Timo Werner's penalty earned RB Leipzig a 1-0 victory against Tottenham in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie on Wednesday.

The Bundesliga side dominated the match and grabbed the crucial away goal in the second half at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Spurs started with Dele Alli and Lucas Moura up front with Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min missing out with injury.

The visitors made a fast start and Werner hit the post in the opening two minutes but the goal would have been ruled out for offside.

Spurs responded when Steven Bergwijn saw his curling shot saved by Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.

Werner had a great chance to put the German side ahead after 36 minutes but Hugo Lloris saved his close range effort.

Leipzig were awarded a penalty just before the hour mark when Ben Davies fouled Konrad Laimer inside the area.

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Werner converted from the spot to score his seventh goal in the competition this season.

Leipzig almost scored a second moments later from a great counter attack but Patrik Schick's shot was saved by Lloris.

Spurs were close to an equaliser late on when Gulacsi produced a fine save from a Giovani Lo Celso free kick, while Moura missed a close range header.

The absence of proper pressure in South Africa's domestic competitions is leaving bowlers ill-equipped to handle similar situations on the international stage, according to bowling coach Charl Langeveldt.

Speaking three days after Mark Boucher assessed his bowlers' skill levels as not being good enough following South Africa's failure to defend totals in two out of the three T20 matches in the recently completed England series, Langeveldt said more practice at franchise level is essential for his young pack.

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"It was disappointing, especially with the scores we had. I thought we could have defended that but in saying that, not a lot of guys get into that position in domestic cricket," Langeveldt said. "It's a concern for me. It's not good enough. In World Cups, you are going to get a lot of games like that. And if I look around the country, domestic cricket, the close games aren't like it used to be."

The evidence from the Mzansi Super League (MSL), South Africa's flagship T20 competition, supports Langeveldt's claim. In 54 completed matches across two editions of the tournament, only three matches have reached their stage where the fielding team needed to defend fewer than 15 runs to win off the last over. On two occasions, they were successful, once in 2018 when Andrew Birch of the Tshwane Spartans ensured they beat the Paarl Rocks and then in 2019, when Sri Lanka's Isuru Udana gave Paarl Rocks victory over the Cape Town Blitz. While Udana has been in action against India recently, Birch has never played for South Africa despite a strong domestic record.

Instead, it is a new crop of quicks that Langeveldt has been tasked with moulding into death bowlers and the one he sees as best-placed to do the job is no longer in the squad. "A guy like [Sisanda] Magala, from seeing him in the nets, he is the most confident," Langeveldt said. But uncapped Magala was dropped from the squad having spent the England series working to pass a fitness test that would see him debut. He has returned to his franchise, the Warriors, and was named in their team to play a domestic one-day cup match on Tuesday, which was rained off.

Magala is due to continue working with South Africa's fitness trainer to meet the team's requirements and remains a candidate for the T20 World Cup but for now, Langeveldt is looking at Lungi Ngidi and Andile Phehlukwayo to do the job and the latter, specifically. "has gone a bit backwards." Phehluwayo's changes of pace used to be key to South Africa's ability to contain but he has struggled with his consistency.

One of the only ways to improve on that is repetition and Langeveldt is trying to emphasis that. "It's training. The same way you train bowling length every day, with yorkers you have to train it," he said. "It's when to release the ball."

But even then, bowling in the nets is entirely different to pulling it off in a match, when eyes and expectation are on you and that is something Langeveldt can't teach. "The big thing is to land it under pressure. You can execute it in the nets but it's when you are in the game, you need to be able to," he said. "It's sometimes difficult to coach that to a guy because he needs to figure it out for himself, once he is out in the middle. You can give him the tools, it's what he does with them."

While Langeveldt's focus is on "mentally preparing" his bowlers, he also hopes the inclusion of experienced players like Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada will bring belief into group. Rabada was rested for the white-ball games against England, after being suspended from the final Test, and spent his time at NBA All-Star game in Chicago. He arrived in Johannesburg on Wednesday, "refreshed and ready to get straight back to work," which is exactly what Langeveldt hoped would happen.

"Renewed focus is a good thing. As 24-year-old playing for your country all the time, you're always under pressure," Langeveldt said. "He was our leading bowler for a couple of years and probably still is so hopefully he brings that energy back."

