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This year, theNFL's competition committeehasn't heard a peep about a new proposal to ban the play, a quarterback sneak that also involves one or more other players pushing the ball carrier from behind.

"There's no team proposal that I've seen from it," league competition committee co-chair Rich McKay said at the NFL combine. "So, I wouldn't envision it. But you never know."

The 2025 NFL season saw a year-over-year uptick in attempts but a decline in theeffectiveness of the Tush Pushafter its dominance in short yardage situations over the previous three years.

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Week 1: Detroit Lions wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa (18) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field. The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass, but the call was overturned. Despite TeSlaa's effort, the Packers won the game 27-13.

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Best images of the 2025 NFL season

Week 1: Detroit Lions wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa (18)makes a catch for a touchdownagainst the Green Bay Packers during the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field. The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass, but the call was overturned. Despite TeSlaa's effort, the Packers won the game 27-13.

There were 112 Tush Push attempts in 2025, per ESPN, after a 2024 season that featured 101 attempts to run the play. ThePhiladelphia EaglesandBuffalo Billsled the way with 27 and 17 Tush Push attempts, respectively, in 2025.

Teams converted a first down on 76.8% of Tush Push attempts in 2025, according to ESPN, a notable dip from the 82% conversion rate on the play between 2022 and 2024.

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In September, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that there was "no guarantee" for another attempt to ban the quarterback sneak play. The ESPN insider wrote that the conversation surrounding the Tush Push ban last offseason was heated and emotional, meaning the league's owners might decide to hold off on further discussion for another year.

Last year, theGreen Bay Packers' proposal to ban the Tush Push ultimately fell two votes shy of the requisite 24 votes needed to institute the ban. The proposal would have re-established the NFL rule that existed until 2005, which banned other players from pushing ball carriers regardless of where they were on the field.

TUSH PUSH BAN:NFL fails to ban the Philadelphia Eagles' QB sneak play

At the time, Green Bay and other teams that supported the Tush Push ban cited player safety among primary concerns for keeping the play permissible.

FormerEaglescenter Jason Kelce, who was an advocate for keeping the Tush Push legal, spoke at last year's owners meeting to share his perspective on the safety of the play.

"There was a narrative out there that one of the reasons I retired was because of the play, or that I somehow felt like the play led to more injuries or was injured because of it," Kelce said in an episode of his "New Heights" podcast last May. "So I was really just there to offer my perspective on that stuff not being true and the fact that I think it's a relatively safe play."

The NFL has not publicly shared any data regarding the health of players surrounding the Tush Push.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Tush Push ban in 2026? Why NFL rule-changers say it's unlikely

Ohtani's next step in his return to being a two-way player full-time this season doesn't include pitching next month for his home country in the WBC.

"Just coming off the surgery, coming off the year he had, pitching through October, just the quick turnaround at that kind of intensity coming off surgery," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. "And then obviously, we have designs of playing through October this year, and Shohei being a big part of that on the mound. That, coupled with the idea that he wants to pitch for the next eight years, we want him to pitch for the next eight years, just trying to be really mindful of all of that.

"And so we sat down, had the conversation with him. He understood it. The competitor in him doesn't love it, but he understood it."

Ohtani said in a half-truth reveal he can't say for certain that competitive fire won't spread in the moment. There was one hypothetical scenario playing in his mind when the question arose about taking the mound for an inning or even one batter.

"Hard to say it," Ohtani said via interpreter Will Ireton, "but if (Mike) Trout shows up, it's tempting."

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Trout, a close friend and former Los Angeles Angels teammate of Ohtani, won't be in uniform for the U.S. team in March.

That means no redux of the 2023 final-out showdown in which Ohtani was on the mound and struck out Trout in a high-leverage moment the Dodgers would like their treasured four-time MVP to avoid this time around.

Ohtani, who missed only four games in 2025 and played all but three in 2024, has worked with the Dodgers to tone down some of his dual-position upramp this spring. He's also played in 33 playoff games in his two seasons with the Dodgers. He did not pitch in 2024 coming off of Tommy John surgery but threw 47 innings in 14 appearances last season.

To get prepared for a bigger role as a pitcher in 2026, Ohtani will throw some live batting practice sessions and simulated games while away from the Dodgers at the WBC.

"I'll do everything in my power to make sure the quality and the volume are in a good place," Ohtani said. "With the limited opportunities I do have, being in a live situation, I just have to do the best I can in those situations."

--Field Level Media

The decision means that Prestianni will miss Wednesday's second leg of the Champions League playoff between Real Madrid and Benfica. Madrid won the first match in Lisbon last Tuesday with Vinícius scoring a second-half winner for a1-0 victory.

