During his second trip to Haiti in the past two offseasons, Jaguars defensive tackle Marcell Dareus attended the groundbreaking for a school that will be named after him, according to John Reid of The Florida Times-Union.

I’d agree that based on last year’s weird circumstances—from Ryan Tannehill’s injury to Chris Foerster’s bizarreness to Hurricane Irma—Gase deserves a mulligan. I still believe he’s regarded among the most respected offensive minds in the sport, and that counts for a lot in (as we alluded to a second ago) such a quarterback-driven league.

That said, this offseason has been largely about bringing in his type of guys, and purging the team of some talent that happened to be self-centered. I think it had to happen, and Gase was right to do it. But when you’re waving goodbye to big names like Ndamukong Suh and Jarvis Landry, ownership will be watching the result closely, and you’re putting your rear end on the line. We’ll see how all that plays out.

Conley’s lawsuit was filed on Monday in reaction to a civil suit the woman filed in April. In his counter-suit, Conley claimed that the allegations affected his place in the NFL draft, costing him millions of dollars and a contract with Nike, reports ESPN.

The Raiders drafted Conley with the No. 24 overall pick in the 2017 draft. The Ohio State cornerback was originally considered as a top-10 pick.

Conley is seeking $25,000 in damages. The lawsuit also claims that the woman instituted and continued the criminal prosecution of Conley with malice … because she was upset that Conley refused to have sex with her, or to position her to be able to squeeze a pay-off from Conley, or both, according to ESPN.

In April 2017, the woman accused Conley of raping her in his Cleveland hotel room. In his countersuit, Conley claims that he refused to have sex with the woman and asked her to leave his hotel room, according to USA Today.

Kellen Winslow II has been charged with another rape.

According to the Associated Press, the 34-year-old former NFL tight end has been charged with the rape of an unconscious 17-year-old. The charge stems from a case 15 years old in 2003.

Winslow was a senior at the University of Miami in 2003. It is unclear whether he was still a student at Miami when the incident in question took place.

McCoy responded to the allegations about an hour after the initial post:

I used to try to manipulate my swing to hit balls to the left side of the infield and create some easy hits. I’ll still try to do it at times, depending on where guys are positioned, but a lot goes into it. It depends on the situation in the game. How many outs are there? Are there runners on base? If there are two outs and I get into a 2-0 count and I hit a little ground ball to the shortstop hole, that probably wasn’t as productive a team at-bat as it could have been if I ended up hitting a double somewhere.

Twitter’s purge followed a New York Times report on the booming business of the fake accounts, through a company called Devumi and frequently paid for by sports and entertainment celebrities presumably to give the impression that their influence is larger than it might be.

The actor John Leguizamo has Devumi followers. So do Michael Dell, the computer billionaire, and Ray Lewis, the football commentator and former Ravens linebacker. Kathy Ireland, the onetime swimsuit model who today presides over a half-billion-dollar licensing empire, has hundreds of thousands of fake Devumi followers, as does Akbar Gbajabiamila, the host of the show American Ninja Warrior. Even a Twitter board member, Martha Lane Fox, has some.​

Lewis’ follower count appears to have been hit particularly hard. Before the Times’ report, Lewis had 712,000 followers. As of early Friday, that number had fallen to 363,000 followers.

It’s unclear why Lewis had so many fake accounts following him or if he had knowledge that almost half of his followers weren’t real Twitter accounts.

Former NFL player Kellen Winslow II will stand trial for multiple sex crimes against multiple women, a judge in Southern California ruled Thursday (via the San Diego Union-Tribune).

Want to play hardball? That is much easier to suggest from the outside.

Taken together, these moves left the Cavs worse off today than need be, but it is hard to see any of them unfolding much differently given Cleveland’s unique and messy circumstances.

The Supreme Court ruling was specific — in the absence of federal legislation regarding sports betting, states can call their own shots. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is working to install some federal oversight. Hatch, who was one of the authors behind PASPA, made a predictably anti-gambling statement to announce he’d target further regulation in the wake of the court’s decision.

The problems posed by sports betting are much the same as they were 25 years ago, the outgoing senator said. But the rapid rise of the internet means that sports betting across state lines is now just a click away. We cannot allow this practice to proliferate amid uneven enforcement and a patchwork race to the regulatory bottom. At stake here is the very integrity of sports.

While it’s unclear what Hatch’s plan will be, his efforts could be the start of federal legislation aimed at creating a standardized plan for state-by-state sports gambling regulations and oversight.

We saw this in 2017 when the Philadelphia Eagles leapt from last place in the NFC East to Super Bowl champions behind a rock-solid defense, 13 games of MVP-caliber play from Carson Wentz, and a Super Bowl MVP performance from backup Nick Foles. In 2015, it was the Carolina Panthers rising from a losing record to sprint out to a 15-1 regular season and a spot in Super Bowl 50.

That means it’ll be no surprise to see some turnover at the top of the league’s eight divisions this fall. Last season, we got new champions in the AFC South and all four of the NFC’s divisions. Here are the divisions that could see some similar tumult in 2018, ranked in order from most to least likely.

The Saints were worthy champions in 2017 and remain stacked for 2018, but the South stands to be the NFL’s toughest division after pushing three teams to the postseason last year. Both the Panthers and Falcons are coming off double-digit-win seasons with the cores of their rosters intact, and a few small additions could be the tweak needed to overtake New Orleans.

Eagles fans were hard to spot at the White House.

