The Minnesota Vikings are retaining running back Aaron Jones on a restructured one-year deal, according to multiple media reports.

Jones, who signed a two-year, $20 million contract last offseason, is set to make $5.6 million ($5 million guaranteed) instead of the $10 million he was set to earn.

ESPN reported early this month that the Vikings had told Jones they would be releasing him unless they could find a trade partner for his services.

Jones, 31, spent his first seven seasons with Green Bay before signing with Minnesota ahead of the 2024 season when the Packers released him. He had a strong debut season for the Vikings, rushing for a career-high 1,138 yards to go with five touchdowns, 408 receiving yards and two more scores.

However, he was limited to 12 games in 2025, finishing second on the team in rushing yards (548) to Jordan Mason (758) and had just three total touchdowns.

In his nine seasons, Jones has appeared in 126 games (114 starts) and rushed for 7,626 yards and 52 touchdowns, catching 351 passes for 2,683 yards and 21 receiving touchdowns.

–Field Level Media

The Baseball Hall of Fame announced Wednesday that it has allowed Andre Dawson to recast his plaque without a logo on his cap.

Dawson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010 with his plaque sporting a Montreal Expos logo. The blank cap option was not offered until four years later.

“The Hall of Fame Board of Directors voted unanimously to provide Andre Dawson with the option of having no logo on his Hall of Fame plaque, which will be recast to reflect his wishes,” Baseball Hall of Fame chairman of the board Jane Forbes Clark said in a statement. “This decision gives Andre a choice that he would have taken if it had been available when he was elected in 2010, just four years prior to the formal implementation of that alternative.”

Per the Baseball Hall of Fame, no other changes will be made to the plaque.

“I extend special thanks with much appreciation to the Hall of Fame Board of Directors for a blank cap, which allows me to represent each club fairly,” Dawson said, per the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Dawson, 71, played his first 11 Major League Baseball seasons with the Expos before joining the Chicago Cubs as a free agent in 1987. He won the National League MVP in his first season with the Cubs and spent six seasons in Chicago before finishing his career with two-year stints with the Boston Red Sox and then-Florida Marlins.

“I always felt that I was a Cub in the Hall of Fame, I just had the ‘M’ on the cap,” Dawson said Wednesday, per the Chicago Sun-Times. “That’s what I always related to. That’s where my heart was.

“… All along, I just felt that the process should have allowed me to have some sort of say so. And for years, I just disregarded trying to entertain it at all. It was what it was. And once the protocol started to change, where players were picking they didn’t want to wear an emblem, I felt that I just needed to right the wrong. Because I wasn’t given that opportunity, against what my wishes would have been.”

An eight-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner, Dawson batted .279 with 438 homers and 1,591 RBIs in 2,627 career games with the Expos, Cubs, Red Sox and Marlins.

–Field Level Media

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The Players Championship has made a habit of delivering high drama at an iconic venue which suits a wide array of golfers, and this week’s edition promises more of the same as World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler bids for a rare third victory in the event.

Among other leading contenders are World No. 2 and defending champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who is looking to shrug off a back injury that led to a later arrival at TPC Sawgrass following his withdrawal from last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational, and fifth-ranked Justin Rose, who won his 13th PGA Tour title last month at the Farmers Insurance Open.

The elite field is one of the strongest in the game with the top 10 golfers in the world rankings — and 47 of the top 50 — assembled at Sawgrass for the tournament’s 52nd edition.

However, Scheffler will command much of the fan interest as he hunts his 21st career tour title at a venue where he triumphed in 2023 and 2024. Only golfing great Jack Nicklaus has won the PGA Tour’s flagship event three times, and Scheffler will be looking to match him.

“I don’t know if my approach to this tournament has changed very much, but I think it suits my game because you have to play a variety of shots,” Scheffler said ahead of Thursday’s opening round when he will play alongside World No. 3 Tommy Fleetwood and 14th-ranked Justin Thomas in a marquee grouping. “I think that’s something that I’ve always enjoyed about the game of golf is being able to try to curve the ball different directions and hit different spins.”

While Scheffler has not quite replicated his dominant form from last year so far this season, he can still point to a victory at The American Express in January and two other top-10 finishes in his five starts.

“When it comes to my golf game and my expectations of myself, my expectations are based around what I want for me mentally on the golf course as being committed to what I can do, and controlling that aspect,” said the 29-year-old Texas resident. “Throughout this season I’ve been really good in some spots and then some other spots I feel like I can improve in terms of my commitment to the shot.”

Scheffler has long admired the varied test of golf at TPC Sawgrass where surprise winners, such as Craig Perks and Fred Funk, and expected champions, like Tiger Woods and McIlroy, have emerged triumphant.

“When you look at this golf course, you see a variety of winners, and you also don’t see one style of player winning this tournament a bunch of times,” said Scheffler. “It’s so unique in a sense of, the way modern golf is kind of trending … this place you kind of take some steps back where the areas to hit into are small.

“And there’s certain holes where you can definitely take advantage of your length if you’re a longer hitter. But there’s also some holes where you got to get the ball in play, and you have to be able to curve the ball both directions.”

Two-time champion McIlroy will command just as much fan interest as Scheffler but his tournament prospects were still hanging in the balance after he arrived at TPC Sawgrass late Wednesday afternoon to test his back and swing on the practice range.

The Northern Irishman is the defending champion; he won the 2025 tournament in a playoff with J.J. Spaun.

McIlroy pulled out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Saturday before the third round after feeling “a small twinge” in his back while warming up in the gym. Prior to arriving at Sawgrass on Wednesday, he had been at home recovering and receiving treatment.

Rose, 45, will be bidding for his second PGA Tour win this season after romping to victory by seven strokes at the Farmers. Like Scheffler, Rose relishes competing at Sawgrass where he has recorded three career top-10s in 20 starts, including a T4 in 2014.

“It’s a course that I love, actually,” smiled Rose. “It’s one of the best courses that we play on tour. I think it’s very fitting for this championship. It suits all types of players.

“But it’s tricky as well. I feel like it’s a venue that I’ve sort of would like to figure out a bit better this year, that is for sure. I’ve had some good weeks here, some great rounds, but I would love to put four together this week.”

Englishman Fleetwood, the 2025 FedEx Cup champion, will make his ninth Players appearance and will aim to improve on a best finish at TPC Sawgrass of T5 in 2019.

“It’s just nice to be back,” he said. “It’s always a tournament that everybody gets really excited about. I think the biggest compliment you can give the golf course is that everybody holds it very high on their list, and I think that there’s always a wide spread of opinion.

“There’s been some big tournaments already this year but I think The Players, where it sits now, always marks the start of a big period coming.”

This week, a field of 123 golfers will tee it up at TPC Sawgrass in pursuit of a winner’s check for $4.5 million. Traditionally, the field totaled 144 but it was shrunk this year to a base of 120 players. With Brooks Koepka eligible for the tournament based on his return to the PGA Tour through the Returning Members Program, two more players were added to make it an even 41 threesomes for the first two rounds.

–Mark Lamport-Stokes, Field Level Media