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Shocking moment NFL star George Kittle drop kicks rival during star-studded golf tournament

Shocking moment NFL star George Kittle drop kicks rival during star-studded golf tournament

Daily Mail​a day ago
San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle is a big fan of wrestling, having been seen ringside at many WWE events in the past.
However, at the celebrity-studded American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, Kittle was able to break out some of those wrestling moves he's seen - only this time, on a golf course.
Kittle was partnered with WWE superstar The Miz for the unofficial tournament which has generated large crowds at the Edgewood Tahoe resort for years.
On the tee at one of the holes, Kittle and Miz appeared to drum up a 'work' when the wrestler feigned annoyance with the NFL star and shoved him.
Kittle backed up as the wrestler turned around to pump up the crowd, leading the Niner to crouch down.
As Miz turned around, Kittle wound up and 'kicked' him in the face - emulating wrestling icon Shawn Michaels' signature finisher, the 'Sweet Chin Music'.
George Kittle hits the SWEET CHIN MUSIC on the Miz! pic.twitter.com/As9gZVYKOD
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) July 13, 2025
San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle busted out some wrestling moves on the golf course
The gallery laughed as Kittle patted Miz on the torso before doing a celebratory dance.
Kittle has let his love of the sport be well known, especially after cameras caught him at Wrestlemania many times in the past. He even got in the ring at Wrestlemania 39 in Los Angeles.
The Niners superstar has hinted that he'd consider a career in sports entertainment after he's done with football.
'I would love to do WWE,' Kittle said on the Bussin' With the Boys podcast. 'I think there's definitely opportunity within that world, and I would love nothing more than to be a part of it.'
'My only question mark with that is I so much love being a fan of WWE. I would only do WWE if I bought a ring and practiced my ass off for a while so I wouldn't look like an idiot out there,' Kittle said.
'I've been in a WWE ring like three times. I don't know what I'm doing out there. I have an understanding of how it works, but I haven't moonsaulted off the top rope at WrestleMania like Pat McAfee did. Like what Logan Paul does.'
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Lee Westwood: European tour banned me then asked me to promote Ryder Cup
Lee Westwood: European tour banned me then asked me to promote Ryder Cup