It’s unclear how many Eagles fans actually attended the replacement event, though sources on the ground indicate the fans that were there might not have been die-hard.

Asked a few attendees if they were Birds fans and they looked at me quizzically, which sort of answered the question.

Trump said the Eagles were abandoning their fans, but, by all appearances, not many fans were there.

The understanding must be that this will not end. The presidency will continue its attack on the soul of the black athlete. Trump will always attack black athletes because they pose a threat to his form of white power. To strike back, to scold men he believes to be uppity and selfish, is to reassure his base.

All of us in the NFL are saddened by the passing of Dwight Clark. Dwight made many memorable contributions on the field as a two-time Super Bowl champion and later as a member of the front office of the 49ers and Browns. He will forever live on in our memories for The Catch but also for his kind, gentle and courageous spirit. We send our deepest sympathies and love to Dwight’s wife Kelly, his family, teammates, and the many people whose lives he touched, including mine, throughout his career and life.

Dwight was a vibrant, charismatic soul!!! Jennifer and I are heartbroken over his passing. While we knew it was inevitably coming, it came way too soon! We are grateful for the decades of love and friendship we shared. We are praying for Dwight, his family and for all your prayers also. We will miss you dearly! Love Jennifer and Joe Montana.

There has been a nearly unbroken streak of politicians using black athletes to push policy or political agendas. Joe Louis was the son of an Alabama sharecropper, a heavy-handed pugilist. In 1940 he endorsed GOP front man Wendell Wilkie, even having the campaign craft buttons for black voters reading Joe and I for Wilkie. Jesse Owens was born to those same Alabamian fields. By 1936 he was sprinting against German athletes, fighting Hitler’s Germany and became an American hero, though often clashing with Jackie Robinson about their role in the Civil Rights movement.

Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson generally spends his time studying opposing quarterbacks, but the arrival of Sam Bradford and Josh Rosen in Arizona this offseason means he spent some time watching the guys on his own side.

Peters: I don’t think this is going to happen, but I’m going to go there anyway. John Tavares is the good ol’ Ontario boy the Maple Leafs have craved. He’d provide an unrivaled 1-2 punch with Auston Matthews, he’d have high-end wings like Mitch Marner or William Nylander (or both) to flank him, and he’d probably be able to pull down every Toronto-area endorsement under the sun. The Maple Leafs would vault to instant contender status, with just a little more help on defense needed.

Arledge: Greg alluded to it earlier, but van Riemsdyk to the Devils just makes sense. An emerging contender with plenty of youth and the reigning MVP, New Jersey was still just 15th in the league in scoring last season. Add in JVR and his 36 goals to the top six and the No. 1 power-play unit, and you suddenly have another serious scoring threat alongside Taylor Hall. And the Devils have the cap space. Making the plunge on the 29-year-old Garden State native would give them a front-of-net presence and a dominant man-advantage group.

Carter nevertheless has a pick six in an earlier 2018 game, and he’ll remain on defense until Nick Marshall is able to return from a broken hand suffered last month.

The 27-year-old Carter has four catches for 42 yards this season.

The Wolves have explored the possibility of getting far enough under the cap — about $10 million — to extend Butler up to his max salary this summer, sources say, but that would require dumping both Wiggins and Dieng. Unlikely.

The rest of the interesting extension-eligible guys from that draft class might find a leaner initial market: Terry Rozier, Justise Winslow, Trey Lyles, Myles Turner, Stanley Johnson, Frank Kaminsky, Willie Cauley-Stein, Kelly Oubre, Delon Wright and perhaps a couple others. Teams are going to squeeze early, hoping these guys watch good veterans sign for cheap and come back to the table in late July with lower expectations. At the same time, agents know there will be more money in the system next summer, when these players could enter restricted free agency. Finding common ground might prove difficult.

Gonzales had been chased after just 2 1/3 innings of what became a 10-0 loss on April 9, but Friday’s start was much different. Gonzalez, who’d never taken a game into the eighth inning until going 7 1/3 innings against Tampa Bay earlier this month, didn’t need more than 13 pitches to finish any inning against the Royals.

He has a lot of confidence right now because everything that’s happened to him this year, he’s earned, Mariners manager Scott Servais said.

Whit Merrifield singled to lead off the game and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Rosell Herrera. Gonzales picked Merrifield off second base to erase the baserunner and would retire nine straight batters before running into a spot of trouble in the fourth.

Kennedy left after five innings due to tightness in his left side that surfaced on the last pitch to Zunino.

I felt it grab, Kennedy said. And then the rest of the inning it stayed tight. The last couple pitches I was compensating for it, so I knew … the right thing to do is to say something.

Segura added a two-out RBI single in the seventh inning off Brandon Maurer to give Seattle a 4-0 advantage.

Houston also re-signed Green to a one-year, minimum contract, which is important to managing the team’s tax bill. Given how well Green played in Mike D’Antoni’s system, and that he’s a local product, getting him back at that price is a huge win.

Nonetheless, the big story of the night for the Rockets is starting small forward Trevor Ariza jumping ship for a one-year, $15 million deal with the Suns — a huge hit to Houston’s chances of competing with the Warriors. Ariza’s departure is stunning given his close relationship with Houston stars Paul and James Harden and his vital role in the Rockets’ starting lineup.

Nearly as much as PJ Tucker’s ability to defend centers, it was Ariza sliding down to power forward that made Houston’s small lineups feasible. And Ariza was the Rockets’ first option against top wing scorers, including Durant in the Western Conference finals.