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Jacksonville Jaguars set at 8.5 win total after surprising 13-4 season and Wild Card loss to Buffalo
Sometimes these exercises in writing about teams can be a lot of fun because they remind me of the previous season and all that happened. It isn’t often that I remember everything about a situation, but I feel like I do a generally good job of keeping track of how the previous season went.
It becomes a blur to a certain extent, though. Try and name the last five Super Bowl losers, it is often harder than the winner. Honestly, I completely forgot about the Jacksonville Jaguars, but they were surprisingly good last season.
Jacksonville was able to steal the division last season and they were even 13-4 overall. The team was 10-2 against the AFC, and scored 138 more points than they allowed. They also ended the season hotter than almost any team in the game, winning their last eight games.
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After Week 10, they were 5-4 and coming off of a loss to the Houston Texans. They closed out the season with wins over the Chargers, Cardinals, Titans (twice), Colts (twice), New York and Denver. Denver and Los Angeles were playoff teams, but the other six games were against fairly weak competition. They lost a heartbreaker to Buffalo in the Wild Card round, dropping that one 27-24.
There wasn’t a ton of stuff the Jaguars needed to do. They are a very good club and solid roster. They did lose Travis Etienne to the Saints, but most people will tell you that running backs are easily replaced. I’m not sure Etienne is that elite of a back that the Jaguars will have a big issue.
They signed a few key players on the line of scrimmage to extensions, but they did lose Devin Lloyd and Greg Newsome. Letting those guys walk did give them some picks so it might not be that big of a loss long term, even if it does hurt this season.
The team has quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who might be the most difficult quarterback for me to evaluate in the NFL. There is no question, he was awesome last year. He had the 6th most yards, was fifth in touchdowns, but did still throw 12 interceptions.
He was also middle of the road as far as QBR. He has 98 touchdowns and 58 interceptions in his 77 games. There is another player who has 83 games, 89 touchdowns, and 55 interceptions – their yardage is about the same. That’s Daniel Jones, so you can make a decision on if you think Lawrence is great or not.
Either way he has had multiple coaches and schemes, so I don’t blame him completely. The rest of the offense is fine – Brian Thomas is a solid receiver, as is Jakobi Meyers, and anything you get from Travis Hunter is bonus. They have strong, young defense as well, punctuated by Hunter at cornerback. I’m interested to see how their linebackers play without Lloyd, but he wasn’t playing all three downs normally anyway.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are listed at 8.5 for their win total. That’s a major step back. If I look at their schedule, they have a bye week on Week 7 and I think they could very well be 1-5 if things don’t go well. 2-3 or 3-2 seems more likely, though. They have a tougher schedule this year, but should still win seven games without much issue. Getting another two from the list does seem like it could be a challenge. I think I’d stay away from the win total.
I do think Lawrence will go over 3,774.5 passing yards, though. He has gone over 4,000 in three of his five seasons. In 2024, when he played only 10 games, he had 2,045. He would’ve gone under that year too at the same pace. I think with Etienne leaving and his second year in the offensive system he should throw more. I don’t think he is great and I’m willing to bet the over if that gives you confidence.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
Mamdani's latest Netanyahu remarks deepen concerns among Jewish leaders
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's recent admission that he lacks the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done little to ease ongoing tensions between himself and the Jewish community. Jewish leaders told Fox News Digital that they are still concerned about the mayor's rhetoric, which they believe deepens divisions at a time of heightened concern over antisemitism.
Israel has remained one of the defining points of tension between Mamdani and the Jewish community in New York City since his campaign. When running for mayor, Mamdani said that he would seek to arrest Netanyahu, despite many pointing out that he did not have the authority to do so, which he ultimately admitted on Tuesday.
The issue resurfaced this week after Mamdani released a video explaining that while City Hall lacks the authority to arrest Netanyahu, he believes the prime minister should be held accountable under the International Criminal Court's warrant.
MAMDANI GOES BACK ON CAMPAIGN PROMISE, SAYS NYC CAN'T ARREST NETANYAHU
In a video posted on social media, Mamdani called Netanyahu "a war criminal" and "the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people."
"My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant," he said.
Nevertheless, he added that the Israeli leader was "not welcome in New York City."
