• A doctor for Deion Sanders expressed concern that the Colorado coach might need his leg amputated.
• Sanders underwent surgery for blood clots after a game against TCU last October.
• Sanders’ doctor is optimistic about his future health due to new medical technology.

A doctor for Colorado football coach Deion Sanders said he was worried Sanders might need his leg amputated after watching him struggle with pain in a game last October against TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.

Don Jacobs, a vascular surgeon at the University of Colorado, told this to Sanders recently, as shown on Sanders’ Instagram account Feb. 24. Sanders underwent surgery after the game to help clear out blood clots and returned to the sideline a few days later when his team beat Iowa State at home, 24-17

“I was really worried about you in Fort Worth,” Jacobs told Sanders on a FaceTime call with athletic trainer Lauren Askevold. “Watching that game and seeing you hurt, I was worried.”

“I was worried, too,” said Sanders, who added that he needed to be “shot up” to make through the game.

“Yeah, I know that pain hurts, and it was, you know, I was worried about losing a leg, “Jacobs said. “But, you know, we got you out quick… I was impressed, and everything healed up well.”

Sanders, 58, has battled blood circulation issues and blood clots in his lower body since 2021 but recently has been active with long walks on the Boulder campus even after having a cancerous bladder removed in May. The university confirmed in October that Sanders was undergoing an aspiration thrombectomy for the left popliteal and tibial arteries. That means blood clots were being removed from his left leg, which is already missing much of his calf and two toes after a previous amputation.

Jacobs said he thinks Sanders’ future “chances of trouble here is pretty small” especially as new technology helps with “really cleaning it out better.”

Jacobs added he’d like to see Sanders again this summer to “look at it just one more time.”

Colorado opens spring practice March 2 and continues through the annual spring scrimmage on April 11. The Buffaloes open the season at Georgia Tech on Thursday, Sept. 3.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

Where will A.J. Brown play in 2026?

When Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni and general manager Howie Roseman spoke to reporters at the NFL scouting combine on Feb. 24, they did not shut down trade speculation surrounding the Pro Bowl wide receiver. Neither of them expressed any certainty that Brown would be with Philadelphia by the start of the 2026 season.

‘Will A.J. be here next season?’ Sirianni said. ‘I think we’re still in a spot, like, I can’t guarantee how anything is going to play out into next season. I’m thinking I’m going to be the coach next season but you can’t guarantee anything past tomorrow.’

Several times throughout the 2025 season, Brown publicly expressed his frustrations with the Eagles and how they used him in their offense. During a video gaming livestream, Brown called his situation in Philadelphia a ‘(expletive)-show’, and during the Eagles’ wild-card game clash with the 49ers, cameras caught him jawing with Sirianni on the sideline.

‘I think you go into the league year listening to offers for everything and anything,’ Roseman said at the NFL combine. ”Without getting into specifics on any player, we’re always listening and we’re always kind of open.’

Brown has played in 62 games over four seasons with the Eagles, catching 339 passes for 5,034 yards and 32 touchdowns. He won a Super Bowl with Philadelphia last year, and his 5,034 receiving yards as an Eagle rank ninth all-time in franchise history.

In 2025, Brown caught 78 passes for 1,003 yards and seven touchdowns in 15 games.

If the Eagles do end up trading Brown, these four landing spots make a lot of sense:

AJ Brown landing spots

New England Patriots

Outside of the struggles the Patriots had with their offensive line to end their Super Bowl run, the wide receiver position appeared to be one of the weakest points on their roster. Veteran Stefon Diggs led New England with his 1,013 yards in 2025, but he was streaky – some weeks he’d cross over 100 yards in a game before multi-game stretches with fewer than 50 yards. Diggs also wasn’t a big red-zone target for the Patriots, catching just four touchdowns in his first year in New England.

Trading for Brown would give Patriots quarterback Drake Maye a younger, bona fide No. 1 receiver to throw to in 2026. Diggs, Kayshon Boutte, Mack Hollins and DeMario Douglas made up a solid receiving corps in 2025, but Brown would push that unit over the top as a true WR1.

A move like this would also reunite Brown with head coach Mike Vrabel, who was Brown’s first head coach in the NFL during both of their time with the Tennessee Titans. Brown said in a recent appearance on Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman’s podcast, ‘Dudes on Dudes,’ that he appreciated Vrabel for holding him accountable during his early years in the league.

‘When I say he holds every single player accountable from top to bottom, I don’t care who it is, like that’s who he is,’ Brown said. ‘And it makes the team come together because nobody is bigger than the team.’

Buffalo Bills

As with the Patriots, one of the Bills’ greatest roster weaknesses is at wide receiver. Since Diggs left Buffalo after the 2023 season, the Bills have not had a receiver cross the 1,000-yard mark. Khalil Shakir has led Bills receivers in both of the last two seasons, but he failed to crest 750 yards in 2025. And no Buffalo receiver had more than five touchdowns.

