In a shocking move, Sepp Blatter announced on Tuesday that he will step down as president of FIFA.

The move was a surprise on many levels as it came just four days after being reelected to a fifth term and just three days after sounding as defiant as ever, telling one broadcaster, "Why would I step down? That would mean I recognize that I did wrongdoing."

Now attention will turn to who will replace Blatter as president of FIFA at a time when the organization needs to be completely overhauled.

FIFA is currently mired in a corruption scandal that has already led to the arrest of nine current and former FIFA officials. The investigation paints a picture of widespread and deeply rooted corruption that is present in FIFA in general.

After the scandal broke, the most prominent voice calling for Blatter's resignation came from UEFA president Michel Platini. He along with Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, the president of the Jordan football association who lost to Blatter in the recent election, are considered the heavy favorites to replace Blatter.

Here are the betting odds on who will be the next FIFA president from William Hill Sportsbook (via ESPN).

• Michel Platini, France — 6/5
• Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Jordan — 7/4
• Luis Figo, Portugal — 6/1
• Ted Howard, United States — 12/1
• Senes Erzik, Turkey — 12/1
• Issa Hayatou, Cameroon — 14/1
• Greg Dyke, United Kingdom — 50/1

Blatter called for an "extraordinary elective Congress" to choose his successor that will be held between December of 2015 and March of 2016, according to FIFA.

Of course, the biggest question is, with so much change needed, will FIFA's individual federations actually vote for somebody who's a proponent of change?

This could be especially problematic for the many smaller federations who have prospered under the reign of Blatter. For them, the status quo could be more lucrative and more attractive.

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Outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter is being investigated by US authorities as a part of an ongoing corruption probe, according to reports from Josh Margolin and Susanna Kim of ABC News and Sam Borden of The New York Times.

Both outlets, citing law-enforcement officials, said authorities will attempt to flip one or more of the nine current and former FIFA officials arrested as part of the $150 million corruption scandal.

"Now that people are going to want to save themselves, there’s probably a race to see who will flip on [Blatter] first," a source told ABC News. "We may not be able to collapse the whole organization but maybe you don’t need to."

The Times reports: "Mr. Blatter had for days tried to distance himself from the controversy, but several United States officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in their efforts to build a case against Mr. Blatter they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organization."

Blatter was not arrested or accused of any wrongdoing in the DOJ's 164-page indictment. He was defiant in the face of criticism initially, saying he wouldn't step down because that would be an admission of guilt.

When he resigned in shocking fashion on Tuesday, he said he was doing so because the bulk of the soccer world outside FIFA no longer supported him.

His resignation came less than a day after FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, Blatter's No. 2, got dragged into the scandal. The New York Times reported that law enforcement officials believe Valcke transferred $10 million in 2010 World Cup vote bribe money from FIFA accounts to accounts controlled by arrested official Jack Warner. Valcke and FIFA both denied that he authorized the payment, and in a statement FIFA said the payment complied with FIFA standards and was executed by finance committee head Julio Grondona, who died in 2014. Still, the report drew the scandal closer to Blatter than was previously known.

A special FIFA congress will elected a new president sometime between December 2015 and March 2016, FIFA said. Until then, Blatter will remain the nominal president.

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In a shocking move, Sepp Blatter announced on Tuesday that he will step down as president of FIFA.

While most will wait to see who will replace Blatter and whether that will have a big impact on the alleged corruption that plagues the organization, there is one big part of the soccer world that will almost certainly receive both an immediate and long-term boost from his resignation: women's soccer.

The immediate effect on the women's game should be felt as early as this weekend when the Women's World Cup kicks off in Canada.

Ever since Swiss authorities arrested several high-ranking FIFA officials with the intention of extraditing them to the U.S. to face federal corruption charges, the Women's World Cup has taken a backseat. That was unlikely to change during the tournament as long as Blatter remained defiant amid the ever-tightening circle around him. But it should change now.

"A cloud has been lifted," said Alexi Lalas on Fox Sports 1. "Not just for the Women’s World Cup, but for soccer in general. You saw euphoria, almost, over the past hour when this news came out. That’s wonderful ... As far as the Women’s World Cup, now we can concentrate on what ultimately is the most important thing when it comes to FIFA and soccer, and that’s the actual play on the field."

Fellow Fox commentator Kelly Smith agreed, saying the World Cup is "going to be big now that the main guy has stepped down."

But the impact of Blatter's resignation on the world of women's soccer goes deeper than just this tournament. It should also help the women to gain more respect and acceptance within FIFA.

While women's soccer has grown immensely under the rule of Blatter, he has also held what can best be described as an adversarial relationship with the women's game.

In 2004, Blatter said if women wanted a more popular sport they should wear more feminine clothing.

