MON SIX

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cornerback Darious Williams is retiring after an eight-year NFL career that included a Super Bowl ring with theLos Angeles Rams.

The Rams placed Williams, who turns 33 later this month, on the reserve/retired list Saturday.

Williams played for Baltimore and Jacksonville along with his two stints in Los Angeles.

He began his career as an undrafted free agent who made the Ravens' roster in 2018. The Rams claimed him off waivers later that year, and he eventuallyplayed his way into a starting jobopposite Jalen Ramsey in Los Angeles' secondary.

Williams was a starter for the Rams' championship team in the 2021 season, and he led the Rams with eight tackles in their Super Bowl victory over Cincinnati.

Williams then left for a $30 million free agent deal with the Jaguars in his hometown. He played two seasons as a starter beforereturning to the Ramsafter Jacksonville released him in March 2024.

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Injuries limited Williams' availability over the past two seasons with the Rams, but he largely played well when healthy. He has one year left on his contract with Los Angeles, which has agreed to a tradeto acquire star cornerback Trent McDuffiefrom Kansas City this month.

Williams finished with 12 career interceptions, returning one for a touchdown, along with two fumble recoveries and 306 tackles.

Williams' collegiate career also was eventful.

He started out at Division III Marietta College in Ohio before transferring to UAB in 2014. He then turned down offers to leave the Blazers even when the school dropped football, delivering flowers on the side to stay afloat until the program finally returned to the field in 2017.

AP NFL:https://apnews.com/NFL

HOUSTON —Joseph Contrerastried to go to sleep Friday night, but it was impossible.

His cell phone kept ringing. Friends were calling. Teammates from Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Roswell, Georgia were screaming. Coaches were checking in. And family members were euphoric.

When he finally fell asleep, he had already received hundreds of text messages, and when he woke up early in the morning, hundreds more awaited.

Hey, when you're a17-year-old who has an excused school absenceto go getthree-time MVP Aaron Judgeto hit into a double play in the World Baseball Classic, life comes at you fast.

"My phone has been blowing up," Contreras said. "We have a group chat. It was just going crazy. It was, like, 'Let's go, you're the man!'

"And it was just really exciting and knowing that they were always behind me because this year went on and on, and I could feel the presence of not just me, but my whole support staff."

Contreras, the youngest player in this World Baseball Classic, burst onto the scene Friday night when he entered the game for Brazil to face the most powerful lineup in the world.

He came in throwing 97-mph fastballs, forkballs and changeups, and although he was hardly perfect in his 1 ⅓-inning stint, he had a surreal moment that he'll cherish forever.

Bases loaded. One out.

Judge at the plate.

And he induced an inning-ending double play grounder that had the entire baseball world buzzing.

"The scouting report was just attack him hard in, and then if we go away on him," Contreras said, "make sure it's up and away. So I was just, like, OK, I'll throw the fastball up and away. After that, it was 1-1, needed to win the count, so I decided to go two-seam hard on him."

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Boom, Judge hit a routine ground ball just 77.2-mph off his bat to third baseman Leonardo Reginatto, who started the double play.

The next thing Contreras knew, he was dancing off the mound celebrating while his Brazilian teammates screamed.

"Now that I look back," Contreras said, "I can see the magnitude of bases loaded, one out. In the moment I was [thinking], "I just have to execute my pitches and just hopefully just get him out somehow. Fly ball. Maybe ground ball. Just force weak contact.'"

All the electric moments from USA-Brazil World Baseball Classic game

Certainly, it grabbed the attention of pro scouts in attendance. If Contreras was ranked 47thon theMLB.com draft prospect list, they sure want to know who the other 46 players are ahead of him.

"I think it just shows scouts that my stuff plays," said Contreras, who has a verbal commitment with Vanderbilt. "I just followed my father's advice. My father told me to keep attacking the zone. He also told me that I show no fear and that I should keep on working with what I've got.

"At the end of the day I need to get more outs or more strikeouts, and that is what's going to help me get to the next level."

And after watching Contreras perform Friday, there's no doubt in the mind of Judge and other players on the USA team that they'll be facing him again one day in the big leagues.

"I know I wasn't doing that at that age," Judge said. "Just great stuff. I know he had some poise on the mound. He's throwing 100 miles an hour. He's facing Team USA, a lot of guys he has seen on TV.

"It was just impressive seeing him control himself out there and get out of a big jam. And he had some good stuff."

He'll be going back to reality and high school after Brazil plays its final game in the WBC.

But, oh, will he ever have some stories to tell his buddies back home.

"Can you imagine?" USA starter Logan Webb said. "This guy is throwing a high school game a week ago, and now he's throwing 98-mph against our lineup. Impressive to watch."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Brazil's Joseph Contreras leaves World Baseball Classic in awe at 17

MADRID (AP) —Antoine Griezmannis not making an imminent move to Major League Soccer, according to the sporting director of Atletico Madrid.

