Adidas has vowed to invest more money in basketball, and their first big move is a monster shoe endorsement offer made to James Harden of the Houston Rockets that could make him one of the 25 highest-paid athletes in the world.

Adidas has made a 13-year, $200 million offer to Harden, according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.

The offer, worth about $15.4 million per year, would be among the richest shoe endorsement deals in the NBA. It's ahead of Derrick Rose's 13-year, $185 million contract with Adidas, but behind players like Kevin Durant, who recently spurned Under Armour and re-signed with Nike on a deal worth in the neighborhood of $30 million per year for 10 years, and LeBron James, who Forbes estimates makes $20 million per year on his Nike deal. 

This move comes on the heels of Adidas dropping their apparel deal with the NBA. At the time, Adidas global basketball general manager Chris Grancio told Matthew Kish of the Portland Business Journal that his company would invest heavily in player sponsorships, and despite losing the $36.5 million per year apparel deal, Grancio told Kish that Adidas is “going to invest more money in basketball over the next five years than [they] ever have.”

“We haven't been able to elevate our brand for the basketball consumer that we're targeting,” Grancio told the Portland Business Journal. “We ultimately decided that we would change our investment strategy and invest more in players on the court.”

Last season, Adidas was a distant second in the NBA in terms of shoe brands worn by players on the court. That gap is even bigger if Jordan Brand, a Nike subsidiary, is included with Nike's total. 

According to Grancio, Adidas wants to double the number of players wearing its sneakers by 2020.

Nike can still match Harden's Adidas offer by the end of next week. Rovell says in the past Nike would let Harden walk. However, “things are hypersensitive inside [Nike] corporate headquarters” after losing out to Under Armour on Stephen Curry and Jordan Spieth.

Harden, who will make $15.8 million with the Rockets this season in the third year of his five-year contract, could make more than $32 million this upcoming year in salary and shoe deal alone, depending on how the endorsement deal is structured. That alone would have been good enough to be one of the 25 highest-paid athletes in the world this past year, according to Forbes.

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True power is ageless.

From the toddling Prince George, third in line to the British throne, to 100-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning author Herman Wouk, we found the most powerful person at every age from 1 to 100.

To create this list, we took four criteria into consideration: command, or the degree to which a person formally controls a group of people; past influence, or how much a person has changed the world; future influence, or how much a person is likely to change the world going forward; and net worth.

Spanning industries and time zones, these are the most powerful people, from 1 to 100.

AGE 1: Prince George of Cambridge

Heir to the British throne

What makes him powerful: After his grandfather and father, little George is next in line to succeed his great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. As an eight-month-old he took his first royal tour — a 19-day visit to New Zealand and Australia. He's also a tiny fashion icon, and he recently became a big brother to new princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.

AGE 2: Macallister Bogue

Son of Marissa Mayer and Zach Bogue

What makes him powerful: While he's only a couple of years old, Bogue, son of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, still influences his mom's outlook at work. Though Mayer herself only took a few weeks off after giving birth, she doubled the amount of paid maternity leave Yahoo offers new mothers from eight to 16 weeks and offered new dads eight weeks as well.

AGE 3: Blue Ivy Carter

Daughter of Beyoncé and Jay Z

What makes her powerful: Nothing is too good for this power couple's little girl. Blue Ivy's second birthday was celebrated at the exotic Jungle Island in Miami; for her third, Blue got an ice sculpture with her name carved into it. Gwyneth Paltrow, who is good friends with the Knowles-Carter clan, said of Blue Ivy: "She is a powerhouse. I love her so much."

Stephen Curry's deal with Under Armour became even more of a bargain when it broke that Adidas is offering James Harden $200 million in an attempt to steal him from Nike.

While these kinds of offers can be the norm for NBA superstars — according to Forbes, Kevin Durant signed a 10-year extension with Nike worth as much as $300 million with royalties and Adidas gave Derrick Rose a 13-year, $185 million deal — Curry's deal with Under Armour looks paltry in comparison.

Though the exact terms are hard to figure out, ESPN's Darren Rovell notes that Nike missed the chance to keep Curry as one of the faces of its basketball line. After spending his first four years in the NBA with Nike, Nike originally offered Curry a deal worth $2.5 million per year. Under Armour swooped in with an offer worth less than $4 million per year for Curry, which Nike didn't match.

And Curry's impact on Under Armour has been profound. The reigning MVP for the champion Golden State Warriors, Curry's popularity has never been higher. It was reported in July that Under Armour's shoe sales were skyrocketing from Curry's shoe, The Curry One, moving Under Armour into second in the shoe market, surpassing Adidas.

In the second quarter of 2015, during the same time frame when Curry won MVP and the Warriors won the title, Under Armour's basketball shoe sales went bonkers with sales growing by 754% in that category.

