Joel Berry's pit-bull mentality propels UNC men's basketball to ACC Tournament quarterfinal win

It didn’t take long for Theo Pinson to realize what type of player Joel Berry would be.

“Joel Berry is a pit bull. I’ve known that since I came here with him,” Pinson said. The dude just plays hard every second he’s in there, and that’s what Coach loves about him, that’s what I love about him.

“He gets everybody else going.”

And in Thursday’s ACC Tournament quarterfinals, Berry provided a critical spark for the top-seeded Tar Heels, scoring a game-best 20 points in an 88-71 win over eighth-seeded Pittsburgh at the Verizon Center.

The Panthers (21-11) jumped out to an 8-0 lead, as UNC started the game 1-for-7 from the field and struggled to contain Pittsburgh’s Jamel Artis.

While the Tar Heels (26-6) overcame the early deficit, they couldn’t build any momentum, settling for jump shots and consistently allowing the Panthers to penetrate on defense.

For Berry, UNC's early struggles fueled him.

“I don’t like when someone thinks they can just do whatever they want against me,” Berry said. “That gets me going. I’m self-motivated, but when someone is scoring on you or something, that gives you a little bit of a fire under you.”

And late in the first period, Berry’s pit-bull mentality emerged.

After UNC surrendered the lead with 8:28 left before halftime, the sophomore scored seven straight points to keep his team from falling behind any further.

Berry’s 3-pointer with 4:06 left sparked a 13-2 run, concluding with a steal and layup by the sophomore. He entered the locker room with 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting and having willed his team to a 39-35 edge.

“When everything is going your way - you know, you’re knocking down shots and getting steals - that’s what you want,” Berry said. “It felt good, but I was just trying to do that because we needed a spark from somewhere, and it had to start from someone."

“So I just tried to pipe up my intensity.”

Berry’s aggressiveness carried into the second half, as he locked down defensively on Pittsburgh’s James Robinson and disrupted the Panthers’ post offense.

The sophomore guard tied his career high with four steals and complemented his defense with the same shooting touch he displayed in the first half, finishing the game 7-of-8 from the field.

But no shots were more important than those he made in the first half, as the Tar Heels never surrendered the halftime lead Berry helped provide.

“In the first half, Joel Berry was our offense,” Coach Roy Williams said. “There’s no question about that.” Over the past four games, Berry is averaging 16.5 points per game and shooting 51.1 percent from the floor. And with an ACC Tournament semifinal game looming against Notre Dame on Friday night, Berry’s intensity could be needed once again.

“He really gets after it, he really does,” said junior forward Kennedy Meeks. “His dreams and aspirations for this team are just like Coach’s, and that’s what you need in a point guard - someone to lead the way for us to get to a championship.”

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Captain America: Civil War - what to expect

Anticipation is building for today's "world trailer premiere" of Captain America: Civil War, with just eight weeks to go until the film is released.

Marvel fans are facing the painful choice between two of their favourite superheroes: Captain America or Iron Man…

What's the film about?

A year after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, an international incident involving the team leads politicians to introduce new rules about when the superheroes should be called in to help. The new regime sparks a bitter rift between former allies Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) – an unprecedented scenario on the big screen but one that has been touched upon in the comic book Civil War.

Who else is in it?

As well as the leads, the film boasts a treasure chest of supporting talent, including Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), Sebastian Stan (Winter Soldier) and Anthony Mackie (Falcon). There is also speculation that Tom Holland's Spider-Man could make an appearance. Behind the scenes are directors Anthony and Joe Russo and scriptwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

What are people saying about it?

Forbes predicts Captain America: Civil War will be another "feather in Marvel's cap" and Downey Jr has even described it as "the Godfather of superhero movies".

Expectation of an epic affair has only been swollen by co-director Joe Russo's talk of a "sprawling film with a lot of characters that tells very intricate stories".

Some of the more complex storylines are expected to surround Johansson's Black Widow, with Russo telling IGN that he took inspiration from a televisual juggernaut to pen her particularly emotional journey. "I always said what I loved about Breaking Bad is that Vince Gilligan always wrote himself into the hardest corner," he said. "I would watch an episode and go 'I have no f******* idea how he's going to solve this next week,' and he would solve it."

Captain America: Civil War is scheduled to be released on 6 May 2016.

Civil War trailer: why is Iron Man fighting Captain America?

25 November

The new trailer for Captain America: Civil War has revealed a new hostility rising up between the superhero and his Avengers companion Iron Man.

The film is officially part of the Captain America series, but has been dubbed "Avengers 2.5" as it is also seen as a bridge to the next Avengers movie, Infinity War.

In the new trailer, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, played by Chris Evans, is heard telling Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr: "I'm sorry, Tony, you know I wouldn't do this if I had any other choice. But he's my friend."

"So was I," responds Tony, before the trailer cuts to footage of the two men fighting.

It appears the pair have fallen out over Captain America's best friend Bucky Barns (Sebastian Stan), who was brainwashed into becoming villainous assassin The Winter Soldier in the last Captain America film.

But their dispute boils down to the "age old question of security versus liberty", says Entertainment Weekly. The governments of the world want all would-be heroes to work under strict oversight. Iron Man is on board with the idea, but Captain America has no faith left in bureaucracy and government, and wants to protect his friend Bucky, causing a fracture in the Avengers just as they try to protect the world from another new villain.

Evans has previously said the "flip-flop" in perspective of the two characters is why the film will be so effective.

Tony has always been the one to buck authority, while the Captain comes from a world of order, hierarchy and structure. However, after the last Captain America film, The Winter Solder, he realises that one cannot always trust the system. "I think he now is starting to follow his own heart, and do his own thing, and as a result there becomes this kind of flip-flop in perspective," said Evans.

His rebellion means veteran characters such as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) are forced to choose sides. Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther will also make a debut appearance in the film.

Directed by The Winter Soldier filmmakers Joe and Anthony Russo, the movie is due out in May 2016.

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'Underground' is a suspenseful drama that demands your attention

Violence, drama, romance and history blend together in the thrilling new series Underground from WGN America, which premieres Wednesday night. 

The heart-wrenching show, created by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski and co-executive produced by John Legend, focuses on the complicated lives of slaves determined to escape to freedom.