One thing that is certain is that Rabada will bring intent, especially against Australia. His most recent history with them involved a shoulder-brush with Steve Smith which almost saw him banned for a match in the 2018 Tests series but he successfully appealed the charge. He has since earned a further demerit point for an aggressive send-off which included screaming at Joe Root and entering his space during the Port Elizabeth Test and has promised to contain his passions for the good of the team in future.

But Langeveldt hopes not too much. "KG will always bring that competitiveness. He is competitive by nature. He wants to take wickets and we will definitely use our bumpers," Langeveldt warned. "But he also needs to control the aggression. Be controlled with your lines, lengths and your bouncer."

As Sri Lanka and the West Indies prepare to square off in the first of three ODIs on Saturday - which will be followed by two T20Is next month - the series offers the chance for both sides to benchmark themselves as they work towards the T20 World Cup later this year.

For the West Indies, it's an opportunity to see if they can build on their impressive showing in India in December, when they went toe to toe with arguably the top limited-overs team in the world. Eventually, they came away on the wrong end of narrow 2-1 series defeats in both the ODIs and T20Is.

For Sri Lanka, after a chastening T20I series loss in India and an underwhelming Test series win over Zimbabwe to start the year, this series offers them a chance at testing themselves against a quality opposition but aided by familiar home comforts.

"We've got some realistic goals that we want to achieve over the next couple of years, and this is the start for us," Sri Lanka head coach Mickey Arthur said at a media briefing in Colombo on Wednesday, ahead of the start of the series.

Arthur, who will be taking the reins of the ODI side for the first time since being hired as national coach, said he was particularly keen to see how his players adapted to the newly allocated roles given to them. But more than that, he was hopeful that good results over the coming weeks had the potential to give his players some much-needed belief in the process put in place.

"We're very realistic about where we're at at the moment but we have some very good goals that we want to achieve over the next couple of years," he said."We just want to keep getting better and better. Everybody has certainly been given very clear role definitions, so to see how the guys embrace those role definitions is going to be very, very interesting.

"Also we need to establish what's going to be our best brand of cricket and how we're going to go about that, and hope that we can get some results which will give the confidence in the brand of cricket we want to play over the next couple of years. Because ultimately that gives you sustainable success, and that's what we're all in the game for."

As for West Indies head coach Phil Simmons, the tour is more about looking to carry on the progress that was so evident against India.

"For the last three months we've been trying to build both our white-ball teams," Simmons said. "We're looking at improving. And [at the end of this tour] if we've gotten better than we were in India then we could be walking away with the series."

One of the main areas for improvement the team has been eyeing since that India tour has been in their bowling. While the West Indies batsmen have never been short of confidence, Simmons felt it was in the bowling department that impactful gains could be made.

"I think during the series we played well, but we just had to improve our bowling. We've been working hard on that, in terms of getting more wickets in the middle overs and things like that. I think we've improved and we'll see what happens in this series."

The first ODI takes place in Colombo on February 22.

TAMPA, Fla. -- New York Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton on Wednesday called out Houston Astros owner Jim Crane for saying his club's illegal sign-stealing system may or may not have had an impact on the competition on the field in 2017.

Stanton, acquired by the Yankees before the start of the 2018 season, led the majors with 59 home runs in 2017 as a member of the Miami Marlins. That total was the most by a major league player since 2001.

"If I knew what [pitch] was coming in '17, I probably would have hit 80-plus home runs," Stanton said Wednesday.

Stanton later clarified his comment, saying it "wasn't to make it about me."

"The point I was trying to make is that if I was part of that team and got the home run record doing that, there's no way that would be upheld and not have asterisks or taken away," he said. "So neither should their accolades, is what I was getting at with that."

Asked last week whether sign stealing affected competition, Crane said, "It could possibly do that, it could possibly not."

When told of Crane's ambivalence, Stanton quipped, "He knew. He knew."

"It would have been better if there was an apology or explanation on their side," Stanton added. "We know that [the Astros] don't really care to give an apology or explain their side, and it showed by their response. As players, we know that. You know the repercussions of doing something like that, and you're only really sorry because you got caught."