Curry is a bargain for everybody. In 2012, when people were concerned about his long-term health, he signed a four-year, $44 million extension with the Warriors, which is a steal now. Furthermore, he's under contract for another two years, so he's still awaiting his giant payday, which will almost surely earn him more than $25 million per year.

Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank said he wants to build Under Armour's basketball line into a $1 billion business, with Curry as its face. Much like his NBA contract, Curry will reap the benefits when his deal with Under Armour ends.

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When Tim Tebow signed with the Philadelphia Eagles in April, it seemed like a long shot that he'd actually make the team's final 53-man roster. He'd been out of the NFL for two years after stints with the Broncos and Jets, and most recently had been cut by the Patriots before the 2013 season. 

Although Tebow spent 18-months relearning how to throw and how to play quarterback while moonlighting for ESPN, the prevailing logic around the league was that he still faced an uphill battle in Philadelphia — a team that already had three quarterbacks in Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, and Matt Barkley.

But after two days of Eagles training camp, it's sounds increasingly likely that Tebow will make the final 53-man roster in place of Barkley. During the first two days of camp, Tebow and Barkley have split reps with the third team, and the Eagles are reportedly looking to deal Barkley to any team that will take him.

This leaves the third quarterback position available for Tebow. According to Jimmy Kempski of the Philly Voice, the consensus around the team is Tebow is expected to make the roster: 

"Over the last few weeks, chatter among some people who are plugged in with the team believe that the Eagles didn't just sign Tim Tebow because he's a nice guy, or a 'camp arm.' Their sentiment is that the Eagles not only intend to keep him, but they intend to use him."

Tebow has also captured the attention of other members of the Eagles.

"Tim Tebow is going to shock a lot of people because he’s going to make the team," Eagles edge rusher Brandon Graham said on Detroit radio. "I think he'll play a lot."

Although Tebow has struggled in his various stints around the NFL, it's not crazy to think that he might actually have a role — albeit a minor one — this year with the Eagles.

In April, a report suggested that Chip Kelly was planning to experiment with short-yardage packages designed specifically for Tebow. Although Tebow isn't the best passer in the league, his athleticism allows him to thrive in short yardage situations because the defense must honor both the possibility that he can run and that he can throw. His game-winning touchdown against the Jets in 2011 happened for this exact reason: by covering the receivers, the Jets defense allowed Tebow to slip out of the pocket and run it in himself. Conversely, if a defense assumes Tebow will run and prepares this way, they'll leave receivers open. NFL defenses are more sophisticated than simply covering the run or the throw, but Tebow nevertheless complicates things.

That Tebow is a dangerous offensive threat in short yardage situations is the main reason Kelly will consider using him in such circumstances. But there's another reason for slotting Tebow into these 3rd-and-1 or 4th-and-inches plays: they're often the most dangerous for quarterbacks. Keeping the ball often leads to a big hit, and a sneak across the line of scrimmage to gain just a few inches might land the quarterback at the bottom of a pile of linemen. Bradford is coming off two knee surgeries in two years, if the Eagles can use Tebow — and use him well — there's the added benefit of keeping Bradford healthy.

Of course, it's important to remember that Tebow, should he make the team, will be the third-string QB and that third-string quarterbacks rarely, if ever, see the field. But Chip Kelly is perhaps the most creative offensive coach in the league, so should anyone finally find a role for Tebow to fill, it's him. 

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New York Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz reportedly had $500 million invested with Bernie Madoff that disappeared when the Ponzi scheme collapsed. In addition, the owners had taken out loans using the Madoff investments as collateral, leaving the team heavily in debt. The owners were also sued by the trustee for the Madoff victims and eventually settled the claims for $162 million. 

In his book that came out earlier this year, Mets general manager Sandy Alderson admitted that when details of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme became public he realized that would have an impact on what the Mets would be able to spend on the field. The result was that the Mets' payroll went way down, from more than $140 million in 2011 to less than $95 million in 2012 and $85 million in 2014 at a time when MLB salaries were skyrocketing.

However, that trend has started to reverse with payroll above $100 million this season. Even more promising was the trade deadline. Despite concerns that the team would balk at adding payroll because of their financial situation, the team traded for Yoenis Cespedes and were willing to pay the $3.7 million remaining on his contract for this season. The Mets still have a below-average payroll, but this is a sign the team is finally getting back on its financial feet.

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It must be nice being friends with Cristiano Ronaldo.

According to Portuguese news outlet Move Noticas, the Real Madrid star reportedly bought his agent and close friend Jorge Mendes a Greek island as a wedding present.

Ronaldo acted as the best man at Mendes' wedding this past weekend. Of course, being the best man also means you have to splash the cash for a pretty good wedding gift.

While for most people that typically means buying expensive kitchen appliances and silverware, for Ronaldo that means purchasing a Greek island. 

