NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma appears to have borrowed from the past to cure its recent offensive ills. The Sooners , best known this century for a passing prowess that has produced four Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks, took it back to the 20th century against then-No. 7 Alabama. Oklahoma ran 50 times for 257 yards while only throwing 12 times in a 24-3 win over the Crimson Tide that took coach Brent Venables off the hot seat. The Sooners more resembled Barry Switzer’s squads that dominated the old Big 8 with the wishbone offense in the 1970s and ’80s than the more recent Air Raid teams. Venables said the change was a matter of necessity for a unit that has been besieged by injuries at receiver and offensive line. “I think this staff has done a really good job with trying to figure that out, get better every week, put together a great gameplan but also figure out, ‘OK, what does this group of guys, what does this team — what do we need to do?'” Venables said. To make it work, Oklahoma needed to trust that such a change would work in the modern Southeastern Conference. They had to implement it with an interim play-caller in Joe Jon Finley, who stepped in after the Sooners fired Seth Littrell last month. Oklahoma (6-5, 2-5 SEC) pulled it off, and LSU coach Brian Kelly has taken notice ahead of their game on Saturday. “This is now much more about controlling the football, running the football, playing with physicality," Kelly said. "They've got perimeter skill, but I think it's centered around much more of a run-centric, quarterback run and take care of the football." The Sooners started to see success on the ground against Maine. They ran 52 times for 381 yards in a 59-14 win that got the wheels turning. Jovantae Barnes ran for career highs of 203 yards and three touchdowns that day. Venables said the timing of the opportunity to play that non-conference game against Maine in early November and figure some things out was perfect. “Everybody has some degree of vulnerability and maybe some self-doubt,” he said. “And just developing some confidence and putting something on tape other than practice, like, ‘Man, look, see what you’re capable of?’ And executing against, again, a well-coached team — certainly, we played off of that in all the right ways like you would expect us to. And so there’s a real place for that.” After a bye week, the Sooners tried the same approach against Missouri. It wasn't as successful — they ran 36 times for 122 yards — but they hung tough before losing 30-23 . The Sooners went all in against Alabama. Jackson Arnold — the same guy who threw 45 times in the Alamo Bowl last year, ran 25 times for 131 yards and threw just 11 passes. The Sooners found something in running back Xavier Robinson. With Barnes out with an injury, Robinson carried 18 times for career highs of 107 yards and two touchdowns. Suddenly, a team that had been forcing the pass and getting sacked at an alarming rate was moving the line of scrimmage and controlling the tempo. Oklahoma had the ball for more than 34 minutes against the Crimson Tide, lending support to a talented defense that had been spending way too much time on the field. The new approach could be helpful on Saturday — LSU (7-4, 4-3) ranks 14th out of 16 conference teams against the run. Venables said the Sooners still need to throw the ball well to win, but he's glad to know his squad can run with force when necessary. “I think that’s the art of having a system that’s adjustable, flexible, adaptable, week in and week out, but also has an identity — toughness, physicality," he said. "You’ve got to be able to run the ball at every level of football, but you do have to throw it. You can’t just do one thing. But we need to be efficient.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma appears to have borrowed from the past to cure its recent offensive ills. The Sooners , best known this century for a passing prowess that has produced four Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks, took it back to the 20th century against then-No. 7 Alabama. Oklahoma ran 50 times for 257 yards while only throwing 12 times in a 24-3 win over the Crimson Tide that took coach Brent Venables off the hot seat. The Sooners more resembled Barry Switzer’s squads that dominated the old Big 8 with the wishbone offense in the 1970s and ’80s than the more recent Air Raid teams. Venables said the change was a matter of necessity for a unit that has been besieged by injuries at receiver and offensive line. “I think this staff has done a really good job with trying to figure that out, get better every week, put together a great gameplan but also figure out, ‘OK, what does this group of guys, what does this team — what do we need to do?'” Venables said. To make it work, Oklahoma needed to trust that such a change would work in the modern Southeastern Conference. They had to implement it with an interim play-caller in Joe Jon Finley, who stepped in after the Sooners fired Seth Littrell last month. Oklahoma (6-5, 2-5 SEC) pulled it off, and LSU coach Brian Kelly has taken notice ahead of their game on Saturday. “This