PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – So what happens when Patrick Reed reaches the par-3 17th at The Players Championship this week?

Is he worried that the heckling he has endured since his controversial penalty in the waste area at the Hero World Challenge three months ago will get even worse? Is he worried that fans, notorious for their liquid courage around the Stadium Course’s island hole, will heckle him?

“No, not really,” Reed said Wednesday in his pre-tournament news conference.

But, he acknowledged a bad shot there won’t go over well.

“I cannot hit it in the water the next four days, because, if I do, if I hit in the water once, I won't hear the end of it until next year,” he said.

Reed was heckled hard at the Presidents Cup in his first appearance after the Hero World Challenge, where he was penalized for moving sand away from his ball with multiple practice backswings. He stands firm insisting that he wasn’t improving his lie intentionally, that he wasn’t even aware he was moving sand, and that the camera angle made it look worse than it was.

That controversy has followed him since, with a fan at the Arnold Palmer Invitational ejected after heckling him Saturday on the ninth hole there.

“I don’t understand why you can’t heckle a guy who has been accused of cheating on the PGA Tour,” that fan told the Orlando Sentinel as he was being escorted off the course.

Reed was asked Wednesday if thought that kind of “noise” would ever go away, or if winning will help him. He won the WGC-Mexico Championship three weeks ago.

“Winning always helps everything,” Reed told reporters at The Players. “But, really, at the end of the day, the noise goes away once you all decide it goes away. I feel like the players, and all of us, have moved on, but at the end of the day, all we can do is go out and continue playing good golf and doing what we're supposed to do.”

Last month, Brooks Koepka was asked on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio if Reed was cheating in that waste area.

“Yeah. I don’t know what he was doing, building sand castles in the sand,” Koepka said. “But, you know where your club is. I took three months off and I can promise you I know if I touch sand. If you look at the video, obviously, he grazes the sand twice and then he still chops down on it.”

Reed was asked Wednesday if he had talked to Koepka since then.

“I have not,” Reed said. “Last week, he played in the same event, and I don't think I saw him once.”

Talks are ongoing regarding the suspension of La Liga for the next two weeks, sources have confirmed to ESPN, as football continues to take extreme measures to help combat the spread of coronavirus.

The Spanish league has already moved all games behind closed doors until March 25. But with confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country topping 2,000 on Wednesday, there are growing calls for all matches to be postponed for the immediate future.

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The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has already revealed that all non-professional football in the country -- everything below the second division -- has been suspended moving forward. Sources have told ESPN that RFEF is also in favour of suspending professional football.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Players' Association (AFE) has sent a letter to La Liga, the RFEF and the High Council of Sports requesting, on behalf of the players, that all games in La Liga and La Segunda be postponed.

Celta Vigo, Real Zaragoza and Real Oviedo are among the clubs that have also appealed for fixtures to be postponed.

La Liga sources, following advice from the Ministry of Health, had insisted earlier on Wednesday that games would go ahead without supporters. However, the league will now engage in further talks with the RFEF and the government on Thursday when a final decision is expected to be taken.

Elsewhere, Sevilla's Europa League game against Roma, scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed. The Italian side's flight was not allowed to leave for Spain. With the entire of Italy -- where Europe's worst outbreak of covid-19 is centred -- locked down, Spain took the decision to ban flights between the two countries.

The decision leaves Barcelona's Champions League game against Napoli next week in the balance. The Catalan club have already announced the fixture will be played behind closed doors but it's now not certain the Serie A side will be allowed to travel for the match.

Madrid-based Getafe have also said they will not travel to Milan for their Europa League game against Inter on Thursday. The club's president, Angel Torres, said he wouldn't put his players at risk and he didn't care if it meant UEFA kicked them out of the competition.

All football in Italy has been suspended until April 3.

Spain and Italy are not the only countries where football has been affected by coronavirus. Games have also been suspended or will be played behind closed doors this week in England, France, Germany, Greece, Austria and Switzerland, among others.