As of December 2014, 20 Greek islands were up for sale.

The exact amount Ronaldo paid hasn't yet been reported. But, according to Private Islands Online, the costs of a Greek island ranges from $3.4 million to $54 million. Price, however, shouldn't be too much of a concern for Ronaldo. In the last year alone he made nearly $80 million, making him the third-highest-paid athlete in the world, according to Forbes.

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NOW WATCH: Here's how Cristiano Ronaldo spends his money

Two days before the MLB trade deadline, a bizarre scene unfolded at Citi Field when infielder Wilmer Flores of the New York Mets heard that he had been traded to the Milwaukee Brewers during a game in which he was playing. Flores, who had been with the Mets organization since he was 16, began to cry on the field during the game.

There was one small problem: While the Mets had agreed to a trade, the deal had not been finalized and eventually fell through, reportedly because the Mets balked at the medical condition of the player they were to receive, center fielder Carlos Gomez.

Five days later, Flores has become a folk hero to Mets fans and the face of a team that just swept the Washington Nationals to move into a tie for first place in the National League East.

The love for Flores actually began on the same night he thought he had been traded. Buster Olney of ESPN recounted on his "Baseball Tonight" podcast the story of how Flores found out about the erroneous trade report. 

“When Flores was going up to bat in the middle of that game, a fan from the stands, loud enough so that everybody in the Mets' dugout could hear it, yelled to Wilmer Flores, 'HEY, GOOD LUCK IN MILWAUKEE, WE'RE GETTING GOMEZ, YOU'RE OUTTA HERE!',” Olney explained. “And that's when Wilmer Flores first heard about the possible trade.”

The feeling was that Flores “was a guy Mets fans were glad to get rid of,” as Olney put it.

However, after seeing Flores get emotional in the field an inning earlier, he received a standing ovation from many of the fans who stuck around to see his at bat late in the blowout loss to the San Diego Padres thinking this would be his last appearance with the team.

Instead, Flores remained with the Mets and two nights later, after the trade deadline had passed, that new-found love affair reached new heights. 

It started on the second batter in the first inning of an important series against the Nationals when Flores made a nice diving stop while playing second base. The crowd gave him another standing ovation, one described by Mets announcers “as rousing an ovation from this crowd as a Met has received all season.”

But Flores wasn't done. The game went into extra innings and Flores led off the bottom of the 12th inning with a walk-off home run as fans chanted his name.

Now, every time Flores comes to the plate, Mets fans give him a standing ovation, an amazing turn around for a player who was as good as gone just days earlier. 

It certainly helps that the Mets just swept the Nationals and fans are in a good mood. But as Jerry Crasnick of ESPN explained on the podcast, it also says something about the mentality of the fans when they can see a player “cares that much and he doesn't want to be traded and feels that much a part of the organization.”

Not only is Flores still a part of the Mets organization, he is now a hero to the fans.

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Undrafted guard Langston Galloway was one of the few bright spots on the New York Knicks last season.

The Knicks suffered through a franchise-worst 17-65 season, but received a spark from Galloway, who after getting waived in training camp, signed with the Knicks D-League affiliate, the Westchester Knicks, and eventually got called up to the NBA.

After impressing Knicks brass during two 10-day contracts, Galloway signed a deal with the Knicks for the rest of last season with a partially guaranteed deal this year that will pay him more than half of his $845,000 salary if he's still on the team by training camp.

Galloway's story is a relatively successful one, but he took a big gamble to play in the D-League. After initially getting waived by the Knicks, he turned down bigger offers from European teams to play for the D-League and keep his hope of making it to the NBA alive.

"I knew that it's definitely a small shot to try to make it into the NBA, but at the end of the day, like I told my agent, it's not about the money — it's about going out there and accomplishing my dream of making the NBA," Galloway told Business Insider. "And that's what I wanted to do, so that's what I tried to do, and it all came true."

In doing so, Galloway also had to accept the salary for D-League players, which according to Ridiculous Upside's Keith Schlosser, was $25,000 per season for Galloway. Galloway didn't mince his words about the experience.

"It’s definitely tough. I'm not gonna say its not tough because the D-League really isn’t, I guess you’d say, if you’re taking care of a family or anything like that, it's tough to try to manage the money that you're getting, which is very limited. But at the same time, you definitely have to ... put all of your eggs in one basket."

Furthermore, a system like the D-League, in which players are basically auditioning for call-ups, isn't always the most productive atmosphere since everyone is trying to impress. "I know a lot of guys say it’s cutthroat," Galloway said. However, he also said that his experience was productive, particularly because the Westchester Knicks were running the triangle offense — the same as the New York Knicks — to try and promote development going into the NBA.

"They didn’t want anybody to just go out there and play for themselves and make everybody look bad, but we all played as a team, and definitely got a lot out of it," Galloway said.