is now much more about controlling the football, running the football, playing with physicality," Kelly said. "They've got perimeter skill, but I think it's centered around much more of a run-centric, quarterback run and take care of the football." The Sooners started to see success on the ground against Maine. They ran 52 times for 381 yards in a 59-14 win that got the wheels turning. Jovantae Barnes ran for career highs of 203 yards and three touchdowns that day. Venables said the timing of the opportunity to play that non-conference game against Maine in early November and figure some things out was perfect. “Everybody has some degree of vulnerability and maybe some self-doubt,” he said. “And just developing some confidence and putting something on tape other than practice, like, ‘Man, look, see what you’re capable of?’ And executing against, again, a well-coached team — certainly, we played off of that in all the right ways like you would expect us to. And so there’s a real place for that.” After a bye week, the Sooners tried the same approach against Missouri. It wasn't as successful — they ran 36 times for 122 yards — but they hung tough before losing 30-23 . The Sooners went all in against Alabama. Jackson Arnold — the same guy who threw 45 times in the Alamo Bowl last year, ran 25 times for 131 yards and threw just 11 passes. The Sooners found something in running back Xavier Robinson. With Barnes out with an injury, Robinson carried 18 times for career highs of 107 yards and two touchdowns. Suddenly, a team that had been forcing the pass and getting sacked at an alarming rate was moving the line of scrimmage and controlling the tempo. Oklahoma had the ball for more than 34 minutes against the Crimson Tide, lending support to a talented defense that had been spending way too much time on the field. The new approach could be helpful on Saturday — LSU (7-4, 4-3) ranks 14th out of 16 conference teams against the run. Venables said the Sooners still need to throw the ball well to win, but he's glad to know his squad can run with force when necessary. “I think that’s the art of having a system that’s adjustable, flexible, adaptable, week in and week out, but also has an identity — toughness, physicality," he said. "You’ve got to be able to run the ball at every level of football, but you do have to throw it. You can’t just do one thing. But we need to be efficient.” Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballPreview: PSV Eindhoven vs. Groningen - prediction, team news, lineups
Boston Marathon to Compensate Athletes Affected by Doping
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West Coast Conference sues Grand Canyon for breach of contract after quick exitAfter losing 7-2 to the worst team in the Pacific Division on Monday, the Kings will pivot straight into Wednesday’s showdown with the NHL’s best club. The Winnipeg Jets just moved to 18-4-0 with a resounding 4-1 win over another early-season powerhouse, the Minnesota Wild. Now, Winnipeg’s trip south will signify a visit from some former Kings cohorts: Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo and Rasmus Kupari, all of whom became Jets as a result of the disastrous Pierre-Luc Dubois trade . Vilardi has continued to be one of the top net-front presences in the NHL on the power play as well as a threat from the slot offensively, while providing outstanding defense and winning 63.6% of his faceoffs this season. Iafallo has emerged as a solid second-unit contributor for Winnipeg and scored two goals against Minnesota, including one with the extra man that was his 100th career tally, while Kupari recorded an assist. They’ve operated behind the team’s top-five scorers – Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele, Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Morrissey and Neal Pionk – who have combined for 115 points in 22 games. During last season’s only meeting in Los Angeles, Vilardi scored a career-high four points to match the contributions of then-linemate Ehlers as the Jets turned a two-goal deficit into a comfortable win by way of five unanswered goals. That was part of a stretch of 34 straight games in which Winnipeg and its top goalie, Connor Hellebuyck, allowed three goals or fewer. This season, more feats have followed as the Jets have compiled the NHL’s best points total, points percentage, goal differential, power-play conversion rate, goals-against average and save percentage, all while scoring the most goals of any team. They’ve had two winning streaks of seven or more games in just 22 matches. While the Jets soared, the Kings remained in a holding pattern. They appeared to have four winnable games heading into this clash with the league’s top team, but continued their one-step-forward-one-step-back pattern by splitting bouts with Buffalo , Detroit , Seattle and San Jose. They’ve won consecutive games three times this season, but never more than two in a row. Their latest disappointment saw them fall to 0-2-0 in San Jose in 2024-25, losing to the lottery-bound Sharks on Monday in a game that was tied at the second intermission. No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini got the third-period party started with a goal for San Jose and later drew a penalty before scoring a second goal, five-on-three. Kings coach Jim Hiller said that no one should “disrespect” San Jose – which had dropped six of seven decisions entering the contest – but finally deemed an effort, in this case a five-goals-allowed final frame, to be “unacceptable.” “That’s not a team that’s trying to tank, that’s a good hockey team, strong players, real good back end. We played them three times, they beat us twice, we barely beat them in the one at home,” Hiller said. “We completely fell apart in the third period. That’s just unacceptable, what happened in the third.” Anže Kopitar’s hand stayed hot with a goal and an assist to match the two points of linemate Adrian Kempe. Kempe has notched 13 points over his past 12 games while Kopitar has 16 points across those same dozen contests, putting the 37-year-old on track to top his best single-season total of 92 points from the 2017-18 season. When: 7 p.m. Wednesday Where: Crypto.com Arena How to watch: FDSNWCHICAGO — With a wave of her bangled brown fingertips to the melody of flutes and chimes, artist, theologian and academic Tricia Hersey enchanted a crowd into a dreamlike state of rest at Semicolon Books on North Michigan Avenue. “The systems can’t have you,” Hersey said into the microphone, reading mantras while leading the crowd in a group daydreaming exercise on a recent Tuesday night. The South Side native tackles many of society’s ills — racism, patriarchy, aggressive capitalism and ableism — through an undervalued yet impactful action: rest. Hersey, the founder of a movement called the Nap Ministry, dubs herself the Nap Bishop and spreads her message to over half a million followers on her Instagram account, @thenapministry . Her first book, “Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto,” became a New York Times bestseller in 2022, but Hersey has been talking about rest online and through her art for nearly a decade. Hersey, who has degrees in public health and divinity, originated the “rest as resistance” and “rest as reparations” frameworks after experimenting with rest as an exhausted graduate student in seminary. Once she started napping, she felt happier and her grades improved. But she also felt more connected to her ancestors; her work was informed by the cultural trauma of slavery that she was studying as an archivist. Hersey described the transformation as “life-changing.” The Nap Ministry began as performance art in 2017, with a small installation where 40 people joined Hersey in a collective nap. Since then, her message has morphed into multiple mediums and forms. Hersey, who now lives in Atlanta, has hosted over 100 collective naps, given lectures and facilitated meditations across the country. She’s even led a rest ritual in the bedroom of Jane Addams , and encourages her followers to dial in at her “Rest Hotline.” At Semicolon, some of those followers and newcomers came out to see Hersey in discussion with journalist Natalie Moore on Hersey’s latest book, “We Will Rest! The Art of Escape,” released this month, and to learn what it means to take a moment to rest in community. Moore recalled a time when she was trying to get ahead of chores on a weeknight. “I was like, ‘If I do this, then I’ll have less to do tomorrow.’ But then I was really tired,” Moore said. “I thought, ‘What would my Nap Bishop say? She would say go lay down.’ Tricia is in my head a lot.” At the event, Al Kelly, 33, of Rogers Park, said some of those seated in the crowd of mostly Black women woke up in tears — possibly because, for the first time, someone permitted them to rest. “It was so emotional and allowed me to think creatively about things that I want to work on and achieve,” Kelly said. Shortly after the program, Juliette Viassy, 33, a program manager who lives in the South Loop and is new to Hersey’s work, said this was her first time meditating after never being able to do it on her own. Therapist Lyndsei Howze, 33, of Printers Row, who was also seated at the book talk, said she recommends Hersey’s work “to everybody who will listen” — from her clients to her own friends. “A lot of mental health conditions come from lack of rest,” she said. “They come from exhaustion.” Before discovering Hersey’s work this spring, Howze said she and her friends sporadically napped together in one friend’s apartment after an exhausting workweek. “It felt so good just to rest in community,” she said. On Hersey’s book tour, she is leading exercises like this across the country. “I think we need to collectively do this,” Hersey explained. “We need to learn again how to daydream because we’ve been told not to do it. I don’t think most people even have a daydreaming practice.” Daydreaming, Hersey said, allows people to imagine a new world. Hersey tells her followers that yes, you can rest, even when your agenda is packed, even between caregiving, commuting, jobs, bills, emails and other daily demands. And you don’t have to do it alone. There is a community of escape artists, she said of the people who opt out of grind and hustle culture, waiting to embrace you. The