In 2025, the Bills started leaning especially heavily on running back James Cook, who finished the year with 309 rush attempts for 1,621 yards and 12 touchdowns. Even though former offensive coordinator Joe Brady took a promotion to become the team’s head coach, the Bills’ offense can’t rely on Cook having another season like that with the excessive taxation on his legs from 2025.

Enter Brown, the high-ceiling receiver that would give the Bills their first true WR1 since Diggs left Buffalo after 2023. Adding a receiver like that would help push Buffalo’s offense forward and allow them to deploy a similar strategy to the 2024 Super Bowl-champion Eagles: complement a strong run game with a dynamic passing game, all surrounding a talented, dual-threat quarterback.

Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens have taken swing after swing at drafting a lead receiver in the first round for the last two decades. Travis Taylor in 2000, Mark Clayton in 2005, Breshad Perriman in 2015, Hollywood Brown in 2019, Rashod Bateman in 2021 and Zay Flowers in 2023. Only Flowers, the Ravens’ most recent attempt, has made a Pro Bowl.

Flowers is coming off of the most productive season of his career so far with 86 catches for 1,211 yards, five touchdowns and a second straight Pro Bowl nod. The Boston College product is a dynamic player who excels at creating separation with his route-running and generating yards after the catch. However, Flowers’ 5-foot-9, 182-pound frame has limited his contested-catch ability, something that would give Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson another tool to work with.

If Baltimore traded for Brown, it would have one of the strongest 1-2 punches at wide receiver in the NFL. Brown would be the bigger-bodied, No. 1 wide receiver option who’s good for 100+ catches, 1,000+ yards and at least five touchdowns per season. Flowers would be the dynamic No. 2 receiver that can work all three levels of the field by streaking open downfield, creating easy separation over the middle or generating yards after the catch on short throws.

Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers’ plan in the offseason should be building up their trenches in free agency and the draft. But Los Angeles, a team with $81.8 million in cap space, also has the room to take big swings on offensive playmakers like Brown.

None of the Chargers’ leading trio of receivers in 2025 – Keenan Allen, Quentin Johnston and Ladd McConkey – had more than 800 yards. None of them established themselves as the team’s true No. 1 option, either. McConkey led Los Angeles with 789 yards, Allen led with 122 targets and 81 catches, and Johnston led the Chargers with eight touchdown catches in a breakout season.

Now, Allen is hitting free agency ahead of his age-34 season, and the Chargers have brought in Mike McDaniel to be their new offensive coordinator. Adding a wide receiver like Brown to Los Angeles’ roster would give quarterback Justin Herbert a true No. 1 target, while McConkey and Johnston provide dynamic secondary and tertiary options. McDaniel’s offense was at its best in Miami when it had two outstanding wide receivers and a promising young running back to scheme around. With Brown, McConkey and Johnston catching passes and second-year back Omarion Hampton leading the run game, the Chargers’ offense could really break out with a more complex, multi-dimensional look in 2026.

Amid her continued recovery from a severe leg injury, Lindsey Vonn has received support from soccer legends Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimović.

On Monday, Feb. 23, Vonn revealed she could have lost her leg as the result of her crash in the downhill at the Milano Cortina Olympics earlier this month.

The skiing star said that in addition to complex tibial fracture in her left leg, she had a tibial plateau fracture and fractured fibular head. She also broke her right ankle. Vonn said her severe injuries led to compartment syndrome, which could have resulted in her leg being amputated.

‘Compartment syndrome is when you have so much trauma to one area of your body, that there’s too much blood, and it gets stuck, and it basically crushes everything in the compartment,’ Vonn said in an Instagram post.

‘All the muscle and nerves and tendons, it all kind of dies. And Dr. Tom Hackett saved my leg. He saved my leg from being amputated.’

Vonn received thousands of supportive comments on her Instagram post, including from global icons Ronaldo and Ibrahimović.

‘Champions are defined by the moments they win, and the moments they refuse to give up,’ Ronaldo said. ‘@lindseyvonn the mountains you conquered were never bigger than the strength you carry. Keep fighting. Legends always rise.’

Ibrahimović added simply: ‘Giving up is not an option.’

Vonn was hospitalized in Italy for a little over a week before being transferred to a hospital in Colorado. She said she is hoping to be on crutches in a few weeks, with the bones unlikely to fully heal for a year.

The 41-year-old will then decide whether to undergo surgery for the torn ACL she suffered in the same leg a week before the Olympics started.

The 2026 college football season is still six months away, but Kirby Smart and Mario Cristobal are already going at it.

Speaking at the Steve Spurrier Awards in Gainesville, Florida, the two coaches traded verbal jabs fit for any celebrity roast.

Smart was on the mic talking about Georgia defensive back Ellis Robinson IV, who was being honored as Freshmen Defensive Player of the Year. Talking about Robinson IV’s parents, Smart got to work on his comedy routine.

‘He was a joy to recruit. We had a great time with the family,’ Smart said. ‘They were going back and forth about the 50th birthday party (dad) got, and the 50th party (mom) got, and it wasn’t quite the same. Mama wins out when it comes to that. We probably sponsored that trip with all the NIL money we spent… that’s alright, they deserve it.