"We were doing the same thing with the triangle [offense] that the Knicks were doing. So, it really was definitely go out there and practice, try to go at each other. But at the same time, when it came time to games, you had to go out there and try to play as a team to try to make the triangle work, so I think I got the best out of that."

Other players go through the same dilemma, but the end result may not be as positive as Galloway's. Knicks 2014 second-round draft pick Thanasis Antetokounmpo and his agent are reportedly asking for a roster spot after he turned down a two-year, $550,000 deal overseas to play in the D-League, also earning $25,000. After two seasons in the D-League, if he can't be guaranteed a spot, he may seek out more lucrative offers elsewhere.

And despite Galloway's solid rookie season in which he averaged 11 points, four rebounds, and three assists while being named to the All-Rookie Second team, he still has work to do. The Knicks could use Galloway's length on defense and ball-handling, but his spot is not guaranteed yet.

"There's definitely still pressure going into this preseason," Galloway said. "I'm definitely putting it on myself as well, just to go out there, play hard, and continue to show what I can do because that’s exactly who I am and what I've been doing my whole career."

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Cris "Cyborg" Justino, the one fighter who experts believe has a chance against Ronda Rousey, sent a tweet implying she would pursue legal action against Rousey after the UFC women's bantamweight champion claimed Justino is "pumped full of steroids:"

Shortly after her 34-second knockout win over Bethe Correia Saturday, Rousey was asked about a potential fight against Justino. As the two most dominant fighters in women's MMA, the two have become intertwined over the years.

Rousey, who's 12-0 and fights at 135 pounds in UFC's bantamweight division, told ESPN's Brett Okamoto that if Justino wants to make the fight happen she needs to drop down to 135 in order to do so. Justino, who's 14-1, is signed with Invicta and fights in its 145-pound featherweight division. In an interview, Rousey, claimed dropping the 10-pound difference wouldn't be a problem for Justino, and made reference to Justino's failed drug test four years ago.

"I'm prepared to deal with anything, that's why I'm the champion," Rousey said. "I fight in the UFC, in the 135-pound division. She can fight at 145 pumped full of steroids or she can make the weight just like everybody else without them."

Justino tested positive for a performance enhancing drug following her 16-second knockout win over Hiroko Yamanaka in 2011. Justino blamed the failed test on a diet supplement given to her by someone within her camp, and that she had no idea they were steroids. She hasn't failed a drug test since.

While Justino is apparently willing to fight Rousey in the courtroom, she also made it clear she still wants to fight Rousey in the octagon as well:

Although Justino recently said she would attempt to make the full transition down to 135 pounds, and is reportedly doing "everything possible" to get there, she's frequently advocated for the potential fight with Rousey to be held at a catch weight of 140 pounds — exactly in-between 135 pounds and 145 pounds. Rousey, however, has repeatedly said she has no intentions of moving up in weight.

SEE ALSO: The hype is building for a fight between Ronda Rousey and the only opponent who has a chance against her

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At the beginning of August, only two teams have effectively secured playoff spots while 12 teams can go ahead and make other plans for October. That means there are a whopping 16 teams still battling for the final eight playoff spots.

If we use the playoff projection model of BaseballProspectus.com and consider 95% the cutoff for teams that are locks to make the playoffs, the Cardinals (99.7%) and Royals (94.6%) are the only teams in, with the Dodgers, Yankees, and Astros knocking on the door. At the other end, 12 teams have less than a 5% chance of making the playoffs and really have no shot (we're giving the White Sox the benefit of the doubt and rounding up).

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After an off-season that saw the Seahawks go all in, the Eagles blow things up, and the Patriots get into an all-out war with the NFL, football is finally back.

While the best teams from 2014 look like the favorites entering 2015, plenty has changed over the past six months.

We picked out the teams, players, and coaches who won the offseason, and others who very much did not.

WINNER: Chip Kelly (Philadelphia Eagles)

One thing to know: No one gained more power this off-season than Kelly. After winning an internal team struggle in January, he set out dismantling the roster and rebuilding it to his liking. Time will tell if Kelly's radical transformation of the Eagles' roster is a success, but it's abundantly clear that this is his team now.

LOSER: San Francisco 49ers

One thing to know: It was a rough spring for the 49ers. They lost Anthony Davis, Chris Borland, Patrick Williams, Justin Smith, Michael Crabtree, Mike Iupati, Frank Gore, and Chris Culliver to either retirement or free agency. Jim Harbaugh is also out. They're widely expected to take a huge step backward.

WINNER: Andrew Luck (Indianapolis Colts)

One thing to know: The Colts added two big offensive threats in running back Frank Gore and wide receiver Andre Johnson, and no one will benefit more than Luck. The combination of T.Y. Hilton and Johnson is scary, and adding a legitimately dangerous running back in Gore will open up the already-lethal Colts' passing game. Luck is already a dark-horse MVP candidate.

