QB Malik Willis reportedly agrees to 3-year, $67.5 million deal with Dolphins following announcement of Tua Tagovailoa's release

Free-agent quarterback Malik Willis is reportedly signing a three-year, $67.5 million contract with the Miami Dolphins, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported Monday.

The news comes hours after the teamannounced the impending release of veteran Tua Tagovailoa, who started 76 games for Miami over the past six seasons.

Willis, 26, put his name back on the map last season while filling in for an injured Jordan Love with the Green Bay Packers. Across parts of four games in 2025 (one start), Willis completed 30 of 35 passes (85.7%), threw three touchdowns to zero interceptions, and posted a passer rating of 145.5 and a 93.1 QBR. He also rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns.

New Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan both came from the Packers organization, so there's already familiarity on both sides. Additionally, defensive coordinator Sean Duggan and passing game coordinator Ryan Downard came from Green Bay.

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Hafley acknowledged that Willis didn't always get an opportunity to show his skills as the scout team quarterback in practice.

"A lot of times he really couldn't do what he does best because if we were playing a dropback guy, and he started scrambling, I'll tell him, 'Hey, you got to stay in the pocket. Stop scrambling. That's not what we're doing today,"Hafley told the Miami Herald. "And then if we were playing a scrambler, he could play his game and do his thing."

"All you can do is do your part, hold guys accountable as well as hold yourself accountable," Willis said on "The Pat McAfee Show" after the signing was reported.

During his two years in Green Bay, Willis was 2-1 as a starting quarterback and appeared in 11 games overall. In those games, Willis completed nearly 79% of his passes for 972 yards on just 89 attempts. Willis had six touchdown passes and was not picked off once. He posted a 134.6 passer rating and 77.3 QBR in those 11 games as a Packer.

A 2022 third-round pick by the Tennessee Titans, Willis appeared in 11 games and started three during his rookie campaign. In his second season with the Titans, Willis only recorded five official pass attempts. Overall, he won one of his three starts and completed 53% of his passes for 350 yards and no touchdowns.

Willis was traded to the Packers for a seventh-round pick before the 2024 season and spent the past two seasons backing up Love. The opportunity presented in Green Bay came along at the right time for Willis, and working with one of the best offensive minds in the NFL under head coach Matt LaFleur is a huge plus.

byGreen Magazine

in

10:22:00 AM

QB Malik Willis reportedly agrees to 3-year, $67.5 million deal with Dolphins following announcement of Tua Tagovailoa's release

Free-agent quarterback Malik Willis is reportedly signing a three-year, $67.5 million contract with the Miami Dolphins, N...

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Florida fires women's basketball coach Kelly Rae Finley after 5 seasons

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida fired women's basketball coach Kelly Rae Finley on Monday with the Gators poised to miss the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

Finley had one year remaining on a contract that paid her about $700,000 annually. She is entitled to her remaining base salary, $450,000, to be paid over regular installments until April 15, 2027.

The 40-year-old Finley went 93-75 in five seasons in Gainesville, including 30-50 in Southeastern Conference play. She put together one of the program's best collections of talent in recent years, with Liv McGill, Me'Arah O'Neal and Laila Reynolds giving the team three McDonald's All-Americans in its starting lineup.

But the trio was unable to deliver enough wins in one of the country's deepest leagues.

Florida (18-15, 5-11 SEC) lost by 18 points to seventh-ranked Oklahoma in the second round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday. The Gators were outscored 27-7 in the third quarter, the latest game in which they got outplayed in the second half.

"We're the youngest team in the conference, and we showed up every single night to compete, and I would expect nothing else," Finley said after the loss. "We're as good as we've been on both sides of the ball in the last eight years. … If given the opportunity for whatever is next, man, they're going to shine."

Women's basketball is the only program of the 19 on Florida's campus that has never won a conference title. And the next coach will try to reverse the trend at a time when the Gators seem reluctant to funnel as much money as SEC heavyweights LSU and South Carolina into a program that has provided little, if any, return on investment for decades.

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Finley took over a program in disarray in 2021, one reeling from Cam Newbauer's resignation amid allegations he verbally abused players and staff members. The Gators made the NCAA Tournament in Finley's interim season, but her tenure has been mostly downhill since despite an uptick in talent.