Telegraph

time35 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

Lee Westwood: European tour banned me then asked me to promote Ryder Cup

Lee Westwood's first visit to Royal Portrush was in 1993 when he was one of the favourites to win the Amateur Championship. His mother, Trish, stepped in as caddie. 'It peed down and she didn't keep the clubs dry,' Westwood recalls. 'I didn't qualify for the matchplay stages and I told Mum it was her fault. She told me that she had managed to keep my nappies dry for all those years. There is no arguing with that.' Two years later, Westwood played in his first Open Championship and on the 30th anniversary of his debut the memories are coming back to the 52-year-old. 'It was at St Andrews, the Home of Golf, so it was intimidating enough waiting to get on that first tee in front of the Royal and Ancient clubhouse and everything. 'We were in the group behind Arnold Palmer and he was playing with Ian Baker-Finch [the 1991 champion]. Well, Baker-Finch hit that hook that has become infamous. It's the widest fairway in golf and he hits 180 yards left over the first fairway, over the 18th fairway and out of bounds, where no pro had ever been before or since. 'There were a few gasps, then dead silence. It was eerie and I'm stood there saying to my caddie, 'for f--- sake, he won this a few years ago and if the pressure gets to him...'' Westwood 'bunted' his down the fairway, made his par and 'managed to suppress the vomit'. 'It was great after that. The Old Course invariably gets clogged up so every tee I'd be able to have a chat with Arnie. It was his last ever Open, so we had the best view of him waving goodbye on the Swilcan Bridge on the Friday. 'It was emotional, because I mean, what a guy. I can't remember what we talked about, but I do remember two years later when I should have won his tournament at Bay Hill [the PGA Invitational on the PGA Tour]. 'I think I finished double-bogey, bogey, double-bogey and, as tradition dictates in that event, I went over and shook Arnie's hand at the back of the green. Ernie [Els] ended up winning and afterwards I was with Ernie in the bar and Arnie walked in and joined is. After a few vodkas he clocks it was me and said: 'It's you – you finished terribly. But then you walked up the hill, smiling and shook my hand. If that was me, I'd have been chewing the f------ grass.' Quality.' Westwood in this mood is one of the best listens in the game and no doubt when he meets up his old friends at the Dunluce Links this week, the yarns will burst forth. Yet Westwood insists he will not be at Portrush simply to catch up with pals, or, as he puts it, 'to have one last whirl at the Open' after missing it for the last three years. 'That's definitely not why I entered qualifying for the first time since '95. I did it because I played well at Portrush in 2019 [when he finished fourth] and I loved the course. I don't look back, never have, and with myself anyway, don't get nostalgic. 'But I was proud of getting through at Dundonald. I'd flown there straight from the LIV event in Dallas, got there at 8pm, walked the course as I'd never seen it, had an hour's sleep, because of jetlag, then got up and played 36 holes and was the medallist. 'Helen [his wife, who caddied for him at the Ayrshire course] said I was talking some right rubbish. I was delirious, surviving on fumes. But it was worth it as I'm back at the tournament I always wanted to win above all others. The Open has always been the one. I loved the Masters, but playing in front of a home crowd at the Open... There is nothing like it. I came close in both.' Indeed, Westwood had three top-three placings in 27 Opens and three top-threes in 21 Masters. He does not like to trawl through the near misses – 'it's boring', he says – but acknowledges that 'the one that got away was definitely in 2009', when he bogeyed the last to finish a single shot out of a play-off in which Stewart Cink beat Tom Watson. 'Yeah, I'm always told I should have won a major, but so what? 'Should have,' means nothing. I have no regrets, I've had a good career. Go to world No 1. Not many have done that or played in 11 Ryder Cups. 