Week 1 is often a time to think optimistically, but I can’t help but feel pretty darn pessimistic about the Bryce Young era in Carolina. The Panthers may have set themselves years backwards, and another potentially disastrous campaign begins with a trip to the rowdy Caesars Superdome and a date with the New Orleans Saints.

Find out why I think the Saints will prevail in a low-scoring opener while keeping Young from breaking out, and much, much more in my free NFL picks.

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Thomas Tuchel criticised his defence after Chelsea’s title prospects suffered another blow when they fell to a sloppy 3-2 defeat at West Ham. Chelsea, who have won two of their past five league games, were unusually slack at the back at the London Stadium. Édouard Mendy was at fault for two of West Ham’s goals – the goalkeeper gave away a foolish penalty for the first and misjudged Arthur Masuaku’s mishit cross for the winner – and Tuchel said his team must stop making mistakes.

“The performance is enough to win the game,” Chelsea’s manager said. “But what we clearly see is that we give easy goals away. This is really unusual. We make big mistakes that lead to big chances, that lead to easy goals. We do this now in three m…

The Lionesses have paused discussions with the Football Association over performance-related bonuses until after the Women’s World Cup but have said in a statement they are disappointed a resolution has not been found.

The England squad have been pushing to receive bonuses, arguing the announcement that players will receive individual fees set by Fifa for the first time is no reason for them not to be paid by the FA. Those fees start at $30,000 (£24,000) for players who go out in the group stage and rise to $270,000 for the winners.

England are no longer World Cup favourites but they can still win it | Jonas EidevallRead more

It is understood the FA regards that money as part of the payout it gets from Fifa for co…

Four cities are vying for the right to punish their own citizens with higher taxes, crippling transportation problems, and acres of over-priced and underused infrastructure projects that will blight the landscape for decades to come. Let the torch burn bright! Politicians, wealthy businessmen, and other "civic leaders" love to brag about the jobs and income that hosting an Olympics creates. And it will create income—for politicians, wealthy businessmen, and civic leaders. For everyone else, it's mostly a giant headache. They get eminent domain lawsuits and obnoxious construction snafus and in exchange they get pop-up souvenir stores and sporting events they can't afford to tickets to. Yet, the city fathers will bend over backwards to bring it to them. Higher, faste…

The context for LeBron’s 57-point masterpiece last night is something I, a devoted Wizards fan, would prefer to ignore—the Wizards spent portions of the spring and an interview with ESPN’s The Jump chirping that the Cavs ducked them in last season’s playoffs, and went so far as to say that they, the Wizards, who’ve neither advanced past the second round of the playoffs nor won more than 49 games during my lifetime, were the class of the Eastern Conference. Yeesh. What I would really like to do is puff up inside my basketblogger togs and scold you for needing that narrative silliness to appreciate LeBron’s sweet basketball moves, a position that not coincidentally ushers your attention away from the many crimes of self-ownage the Wizards have already committed this season. Q…