Astori, 31, was found dead in his hotel room prior to Sunday’s match against Udinese. Results of an autopsy are yet to be revealed, though Udine’s public prosecutor Antonio De Nicolo said on Sunday it was likely Astori “died of cardiac arrest by natural causes.” Tributes have poured in from across world football following the centre-back’s passing and Saponara, a team-mate of Astori’s since the start of the season, penned a particularly moving message....

He might even win Defensive Player of the Year. As much attention as Anunoby has gotten for the leap he’s making offensively, he has been better than ever on the defensive end of the court. That’s saying something considering he has been in the conversation for best perimeter defender in the NBA in the past. It helps that Anunoby has been able to stay healthy, of course. But his numbers are up across the board, and he’s put himself on the national radar with how well he’s defended a number of stars....

“I’m challenged by the decisions that were made on Thursday around the budget for the city of Oakland, particularly for the Oakland Police Department,” Chief LeRonne Armstrong said at a Monday news conference. “We find ourselves in a crisis,” he added. “We find ourselves reeling from a weekend of violence, where we’ve seen four homicides over a three-day period. It now has us currently at 65 homicides for the year—a 90 percent increase compared to last year....

A week later, after interviewing campaign staffers and independent observers, I sent him a profile of Obama’s nimble Iowa youth program. Haunted by the specter of Howard Dean, whose hordes of orange-hatted out-of-state volunteers failed to fulfill the Vermonter’s youthful potential in 2004, Team Obama had already hired four times as many staffers and invested five times as much money in the state, opening an unprecedented 31 offices and launching a novel “BarackStars” program to target the 40,000 untapped 17-year-olds set to turn 18 before Election Day....

The former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations told The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the retreat gave Turkey permission to “go for it”, referring to the country’s plans to invade northern Syria and push out Kurdish forces. Kurdish fighters have been key allies of the U.S. in the fight to liberate Syria from ISIS control, but have long been in the crosshairs of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who considers the Kurdish militia a terrorist insurgency....

On Wednesday I wrotethat “depending how March 4 shakes out, [the Potomac Primary] results–and the likely Obama wins in Wisconsin and Hawaii–may help determine the Democratic nominee by the ides of March.” My thinking went like this: After eight (and maybe 10 straight wins), the Illinois senator will lead at that point by more than 100 pledged delegates–but it won’t be enough to reach magic number (2,025) by the end of primary season in June....

North Korea hailed the blast as a historic event that had been conducted entirely with “indigenous wisdom and technology.” Following an unexplained delay of 11 days, it began holding mass celebrations of the country’s nuclear status. Signs were erected on Pyongyang street corners declaring LET US MAKE SHINE FOREVER OUR BECOMING A NUCLEAR POWER, A HISTORIC INCIDENT IN THE 5,000 YEARS OF OUR PEOPLE’S HISTORY. The widespread belief, which I shared at the time, was that North Korea’s entry into the nuclear weapons club would mean the virtual end of the Six-Party Talks aimed at rolling back and eventually eliminating the country’s nuclear materials and programs....

When owner Kelsey rescued Phil in February 2019, he weighed 150 pounds and was struggling to live normally. His first official weigh-in with the vet revealed he was 147 pounds, and he struggled to climb stairs or walk on hardwood floors without slipping. With Kelsey’s love and care, Phil is now down to 75 pounds—half of his starting weight. According to VCA Animal Hospitals, an estimated 25 to 35 percent of canines in the U....

It was on this day in 1985 that the Cardinals’ Jack Clark crushed the Dodgers’ dreams with a go-ahead, three-run homer in the ninth inning of Game 6 of the NLCS off reliever Tom Niedenfuer to send St. Louis to the World Series. What makes Clark’s homer so great? Have a look, listen to Vin Scully call the action, then we’ll discuss. MORE: Every MLB team’s worst postseason memory, revisited...

Sporting News has learned the league is launching a program aimed at assisting the development of those staffers through seminars conducted by veteran coaches. The NFL Coaching Clinic will be held Friday through Sunday at New York Jets headquarters in Florham Park, N.J. Each team can send two assistants with between one-to-three years of experience. MARVEZ: 7 questions for Kaepernick The focus of this year’s clinic centers around four position groups: quarterbacks, offensive line, linebackers and defensive line....

As part of the multi-year renewal, the official NFL channel will contain an expanded amount of content, including game highlights uploaded to YouTube while games are still in progress. MORE: Ranking every ‘MNF’ announcer | Available and cheap free agents The NFL already offered game previews, highlights, post-game recaps as well as clips featuring news, analysis, fantasy football advice and other select content from NFL Media properties. “This expansion of our partnership will make it easier than ever for the millions of highly engaged avid and casual fans on YouTube and Google to discover and access an even greater variety of some of the most valuable content in the sports and entertainment business,” said Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s senior VP of media strategy....

The OVER cashed in nine of 15 games this week, with Colts-Titans (42.5), Jets-Bills (39.5), Ravens-Bears (40), Browns-Bengals (40), Raiders-Texans (41), Cardinals-Jaguars (40), Lions-Steelers (45), Falcons-Buccaneers (44) and Vikings-Seahawks (45.5) all clearing the number. The OVER is 87-72-3 on the season, good for a 54.7 percent win rate. To be fair, Ravens-Bears needed overtime to go OVER, and Cardinals-Jaguars finished just one point above its total. However, the seven other games all cleared their totals by at least nine points — two scores....

Los Angeles has been granted permission to interview Vrabel for the job, according to The MMQB’s Albert Breer. Vrabel, who serves as the Texans’ linebackers coach, was busy preparing for Houston’s AFC divisional playoff game in New England. Los Angeles planned to interview him after that game, according to the report. MORE: 7 best candidates for Rams As for Vrabel’s candidacy, John McClain, who covers the Texans for the Houston Chronicle, thinks highly of him....

MORE: NFL Mock Draft 2022, 2-round edition: Projecting the top 64 picks heading into NFL Combine A now-viral video showed Willis talking to a homeless woman before giving her his Combine gear. Willis appeared to be talking to her as he did it, and he didn’t seem to realize he was being filmed. In an interview with NFL Network afterward, Willis explained what was happening in the clip. Willis impressed on the field at the Combine as well....

Instead, we get to see the athletes tested in a series of six predetermined athletic testing drills that (imperfectly) highlight prospects’ speed, quickness, strength, agility, flexibility and explosiveness. NFL teams differ on how they use and value these numbers, but all teams factor Combine testing results into their scouting reports. Here is how each drill is run and, more important, the value of each and how it impacts different position groups....

Chris Nowinski, who founded the Concussion Foundation and has written Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis From the NFL to Youth Leagues, told Newsweek that he fears that players could be in danger from long-term damage as the protocol doesn’t go far enough to ensure all outcomes are covered. The NFL and the NFLPA announced that a specific change to the protocol in which a diagnosis of ataxia has been added to the mandatory “no-go” symptoms that determine whether or not a player re-enters a game....