But it didn't stop there.

In 2013, Blatter was one of several FIFA executives who did not recognize American Alex Morgan at a ceremony to announce the FIFA women's player of the year. Morgan was one of the three finalists and called the scene "shocking."

But the rift between Blatter and the women reached it's low point during the lead up to this year's World Cup when it was decided that all of the games would be played on artificial turf. The turf issue became so heated that a group of women led by Abby Wambach of the United State filed a gender discrimination complaint against FIFA to play on natural grass, same as the men. That suit was later dropped when it became clear it would not be resolved in time for the tournament.

Still, the damage was done. The women were about to play in their biggest event and the head of the organization behind it was enemy No. 1. Now he is gone and like Lalas said, the cloud surrounding him is gone as well.

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After 40 years of involvement with FIFA, President Sepp Blatter announced his resignation at a Tuesday press conference in Zurich, Switzerland. Blatter explains that the organization is in dire need of change and new leadership. 

Produced by Emma Fierberg. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers have agreed to a new five-year, $103 million contract, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.

It's a monster deal.

The contract includes $30 million in the first year and a record-setting $67.6 million in potential earnings over the first three years of the deal. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that $60 million is guaranteed.

We still don't know how much of the $60 million is fully guaranteed versus guaranteed just for injury. But with a quarterback like Newton — an established, quality starter who isn't going to just get cut if he has a bad year — the difference is not as significant as it is for other players.

More than any of the NFL's other $100 million quarterback contracts, this deal will set the bar for players like Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck.

Most of the recent quarterback contracts have fallen into one of two categories.

On the one hand, there are the deals signed by guys like Colin Kaepernick (seven years, $126 million) and Andy Dalton (seven years, $96 million). These deals look great on the surface and have the potential to be lucrative, but they are basically year-to-year contracts with little guaranteed money where the teams can cut them at any time.

On the other hand, there's the type of quarterback contract that has gone to players like Aaron Rodgers (five years, $110 million) and Jay Cutler (seven years, $127 million). These deals look similar on the surface to Kaepernick and Dalton's deals, but they come with much more security in the form of larger signing bonuses and actual guaranteed money in future seasons. Both Rodgers and Cutler received $54 million fully guaranteed, the most for a quarterback at the time.

Newton's deal is more similar to the Rodgers/Cutler type of contract than the Kaepernick/Dalton type of contract. In fact, it surpasses the Rodgers/Cutler deal in guarantees and money over the first three years of the deal. Going forward, it will be the new benchmark for what franchise quarterbacks coming off of rookie deals look for in contract negotiations.

Newton's deal is important because he's the first big-time quarterback who was drafted under the NFL's new collective bargaining agreement to sign a second contract.

The 2011 NFL Draft — in which Newton was picked No. 1 overall — was the first draft after the new CBA limited the amount of money young players could make. Newton signed a four-year, $22 million contract, a far cry from the six-year, $78 million ($50 million guaranteed) deal Sam Bradford received the year before as the top pick.

Four years later, while not yet an elite quarterback, Newton has proven to be a very good quarterback and was about to enter the option year on his standard rookie contract that would have seen his salary balloon from $3.4 million in 2014 to $14.7 million in 2015 according to Spotrac.

Meanwhile, Wilson and Luck, who were both drafted the year after Newton, are the next two young quarterbacks that are in line for new contracts, having just completed the third year of their rookie deals.

Talks of a new deal for Luck have mostly been quiet as the Colts have decided to wait until next summer to negotiate a new deal. On the other hand, there were reports of Wilson receiving a new contract this offseason. However, it now appears the two sides are far apart and he may also have to wait until at least next summer before signing his first big contract.

While both quarterbacks were looking at deals starting in the neighborhood of Cutler and Rodgers ($54 million guaranteed), it now looks like it will cost the Seahawks and Colts a lot more to keep their franchise quarterbacks and the young QBs can thank Newton and the Panthers.

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Lance Armstrong, who won a record seven Tour de France titles and was later stripped of his victories because he used performance-enhancing drugs, appeared Tuesday on “The Dan Patrick Show,” where he was asked about how he’s treated in public these days, whether there was still cheating going on at the Tour de France, and what he found "most addicting" during his tainted reign on top of the world.

Armstrong was invited on "The Dan Patrick Show" because he had sent one of his Tour de France yellow jerseys in hopes that it might get hung up in the show's "ManCave" on the set.

“What’s more addicting, the winning or the lifestyle?” Patrick asked.

“I’d offer up a third one,” Armstrong said. “The addictive part for me was the process. I mean, I loved going to the races, and ultimately playing it out and winning the race — whether we say that those happened or not, or I won or not, that’s for others to decide — but just the process, the training camps, the time with the team, with guys you love and trust, working hard, busting your ass, to try to put it together.