'The way I see it is that I had a slump in 2001 going into 2002 and I was there, as a 27-year-old sat on the edge of my hotel bed somewhere in the world after yet another missed cut, saying to myself 'I've had it, I'm going to quit'. It happened a few times. I didn't, though. I've always believed this game is character-forming and quitting wouldn't have helped form my character, would it? 'So I don't fret about majors. I'm not Doug Sanders. I only think about the close calls when it gets mentioned to me. I've got bigger things to concentrate on. Things that I can actually have some control on.' Sanders, of course, famously said 20 years after missing a tiddler to win the Open: 'Do I always think about that putt? No. Sometimes it doesn't cross my mind for a full five minutes.' British Open, 12 juillet 1970. Le flamboyant Doug Sanders, amateur de playmates, de vodka tonic et de tenues flashy, rate le putt de la victoire avant de s'incliner face à Jack Nicklaus : Plus tard, il confiera : « Parfois, il peut se passer trente minutes sans que j'y pense » — Perdants magnifiques (@TousPoulidor) July 12, 2024 In terms of his career, Westwood denies that he has a plan to bring the curtain down anytime soon. 'Honestly, I don't. I haven't planned any further than August when the LIV season finishes.' It is understood that his three-year contract with the breakaway league is up and that positive discussions are ongoing as to a renewal. However, there are options regardless. 'I can go back to the DP World Tour, you know. LIV would pay my fines, which are ridiculously about £900,000 and I still have several exemptions to play on that circuit. LIV would already have paid my fines if I'd asked, but I didn't do it out of principle. It's a daft amount anyway.' Westwood is adamant he is not bitter about leaving the Tour on which he won the Order of Merit three times. 'I'm just worried for those who are still there and where the Tour is heading. They have basically been swallowed up by the PGA Tour and they were always our rivals. 'In Ponte Vedra, they don't care about the DP World Tour. Our Tour board has turned down a great deal from LIV and a lot of their players know. Lots of them ask me what they should do, but all they can do is ask questions at AGMs and maybe an EGM. Poults [Ian Poulter] and I tried to do that at Wentworth three years ago, but got talked to by the chief executive like schoolkids. He's gone, but nothing has changed. The Tour is very vulnerable.' It is interesting to hear that Westwood could envisage a pathway back to the Tour. Yet as far as the Ryder Cup captaincy or even assistant captaincy, he believes it is a hopeless case. 'I would have loved to be Ryder Cup captain, but they have closed that possibility because of LIV. It's funny in a way as I've heard the names of guys who are being lined up and am aware that the only reason they didn't join LIV is because their numbers were not met and they wanted too much. How does that work? 'Another thing that makes me laugh is that the Tour's video team were at the LIV event in Valderrama and asked me to do a bit of a motivational bit to camera. I'm banned! And they want me to help them out! I took the moral high ground and did it. But I ask you...' Westwood is mystified by much in the seemingly never-ending split. Currently he cannot imagine a peace deal being reached and smiles at the notion that the Saudi paymasters will walk away. 'HSBC has just done a deal with LIV and we [The Majesticks] are one of the teams the bank is backing. HSBC would not put in its money and reputation, if it even had the slightest fear of LIV shutting down. People need to wake up. And not just to this.' Westwood is sure that 'two-tier' splicing is alive and well on the DP World Tour and dismisses the claims that it is merely following its own rulebook. 'They don't believe that, not really. Jon [Rahm] and Tyrrell [Hatton] have had the red carpet rolled out since they joined LIV, so they can appear in this year's Ryder Cup, but they banged the door shut on us lot. They painted us as the villains and yeah, I had a few comments chucked at me. 'It doesn't bother me, because it's only a few, and I'm sure the galleries at this Open will be great. They always are. It's what makes me excited about Portrush, although I will not be burdening myself with any expectations on how I perform. So long as I enjoy it. Work hard, try your best and move on. It's served me OK this far. Helen will be on the bag. My mum 32 years ago and now my wife. I hope it doesn't rain.'