But the story goes beyond the Underground Railroad; it weaves in the intricate complexities of life in that era. It's not just about the slaves who want to be free - it's about the slaves who refuse to leave, the slaves grappling with the life-or-death stakes, surrounded by the parallel world inhabited by white people in this tense period of American history. 

All of that is packaged into a thrilling drama, mapped with plot twists at every turn and absolutely dripping with suspense. This isn't the type of show you can put on in the background. You'll need to stay tuned for every second, because anything can happen.

Underground centers around the resilient Noah (Aldis Hodge), the central slave determined to be free. He gathers a team around him, immediately plotting ways to escape using the Underground Railroad. 

Hodge is fantastically charming in this role, a winning and fearless protagonist who's truly unafraid to risk it all. The show is bolstered by great acting all around, but it's his performance in particular that anchors everything.  

From there, the show spreads its narrative to other characters, including Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a weary house slave who catches Noah's eye; her mother Ernestine (Amirah Vann), a loyal house slave who's all about the rules; Cato (Alano Miller), a frustrating head slave who sucks up to the slaveowners; John and Elizabeth Hawkes (Marc Blucas and Jessica De Gouw), a white couple who want to help slaves escape; August Pullman (Chris Meloni), a mysterious, yet righteous seeming man.

All these stories weave together to create a dense series with constantly evolving plots. It heightens the drama of the whole affair, always fighting to raise the stakes of an already high-stakes situation. 

At the same time, the show grounds itself in historical accuracy, but also wants to be the furthest thing from a stuffy educational drama.

Everything about its production reaches for modern flourishes, particularly the music choices. The opening scene is set to Kanye West's "Black Skinhead" and other current artists like the Weekend and X Ambassadors pop up here and there. 

It doesn't always work, but does speak to the ambitious desire to marry an important historical period to modern TV storytelling. Underground constantly makes the kind of dramatic leaps and twists worthy of a Shondaland series, from its coterie of surprise villains to gratuitous sex scenes.

It also is extremely conscious of humanizing every slave onscreen. Though it does show the violence and emotional trauma they went through, it doesn't rest on gratuitous torture porn. Everyone has a name, a personality and distinct traits that make them a person, rather than one of dozens of slaves forced to live on this plantation. They sing, they laugh, they tell stories, they grapple with the burdens of life. 

If its first four episodes are a good measure, Underground is a tactful piece of work that both highlights deeply important stories and keeps its audience thoroughly entertained, informed and invested.

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Chipotle store closed for second day on norovirus fears

A Chipotle in Billerica, Mass., closed its doors for a second day Wednesday after one of its employees tested positive for the highly contagious norovirus. As many as four employees are suspected to be sick with the stomach bug.

The Chipotle, located just northwest of Boston, first shut its doors Tuesday after word emerged that at least one employee had tested positive for the norovirus, which causes pain, nausea and vomiting. The store is expected to reopen Thursday on the condition that employees who come to work test negative for the virus, Richard Berube, director of the Billerica Board of Health.

Chipotle will test the employees for the virus via stool sample and symptom questionnaire, Berube said.

The Mexican fast-food chain has been plagued by health issues in recent months, which has weighed on its reputation and stock price. The stock is down 20% during the last 12 months amid reports of norovirus and E.coli outbreaks.

The stock fell more than 5% early Wednesday but recovered somewhat to close at $506.63, which represents a loss of 3.4%.

"We closed the restaurant on Tuesday after four of our employees - none of whom worked while sick - called to say they were at home and not feeling well," Arnold said in an email. "We look forward to opening tomorrow," he said.

But Berube says the store initially opened its doors on Tuesday and only closed them after he sent an inspector to the store because his office was alerted to the potential outbreak by Boston's local television news station WHDH.

Restaurants are not required to notify the Board of Health when workers have contagious illnesses, Berube told USA TODAY. "It probably would have been in their best interest to notify us, considering they had a confirmed case of norovirus," he added.

In January, the company said it was served with a federal grand jury subpoena over its handling of an August norovirus outbreak in California, which sickened more than 200 people, including 18 workers. In February, the chain closed all of its stores for several hours in order to talk to employees about food safety.

Chipotle executives have pledged to improve their food-safety standards in an effort to reduce future outbreaks and instill confidence.

After learning of the health risk from the television news station, the Billerica Board of Health sent an inspector to the Chipotle store, which had already opened for business, Berube said. The inspector discussed closing the store with management, which then voluntarily agreed to close the store and take other precautionary measures, Berube said.

For example, they discarded all the food in the store and cleaned it "from top to bottom," Berube said.

On Wednesday, health inspectors visited the store again. They found the store to be "nice, clean and in great shape,"  Arnold said, a sentiment that was confirmed by Berube. "There are no confirmed customer illnesses connected to this incident," Arnold said.

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Jeremy Meeks Released From Prison

Jeremy Meeks is a free man.

The convicted felon was released from prison on Tuesday, his agent confirmed to ABC News. Meeks became an Internet sensation in 2014 when his mug shot went viral after the Stockton Police Department in California posted it on its Facebook page. He was sentenced to 27 months in prison last year on weapon charges, but had hoped for an early release for good behavior.

Now, Meeks is looking forward to a career in modeling and acting.

"We have a lot in store regarding Jeremy’s new career," Meek's agent, Jim Jordan, said in a statement today. "There are a multitude of offers on the table. Jeremy is humbled and grateful and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support, and prayers for him and his family.

Meeks will be spending the next few weeks in transitional housing "before he is completely free to start his new journey," Jordan said.

In an Instagram post today, Meeks thanked his family and fans for their support while he was in prison, adding that he's "ready" for what lies ahead.

I want to thank my family and everybody for all your love, support and prayers. I'm overwhelmed and grateful for what lies ahead. I'm ready @jimjordanphotography and @whitecrossmanagement  #jeremymeeks #jimjordan #whitecrossmanagement

A photo posted by JEREMY MEEKS (@jmeeksofficial) on Mar 9, 2016 at 4:43pm PST

Last year, Meeks told ABC News in an interview from prison that he was working on getting ripped in preparation for his modeling career.