Florida looked competent, even competitive, at times. But there was usually a half, a quarter or a stretch in which little went right. And Finley seemingly did little to spark interest in the program; Florida's average home attendance (1,895) ranked last in the SEC by a significant margin this season.

The Gators enjoyed mild success over the years but haven't advanced past the second round of the NCAAs since Carol Ross coached the team in 1998. They tried different paths since: hiring national championship-winning coach Carolyn Peck in 2002 and bringing back alumna Amanda Butler in 2007. Athletic director Scott Stricklin hired Newbauer over Becky Hammon in 2017.

None of them led Florida to national prominence while other women's programs at Florida flourished, including gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball.

And there has been an opportunity for growth in women's hoops, with traditional SEC powers Georgia and Tennessee giving way in recent years to LSU, Kentucky, Mississippi State and South Carolina. The addition of Oklahoma and Texas in 2024 only pushed Florida even further down the league ladder.

Now, the next coach will try to accomplish what Finley failed to do: build a consistent winner in Gainesville.

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign uphereandhere(AP News mobile app). AP women's college basketball:https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-pollandhttps://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

byGreen Magazine

in

10:22:00 AM

Florida fires women's basketball coach Kelly Rae Finley after 5 seasons

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida fired women's basketball coach Kelly Rae Finley on Monday with the Gators poised to ...

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Giants reportedly agree to 3-year deal with former Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely

The New York Giants and former Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely have agreed to a three-year contract,ESPN's Adam Schefter reports. Terms of the deal were not initially reported.

In Likely, the Giants add a 25-year-old tight end in his prime who flashed considerable upside in four seasons in Baltimore playing alongside veteran Pro Bowler Mark Andrews. He'll provide a prime target for second-year quarterback Jaxson Dart, who's coming off a promising rookie campaign.

For Likely, he'll have a chance to play as the No. 1 tight end in New York for the first time in his career. He projects as the top option in a tandem that features incumbent Theo Johnson. Johnson's former tight end teammateDaniel Bellinger has reportedly agreed to join the Tennessee Titans.

A fourth-round selection by the Ravens in the 2022 NFL Draft, Likely was impactful in a limited role with Baltimore since joining the franchise. He played in 14-plus games in each of his four seasons and started in 26 of the 63 games he played.

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An athletic 6-4, 245-pound target, Likely was a frequent red-zone target for Lamar Jackson who tallied 15 touchdowns in his four seasons with the Ravens. Likely averaged 34 catches for 392 yards per season as the No. 2 tight option behind Andrews. He had his most productive season in 2024, tallying 42 catches for 477 yards with 6 touchdowns.

The Giants are hoping that Likely will provide Dart with a prime red-zone target and security blanket over the middle in the passing game.

Likely joins a Giants offense that features promising young talent in Dart, Pro Bowl wide receiver Malik Nabers and rising second-year running back Cam Skattebo, whose promising rookie campaign was cut short due to a fractured and dislocated ankle.

The Giants are hoping their young offensive core can eventually lead them to their first playoff appearance since 2022 and just their second since 2016.

byGreen Magazine

in

8:22:00 AM

Giants reportedly agree to 3-year deal with former Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely

The New York Giants and former Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely have agreed to a three-year contract,ESPN'...

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Belarus journalist convicted of treason and sentenced to 9 years in prison

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian journalist Pavel Dabravolski was convicted Monday of treason and sentenced to nine years in a maximum-security prison, activists said, the fifth media worker to be jailed in two weeks in a relentless government crackdown on freedom of the press.

Belarus Crackdown

Dabravolski, who has reported for international and domestic news outlets and won numerous prizes for his work, was found guilty during a closed-door trial at Minsk City Court, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists. The 36-year-old most recently worked for BelaPAN, which the Belarusian authorities have designated as extremist.

President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for over three decades, has stayed in power through a relentless crackdown on dissent.

Massive protests broke out following the 2020 elections, which were widely denounced as fraudulent. More than 65,000 people were arrested and thousands were beaten. In the wake of the protests, hundreds of independent media outlets and nongovernmental organizations were shut down and outlawed.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Dabravolski was being targeted by "trumped-up charges."