“Because those are the moments where there’s nobody around, you don’t have to deal with the hysteria of the Tour, which is a million people a day and it’s just nerve-racking. I really miss that sort of behind-the-scenes, hard-work part.”

The US Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour titles in October 2012. In its "Reasoned Decision," USADA said that evidence against Armstrong showed beyond any doubt that the US Postal Service Pro Cycling Team, with Armstrong as its leader, "ran the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."

Before he got caught for doping, Armstrong was considered by many to be the greatest cyclist in the history of the sport, which historically had been largely dominated by Europeans.

Patrick asked Armstrong what it was like for him to go out to places like Starbucks these days and what his interactions with the public were like.

“Is it more what they say to you, or are you listening more to whispers?” Patrick asked.

“You know,” Armstrong said, “it’s amazing. In person, people face to face are very kind and generous. And I’ve never to this day had a bad reaction or a quote-unquote ‘hater’ come up and wanna get into it … you always get the sense that people would like to say something, but people are more decent than we give them credit for, and they never do.

“If I was put in that position, I’d say, ‘Look, I get it. I know you’re upset. I know that you’re specifically upset with me, and I’ll spend the rest of my life walking through and trying to make right.’”

Patrick also asked, “Would you guess that there’s still cheating at the Tour de France?”

“That’s the most common question I get,” Armstrong said, “and my answer is, I honestly have no idea, because, for all the obvious reasons, I’ve been so far removed from the sport, from a competitive standpoint or just as an insider, I have no idea.”

Patrick immediately followed up: “The eye test, though — and I know you’re probably trying to be nice to your sport — but just the eye test. Does it pass the eye test?”

Armstrong paused, laughed, and hesitated some more before saying, “Oh, I don’t know.”

To which Patrick quickly said, “You’ve answered it — you’ve answered it.”

But Armstrong quickly added: “No, no, hang on … because anytime somebody has a spectacular performance it automatically equals suspicion, and suspicion equals the suspicion of PEDs. And if you look at the times that are being ridden, and if they’re faster than a dirty era — call my era of cycling that ere, ‘the dirty era’ — and if the times are that much faster, then you have to apply them to both.”

Patrick also asked Armstrong if he thought we’d ever get to the point where we'd legalize performance-enhancing drugs:

“I get that question a lot … I don’t think so. Primarily, I think the media would just go haywire. I think The New York Times would just light its building on fire if that were the case. Honestly, I don’t think that’s a good solution either … I don’t think that’ll happen.”

Armstrong went on to talk about his years racing and cheating with PEDs:

“Look, I’m not trying to make excuses, but this wave that we were all riding — the sport, the industry, the team, the entire cancer community — this wave was a monster. And I was like, all right, if this thing … comes crashing down, I know what’s gonna happen. I was afraid of that. I didn’t want to have a negative impact on my sport. I didn’t want to have a negative impact on the great work my foundation was doing … more than anything I was terrified of negatively affecting the momentum.”

Asked what he was going to do with the rest of his Tuesday, Armstrong said, “I’m literally an Uber driver for my kids. That’s all I do … I was going to go for a run, have lunch with my lady … Not playing golf today, which is kind of a bummer.”

Before Armstrong, no cyclist had ever won more than five Tours. That Armstrong, a cancer survivor, won seven Tours in a row captured the attention of the entire world. The three-week Tour de France is the world's largest annual sporting event.

The sport made Armstrong a multimillionaire and brought him fame. His net worth, according to The New York Times, was estimated at $125 million in 2012.

In August 2014 he told Dan Patrick that he still believed he won those seven Tours but no longer wore a Livestrong bracelet. In December 2014 he crashed his SUV into two parked cars in Colorado and left the scene without contacting police. His girlfriend, Anna Hansen, tried to take the blame, telling Aspen police she wanted to keep his name out of national headlines.

In February, Armstrong was ordered to pay back $10 million in Tour de France prize money.

You can listen to the full interview with Dan Patrick below:

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At a surprise press conference on Tuesday, Sepp Blatter resigned as president of FIFA amid a growing corruption scandal.

This shocking move came just days after he was re-elected for a fifth term.

All of these political change-ups have sent Qatar stocks into a tizzy since Blatter's resignation could mean bad news for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

The Qatar Exchange Index (QE) shot up 1.2%, the most in almost five weeks, immediately following Blatter's re-election on May 29. It steadily continued rising, reaching as high as 12,230.87 on June 2, up almost 2.8% since the election announcement.

“Now with Blatter in again, investors are excited that the 2022 World Cup will probably go ahead unhindered,” Tariq Qaqish, a fund manager at Al Mal Capital PSC in Dubai, told Bloomberg after Blatter's re-election.

