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NFL owners in favor of 18th regular-season game, but key caveat added as well
The 2026 NFL owners meetings in Phoenix are underway, and among the discussions is bound to be whether an 18th regular-season game should be added to the schedule at some point.
Two owners, New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft and Indianapolis Colts’ Carlie Irsay-Gordon, are all for it.
However, there is a key caveat Kraft would be in place.
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Kraft reportedly told media in Phoenix that he is in favor of an 18th regular-season game, but he wants there to be a second bye week for teams instead of the standard one week.
Also, Kraft’s “conditions,” according to The33rdTeam’s Ari Meirov was removing one preseason game, which brings the total to two per season, and making every single NFL team play at least one international game each season.
As for Irsay-Gordon, she pointed to the fact that not every team gets an even number of home games in today’s NFL under a 17-game schedule. But she also agrees with Kraft that preseason should be shortened.
“Preseason, is, as far as the fan product goes, I know the commissioner’s been open that it’s not the best product that we have,” she explained, per the Indianapolis Star. “I would say, for development of our team, I don’t think we can get rid of it.”
While owners want it, the NFL Players’ Association noted at the Super Bowl earlier this year that their side has “no appetite” for an 18th regular-season game.
Now that JC Tretter was elected the PA’s executive director, negotiations about an 18th game, as well as a new media rights contract, could be ongoing. While the TV deal could be changed before the start of the 2026 season, Pro Football Talk reported that some support for the league to implement an 18th game could come as soon as the 2027 campaign.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has noted in the past that the 18th game is “not a given,” though owners like Kraft, Irsay, and likely others see it coming sooner than later.
Buffalo Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins said in a recent interview to Fox News Digital that he feels “it’s going to happen either way.”
He just wants to make sure players like himself are taken care of properly if that is the case, especially from a financial lens.
“Our contracts aren’t fully guaranteed. There’s good players, there’s average players, there’s players that are just making it by. As long as guys are taken care of the way they’re supposed to, this is our life. We’re athletes, and not that I’m here for it, it’s going to happen either way – [an] 18th game. And then 20 years later, guess what? We’re talking about a 19th, then we’ll be talking about a 20th.… Then it’s like, ‘Yeah, we are combat athletes all year long.’ But who knows.”
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Tiger Woods declines Ryder Cup captaincy after DUI, car crash
Team USA will not have Tiger woods as a captain at the next Ryder Cup, after Woods’ latest controversy.
Woods formally turned down the Ryder Cup captaincy Wednesday as he steps away from golf activities after he entered a not guilty plea to suspicion of driving under the influence. Woods’ SUV clipped the back of a trailer and flipped on its side last week on a residential road near his home on Jupiter Island, Florida.
The Ryder Cup decision by the PGA of America was not a surprise given the last five chaotic days involving Woods dating to his Friday arrest.
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“The PGA of America stands in full support of Tiger Woods as he steps away to focus on his health and well-being,” the statement said. “We commend Tiger for prioritizing his long-term health and deeply respect the courage it takes to make such a personal decision.”
The PGA of America added that Woods “has shared with us” that he will not be captain.
Woods posted a statement Tuesday night saying that he was stepping away indefinitely “to seek treatment and focus on my health.”
A motion filed Wednesday by his attorney, Douglas Duncan, asked a judge that Woods be allowed to travel outside the country to begin “comprehensive inpatient treatment.”
Duncan said the recommendation from Woods’ doctor was based on the golfer’s “complex clinical presentation and the urgent need for a level of care that cannot safely or effectively be done within the United States as his privacy has been repeatedly compromised.
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“Ongoing medical scrutiny and public exposure create significant barriers to his care and would result in setbacks and an inability to fully engage in treatment.”
Martin County Court Judge Darren Steele approved the motion, which did not say where the inpatient treatment facility was located.
Woods sought treatment at an inpatient facility in a Mississippi clinic in January 2010 after he was caught in a series of extramarital affairs, and his agent said he sought treatment at another inpatient clinic after his 2017 DUI arrest.
“I’m committed to taking the time needed to return in a healthier, stronger, and more focused place, both personally and professionally,” Woods said in his statement.
Woods also turned down an offer to be Ryder Cup captain last time, waiting until the early summer of 2024 to tell the PGA of America that he did not have the time. That led to Keegan Bradley being selected just over a year before the 2025 matches on New York’s Long Island, which Europe won.
Three players on the Ryder Cup committee — Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Bradley — are playing in the Masters, the first major of the year.
Luke Donald already has agreed to captain a third straight time for Europe, which has won the last two Ryder Cups. No captain has ever won three straight.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Fort Hood soldiers shift to underground training to prepare for battlefield medical care
This week, the 1st Medical Brigade of the III Armored Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, held a training exercise called “Operation Silver Lightning.”
The exercise, according to the 1st Medical Brigade, “is designed to simulate the challenges of providing advanced medical care in a contested, large-scale combat environment.”
Between March 23 and April 1, the 1st Medical Brigade employed the tactical arm of the Army Health System. Combat medics, optometrists, doctors, veterinarians, and other medical personnel simulated a mass casualty event in combat conditions in underground tunnels on the Fort Hood base.
This week, Fox News got an up-close look at how this training exercise was implemented.
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“So the medics have understood that you cannot set up a multi-tent field hospital that occupies four or five, up to 15 acres and provides that world-class care, above ground anymore,” said Col. Kamil Sztalkoper, director of public affairs for the III Armored Corps.
Sztalkoper said the shift is driven in part by drone warfare observed in the war in Ukraine.