Jewish leaders who spoke with Fox News Digital said the mayor's legal concession did little to address the community's concerns about Mamdani's rhetoric, which they believe fuels division.
Additionally, during a news conference Wednesday, Mamdani was asked how he believed New Yorkers should respond to Netanyahu's expected visit for the annual United Nations General Assembly in September.
"I think the bedrocks of our city is protest. It is something that has been a part of what makes our city so special, that New Yorkers can express themselves, whether they are in support or in opposition, no matter on whatever topic," he said.
Orthodox Union Executive Vice President and COO Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph said the remarks were especially concerning given recent protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
"We know that the protests in the last few years have gotten violent at times," Joseph told Fox News Digital. "So, he's willing to risk inciting further violence based on misinformation."
Manhattan Jewish Experience (MJE) Founder and Director Rabbi Mark Wildes said that the mayor's remarks demonstrated a broader hostility toward Israel rather than criticism of a government official.
"What's upsetting to us in the Jewish community is that he's saying these things just to continue to drum home his message that the Jewish state, the state of Israel, has no right to exist," Wildes told Fox News Digital.
Wildes said that Mamdani's criticisms, in his view, have "nothing to do with Netanyahu's policies" and rather it was about "the Jewish people's right to defend themselves after being attacked, which is the only thing which is being done in Gaza and Lebanon."
The MJE leader added that the mayor's comments, particularly his sentiment that Netanyahu was "not welcome," risk further alienating Jewish New Yorkers at a time when they already feel vulnerable and disconnected from City Hall. He said the remark encapsulated how Jewish New Yorkers were feeling.
"For a leader in New York to say, 'You're not welcome here,' is upsetting, obviously, but it's consistent," Wildes said. "There's nothing he's saying that's inconsistent with the way he ran, with the kind of agenda that he has, he's been pro-Hamas, pro-terrorism since day one, and he's just showing his true colors."
Mamdani has been critical of Hamas — he condemned anti-Israel protesters chanting in support of the terrorist group earlier this year — but he has been criticized for being more strident in his rhetoric against Israel.
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Joseph similarly warned that Mamdani needed to "remember that his words matter" as the leader of New York City.
Despite their criticism of the mayor, both Wildes and Joseph remain confident in the resilience of New York's Jewish community. Wildes argued that the heightened political tensions would not deter the Jewish community's connection to Israel or New York City.
"Am Yisrael Chai is not just a slogan. Am Yisrael Chai means the Jewish people are alive. Israel is thriving, and Israel is continuing to grow," Wildes said.
Mamdani's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Country star Waylon Wyatt says he nearly 'died' after sudden health crisis derailed his Grand Ole Opry debut
Rising country music star Waylon Wyatt is recovering after a life-threatening battle with sepsis forced him to cancel several major career milestones.
In his latest video, Wyatt was seen showing off his debut record, as he wrote in his social media caption, "We shot this before I bout died but Dustpiles Vinyl are available to order now!! Get ‘em while they’re hot!"
Earlier this week, the 19-year-old singer shared a health update with fans, revealing he has been discharged from a Montana hospital and is now in Nashville seeking additional medical care.
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"Hey y'all wanted to give a little update on everything," Wyatt wrote on Instagram. "I got out of the hospital in Montana earlier this week and have been in Nashville with family seeing specialists this week. I'm so grateful to be on the mend and can't tell y'all how much I appreciate all y'alls support through this. It broke my heart to have to cancel the dustpiles release show, UTBS [Under the Big Sky Festival] and my Opry debut that was supposed to be tonight. Those were bucket list shows for me but I'll do everything I can to get back to big sky and we'll have a new Opry date for y'all soon."
The frightening diagnosis came on July 17 — the same day Wyatt released his debut album, "Dustpiles."
Instead of celebrating the milestone on stage, the singer shared a video from his hospital bed.
"Album's still dropping tonight," he said. "Ya boy's got sepsis."
Wyatt remained hospitalized until earlier this week before traveling to Nashville, where he is now continuing treatment alongside his family.
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Despite the devastating setback, the teenage country singer remained focused on thanking the fans who helped launch his career.
