Football

7/16/2026 |  Agent's Take: An early look at 2027 NFL franchise tag candidates, including Puka Nacua (CBS Sports) Three players (New York Jets running back Breece Hall, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens and Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts) were designated as franchise players this year. Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones received a transition tag.

7/16/2026 |  Auburn players set to share roughly $6 million in groundbreaking NIL deal tied to Aflac Kickoff Game (CBS Sports) College football has never paid players to play in a neutral-site game. Until now.
Auburn is expected to share roughly $6 million with players in a groundbreaking NIL deal tied to the program's appearance in the Aflac Kickoff Game against Baylor on Sept. 5, sources with knowledge of the agreement told CBS Sports. The money will be distributed among up to 24 Auburn players under a guarantee model that includes marketing commitments and promotional appearances. Players will also be paid through a revenue-sharing component tied directly to the game's ticket sales.

7/16/2026 |  2026 College Football Hot Seat Rankings: Evaluating job security of all 138 FBS coaches (CBS Sports) Every college football coach is under some amount of pressure to win, but heading into 2026, only an unfortunate few find themselves squarely in the "hot seat" conversation. Widespread coaching changes over recent years have left more than half of the FBS in a position where their coaching outlook seems pretty stable, barring something crazy. But for a trio of power-conference coaches, hot-seat talk will dominate the conversation until results change.

7/16/2026 |  What College Football Playoff expansion could learn from the 2026 World Cup (ESPN) In this summer's expanded FIFA World Cup, the entire world got a taste of peak March Madness. And it loved what it saw. Lower seeds -- in this case, small or unproven countries like Cape Verde and Congo DR -- defined the early part of the tournament, pulling upsets (it's soccer, so draws count as upsets) and giving us a bracket we didn't quite expect. The heavyweights eventually took over, but despite the fact that this was the biggest and longest World Cup ever, the underdogs gave the tournament almost endless momentum. Something breathless was almost always happening. It was great.

7/16/2026 |  2026 NFL trade tiers: Players worth Round 1 picks by team (ESPN) In past years, I've written a column running through the NFL's top players and identifying which of them would land a first-round pick (or more) via trade. Most of the time, it's a thought exercise. Like in last summer's edition: The Chiefs aren't trading Patrick Mahomes. The Bengals aren't trading Ja'Marr Chase. The Cowboys definitely aren't trading Micah Parsons.