McEntire to sing before Super Bowl
Country music star Reba McEntire will grace next month's Super Bowl stage to sing the national anthem while Post Malone will perform “America the Beautiful.”
The performances will take place Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before the championship matchup and halftime show featuring Usher.
Andra Day will also perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as part of the pregame performances that will air on CBS.
Actor Daniel Durant will perform the national anthem in American sign language. He'll follow his “CODA” film castmate and Oscar winner Troy Kotsur, who took on the role last year.
Model-dancer Anjel Piñero will sign “America the Beautiful” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be signed by actor-dancer Shaheem Sanchez.
CHARGERS INTERVIEW FORMER STANFORD COACH SHAW FOR OPENING >> Former Stanford University coach David Shaw interviewed for the Los Angeles Chargers opening.
The Chargers announced the interview on Thursday. He is the 10th candidate to interview.
Shaw did not coach last season and was an NFL Network analyst. He was also a frequent presence around UCLA practices since his son, Carter Shaw, was a freshman wide receiver on the Bruins.
The Chargers are looking for a coach and general manager after Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco were fired on Dec. 15, a day after a 63-21 loss at Las Vegas.
Shaw had a 96-64 record in 11 seasons at Stanford and led the Cardinal to three Pac-12 titles.
Golf
JOHNSON SHARES 1ST-ROUND LEAD >> Zach Johnson made seven of his 10 birdies on the front nine on the way to a 10-under 62 and a share of the lead with Sweden's Alex Noren after the first round of The American Express.
Postcard-perfect desert conditions and the straightforward nature of this tournament's three courses in the Coachella Valley unsurprisingly led to low scores from some of the world's top players.
Rico Hoey and Christiaan Bezuidenhout are one shot back of the leaders, and 22 golfers shot 65 or better, including Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and former champion Si Woo Kim.
Johnson, the 2007 Masters champ and last year's U.S. Ryder Cup captain, made six consecutive birdies to close out his front nine at La Quinta Country Club. He added three more birdies down the stretch, getting the 47-year-old off to a bogey-free start in his quest for his first PGA Tour victory since the 2015 British Open.
FURUE GETS OFF TO HOT START >> Ayaka Furue of Japan made seven birdies in a round 7-under 65, giving her a two-shot lead in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona.
Furue, 23, who captured the Ladies Scottish Open in 2022 for her first LPGA title, is making her second start at the LPGA's season opener for winners each of the last two years. She broke from a pack late in her round with birdies on the closing two holes at Lake Nona, the Tom Fazio design that hosted the first Solheim Cup in 1990.
She finished two shots clear of Sweden's Maja Stark, who tied for second at this tournament last year; and Mexico's Gaby Lopez, a past champion of the TOC.
College football
MIAMI TE TO PLAY 9TH YEAR >> Miami tight end Cam McCormick said that he is coming back for a ninth season of college football.
He is believed to be the first with a ninth season granted by the NCAA. McCormick's career was derailed multiple times by season-ending injuries, some of which earned him a medical redshirt from the NCAA, and all players who participated in college athletics in 2020 got another year of eligibility because of the pandemic.
McCormick spent the first seven of his college seasons at Oregon, transferred to Miami for the 2023 season and will keep playing in 2024.
Tennis
MEDVEDEV FINISHES AT 3:39 A.M. >> Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev lost the first two sets of his second-round Australian Open match against No. 53-ranked Emil Ruusuvuori before coming back to win 3-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-0 in 4 hours, 23 minutes in the latest finish of the week.
They'd walked onto Rod Laver Arena to start hitting at 11:07 p.m. Thursday after women's No. 3 Elena Rybakina lost the longest tiebreaker ever in a women's Grand Slam event, 22-20 to Anna Blinkova.
The match ended at 3:39 a.m. Friday, and Medvedev was still there signing autographs as the clock ticked closer to 4.
Soccer
PULISIC VOTED TOP MEN'S PLAYER FOR FOURTH TIME >> Christian Pulisic was voted the U.S. Soccer Federation's Male Player of the Year for the fourth time, matching Landon Donovan for the most times receiving an award that began in 1998.
Pulisic received 53% of the vote, followed by Yunus Musah (21.5%) and Ricardo Pepi (12.9%). Pulisic, a 25-year-old winger from Hershey, Pennsylvania, in his first season with AC Milan, also won in 2017, `19 and `21.
Pulisic scored six international goals in 2023, including two in the CONCACAF Nations League semifinal win over Mexico, and had three assists. He had six Serie A goals in the first half of the season for Milan and one in the Champions League, his eighth career goal in Europe's top club competition.