"There's so many people I want to thank rn," he continued. "First of all to you guys I wouldn't be where I am without y'all and the fact that I'm even able to tour and put music out in the first place is such a blessing and wouldn't be possible without you. My mom and pops I wouldn't be here without y'all and I'll never have the words to thank you properly I love y'all so much and thank you for being here with me through everything."
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The health scare comes as Wyatt's career continues to gain momentum.
The Oklahoma native is a rising star in the country music world. The viral success of his song "Everything Under the Sun" on TikTok skyrocketed the 19-year-old's career into the country music spotlight.
Fox News Digital reached out to Wyatt’s representatives for comment.
Sophie Cunningham and West Wilson split on transgender athletes in girls' sports despite podcast partnership
WNBA star Sophie Cunningham ruffled plenty of feathers with her recent comments regarding protecting women's sports.
Several media personalities and even some fellow WNBA colleagues were quick to bristle at her statement about keeping biological men out of girls' sports, but the Indiana Fever guard has not backed down.
The latest person to take umbrage with Cunningham's comments is a familiar and unlikely one, though, as childhood friend and podcast co-host, West Wilson, took to X to voice his displeasure with "right wingers" turning the trans in women's sports debate into a mountain of an issue.
"Transgender athletes in American sports is such a borderline nonexistent issue that right-wingers have convinced a massive portion of people in our country that these people are a threat to sports in America when mathematically, that's not the case at all," Wilson said.
He continued by claiming that by platforming the issue, politicians in particular are sowing divisiveness and "isolating" trans people.
"There is, like, 10 transgender athletes in all of the NCAA," Wilson said. "I think there are unique questions that can be handled on individual bases, but to allow this to take our attention from housing, healthcare, wars, all the other actual harmful s–t in our country is dumb."
There are plenty of things wrong with what Wilson said, namely that transgender athletes in female sports is solely a "right wing" issue.
Plenty of sane people on both sides of the aisle have voiced their displeasure with biological men invading female spaces, so to paint this as a fringe right crusade is disingenuous.
It's also worth noting that he goes out of his way to mention NCAA athletes but nothing about youth or high school sports.
While the issue of transgender athletes in college sports is still an issue worth fighting, many people are far more concerned with this happening at the youth and high school level, something that OutKick has covered extensively in the past.
Finally, it seems we've gone from "this isn't happening" to "it's only happening a little," representing a classic slide down the proverbial slippery slope.
What's perhaps even more interesting in all of this is how Cunningham and Wilson will work around this difference of opinion.
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Cunningham has made her stance pretty clear and even doubled down on it, while Wilson appears to be completely on the other side.
While some political differences like tax rates can be amicably disagreed on, the transgender issue continues to be a hot-button one.
It remains to be seen how the two will handle their differences, but suffice to say it doesn't sound like either will be budging anytime soon.
Riley Gaines calls USA Today reporter 'insane' for invoking Emmett Till in column about Caitlin Clark
Riley Gaines, the host of "The Riley Gaines Show," torched USA Today writer Nancy Armour over her recent and controversial Caitlin Clark column.
In the opinion piece published earlier this week, Armour compared the lynching of Emmett Till to Caitlin Clark putting "Black" and "queer" WNBA players "in danger."
"It shouldn’t need reminding this country has an awful history of Black people being harmed, even killed, in the name of 'defending' White women. The irony of the WNBA's All-Star Game is that it's happening this weekend in Chicago, the hometown of Emmett Till, who became an icon of the civil rights movement after his tragic murder," Amour wrote.
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"The local art gallery is currently hosting an exhibit imagining his life if he hadn't been lynched. While it’s incumbent on the WNBA to do more to protect its players, there also should be an expectation on Clark to recognize the broader implications of her actions being weaponized. "
Of all the bad takes about Clark, Gaines said Armour’s was the "worst one by a mile," adding that she was dumbfounded by the comparison.
"Do you realize what Nancy Armour is doing there? She's connecting Emmett Till's lynching to Caitlin Clark's talent and skill set and behavior on the basketball court. Excuse me?" Gaines said on a recent episode of "The Riley Gaines Show."
Gaines continued her excoriation of Armour, calling the writer "insane" for comparing Till’s lynching to Clark’s actions on the basketball court. Till was a 14-year-old Black teen who was abducted, tortured and eventually lynched in 1955 Mississippi after an accusation from a White woman
"These people are insane," Gaines said. "They have lost their ability to think rationally. That is literally dead and gone. In what world do those two things connect? Honestly, even after reading the piece I don't know where she's going with this."