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Watch stunt rider Robbie Maddison from Australia as he rides his dirt bike over Tahiti waves.

Video courtesy of Reuters

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At the beginning of training camp, the Seattle Seahawks helped solidify a very solid core with a $87 million extension for Russell Wilson and $43 million extension for linebacker Bobby Wagner.

In the process, the Seahawks are also losing their biggest advantage over the NFL — flexibility.

As SI's Peter King broke down, the Seahawks are paying 10 players a combined $97 million in average annual salary through 2017.

In addition to Wilson and Wagner's impending eight-figure extensions, the Seahawks also took on Jimmy Graham's $8 million salary this offseason and gave Marshawn Lynch a three-year, $31 million extension. Add this to the contracts for Richard Sherman, Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril, and Earl Thomas, and the Seahawks have an elite, pricey core.

The Seahawks drafted well in recent years and have had the advantage of holding onto talented players on cheap rookie deals while spending their money on veterans, free agents, and players due for extensions.

Now, however, the Seahawks don't have money left to spend on keeping other young players. According to Travis Pittman of King 5 News, the Seahawks are currently $5.4 million under the salary cap. However, next season when Wilson and Wagner's cap hits jump with their new extensions, that cap space virtually dries up, even if the salary cap rises.

This is a problem for the Seahawks and their other young players hitting free agency. As Pittman notes, with players like J.R. Sweezy, Russell Okung, and Brandon Mebane hitting free agency next summer, the Seahawks lack the resources to keep them around.

To sign Wagner, the Seahawks had to release Tony McDaniel. In May, perhaps with knowledge that they wanted to extend Wilson and Wagner, they did not pick up the fifth-year option on Bruce Irvin, who has said he wants his money, too:

They have further financial problems to deal with still, as safety Kam Chancellor is holding out of training camp for more money.

This puts Seattle in an awkward position of having to choose who to keep and who to cut. Pittman suggests that as early as next season the Seahawks may have to decide between Graham and Lynch — something Grantland's Bill Barnwell suggested when the Seahawks traded for Graham. The Seahawks will have to choose between losing an elite pass-catcher, an elite rusher, or losing a young defensive player for nothing.

Don't expect the rest of the NFL to feel bad for the Seahawks. The NFL institutes a hard cap so that teams will have to make these decisions, thus giving the rest of the NFL the chance to keep up with the elite teams. Parity!

This is an okay situation for Seattle — they have 10 great players locked up for the foreseeable future. However, given their lack of flexibility going forward, this could be the best iteration of the Seahawks that we see before they have to make the inevitable decision of who to keep and who to let go.

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At just 18-years-old and only a few months removed from her high school graduation, Katie Ledecky is the best swimmer in the world. Some are even calling her the greatest freestyle swimmer of all-time.

At the FINA World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Ledecky accidentally broke her own world record in the 1,500m freestyle during a preliminary race in which she wasn't swimming her hardest. 

"I wasn't kicking much," she said after the race.

After touching the wall, she seemed surprised to learn she'd set a new world record.

In the final of the same event one day later, she broke her own 24-hour-old world record by over two seconds, clocking in at 15 minutes and 25.48 seconds. For some context, in 2004, 19-year-old Ryan Lochte swam in the men's 1,500 at the US Olympic Trials and finished in eighth place. His time: 15:28.37.

Lochte is an 11-time Olympic medalist and arguably the best male American swimmer today, though he has found his success in shorter distance races. He has swum with Ledecky and confessed that she blew him out of the water.

"She’s one of the best distance freestylers I’ve ever seen," Lochte told the New York Times. "I trained with her in Colorado once, and she made me look like I was stopping. She flew by me." 

According to Bruce Gemmell, Ledecky's coach, part of the reason she's become so dominant is because she's adopted a different approach to the distance events. Rather than relying on endurance or sheer grit, Ledecky instead treats every race like a sprint.

“She’s embraced the notion that all events can be swum with a sprinter’s mindset," Gemmell told azcentral.com. "The longest event is 15 minutes and in the world of competition that’s not a marathon or a triathlon. There has to be a sprint element involved."

In 2014, when Ledecky set the 1,500m freestyle world record for the first time — by over six seconds — USA Swimming National Team Director Frank Bush called Ledecky's performance "the most impressive race I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in the sport for almost 50 years."

"There’s nobody better at what she does," added swim analyst Rowdy Gaines.

In April, at the 2015 Arena Pro Swim Series: Mesa, Ledecky swam a forgettable 400m preliminary in 4:02.67. (Her world record in the event is 3:58.37.) That same day, Michael Phelps had swum the same event and finished in the exact same time of 4:02.67.

In a broadcast interview just after Ledecky had stepped out of the pool, Phelps — from the broadcast booth — challenged her to a race.