Stanton agreed with teammate Aaron Judge, who said that not only should Astros players have been directly punished by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, but they should also vacate their 2017 World Series championship.

"They did their investigation, and it was clean-cut that they cheated that year, which means it should be taken away. I mean, if you cheat in another way during the season, you can't even be in the playoffs, so therefore [you] would be eliminated. So it's pretty much the same -- same difference," Stanton said. "I don't think the penalties were harsh enough player-wise. I think that, at the end of the day, it gives more incentive to do that, if you're not going to punish the players that took part in it."

Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole said Wednesday that he was not offended by his new teammates' reactions to the sign-stealing scandal and their belief that Houston continued to steal signs into the 2019 season. Cole was a member of the Astros the past two seasons.

"Everybody's entitled to their opinion," Cole said. "It's their own opinion, and people handle this the way that they want to handle it. We're all grown guys around here, and I certainly am not going to tell somebody how to think. I don't see it as an issue. I'm not personally offended by it."

Stanton has a long history with former Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, the whistleblower who spurred the MLB investigation that confirmed Houston had used a camera-based sign-stealing system in 2017.

In September 2014, a Fiers fastball hit Stanton in the face, causing lacerations, fractures and dental damage. Since that incident, there has been no love lost between the two.

Asked whether he had gained respect for Fiers for speaking out, Stanton said it didn't change anything.

"No, not really," Stanton said Wednesday. "This isn't about me and him. This information would have come to light eventually; maybe not as soon, but it has nothing to do with me and him."

Stanton, who struggled with biceps, shoulder, calf and knee injuries throughout the season, said 2019 was the most frustrating year of his career. After playing in only 18 regular-season games, and being limited during the 2019 postseason due to a quadriceps strain, Stanton said he has fully rehabbed his injuries.

"I didn't have much time off. I got my rest, but I had to rehab the moment the season was over, and then by the time I was done rehabbing, I had my normal offseason training. Just getting my knee and quad to full strength," he said. "I did everything I needed to do. [This spring] I have no limitations; just have to be smart with the workload, getting back into it. But no limitations."

Manager Aaron Boone said Stanton's role, whether he will start primarily in left field or as designated hitter, remains "fluid."

"Whatever works best for the team. That's kind of like we did my first season here. It's just like, here's a plan for the next three days. What do you think? How can we make it better?" Stanton said when addressing whether there was an ideal balance between playing the field and being the designated hitter. "Just go with the flow. Whatever works."

ASHBURN, Va. -- Washington Redskins tight end Jordan Reed was finally cleared from the concussion protocol, a source confirmed, clearing the way for his eventual release.

Reed suffered the concussion on a helmet-to-helmet hit in August, during the third preseason game. His clearance was first reported by The Athletic. Redskins coach Ron Rivera had said Saturday that Reed remained in the protocol.

Sources said Reed will soon be released. Once he is, Washington will save $8.5 million against the salary cap, with $1.8 million in dead money. Reed has two years left on his contract.

Reed, 29, missed all of last season because of the concussion, his seventh documented one since he started playing college football. His career has been marked by multiple injuries, and Reed has never played more than 14 games in a season. A source close to Reed said the tight end wants to continue playing.

He had struggled for two seasons because of ligament damage to his big toes but looked good in training camp over the summer. But in the third preseason game, Reed suffered a concussion after Atlanta Falcons safety Keanu Neal delivered a helmet-to-helmet hit. Reed nearly returned in Week 2, getting cleared by the team, but after symptoms returned, an independent neurologist failed to clear him. He did not practice after Sept. 12 and was put on injured reserve Oct. 14.

Washington made Reed the focal point of its passing attack under former coach Jay Gruden. He responded with a big season in 2015, when he played a career-high 14 games. That season, Reed caught 87 passes for 952 yards and 11 touchdowns -- all personal bests.

After that season, the Redskins signed Reed to a five-year extension worth up to $46.75 million, and he made his lone Pro Bowl after the 2016 season. But from 2016 to 2018, thanks to injuries, he averaged only 49 catches per season with a combined 10 touchdowns. He has 329 career receptions with 24 touchdowns.