However, now that Blatter has resigned, there's speculation that Qatar's hosting rights for the World Cup are in jeopardy.

Stocks shot right back down 2.4% after his shocking announcement on June 3, reaching as low as 11895.75. They have since rebounded 2.4%, up to 12,182.

Qatar, with a GDP of roughly $203.2 billion, is spending about $200 billion on infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup.

The 2022 World Cup has been supersaturated with controversy from day 1: everything from the extremely hot temperatures to the conditions of the migrant workers.

And now, Swiss prosecutors have opened up a probe into Russia's 2018 cup and Qatar's 2022 cup following a US-led investigation that focused on alleged corruption in earlier decisions over venues.

So analysts and soccer fans alike will be closely watching to see what (if anything) happens with Qatar's cup now that Blatter's out — and what that means for Qatar's stocks.

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Joey Gallo made his Major League debut for the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night and he lived up to the hype, collecting three hits including a monster home run into the upper deck at Globe Life Park in Arlington.

Gallo, who is still just 21 years old, was the Rangers' first-round pick in 2012. He drove in two runs with a single in his first at bat and then showed his power in his second at bat.

Needless to say, Gallo's parents were thrilled.

And his first career home run also came with his first Major League curtain call.

The home run was measured at 430 feet by ESPN's home run tracker.

Gallo hit 40 and 42 home runs in his first two full seasons in the minors and entered this season as the No. 6 ranked prospect in all of baseball according to Baseball America. However, his first stint in the majors is expected to be short-lived as he was called up to replace the injured Adrian Beltre and will likely head back to the minors in two weeks.

Here is the full video.

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The Carolina Panthers have signed Cam Newton to a monster five-year, $103.8 million extension.

According to CBS's Jason La Canfora, the deal includes a record $67 million over the first three years of the contract, with $60 million guaranteed. It'd be the most guaranteed money a quarterback has ever gotten if it's fully guaranteed.

It's surprising that Newton's huge extension came before the Russell Wilson's extension that we've been expecting all spring. Early in the year, there were reports that Wilson was going to sign an extension "bigger and crazier" than anything ever seen in the NFL.

However, to date, the Seahawks and Wilson are "tens of millions" apart. According to Danny O'Neil of 710 ESPN Seattle, the Seahawks are reportedly trying to give Wilson a contract in the $80 million range, structured like Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick's contracts, which are basically year-to-year deal with very low guarantees. Wilson was reportedly looking for a record-breaking contract, with Jay Cutler's six-year, $126 million contract ($54 million guaranteed) serving as the starting point.

Newton's $104 million extension falls in the middle of those two numbers, but it's much, much more similar to Cutler's deal than Kaepernick's, which plays to Wilson's advantage. Though Newton has been a good quarterback in his first four years in the NFL, he has a lower career completion percentage than Wilson, a lower career touchdown percentage, and a higher career interception percentage. That also doesn't include Wilson's virtually unprecedented success in his first three years in the NFL, going to the Super Bowl twice and winning it once.

If Newton falls into the Cutler/Aaron Rodgers category, Wilson would presumably fall into that category as well, and he can use Newton's extension as a recent benchmark for what he wants. ESPN's John Clayton reports that Newton's contract should serve as a starting point for Wilson, but it's "highly unlikely" the Seahawks would go above the $22 million per season that Aaron Rodgers makes. Wilson may fall somewhere between Newton's $20.7 million per year and Rodgers' $22 million per year.

If those numbers are too high, the Seahawks could balk at them, go through the year without an extension, and then use franchise tags on Wilson, but that's hardly a good bargaining tactic to keep a franchise quarterback long term.

The $80 million the Seahawks reportedly offered would be a slap in the face now that Newton's deal is out. Wilson seemingly now holds all of the power to get an extension well above $100 million, and the Seahawks risk losing him if they don't want to meet his demands.

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The 2015 Stanley Cup Final between the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning is a matchup of two star-studded teams. The Blackhawks, the slight favorites, will rely on veterans as they try to win their third Stanley Cup in six years. The Lightning, who haven't won a Stanley Cup since 2004, will be powered by a bunch of players who are just making names for themselves in the NHL.

Here's what you need to know about both teams:

Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks are a finesse team. Their ability to move the puck up ice in a hurry with crisp passes will put pressure on the Tampa defense. The depth of Chicago is notable as all four lines can score.

Up front, the Blackhawks are led by Jonathan Toews (9 goals, 9 assists, 18 points) and Patrick Kane (10 goals, 20 points). The toughness of Toews exemplifies this Blackhawks team, which has four overtime wins (two in double OT, two triple OT) in the 2015 postseason. Kane is one of the most exciting players in the league.

