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A 7-year-old Michigan girl with “a bright future ahead” is dead and her mother is in serious condition after police allege that a family friend shot them both and then himself after soccer practice Thursday night. Emma Watson Nowling was shot in the head in the parking lot of the Taylor Sportsplex and died later the same night, Taylor police said in a statement to PEOPLE. Her mother, 37-year-old Sharon…

Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. World Cup champion soccer team tore a knee ligament that will require surgery, jeopardizing her chances of playing in next summer’s Rio Olympics. The U.S. Soccer Federation said Saturday the Seattle Reign midfielder tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee during training Friday in Honolulu. It was a noncontact injury. She has twice torn the ACL in her left knee as a college…

GALLERY: Red Carpet at NASCAR Awards Show LAS VEGAS — Jeff Gordon appeared as amazed and surprised as the rest of the people filling the massive banquet hall when actor Tom Cruise walked on stage at Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Banquet to introduce the retiring driver and reflect on the four-time champion’s storied career. Gordon, sitting in the audience with his wife, Ingrid and two young children, looked completely stunned as Cruise…

Trujillo, the secretary general of the Guatemalan soccer federation, was “purportedly dispensing justice by day while allegedly soliciting bribes and selling his influence within FIFA,” Lynch said. The indictment charged him with soliciting and accepting two bribe payments from Media World, an affiliate of Spanish media company Imagina Group. One payment was a “six-figure bribe” to be split among Trujillo and two other Guatemalans for media and…

Academic writing, not always unfairly, gets a bad rap. But the best combines the passion of the true enthusiast, a forensic eye for evidence and an ability to tell a compelling story. Those qualities are epitomised by Tony Collins’s The Oval World: A Global History of Rugby (Bloomsbury). Collins recounts the global sweep of the sport’s history, including both codes (union and league) and the North American variants, using original…

The contest comes just ahead of the film “Concussion,” a biographical sports medicine drama about pathologist Bennet Omalu. Omalu. who is played by actor Will Smith, is credited for trying to spread awareness of degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in football players, in spite of the NFL’s trying to block his research and deny the existence of the disease. Miller, who hasn’t seen the film,…

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Jeff Gordon speaks during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards show Friday night at Wynn Las Vegas.(Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images) LAS VEGAS — Friday night’s annual NASCAR awards might have been the official coronation for new Sprint Cup Series champion Kyle Busch. But in many ways, it was Jeff Gordon’s night. Gordon, relatively stoic all year about his upcoming retirement from racing, repeatedly broke down in tears during his speech…

LAS VEGAS — Dale Earnhardt Jr. collected his 13th consecutive NMPA Sprint Most Popular Driver award Friday during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ annual Awards Ceremony held at the Wynn Las Vegas. Earnhardt is the only driver to have won the award since 16-time winner Bill Elliott was named the recipient at the conclusion of the 2002 season. Earnhardt was awarded the trophy and the National Motorsports Press Association will donate $10,000 in Earnhardt’s…

LAS VEGAS – It always began in Daytona, before the start of a new season, eventually unfolding in the Plaza Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida.   But in 1981, NASCAR officials packed up and moved the premier series’ annual awards ceremony to the bright lights and the big city, New York City in fact, and specifically the historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the Starlight Roof.   Friday night, for the seventh…

CONCACAF, the governing body for soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, announced Friday that it has provisionally banned seven high-ranking officials from all soccer-related activities after they were named in a U.S. Justice Department indictment. The seven, all from Central America, are among 41 men who have been charged since May in a federal probe in corruption in soccer. Those banned Friday are: Alfredo Hawit of Honduras, a…

LAS VEGAS — Kyle Busch didn’t make the trip to Las Vegas the last time NASCAR was in town for a Sprint Cup Series race.   He returned this week as a champion.   Friday night, Busch will be honored as the series’ 31st winner of the title, a hometown hero feted and fawned over, and rightfully so.   Inside the Wynn Las Vegas, Busch, along with wife Samantha, car owner Joe…

See ya, Dodgers. Talk about a stunner. Zack Greinke to Arizona couldn’t be more shocking if the ace right-hander showed up with an actual, live Diamondback rattlesnake wrapped around his shoulders on Opening Day talking a mile a minute while sipping cactus juice. Except for one thing: The Diamondbacks have an Albert Pujols-in-his-prime type in Paul Goldschmidt and the game’s most underrated star in A.J. Pollock, and they’re…

Jeff Samardzija (Photo by Cliff Welch) Here’s the story of two excellent, two-sport stars and the difference between baseball and football. Jeff Samardzija was one of those rare players who was truly good enough to be a pro football or pro baseball player. When he finished his four years at Notre Dame, he was the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards. Twice, he was a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, given…

The contest comes just ahead of the film “Concussion,” a biographical sports medicine drama about pathologist Bennet Omalu. Omalu. who is played by actor Will Smith, is credited for trying to spread awareness of degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in football players, in spite of the NFL’s trying to block his research and deny the existence of the disease. Miller, who hasn’t seen the film,…

Zack Greinke will stay in the NL West. But surprise – with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks unexpectedly won the Greinke sweepstakes, beating out the rival Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants for the free-agent ace Friday night. He agreed to a $206.5 million, six-year deal, sources told The Associated Press. The major league ERA leader and runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award boosted the Dodgers to their…

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Bud Selig MILWAUKEE—Before Bud Selig became owner of the Milwaukee Brewers and later Commissioner of Baseball, he was involved in the game at its most intrinsic and important level. He was a fan.­­­ In fact, you can successfully argue—and Selig certainly wouldn’t dispute it—that he never would have thought about being a team owner or the game’s leader without first growing to love it as a young child. And he…

Barry Bonds will return to the ball field in 2016 as the Miami Marlins’ batting coach, putting to rest talk he’ll be hired by the Giants. “This is the only opportunity that was presented to me. I’m excited to be here with the Marlins,” Bonds said on a conference call after Friday’s announcement. “I just want to let everyone in San Francisco know that I love them a lot. This…

The contest comes just ahead of the film “Concussion,” a biographical sports medicine drama about pathologist Bennet Omalu. Omalu. who is played by actor Will Smith, is credited for trying to spread awareness of degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in football players, in spite of the NFL’s trying to block his research and deny the existence of the disease. Miller, who hasn’t seen the film,…