Gaines proceeded to call Armour an all-time "rage-baiter."
"Maybe it's just like all-time rage bait. Like dropping Emmett Till's name in an article about the WNBA All-Star game, that's got to be an all-time rage baiter. I don't know, maybe I'm falling for it. Maybe this is what Nancy Armor wanted," Gaines said.
Armour apologized for invoking Till in her column and called it an "inartful comparison."
"In my recent column, I made an inartful comparison with the murder of Emmett Till. I intended to connect the issues the WNBA is currently facing with its All-Star Game being hosted in Till’s hometown of Chicago," Armour wrote in an apology posted Thursday on Bluesky.
"I obviously did not provide enough context for that."
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Transgender dolls to be available for Minnesota schoolchildren as young as 4 under Walz-backed program: report
Transgender dolls will be accessible to Minnesota school children between the ages of four and 10 starting this fall as a result of a taxpayer-funded development program supported by Gov. Tim Walz, according to a report.
The MyGenderDolls, which were developed in part through the University of Minnesota’s Early Innovation Fund, will be for use by "clinicians and educators" starting this year, the New York Post first reported, citing the product's website.
The dolls, according to the website, were "designed for gender diverse children ages 4–10."
They come with interchangeable accessories and removable and swappable genitalia to help children "realize all the different options that exist for who they can be — regardless of their body parts," University of Minnesota postdoctoral fellow Ben Parchem, Ph.D., said in a now-deleted article in the University of Minnesota Foundation's magazine.
The dolls began as a research program in the University of Minnesota Medical School's Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, spearheaded by two members of the school's faculty, Dianne Berg, PhD, and G. Nic Rider, PhD, both educators in the school's Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.
"It’s really important to address the belief, ‘I’m not a 'real' boy because I don’t have these private parts,’ versus, ‘I am a real boy, whatever my anatomy looks like,’" Berg told the Foundation's magazine in the now-deleted article.
"It’s about helping children develop tools to cope with messages in society that could lead to shame," she added.
"MyGender Dolls began as an idea of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health psychologist, Rachel Becker-Warner, PsyD. NCGSH Co-Director, Dianne Berg, PhD, and Communications Specialist, Ashley Finch, have been hard at work developing the dolls to be used as a therapeutic tool for transgender and gender diverse children. The concept is similar to classic paper dolls; kids can select bodies, genitals, clothes, and other accessories as a way to visualize their anatomy and genders," a now deleted 2024 summary of the project from the University of Minnesota's Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health read.
The project is one of many pro-transgender state-funded efforts under Walz, according to the Post.
In 2023, the University of Minnesota’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health (ISGH) presented Walz with the Distinguished Sexual and Gender Health Champion Award "for his outstanding efforts in protecting sexual and reproductive health care (PRO Act, HF 1) and gender-affirming health care (Executive Order 23-03) in Minnesota," the school wrote in its annual report in 2023.
Of the three faculty members presenting him his award, one was Rider, a co-creator of MyGenderDolls.
Fox News Digital contacted Walz's office, MyGenderDolls, Rider, the University of Minnesota and the school's Department of Family Medicine and Community Health for added comment.
Three SEC win totals you should absolutely pounce on before the 2026 college football season begins
With the conclusion of SEC Media Days, we now officially begin the mad dash toward the opening of the college football season.
It might seem like this offseason has moved at a snail's pace, but speaking from experience, things really start to pick up after Media Days and before you know it, you're knee-deep in the regular season.
Before we reach that point, though, we have some predictions to make, and there's no better to start than to look at some of my favorite SEC win totals heading into the 2026 season.
Here are three juicy win totals for a trio of SEC squads that I absolutely love as we hurtle towards the start of my favorite time of the year.
If there was ever going to be a year that Texas and head coach Steve Sarkisian put it all together, it would be 2026.
That alone should be enough to hammer the over on this one, since nine wins almost certainly would leave the Longhorns' College Football Playoff hopes in limbo, but there's more to it than that.
This is one of the most talented rosters in the country, cultivated through multiple top-five recruiting classes over the past few cycles and supplemented by the third-ranked portal class heading into the season.