“His skill with the puck is probably the best in the league,” Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman told the Chicago Tribune.

Throw in veterans Brad Richards, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa, young stud Brandon Saad, and the scrappy Andrew Shaw, and the Blackhawks have depth that make them tough to beat.

At defense, the Blackhawks rely heavily on their top four. Duncan Keith (2 goals, 18 points) averages 31:35 of ice time per contest to lead all skaters, and is considered one of the front-runners for the Conn Smthye trophy, given to the most valuable player throughout the playoffs. Add Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya, and the Blackhawks have one of the stronger top 4 pairings in the league.

In goal for the Blackhawks is Corey Crawford. After being replaced for a lackluster Game 1 performance in the first round of the playoffs, Crawford has come on strong to amass a 9-4 record with a 2.56 goals against average and 91.9% save percentage.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Tampa Bay has offensive firepower of its own. The speed of Tampa's youngsters will put pressure on the Blackhawks, and could wear out the heavily relied upon top-four Chicago defensemen. The Lightning's power play will be crucial, having scored at least one goal with a man advantage in five of seven games against the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals. 

Tyler Johnson is the man to watch. At 24 years old he leads the playoffs in scoring with 12 goals and 21 points in just his second full season. Johnson is supported by fellow 24-year old Ondrej Palat (7 goals 15 points), 25 year olds Steven Stamkos (7 goals, 17 points) and Alex Killorn (7 goals, 16 points) and 21-year old Nikita Kucherov. The Lightning look up to the veteran leadership of Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman who were added in the offseason, joining former New York Rangers teammate Ryan Callahan, who was acquired at the 2014 trade deadline.

The Lightning have depth along the blue line. They routinely dress seven defensemen instead of the usual six. Hedman and Stralman anchor the Tampa Bay defense and at 23:24 and 22:13 per game, trail all of Chicago’s top 4. Killorn, Jason Garrison, Matthew Carle, Braydon Coubron and Andrej Sustr all log more than 16 minutes per contents.

As impressive as Corey Crawford has looked, Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop has been better. While Bishop’s record (12-8) isn’t as impressive, he a sparkling 2.15 goals against average while saving 92.0% of the shots he has faced.

Stanley Cup Finals Schedule

Game 1: Wednesday, June 3, at Tampa, 8 p.m. ET, NBC

Game 2: Saturday, June 6, at Tampa, 7:15 p.m. ET, NBC

Game 3: Monday, June 8, at Chicago, 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports 

Game 4: Wednesday, June 10, at Chicago, 8 p.m. ET, NBC Sports 

Game 5 (if necessary): Saturday, June 13, at Tampa, 8 p.m. ET, NBC

Game 6 (if necessary): Monday, June 15, at Chicago, 8 p.m. ET, NBC

Game 7 (if necessary): Wednesday, June 17, at Tampa, 8 p.m. ET, NBC

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Yahoo will stream Week 7's NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars for free online, the NFL announced on Wednesday.

It's the first time the league has sold broadcasting rights to a company for online-only distribution.

Re/code's Peter Kafka reports that Yahoo paid $20 million for the game, which will be played in London and streamed live around the world for free at 9:30 a.m. eastern time. The games will be broadcast locally on TV, but will only be available nationally through Yahoo.

SI's Peter King reports that two other tech companies put in bids on the game but wanted to charge for it, so the NFL said no.

The league's TV rights deals will soon hit $7 billion in revenue a year, USA Today reported a year ago, and most run through 2022. When you break down the numbers, Brian Solomon of Forbes notes, the rights to broadcast the average NFL game on TV cost around $26 million.

Bills-Jaguars looks like one of the worst NFL games of the year in terms of on-field quality.

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Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are facing off in the quarterfinals of the French Open.

In the first set, with Djokovic leading 3-0 with a chance to break, the two exchanged a wild 18-shot rally that ended in a point for Djokovic.

Here's the full exchange (more below):

The rally began simple enough with several forehands and backhands back-and-forth until Djokovic attempted a drop shot that had Nadal racing to the net. Nadal returned it with a short shot far to Djokovic's right:

Djokovic returned it and sent Nadal scrambling backward. The two then continued the wild portion of an exchange chasing down long shots and returning high lobs, hoping to get back in position to play the shots:

Djokovic's defense eventually won out and he took the point to win the game and go up 4-0. He won the first set 7-5.

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Cam Newton became the latest NFL player to join the $100 million club when he agreed to a new five-year, $103.8 million contract with the Carolina Panthers. But like all NFL contracts, the only number that really matters is the guaranteed portion of the deal.