"I eat healthy. I do a lot of push-ups, pull-ups, dips, burpees, and I stay very active," he said.

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Brian Orakpo sends Twitter threat to Chris Cooley for bashing RG3

If Chris Cooley plans on going out in public anytime soon, he should probably do his best to make sure he doesn't run in to Titans linebacker Brian Orakpo, because if that happens, things could get ugly for Cooley.

The feud between Orakpo and Cooley started this week when the former Redskins tight end did a radio interview where he bashed Robert Griffin III.

During the interview with ESPN 980 in Washington, D.C., Cooley basically said that RG3 was a horrible teammate and that, for the most part, no one liked him.

Orakpo took issue with several of Cooley's comments and let him know on Twitter. Orakpo made sure to let Cooley know that that he's going "smack the shit" out of Cooley if he sees him out in public.

Get this BUM Chris Cooley off the radio and tv please... don't worry still got property in VA when I see him Ima smack the shit out of him

— Brian Orakpo (@rak98) March 9, 2016

Cooley, RG3 and Orakpo were all teammates in Washington in 2012.

At that point, another teammate from 2012 also chimed in. Redskins tight end Niles Paul sent out a tweet that was basically telling Cooley to close his mouth.

"Can't keep shittin on people you worked with and called your teammates," Paul wrote on twitter.

Can't keep shittin on people you worked with & called your teammates.

— Niles Paul (@Niles_Paul84) March 9, 2016

Former NFL defensive back Ryan Clark, who played for the Redskins in 2014, also said Cooley's comments were ridiculous.

"First of all ... Anything he says I don't necessarily pay attention to," Clark said on ESPN's First Take. "A lot of people get out of football and forget who they were when they played football. He's just a dude who gets his rocks off bashing people in Washington."

Clark seems to have a point with that "bashing people" thing, because Cooley didn't seem to have a problem with RG3 when he was playing with him. Back in 2012, the Redskins tight end told our Jason La Canfora that RG3 was a great leader.

"He's the leader of this football team," Cooley said at the time. "I can honestly say that. He's so real. There's no B.S. This is who he is. I sit next to him in the team meetings, and there isn't a guy on the team he doesn't have a relationship with. Not one."

Maybe Cooley's just mad because he only caught one pass in 2012, which ended up being his final year in the NFL.

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Eagles Sign S Rodney McLeod

The Philadelphia Eagles have signed former St. Louis Rams safety Rodney McLeod to a five-year deal.

#Eagles and S Rodney McLeod agree to terms on a five-year contract. Welcome to Philadelphia!#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/SqmWyADpLQ

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) March 10, 2016

The deal is reportedly worth $37 million over five-years, but more importantly, $17 million guaranteed.

The #Eagles agreement with safety Rodney McLeod, 5 years, $37M, includes $17M guaranteed. Huge move for Philly.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 9, 2016

In four seasons with the Rams, the undrafted safety has never missed a game. McLeod, 25, had 82 tackles, three forced fumbles, and one interception last season. He has eight career forced fumbles and five career interceptions.

New #Eagles FS Rodney McLeod has forced 12 turnovers last 3 years. Was PFF's No. 10 safety out of 88 in '15. Turns 26 in June.

— Evan Silva (@evansilva) March 9, 2016

The Eagles will likely move on from safety Walter Thurmond, who is an unrestricted free-agent.

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Pac-12 men's basketball tournament to feature top Las Vegas entertainment

This week’s Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament Presented by New York Life will feature some of Las Vegas’ top entertainment acts, the Conference announced today. Included in the line-up are iconic performers from Las Vegas shows like Rock of Ages, Jersey Boys, Fantasy, and Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil.

The Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament will be played Wednesday-Saturday, March 9-12, 2016, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The tournament features 11 games over four intense days. Last year, Arizona captured the title in an exciting atmosphere as thousands of fans witnessed competitive games played by some of the best college basketball teams in the country. There are currently four Pac-12 teams ranked among the top-25 teams in the nation:  No. 8 Oregon, No. 12 Utah, No. 15 Arizona, and No. 24 California. 

A major benefit to playing the tournament in Las Vegas is access to first-rate entertainment. Throughout the tournament sessions, many of the most popular and acclaimed Las Vegas entertainment acts are scheduled to perform national anthems and halftime acts.

Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil will perform the national anthem of the Pac-12 Championship game on Saturday. Other acts making appearances throughout the tournament include Duo Resonance, Terry Fator, Sean and John Scott, Frankie Moreno, Jax and Rayvon Owen from American Idol, and the Australian Bee Gees. 

Entertainment highlights include (subject to change):

Wednesday, March 9

Session 1

Game 1 (Noon PT): Anne from Fantasy (National Anthem) and Flippin Out (Halftime)

Game 2 (2:30 p.m. PT): Australian Bee Gees (Halftime)

Session 2

Game 3 (6:00 p.m. PT): Graham Fenton from Jersey Boys (National Anthem) and Frankie Moreno (Halftime)

Game 4 (8:30 p.m. PT): Peter Rabbit (Halftime)

Thursday, March 10

Session 3 

Game 5 (Noon PT): Terry Fator from America’s Got Talent (National Anthem) and Jax from American Idol (Halftime)

Game 6 (2:30 p.m. PT): Sean and John Scott, Tap Dancing Twins (Halftime)

Session 4

Game 7 (6 p.m. PT): Rayvon Owen (National Anthem and Halftime)

Game 8 (8:30 p.m. PT): Sky Dunk (Halftime)

Friday, March 11 (Semifinals)

Session 5

Game 9 (6 p.m. PT): Becca Kotte from Rock of Ages (National Anthem) and Kelly Levesque (Halftime)

Game 10 (8:30 p.m. PT): Duo Resonance (Halftime)

Saturday, March 12 (Championship) 

Session 6 

Game 11 (7 p.m. PT): Zarkana by Cirque du Soleil (National Anthem) and Octavio and Russian Bar Trio (Halftime)

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Calvin Harris, Martin Garrix And More AMAZING Stars Confirmed For Wireless Festival 2016 Line-Up!

This summer’s looking to be HUGE for amazing music after today’s massive announcement that Wireless Festival returns to London’s Finsbury Park this July with a truly EPIC line-up of performers.

