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Afternoon Edition

July 29, 2025

The man who killed at least four people in the New York building housing the NFL believed he had CTE and blamed the league. He carried a three-page note that included a plea: “Study my brain please.”

— Amanda Christovich [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

Shooter at NFL Building Targeted League Over Head Injuries

Amanda Christovich

NEW YORK — The 27-year-old shooter who killed four people [[link removed]] at a commercial building Monday evening in midtown Manhattan was targeting the NFL’s headquarters, New York City mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday.

Local officials said the shooter died at the scene and identified him as 27-year-old Shane Tamura.

Four people died in the shooting, including New York police officer Didarul Islam, 36, and Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner. One NFL employee was “seriously injured” and in stable condition, commissioner Roger Goodell said in a letter to employees Tuesday. The employee was Craig Clementi, a member of the league’s finance department, The Athletic [[link removed]] reported Tuesday.

Tamura played running back at Granada Hills Charter School in Southern California during his senior year, and he had been referred to by one local media outlet as a “standout.” He also reportedly worked as a security guard at a Las Vegas casino and never played professional football. He had a “documented mental health history,” New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday night.

Tamura left a three-page note, excerpts of which Front Office Sports has viewed. The contents of the note suggest he was targeting the NFL office specifically and that he blamed the league for having chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a neurological disease caused by repeated head trauma that has plagued multiple NFL players. (The disease cannot be diagnosed until a person is dead.)

“The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits,” he wrote. “They failed us.” Tamura also referenced former NFL player Terry Long, who died by suicide in 2005 by drinking antifreeze.

“Study my brain please,” Tamura wrote. “I’m sorry.”

Tamura arrived in New York after driving across the country from Las Vegas in a black BMW, as late as Monday afternoon, Tisch said during a Monday evening press briefing. He then entered Manhattan early Monday evening and parked the car on Park Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets, and exited it carrying an M4 rifle.

You can read Amanda Christovich’s full story here [[link removed]].

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS LIVE

2 Commissioners, 5 Networks, Big Names

Tuned In [[link removed]], Sept. 16 at The Times Center in NYC, is the only event where you can hear from all of the biggest leaders in sports media.

Commissioners Adam Silver and Rob Manfred will join Front Office Sports’s editorial team to discuss the latest moves in media and what’s on the horizon.

On-air talent, including the legendary father-son duo of Ian and Noah Eagle, will sit down for an exclusive one-on-one conversation on the Tuned In stage, and NBC Sports’s Maria Taylor will speak about her legendary career and the exciting future of the network.

Top executives including Brian Rolapp of the PGA Tour, Jimmy Pitaro from ESPN, Jay Marine from Amazon, Eric Shanks from FOX Sports, and Luis Silberwasser from TNT Sports will take the stage.

This must-see lineup is worth tuning in for. Rates increase soon, register today [[link removed]].

Mario Lemieux Trying to Reacquire Penguins 4 Years After Selling [[link removed]]

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Mario Lemieux was known for many on-ice miracles during his “Super Mario” days as a player. Now long retired, Lemieux and partner Ron Burkle are trying to achieve perhaps his greatest hockey feat yet.

Lemieux and Burkle, previously the Penguins’ majority owners and still minority partners in the NHL team, are making a heightened push to regain a controlling interest, according to multiple reports. Fenway Sports Group, which acquired the Penguins in late 2021 for $900 million, then a league record, and has been insistent about not wanting to sell, has said it is interested only in bringing in a “small, passive [minority] partner.” Lemieux and Burkle, however, remain undeterred, and are said to believe that FSG, also the owners of MLB’s Red Sox and the Premier League’s Liverpool FC, can perhaps be convinced regarding a bigger deal.

Also aiding Lemieux and Burkle is their prior record leading the Penguins compared to what FSG has done. Under the pair’s leadership, the Penguins won three Stanley Cups, adding to two Lemieux won as a player. FSG, conversely, has seen the team miss the postseason each of the last three seasons after losing in the first round in 2022, and three consecutive years of declining standings points totals.

The franchise has also seen its historically strong attendance and local television viewership ebb to one of the biggest declines in the NHL this past season.