"Dabravolski's only 'crime' was doing his job and covering the 2020 protests after the stolen elections," she said. "We see that the conveyor belt of repression inside Belarus continues unabated."

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Activists have reported a sharp increase in government pressure on Belarus' media workers.

"Repression is escalating and Dabravolski's sentence shows that the authorities are increasing pressure on journalists in a country that already has the worst freedom of speech in Europe," Andrei Bastunets, the head of the journalists' association, told The Associated Press.

The group says that 28 journalists are imprisoned in Belarus.

"It contradicts the idea that the human rights situation in Belarus has allegedly improved due to the release of prominent political prisoners," Bastunets said.

Under Lukashenko, Belarus has faced years of Western isolation and sanctions for repression and for allowing Moscow to use its territory during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He has recently sought to improve relations with the West by releasing hundreds of political prisoners.

Many more remain behind bars, however, with human rights organization Viasna estimating that there are 1,140 political prisoners.

byGreen Magazine

in

7:42:00 AM

Belarus journalist convicted of treason and sentenced to 9 years in prison

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian journalist Pavel Dabravolski was convicted Monday of treason and sentenced to nine yea...

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World Baseball Classic 2026: South Korea advances to quarterfinals for first time since 2009 on crazy tiebreaker; USA awaits Mexico

Day 4 of the2026 World Baseball Classicstarted with a near-cycle and a whole lot of math. South Korea's Bo Gyeong Moon rocketed a 430-foot homer to open the scoring gates at the Tokyo Dome and then added an RBI double and an RBI single to help his team establish a 5-0 lead over Australia in a must-win game in Pool C action on Monday.

South Korea maintained a critical five-run advantage in what turned into a 7-2 victory that booked its ticket to the event's quarterfinals for the first time since 2009.

Three teams in Pool C finished with a 2-2 record — South Korea, Australia and Chinese Taipei — but, because of a run-quotient tiebreaker, South Korea advanced. Australia could have made it out of pool play with a win or a loss by four runs or fewer.

South Korea joins a Shohei Ohtani-led Japan squad as the two teams to make it out of Pool C. Undefeated Japan, though, will wrap up pool play on Tuesday against Czechia, which has yet to win a game at this year's WBC.

Later on Monday, Team USA will be back in action. Witha 9-1 win over Great Britain on Saturday, the Americans improved to 2-0. Now they'll face a 2-0 Mexico team.

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[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]

South Korea 7, Australia 2

Moon came into the day tied with Venezuela's Luis Arráez for the most RBI (seven) in this year's WBC. He tacked on four more in the emotional win over Australia.

But South Korea also got a lift from Jung Hoo Lee, both offensively and defensively. Lee knocked in a run while doubling to center in the third inning. Then, in the ninth, he played a big role in South Korea preserving its five-run lead, making a sliding grab in right-center field with one out and one man on base.

If you're wondering about that complex run-quotient tiebreaker that comes into play when three or more teams have the same record in pool play, here's how FS1 broke it down on the broadcast, noting that, in this case, the three teams that are tied are "ranked by lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by number of defensive outs."

South Korea defeated Czechia 11-4 in its first WBC game this year before falling to Japan 8-6 and then to Chinese Taipei 5-4. A bounce-back, five-run win got the team over the pool-play hump and into the quarterfinals.

Monday's WBC schedule, how to watch

• Dominican Republic vs. Israel, 12 p.m. ET on FS1

• Colombia vs. Panama, 12 p.m. ET on FS2

• Brazil vs. Great Britain, 1 p.m. ET on Tubi

• Cuba vs. Puerto Rico, 7 p.m. ET on FS1

• Venezuela vs. Nicaragua, 7 p.m. ET on FS2

• Mexico vs. United States, 8 p.m. ET on Fox

byGreen Magazine

in

6:22:00 AM

World Baseball Classic 2026: South Korea advances to quarterfinals for first time since 2009 on crazy tiebreaker; USA awaits Mexico

Day 4 of the2026 World Baseball Classicstarted with a near-cycle and a whole lot of math. South Korea's Bo Gyeong Moo...

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