Today (9th March) it’s been confirmed that the three-day festival arrives on the weekend of the 8th to the 10th July, and with names like Calvin Harris, Sigma, Martin Garrix, The 1975 and Jess Glynne among the announced performers… it’s shaping up to be the festival EVERYONE will be talking about.

How do I get tickets for Wireless Festival 2016?

Tickets for Wireless Festival 2016 go on sale from Friday 11th March at 9am.

What date is Wireless Festival this year?

This year’s event takes place at Finsbury Park on the weekend of the 8th-10th July.

Check out the INCREDIBLE line-up announced for Wireless 2016 so far below: 

Friday, 8th July :

- Calvin Harris

- The 1975

- Miguel

Saturday, 9th July :

- Chase & Status

- J. Cole

- Future

- Krept & Konan

- Sigma 

- A$AP Ferg

- Craig David’s TS5

- WSTRN

Sunday, 10th July :

- Martin Garrix

- Kygo

- Skepta

Also appearing: Jess Glynne, Jeremih, Yelawolf, Ty Dollar $ign

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Arsenal players held crisis meeting before FA Cup victory at Hull

 

Arsenal’s players held a crisis meeting called by Per Mertesacker, Petr Cech, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky before their FA Cup victory at Hull City on Tuesday night, in a bid to stave off the dire run of form that is threatening their season.

Before the 4-0 win against Hull in the fifth-round replay at the KC Stadium, Arsène Wenger’s team had won only once in six games, a sequence stretching back to the defeat of Leicester City on Valentine’s Day.

It left the Gunners eight points behind the leaders, Leicester, and facing a 2-0 deficit to Barcelona ahead of the Champions League last-16 second leg at the Camp Nou next week.

Theo Walcott, who scored twice against Hull, along with Olivier Giroud, revealed that a core of senior players decided they should try to thrash out their problems ahead of the game.

“We are not going to lie,” he said. “We know as a unit it has been tough and we all had a good chat among us behind closed doors, without even any of the coaches or the manager knowing about anything and I think it is important that as a team we have got it in us. We just have to produce it more often.”

Walcott pointed to the 2-2 draw at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, in which Arsenal fell 2-1 behind to Mauricio Pochettino’s side having gone down to 10 men following the sending off of Francis Coquelin on 55 minutes. Alexis Sánchez’s 76th-minute equaliser secured a point at White Hart Lane and Walcott said: “You had a sense of the Tottenham game especially, when you go down to 10 men in a big game like that, the belief and the character was there."

“The never-give-up spirit was there as well. In the derby matches, they could be the matches that turn your season and we may have turned the corner maybe.”

Walcott outlined how the meeting was called. “We have quite a lot of experienced players in the dressing room,” the 26-year-old said. “It came from Cech, Mikel, Per and Tomas. We have four good old heads there. I’d like to keep what was said among ourselves but it was very important. We have had a reaction from it anyway.”

He said of Wenger: “He probably knows about it anyway – he’s got ears everywhere at the club. The manager respects the players’ privacy and what’s happening personally among us all. It was a meeting to express how everyone was feeling basically and it worked.”

Arsenal now host Watford in the sixth-round tie at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Wenger could be without Aaron Ramsey, who sustained a thigh problem against Hull, having come on for Mertesacker. While the latter’s head injury may not rule him out of Sunday, Wenger will await tests on Gabriel Paulista’s hamstring problem after he was also forced off during the match. Nacho Monreal, who replaced the Brazilian, was seen limping after the game and is a further doubt.

Walcott said: “The pitch was quite heavy but the injuries are probably the disappointing thing coming out of the game. But we can’t speculate until we know what the damage is. Injuries come in the game and that is one of those things."

“The most important thing was just a clean sheet. We have been conceding too many goals cheaply as a unit. We haven’t been scoring enough. It was a confidence boost to everyone that it was good.”

Arsenal have won the trophy for the past two seasons and want to become the first club to claim a hat-trick of triumphs since Blackburn Rovers, who achieved the feat between 1884 and 1886.

Walcott said: “We want to stay in this competition because it is massive for us. We want to make those history books and try and push on to Wembley and do it on the third occasion but we have got a big test against Watford first. Obviously we are looking too far ahead and the players don’t really like to do that."

But as you get closer and closer, there is a sense of belief that we can do it and create history which would be a great achievement for everyone. But we all know what we want this year and we would swap it in a heartbeat without a doubt.

“The competition has been pretty good for us. People say we have had some kind draws but you can see in the cup competitions that anyone can beat anyone. You saw the first game against Hull and how they played against us (in a goalless draw). It was there for the taking, to be honest, but luckily it paid off in the end.”

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic says PSG owners will ‘hunt down Champions League’

Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes Paris Saint-Germain’s Qatari owners will relentlessly “hunt down the Champions League” after financing the French club’s staggering progress over the last five years and transforming them into contenders for the European Cup.

The Sweden international moved to Paris from Milan in the summer of 2012 as the figurehead purchase of Qatar Sport Investments’ vast outlay on new players. Now 34 and enjoying arguably the most productive campaign of a glittering career, Ibrahimovic, sent off in this fixture last season, is aiming to inspire his side beyond Chelsea in the second leg of their knockout tie on Wednesday as PSG target progress into the competition’s latter stages.

The striker suggested PSG’s history really began only when they were bought by QSI, in 2011, though he actually charted their arrival from the moment he signed for the club a year later. “The team, the club I’m playing in now, is a project that began three-and-a-half years ago,” said Ibrahimovic, whose contract at Parc des Princes expires in the summer. What happened before that, with all respect … this club was born the day the Qataris took over. People aim to measure our development since, but look at Chelsea. They had the same thing 12 years ago and when did they win the Champions League? In 2012.

What the owners have done is amazing. We’ve made such a good team in such a short time. Why haven’t we advanced [beyond the Champions League quarter-finals]? This comes with experience. You don’t do these miracles in 24 hours. With time these things will come. With time these owners can achieve anything here. There are no limits. They will hunt down this Champions League until they get it and they will not stop, with me or without me. I wanted to be part of this and to take on this challenge. I want to do things, individual and collective, that will be written in history books. Please give it time and we will see.