"Want to go in an hour?" Ledecky responded, laughing.

"No, I want to go right now, ’cause you’re tired," Phelps, the record-holding 22-time medalist, quipped back.

Per OlympicTalk, Phelps went on to praise Ledecky after the interview concluded.

"I’ve watched her stroke so much, really, over the last couple of years," he said. "Really, she swims almost like a guy. Her long, loping stroke … stronger and stronger throughout the race. I think her stroke is so different from all the other females that she swims against."

Ledecky burst onto the scene at the 2012 London Olympics, winning the 800m freestyle in dominating fashion. She was just 15-years-old — the youngest gold medal-winning swimmer in London. 

During the final lap of the Olympic final, Ledecky swam toward the wall in completely open water. The British commentators called her performance "one of the finest swims you'll ever see." 

"This is somebody whose going to become very famous very suddenly," the commentators added quite presciently.

The 2012 Olympics was only the beginning. Ledecky has gone on to break nine world records in just the past two years. Currently, she holds the fastest times ever in the 400, 800, and 1,500m freestyles. This week at the World Championships, she has won the 400m and 1,500m freestyle.

Swimvortex.com had a nice roundup of the extent of Ledecky's dominance in her the three events. She has seven of the 19 fastest times ever in the 400m, eight of the 16 fastest times in the 800m, and six of the 14 fastest times in the 1,500m. She has also done it despite competing in an era where faster synthetic racing suits have been banned by FINA because they are believed to be performance enhancing.

Ledecky has committed to Stanford, though she won't enroll until in the fall of 2016. Over the next year she will train for, and likely dominate, the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. If she can continue her historic run of form, Ledecky will have had quite the Gap Year — and will be quite the college freshman.

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Jacksonville Jaguars GM David Caldwell shared the blunt reality of wide receiver Justin Blackmon's future at training camp on Tuesday.

When discussing the former No. 5 overall pick who was suspended indefinitely in Week 8 of 2013 for a third violation of the NFL's substance-abuse policy, Caldwell told reporters that he hasn't heard from Blackmon in 21 months.

Additionally, Caldwell said he thinks Blackmon's NFL career is probably over:

"I have not heard anything and I guess I harbor a little bit of hope, but realistically, I think when you're away from the game for two-and-a-half years what you were once is not what you probably will be. Your skills do erode and especially if you're not staying in tip-top shape and you're not in football shape.

"I don't know to expect, but I would say common sense would probably be if you haven't played football in two-and-a-half years, apparently that's not a priority for you."

After a highly successful rookie season in which Blackmon totaled 865 receiving yards and five touchdowns, Blackmon failed an offseason drug test and was suspended for the first four games of the 2013 season. He returned for Weeks 5-8, had 415 receiving yards and one touchdown, but was indefinitely suspended after violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy for the third time.

According to ESPN's Mike DiRocco, Blackmon would have to apply for reinstatement before going through a "nearly two-month long vetting process before he can hope to get back on the field."

Blackmon has made over $12.5 million in his career. Because he's been on the suspended/non-injured list, the Jaguars haven't had to pay him and his contract has also been suspended. If he were to even return to the NFL, he would have two-and-a-half years remaining on his deal, according to DiRocco.

Unfortunately for the Jaguars, Blackmon is a massive disappointment. As ProFootball Talk's Michael David Smith noted, Blackmon twice won the best receiver award in college and was the only receiver to ever win the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year award. In his 20 games of NFL experience, he looked to be one of the most promising receivers in the league.

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Baltimore Ravens guard John Urschel has one of the most unusual stories in the NFL.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Penn State in three years and spent his senior year getting his master's degree in mathematics while teachingintegral vector calculus trigonometry during the fall semester.

He has been published in the Journal of Computation Mathematics and wants to pursue a doctorate when his playing career is over.

He's one of the smartest players in the NFL. He's also one of the most frugal.

According to a profile by Childs Walker of the Baltimore Sun, he lives on $25,000 a year and had a roommate last year to keep his expenses down. Urschel made $564,000 in salary and bonuses as a rookie in 2014 after getting picked in the fifth round of the NFL Draft.

While his rookie deal is worth $2.3 million through 2017, only the $144,000 signing bonus was guaranteed. If he gets cut, the Ravens don't owe him a penny, so it appears he has decided to spend wisely.

Hence his car: a used 2013 Nissan Versa.

At the opening of Ravens training camp, Urschel tweeted a great photo of his ride compared to those of his fellow NFL players:

The luxuriousness of the cars aside, the sheer size difference is jarring. Urschel is a 6-foot-3, 308-pound man — what's he doing in a compact car?

ESPN Ravens beat writer Jamison Hensley got to the bottom of it. Urschel told him that the Versa — which he bought used for $9,000 — is his "dream car" and that it's plenty spacious.