The secret behind Ella Toone's Euros form? Gruelling holiday work-outs
The secret behind Ella Toone's Euros form? Gruelling holiday work-outs

Telegraph

time38 minutes ago

  • Telegraph

The secret behind Ella Toone's Euros form? Gruelling holiday work-outs

Ella Toone stood in an open field, boots on, sun baring down. The England midfielder was in Cyprus on holiday with her boyfriend Joe Bunney, but there was work to do. The pair took to a local football pitch to perform sprint after sprint in gruelling heat. This was Toone's preparation for a big summer. The Lionesses had 12 days off between their Nations League game with Spain on June 4 and the beginning of their pre-camp for the Women's European Championship. Toone used it wisely, maximising time with family as well as pushing herself to her limits. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Joe Bunney (@joebunney) The Manchester United player knew she would have to be in the best physical shape to force her way into Sarina Wiegman's starting XI. There would have been disappointment when she was not picked to start the opening game against France, but those who know Toone well know she is more dangerous after a setback. Those hard yards in Cyprus paid dividends when Toone started against the Netherlands. She was all over the pitch, pressing and harrying the Dutch defenders, her second-half goal a reward for the tenacity she had shown – but her best was yet to come. Back in the team and back with a goal ⚽️ Ella Toone made it FOUR for England 👏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 — ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 9, 2025 Against Wales, Toone scored, assisted and completed 100 per cent of her passes. But it has been her work off the ball that has caught the eye most of all. Toone's inclusion in the team has led to the redeployment of Lauren James from No 10 to the right wing. The switch has allowed James to get on the ball more while Toone has provided balance to the midfield – something which the two players sitting behind her, Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway, have appreciated. 'She's come in and done an incredible job,' Walsh said after England's victory over Wales. 'People speak about her offensively, but the defensive work she does for me and Georgia when she's in there is incredible. She covers a lot of spaces that we can't. 'That's probably been the main thing that's stopped other teams from playing as well. Obviously, with LJ on the wing, we've managed to get both of them on the pitch at the same time and they are two world-class players.' This is not the first time we have seen Toone overcome adversity. The midfielder's father, Nick, died in September having been diagnosed with testicular cancer the day after he had watched his daughter score in the Euro 2022 final at Wembley. Toone is extremely close with her family, who attend all of her matches for club and country. The midfielder struggled for form at the start of the season before picking up a calf injury that kept her out for six weeks. Toone told Telegraph Sport earlier this year that the injury was a blessing in disguise and allowed her time to grieve. Her return from injury coincided with an excellent run of form. She scored a hat-trick in the Manchester derby in her first game back and went on to win United's player of the season award. It was a surprise to see the midfielder left out of United's starting XI for the FA Cup final in May, but Toone is a player who thrives off bouncing back – much like England have done in this tournament. Toone has been able to lean on Beth Mead, whose mum died of ovarian cancer in 2023, for support in the past year. Both players have celebrated their goals at this tournament by pointing to the sky in a tribute to their late parents. 'I think we've both said the first game we really struggled a little bit,' Mead said. 'You look to the stands for your person who is standing there and they're not there anymore. 'So I obviously understand what Ella felt in that moment. And it's a special to be able to have that moment and think about them and dedicate to them.' Toone has been watched from the stands by boyfriend Joe and mum Karen for each game in Switzerland and the pair play a vital role in supporting her through tough times. Her team-mate and best friend Alessia Russo is also key. The two players have a bond on and off the pitch and have linked up for multiple goals in the last two games. Russo assisted Toone against the Netherlands and was also involved in the build-up for her goal against Wales. Toone then repaid the favour by teeing up Russo in the same match. 😫 Mistakes galore at the back for Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ella Toone adds a second for England — ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 13, 2025 The pair are chalk and cheese when it comes to personalities but have an incredible understanding on the pitch. 'She's been working so hard on lots of different things,' Russo said of Toone. 'As a best mate, to see someone go on a journey like that, especially after the tough year she's had, it's really nice to see her flourish on the big stage.' With Toone playing behind Russo and James out wide, Wiegman has found the perfect attacking formula. The midfielder was taken off at half-time against Wales because she is carrying a yellow card from the first game and Wiegman knows how valuable she will be in the knockouts. Pick up a booking in the quarter-final against Sweden and she would miss a potential semi-final. Toone has proven herself to be an indispensable member of this team. 'I've been working really hard,' she said after the game against Wales. 'I'm my own worst critic when it comes to me playing in games and training and I've been quite hard on myself. 'I wanted to make sure that for this tournament I was at my best so I've worked hard. The rewards are really paying off and I'm really enjoying it.'

Toni at Random by Dana A Williams review – the editorial years of a literary great
Toni at Random by Dana A Williams review – the editorial years of a literary great

The Guardian

timean hour ago

  • The Guardian

Toni at Random by Dana A Williams review – the editorial years of a literary great