Those sentiments were echoed by the PSG manager, Laurent Blanc. The French side have reached three successive Champions League quarter-finals, the first under Carlo Ancelotti in 2013, and edged beyond Chelsea to reach the last eight last season with that progress going hand in hand with their utter dominance of France’s domestic game. A team who are 23 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 go into Wednesday’s match leading 2-1 from the first leg and expected to progress.

“This is a very young project, but we can sense a difference, in our opponents and also how we’re considered,” said Blanc.

PSG are considered a serious proposition in Europe now, which is a serious thing. That’s a sign the club is progressing. Other clubs know that PSG will be able to win the Champions League one day, but it’s going to take time. It is necessary to have a bit of patience, as Zlatan said. He’s been part of the project from day one, from well before me, and can gauge how much progress has been made.

“PSG’s progression in the last four years has been rapid because we’ve made significant investment and brought in a lot of great players. But that’s not enough. There’s a distance still to be covered: not a long distance, but a very tough part of the road still to cover. I hope we can cover it together, Zlatan and I. Regardless, I’m sure that, one day, PSG will get there.”

Ibrahimovic has previously suggested he expects to depart Parc des Princes in the summer, potentially with a move to England on a 12-month deal before a swansong in Major League Soccer with Miami. Asked about his relationship with English football, the Swede referred back to his four-goal performance for his country in a friendly in Stockholm in late 2012. “After my four goals my relationship with England became perfect. Before that there was no relationship,” he said. “I have another two months with PSG and then the Euros with my national team. What happens after that? I’m not in discussions with anybody. It’s not the moment to talk about that. But the future looks good after this season. People say I’m old, but I’m only warming up. The future looks good. Age is just a number and the difference is how you feel. I feel young. I’ve never had better statistics than those from this season. This is the best I’ve had in that sense.”

The forward was sent off for a clumsy challenge on Oscar in last season’s second leg, a game eventually drawn 2-2 in extra time by the depleted visitors to ensure progress on away goals, and suggested post-match that Chelsea’s players had behaved like “babies” in their complaints to the referee, Bjorn Kuipers. “I never think about revenge,” he said. “Every game is a new game but, hopefully, I will stay on the pitch longer than the last time to have the possibility to do things I’m good at, play football."

“In that situation in the last game here I’d never seen anything like that before … from mature players like them, I didn’t expect it. But it’s a new game now. Let’s play it differently. Hopefully I will stay longer this time on the pitch, and there won’t be any mistakes from a person [the referee] who is not involved in the game.”

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Real Madrid Advances in Champions League but Has Reason to Worry

Real Madrid needs to win the Champions League the way a capsized crew needs a life raft. Its team, one of the most expensive ever assembled, won at home, 2-0, to complete what looked like a rout of Roma over the two legs. Looks can be deceiving.

Though Cristiano Ronaldo scored again for his 90th goal in 123 Champions League appearances, the evidence is that the good ship Real Madrid is less of a force and less complete than Barcelona or Bayern Munich, the two most impressive teams in this year’s tournament.

For more than an hour Tuesday in Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, it was Roma that created the better chances. Created, and squandered.

If only Roma had a finisher remotely like Ronaldo, it would have comfortably wiped out the two-goal deficit it dug for itself after losing the first leg. “I’m asking my team to do the impossible,” Roma Coach Luciano Spalletti had said before the game in Madrid. “The way they are training allows me to ask that. But we mustn’t be weak mentally.”

Roma has excelled in Italy this year - it has won seven straight in Serie A - and Spalletti easily identified the obvious flaw in Madrid’s lineup. He told his players, particularly the speedy Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah, to get behind Madrid’s left back, Marcelo, and create havoc there. Salah did that part to perfection. Marcelo is adventurous at going forward and linking up with Ronaldo, but the Brazilian has barely any inclination to fulfill his defensive duties.

Madrid Manager Zinedine Zidane, a marvelous player who now is a rookie coach, appeared happy enough to pick Marcelo. Why? Perhaps because what Zidane best knows and loves about soccer is attacking and exploiting the opponent’s weakness. He did it par excellence as a Real Madrid forward. And earlier this week, one of his players, Raphaël Varane, said, “He is a coach who loves the game and loves attacking football. He likes movement, moving the ball around quickly and playing higher up the pitch.”

Marcelo, then, is a definite Zidane pick. But the risks are obvious: On Tuesday night, Salah (twice), Edin Dzeko and Alessandro Florenzi were in good position to score, one on one, against the Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas. Only once did the goalkeeper need to show his agility to make the save. The other three shots went wide. And Spalletti’s face on the sideline showed that he feared that once such opportunities came Real Madrid’s way, there would be no such wastefulness.

Madrid, to be sure, was carving out its own openings: Statistics had Real having 37 shots on goal to Roma’s 12. But that statistic didn’t tell the whole truth. Most of Real Madrid’s attempts came from long range, against a well-organized double line of Roma defenders. And most were either off target or so tame they were mere catching practice for Roma keeper Wojciech Szczesny.

When he was finally beaten, it was by Ronaldo, of course. A week or so back, when some in Madrid’s media were prematurely calling time on Ronaldo’s career, his response was to tell them to look at the statistics because they never lie. Ronaldo was booed by a sizable portion of the crowd Tuesday, but in a handful of minutes, between the 64th and 68th, he scored the first goal and set up the other by James Rodríguez.

Neither finish was a work of art. Rodríguez’s shot went straight through the legs of the goalkeeper, and Ronaldo’s was tapped in from close range, although it did require him to think and move quickly to reach the low cross by Lucas Vázquez. Vázquez is that rarity, a player actually produced by the Real Madrid youth system. The 24-year-old had to wait a long time for his breakthrough season in Real’s white, and he spent last season at Espanyol, the other club in Barcelona. Vázquez’s role on Tuesday was to come off the bench and replace Gareth Bale - recently returned from injury - once he tired.

After linking up with Luka Modric, Vázquez danced past a defender and demonstrated that he had the talent to shine, if his club allowed him to show it. Ronaldo now has 353 goals in 336 games with Madrid, and no one would deny that he is a superstar. Yet, the Madrid fans boo him. The older supporters look beyond the goal totals and want less hubris. They saw it in previous stars like Alfredo Di Stéfano and, later, in Zidane.