The pieces are there, but what puts Texas over the top is having another year of Arch Manning.
The redshirt junior signal caller sputtered to start the first half of 2025, but by November, Manning was one of the best quarterbacks in the country and should carry that over into this year.
The Horns play a pretty tough schedule in 2026, but a week two showdown against Ohio State should tell us a lot.
If Texas handles the Buckeyes at home, the over will almost assuredly hit.
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Staying in the Lone Star State, let's travel due east to College Station.
If this were two or three years ago, I would have fallen all over myself to smash the under, considering it was almost a meme for the Aggies to finish 8-4 following any given season.
That seems to have changed since head coach Mike Elko got to town.
In just his second year, Elko was able to guide the Aggies to an 11-win season and a Playoff berth. Now he was the luxury of a veteran signal caller returning in Marcel Reed, along with two stellar wide receivers in Mario Craver and incoming transfer Isaiah Horton.
Texas A&M also ranks top-20 nationally in returning production on defense, and I trust any Elko coached team to look really solid on that side of the ball.
The Aggies will be tested a bunch on the road this season, particularly in games against Oklahoma and Alabama, but I trust the steady hand of third-year starter Reed and a veteran team to be the deciding factor.
Nine wins feels more than doable here. Take over.
If you've been paying attention to anything I've written in the past six months, you know how high I am on the LSU Tigers this coming season and beyond.
For starters, they went out and hired Lane Kiffin as their head coach, who was fresh a historic run of leading the Ole Miss Rebels to their first ever College Football Playoff appearance.
Kiffin's staff is also noteworthy, retaining Tigers' defensive coordinator Blake Baker and bringing Charlie Weis Jr. over from Oxford as his OC.
In addition to a dynamite coaching staff, LSU brought in the number one transfer portal class, featuring the top-ranked quarterback (Sam Leavitt), offensive tackle (Jordan Seaton), and edge rusher (Princewill Umanmielen).
The hope in Baton Rouge is that the marriage of elite (and expensive) talent and a stellar coaching staff will bear fruit in year one, so anything less than a CFP appearance will be seen as a colossal failure, both locally and nationally.
Eight wins certainly won't be accepted by any of the Tiger faithful, so it almost feels like a given that the baseline for Kiffin and co. is set at 9-3.
With the September matchups against Clemson and Ole Miss, we should know very early on what this team is made of.
If the Tigers start 4-0 in the first month of the season, I'll be feeling pretty good about the win total, though they certainly won't be out of the woods by any stretch. But 2–2 or worse, and it might be time to cash out before the calendar flips to October.
Biden judge blocking Ethiopian deportations despite SCOTUS ruling clashed with ICE before
A Biden-appointed federal judge on Friday became the second jurist in Massachusetts to block the Trump administration's effort to end Temporary Protected Status for migrant groups, fueling a growing clash over whether lower courts are ignoring a recent Supreme Court ruling that narrowed their authority over such decisions.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of the District of Massachusetts issued an administrative stay in African Communities Together v. Mullin, temporarily preserving TPS protections for Ethiopian nationals while the court considers whether plaintiffs may pursue constitutional claims in light of the Supreme Court's June ruling. In a 6-3 decision in Mullin v. Doe, the Supreme Court significantly narrowed lower courts' authority to block DHS decisions designating or terminating TPS.
Murphy's ruling drew a swift response from DHS General Counsel James Percival, who accused him of "mutiny" against the Supreme Court and revived criticism of the judge's May 2025 order halting a deportation flight to South Sudan. DHS blamed Murphy for leaving ICE officers stranded at a U.S. military base in Djibouti, where officials said they faced malaria exposure and the threat of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in neighboring Yemen.
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"Remember when that district judge rerouted a plane with child rapists headed for South Sudan? The judge made ICE land in Djibouti to face Malaria and terrorist rocket attacks from Yemen," Percival wrote on X. "Fun fact: it was the very same Judge Brian Murphy who entered a lawless TPS order today!"
Murphy's Friday order comes amid a months-long legal fight over the Trump administration's effort to end Ethiopia's TPS designation.
