side of the world and play a key division rivalry game in Australia the first week of the season was the league agreeing to give the performative antics of some lady named Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin a stage during its pregame ceremony. Aunty Joy, as she is affectionately called by her followers, which include people in the Australian government, is an Indigenous Australian and Senior Wurundjeri elder of the Kulin Alliance, Victoria. And what that title means is that she is often tasked...

Fool's Ball, Week Pigskin Pickem Thread, Week 1 Your home for all things Fool's Ball! In Memoriam Danny Lee (BENDER2)

Tom Brady came home. California thanked him the only way it knows how. A little more than a week after the seven-time Super Bowl champion cut the ribbon at CardVault by Tom Brady in Palo Alto, somebody put a rock through the glass. Then they put a rock through the cases. Then they walked out with about 60 trading cards worth more than $12,000 and vanished into a state that has spent a decade teaching thieves they can vanish. Palo Alto police say the break-in hit the shop at Town & Country Village, 855 El Camino Real, around 12:30 a.m....

For about the 25th year, one of Free Republic's members is pleased to create a Yahoo! Pick'em Fantasy Football league. The league rules are simple: ** Pick the winners of each game ** Assign a confidence value to each game ** Post messages to each other on the message board that include bad puns ** Donate generously to Free Republic at the end of the season in the name of the top point earner That's about it. It is a wonderful time waster that really doesn't take much time. I tend to pick all the games in preseason for all...

Plus: Why Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers are guilty, and why Shohei Ohtani is not Jason Russell | 8.18.2026 10:25 AM Has any famous athlete ever had such an unnecessary public relations fumble as Jayden Daniels' demand that LSU stop using his name, image, and likeness (NIL)? The Commanders quarterback is getting relentlessly mocked online by almost everyone—not just random people online, but even professional teams in other leagues. Examples if you click below: New York Mets @Mets Stopped at 4 out of respect for Jayden Daniels #LGM #MetsWin NFL Drop @TheNFLDrop Five Guys has changed their name to Four...

If the Chicago Bears end up moving to Indiana, the team will not be undergoing any sort of name change. There was some speculation this week that the 106-year-old NFL franchise might change its name to the Indiana Bears if the team decides to move to Hammond, Indiana, but owner George McCaskey shot that down on Thursday. During a press conference, McCaskey was asked point blank if a name change might happen if the team left Illinois and he responded emphatically.

The former president of Taylor Farms’ Tennessee division has been accused of stealing $32 million from the company through multiple schemes that included funneling money to a sham company and keeping his wife and other family members on the payroll. Taylor Farms, the major U.S. produce supplier at the center of a lettuce recall and diarrheal illness outbreak, made the allegations in a federal lawsuit filed in Tennessee. According to the lawsuit, Brian Thure served as president of Taylor Farms Tennessee from 2012 through March of this year. In the roughly 14 years he was head of the Tennessee division,...

Taylor Fresh Foods has filed a federal lawsuit accusing the former president of its Tennessee subsidiary, his wife and two others of orchestrating a yearslong fraud scheme that allegedly stole more than $32 million from the company. Taylor Fresh Foods filed the federal lawsuit at the beginning of June, 2026, accusing the former president of its Tennessee subsidiary, his wife and two others of orchestrating a yearslong fraud scheme that allegedly stole more than $32 million from the company. According to the complaint, Brian Thure served as president of Taylor Farms Tennessee from about 2012 until March 2026 and allegedly...

Danhausen may be known for handing out curses, but even he has a price when it comes to helping one of the NFL’s most snakebitten franchises. While in Minnesota for WWE SummerSlam 2026 festivities, Danhausen was asked what it would take for him to remove the curse from the Minnesota Vikings. His answer? 10 million human monies.

A former NFL player from Kenya with a criminal record has been removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Chicago, ICE exclusively told Fox News Digital. Daniel Ogama Adongo, 37, was a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts until 2015 and has been arrested multiple times over the last decade, including a conviction for criminal mischief with damage in 2020. He was sentenced to a year in jail. ICE said Adongo overstayed his visa in 2016 and under the Laken Riley act, signed by President Donald Trump last year, those in the country illegally are required to be detained...

There has been plenty of discussion surrounding the Kansas City Chiefs' decision with their new, upcoming stadium. Scheduled to open in 2031, "New Chiefs Stadium" will be located in Kansas City, Kansas instead of Kansas City, Missouri. That in itself has been controversial. There's also the question of whether there's actually a need for a brand new stadium. Arrowhead Stadium has been renovated and even expanded several times over the past 35 years. And it just played a major role during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where it was considered one of the best venues for the tournament. Regardless, it's...