And Tuesday, the crowd that harangued Ronaldo gave a standing ovation to a man who never played for them. As the game neared its end, Roma sent it its longtime magician, Francesco Totti. Now 39, Totti first wore Roma’s distinctive purple and golden yellow when he was 16. Real once bid for him, but Totti always was a one-team kind of a guy.

He can no longer inspire his beloved team to victory, as he once could with instinctive and almost insolent guile. But as he made a cameo during his 595th game for Roma - most likely his last appearance at the Bernabéu - Totti was given the ovation denied to the man who scored the game winner, Ronaldo.

Spalletti reiterated after the contest that his team needed, somehow, to toughen up on the mental side of the game, something Totti never had a problem with.

But by fielding Totti at the end, he demonstrated that Roma is also woefully short in what Madrid has in abundance: the ability to score goals. And Real, which has no chance to win its league and has only the Champions League left to play for, advanced to the quarterfinals for the sixth year in a row.

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“Something happened to me” - Padma Lakshmi reveals childhood sexual abuse

"Something happened to me,” Padma Lakshmi explained, “that happens to a lot of girls.” Unfortunately, she’s right. And unfortunately, not just girls.

On the publication day of her new memoir, “Love, Loss And What We Ate,” the former model, “Top Chef” host and cookbook author sat down with People and Entertainment Weekly’s editorial director Jess Cagle to discuss one aspect of her life that hasn’t before shared: childhood sexual abuse.

As Lakshmi reveals in her book, when she was seven, she and her mother and stepfather were living in a two bedroom apartment in Queens, where she would occasionally share her bed with a friend of her stepfather. She now describes the situation as “a state of affairs that, to people like us, who were used to living far too many to an apartment in India, seemed relatively normal.” And she recalls that “One night, I woke up to his hand in my underpants. He took my hand and placed it inside his briefs. I don’t know how many times it happened before, since I suspect I slept through some incidents.” When her mother noticed signs that her daughter was distressed, Padma tells Cagle that “Once you take a girl’s innocence, you can never get it back. What I remember more is telling my mother what happened and her believing me, and then she and I telling someone else and that person not believing me. And then the next week I was sent to India.” It marked the end of her mother’s marriage.

Lakshmi is now the mother of a six year-old daughter herself. “I think of all those girls I pass on the street who are in elementary school,” she tells Cagle. “I think about my daughter’s classmates or my daughter. And it happens. It happens a lot. It happens more than we think. It happens to seven out of ten girls or women at some point in some way in their lives.” Lakshmi’s statistics are hard to prove - the RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, estimates that “1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime.” RAINN also estimates, it should be noted, that 18% of juvenile sex abuse victims are male. And a controversial 2007 report declared that one in five female college students have experienced some form of sexual abuse - though it defined it broadly to include “sexual harassment, stalking, and intimate partner violence… nonconsensual penetration and nonconsensual touching.” 

Yet by sharing her story, Lakshmi has become yet one more very public face of abuse survivorship. Last month at the Academy Awards, Lady Gaga - who first disclosed two years ago that early in her career, she’d been sexually assaulted - gave an emotional performance of “Till It Happens to You,” her Oscar nominated song from the documentary “The Hunting Ground.” Afterward, she posted a message on Instagram in which she acknowledged, “It took me a long time to even admit it to myself because I’m Catholic and I knew it was evil but I thought it was my fault. I thought it was my fault for ten years.” After Sundance in January, Gabrielle Union discussed her role in “The Birth of a Nation,” and how it was informed by her own experience, saying, “As a rape survivor, I know how powerful and voiceless I felt myself for a very, very long time, and the shame and the rage. It’s only relatively recently that I found the power to have a voice.”

Lakshmi writes in her memoir that “In retrospect,” her stepfather “should have been the one to go. Years later, in tears, my mother would acknowledge this grave mistake.” Yet as a young child who had been molested, she was nonetheless fortunate to have a parent who believed her, and who moved quickly to remove her from an abusive situation - even as she says, “I didn’t understand it then.”

Sexual abuse thrives in silence. And even without knowing for certain exactly how prevalent it is, Lakshmi’s call to “think of all those girls I pass on the street” is a reminder that it does indeed happen a lot. Not just to other people. Every person who shares their experience makes it easier for someone else to confide in a parent or a teacher, makes it possible for his or her abuse to end and for the stigma and shame that survivors unfairly endure to become a thing of the past. As Lakshmi says, “If women like me don’t talk about it, who will?”

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Malik Jackson agrees to 6-year deal with Jacksonville Jaguars

General manager John Elway nailed the 2012 draft, selecting defensive end Malik Jackson in the fifth round and linebacker Danny Trevathan in the sixth. They turned into starters, and exceeded expectations. As such, they have exceeded the Broncos' budget as the team tries to make the puzzle pieces fit to defend their Super Bowl 50 title.

Jackson has agreed in principle on a six-year, $90-million deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Teammates were told he received close to $40 million guaranteed. The NFL Network reported the figure at $42 million.

What a time to be alive

— Malik Barron Jackson (@TheMalikJackson) March 8, 2016

The Chicago Bears have made a strong push to sign Trevathan. He predicted they would have interest during Super Bowl 50 week. Trevathan developed into a starter and steady contributor under coach John Fox, who is entering his second year in Chicago.

The Broncos made keeping Jackson an offseason priority, but couldn't persuade him to return on an offer at slightly less than $11 million per season. At a $15 million average annual salary, Jackson would be the Broncos' highest-paid player next season when he's not among their top five defensive players.

Congrats Fam @TheMalikJackson #moneyteam lol

— Chris Harris (@ChrisHarrisJr) March 8, 2016

"Congrats Fam @TheMalikJackson," tweeted Broncos cornerback Chris Harris, adding, "Y'all know we still got some Dogs on the D Line ready."

Jackson's deal with the Jaguars won't become official until Wednesday at 2 p.m. It marks the second consecutive year Jacksonville has signed away a top Broncos player with Jackson joining tight end Julius Thomas.