To make matters more complicated, deals in recent years have included two different versions of "guaranteed." There's the portion of the contract that's only guaranteed for injury, and then there's the portion that's "fully guaranteed." In the latter case, this is the amount of money a team would owe a player if they cut him.

To get a more consistent sense of what is truly guaranteed in the NFL, the chart below looks at the fully guaranteed portion of the largest contracts signed in the last two years. In this case, we defined "fully guaranteed" as the signing bonus plus a player's first-year salary and bonuses (even if not technically guaranteed) and any future salaries guaranteed at the time of signing.

These 15 contracts have an average potential value of $101.6 million and a fully guaranteed value of just $32.3 million, or about 31.8% of the total contract.

Darrelle Revis (55.6%) received the largest percentage of his contract as a full guaranteed. Ndamukong Suh (52.4%) is the only other player with more than half of his deal fully guaranteed. At the other end, only 11.5% of Colin Kaepernick's $114 million contract was fully guaranteed at signing.

Gerald McCoy's contract was different than the rest in that he signed his new deal in the middle of the 2014 season. For the sake of this chart we included his 2015 and 2016 salaries and 2015 roster bonus as part of the fully guaranteed even though they did not become guaranteed until the 2014 season concluded. If he had waited until after the season to finalize the deal that is how it would have been handled. If we choose to ignore those, the fully guaranteed value drops to $20 million.

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Just moments after beating Chris Algieri in a unanimous decision, British welterweight Amir Khan already had one person on his mind: the undefeated pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter in the world, Floyd Mayweather Jr.

"Look, I think everybody knows Amir Khan wants to fight Floyd Mayweather," Khan told announcer Jimmy Smith after the fight. "I'm the No. 1 WBC contender, Mayweather's the champion, let's make it happen."

Now, Khan has told Press Association Sport that negotiations between the two camps have escalated, and a potential fight is closer than ever before:

"I don't think I have ever been closer to getting the fight with Floyd Mayweather than I am at this moment. The indications are that I have strengthened my case with my win over Algieri and I believe there is every chance the fight could be confirmed within the next two weeks."

Following Mayweather's historic bout against longtime rival Manny Pacquiao, Mayweather initially told ESPN's Stephen A .Smith that he would give Pacquiao a rematch once Pacquiao fully recovered from his shoulder surgery. However, he later changed his mind, saying Pacquiao used his injury as an excuse for his lopsided unanimous defeat.

Once Mayweather squashed any talk about a possible rematch against Pacquiao, he and his camp proceeded to evaluate all remaining options. Khan, who early on in his career was actually one of Pacquiao's sparring partners, is one name that his father and trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr., mentioned to Mirror's Dave Kidd. Mayweather Sr. said Khan would be an 'easy' opponent, and make for a 'good fight' for his son:

"I’ll tell you what I think my son should do in September — given he’s fought all the hard-hitters — my son needs to get his contract and end it with an easy fight, he don’t need no tough fights. Amir Khan? Yes, that’d be a good fight for him. My son would beat him, I know. Of course it would be easier than Pacquiao. Khan has a pretty decent jab but all the technical things, he can’t do [them]."

A fight between Mayweather and Khan has been rumored for over a year now. Mayweather, in fact, once took to Twitter to ask fans to vote on his next opponent — Khan or Marcos Maidana:

While Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole reported Khan actually won the poll, getting 20,105 votes to 15,474 for Maidana, Mayweather decided to fight Maidana anyway.

Now it appears that Mayweather might actually give the fans what they want, and end his career with a bout against Khan in September.

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Chuck Blazer — the eccentric ex-FIFA official who is widely believed to be an FBI informant— admitted to facilitating or accepting bribes for two different World Cups in a 2013 hearing with federal prosecutors.

Blazer pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, income-tax evasion, and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account.

Documents from that hearing were unsealed Wednesday.

"Among other things, I agreed with other persons in and around 1992 to facilitate the acceptance of a bribe in conjunction with the selection of the host nation for the 1998 World Cup," he testified. "Beginning in or around 2004 and continuing through 2011, I and others on the FIFA executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup."

The 1998 World Cup was awarded to France in 1992, four years before Blazer had a World Cup vote as part of the executive committee. He did have a 2010 vote.

In the Department of Justice's 164-page indictment against nine current and former FIFA officials, prosecutors allege that Blazer, fellow Concacaf official Jack Warner, and another FIFA executive committee member took a $10 million bribe from South Africa for their votes. In 2008, $10 million in FIFA money that was meant for the South African World Cup organizing committee was diverted to bank accounts controlled by Warner. South Africa and FIFA say this payment was part of a World Cup legacy program and wasn't a bribe.

The indictment contains no mention of the 1998 World Cup bribery.

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San Diego Chargers offensive lineman Nick Hardwick retired from the NFL after the 2014 season.

