Sports

12:30 PM ET The Chicago Fire announced on Wednesday that they have completed the transfer of Lyon and Switzerland international midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri, and signed him to a Designated Player contract. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but one source with knowledge of the transaction said that the Fire paid a transfer free of around

9:00 AM ET The Major League Baseball uniform has been getting a modern makeover since the league joined forces with Nike in 2019, most (in)famously at last year’s All-Star Game and the launch of the City Connect series. With that evolution — and our recent ranking of the Top 100 MLB players of all time

7:49 AM ET Jeff Wagenheim After Derrick Lewis and Tai Tuivasa finish flinging menacing leather in each other’s direction on Saturday night in Houston, in the co-main event of UFC 271, it will be time for the real show. That’s not a reference to the main event between UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and former

5:13 PM GMT France began their bid for a first Six Nations title since 2010 with a 37-10 bonus-point win over Italy at a rain-soaked Stade de France on Sunday, as winger Gabin Villiere ran in a hat-trick. Italy, looking for a first Championship win since 2015 and their first ever victory in Paris, took

8:25 AM ET A not-so-great-week for professional golf, with plenty of discussion of rival tours and “obnoxious greed,” ended with two accomplishments that can surely bring everyone together. At the Saudi International, Harold Varner III sank an 90-foot eagle putt from off the green to win for the first time in six years and only

2:30 AM ET LOS ANGELES — For the second time this season, Russell Westbrook was benched by Lakers coach Frank Vogel to close out a game. Only this time, the Lakers won, beating the New York Knicks 122-115 in overtime on Saturday. And the result made all the difference to Westbrook in accepting the decision.

1:56 AM ET The 31-month layoff didn’t seem to affect Keith Thurman much in a unanimous-decision victory over Mario Barrios Saturday night in Las Vegas. Thurman fought for the first time since losing a split decision to Manny Pacquiao in July 2019, but came out strong and dominated the first few rounds, moving well and

Super Bowl XXXIV 1999: St Louis Rams D’Marco Farr, DT “I remember walking into the Ritz Carlton [to receive the rings] … Robert Wuhl, the guy that did Arli$$ on HBO, is our emcee, so he’s going through the whole spiel, and I’m kind of listening, but kind of not, because we’re half drunk and

11:35 AM ET Chris Low Close ESPN Senior Writer College football reporter Joined ESPN.com in 2007 Graduate of the University of Tennessee Pete Thamel As university leaders scrutinize the struggles of first-year Auburn football coach Bryan Harsin amid an exodus of players and coaches, he told ESPN he’s committed to the school for the long

10:00 PM ET LAS VEGAS — Dallas Stars center Joe Pavelski stood 35 feet away from his target, staring into the cool air. He slapped the puck with his stick and took a shot. Not at a goalie. Not even at a goal. At a large playing card: the ace of diamonds, which the puck

7:31 AM ET “The Colosseum. Oh, you should see the Colosseum, Spaniard. Fifty-thousand Romans. Watching every movement of your sword. Willing you to make that killer blow. The silence before you strike. And the noise afterwards. It rises. It rises up like … like a storm. As if you were the thunder god himself.” —

7:00 AM ET When putting together our list of the top 100 players of all time, there were plenty of debates about how peak performance and career longevity intersected. For young players in particular, injuries can completely shift a career’s trajectory and alter legacies — as Pete Reiser, J.R. Richard and others learned. Nolan Ryan,

3:30 PM ET Luis Diaz to Liverpool. Dusan Vlahovic to Juventus. Ferran Torres to Barcelona. Robin Gosens to Inter. Julian Alvarez to Manchester City. These are five of the biggest deals in the transfer window that just closed… and, generally, five moves that were hailed as good business. Time will tell, of course, but when

3:58 PM ET Associated Press Floyd Mayweather Jr. is ready to put The Money into NASCAR. The long-delayed debut of The Money Team Racing team is set for the Daytona 500 later this month, with Kaz Grala as the driver. The team secured sponsorship from sunglass company Pit Viper and Grala will drive the No.

6:54 PM ET Kevin Holland called an online troll’s bluff by choking him out in a grappling match. Holland, the loquacious UFC fighter nicknamed “Big Mouth,” said he had been getting messages from a guy on social media for months with the man, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner, claiming he could submit Holland. So Holland took

5:50 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Every time Canelo Alvarez prepares to select his next opponent, the fate of boxers in multiple weight classes hangs in the balance. Just whom — and at which weight — Canelo fights next is still undecided, but sources told ESPN that Alvarez has received two lucrative offers that stand as

11:00 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr. are closing in on a deal for a light heavyweight title unification this summer in New York, sources told ESPN. At the moment, Smith is looking for a purse in the neighborhood of $1.8 million for the proposed ESPN main event; he was offered

1:19 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN When Robson Conceicao challenged Oscar Valdez for a 130-pound title in September, he wilted down the stretch in a controversial decision loss. In his first fight since the first pro defeat of his career, Conceicao fought far more aggressively and dominated en route to a unanimous-decision victory over Xavier Martinez

5:01 PM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Teofimo Lopez is preparing to mount a comeback. Top Rank is exploring the possibility of a 140-pound bout between Lopez and Arnold Barboza Jr. in the spring, sources told ESPN. Lopez, who defeated Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020 to win the undisputed 135-pound championship, was upset by George Kambosos Jr. in

11:30 AM ET The biggest fight in women’s boxing history is officially on the schedule. The bout between undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor and seven-division world titlist Amanda Serrano — ESPN’s No. 1 and No. 2 in the pound-for-pound rankings — has been scheduled for April 30 to headline a card in one of the