Editor's note: Tor-Kristian Karlsen is a Norwegian football scout and executive, formerly the chief executive and sporting director at AS Monaco. He has worked as a scout and sporting director for several clubs across Europe and will write regularly for ESPN on the business of soccer.

The coronavirus outbreak has impacted soccer all over Europe, with postponements, domestic and cup games taking place behind closed doors, and travel bans preventing teams from traveling. There's also a growing concern over transfers and, more immediately, the logistics of finishing the 2019-20 seasons on time. There's also a genuine possibility that this summer's major tournament, Euro 2020, could be postponed/rescheduled, given that it's scheduled across 12 countries from June 12 to July 12.

Behind the scenes, soccer teams are struggling to conduct basic business when it comes to scouting and planning their summer transfer business. The knock-on effects of this outbreak could be significant. With no access to an increasing number of matches across top leagues, and travel becoming increasingly difficult to those games where spectators are still allowed, can they properly scout the players they need to improve their squads?

Italy, the first European country to be widely disrupted by the coronavirus, has already been experiencing major disruption to its football -- both on and off the pitch -- for weeks. From precautionary measures like postponing youth games in the north of the nation, where the virus first appeared, to playing games nationwide behind closed doors, the Italian FA is considering suspending Serie A altogether.

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While the plight of fans and players is attracting most attention, scouting is also seriously affected. The international chief scout of one of Italy's top clubs tells me: "Youth games have already been suspended for weeks and now all the Serie A games are being played behind closed doors, so obviously it's impossible to attend. Early in the crisis we had problems assigning some of our scouts, as they lived in the red zones [infected areas]. But now with the general travel ban, it's affecting everyone in Lombardia and the neighbouring areas."

As with any other business, the blanket ban on travel has also made it difficult to schedule scouting and sporting strategy meetings at home and abroad, and for an industry that functions very much on relationships and where key decisions are taken face to face, video conferencing is an unsatisfactory alternative. It's still a culture of clandestine meetings in hotels to thrash out contract details; that's much harder to do over Skype.

Also, international scouting operations are slowly coming to a standstill.

"During the past couple of weeks, we've only sent our people to games that are reachable by car, like Marseille, Monaco and Nice," my contact continues. "But now, as most European leagues are closing access to games entirely, it makes any travel pointless."

When asked whether South American trips -- usually high on the agenda for top clubs Europe-wide, especially at this time of the year, when the local leagues and continental competitions are reaching their climax -- are still being carried out, he answers, "We are very reluctant to send anyone by intercontinental flights now. As the virus is spreading, we cannot be assured that we can get the scouts back, as flight schedules are being disrupted on a daily basis, and we cannot guarantee the general safety of our employees."

The views of the Italian club's chief scout are echoed by a colleague at a dominant French club. "Our main problem is that we are now only able to plan on a week-by-week basis," he explains. "Under normal circumstances we would have our schedule worked out months in advance, even with flights and hotels booked in certain cases. Now we don't even know what the next few days might bring."

Emphasising that scouts are still actively travelling around Europe, he adds: "We are monitoring those leagues that are still open to the public. Actually, it gives us the opportunity to travel to countries that aren't usually that high up on the agenda. Some of the scouts are not so keen on travelling under the current circumstances, but they're professional and get on with it."

It's likely then that leagues such as those in Eastern Europe and North Africa are getting more attention than they'd usually attract, which could provide some benefit for territories often ignored by the scouting circuit.

The main scouting activities are now transitioning to the screen: Practically all professional football clubs are hooked up to at least one of the two major video streaming services, InstatScout and Wyscout, which provide footage of all top league games worldwide. But the inability to make the final checks on transfer targets in person is about to create headaches for clubs. Several of the insiders I spoke to raised the same problems: Though the prospective summer signings when the transfer window opens on July 1 have already been watched live by senior scouts, it's usually toward the end of the season when the real decision-makers (think sporting directors, head coaches or even chief executives and owners) fly out for final assessments. With transfer fees often pushing $100 million, signing players solely on video evidence is out of the question.