The litigation began after then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem determined in December 2025 that conditions in Ethiopia no longer justified Temporary Protected Status and announced the designation would terminate. Under the department's notice, Ethiopia's TPS designation was set to expire after a 60-day wind-down period, with protections ending on Feb. 13, 2026, before Judge Brian Murphy intervened.
SUPREME COURT WEIGHS TRUMP EFFORT TO TERMINATE TEMPORARY PROTECTIONS FOR HAITIAN, SYRIAN MIGRANTS
Earlier this year, Murphy sided with the challengers, granting their motion to postpone DHS's termination of Ethiopia's TPS designation after finding they were likely to succeed on claims that the department failed to follow the procedures Congress established for ending TPS.
But litigation was upended on June 25 after the Supreme Court ruled in Mullin v. Doe that lower courts generally cannot hear Administrative Procedure Act challenges to DHS decisions designating or terminating TPS. Since the Administrative Procedure Act formed the legal backbone of the plaintiffs' challenge, the Trump administration argued Murphy's injunction had been undermined and should be lifted.
However, the Supreme Court left open whether constitutional claims could still proceed, leading the plaintiffs to revise their complaint to focus on those arguments.
BLUE STATE LEADERS ERUPT AFTER SUPREME COURT’S DECISION ENDING TPS PROTECTIONS FOR HAITIANS, SYRIANS
Murphy's ruling comes just hours after another judge in the District of Massachusetts, Senior U.S. District Judge Patti Saris, temporarily halted the Trump administration's effort to terminate TPS for South Sudan. Saris issued an administrative stay preserving protections while she considers whether plaintiffs may amend their lawsuit following the Supreme Court's ruling. Like the Ethiopia case, the South Sudan challenge was brought by African Communities Together along with individual TPS holders.
Saris said her order was simply meant to temporarily maintain the status quo while the court considers the case and was "not a ruling on the merits."
The tandem rulings have led to calls for the Trump administration to ignore the lower courts' ruling.
"These Democrat operatives in robes do not have the power to do this," Mike Davis, a conservative legal activist and founder of the Article III Project, wrote on X. "The Supreme Court just made that crystal clear. So it's time to ignore these clearly lawless orders."
"These puny little district court judges have been overruled so many times by the supreme court, especially on immigration, I think it's time for the president to take his constitutional oath seriously, and ignore them," Ann Coulter, a conservative political commentator wrote on X.
Murphy has repeatedly clashed with the Supreme Court over the Trump administration's immigration policies, with the justices twice siding with the administration in its challenge to his orders restricting deportations of illegal aliens to countries that are not their homelands.
The Biden administration first granted Ethiopians Temporary Protected Status in 2022, declaring that war and a worsening humanitarian crisis had made it unsafe to return them to their home country. Then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pointed to ongoing armed conflict, widespread violence, human rights abuses, food insecurity, among the many reason as the basis for the designation. The protections took effect on Dec. 12, 2022, and were later extended through Dec. 12, 2025. DHS estimated approximately 26,700 Ethiopian nationals living in the United States could qualify for TPS.
Fox News Digital reached out to African Communities Together for comment.
WNBA All-Star Game betting preview: Team Coop's guards could give them the edge over Team Spoon
You probably didn't know it, but the WNBA has been off for a few days now because of the All-Star Game that takes place tonight. I know that you missed it, but now we have some women's basketball back, so don't be too upset! Jokes aside, I've enjoyed this season despite the same narratives being pushed.
Betting on the sport has proved very profitable and rewarding to this point as well. This is an exhibition, but I do think we have an edge here.
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The teams are basically divided by fan voting, player, and coaches. I don't think it is really important to get into how the players got here, but you should know who is on what team. For Team Coop, they have Paige Bueckers as their main attraction. If you're not familiar with Bueckers' game, you should be. She is elite in many ways. A great scorer, a solid playmaker, and even good on defense.
What I like most about this team is that they have a lot of talented guards. If they want to get out and run, they shouldn't have any trouble.
Kahleah Copper is one of the most elite finishers in the game. Marina Mabrey is a lethal outside shooter. Sonia Citron is one of the better young players and a talented scorer. Kelsey Mitchell is one of my favorite players in the league and a versatile scorer. That doesn't mention Breanna Stewart, who is still one of the best players in the league, and Angel Reese, who will play with energy and effort no matter if this is an exhibition or if it actually meant something. Their team is very good.