Washington selected Reed in the third round out of Florida in the 2013 draft and he provided immediate help, catching 45 passes in nine games before injuries ended his rookie season. Reed proved to be a mismatch for linebackers or safeties, especially when aligned in the slot. The Redskins loved his ability to quickly win versus a defender, making him an ideal target.

The Redskins have a big need at tight end. Last year's starter, Vernon Davis, retired -- though it was unlikely they would have re-signed him anyway. Washington visited with Greg Olsen, but he ended up signing with the Seattle Seahawks.

Washington already released two former starters this month: cornerback Josh Norman and wide receiver Paul Richardson. After those moves, the Redskins have approximately $54 million in salary-cap space.

Ryan Newman has been released from Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, two days after his frightening crash on the final lap of the Daytona 500.

Roush Fenway Racing said Wednesday that the 42-year-old driver had been released, hours after tweeting that Newman "continues to show great improvement" and saying "true to his jovial nature, he has also been joking around with staff, friends and family while playing with his two daughters."

The team included a photo of Newman exiting the hospital, holding hands with his two children.

Ryan Newman has been treated and released from Halifax Medical Center pic.twitter.com/J0twhGgQm7

— Roush Fenway (@roushfenway) February 19, 2020

No details on Newman's injuries or a timetable for return have been released. Roush Fenway Racing announced Wednesday that Ross Chastain, who has three career Truck Series wins and two Xfinity Series wins, will be the fill-in driver for the No. 6 Ford starting at Las Vegas this weekend.

Newman was injured Monday night when he crashed while leading NASCAR's biggest race. Contact from Ryan Blaney sent Newman spinning into the wall, and his Ford went airborne before being hit by Corey LaJoie in the driver's side door.

The car landed on its roof, slid across Daytona International Speedway and came to a rest upside down and on fire, with gasoline pouring out of the vehicle. It took a safety team nearly 20 minutes to remove Newman from the car, and he was taken to the Daytona Beach hospital.

Meanwhile, Blaney and LaJoie have stepped back from racing to process their roles in the crash. LaJoie climbed from his own burning car and dropped to his knees on the track, learning only after he was checked at the care center that Newman was injured.

Blaney seemed distraught as he paced beside his car after his second-place finish to Denny Hamlin.

Bubba Wallace, one of Blaney's best friends, said he spent time with Blaney on Tuesday and advised him to stay off social media for a few days.

"He's holding up, of course devastated and bummed about the situation," Wallace tweeted. "Had to sit there and explain to him could've happened to him or any of us in the field. IT'S RACING. Just unfortunate to be on either end of it."

Wallace also praised Blaney's attempt to push Newman to the win in a move of brand alliance for Ford. It was when Blaney tried to lock onto Newman's bumper to give him a shove that the cars didn't align properly and Newman was hooked into a spin.

"I know Ford should be proud to have him under their banner because he was so content on pushing his Ford teammate to win the biggest race of the year," Wallace continued. "Which makes it worse [because] a simple selfless gesture went south in the blink of an eye."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nestled among the trees in suburban Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a building that looks like a long storage container, is a gym that serves as the home of the heavyweight champion of the world. Above a garage-style door hangs a sign that reads, "Parking space reserved for Mr. Wilder."

It's an unexpected setting befitting the outsized, stranger-than-life tale of WBC champ Deontay Wilder, who on Saturday in Las Vegas will attempt to make amends for the only blemish on his 42-0-1 record when he faces Tyson Fury, whom he fought to a draw in 2018.

He is a superhero everyman. He is not your typical star athlete -- no pampered, cloistered celebrity with a team of sycophants and handlers. As these nine stories attest, Deontay Wilder is just your average 6-foot-7 heavyweight champion who has 11 cars and stocks random gas station beer coolers and twerks and sometimes accidentally sets himself on fire.

As a child, Deontay Wilder was saved by a whale -- just ask him

It was the early '90s, and Gary Wilder walked from a boat landing into the waters of the Black Warrior River near Tuscaloosa. His four children, still on land, were standing next to the bucket he brought to sit on while he fished. The water crept up his legs until it hit his knees. "I told my children, 'This is as far as you go right here,'" Gary says today from his office in the church he pastors in Tuscaloosa. "I said, 'If you go past that and I'm not watching, you're going to die.'"