His full explanation for why he drives it:

"It's great on gas. It's surprisingly spacious. And you know what the best feeling is? You're driving into a parking deck, it's near full and you're on the first level and there is that space that everyone has passed because they said, 'No, we can't park in there.' And I take my Versa and I just go right in there. I'm on the first level, parking lot full and everyone else is parking on the upper deck where the car is getting hot. I'm not even taking the stairs."

Hard to argue with that.

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The National Baseball Hall of Fame houses arguably the greatest collection of sports memorabilia in the world, and now it's a lot easier to visit thanks to Google.

In 2012, the Google Cultural Institute launched historical exhibitions that could be explored via Google Street View. Since 2014 the collection has included the Holy Grail of sports exhibitions, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

The tour doesn't give baseball fans the thrill of being within inches of a bat used by Babe Ruth, but it does provide the next best thing, a chance to explore the museum without having to travel to the small village located 90 minutes from any airport and 3.5 hours north of New York City.

You can access the museum through the Cultural Institute above or through Google Maps. Once you locate the Hall of Fame simply drag the yellow street-view character over to the building and drop him in.

However, if you access the museum through the Cultural Institute page you get the added bonus of a clickable floor plan that can instantly take you anywhere in the museum.

You can instantly find yourself in the Hall of Fame Gallery that houses the plaques of the Hall of Famers.

The resolution is so good you can read the plaques.

But the real fun is exploring the rest of the museum and its collections, including an entire room dedicated to baseball in the movies.

A gallery of baseball art.

This incredibly detailed theater.

On the second and third floors you can take a tour through time. Unfortunately, the resolution of the images is not great enough to read many of the small placards. But that is a small price to pay for the ability to tour the museum from home.

There is even some stuff from the career of Pete Rose, who is famously banned from being enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

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After weeks of speculation, Floyd Mayweather confirmed that his next and supposedly final fight will be against Andre Berto on September 12 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Berto, 31, has lost three of his last six fights. While he's a former welterweight champion, he was far below guys like Keith Thurman, Timothy Bradley, Gennady Golovkin, and even Amir Khan on the list of deserving opponents who could have potentially given the undefeated Mayweather a fight.

Berto is seen as such a walkover that there were rumors that the fight would be broadcast for free on CBS. That won't be the case. Showtime will sell the fight on pay-per-view — the last of a six-fight deal with Mayweather. 

The boxing world sees Mayweather fighting Berto as, more or less, a total joke. 

"Andre Berto has done exactly zero to earn a championship fight, let alone a crack at the man who is boxing's biggest star in what will purportedly be his final fight," Yahoo's Kevin Iole wrote, calling the fight "offensive to the hardcore boxing fans."

Other journalists were with him:

No one is criticizing Berto; they're criticizing Floyd for picking a lesser opponent that he knows he can beat in what he claims will be his last fight ever. Mayweather has said all along that he will retire after his final Showtime fight at 49-0. While many are theorizing that he'll go for 50-0 in the spring against a legitimate opponent for one final big payday, as of now this is expected to be Floyd's final fight.

Other fighters and ex-fighters think Mayweather-Berto is a huge disappointment as well.

Shane Mosley said:

"Oh my god. I don't even want to break that fight down. I'm not even going to talk about that fight. It's not, that's, that's not a fight. I don't know if it's going to be worse than the Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather fight. I'm not sure. But, I'm not talking about it."

Victor Ortiz said the same thing:

"That's embarrassing, bro. That's not even a fight. If anything dude, they both need to retire, or at least Floyd needs to give me some kind of a chance to redeem myself. I have no respect for that. I have no respectful reply for that. I don’t know. If we keep going I’ll say a lot of bad things."

Mayweather has put himself in a position where he controls the money and can handpick his opponents. But with this move he's hurting whatever goodwill he has left among the fans.

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Disney reported earnings on Tuesday night that were mixed.

The company reported earnings per share of $1.45 on revenue of $13.1 billion. Wall Street was looking for earnings of $1.41 on revenue of $13.2 billion, according to estimates from Bloomberg.

In pre-market trade on Wednesday, shares of Disney were down 7% after hitting a record high on Tuesday.

But what everyone's been talking about over the last few months is ESPN.

Specifically, whether the decline in subscribers and the overall shift in the media landscape would take a dent out of the preeminence ESPN has enjoyed over the last 10 years.

On Tuesday night, Rich Greenfield at BTIG noted that cable accounts for around half of Disney's profit.

And so with a major profit driver facing questions about its future, Disney CEO Bob Iger spent more than half of his opening remarks on the company's conference call discussing — and defending — ESPN.