After being sidelined with a neck injury in the first game of the year, Hardwick lost 85 pounds throughout the season and was barely recognizable when announced his retirement at a press conference in February.

Emily Kaplan of theMMQB.com recently caught up with Hardwick — whose life now includes yoga classes, kale salads, and lemon water — and the two discussed what he had to eat to become big enough to play in the NFL.

Hardwick's weight gain started after high school where he did not play football, but was a 6-foot-4, 171-pound wrestler.

At Purdue University, Hardwick bulked up to 230 pounds thanks to "unlimited cafeteria pizza" and an ROTC scholarship that had him training to become a marine. His friends talked him into trying out for the football team and he made the cut.

While on the team, Hardwick added another 65 pounds, reaching a weight of 295.

"I’m not naturally a big person," Hardwick told Kaplan. "So it took a lot of effort for me to sustain that weight."

He describes what he had to eat on a typical day in college to maintain his size:

• A sub sandwich for breakfast.
• A sub sandwich for lunch.
• 2 pounds of ground beef on tortillas for dinner.
• A 600-700 calorie protein shake before bed.
• Another 600-700 calorie protein shake at 3 a.m..

But once Hardwick reached NFL-type size, he still had to over-indulge in order to maintain his body mass.

Here is the typical daily diet for Hardwick while he was in the NFL:

• A 600-calorie protein shake and a protein bar at 4:45 a.m..
• After his first workout he drank a 300-calorie Gatorade protein shake.
• After showering, his breakfast included a smoothie "with everything imaginable in it" along with five eggs, some sausage, and a 32-ounce whole milk.
• He snacked on mixed nuts during film sessions.
• Mid-morning he would drink a 700-calorie protein shake.
• Later in the morning he had another protein shake.
• Lunch included a "a big salad with as much protein as possible piled on top" and "a lot of bread."
• Dinner consisted of meat, potatoes, and vegetables "with normal portion sizes."
• 90 minutes after dinner he would eat a 32-ounce tub of Greek yogurt with cereal piled on top.
• Before bed he ate a 1,040-calorie pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

Once you get past the sheer volume of food, the most surprising may be the small dinner. Hardwick explained that simply by saying he "didn’t want to drag my wife down with me."

The results were enormous.

And then at his press conference:

Once he decided to retire, Hardwick said he wanted "a magazine six-pack [and] to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club" and knew he had to lose the weigh immediately or it would become harder to do later on.

At first he started intermittent fasting and eliminated carbs. Later, he started following a "Paleo-ish" diet consisting of "whole foods and as much organic as reasonably possible without being a pain in the ass."

Hardwick later reintroduced carbs, started yoga, walks 5-6 miles a day, and a typical meal is now "a giant salad topped with a lean meat, two tablespoons of almond butter, mustard, oil, balsamic vinaigrette and hot sauce."

The result was an 85-pound weight loss in just five months.

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NBA Draft prospects are beginning to hold workouts for NBA scouts and executives in preparation for the draft on June 25.

Kentucky's Karl-Anthony Towns, the 7-foot big man many people consider the No. 1 pick in the draft, is reportedly lifting his stock by dominating these workouts, even amongst two other top prospects, D'Angelo Russell and Willie Cauley-Stein.

DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony told Ben Roberts of the Lexington Herald-Leader that Towns blew everyone away at a closed workout with Russell and Cauley-Stein on Monday.

Givony called Towns' workout "mind-blowing."

Players reportedly worked on shooting, dribbling, post moves, and footwork before being told to freelance, which amazed Givony (via Herald-Leader):

"And then it was, 'Here's the ball, go iso. Pick whatever move you want.' Which I love, because it gives the player the freedom and creativity to show off whatever they feel like showing off. And you can see that Karl had quite a bit to show off."

...

"It absolutely surprised me. You don't see 7-footers who can dribble like that. How low he gets to the ground, and just how effortlessly he can handle and spin and pivot and jab — he doesn't look like he's 7 feet tall. He looks like he's 6 feet tall, the way he moves."

Givony added that he thinks Towns is the clear No. 1 pick after watching him work out.

ESPN's Chad Ford was also at the workout and wrote about Towns' unique skill set:

In a league filled with superstars who often are physical wonders — Towns still stands out.

Big men can't do things Towns can do. They're not supposed to. It's not natural. Yet, for 90 minutes, Towns kept playing more like James Harden than Dwight Howard.

Ford added that Don MacLean, a former NBA player who ran the workout, said afterward, "I've been training guys for the draft for 11 years, and I've never seen anyone his size who can do the things that Karl can do. It's otherworldly."