“We have to disperse, number one. And then hide in plain sight, is number two. So dispersing is using multiple different kinds of locations. Hiding in plain sight could be in a building, a warehouse, or here. Using one of our unique training facilities that was designed in the 1940s. Utilized in the 1950s to house nuclear and atomic weapons,” Sztalkoper told Fox News.
The tunnels have since been decommissioned and cleaned out for use as a training facility — in this case, an underground field hospital. Sztalkoper said the several miles of tunnels are used as a “triage emergency room, operating room, vet, optometry [and] clinics,” allowing troops to avoid what he described as the growing drone threat observed in Ukraine.
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During this exercise, about 300 soldiers and role players portraying wounded troops ran through different evacuation and medical drills, with soldiers rushing the wounded from a helicopter to a military medical vehicle and then into the tunnels.
Combat medics are then trained to treat wounded soldiers, or, role players. Each of the wounded imitated the pain and symptoms of an injury that could happen on the battlefield.
“Really the dilemma for them is managing how they deal with all of this with what they have,” said Col. Brad Franklin, deputy commander of the 1st Medical Brigade.
Franklin, who also serves as a chief nurse, said he has experienced similar challenges in real-world operations.
“Knowing you don’t have enough people, you don’t have enough surgeons, you don’t have enough nurses, don’t have enough medics and there’s more patients than you can handle,” Franklin said. “So it’s forcing them to triage, reverse triage and take care of these casualties.”
WORLD WAR II VETERAN SHARES SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
Aside from treatment for soldiers, K-9s and their handlers are also training in this exercise. Further down a dark tunnel, veterinarians work on a simulated wounded K-9, while the handler is being treated for simulated injuries across the room.
Lt. Col. Cynthia Fallness, commander of the 43rd Medical Detachment providing veterinary service support, said the personnel conducting this training are doctoral-level veterinarians.
“In this case, it is a traumatic fracture, a compound fracture of the hind limb. And the dog also has a chest wound and also, is having trouble breathing because there’s a traumatic injury to the mouth,” Fallness said.
“So these are our diesel dogs,” she said of the fake K-9 on the operating table.
Out of the dozens of combat medics training, one medic says his role in the military is more than just a job.
“My grandfather actually served in World War II as a combat medic,” William Rothwell, a combat medic with the 1st Medical Brigade, told Fox News. “He went into Normandy, I believe, after the push on Omaha Beach.”
Rothwell, a Boston native, never met his grandfather, but heard stories from his father.
“Which was just how brutal it was, how rough it was. Medicine back then wasn’t as great. So handling patients was somewhat traumatic.”
In this training, Rothwell is getting that real-world medical combat experience before stepping foot on a battlefield.
“The stories of how much he cared and was willing to go, you know, the mile and above to make sure that he can get his brothers home … really touched me,” Rothwell said. “So that’s kind of how I feel in this situation.”
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Local Dem leader says he was not ‘an aggressor’ after arrest for hitting man with bullhorn at ‘No Kings’ rally
The chair of the Hernando County, Florida, Democratic Party who was arrested for allegedly hitting a man in the head with a bullhorn during a “No Kings” protest, said that he did not act as an aggressor and did not escalate the confrontation.
Brian Stewart, 63, was charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor in Florida, and booked into the Hernando County Sheriff’s Detention Center after the incident in Spring Hill on Saturday. He was released later that day, records show.
Stewart said he is “not a violent person” and that the man he was accused of hitting — a disabled veteran identified as Thomas Michta in police reports — was harassing others at the demonstration “in an attempt to elicit a reaction.”
“This was a peaceful event attended by many members of the community,” Stewart told Fox News Digital.
“Unfortunately, an individual disrupted that environment and was harassing rally attendees in an attempt to elicit a reaction,” he continued. “At no point did I act as an aggressor. I am not a violent person, and I did not seek out or escalate any conflict. I never expected that I’d be accosted or need to defend myself as I did in that moment.”
The incident happened as demonstrators in Hernando County and across the country protested against the Trump administration’s policies.
Deputies responded at around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday to the intersection of Mariner and Cortez boulevards, where Stewart allegedly struck Michta in the head with a bullhorn.
Michta told deputies he was walking through the protest when he and Stewart became involved in an argument. He accused Stewart of striking him during the dispute and reported being in pain, with a visible lump on his head, according to an arrest affidavit, WTSP reported.
According to the affidavit, video footage captured by a witness and reviewed by deputies showed Stewart using a bullhorn to hit the man in the head and push him in the chest.
After reviewing the video, a witness’ statement and Stewart’s own admissions, deputies said they developed probable cause to believe Stewart intentionally hit the man and caused bodily harm, the affidavit says.
Stewart declined to comment further, saying his lawyers advised him not to make additional public statements.
“I have many more thoughts to share, but my lawyers advise that I should defer doing so until after the case has concluded,” Stewart told Fox News Digital. “Out of respect for the legal process and on the advice of counsel, I will not be commenting further on the specifics of the case at this time.”
Stewart is scheduled to appear in court on April 27.
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The Florida Democratic Party and the Hernando County chapter said in separate statements earlier this week that they “condemn violence.”
“We have been made aware that our Chair, Brian Stewart, was arrested after responding to a provocation from a local agitator who threw a drink on him and yelled obscenities at community members during a protest,” the Hernando County Democratic Party said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times.
The Florida Republican Party called for Stewart to be removed as chair over the incident at the protest.
“Violence and political intimidation have no place in our state, and Floridians deserve better than mere silence from Democrat leadership. Nikki Fried must immediately remove Brian Stewart from his position of leadership in the Florida Democrat Party!” Florida GOP Chairman Evan Power said in a statement to WTSP.
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