Jackson entered free agency as one of the top players available, attracting interest from Jacksonville, Chicago and Oakland. The Jaguars began free agency with $79 million available in cap space.

"His versatility is unmatched along the Dline," linebacker Brandon Marshall said, explaining why Jackson fit the Broncos so well last season. "He can play anywhere and stop the run and rush the passer from anywhere."

The Broncos wanted Jackson, but have been moving on multiple fronts. Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips trusts defensive line coach Bill Kollar to develop young players, as he did this season with defensive end Derek Wolfe, who received a four-year, $36.7 million deal in January, and nose tackle Sylvester Williams. Williams said recently he is open to playing defensive end if asked, and the Broncos are expected to seek depth in the draft and will add help with the the return of a healthy Kenny Anunike.

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Titans Acquire DeMarco Murray From Eagles, His Agents Say

Agents for running back DeMarco Murray confirm that Murray, the N.F.L.’s 2014 rushing leader, has been traded by the Philadelphia Eagles to the Tennessee Titans.

Murray also has a new contract in the deal, his agents, SportsTrust Advisors, wrote on Twitter on Monday night.

The deal gives the Titans the running back threat they have lacked since releasing Chris Johnson, while the Eagles rid themselves of one of the contracts signed by their former coach Chip Kelly.

Murray signed a five-year, $40 million contract with $21 million guaranteed with Philadelphia last year.

Other terms of the deal were not immediately available.

The Titans hold the No. 1 pick in the April draft and have eight draft picks - three in the top 64 selections.

This will be the first big move by the Titans’ new general manager, Jon Robinson, who was hired in January to turn around a franchise that has gone 5-27 since releasing Johnson in April 2014 to avoid the final three seasons of a $53.5 million deal. Johnson was the last running back to run for 100 yards in a game for Tennessee, a drought that stretches to December 2013.

The Titans ranked 25th in the N.F.L. last season, averaging 92.8 yards rushing per game, and the new coach, Mike Mularkey, has talked about running the ball much more next season.

Murray led the N.F.L. in rushing with 1,845 yards and 13 touchdowns for Dallas in 2014 and was the N.F.L. offensive player of the year.

He ran for only 702 yards with the Eagles last season, including 112 yards Oct. 19 against the Giants. Murray, a six-year veteran, has run for 5,228 yards and 34 touchdowns in his career, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. He also has 215 receptions for 1,522 yards.

The move, expected for some time, brings an end to Griffin’s sudden-rise-and-stunning-fall saga with a team that traded a bevy of draft picks to acquire him - and now receives nothing in return as he departs. The move gets Griffin’s 2016 contract, worth about $16 million, off the payroll before Wednesday, when the new league year begins and free agents can be signed.

It also closes the book on Griffin’s tumultuous tenure in Washington. He arrived as a Heisman Trophy winner and the No. 2 overall choice in the 2012 N.F.L. draft - a pick that came from the Rams at the high price of three first-round selections plus a second-rounder - and immediately became a star and national sensation. He leaves having spent all of last season on the sideline.

As a free agent, he can sign anywhere.

In a lengthy posting on Instagram, Griffin wrote: “Although my time here is over, I’m excited about what the future brings!!!! I look forward to finding the team where God has me to be and growing with that team on the way to World Championships.”

The Redskins, the N.F.C. East champions, also released safeties Dashon Goldson and Jeron Johnson, and defensive end Jason Hatcher, part of a busy day that removed nearly $30 million from Washington’s spending toward the cap and brings the team below the ceiling. In addition, fullback Darrel Young and nose tackle Terrance Knighton indicated on Twitter that they would not be brought back.

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5 reasons Eagles traded Byron Maxwell, Kiko Alonso to Dolphins

The Eagles stole the headlines from Peyton Manning's retirement and opened the NFL's legal tampering period by orchestrating a blockbuster trade with the Miami Dolphins. 

In his first offseason back in control of football operations, Eagles executive Vice President of player personnel Howie Roseman dealt cornerback Byron Maxwell and linebacker Kiko Alonso to the Dolphins. There will also be draft pick compensation involved in the deal. 

On the surface, this deal was about flexibility. Roseman's ability to address the team's needs in free agency so the war room could focus on taking the best player available on draft night rather than potentially reaching to fill a need the front office couldn't afford to fill earlier in the offseason. 

Here are five reasons why this trade went down: 

1) Salary cap relief: 

The Eagles entered Monday with just $17.5 million in cap space, but after clearing the remaining money from Maxwell's $63 million contract signed last offseason off the books along with Alonso, the team now has upwards of $23.3 million in spending flexibility when free agency begins Wednesday. 

2) Reallocating resources:

It's no secret that the Eagles have plenty of needs to fill on both sides of the football. This trade allows them to dedicate the hefty cap savings from trading Maxwell on a potential deal to re-sign Nolan Carroll, fortify the offensive line and perhaps ink a box safety to pay alongside Malcolm Jenkins in the secondary of Jim Schwartz's defense that utilizes the wide nine front. 

3) Scheme fit:

Many fans and analysts alike were intrigued by the possibility of a Schwartz-Alonso reunion, but clearly the Eagles' new defensive coordinator had other ideas. Both in his time with the Buffalo Bills and as head coach of the Detroit Lions, Schwartz preferred big, physical linebackers on the outside. At 6-foot-3, 238, Alonso doesn't quite fit that description. Perhaps either former Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch or Tahir Whitehead could be on the Eagles' radar to replace Alonso. 

4) Eradicating Chip Kelly's influence:

Similarly to Kelly moving swiftly last offseason to deal away players drafted during the Roseman/Andy Reid regime, a rejuvenated Roseman appears to be undoing the high priced mistakes the former head coach made last year in his lone offseason with final say over personnel. 

5) Kiko Alonso's injury history:

It is entirely possible that the Dolphins made adding Alonso a requirement to get this deal done after absorbing Maxwell's mammoth contract. Despite the fact that Alonso's cap hit was only $781,891, the Eagles were likely amenable to including him in this trade due to his injury history. Alonso missed the 2014 season with a torn ACL and was sidelined for five games with a knee injury. 