Lemieux, meanwhile, claims strong relationships with many key figures in the situation, including NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Penguins icon Sidney Crosby.

Any deal, should it happen, would certainly need to be for more than the $900 million that FSG paid nearly four years ago, but how much more remains a key question. Outside valuations of the time have pointed to a current mark of $1.75 billion [[link removed]].

Expansion Matters

According to The Athletic [[link removed]], potentially forthcoming NHL expansion is also part of the equation for Lemieux and Burkle. Despite the lack of a formal process, Bettman has said he will raise individual bids to the Board of Governors, [[link removed]] should it be merited, and Atlanta [[link removed]] and Houston, in particular, have shown strong and consistent interest in entering the league.

Expansion clubs, should they be approved, are due to sell for about $2 billion each, and getting to $4 billion for two clubs, divided by the 32 existing teams, would mean a $125 million windfall for each NHL franchise.

Wrexham’s Ambition Replaces Fan Favorites With Pricey Additions [[link removed]]

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Wrexham has been busy overhauling its roster this summer as it gears up for its first year in the EFL Championship since the 1981–82 season. The Welsh club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney has added several players in the summer transfer window—including a major signing last week.

The team announced Thursday that it signed midfielder Lewis O’Brien away from Nottingham Forrest, a Premier League club. The 26-year-old reportedly signed a three-year deal, though his salary and the transfer fee paid to acquire him are unclear.

O’Brien joins more than a handful of transfers with experience in the Championship or other top European soccer leagues. The team signed New Zealand’s Liberato Cacace, who last played with Empoli in Serie A, to a club-record $2.9 million (£2.16 million) less than two weeks ago.

Other signings include forward Ryan Hardie from Bolton (League One), midfielder Josh Windass from Sheffield Wednesday (EFL Championship), and keeper Danny Ward—a product of Wrexham Academy—from Leicester City (EFL Championship).

Another Coming?

It may not be the end of Wrexham’s overhaul. Manager Phil Parkinson said Tuesday the team has been targeting Kieffer Moore [[link removed]] of Sheffield United (EFL Championship).

“Kieffer’s under contract at Sheffield United. He’s one of a number of players we’ve looked at over the summer,” Parkinson told the BBC.

Football transfer expert Graeme Bailey [[link removed]] told Wrexham Insider that the Red Dragons are making a “big push” for Moore, but he said the 32-year-old striker is going to be “expensive.”

“[Wrexham] are pushing back on some of the numbers mentioned, but they do want him,” Bailey said.

However, the additions have also forced out a lot of mainstays—including fan favorites from the docuseries Welcome to Wrexham. Striker Paul Mullin [[link removed]] has left the team, at least temporarily, to join League One club Wigan Athletic, while hometown product Jordan Davies announced in May [[link removed]] that he was leaving the Red Dragons.

The major changes are a part of the business of the EFL. Wrexham jumped from the National League—where it stayed for 15 years before the Hollywood stars purchased the team in 2021—to the Championship in three years, the first club in EFL history to achieve three consecutive promotions.

WBD Restructuring Shows How What’s Old Is New Again [[link removed]]

Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

As Warner Bros. Discovery splits into two companies [[link removed]], it’s looking more and more like it did before the 2022 merger that created the current entity.

WBD advanced on its previously unveiled plans to divide itself, saying a company previously known as Streaming & Studios will be called Warner Bros., and it will continue to be led by president and CEO David Zaslav. A separate entity previously called Global Networks, containing the bulk of WBD’s sports and linear TV holdings, will be called Discovery Global. WBD chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels will lead Discovery Global as president and CEO, and TNT Sports chairman Luis Silberwasser will report to him.

The split remains on track to conclude in mid-2026, but the latest moves give additional definition to what will be two independent, publicly traded companies. The new names also bring the entities back in large part to where they were four years ago, when AT&T’s Warner Media and Discovery Communications merged to create WBD.

The use of much of the prior company names stems in large part from their existing public recognition, and WBD in particular said the Discovery Global moniker recognizes “the affinity and value this name has around the world in entertainment, news, and sports.”