The dilemma facing one particular high-ranking club executive will be familiar to his peers: "We have already had our first internal meetings on how to deal with the summer transfer market if coronavirus persists. When we present a prospective transfer target to the board, we hand over a multipage dossier containing scouting reports and personality analysis, as well as detailed statistical and analytics-based information. If we are now facing a travel ban and inaccessible stadiums for an open-ended period, there will be challenges ahead.

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"The live scouting aspect, especially the recent observations, weigh heavily in the final decision-making process. And the deeper assessment of a player's character is something that is usually concluded towards the final months before the upcoming transfer period. At the moment, everything is up in the air, but we have to try to be as prepared as we possibly can."

That could mean clubs rethinking their transfer strategy completely in order to respond to the likely uncertainties. While the high-profile, huge-fee deals that might be affected will take the headlines, most scouting activity operates on similar principles of reviewing video and cross-checking in person, which means there is potential for any transfer between different countries being affected.

Will we see clubs looking at signing more players from their own domestic leagues, rather than risking forking out a fortune on a half-scouted foreign option? If so, it will be fascinating to see the potential effect on transfer fees: It's likely that prices will inflate to reflect the restricted, lower-risk local market, not to mention clubs' reluctance to sell to domestic rivals. As for those clubs that rely on developing and selling players to survive, how will they manage with a potential worldwide market suddenly closed off?

It's clear that there are some tricky decisions ahead for those in the transfer market, and already at the back of the minds of some is a worst-case scenario that could further complicate matters. While we're worrying about getting the 2019-20 season finished across Europe, can we even be sure that the next one will be able to start on schedule? With no way of knowing how long the crisis will continue, will clubs get cold feet over spending millions to add to their huge payrolls when there may be no games for their new signings to play in for weeks, even months?

It's clear that football and the transfer market are vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus, and if this situation continues or even escalates, it could make for an interesting summer.

Former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is close to finalizing a deal with WWE, according to a report by FS1's "WWE Backstage" program.

Gronkowski is "deep in talks" with the pro wrestling promotion, according to the report, though how he'll be used is unknown. The report noted that Gronkowski could pop up on WWE SmackDown as early as March 20.

WWE declined to comment when reached by ESPN on Wednesday.

Gronkowski, 30, has worked with WWE before. He took part in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 in 2017, jumping the barricade to help wrestler Mojo Rawley (a friend of Gronkowski's) win the match.

In August, Gronkowski said at a sponsor's news conference that he'd be interested in doing one big WWE match in "maybe five years" but could not see himself as a full-time wrestler.

"With wrestling, I don't feel like I would be a full-time wrestler, but there is one thing I'm down for," Gronkowski said. "And that's to do one crazy match. Practice it for a little bit, go out there -- like in a Royal Rumble -- go out there, I got my friend in WWE [Rawley], practice it and do a full-on WWE match. I'm not saying when, maybe five years. I got the rest of my life to do that. I've always dreamed about doing that, just one time, going in there and going full-out. That may be a possibility, one time, down the road."

Rawley told ESPN in October that the idea of Gronkowski being in WWE this year was not far-fetched.

"Hey, man, we've got SummerSlam in Boston [this coming August]," Rawley said. "Maybe we'll do a tag match. I've been doing my own thing, but for him, maybe I'll do a tag match."

WWE executives Paul "Triple H" Levesque and Stephanie McMahon, as well as Rawley, were at Gronkowski's Super Bowl beach party in February, at which time Levesque referenced SummerSlam in Boston in a Twitter post.

Thanks for the invite to the Beach Party @RobGronkowski ... maybe you should come to our party in Boston ... heard it's the biggest of the summer. @StephMcMahon pic.twitter.com/eRQ8z0UmQI

— Triple H (@TripleH) February 1, 2020

Gronkowski, who won three Super Bowls with the Patriots, retired from the NFL in March 2019 after nine seasons, saying the pain and injuries he suffered throughout his career had worn on him mentally.

