New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of felony strangulation or suffocation and misdemeanor assault and battery after an alleged dispute with his personal chef.

The arraignment at Massachusetts’s Dedham District Court had been delayed so Diggs could participate when the Patriots played last Sunday in Super Bowl LX.

The next scheduled appearance in the case is an April 1 pretrial hearing. Diggs was released on his own recognizance.

The alleged incident occurred Dec. 2, a day after the Patriots beat the New York Giants on “Monday Night Football.” The chef told Dedham police that during an argument about compensation he owed her, Diggs allegedly struck and choked her.

Through his attorneys, Diggs has denied the charges, saying the allegations are unsubstantiated and motivated by a financial dispute.

“He is completely innocent of these false allegations that have been alleged against him,” Diggs’ attorney, Mitchell Schuster, told reporters Friday. “We’re confident that after the facts and evidence reviewed in this case, he will be completely exonerated.”

Diggs, 32, signed a three-year, $63.5 million contract that includes $6 million that fully guarantees on March 13. In his first season with the Patriots, he led the team in catches (85) and receiving yards (1,013) with four touchdowns in 17 games (all starts).

New England lost the Super Bowl to the Seattle Seahawks, 29-13.

The Patriots have not commented on the matter since releasing a statement in support of Diggs after the initial news of his arrest.

“The New England Patriots are aware of the accusations that have been made regarding Stefon Diggs. Stefon has informed the organization that he categorically denies the allegations. We support Stefon,” the Patriots said Dec. 30. “We will continue to gather information and will cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities and the NFL as necessary. Out of respect for all parties involved, and given that this is an ongoing legal matter, we will have no further comment at this time.”

–Field Level Media

In a game that could determine which team gets left out of next month’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Georgia Tech visits Notre Dame in a meeting between a pair of basement dwellers on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind.

Georgia Tech (11-14, 2-10 ACC) has dropped six in a row while Notre Dame (11-14, 2-10) is riding a five-game losing streak.

The struggling teams are in a three-way tie with Pittsburgh for last place in the ACC. If the season ended today, all three teams would miss out on the conference tournament in Charlotte in the second week of March.

Fortunately for the Yellow Jackets and Fighting Irish, each side has six games remaining to try and turn things around.

Georgia Tech is coming off a pair of losses to Stanford and Wake Forest by a combined 39 points. For third-year head coach Damon Stoudamire and company, the clock is ticking, and a win on Saturday is desperately needed.

“First and foremost, we need to win. I think that we all understand that,” Stoudamire said. “We’ve got to be better at dealing with adversity. I just don’t think that collectively we’re great at dealing with adversity. When times get tough, we don’t stick together all the time. To me, that is hurting us more than anything at the end of the day.”

Kowacie Reeves Jr. leads the struggling Yellow Jackets with 15.2 points per game, while Baye Ndongo averages 12.4 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest.

Notre Dame’s season outlook changed in December when its best player, Markus Burton, sustained a season-ending broken ankle. Since the calendar flipped to 2026, the Fighting Irish are 1-10, with the lone victory a four-point home win over Boston College.

With center Kebba Njie also out for the season with a knee injury, Notre Dame has had to rely heavily on its guard play.

“We really only have one true post player,” head coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “We play smaller and see if we can spread it out a little bit more. I feel like that’s one of the ways we can try and get more threes is to have more ball handlers, have more shooting out there, have more guys that can attack.”

Freshman Jalen Haralson paces Notre Dame with 15.5 ppg, followed by Braeden Shrewsberry’s 12.

–Field Level Media

MILAN — The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday dismissed an appeal by Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych to be reinstated in the Milan Cortina Olympics after he was disqualified over his “helmet of remembrance.”

The 27-year-old was removed from the Olympic program on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that imagery on the helmet — depicting athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 — breached rules on political neutrality.

“The CAS ad Hoc division dismissed the application and found that freedom of expression is guaranteed at the Olympic Games but not on the field of play which is a sacred principle,” CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said, reading from a statement following an eight-hour hearing.

Heraskevych, who was seeking reinstatement or at least a CAS-supervised run ahead of the final two runs set for Friday evening, said he would look at his legal options now.

“CAS has failed us. We will consider our next steps,” Heraskevych told Reuters.

The case has dominated headlines in the first week of the Olympics, with the International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry meeting the athlete on Thursday morning at the sliding venue in Cortina d’Ampezzo in a last-minute attempt to broker a compromise and have him race without the specific helmet.

The IOC instead offered that he wear a black armband and display the helmet before and after the race but said using the helmet in competition breached its rules on political protests and slogans in the field of play.

In a statement, CAS said the IOC guidelines for athletes’ expression in the Games were fair.

“The Sole Arbitrator found these limitations reasonable and proportionate, considering the other opportunities for athletes to raise awareness,” CAS said.

“The Sole Arbitrator considers these Guidelines provide a reasonable balance between athletes’ interests to express their views, and athletes’ interests to receive undivided attention for their sporting performance on the field of play.”

Ukraine’s Olympic Committee has backed its athlete, who is also the team’s flagbearer for the Games and also displayed a “No War in Ukraine” sign at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, days before Russia’s invasion. Heraskevych has received support from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

CAS was established in 1984 by the IOC as an independent judicial authority to settle sports disputes worldwide.

–Reuters, Special to Field Level Media