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Project Fi drops invite program, offers $150 off a Nexus 5X with service

Google's Project Fi cellular service is dropping its invite requirement. And to celebrate, the company just announced the deepest discount ever on the Nexus 5X. If you buy the phone through Project Fi and activate it, you can get the normally $349 Nexus 5X for just $199. The offer is valid from today until April 7, 2016.

The deal conjures up images of the two-year contract pricing carriers used to offer on phones, but Project Fi is a pre-pay service with no contracts, so it seems you can cancel at any time. The fine print only says, "You must then activate Fi service on the same account within 30 days of device shipment." We guess that you'd then be on the hook for a month of service, which at the minimum pricing will cost about $30. So even if you have no desire to join Project Fi, around $230 for a 5X while canceling Project Fi is still a deal.

Project Fi is Google's MVNO service that continually switches between Sprint and T-Mobile, while only charging you for the exact amount of the data you use, down to the megabyte. The service also combines all the best features of Google Voice, like visual voicemail, number forwarding, and the ability to send and receive SMS messages from any computer and via the Google Hangouts app. The only real downside is the extremely limited device compatibility - the Network switching feature means Fi only works on the Nexus 5X, 6, and 6P. Project Fi charges a $20 base fee for unlimited texting and calls, plus $10 per GB of data you use.

Google is killing the Project Fi invite program, but that doesn't seem like a huge deal. Getting an invite to Project Fi before never seemed like a huge challenge - we've only heard of customers waiting a week at most. Now Google seems ready to take things out of the "Beta" phase, and it's removing this one last barrier to entry.

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Tom Clancy’s The Division review

Ubisoft’s answer to Destiny is out today, but what are the initial impressions from the first 12 hours with the game?

The first time we saw The Division was in June 2013. At the time it was unclear exactly what kind of game it really was, with all the initial emphasis being on the graphics rather than the vaguely described online play. As such, it’s only in the last few months that the obvious point of comparison has become Destiny. How much of that is a result of Ubisoft altering the design to mimic Activision’s smash hit we’re not sure, but it means it’s going to be equally hard to make a final judgement about the game until well after launch.

By the time you read this The Division will be on sale, and the only head start we’ve had - apart from various previews and betas - is that the servers turned on at 2pm yesterday. Even if we could’ve played it before that there would’ve been no real point as, just like Destiny, this is a game all about interacting with other players in the same online world.

We shouldn’t give the impression that The Division is a clone of any kind though, as there are many important differences between the two games. But if you want to understand the game’s approach to single-player, co-op, and competitive gameplay then Bungie’s game is the obvious frame of reference.

The Division though is eager to portray itself as an action role-player, even though its third person, cover-based shooting works similarly to many other action titles. Starting the game for the first time it comes across very much like a less over-the-top version of Gears Of War, as you’re taught how to aim, fire, roll, and clamber over a training area in New York City’s Brooklyn.

This all works fine but the problem The Division has is that, unlike Destiny, the gunplay isn’t quite as effortlessly perfect. It’s fine, but while Bungie can fudge the reasons why shooting a space alien in the face doesn’t kill them immediately it’s a little harder in The Division. Headshots are acknowledged but the damage you do is dictated by your equipment and stats just as much by your actual aim, and as a result some enemies do come across like bullet sponges.

The rest of the game, or at least the bits we’ve played so far, take part in Manhattan, after a terrorist virus attack has turned the island into an almost post-apocalyptic wasteland. The rather implausible backstory involves you being part of a government sleeper cell who are ready to be activated (by glowing, sci-fi style watches) at a moment’s notice and take control.

As we noted in the beta the backstory is both a little silly and a little dull all at the same time, and seems something of a waste given the quality of the graphics. Inevitably they don’t look as good as when the game was first unveiled, but the open world recreation of Manhattan in the snowy mid-winter is excellent. The world is huge too, filled with side quests and points of interests, but, because of the plot, only fairly ordinary human opponents. And that’s despite the fact that a lot of the visual cues for the game have clearly been taken from more fantastical sources, such as the movie Cloverfield.

It’s perfectly possible to have a role-playing game in a quasi-realistic setting, but it does make it a lot more difficult to create sufficiently interesting loot and upgrades to make the whole business of levelling up seem worthwhile. And yet so far at least The Division seems to be doing well. Within an hour or so we’d picked up a shotgun and an assault rifle, and added our first mod – an extra handle that improved our aiming by 2 per cent.

These are the sort of tiny advantages The Division’s loot offers in the earlier hours, as it’s made clear that you’re not working your way towards unlocking a super laser or a nuclear strike but instead more down-to-earth, incremental improvements to your abilities. A new slot to hold two primary weapons is a big moment, as is starting to unlock more than just your first special ability (from a choice of three: radar ping, sticky bomb, and ballistic shield).

Before leaving Brooklyn you get the chance to try out a co-op mission with three other players, and even when the game was running only on journos and those that had picked up a copy early we managed to get a game quickly and without any sign of launch day problems. It’s a fairly straightforward hostage rescue though, with a generous amount of time given to resurrect a colleague if they go down.

Again, the realistic setting means the level designers will have to work within a fairly narrow range, and although there’s already been questions asked about exactly how many story missions there’ll be we’re more worried about how distinctive they’ll all seem.

The other part of the equation is the Dark Zone, the one area of the game where you can be attacked and killed by other players. Obviously this is not somewhere you want to be hanging out when you’ve only just started, as veteran players start to use it as a hunting ground for experience points and player loot.

Going in on your own is a virtual death wish, because although the loot is generally more useful it’s also more infected and so has to be airlifted out via an extraction chopper. Everyone else in the zone knows when this is happening, and camping out waiting to steal other people’s (probably already stolen) stuff is clearly going to be common practice.

Attacking another player does get you marked on the map as a rogue though, with rewards for hunting down rogues being the other main draw for entering the area. With all these elements combined the Dark Zone is the most interestingly unique set-up in the game, but who knows what it’ll end up like once the general public descend upon it.

We enjoyed our first few hours with The Division, just as we did with the beta. But nothing so far has given us the opportunity to answer the fundamental questions about the game’s longevity and variety. We’ll try and get a review together late this week or early next, but as with Destiny it may be much longer than that before the game’s true nature is revealed.

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