Via Seeking Alpha, here's a big chunk of what Iger had to say (emphasis added):

Before Tom takes you through the highlights of our businesses, I'd like to address an issue that has been receiving a fair amount of interest and attention these days and that's the rapidly changing media landscape especially as it relates to ESPN. We are realists about the business and about the impact technology has had on how product is distributed, marketed, and consumed. We are also quite mindful of potential trends among younger audiences, in particular many of whom consume television in very different ways than the generations before them. Economics have also played a part in change and both cost and value are under a consumer microscope. All of this has and will continue to put pressure on the multichannel ecosystem, which has seen a decline in overall households as well as growth in so-called skinny or cable light packages.

ESPN's experienced some modest sub losses although those have been less than reported by one of the prominent research firms and the vast majority of them, 80%, were due to decreases in multichannel households with only a small percentage due to skinny packages. Overall though we believe the expanded basic package will remain the dominant package of choice for some years to come, because to the quality and variety it represents for a price that is generally considered fair and appropriate ...

... ESPN is the number one brand in sports media and one of the most valuable brands in all sports and among the most popular, respected and valuable brands in media, by consumers, advertisers, and distributors. This is supported by the fact that in the first calendar quarter of this year alone, 83% of all multichannel households turn to ESPN at some point ...

Now we all know how valuable live programming has become and ESPN is the leader in live programming. 96% of all sports programming is watched live and this is particularly valuable in today's rapidly changing advertising marketplace.

You can read Iger's complete prepared remarks, and the entirety of Disney's call (which, frankly, is mostly about ESPN), at Seeking Alpha here »

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The NFL suspended Tom Brady for four games for his role in the Deflategate scandal, but his decision to not turn over his phone may have hurt his defense more than any actual evidence of footballs being deflated.

Pro Football Talk has obtained a copy of the transcript from Brady's hearing to appeal his suspension. During the hearing, Brady flat-out denied ever asking somebody to deflate footballs and said he would "disapprove" if anybody were doing something to the footballs after he had checked them before the game.

In an appeal hearing, the NFL's lead investigator, Ted Wells, was asked if he "rejected" this testimony. Wells confirmed during the hearing that he did reject Brady's testimony because of the decision to not turn over documents requested by the investigation, namely emails and text messages from the phone Brady admitted to later having an assistant destroy.

Q. You rejected the testimony of Mr. Brady that he knew nothing about the ball deflation in the AFC Championship Game, right? You rejected that?

A. I did reject it based on my assessment of his credibility and his refusal or decision not to give me what I requested in terms of responsive documents. And that decision, so we can all be clear and I will say it to Mr. Brady, in my almost 40 years of practice, I think that was one of the most ill-advised decisions I have ever seen because it hurt how I viewed his credibility.

Q. If he had given you that, you would have accepted his statement?

A. I do not know. I can't go back in a time machine, but I will say this. It hurt my assessment of his credibility for him to begin his interview by telling me he declined to give me the documents. And I want to say this. At that time, neither his lawyer nor Mr. Brady gave me any reason other than to say, "We respectfully." They were respectful. They said, "We respectfully decline." There wasn't anything about the Union or it wasn't anything, This was what my lawyer told me and I am going to follow my lawyer's advice. I was given no explanation other than, "We respectfully decline." And I did, I walked Mr. Brady through this request in front of his agents and lawyers. So I understood that he understood what I was asking for and they were declining.

Q. Did his agents or lawyer ask you what the authority was for you asking for those types of information?

A. No, that's not my recollection. They asked the authority for him to do the interview, I think.

Q. You don't recall them asking for the authority to demand e-mails or cell phones or anything like that?

A. My recollection, there's e-mail. The e-mail says what it says. But I thought the e-mails said authority to conduct the interview, but we ought to grab the e-mail.

This appears to be at the core of the NFL's decision to punish Brady. There is no smoking gun linking Brady to a conspiracy to deflate the footballs, and even the science behind the deflated footballs and whether they were tampered with is arguable at best for the NFL.

In other words, it appears that Brady was not suspended for his role in deflating footballs, but rather he was suspended for not cooperating with the investigation. This is consistent with the statement from NFL executive VP Troy Vincent to the Patriots explaining the punishments when they were originally handed down.

Vincent told the team “the failure of Tom Brady to produce any electronic evidence (emails, texts, etc.), despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect unrelated personal information” contributed to his punishment. “Although we do not hold the club directly responsible for Mr. Brady’s refusal to cooperate, it remains significant that the quarterback of the team failed to cooperate fully with the investigation,” Vincent wrote.

The NFL clearly thought the phone and its records were important to the investigation. In addition to suspicious text messages between Brady and equipment assistant John Jastremski, the person alleged to have deflated the footballs, the NFL also points to a gap in the phone records that reveal three text messages between the two on February 7, three weeks after the AFC Championship game, were deleted and never recovered by investigators.

The case against Brady's involvement is weak. But in the end, the case against Brady was no longer about whether or not he did anything illegal and was more about his decision to not turn over his phone and cooperate.

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