The Wilder kids, you see, couldn't swim, so Gary wanted to be sure they understood: They were absolutely not allowed to go farther than where the water lapped his knees.

Deontay, who loved to push boundaries, didn't listen, wandering into the water until it flowed up near his head. Gary, briefly distracted, turned in time to see his 11-year-old just as he slid under the surface. Gary sprinted down the boat landing, grabbed his eldest boy by the hair and pulled him out.

And that's when the legend of the Wilder whale began.

"Deontay said that when he was under the water about to drown, a big whale came and slapped him out with his tail. He says that even now," Gary says of his now-35-year-old son. "Common sense would tell you there's no whale in the river, but he still says it was a whale."

Deontay Wilder, twerking machine

Wilder estimates that he has spent more than 1,000 hours in a tattoo chair, putting ink across his 6-foot-7 canvas of a body. When asked how many pieces adorn his frame, he can't produce a number. Dark ink decorates his entire torso and snakes down his arms. He used to get a new tattoo before every fight. "Every tattoo that he has means something," says Porsha Luca, his longtime tattoo artist. In her shop, Luca pumped music through the speakers. Coincidentally, Wilder loves to dance. And one day in the shop, while Luca was hunched over her corner table working, Wilder stood and, well, just started twerking.

"I think I'm a pretty good twerker," Wilder says. "I'm very flexible for being 6-foot-7."

Says Luca: "He was really popping his booty."

His butt faced the door of Luca's studio, and as her boss walked down the narrow hallway to pass them, he was met with Wilder's booty twerking in his face.

"Ever since then,'' Luca says, "the shop has been deemed a no-twerk zone."

Deontay Wilder: No, seriously, actually on fire

It was a summer day in 2016, less than two weeks before he was to fight Chris Arreola, and Wilder was out in his yard pulling weeds and stacking branches. The house he shared with fiancée Telli Swift at the time sat right on the water; down by the shore was a pit where Wilder would regularly burn brush.

On this day, Wilder was in a hurry. He and Swift were going somewhere -- she was in the car waiting for him. Instead of using the chemicals he normally would for burning these branches, he grabbed the gasoline by mistake. After dousing the brush, he poured a path away from the pile, sending the fumes and the smell of gas into the air.

When he lit the match, Wilder first heard the crackling of the fumes. "When I heard 'ch-ch,' I knew what was coming next," Wilder says. The fumes caught fire, and a ball of flames exploded in front of his face. Wilder shielded himself with his right arm, but it was too late. As the fire shot up his arm, Wilder dropped to the ground and rolled.

"It was like a scene in an action movie," Wilder says.

From the car, Swift saw him stop, drop and roll. She thought he was playing around; he loves to play around. "I'm in the car cracking up, and he's really on fire," she says.

Wilder hopped into Swift's car holding his arm, which had third-degree burns. "He was like, 'I've gone and burnt my arm off,'" Swift says. "And I was like, 'Oh my god, let's go in the house and pour milk on it.'"

After the milk treatment, they went to the hospital and saw a specialist. Just days later, with only a couple of weeks until his next fight, Wilder was back in the ring, preparing for Arreola, whom he would ultimately defeat by TKO after the eighth round.

'He doesn't half-ass the situation'

In late August 2019, Wilder bought his 11th car -- a custom Rolls-Royce SUV, dipped in gold with his logo on the rims. "He loves gold," Swift says.

This is his "California" car, the one he parks at the house he and Swift own in Los Angeles. Before heading to a meeting with his financial adviser, Wilder grabbed the hose that was hooked up in the garage Swift uses for her car, walked past his French bulldog, whose name is Wednesday, and headed out to wash his new toy.

In addition to the hose, he had a bucket with soap, his wipes, tire cleaner and a vacuum. "He doesn't half-ass the situation," Swift says of Wilder -- whose $3 million purse for his last title defense would buy more than 111,000 $27 basic washes in Los Angeles. "You'd think you're at a car wash."