The game was halted for nearly 10 minutes after the Brazil forward scored and celebrated by the Benfica corner flag, upsetting local fans and players. After being confronted by Prestianni, Vinícius accused the Argentine player of calling him "monkey."

Prestianni hasdenied racially insultingVinícius.

The anti-racism protocol was activated but no further action was taken during the match as there was no evidence against Prestianni, who covered his mouth with his shirt while talking to Vinícius. The Madrid forward was shown a yellow card after his celebration.

UEFA said the decision from its control, ethics and disciplinary Body (CEDB) is related to a discriminatory behavior.

"This is without prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary bodies," it said in a statement.

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FIFA President Gianni Infantino said after the match he was "shocked and saddened to see the incident of alleged racism" and praised the referee for activating the anti-racism protocol.

Benficashowed supportfor Prestianni, with the Portuguese club claiming that Madrid players who said they heard the insult were too far away. Benfica later released a statement saying it welcomed UEFA's investigation and that it "fully supports and believes the version presented" by Prestianni, "whose conduct while with the club has always been guided by respect" toward everyone.

Benfica fans had reacted angrily to Vinícius celebrating his 50th-minute goal by dancing at the corner flag, throwing bottles and other objects toward the Madrid players. Prestianni then confronted Vinícius and said something while covering his mouth with his jersey.

Prestianni insisted that Vinícius misunderstood what was said, while Benfica players after the match reportedly said the Argentine provoked the Brazil forward but never racially insulted him.

Kylian Mbappé was among the Madrid players who strongly defended Vinícius andposted on X: "Dance, Vini, and please never stop. They will never tell us what we have to do or not."

The France star also said Prestianni should never play in the Champions League again.

AP soccer:https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

"It's been a really difficult year," the girl's mother told NBC News in Spanish this month as she choked up. "It's hard not to break down."

The family's quest to return to the United States is now reaching a critical point, the mother said. In Mexico, without continuous access to the medical care the girl needs, the brain tumor that once threatened her life could redevelop.

NBC News is withholding the name of the mother and the rest of the family members, since they were deported to an area in Mexico known for kidnapping U.S. citizens.

When U.S. doctors reviewed the results ofthe girl's last MRI scan from May, they found her brain isn't regenerating, an important part of recovery that helps restore lost neurological functions such as motor skills and speech. That means "there is a high risk that the tumor can come back," the mother said, explaining her conversation with the physicians.

It also makes it more urgent for her daughter to be back in the U.S., so her doctors can keep her under close observation, she added.

Slightly struggling with her words, the 11-year-old girl described experiencing worsening headaches and persistent body pain, particularly in a foot and a hand, in a brief phone conversation with NBC News this month.

"My head hurts so much, my foot, my hand," she said in Spanish. "I want to heal."

The mother said her daughter has also been experiencing seizures more frequently, a concern that often keeps her up at night.

To appropriately monitor the girl's condition, her specialist doctors in the U.S. recommend that she get an MRI scan every three months. Since she arrived in Mexico almost a year ago, the girl has been able to get only one.

For months, the family has been anxiously waiting to hear back from immigration authorities about thehumanitarian parole request they filedback in June 2025 that could allow the parents, who are undocumented, and one noncitizen sibling to enter and live in the U.S. temporarily to assist the 11-year-old as she receives medical treatment.

While humanitarian parole requests are processed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, applications submitted by previously deported people are decided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. USCIS and ICE did not comment in this specific case.

Attorney Danny Woodward of the Texas Civil Rights Project, the legal advocacy and litigation organization representing the family, said humanitarian parole can be granted "to anybody regardless of their immigration history."

"It's at the discretion of the government, and this case really merits it," Woodward said.

Medical records Woodward obtained as part of the family's efforts to win humanitarian parole show the girl's brain tumor was caused by an "unnamed 'novel' condition." That's what makes it a rare tumor that is difficult to treat, her mother said in Spanish.

The mother said she's "still waiting for a miracle" and hopes to be granted humanitarian parole. She said the health care options available to her daughter in Mexico are extremely limited.

U.S. citizens including minors can't access care through Mexico's public health system and are often required topay up frontto receive emergency medical services. For the family, the remaining alternative is to receive care through private coverage and pay out of pocket for medical bills, which the mother said they can't afford.

"It feels awful," the mother said as she recalled experiencing those limitations firsthand one day when her daughter began convulsing. She called for an ambulance, but dispatchers told her they wouldn't send one because her daughter is "technically not from Mexico." The mother ended up borrowing a car and driving 2½ hours to get her daughter to the hospital.

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There, medical staff members said they didn't understand her daughter's condition well enough to effectively treat her and recommended that she be returned to the U.S. to get treatment.