DraftExpress posted a video of the workout, showing off many of Towns' skills. Though he's not being defended, his ball-handling and movements are very smooth:

And Towns' ability to shoot smoothly off the dribble is rare for his size:

Ford also posted a video of Towns hitting three after three during the workout:

The exciting part of Towns' versatility is he projects to be a traditional NBA big man. In Kentucky, he acted as a defensive anchor and mostly scored around the basket. In today's NBA, some players have similar size as Towns, but don't have the skills of big man, so their versatility can't be used as a weapon at center. Towns has the skills to be a standard center, but he could become a matchup nightmare with his ability to work off the dribble or shoot from the perimeter.

Towns isn't guaranteed to go No. 1 — Jahlil Okafor is reportedly the Minnesota Timberwolves GM Flip Saunders' favorite prospect— but Towns is clearly marking himself as the most exciting prospect in this year's draft.

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The Golden State Warriors are getting ready to reintroduce themselves to the nation as a potential championship team Thursday night as they face the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Oakland, CA.

The team has been killing it on the court, thanks in part to key players Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, among others.

All that hard work has brought them to their first NBA Finals appearance in 40 years, and at least one superfan has been waiting a long time for Thursday night.

"Sweetie," who is turning 106 next week has been cheering on the Warriors probably longer than this year's team has been alive. She first moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1936, according to Contra Costa Times reporter Doug Oakley, who interviewed Sweetie Friday. He writes that she "can talk sports just as well as any other fanatic."

A Warriors team rep apparently saw the story and got in touch. Now Sweetie is headed to the big leagues, sort of.

She scored a VIP suite ticket to Thursday night's game.

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There's a small chance that Russia could lose their right to host the 2018 World Cup now that FIFA's Sepp Blatter is out as president.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Vladimir Osakovskiy estimated that the total cost of the event would pump around $50 billion in to the economy.

But losing the World Cup could actually end up being a good thing for the country.

As Osakovskiy writes in a research note:

"Overall, we think if WC 2018 in Russia were cancelled it would likely have minimal impact on projected GDP dynamics as a large part of the planned public investment spending would still be made. Moreover, we think that apart from the negative sentiment, it could in fact be positive for Russian [local currency bonds] and [hard currency bonds] as despite the likely unchanged overall spending the government could be more flexible in any new investments projects, potentially redirecting them towards more profitable ones. This could be increasingly important, given the considerable tightening of fiscal policy in the next 2-3 years."

Indeed, World Cup infrastructure is often a money loser as these these massive stadiums are often mothballed. That being said, the likelihood that Russia will lose the cup is pretty low right now. 

"Given that Blatter is due to remain in his position until the election of a new president, i.e. at least until early 2016, we think that a re-vote just 2 years before the event is unlikely," writes Osakovskiy.

Although, depending on how the ongoing investigation plays out, anything is possible.

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Jack Warner, the former vice president of FIFA who has been implicated in the organization's bribery scandal, isn't standing down.

He appeared in a televised address in front of an audience of supporters in his native Trinidad to slam FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who resigned earlier this week, and defend himself against corruption allegations.

In his seven-minute address, Warner said he was going to reveal what he knows about FIFA officials who have been swept up in the scandal, saying: "Not even death will stop the avalanche that is coming."

Warner said he has documents that prove Blatter, who has not been charged with any crime in connection to the case, was involved in the bribery scheme, The New York Times reports.

He was somewhat vague in his speech about what evidence he has against Blatter, saying he's compiled a "series of documents including checks and corroborated statements." Warner said the documents "deal with my knowledge of financial transactions at FIFA, including, but not limited to, its president, Mr. Sepp Blatter."

Warner also said that he fears for his life, but that he won't turn back.

"The die is cast," he said. "There can be no turning back. Let the chips fall where they fall."

Here's the speech:

Warner also appeared in front of supporters on Wednesday and repeated his vow to expose what he knows about FIFA's financial dealings.

"I have been there for 30 consecutive years," he said. "I was a heartbeat away from Blatter."

He continued: "Blatter knows why he fell. And if there is one other person who knows, I do."

Warner has not made clear exactly what the documents he has compiled prove.

Warner was arrested last week on charges of bribery and corruption, according to The New York Times. He got out of jail on bail. He and other FIFA officials have been accused of accepting a $10 million bribe from South Africa's government in exchange for their votes on the location of the 2010 World Cup.

Warner is closely aligned with Chuck Blazer, another former FIFA executive who pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering conspiracy, wire-fraud conspiracy, money-laundering conspiracy, income-tax evasion, and failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).

Blatter has been president of FIFA since 1998. He stepped down just days after he was reelected to another term.

Several current and former FIFA officials have been charged in connection with the scandal.

SEE ALSO: Indicted former FIFA VP actually cited an Onion article to defend himself

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