He was selected to five Pro Bowls, was a four-time All-Pro first-team selection and was named to the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Famed SMU running back Eric Dickerson, Heisman Trophy winner Eric Crouch and late Alcorn State quarterback Steve McNair headline the 19 players and coaches who made the 2020 College Football Hall of Fame class, announced Wednesday.

In all, the 17 first-team All-America players and two coaches were selected from a national ballot of 215 total FBS and divisional candidates, along with and the National Football Foundation Veterans Committee candidates.

Among the players selected, 10 won conference player of the year honors - including Dickerson and Crouch twice and McNair four times. Thirteen played on conference championship teams. Two played on national championship teams (LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey and Alabama defensive end E.J. Junior (twice).

ESPN college football analyst David Pollack also was selected.

Dickerson, leader of the "Pony Express" at SMU from 1979-82, won Southwest Conference Player of the Year honors twice and is the school's all-time leading rusher with 4,450 career yards. He also owns 12 other school records and had his No. 19 jersey retired in 2000. He also is an NFL Hall of Famer.

Crouch won the Heisman in 2001 and finished his career as the third quarterback in NCAA history to rush for 3,000 yards and pass for 4,000 yards. That season, Crouch also won Walter Camp Player of the Year, the Davey O'Brien Award, Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year and led the Huskers to the national championship game, where they lost to Miami.

McNair, who made his name as "Air McNair," is the first player from Alcorn State to enter the College Football Hall of Fame. In 1994, he finished third for the Heisman Trophy, tied for the highest finish ever by an FCS player. He remains the all-time total yards leader in FCS history with 16,823 and is the only four-time SWAC Offensive Player of the Year. He died in 2009 at the age of 36.

The full class includes: Florida offensive tackle Lomas Brown, Ohio State running back Keith Byars, Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch, LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, Michigan offensive tackle Jumbo Elliott, Washington State kicker Jason Hanson, Maryland linebacker E.J. Henderson, Alabama defensive end E.J. Junior, UCLA quarterback Cade McNown, Oklahoma State defensive tackle Leslie O'Neal, Virginia defensive back Anthony Poindexter, Georgia defensive end David Pollack, Minnesota defensive end Bob Stein, Colorado receiver Michael Westbrook, Houston receiver Elmo Wright, and former coaches Dick Sheridan and Andy Talley.

The class will be officially inducted during the NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 8 in New York.

The Miami Dolphins are releasing two-time Pro Bowl safety Reshad Jones.

The move, which will become official March 18, frees up $5.3 million against the Dolphins' salary cap. With Jones' salary off the books, Miami has around $90 million in cap space, tops in the league.

‬"We want to thank Reshad for everything he has done for the Miami Dolphins," general manager Chris Grier said in a statement. "I have known Reshad since spending time with him at Georgia and have been impressed with everything he's been able to accomplish. We wish him the best moving forward."

Jones, who turned 32 in February, established himself as one of the Dolphins' core players for the past decade. He was the team's longest-tenured player after being selected in the fifth round of the 2010 NFL draft.

The end in Miami was clear for Jones, who has had surgery on both shoulders over the past few years. His large salary-cap number, age and injury history didn't fit with the rebuilding Dolphins.

Jones, who signed a five-year, $60 million deal in March 2017, was set to make $11.5 million in 2020, with $2 million already guaranteed.

The two-time Pro Bowl selection has 21 interceptions, 10.5 sacks and 4 defensive touchdowns in his career. He played just four games in 2019, notching 27 tackles, one tackle for loss and a pass deflection before ending the season on injured reserve.

ESPN's Cameron Wolfe contributed to this report.

Like many basketball parents around the world, Dwyane Wade isn't happy about his child's playing time. But the former NBA star has a major platform to express his frustration.