The 34-year-old former France star had been linked to a transfer to Orlando City.

But Atletico sporting director Mateu Alemany said Saturday that "he has this season and two more years with us. I don't see any major news."

"He is going to continue with us and nothing more," Alemany said before Griezmann got an assist to help beat Real Sociedad 3-2 in La Liga.

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Griezmann, 34, is Atletico'sall-time leading scorer. He helped France win the 2018 World Cup before retiring from international soccer in 2024.

He has lost his starring role with Diego Simeone's side this year with his coach managing his minutes, but even so he has scored 12 goals this campaign in all competitions.

Atletico will play Sociedad in the Copa del Rey final on April 18. Atletico is also third in the Spanish league and will play Tottenham in the Champions League round of 16 next week.

AP soccer:https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

NEW YORK (AP) — Ford has issued two recalls affecting nearly 1.74 million of its cars in the U.S., due to software issues that impact the vehicles' rearview camera displays.

According to notices published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week, an internal component inside the infotainment system of certain 2021-2026 Ford Broncos and 2021-2024 Ford Edgesmay overheat and shut down— preventing the rearview image from displaying when drivers are going in reverse. Meanwhile, some 2020-2022 Ford Escapes and Lincoln Corsairs, as well as 2020-2024 Lincoln Aviators and Explorers, may show aflipped or inverted rearview image.

The recalls cover 849,310 Broncos and Edges as well as 889,950 Escapes, Corsairs, Aviators and Explorers. Ford estimates that all of these vehicles have the defects. But the company is not aware of any injuries or accidents spanning from either recall, NHTSA documents show.

Still, the NHTSA is warning drivers that both issues could increase crash risks.

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For impacted Bronco and Edge owners, Ford is offering a free software update for the vehicles' Accessory Protocol Interface Module (APIM). Owner-notification letters will be mailed out at the end of the month, with the fix available either at a dealer or through an "over-the-air" update.

But a remedy is still under development for the recall impacting the Escapes, Corsairs, Aviators and Explorers, this week's recall announcement noted. In the meantime, interim letters to notify owners of the safety risks are set to be mailed out in the coming months.

The Associated Press reached out to Michigan-based Ford for further comments on Saturday.

For more information, drivers canvisit the NHTSA websiteandFord's online recall lookupusing their vehicle's VIN number, or call the company's customer service line at 1-866-436-7332.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Aroadside bombtargeting a police vehicle killed four people, including two officers, and wounded about two dozen others in restive northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border, police said.

The blast occurred in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police official Asghar Shah said.

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The dead included two police officers and two passersby, he said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on thePakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is separate from but allied with Afghanistan's Taliban government and has intensified its campaign against Pakistani security forces in recent years.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence that has deepened tensions with Afghanistan. Islamabad accuses the TTP of using Afghan territory as a safe haven since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, a charge the Afghan Taliban deny.

This weekend, we spring forward and turn our clocks ahead one hour to kick offdaylight saving time.

As is always the case when the clocks change, folks around the country and online initiate conversations about the need to turn daylight saving time into our permanent modus operandi instead of ending it every fall (known as going to standard time). This is mostly because daylight saving time guarantees more sunshine toward the end of the day, a fact that experts stress can help with seasonal depression.

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Talks have gotten so intense that politicians have even introduced bills attempting to make daylight saving irreversible.Back in March 2022, the United States Senate went as far as passing the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021.

"The call to end the antiquated practice of clock changing is gaining momentum throughout the nation," said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at the time in an official statement.

In 2023, Rubio re-introduced what is now referred to as the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 to the 118th Congress. "This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid," the GOP lawmaker said in astatement. "Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done."

Even PresidentDonald Trump has voiced his support for getting rid of daylight saving time,saying it's "inconvenient" and "costly."

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If that were ever to happen (it hasn't yet), our clocks would permanently move an hour forward ― like we do every spring ― making daylight saving time our new forever normal.

But if there has been this much supposed political support and public momentum behind the initiative, why haven't we been able to make the change permanent so far?

Here's why we change our clocks in the first place.

The overall idea is that people prefer to do things in daylight, so "extending" the day by an hour could be beneficial to just about anyone.

However, that's not exactly the case. Farmers, for example, have been famously opposed to daylight saving time because it disrupts their usual schedule.

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Historically, those arguing that daylight saving time should be turned permanent have brought up potential energy-saving measures as major benefits to the practice.

"Household lighting and electricity use is one of the biggest energy savers," explainedNick Loris, economist and VP of public policy at C3 Solutions. Basically, the longer there is sunshine outside, the less likely you are to turn on your lights at home, therefore saving energy.

However, there have been studies pointing to the flaws of that view.

"If people are going out after work ― driving to restaurants or going to the mall, for example ― they are using more gasoline than they otherwise might, so that reduces some of the energy savings," Loris explained. "Also, technology has vastly improved the efficiency of our appliances, so families are saving less than they used to from daylight saving time. The way we use energy is much different than our parents and grandparents, which, again, makes the energy savings argument a little dubious."