book is part pocket prayer book, part instruction manual, with art and handmade typography by San Francisco-based artist George McCalman inspired by 19th-century abolitionist pamphlets, urging readers to reclaim their divine right to rest. Hersey directs her readers like an operative with instructions for a classified mission. “Let grind culture know you are not playing around,” she wrote in her book. “This is not a game or time to shrink. Your thriving depends on the art of escape.” The reluctance to rest can be rooted in capitalist culture presenting rest as a reward for productivity instead of a physical and mental necessity. Hersey deconstructs this idea of grind culture, which she says is rooted in the combined effects of white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism that “look at the body as not human.” American culture encourages grind culture, Hersey said, but slowing down and building a ritual of rest can offset its toxicity. The author eschews the ballooning billion-dollar self-care industry that encourages people to “save enough money and time off from work to fly away to an expensive retreat,” she wrote. Instead, she says rest can happen anywhere you have a place to be comfortable: in nature, on a yoga mat, in the car between shifts, on a cozy couch after work. Resting isn’t just napping either. She praises long showers, sipping warm tea, playing music, praying or numerous other relaxing activities that slow down the body. “We’re in a crisis mode of deep sleep deprivation, deep lack of self-worth, (and) mental health,” said Hersey. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2022 , in Illinois about 37% of adults aren’t getting the rest they need at night. If ignored, the effects of sleep deprivation can have bigger implications later, Hersey said. In October, she lectured at a sleep conference at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, where her humanities work was featured alongside research from the world’s top neuroscientists. Jennifer Mundt, a Northwestern clinician and professor of sleep medicine, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, praises Hersey for bringing the issue of sleep and rest to the public. In a Tribune op-ed last year, Mundt argued that our culture focuses too heavily on sleep as something that must be earned rather than a vital aspect of health and that linking sleep to productivity is harmful and stigmatizing. “Linking sleep and productivity is harmful because it overshadows the bevy of other reasons to prioritize sleep as an essential component of health,” Mundt wrote. “It also stigmatizes groups that are affected by sleep disparities and certain chronic sleep disorders.” In a 30-year longitudinal study released in the spring by the New York University School of Social Work, people who worked long hours and late shifts reported the lowest sleep quality and lowest physical and mental functions, and the highest likelihood of reporting poor health and depression at age 50. The study also showed that Black men and women with limited education “were more likely than others to shoulder the harmful links between nonstandard work schedules and sleep and health, worsening their probability of maintaining and nurturing their health as they approach middle adulthood.” The CDC links sleeping fewer than seven hours a day to an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and more. Related Articles Although the Nap Ministry movement is new for her followers, Hersey’s written about her family’s practice of prioritizing rest, which informs her work. Her dad was a community organizer, a yardmaster for the Union Pacific Railroad Co. and an assistant pastor. Before long hours of work, he would dedicate hours each day to self-care. Hersey also grew up observing her grandma meditate for 30 minutes daily. Through rest, Hersey said she honors her ancestors who were enslaved and confronts generational trauma. When “Rest Is Resistance” was released in 2022, Americans were navigating a pandemic and conversations on glaring racial disparities. “We Will Rest!” comes on the heels of a historic presidential election where Black women fundraised for Vice President Kamala Harris and registered voters in a dizzying three-month campaign. Following Harris’ defeat, many of those women are finding self-care and preservation even more important. “There are a lot of Black women announcing how exhausted they are,” Moore said. “This could be their entry point to get to know (Hersey’s) work, which is bigger than whatever political wind is blowing right now.” Hersey said Chicagoans can meet kindred spirits in her environment of rest. Haji Healing Salon, a wellness center, and the social justice-focused Free Street Theater are sites where Hersey honed her craft and found community. In the fall, the theater put on “Rest/Reposo,” a performance featuring a community naptime outdoors in McKinley Park and in its Back of the Yards space. Haji is also an apothecary and hosts community healing activities, sound meditations and yoga classes. “It is in Bronzeville; it’s a beautiful space owned by my friend Aya,” Hersey said, explaining how her community has helped her build the Nap Ministry. “When I first started the Nap Ministry, before I was even understanding what it was, she was like, come do your work here.” “We Will Rest!” is a collection of poems, drawings and short passages. In contrast to her first book, Hersey said she leaned more into her artistic background; the art process alone took 18 months to complete. After a tough year for many, she considers it medicine for a “sick and exhausted” world. “It’s its own sacred document,” Hersey said. “It’s something that, if you have it in your library and you have it with you, you may feel more human.” lazu@chicagotribune.comNHRA ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF LANDMARK 75TH ANNIVERSARY CAMPAIGN FOR 2026 SEASON
OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will not support a Liberal plan to give Canadians a GST holiday and $250 unless the government expands eligibility for the cheques, saying the rebate leaves out “the most vulnerable.” The Liberals announced a plan last week to cut the federal sales tax on a raft of items like toys and restaurant meals for two months, and to give $250 to more than 18.7 million Canadians in the spring. Speaking after a Canadian Labour Congress event in Ottawa, Singh says he’s open to passing the GST legislation, but the rebate needs to include seniors, students, people who are on disability benefits and those who were not able to work last year. Singh says he initially supported the idea because he thought the rebate cheques would go to anyone who earned under $150,000 last year. But the so-called working Canadians rebate will be sent to those who had an income, leaving out people Singh says need the help. The government intends to include the measures in the fall economic statement, which has not yet been introduced in the House of Commons. The proposed GST holiday would begin in mid-December, lasting for two months. It would remove the GST on prepared foods at grocery stores, some alcoholic drinks, children’s clothes and toys, Christmas trees, restaurant meals, books, video games and physical newspapers. A privilege debate has held up all government business in the House since late September, with the Conservatives pledging to continue a filibuster until the government hands over unredacted documents related to misspending at a green technology fund. The NDP said last week they had agreed to pause the privilege debate in order to pass the legislation to usher in the GST holiday. Singh said Tuesday that unless there are changes to the proposed legislation, he will not support pausing the debate. The Bloc Québécois is also pushing for the rebates to be sent to seniors and retirees.
NoneWith the holidays comes festive feasts, and those often feature turkey. However, cooking a whole turkey isn’t the easiest thing in the world, as proven by the popularity of the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line. Since 1981, turkey company Butterball has offered a hotline for home chefs to call and ask experts for advice as they prepare their turkeys. Over the years, they've answered millions of questions and have expanded beyond just a phone line to accepting queries over text, email and social media as well. According to Butterball, the most common question they receive is when and how to thaw a turkey – a guide to which can be found here . This year, the hotline will be open from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 and staffed by more than 50 experts, reachable via call at 1-800-BUTTERBALL or text at 844-877-3456. They're even open on Thanksgiving Day, fielding questions from across the country. Butterball shared that last Thanksgiving, the state they received the most calls from was California, and the top city was New York City, followed by Chicago and Nassau, New York. Check out the maps below to see the 10 cities and states that made the most calls last year.
Philadelphia council members in closed-door negotiations with Sixers over proposed arena, 76 PlaceLISBON, Portugal (AP) — Arsenal defender Gabriel kept Viktor Gyokeres quiet — then had the audacity to steal the in-demand Sporting Lisbon striker's trademark goal celebration. After heading in Arsenal's third first-half goal in the Champions League on Tuesday, Gabriel linked the fingers of his hands and placed them over his eyes, before laughing with his teammates. It was most likely a dig at Gyokeres, the Sweden striker who has quickly become one of European soccer's hottest properties . That is how Gyokeres celebrates his goals — and he has scored plenty of those this season. Gyokeres has scored 24 goals for Sporting in all competitions and was coming off netting four for Sweden in a Nations League match against Azerbaijan. Earlier in the first half, Gabriel had enjoyed tackling and dispossessing Gyokeres near the Arsenal area — waving both his arms in a gesture to the crowd. Gabriel's goal made it 3-0 to Arsenal at halftime and the English team went on to win 5-1, with Gyokeres failing to score. He did hit the post with a shot late in the game, however — after Gabriel had gone off with an injury. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer