Month: September 2025

With free agency complete and teams shoring up their rosters, it’s time for the NFL draft. With the 2025 class not expected to have a plethora of home run picks, the first round could be filled with players who fill specific needs.

The team that didn’t make the playoffs gets the first pick, then the other 23 teams will pick in inverse order of their regular season standings.

This team needs more weapons for QB Trevor Lawrence, and he would have a lot of success with a tight end who can block and catch. The Colts have Mo Alie-Cox and Andrew Ogletree, but neither of them are great pass catchers. If Thomas is healthy, he’s an instant upgrade.

New England needs a new cornerback after signing Carlton Davis to a big contract, and Carter is an explosive two-way player who can rush the ball and cover. He is a better option than Josh Hines-Allen or Travon Walker, who both struggled in the pass rush last year.

The Bears want competition and depth for RB Braxton Jones, and they’ve hosted both Hampton and Jeanty on top-30 visits in recent weeks. Both can be a productive back in this league, but Jeanty is the better fit for this team given its current needs. He’s also an ideal backup for RB Jalen Tolbert and slot receiver Tetairoa McMillan.

Whether they helped bring down Jose Mourinho, led a march against their club owner or pushed back against plans to commercialize the game, fan protest stories remind us that football fans have a long history of using their passion as a weapon in the fight for change. And while their demonstrations may not be as grand as a tifo, they are nonetheless a force to be reckoned with.

In a recent study, Christian Brandt, Maryna Krugliak and Robert Warnecke found that fans’ glocally motivated activism is often rooted in the desire to express their devotion and protect figures of fandom (see ‘Crazy Fangirls’). The activists also act out of a sense of protectiveness for the clubs they support, as well as a desire to maintain the integrity of the game.

Fans’ glocally motivated activism is shaped by local contexts and varies across the world. As a result, it can be difficult for journalists to understand and report on the phenomenon.

Rookwood and Hoey have argued that the most effective way to report on fan protests is to tell a story with the five W’s: who, what, where, when and why. They also suggest reporting on the personal details of people involved in the protest, including their hobbies and family, to help humanize them.

This type of reporting can lead to greater engagement from readers, as shown by a recent experiment involving a teenage football fan protester. Researchers found that newsrooms’ reports that humanized the teenager led Democrats and those with Democrat-leaning views to have more positive attitudes toward the protest and the protesters. However, those reports that dehumanized the teenager had the opposite effect, with respondents viewing them as less credible.

Once upon a time, the idea of videogame-based tournaments was little more than a fringe concept that was played out by aspiring competitors in the backrooms of gaming stores. But as the 21st century rolled in, Esports gained serious momentum and today some of the world’s biggest tournaments rival those of traditional sports. From multi-million dollar prize pools to viewership numbers that eclipse some of the most celebrated sports events, esports tournaments have established a global presence that is hard to ignore.

Like traditional sports, esports tournaments feature teams of players competing against one another. These competitions may be hosted by a game publisher or a professional organisation, with the larger events being governed by esports governing bodies, often representing a particular region. Often, these governing bodies are more concerned with acting as an oversight body for the industry rather than directly organising specific tournaments.

While the growth of esports has been impressive, there is still much to be debated around whether these events truly represent legitimate sports. Many of the same problems faced by traditional sports – such as cheating, performance-enhancing drugs, and match fixing – have found their way into the industry, with controversies ranging from the blatant to the downright absurd.

The year 2025 promises to be a busy one for esports tournaments, with notable competitions set to take place across a number of titles. April kicks off with a number of major Counter-Strike 2 events, while June sees the start of RLCS Season 7, VALORANT’s Stage 2 international leagues and League of Legends’ MSI 2025.