Week 3 of the NFL season continues today. Notable matchups include the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Green Bay Packers on Fox (4:25 p.m. EDT) and the San Francisco 49ers playing at the Denver Broncos on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” (8:20 p.m. EDT). 

Leaders Week London begins tomorrow. The four-day event features over 3,000 sports business executives gathering to discuss diversity, equity and inclusion, digital culture, fandom and monetizing sport. Featured speakers include Mark Abbott (Deputy Commissioner, MLS), Cindy Parlow Cone (President, U.S. Soccer), Gerry Cardinale (Founder/Managing Partner, Redbird Capital Partners) and Julie Uhrman (Co-Founder/Owner, Angel City FC), among others. 

The USMNT plays its next international friendly match Tuesday. The team, which lost to Japan 2-0 in a friendly match Friday at the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany, will play Saudi Arabia in its final tuneup before heading to Qatar for the World Cup in November. The game will be played at Estadio Nueva Condomina in Murcia, Spain (2 p.m. EDT, FS1).

NBA preseason starts Friday. The Golden State Warriors and Washington Wizards will play at Saitama Super Arena in Japan (6 a.m. EDT) as part of a two-game series. The Los Angeles Clippers will also host Maccabi Ra’anana at Climate Pledge Arena, home of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken (10 p.m. EDT).

The NFL’s international slate for the 2022 season begins next Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints travel to London to play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (9:30 a.m. EDT), home of the Premier League team of the same name.

• Sources with knowledge of the discussions said the NBA and NBA Players Association are expected to agree to move the age of player draft eligibility from 19 to 18, effectively allowing high school players to jump to the NBA once again.
• Qatar does not intend to punish soccer fans caught committing minor offenses such as public drunkenness at the upcoming World Cup, according to people familiar with Qatari briefings to foreign police. 
• Sources close to the situation said the NBA, NHL and MLB are expected to soon begin buyout talks with Diamond Sports Group LLC, which operates 21 regional Bally Sports networks and is said to be possibly headed to a bankruptcy filing as it hemorrhages cash. 
• Robert Sarver, owner of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury, announced he has started the process of selling both teams after the NBA suspended him for one year and issued a $10 million fine over instances of workplace misconduct.
• A proposal to change the NCAA college football schedule, obtained by Sports Illustrated, includes creating new dead periods and shifting back the early signing dates, among other proposed changes currently circulating around athletic departments.
• Amazon.com Inc.’s first “Thursday Night Football” broadcast on Prime Video on Sept. 15 averaged 13.03 million viewers, including local over-the-air telecasts in the home markets of the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, Nielsen said.
• New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he is willing to speak to James Dolan, owner of Madison Square Garden, about moving the home of the NBA’s Knicks and NHL’s Rangers amid the state’s Penn Station redevelopment talks. 
• The Boston Celtics announced that it suspended coach Ime Udoka for the entire 2022-23 NBA season for violating team policies, according to a statement, which said Udoka’s future with the franchise beyond the upcoming campaign will be determined “at a later date.”
• The Colorado Avalanche signed Nathan MacKinnon to an eight-year contract worth $100.8 million, making him the highest-paid NHL player, with a $12.6 million annual salary, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

$50 million 

The amount Apple Inc. is reportedly paying the NFL per year over the next five years to be the new presenting sponsor of the Super Bowl halftime show. Apple, which reportedly is still in talks with the NFL to secure the league’s out of market Sunday Ticket package, replaced PepsiCo Inc. as the halftime sponsor. The beverage company sponsored the show for a decade.

1) MLB, NBA and NHL may buy biggest owner of regional sports TV networks

Josh Kosman, New York Post 

2) MLB Has Awarded Teams International Marketing Rights, Similar to NFL

Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico 

3) The Underdog Streamer Betting Big on Overlooked Sports

Amanda Christovich, Front Office Sports 

4) Why ESPN’s eventual direct-to-consumer price might be cheaper than you think

Andrew Marchand, New York Post 

5) Eli Manning shares story behind Omaha Productions’ viral Penn State walk-on video

Ryan Glasspiegel, New York Post 

6) Apple to Pay Nearly $50 Million Annually for Super Bowl Halftime Show

Eben Novy-Williams, Sportico 

7) How a five-star prospect from Georgia ended up homeless, ineligible and 2,000 miles away

Andy Staples et al., The Athletic 

8) MNF doubleheader ratings offer good news and bad

Paulsen, Sports Media Watch 

9) Twins.com web address finally lands with MLB after decades-long fight

The Athletic 

10) MSG Go? Eric Adams willing to talk about moving the world’s most famous arena

Bernadette Hogan and David Meyer, New York Post

• Clemson’s Plan to Bounce Back Into the College Football Playoff (The Wall Street Journal)
• NBA Mulls Executive Pay Pool as Tech Raids Sports (Sportico)
• Two veteran sports execs launch firm aiming to invest up to $50M in early-stage companies (CNBC)
• Chelsea sack senior executive after claims of sexual harassment over inappropriate messages (The Telegraph)
• NBA All-Star Luka Dončić Turns Over TikTok Account to His AI Alter Ego (Adweek)
• How many NFL fans have used new in-stadium betting (Axios)
• NFL Player Stock Market Launches in New Jersey (Sportico)
• Aces Championship Keeps WNBA Ratings Afloat Amid Scheduling Competition (Sportico)
• Pickleball is exploding, and it’s getting messy (The Washington Post)
• You Won’t See Beer Ads on Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ (Bloomberg)
• Why NHL might buy local broadcasts from Sinclair, and what it could mean (The Athletic)
• Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani? AL MVP debate might be affected by more than numbers (Los Angeles Times)
• N.F.L. Players’ Union Quietly Seeks New Leadership (The New York Times)
• Inside Chris Long’s growing media empire (New York Post)
• How the NFL blocks Black coaches (The Washington Post)