Deontay Wilder, man of the people

It was the morning of Nov. 24, 2019, and Wilder had just knocked out Luis Ortiz at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas a few hours earlier. Ring announcer Ray Flores had left his hotel room to grab some grub and ran into Wilder and his camp tucked into a corner booth in the hotel food court. It was 2:33 a.m. The open space, dotted with bland white and gray tile, was lit by the neon lights of the only open restaurants at MGM: Johnny Rockets, Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs and Bonanno's New York Pizzeria.

Starving after the fight, Wilder had come down for some sausage and pepperoni pizza -- his favorite -- and a vanilla milkshake. Once they made it, however, Wilder was swarmed.

"He was giving them their full attention," Flores says. "He's a man of the people."

After the late-night crowd dispersed, Wilder made his way to the corner, mostly out of view. But of course, some fans continued to come up to him, asking, "Can we get a 'Bomb squad'?"

"He screams that to his fans and to the public all through fight week, all through training camp and all through interviews," says Malik Scott, Wilder's sparring partner and longtime friend.

But now the champ was exhausted. "He just gave Ortiz his last energy," Scott says. "But Deontay said to them, 'What you say?' And by the time they were asking him to say it again, he just screamed, 'Bomb squad!'"

Deontay Wilder, freelance beer-label fixer

It was May 19, 2007, and the sun was shining as longtime trainer Jay Deas and Wilder drove to Memphis, Tennessee. They were headed to see a fight between Jermain Taylor and Cory Spinks and pulled off I-22 to stretch their legs and grab a snack. They'd been in the car for almost four hours. Wilder was two months away from earning his Olympic bronze medal in Beijing. To make ends meet, he had been working as a beer distributor.

"It was probably a BP," Deas says now.

Deas climbed out of his red Honda Accord, crossed the asphalt parking lot, and pulled open the door to the convenience store. He found Wilder, who had gone in before him, in the back of the store, staring at the cooler with his shoulders tensed in frustration. "I was like, 'What's wrong, D?'" Deas says. "And he said, 'This ain't right. This ain't right.'"

Deas was confused. Wilder gestured toward the beer in the coolers. "All the labels are supposed to face the customer," Deas says, "and I guess the people had not done it correctly."

And so it was that Wilder opened the door to the cooler, reached his hand inside and rotated each of the beers until all the labels faced the right direction. He was not employed by the store. It was not in the least bit his job. The manager was in no way paying attention to his hard work.

"There's no reason to do it except it just wasn't right," Deas says, "and he wanted to make it right."

Going the extra ... tile

Three weeks after Wilder won his bronze medal in Beijing, Jay Dees walked into his gym and expected to see Wilder in the ring. He'd seen his car out front, so he figured he'd see him somewhere -- if not in the ring then maybe training on a heavy bag or speed bag. But ... the gym was empty.

Deas called out Wilder's name as he walked around. "I heard him say, 'In here,'" Deas says now.

The voice came from the bathroom, of all places. Deas walked over to the open door to find Wilder crouched on the ground in jeans and a dark long-sleeved T-shirt. He was scraping up tile. He had a stack of green-patterned tile next to him that he was laying down.

"I was like, 'What are you doing?'" Deas says. "He said, 'I'm ... retiling the floor.' And I said, 'For what? You just won the Olympic medal.'

He said, 'It needed it. It needed it.'"

When the fighter was not a fighter

In sixth grade, a lanky Wilder stuck out at school -- and he barely made a peep. "He didn't hardly say anything until I let him loose in the house," Gary says.

One day after school, three boys were pushing Deontay, bullying him. Gary had long instructed his son not to fight with anyone, so Deontay walked away, crossing the street back to his house.

He walked inside crying, breathing heavily, with his fists balled at his sides. Tears streamed down his face as he sniffled.

"He said, 'Dad, them boys messing with me in that parking lot,'" Gary says. "And I said, 'Come and show me.'"

So Gary walked back across the street with his son to find the three boys standing there. Deontay pointed at the kids. "I said, 'Why are you messing with Deontay?'" Gary says. "'What do you want from him?'"

Gary had to restrain himself from telling Deontay to teach those kids a lesson. But instead, they just walked home. Once they got inside, Gary turned to his son. "I said, 'Deontay, you better never, never come back to this house like this again,'" Gary says. "'If you ever run from somebody, and you run to this house, you going to have to run from me. You better not never run from nobody again.'"