While a great deal has been written about Toni Morrison's fiction, her work as a senior editor at Random House is less well known. Dana A Williams, professor of African American Literature at Howard University, sets out to fill this gap, offering an impeccably researched account of Morrison's stint at Random House between 1971 and 1983, against the backdrop of the Civil Rights and the Black Arts movements. Reflecting ideas generated by that convergence, Morrison's novels – described by the Nobel committee, when they awarded her the prize in literature in 1993, as giving life to an essential aspect of American reality – were driven by an unwavering belief in the possibility of African American empowerment through self-regard. Williams's interest lies in showing how Morrison's editorial career was informed by the same invigoratingly insular ethos. Whether writing or editing, her work was aimed at producing 'explorations of interior Black life with minimal interest in talking to or being consumed by an imagined white reader'. Morrison saw early on how that kind of insularity could be wielded as both a weapon and a shield. Addressing the Second National Conference of Afro-American Writers at Howard in 1976, she urged the audience to recognise that 'the survival of Black publishing, which […] is a sort of way of saying the survival of Black writing, will depend on the same things that the survival of Black anything depends on, which is the energies of Black people – sheer energy, inventiveness and innovation, tenacity, the ability to hang on, and a contempt for those huge, monolithic institutions and agencies which do obstruct us'. These words could well have been repurposed as a mission statement for her editorial career, which, as Williams points out, consisted of '[making] a revolution, one book at a time'. Change was coming in America. Morrison's contribution would be to work towards change in the overwhelmingly white world of publishing: 'I thought it was important for people to be in the streets,' she said during an interview for the documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, released in 2019. 'But that couldn't last. You needed a record. It would be my job to publish the voices, the books, the ideas of African Americans. And that would last.' Toni at Random traces the path that led from Morrison's Jim Crow childhood to her storied literary career, briefly documenting her early years, during which storytelling was an 'ever-present pastime', as well as her academic life (Howard, followed by graduate studies at Cornell), before moving on to chapter-by-chapter case studies of some of the publications she oversaw during her stint at Random House. At times Williams's book reads like a catalogue of those works, from The Black Book (a compendium of black life in America) to work by June Jordan, Lucille Clifton and Toni Cade Bambara, as well as autobiographies of Angela Davis, Huey Newton and Muhammad Ali, and Gayl Jones's Corregidora (which was reissued in 2019). Nevertheless, it is a fascinating catalogue, not least because it is full of thrilling behind-the-scenes insights into what it took to get them published. Morrison was keenly aware that success depended on proving that books such as these could sell; demand would have to be so high that, as Williams writes, 'even the most recalcitrant salesperson would have no choice but to fall in line'. The first job was making sure the books were excellent. Williams provides a number of examples of Morrison's exacting standards, including the fact that, while working on a collection of Huey Newton's essays, she recommended deleting the weak ones and editing the rest, 'even those that had been previously published'. But Morrison was also required to navigate 'the irony of the need to be appealing to white people while also preserving enough distance from them to maintain Black privacy', keeping one eye on the bottom line even while the other was on black consciousness. On one memorable occasion, when the poet Barbara Chase-Riboud stonewalled her about doing publicity (loftily describing it as 'tap [dancing] for prizes and coverage'), Morrison fired off a flinty letter reminding her that Random House was 'a commercial house historically unenchanted with 500 slim volumes of profound poetry that languish in stock rooms'. Morrison could be blunt when she had to be but, alongside this, Williams paints a picture of her as a fiercely protective editor, chasing blurbs and championing her projects with passion, tenacity and a moving sense of urgency, 'scared that the world would fall away before somebody put together a thing that got close to the way we really are'. In addition, Williams highlights her convivial and collaborative approach, which led to the development of close friendships with a few of her authors including, famously, Angela Davis, who lived with Morrison and her sons for a time while they worked on her autobiography. It is astonishing to consider that at the same time as doing all this Morrison was also busy raising two sons and writing her own novels, frequently leveraging her literary status in service of her editorial campaigns. Williams includes references to a 1978 interview in which Morrison hinted at how exhausting this was: 'I want to stop writing around the edges of the day … in the automobile and places like that.' Which makes it even more astonishing to consider how little has changed since she fought this fight. According to Dan Sinykin, writing in Literary Hub in October 2023: 'In 1971, when Morrison became a trade editor, about 95% of the fiction published by the big commercial houses was by white authors. By 2018, that number only dropped to 89%.' In August 2024, Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth Harris pointed out in the New York Times that following the hiring of 'a small but influential group' of black female editors in 2020, many had 'lost their jobs or quit the business entirely … [leading] some … to question publishers' commitment to racial inclusion'. In the UK the position is hardly any better. The fight is still necessary, and still exhausting. However, Williams's book is a timely reminder of the need for an inward-looking response, and of the joy to be discovered along the way. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is best when it is penetrated by Morrison's own voice, in the form of excerpts from her correspondence. Here, for example, is Toni attempting to persuade Bill Cosby (with his reputation as yet untarnished) to write an introduction for The Black Book: 'Let me just say … I want to publish books about us – black people – that will make some sense – to give joy, to pass on some grandeur to all those black children (born and unborn) who need to get to the horizon with something under their arms besides Dick and Jane and The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.' At the time she wrote those lines, I was one of those black children, and I am grateful that the books she published did exactly that. The same spirit of gratitude permeates Williams's scholarly, informative and highly readable book. Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship by Dana A Williams is published by Amistad (£25). To support the Guardian order your copy at Delivery charges may apply.

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