WASHINGTON (AP) – Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder testified before a congressional committee investigating the NFL team’s history of workplace misconduct, speaking for more than 10 hours in testimony conducted virtually and in private.
A spokesman for the U.S. House Oversight Committee and a spokesman for Snyder independently confirmed his testimony concluded after 6:30 p.m. EDT. It’s scheduled to start at 8 a.m., with Snyder appearing via Zoom from Israel.
A spokesman for the committee said he had no comment Thursday night.
Snyder agreed to testify voluntarily after committee members worked out some issues with his legal team regarding the terms of his testimony. The committee previously agreed to have Snyder testify under the terms of the subpoena it originally issued.
RENTON, Wash. (AP) – The Seattle Seahawks are expected to sign wide receiver DK Metcalf to a three-year contract extension worth up to $72 million, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team has not announced the signing. ESPN first reported the deal, which includes $58 million guaranteed. The deal runs through the 2025 season, when he will have another chance in free agency.
Metcalf is the latest in a string of top pass catchers to receive new offers this offseason. He is entering the final year of his rookie deal after being a second-round pick by Seattle in 2019 and signing him has been a priority for the Seahawks this offseason.
NEW YORK (AP) – Aaron Judge hit his 39th major league home run for his third long ball of the season, lifting the New York Yankees over the Kansas City Royals 1-0.
New York was held to one hit before Judge hit a first-pitch fastball from Scott Barlow (4-3) into the Kansas City bullpen with one out in the ninth, a 431-foot drive.
Judge sent the crowd of 43,836 into a frenzy, joining Mickey Mantle as the only Yankees with three home runs in a season. Tommy Henrich had two in 1949 plus another off Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe in the World Series opener.
Judge also stole his career-high 10th base.
CINCINNATI (AP) – Daniel Castano was hit in the forehead by a 104 mph line drive off the bat of Donovan Solano in the first inning of the Miami Marlins’ 7-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
The ball hit the top of his cap and bounced off the crown, manager Don Mattingly said. The team said Castano showed mild concussion symptoms and was bruised, and a CT scan was normal.
The 27-year-old left-hander fell to his knees on the field and held his hand to his head as Mattingly, catcher Jacob Stallings and the athletic trainers went to the mound to check on him. Castano did not appear to lose consciousness, and the gate on the outfield fence opened as the car prepared to enter the field before Castano left on his own.
The ball was hit so hard that it flew to third baseman Joey Wendle, who caught it for the out.
TORONTO (AP) – Matt Chapman hit two home runs, Yusei Kikuchi came off the injured list with five solid innings and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Detroit Tigers 5-3 for their 10th win in 12 games.
Chapman hit a two-run homer off left-hander Tyler Alexander in the fourth and singled off Angel De Jesus for the sixth, ninth multi-homer game of his career and first of the season. The home runs were his 17th and 18th of the year. Fourteen of Chapman’s 18 homers have come. He is hitting .306 with seven home runs in July.
Jonathan Schoop and Willi Castro hit solo home runs for the Tigers, who have lost five of eight since the All-Star break.
MOSCOW (AP) – The Kremlin has warned that a possible prisoner swap with the United States involving American basketball star Brittney Griner should be negotiated quietly, without fanfare.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington had offered Russia a deal that would bring home Griner and another imprisoned American, Paul Whelan. A person familiar with the matter said the U.S. government had proposed swapping convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Whelan and Griner.
Asked about the American offer, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that prisoner exchanges are usually negotiated discreetly behind the scenes.
In a separate statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russian and American officials had held talks on a possible prisoner exchange and that “there are no concrete results yet.”
BEDMINSTER, N.J. (AP) – Former President Donald Trump played another round on his home turf, this one different from many others. He was part of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational pro-am, organized by a breakaway league he says is creating a “gold rush” for players.
The third LIV Golf event, which begins Friday at Trump National Bedminster, added four new players to the 48-man field, illustrating how the disruption goes beyond the PGA Tour.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson is among the newcomers who have led the European Tour to strip him of the Ryder Cup captaincy for the 2023 Games in Italy.
Stenson was aware during his press conference of a report in The Daily Telegraph, later matched by Golf Digest, that Luke Donald would captain Europe.
With the addition of Stenson – the other three were Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Jason Kokrak – LIV Golf now has 12 former major champions on its roster, though only five in the top 50 in the world rankings.
DETROIT (AP) — Tony Finau, who won his third career PGA Tour victory, and Taylor Pendrith shared the first-round lead with 8-under 64 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Former US Open champion Webb Simpson, Michael Thompson, Cameron Champ, Lee Hodges and Matt Wallace were two times back. Si Woo Kim and Kurt Kitayama, both ranked in the top 70 in the world, were tied for 67 at Detroit Golf Club.
Finau, who came from five shots behind to win the 3M Open with 11 holes to win by three shots on Sunday in Minnesota, opened with a birdie and had five birdies on the front nine. After cooling off with four straight pars, Finau finished with his seventh and eighth birdies in a bogey-free round. He hit all 18 greens in regulation for the first time in 728 PGA Tour stroke-play rounds.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden has been cleared to practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after collapsing following a crash in Iowa.
Newgarden will be re-evaluated Friday after practice to determine if he can compete Saturday at the Indianapolis track.
Newgarden was leading heading into Sunday’s Iowa doubleheader when the suspension on his Team Penske car snapped and he crashed hard into the wall. The Nashville driver was evaluated at the Iowa Medical Center and cleared, but IndyCar officials at the track asked for a second check on Thursday.
But not long after leaving the care center, Newgarden lost consciousness and collapsed in an RV parking lot. He hit his head on the pavement, opening a gash, and was airlifted to a Des Moines hospital and kept overnight.
Team Penske said all tests on Newgarden came back negative and he was held overnight as a precaution. The 31-year-old returned to Nashville on Monday and saw a specialist this week before traveling to Indianapolis.
Team Penske had Santino Ferrucci on standby in case IndyCar said Newgarden couldn’t race on Saturday.