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Who wants daylight saving time to become the norm?

According to theNational Conference of State Legislatures, as of 2023, a total of 19 states have tried to adopt daylight saving time all year around, passing resolutions confirming their position. However, until a similar law is passed on a federal level, local states cannot alter the way the system currently works.

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Retailers, in particular, tend to approve of the proposed changes because, according to Loris, "more light means people are willing to shop or hang out after work rather than just go home" and, as a result, are more likely to visit retail-adjacent destinations.

When it gets darker, people are less likely to spend money. "Studieshave shown that even groceries and fuel shopping goes down when daylight saving ends," Loris said.

Loris noted that additional evening light has been associated with specific health benefits ("kids play outside more, it helps with seasonal depression") and public safety concerns (the longer it is light out, the less dangerous not being home might be).

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According to astudypublished in the Journal of Affective Disorders, mental health distress increases among the population during the times of the year characterized by reduced hours of sunlight.

"With fewer sun time hours, clients will be particularly vulnerable to emotional distress,"according to Mark Beecher, clinical professor and licensed psychologist in New York University Counseling and Psychological Services and one of the scientists behind the study.

What are the downsides of daylight saving time?

Loris conceded that lighter nights come with darker mornings and, therefore, sometimes unpleasant situations: Students going to school and commuters heading to work during pitch-black morning hours may have to confront other safety issues, for example.

Parents of school-aged children have become pretty loud voices in the debate,arguingthat the full-time adoption of daylight saving time will bring several safety issues when it comes to morning commutes to school.

Sleep patterns are another downside. A total of two states just stay on standard time all year long: Arizona and Hawaii. Although there are a number of reasons behind the states' decision, it seems like a lot of it is based on what the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has been saying for years: Living off standard time might be healthier for the human body.

"Current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety," reads anofficial statementby the organization.

To put it simply, daylight saving time means more darkness in the morning and light in the early evening, which would go against our bodies' natural rhythms.

Will one time schedule ever get implemented?

As of now, although several states have passed their own propositions to make daylight saving time permanent, the federal government has yet to take on the issue.

Every few months, when the designated days to switch our clocks approach, conversations about the issue abound in Congress, but just a few weeks later, as we get used to the new normal, all such discussions seem to die down—case in point: The Sunshine Protection Act has yet to reach the House of Representatives.

"It just doesn't seem to be a priority issue," Loris said. "We talk about it twice a year, and then it's largely forgotten about until it's time to spring forward or fall back again."

So, the hold-up is within the government. Officials have to first choose whether to implement a never-changing time system and, following that matter, opt for which frame to use permanently: standard time or daylight saving time.

If the past few years are of any indication, we're still a long way from either decision, as the lobby groups behind each camp have enough of a case to stall conversations until the next season.

For now, we'll just keep Googling ways not to feel jet-lagged every six months after we change our clocks.

The original version of this story was published on HuffPost at an earlier date.

Like this article? Keep independent journalism alive.Support HuffPost.

Related...

• How To Adjust Your Kid's Sleep Schedule Before Daylight Saving Time Ends

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Read the original on HuffPost

Dallas Mavericks guard Khris Middletonwas fined $25,000for throwing his mouthpiece "in the direction of the spectator stands" at Kia Arena duringThursday's 115-114 lossto the Orlando Magic, the NBA announced Saturday.

When exactly the incident occurred or what may have provoked Middleton's actions was not reported. Middleton scored a game-high 19 points for Dallas, his second-best point total since going to the Mavericks inthe blockbuster dealthat sent Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards.

Middleton, 34, soon thereafteropted to stay with Dallasrather than be bought out of his contract, despite reported interest from playoff contenders, including the Denver Nuggets. He will become a free agent after the season, butco-interim general manager Michael Finley saidthe Mavericks would like to re-sign him, calling him "a consummate pro."

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In 11 games with the Mavericks, Middleton is averaging 12.4 points and 4.3 rebounds and shooting 28% on 3-point attempts. Including his stint with the Wizards, Middleton has played 45 games this season, averaging 10.8 points, 4 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game while shooting 32% on 3s.

Middleton has played 14 NBA seasons, 12 of them with the Milwaukee Bucks. A three-time All-Star, he has a career scoring average of 16.3 points and 38% shooting from 3-point range. He wastraded to the Wizards last seasonfor Kyle Kuzma.

At 21-42, Dallas currently holdsthe 12th spot in the Western Conference, 8.5 games behind the Portland Trail Blazers for the No. 10 seed and a berth in the NBA play-in tournament.

AfterFriday's 120-100 lossto the Boston Celtics (withJayson Tatum returning for Boston), the Mavericks continue their Eastern road trip Sunday versus the Toronto Raptors.