A slate of Republican candidates endorsed by President Trump, including former NFL kicker Jay Feely, emerged victorious Tuesday in Arizona’s primary elections, while a Democratic socialist House hopeful suffered a massive defeat. Feely, who played for six teams, including the New York Jets and New York Giants, during his 14 seasons in the NFL, defeated former state lawmaker Joseph Chaplik in the Arizona 1st District race by a 49.4%-35.2% margin. The district, rated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, is being vacated by Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), who opted to run for governor, and is expected to be hotly...

As the World Cup winds down ahead of Sunday’s final, NFL players are taking to social media to express their desire to play on the type of natural grass fields the tournament used throughout the summer. Players across the league this week attached the hashtag “WorthTheCost” to posts asking why grass fields were used in World Cup games played in NFL stadiums, while they aren’t afforded the same surfaces in many of those same venues. Among the players who posted the hashtag on Friday: Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, Washington Commanders tackle Laremy Tunsil, Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor,...

The Washington Commanders are retiring Hall of Fame running back John Riggins' No. 44 -- more than 40 years after he scored a touchdown on one of the most famous runs in Super Bowl history. He becomes the seventh player in franchise history to have his number retired. He'll be honored during Washington's game vs. the Los Angeles Rams on Nov. 8. Riggins played for Washington from 1976 to 1985 and remains the franchise's all-time leading rusher with 7,742 yards and is second with 85 touchdowns. His team-best 79 rushing touchdowns are 33 more than second place Clinton Portis. Riggins,...

O.J. Simpson will not be honored among other Buffalo Bills legends at the team's new Highmark Stadium. "We have made an organizational decision that he is not a fit to display inside our new stadium and family circle," Bills president of business operations Pete Guelli said in a statement. The Bills will be honoring legends in the team's family circle area outside of the new stadium, an area that will display history about the team and Western New York. Others who were on the team's Wall of Fame will be honored in the area with Simpson likely the only one...

Quarterback Brendan Sorsby will not play in the NFL in 2026, as the league has elected not to hold a supplemental draft. The NFL's decision came down to its right to decide whether to hold a supplemental draft, per the collective bargaining agreement, as league officials said they believed it would ultimately become a distraction to teams as they begin training camps. "His application carries with it a lot of issues," an NFL source told ESPN. "Core of the game integrity issues." Sorsby admitted to betting thousands of times on college and pro sports, bets that totaled upward of $90,000...

STATEMENT FROM CHICAGO BEARS CHAIRMAN GEORGE H. MCCASKEY AND PRESIDENT & CEO KEVIN WARREN Yesterday, the Chicago Bears Board of Directors met and voted to advance our stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site to be selected. We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana to the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and across neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city. It will bring Chicagoland together and deliver new opportunities to its residents and businesses.

The Bears took a significant step toward leaving Illinois on Friday. The Bears' board of directors voted Thursday to advance their stadium development in Hammond, Indiana, with the exact site still to be determined. This is this first time that the Bears' board has voted on any stadium site. The Bears' plans to leave the state they've called home since their inception for Indiana come just days after the end of Illinois' spring legislative session. "We believe a world-class stadium project in Hammond will transform the region, connecting Northwest Indiana and the South Side of Chicago through the Loop and...

Braun has previously given Indiana roughly “65-35” odds of landing the team and has repeatedly highlighted the advantages of Indiana’s business-friendly environment compared to Illinois’ high-tax, high-regulation climate. Losing the Bears would represent far more than a symbolic defeat for Illinois. It would mean losing thousands of potential construction jobs, long-term economic activity, tourism revenue, and one of the state’s most iconic institutions. It would also send a powerful message to businesses nationwide about the direction of Illinois under Democratic leadership. The potential departure would fit a troubling pattern. Since Pritzker took office, Illinois has seen more than 500,000 residents...

NEW YORK -- Ten-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson confirmed Wednesday in a video posted to social media that he's retiring from the NFL to take a job with CBS Sports. Wilson's announcement came two days after news broke that he was finalizing a deal to become an analyst on CBS' Sunday NFL pregame show. "As I enter this next chapter with CBS Sports and 'The NFL Today,' I'm so blessed to continue doing what I love most -- being around the greatest game in the world," he said in the video. Wilson played 14 seasons after being taken by...