On Tuesday's edition of "Inside the NBA" on TNT, the Miami Heat legend said he would not attend Saturday's state title game between Sierra Canyon and the winner of Thursday's matchup between Sheldon High School (Sacramento) and Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland) in California's open division.

Sierra Canyon features Wade's son, senior Zaire, and LeBron James' son, freshman Bronny.

"I will not be there," Wade said. "My son isn't playing, and I don't want to do nothing to the coach [Andre Chevalier]. I won't be there. But I'll be rooting for the kids."

Ziaire Williams, a five-star prospect ranked seventh in the 2020 class by ESPN, hit the winning shot at the buzzer in Sierra Canyon's come-from-behind, 63-61 win over Etiwanda on Tuesday. Zaire Wade did not score in the game, per maxpreps.com.

Zaire Wade, a 6-foot-2 wing, was injured earlier this season. He averages 4.3 points per game, according to the games maxpreps.com tracked.

It's difficult to find playing time at Sierra Canyon. Williams and B.J. Boston, a five-star prospect who signed with Kentucky, are the stars of the team. Terren Frank is a four-star prospect who signed with TCU. Amari Bailey is a top-10 prospect in the class of 2022, according to ESPN. And Bronny James is evolving into a talented player, but even he has been overshadowed by the veteran standouts on Sierra Canyon's roster.

Bronny James and Zaire Wade combined to score just two points during a Thanksgiving Hoopfest win in Dallas over Texas state champion Duncanville. Zaire Wade played just four minutes in that game.

Zaire Wade is a three-star prospect in the 2020 class who currently has offers from DePaul, Nebraska, Rhode Island and Toledo, according to ESPN. Earlier this season, he told reporters that his father had compared Sierra Canyon to the Golden State Warriors because "everybody is coming after our team."

Dwyane Wade and his wife, actress Gabrielle Union, have attended multiple Sierra Canyon games this season.

Although Wade expressed frustration Tuesday, he had a different view Monday when he tweeted: "For All The Kids Out There That's Not Getting The Time or Opportunity They Feel They Deserve. Look No Further Than The Goat @TomBrady For Some Perspective. They Drafted 198 Players Before Him. #GodsPlan"

At the start of Zaire's season, Wade seemed to understand how difficult it might be for his son to get substantial minutes on Chevalier's team.

"He doesn't care who you are," Wade told USA Today about Chevalier last summer after his son transferred to Sierra Canyon. "He's gonna get on you. He's gonna push you and make you better. I feel like that's what everybody likes about him. Some coaches may soften up to certain players, but he doesn't."

TAMPA, Fla. -- New York Yankees reliever Zack Britton was hit on his right wrist by a line drive during a simulated game Wednesday and will undergo tests at a hospital.

Britton was pitching in his second inning when he got hurt on the drive off the bat of Erik Kratz. The 32-year-old left-hander walked off the mound and to shallow left field while holding his wrist. He kept his right arm still and appeared to be in pain while walking off the field with athletic trainer Gene Monahan.

Up until that point, it had been a good day on the injury front for the Yankees.

Giancarlo Stanton faced pitching for the first time since straining his right calf on Feb. 26 and hit an opposite-field homer to right off Britton. Stanton is expected to be sidelined until April.

Left-hander James Paxton resumed a throwing program in his rehabilitation from Feb. 5 back surgery and said he felt great and had no pain. He made 25 throws at 60 feet.

Paxton said his best-case scenario is for a mid-May return.

The 2:31 marathoner has endured injuries, a bike crash and a kidney stone problem but remains focused on the London Marathon

Since running a marathon PB of 2:31:00 in London last year to qualify for the World Championships in Doha, luck has not been on Tish Jones’ side and she has endured injuries, a bike crash and a kidney stone problem among other things.

Speaking from her training base in South Africa, she says she has had “a bumpy road” in recent months – and she is not exaggerating.

The build-up to her first GB appearance in Doha went well, with much of her training done in Colorado, but just before going to the holding camp in Dubai her carbon fibre bike was stolen in Teddington – a blow for an athlete who enjoys mixing cycling with running.