TNT Sports has been in the midst of remaking its rights portfolio, parting ways with live rights to the NBA beginning this fall, but acquiring many others, including in college football and tennis, and most recently, baseball’s Savannah Bananas. Discovery Global will carry much of the exposure to the ongoing decline of linear television compared to Warner Bros., as well as much of WBD’s existing debt of more than $37 billion. Also freed from larger corporate pressures, that entity, and TNT Sports more specifically, will have greater latitude to pursue other potential opportunities.

“As we prepare for the launch of Discovery Global, our enthusiasm for the opportunities ahead only grows thanks to our leading portfolio of beloved brands and programming,” Wiedenfels said in a statement.

The ongoing restructuring also arrives as the compensation plans for both Zaslav and Wiedenfels were restructured amid rising shareholder pressure [[link removed]].

FRONT OFFICE SPORTS TODAY Shooter Targets NFL Headquarters

FOS illustration

A horrifying situation unfolded in New York City as a 27-year-old shooter killed four people at a commercial building in midtown Manhattan, with his main target appearing to be the NFL’s headquarters, according to Mayor Eric Adams. FOS reporter Amanda Christovich was on the scene Monday and has the latest on why the alleged gunman, Shane Tamura, targeted the league, and what commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s response has been.

Meanwhile, ahead of MLB’s likely contentious labor talks in 2026, commissioner Rob Manfred has been meeting with players to communicate the league’s thoughts around a potential salary cap. However, his recent visit with the Phillies did not go as planned, as star Bryce Harper reportedly hurled expletives at the commissioner and told him to leave the clubhouse. ESPN content producer and Baseball Tonight podcast contributor Paul “Hembo” Hembekides tells Baker Machado and Renee Washington why there is profound worry about a potential labor stoppage.

Watch the full episode here [[link removed]].

STATUS REPORT Two Up, One Down, One Push

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Cameron Brink ⬆ The No. 2 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft will return Tuesday against the Las Vegas Aces, more than 13 months since she tore the ACL in her left knee. The Los Angeles Sparks big, who was selected right after Caitlin Clark, played just 15 games in her rookie season. Brink, like many of the players in her class, is one of the most popular WNBA players with 1.4 million Instagram followers, fifth in the league [[link removed]].

Cowboys offensive line ⬆⬇ After initial fear that left tackle Tyler Guyton tore his ACL in his right knee at practice Monday, an MRI confirmed Guyton sustained a bone fracture [[link removed]] and is expected to miss 4–6 weeks. Dallas has selected three first-round offensive linemen in the last four years, and its tentative starting five is under contract for $130 million even after the retirement of highly paid veteran Zack Martin.

Guardians bullpen ⬇ As part of MLB’s sports betting investigation, Guardians relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase was placed on non-disciplinary leave Monday [[link removed]] through at least Aug. 31. Clase is the second Guardians pitcher to be sidelined due to gambling investigations, as his teammate Luis Ortiz was placed on the same leave on July 3.

Caitlin Clark ⬆ A Texas man who stalked and threatened the Indiana Fever star was sentenced to two and a half years in prison [[link removed]] after pleading guilty to felony stalking and harassment. The ruling brings closure to a months-long case and adds legal protections for Clark moving forward. As part of the ruling, he is barred from attending Pacers and Fever events as well as using the internet during his sentence.

Conversation Starters Six months ago, Luka Dončić faced criticism over his conditioning and diet. Now he’s on the cover of Men’s Health magazine. Check it out [[link removed]]. Caitlin Clark’s foundation just opened a basketball court in Iowa and handed out 500 backpacks as well as school supplies. Take a look [[link removed]]. Deion Sanders opened up [[link removed]] about dealing with bladder cancer. Now he’s partnering with Depend. Editors’ Picks NYC’s Bleecker Trading Sold in Seven-Figure Deal [[link removed]]by Ben Horney [[link removed]]The company has collaborated with Micah Parsons and the Jonas Brothers. Man Who Stalked Clark Gets 2 Years in Prison [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]He sent more than 800 messages and visited Indianapolis to see Clark. College Sports Embracing Vegas After Years of Cold Shoulder [[link removed]]by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]]The Big Ten became the latest newcomer to Sin City. Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by Amanda Christovich [[link removed]], Eric Fisher [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]] Edited by Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]], Dennis Young [[link removed]]

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