Deontay Wilder, king of romance

After just two days with Telli Swift, who would become his fiancée, Wilder already knew he was going to marry her. They had met at LAX a month prior, their eyes connecting across security lines inside the crowded terminal. Swift still remembers Wilder's green shirt and distressed jeans. As Wilder finally approached her, Swift kept her head down, pretending to study her phone. Playing it cool. "I knew he was going to talk to me," Swift says, "but I was trying to make it seem like I didn't."

Wilder and Swift talked for a few minutes. They discovered their Alabama connection -- Swift's father having grown up in a small town called Abbeville and Wilder in Tuscaloosa, where he still lived. But they didn't exchange information because Swift was distracted by another friend. It took some Instagram sleuthing on Swift's part -- through a mutual friend -- to finally learn Wilder's name, and a family reunion in Abbeville brought her to Wilder's turf.

By the time she made it to Alabama, she and Wilder had been communicating for weeks. They had spent hours on the phone, often talking late into the night, falling asleep more than once. The reunion in Abbeville was an opportunity to finally have that first date.

Before seeing her family, Swift met up with Wilder in Tuscaloosa. After an afternoon in Abbeville, Swift called Wilder to ask if she -- and her son and brother -- could come back to Tuscaloosa.

One day together stretched into two, and by that second morning, Wilder was convinced that Telli was for him. "I was like, 'Yeah, OK, whatever,'" Swift says.

To prove how serious he was, Wilder suggested they get matching tattoos. He brought Swift to see Porsha Luca at the shop he frequents -- the same one in which his twerking is expressly forbidden. They sat in the black chairs, and Luca dragged the ink across the skin on their hands. "L" and "V" on Wilder. "O" and "E" on Swift.

Ever the impulsive man, ever the obsessive, ever the romantic, Deontay Wilder -- the heavyweight champion who defies most every expectation -- had added yet another piece to his puzzle.

"If we hold hands," Swift says, "it says LOVE."

A lawsuit filed by Charles Oakley against New York Knicks owner James Dolan and Madison Square Garden has been dismissed by a federal judge.

Oakley filed the lawsuit in 2017, after a February incident that year in which he had a run-in with security personnel at the Garden. He had alleged assault, battery and false imprisonment, along with defamation after Dolan and the Knicks implied he had a problem with alcohol.

He had been seeking compensation to be determined by a jury for emotional distress and/or mental anguish, punitive damages, damages to Oakley's reputation, and reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

"This case has had the feel of a public relations campaign," U.S. Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan wrote in his decision to dismiss, "with the parties seemingly more interested in the court of public opinion than the merits of their legal arguments."

Oakley's attorney, Douglas Wigdor, said they were disappointed by the ruling but that Oakley "is not one to give up."

"It's just the beginning of the fourth quarter, and we are confident that we can turn this around with an appeal that we plan to file in the coming days," Wigdor said in a statement.

Madison Square Garden released a statement thanking the court for its decision.

"This was an incident that no one was happy about," the statement said. "Maybe now there can be peace between us."

Oakley was sitting near Dolan at a game on Feb. 8, 2017. He was approached by security soon after arriving and began to scuffle with them before he was removed from his seat and arrested.

When posting a statement about the arrest during the game, the Knicks called Oakley a great Knick but said he had acted in an "abusive manner" and that they hoped "he gets some help soon." Dolan then said during an ESPN radio interview that Oakley may have a problem with alcohol.

But Sullivan said Oakley failed to prove any of the statements were defamatory.

"Oakley has failed to allege a plausible legal claim that can meet federal pleading standards," Sullivan concluded.

Oakley had been charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault, one misdemeanor count of aggravated harassment and one misdemeanor count of trespassing. He was also cited for two additional counts of harassment that were considered noncriminal violations. The criminal case was dismissed and sealed in 2018.

Oakley, 56, spent 10 years as the Knicks' starting power forward, from the 1988-89 season to 1997-98.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MESA, Ariz. -- New Chicago Cubs manager David Ross wasted no time in making his first big decision, announcing Kris Bryant as his leadoff man even before playing a game.