"The entire time we were in the United States, we always respected the country, respected the people, maintained good moral character with everyone and helped in any way we could," the mother said. "Not having access to anything now, it feels like the world is falling apart."

A drive to the hospital leads to deportation

The family's immigration plight began on Feb. 3, 2025, after the then 10-year-old girl woke up dizzy, with headaches and body pain. Her mother said the worrisome symptoms came exactly a year after surgeons performed an emergency procedure to remove a tumor on her daughter's brain.

Fearing her symptoms signaled setbacks in her recovery, the parents piled their children, ages 17, 14, 11, 10 and 8, into a car and rushed from the Rio Grande Valley area where they lived to a hospital in Houston, where specialist doctors had been treating the girl's condition since the operation.

But the family never made it to the Houston hospital. Border Patrol officers detained them when they stopped at a mandatoryimmigration checkpointin Texas.

Before President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the family had succesfully passed through that checkpoint several times before, Woodward said. They would present letters from the Houston hospital and from an immigration attorney, as well as the children's birth certificates.

"This is a family with no criminal record that was driving to Houston specifically to get medical care for their daughter who had a brain tumor removed," said Woodward, the attorney.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment, but the agency previously told NBC News the parents had previously been "givenexpedited removal orders,"adding that when someone "chooses to disregard them, they will face the consequences."

The family's departure to Mexico has weighed heavily on their eldest son, an18-year-old U.S. citizen who remains in Texasand who sends his now 11-year-old sister the seizure medications she needs.

The siblings in Mexico told NBC News they can't wait to be reunited with him. The youngest, who is 8, said he misses eating pizza and playing games with his big brother.

The 11-year-old said she misses her eldest brother, as well as her specialist doctors and her friends from school.

The girl's 14-year-old sister broke down describing how stressful it has been to see her younger sister not getting "the proper treatment and medication" in Mexico. The 17-year-old brother said it was hard adapting to a new life in a very rural part of Mexico as he tried to finish school online.

"It's been quite stressful being in an environment where I'm not used to being in," he said.

The family's case was amongthe first involving the detentionsand removals of U.S. citizen children, including minors withserious medical conditions, as part of their parents' deportations during the early days of Trump's second term. Several other cases emerged during that time, including those of three other U.S. citizen children, ages 7, 4 and 2, who weresent to Honduras with their undocumented mothersin April. The 4-year-oldhad Stage 4 cancer.

DHS has saidit doesn't deport American children. It instead asks deported parents whether they prefer to be removed with their U.S. citizen children rather than be separated.

Rochelle Garza, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said "it just isn't a choice — this is all forced upon them."

Parents on the verge of deportation can risk losing custody of their U.S.-born children if there aren't clearpower-of-attorney documents or guardianshipsoutlining who will take care of the children left behind. Otherwise the children go into the U.S. foster care system, making it harder for their parents to regain custody in the future.

The 11-year-old said that when she's feeling down, one of her favorite things to do is sing karaoke to the tunes of her favorite artists, Carín León and K-pop Demon Hunters,especially their electric hit song "Golden."It reminds her of joyous times, back in school with her friends and the life she left behind in Texas.

The decree authorizes the Panama Maritime Authority to occupy the ports for "reasons of urgent social interest." The occupation includes all movable property within or outside the Balboa and Cristóbal terminals, specifically covering cranes, vehicles,computer systemsand software.

The saga surrounding the two Panamanian ports is part of a broaderrivalry between the United States and China, in which the Central American country became caught in the middle after U.S. President Donald Trump accused China last year of "running the Panama Canal."

CK Hutchison was slated to sell the two ports to a consortium that includesU.S. investment firm BlackRock, but this prompted swift intervention from the Chinese government, which halted the deal.

In January, Panama's Supreme Court struck down the law approving the concession contract for Panama Ports Company, or PPC, a subsidiary of CK Hutchison. The ruling also invalidated an extension granted in 2021, stripping the port operations of any legal basis.

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PPC has operated these terminals since 1997, when the state awarded it the concession to manage the ports located at the Pacific and Atlantic entrances to the Panama Canal.

Panama's government announced days ago that it will guarantee the continuity of port operations and job stability, and that APM Terminals, a subsidiary of the Danish group A.P. Moller-Maersk, would temporarily assume the administration of the terminals while a new contract is awarded.

Meanwhile, CK Hutchison Holdingsstarted arbitration proceedingsagainst Panama under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce. It's unclear what the impact of the proceedings would be and how long they could take. It also threatened to sue APM Terminals, if it operates the concession. The Danish group responded that it's not a party to the legal proceedings.