‘Mario is right behind them and if it would have been up to him they would have paid a lot more NIL money because it came down to us two, so I don’t like you being real close to Mario right now, you know what I’m saying. (Robinson’s) still got another year left. You gotta be careful around Mario, sometimes he’ll take your players, you know what I mean. No, I’m just kidding.’

Quarterback Carson Beck transferred to Miami from Georgia after the 2024 season and led the Hurricanes to the national championship game this winter.

‘I was talking to Mario earlier and he came up to me and gave me a Lane Kiffin joke. And he and Lane are very similar in a lot of ways,’ Smart said. ‘They’re like best friends, and he came up to me, and he said, ‘You have to start getting on some protein shakes, you’ve had too many carbs.’ And I said well you probably need to spend some time with Steve Spurrier because he won more title conferences at Duke than you have at Miami.’

In his closing, Smart said, ‘I gotta get out of here before Mario goes because I don’t want to hear any (expletive) from him.’

It didn’t take long for the (expletive) to come Smart’s way as Cristobal then got his chance for payback.

‘It’s great to watch what a player like Carson Beck can do with great coaching, you know what I mean,’ Cristobal joked.

‘Let’s give it up for Kirby Smart. If it wasn’t for all his years of pre-NIL, we wouldn’t have NIL right now anyways.’

‘Robinson family,’ Cristobal continued, ‘nice to see you. We leave at 9:30 on the real jet. We have more than one restaurant in Miami as opposed to Athens.’

‘You gotta give a guy like Kirby credit. When you have all that time to sit at home watching us play on TV throughout the playoffs, when you don’t take care of business… You know, congratulations on the SEC, the championship, that’s awesome. We were 5-0 against the SEC, I don’t know what you were.’

Unfortunately, Miami and Georgia don’t play in the regular season in 2026. But maybe they’ll get to meet each other in the CFP to see who gets the last laugh.

As the NBA faces ongoing concerns about tanking, Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle fired back at the league over its recent $100,000 Player Participation Policy fine, calling the discipline “ridiculous” and “shocking.”

During a radio interview with 93.5 The Fan Tuesday, Feb. 24, Carlisle publicly addressed the fine for the first time and centered his rebuke around the availability of guard Aaron Nesmith during a Feb. 3 game against the Jazz, a 131-122 Utah victory.

“I didn’t agree with it,” Carlisle said during the interview. “There was a league lawyer that was doing the interview that kind of unilaterally decided that Aaron Nesmith, who had been injured the night before and couldn’t hold the ball, should’ve played in the game, which seems ridiculous.”

The league announced the discipline Feb. 12, just days before the NBA All-Star Game. Headed into the game, the Pacers were 13-37 and continuing to languish in last place in the Eastern Conference.

For its part, the NBA responded to Carlisle’s allegations, disputing his account.

“Coach Carlisle’s description of the process that went into the decision to fine the Indiana Pacers is inaccurate,” an NBA spokesperson said in a statement sent to USA TODAY Sports. “An independent physician led the medical review. In addition, the Pacers’ General Manager and the team’s Senior Vice President, Sports Medicine and Performance were interviewed as part of the process.

“The Pacers confirmed that it had provided all of the information requested by the league and the team reported that an interview with Coach Carlisle or a team physician wasn’t necessary.”

After pushing the eventual-champion Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the Pacers have struggled to compete this year because of injuries, most notably the ruptured Achilles tendon star point guard Tyrese Haliburton suffered early in that Game 7.

Indiana is currently 15-43, which is last place in the East and the NBA’s second-worst record.

“During the interview process — I was not on it, but I heard details — we asked them if they wanted to talk to the doctors, our doctors about it, because it was something that was documented by our doctors and trainers,” Carlisle continued. “They said no, they didn’t need to, they talked to their doctors, who did not examine Aaron Nesmith. And we asked them if they wanted to talk to the kid, and they said no, they didn’t need to.

“This was shocking to me. During the interview, they also asked if we considered medicating him to play in a game when we were 30 games under .500, so I was very surprised.”

During the radio interview, however, Carlisle didn’t discuss the statuses of All-Star forward Pascal Siakam — who was directly named in the disciplinary memo — and another, unnamed “star player” under the league’s Player Participation Policy.

In the letter, the NBA said Siakam and the two star players “could have played under the medical standard in the Policy, including by playing reduced minutes” and added that “the team could have held the players out of other games in a way that would have better promoted compliance with the Policy.”

Presumably, the other star player the league was referencing was either shooting guard Bennedict Mathurin (rest) or point guard Andrew Nembhard (injury/illness); both recorded DND (did-not-dress) designations for the game.

Siakam’s DND was given a rest designation.

Guard T.J. McConnell and center Micah Potter also did not dress, with injury/illness designations.

“Overt behavior like this that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition and we will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Feb. 12 in a statement. “Additionally, we are working with our Competition Committee and Board of Governors to implement further measures to root out this type of conduct.”

In the same disciplinary announcement, the Jazz were also fined $500,000 for separate game management decisions related to tanking.