You're certainly familiar with their Captain, Caitlin Clark. Clark was going to be an All-Star based on popularity, but her performance on the court shows she deserves to be here. Expect that she doesn't do quite a bit in this game, though. She is likely going to pass and facilitate much more than look to score.
I could see her shooting from deep, but I don't think that she is going to just jack up shots like they do in the men's version of this game.
CAITLIN CLARK MAKES WNBA HISTORY WITH RECORD-BREAKING GAME AFTER WEEKS OF CONTROVERSY
The rest of the team is rounded out mostly by forwards/centers — Aliyah Boston is really good and familiar with Clark, being that they are on the same team. A'ja Wilson is the best player in the WNBA, but I don't think she is going to try all that hard in this game.
Jonquel Jones, Nneka Ogwumike, and Kiki Iriafen will round out that group. They should be able to get a bucket just about whenever they want, but they are better closer to the basket than farther away. Oliva Miles is one person who stands out to me as someone who might pour in buckets for Team Spoon.
The scores from the past few years are interesting. Last year, the total went to 282. The year prior, it was just 226. In 2023, they were at 270, and in 2022 they scored just 246. Tonight's total is 277.5. I think that is too high. The women can score, don't get me wrong, but I think the chances of them just pouring in points is more likely for Team Coop than for Team Spoon. The game is also in the United Center, which is notorious for being tougher to shoot in for many players.
Not only will I back the under, but I'll also take Team Cooper. If either team is likely to run the floor and play in a game with little defense, I think the guards will be more energetic and ready to go. They are getting +3.5 points, and I think some of that is because Clark is on the team, and some maybe because of Wilson. I'll still take the points with Cooper.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
Fired school counselor loses again after free speech fight over gender-themed books in his office
A federal appeals court ruled earlier this week that a now-fired Oregon school counselor’s display of books promoting binary gender views to students was not protected by the First Amendment.
The 2-1 decision handed down by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld Roderick E. Theis II’s termination from Oregon’s InterMountain Education Service District (IMESD), according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
The court also rejected Theis’ appeal.
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According to the ruling, Theis, an education specialist who worked for the IMESD for more than 15 years, displayed books titled "He is He" and "She is She" in two separate offices on different campuses when meeting with middle school students.
He also displayed a children’s book penned by conservative commentator Matt Walsh titled "Johnny the Walrus" that "allegorically comments on transgender issues," court documents said.
Following an investigation into the incident, Theis told school administrators that he did not mean any harm by displaying the books and even considered putting them away when transgender-identifying students visited his office.
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However, IMESD concluded the display of the books was a "bias incident" and instructed the counselor to remove them from his school offices — or risk termination.
A federal judge later partially granted Theis’ request for a protective order that allowed him to continue displaying the books in his offices when students were not visiting, but his employment was ultimately terminated after a district investigation revealed Theis provided the books to middle school students who had requested to see them, according to the ruling.
Theis’ attorneys went on to argue that the counselor was protected from the injunction when meeting with students outside their official sessions, but a lower court later ruled that the partial injunction prohibited Theis from displaying the books when students were present in his office.
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The lower court, however, issued another ruling against Theis’ termination appeal.
The ruling was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, with the majority opinion outlining longstanding precedents that an educators’ speech is considered government speech when interacting with students.
"As a government employee, Theis was assigned to work in school offices, meet with students, and carry out his duties in that setting," Circuit Judge John B. Owens wrote in the majority ruling. "His speech occurred in the course of those responsibilities and cannot be meaningfully separated from them. As such, Theis’s speech falls outside the First Amendment’s ambit."
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The sole dissenting opinion, written by Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, sharply criticized the ruling. VanDyke argued that Theis’ books should be considered personal decorative items in his office, while questioning if a school could permit employees to hang pro-Palestinian banners while simultaneously banning the display of the Israeli flag.
"Could public school administrators establish a policy allowing office decoration with partisan political messages deemed sufficiently ‘compassionate,’ but prohibit — as inherently hostile — any political speech that did not align with the Democratic Socialists of America platform?" VanDyke wrote.
Fox News Digital reached out to Theis’ attorney and the IMESD for comment.