"You'll see him at the top of the order a whole lot in spring training," Ross said Wednesday. "Kris Bryant is a really good at-bat, gets on base, is probably one of our best baserunners. His baseball IQ is extremely high. When you talk about putting the best players at the top of the order, I want to put him at the top."

Bryant is on board, having hit leadoff in college after teams stopped pitching to him in the middle of the University of San Diego order.

The Cubs ranked last in the majors in on-base percentage (.294) from the No. 1 spot last season, after ranking first in the National League in 2018. Ross intends to give Bryant, who has a career .385 OBP, a long leash.

"That was part of the conversation we had," Ross said. "This is a commitment on his part. It's really easy to change the lineup in my seat, but I think that screams panic when you start to change all that. This is one of the best players in baseball, and how he goes about his business I want representing our team night in and night out. He's on board with that."

The leadoff position has been a spot of contention for the Cubs since Dexter Fowler left the team via free agency after the 2016 season. They have ranked 18th, 2nd and 30th in on-base percentage since then, and no one person has excelled for a full season. Kyle Schwarber famously bombed in that spot in 2017, while Ben Zobrist did a good job at the top when he played there the following season. The Cubs bottomed out last year with Jason Heyward, Zobrist and others getting reps.

"That leadoff spot has been a real thing around here since Dexter left," Ross said. "I know it's going to be a story and a thing and a lot of attention is going to be paid to it. It always has, so I want to make sure I cover all my bases before I commit to something."

There is a good chance Anthony Rizzo will bat behind Bryant, giving the Cubs two sluggers who get on base at the top of the order.

"The dynamic of KB and Rizz behind him is a good one-two punch at the top," Ross said.

The move will reduce opportunities for Bryant to drive in runs as he heads toward free agency in two years. Ross said giving up stats for the team will set a great example.

"The players that are committed to winning, contracts take care of themselves," the manager said. "The goal here is to win. ... He's all-in."

Bryant, 28, is 9-for-28 with a walk and a .387 on-base percentage in seven games hitting leadoff in his career, but this is the first time it will be his job to keep.

"I would hate to be on the other side and look at that big boy step in the box to lead things off and what he can do," Ross said. "I like professional at-bats. To start it off and set the tone for what we're going to do, KB is a great option.

"It's something I've been thinking about long and hard."

PHOENIX -- Houston infielder Aledmys Diaz, Miami first baseman Jesus Aguilar and Los Angeles Angels outfielder Brian Goodwin all won their salary arbitration cases Wednesday, cutting the teams' advantage to 6-4 in decisions this year with three cases remaining.

Diaz was awarded $2.6 million by arbitrators Mark Burstein, Stephen Raymond and Gary Kendellen rather than the $2 million offered by the Astros, which matched Diaz's salary last year.

Aguilar was given a raise from $637,500 to $2,575,000 instead of the Marlins' figure of $2,325,000 in a decision by Jeanne Charles, Steven Wolf and Edna Francis.

Goodwin received a raise from $585,500 to $2.2 million rather than the team's $1.85 million offer. That case was decided by Dan Brent, Melinda Gordon and Elizabeth Neumeier.

Acquired by Houston from Toronto in November 2018, Diaz hit .271 for the AL champions with nine homers and 40 RBIs in 247 plate appearances over 69 games. He was 0-for-9 with a walk in the postseason.

Goodwin hit .262 last year and set career bests with 17 homers and 47 RBIs in 458 plate appearances for the Angels, who claimed him off waivers from Kansas City last year.

Aguilar hit .236 with 12 homers and 50 RBIs in 131 games last season for Milwaukee and Tampa Bay, which acquired him on July 31 for pitcher Jake Faria. He was claimed off waivers on Dec. 2.

Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez had been the only player to win a decision previously this year.

Teams beat Boston pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson, Minnesota pitcher Jose Berrios, Milwaukee closer Josh Hader, Atlanta reliever Shane Greene and Colorado catcher Tony Wolters.

A decision is pending for Arizona pitcher Archie Bradley, whose case was argued Tuesday.

Two players remain scheduled for hearings this week: Philadelphia catcher J.T. Realmuto and reliever Hector Neris.