She was then forced to pull out of the marathon in Doha in October with a leg muscle injury.

Then just days later she came off her mountain bike while riding along a trail and broke a bone in her arm and cut her face badly in the crash. This led to her arm being in a sling for a while but she battled on training with Tokyo selection in her sights.

However, 2020 then began with her father suffering a major heart attack and her own training has been troubled by a kidney stone problem.

“It’s been a bit physically and mentally exhausting lately,” she says with some understatement.

Based in Cape Town and covering several hundred kilometres every week on her bike, in addition to running, Jones is used to taking the unconventional route. In her younger days she was not a keen runner at school and instead spent more time horse riding before eventually coming into running after impressing in obstacle course racing.

She has faced plenty of obstacles during recent months of training too. On her bike crash in October, she says: “I’d ridden the trail many times but my front suspension didn’t take kindly to this one chunk of wood that I tried to go over. My wheel planted into it and stuck and my arm collapsed on the handlebar. I landed on my face and my elbow, so I broke my radius.

“I think I was mildly concussed but I got up, checked that I had everything in my pockets and that my teeth were okay because there was blood everywhere. My helmet was crushed on one side and my ear was cut up with gravel. I thought my arm was sore but didn’t realise it was broken. I was at a high point on the mountain so had to ride down, although I realised I couldn’t brake properly so I got off occasionally and carefully made my way back to the gym in the end, where my stuff was.

“When people saw me, they were shocked. I didn’t know how bad my face was. When I got to the emergency room, I ended up being there for six hours until midnight. Although I was fine after that. It was just annoying that all that stuff (bad luck) happened at the same time.”

“I think I was mildly concussed but I got up, checked that I had everything in my pockets and that my teeth were okay because there was blood everywhere”

On her current kidney stone problem, she says: “The doctor didn’t seem too concerned about the size of it so I think I just have to wait and it’ll go of its own accord and I’m keeping myself as hydrated as possible in the meantime.”

The 34-year-old had an injury-hit build-up to London last year, though, but she came good in the end to finish second Brit behind Charlie Purdue and ahead of Lily Partridge, Hayley Carruthers, Tracy Barlow and Sonia Samuels. Jones was unable to run during January but kept fit with cross-training and then packed lots of work into the final two months before taking two minutes off her PB in the big race itself.

“I was devastated not to run in Doha,” she says, adding that the British Athletics team were brilliant in helping her through
her preparations and subsequent difficulties. “The hot climate didn’t matter to me. I wanted to run and I would have dragged myself to the finish. But my coach says it was a blessing that I missed it because I could have come out of it in a bad way.

“I was so upset not to race there though as it was my first British vest. I was in bits. It was like being in mourning afterwards. But with the injury there was no way I could have run it – that was the problem.”

She adds: “It took me so long to get to that position as part of the GB team. I got to the start line virtually but then couldn’t race.”

“I was so upset not to race there as it was my first British vest. I was in bits. It was like being in mourning afterwards”

Jones was really keen to race the Vitality Big Half earlier this month but ultimately decided with her coach Nick Anderson that she was better off focusing on preparing for the Virgin Money London Marathon and Olympic trials itself on April 26.

Based on their 2019 times, Purdue, Jess Piasecki, Steph Twell and Steph Davis will be the favourites for selection but Jones is one of a number who have the ability to rise to the occasion and qualify.

“It’s exciting and women running those times means it’s pushing others to do it now,” she says. “Running inside 2:40 is very good but a large number of women are doing it now in such a small country like ours.”

She adds: “I’m a bit frustrated. I just want a London build up that isn’t screwed up. Eventually it’s going to happen one day and my body is still learning how to cope with the process. Also 42km is a big ask and trying to train for it needs the patience of a saint.

“I don’t have much patience for most things. I lose my temper so easily. But I have patience for running. Everything goes into my running.”