A PPC spokesperson told local media last week that the company was seeking an agreement with the Panamanian government to continue operating.

Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean athttps://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The European Union is reportedly preparing to halt the ratification process of its trade agreement with the U.S. as it seeks more information on the Trump Administration's new plans regarding tariffs.

Zeljana Zovko, the lead trade negotiator in the European People's Party group, is quoted as tellingBloomberg"we have no other option" but to delay the approval process while seeking clarity.

TIME has reached out to Zovko for confirmation and further comment.

The reports from Europe come after President Donald Trump over the weekendthreatenedto impose a 15% global tariff, by way of a response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling his sweeping tariffs are illegal on Friday. The Court argued that Trump cannot rely on the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose such charges.

"During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible tariffs," said Trump of the new hike.

The U.S. President raised the number from his 10% threat in the immediate aftermath of the ruling on Friday. He invoked his authority underSection 122of the Trade Act of 1974 whenannouncingthe levies.

Trump's promise of a new tariff program has brought into question the foundation of theU.S.–E.U. agreementreached in July 2025, which proposed a 15% import tax on most European goods entering the U.S., the elimination of tariffs on American industrial exports to the bloc, and an intention from the E.U. to purchase $750 billion in U.S. energy.

Zovkoexpressedconcerns Sunday morning, saying: "Without full legal clarity regarding the newly-announced tariffs, particularly in light of the Supreme Court decision, we cannot take any abrupt decisions."

"Without a detailed assessment of the situation, its legal implications and its economic impact, it would be irresponsible to react prematurely," she added. "We will continue to closely monitor developments and remain focused on our objective, which has not changed from the beginning: restoring stability and predictability to our trade relations."

The uncertainty prompted senior E.U. officials to call for an emergency meeting Monday to reassess the transatlantic deal.

Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament's trade committee,calledthe situation "pure customs chaos on the part of the U.S. government" andsummoneda meeting to suspend the legislative approval of the deal until there are "comprehensive legal assessment[s] and clear commitments from the U.S. side."

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"Don't new tariffs based on Section 122 mean a breach of the deal?" he queried. "Regardless, no one knows whether the USA will adhere to it—or even be able to at all."

A spokesperson for Lange's office told TIME additional updates would follow after Monday's meeting.

The European Commission, which oversees trade policy for the bloc's 27 member states, is also requesting "full clarity" from Washington regarding its next steps on tariffs.

"The current situation is not conducive to delivering 'fair, balanced, and mutually beneficial' transatlantic trade and investment, as agreed to by both sides and spelled out in the E.U.-U.S. Joint Statement of August 2025," thestatementread.

The executive cabinet of the European Union indicated it will not accept an increase in U.S. tariffs, citing the hard-earned existing agreement.

"A deal is a deal. As the United States' largest trading partner, the E.U. expects the U.S. to honour its commitments set out in the Joint Statement—just as the E.U. stands by its commitments," the Commission warned. "In particular, E.U. products must continue to benefit from the most competitive treatment, with no increases in tariffs beyond the clear and all-inclusive ceiling previously agreed."

TIME has reached out to the White House for comment.

Andrew Harnik—Getty Images" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

The Commission confirmed E.U. Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič had been in contact with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick over the weekend.

When asked onCBS'Face the NationSunday morning whether agreements with the E.U. would remain intact, Greer said they "expect to stand by them."

"I haven't heard anyone yet come to me and say, the deal's off. They want to see how this plays out. I'm in active conversations with them on it," he said.

The E.U.-U.S. agreement was previously brought into question in January afterTrump threatened to tariff European allieswho opposed his campaign toannex Greenland—a threat he has since walked back.

Contact usatletters@time.com.

Mexican drug kingpin Nemesio Oseguera, who's known as "El Mencho,"died Sunday, Feb. 22, from injuries suffered in a shootout with Mexican officialsthat also killed six other cartel members.

The resulting civil unrest forced soccer officials in Mexico to postpone two top-tier matches indefinitely − Queretaro vs. Juarez FC in the men's league and Chivas vs. America in the women's league − and call off a pair of second-division matches.

After reports of El Mencho's death, suspected cartel members blockaded highways with burning cars and torched businesses in more than half a dozen states.

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The Mexican national team has a friendly scheduled against Iceland on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at the Corregidora Stadium in Queretaro. The status of that game is still in limbo.

Meanwhile, organizers of the Mexican Open men's tennis tournament in Acapulco said the event would begin Monday as scheduled under established security protocols.

Guadalajara is scheduled to host four World Cup matches in June, including two involving South Korea. Co-host Mexico, Spain, Uruguay and Colombia will also play there.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Soccer matches postponed amid chaos after Mexican drug kingpin killed