LONDON -- There was a time when Manchester United would lose at places like West Ham and it was considered a shock. Not anymore.

They lost at the London Stadium last season and, on the basis of that and Sunday's 2-0 defeat, it is likely they will lose here again before re-establishing themselves as Premier League title challengers. It has been a long six years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired a champion, and the road back to the top does not look like it's coming to an end soon.

The truth is the United fans, who travelled south from Manchester early on Sunday, did not learn anything new. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team is, for the most part, capable defensively but does not create enough chances or score enough goals. It was the same against Leicester eight days ago and, indeed, against Astana in the Europa League on Thursday.

While both of those matches ended in 1-0 wins, this time it was two West Ham players -- Andriy Yarmolenko and Aaron Cresswell -- who engineered the only moments of genuine quality and United were beaten instead of scrapping out a narrow victory. Solskjaer can have no complaints and the bottom line is that there will be more days like this before his side turns a corner.

They kicked off having scored more Premier League goals versus West Ham than against any other team, but that is a stat from a different era. This United lined up without an away win in any competition since March -- some 200 days ago at Paris Saint-Germain -- and without a clean sheet outside Old Trafford since visiting Fulham in February.

They are still waiting. This latest defeat equalled a club record of seven straight away games in the league without a win and meant they have scored more than one goal in only one of their last 11 league games.

The summer transfer business tells everything about the strengths and weaknesses of the squad. Solskjaer spent £130 million on Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka and there has been improvement defensively.

But Ander Herrera left for PSG and, with no replacement signed, United look weaker in midfield. More strikingly, forwards Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez departed for Inter, with only £15 million youngster Dan James coming in to offset the loss.

It should be no surprise, then, that United do not look like they will concede many but can be overrun in midfield and struggle to make things happen at the other end.

It said everything about the health of the squad that, for the final 10 minutes, United chased an equaliser with Jesse Lingard at centre-forward supported by James, Andreas Pereira and Angel Gomes. Marcus Rashford had already limped off to join a growing injury list that includes Paul Pogba, Anthony Martial, Luke Shaw and Mason Greenwood.

From the point at which Rashford exited, the only team that looked like scoring was West Ham. And, with six minutes remaining, Cresswell delivered with a wonderful free-kick from 25 yards to add to Yarmolenko's 44th-minute opener and end any lingering uncertainty about the result.

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Solskjaer insists that this is just the first step of the rebuild and has said repeatedly that he cannot transform United into title challengers overnight. On that, he is right. Next summer he will look to sign a new midfielder and another forward, but the question is whether he will get time to implement the second phase of his plan.

He has gambled that executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and the Glazer family see things as he does, but club accountants will be aware that another season outside the Champions League will result in a cut in the money they receive from kit manufacturer Adidas. After six games, they are seventh in the table with games against Arsenal and Liverpool to come before the end of October.

"This group, they want to do what we are trying to do," Solskjaer said at full-time. "There are key moments in games and maybe a bad decision or pass but the attitude and desire is there -- that is not the problem. It is the quality in our decision making and execution."

The West Ham fans inside the London Stadium spent most of the game chanting "You're not famous anymore" at away supporters tucked in the corner. United are still famous -- enough to still attract huge sponsorship deals -- but in Premier League terms, they are no longer special.

That title belongs to rivals Manchester City and Liverpool, with Solskjaer's side United among another six teams who could finish this season anywhere between third and eighth. Asked before the game about his former club's prospects, Jose Mourinho said on British broadcaster Sky Sports that he expected them to finish between fourth and sixth; it is hard to argue with that assessment.

The truth is that fourth and a return to the Champions League would be a success. Roy Keane, in the same studio as Mourinho, suggested that that would never have been accepted in the United dressing room of which he was part.

That, though, was 20 years ago. This is a different time and victories over West Ham, let alone title challenges, are no longer a given.

It is a curious truth that whenever one of cricket's prized formats has been challenged in recent years it has often responded in a manner illustrating its value. In 2016 the decision was taken to reduce the number of County Championship matches to 14; then came Middlesex v Yorkshire at Lord's, the best climax to an English season for many years and a game so fine it even inspired an excellent book: Duncan Hamilton's Kings of Summer.

This year a prevailing enthusiasm among some propeller heads was a reduction in the length of Test matches to four days; so we had the most closely contested Ashes series for a decade, one in which three of the five matches had the temerity to extend themselves into a fifth day.

Next year, of course, The Hundred is to be played in the weeks hitherto reserved for the Vitality Blast. Having marketed T20 cricket superbly and seen it attract record attendances at almost all venues, the counties must now try to sell a second short-form competition much earlier in the summer at a time when many GCSE and A Level examinations are taking place. Good luck. The response of the Blast was to offer a glorious Finals Day at Edgbaston, where two of the three matches went to the last ball and one of those games, the Worcestershire Rapids v Notts Outlaws semi-final, gave us one of the most bizarre finishes in the history of T20 cricket.

"T20 Finals Day is back-slapping, brightly-coloured, belching, beery England in all its unapologetic finery"

Old coaches and players are wont to suggest this is another example of the power of "Mother Cricket", a strange force by which the game rewards those who respect it and punishes those who do not. More rational individuals view this contention as so much hokum yet even they would agree that in the summer prior to the greatest change in the English domestic game for a generation we have had a season so fine that no one outside the ECB sees any need for fundamental alteration.

The Vitality Blast has played its part in all this. T20 Finals Day is utterly unlike any other occasion in the sporting year. It is back-slapping, brightly-coloured, belching, beery England in all its unapologetic finery. Decorum? Don't even think about it. Subtlety? Not unless you are referring to Pat Brown's knuckle balls or Ravi Bopara's judgement of an innings. Some people will never warm to T20 cricket yet even they admit the importance of the income the competition generates and concede that it has refined and extended many skills. How many misfields do you recall from this year's Finals Day? How many dropped catches?

And it is even more important to recognise The Blast's value because it appears under challenge; because, so the argument goes, if the ECB can use The Hundred to kill The Blast it will foreshadow the introduction of a hierarchy of ten or so first-class teams with the smaller counties permanently relegated or forced out of business altogether: counties like Essex, who won The Blast and may well win the County Championship, the greatest prize of all; counties like Somerset, who won the Royal London One-Day Cup; counties like Northamptonshire and Gloucestershire, who are on the verge of promotion to Division One; counties like Derbyshire, who so relished their first Finals Day; counties like Leicestershire, who continue to nurture great talents like Hasan Azad and Harry Swindells.

Great God, this is poisonous stuff. And a simple press release from the ECB would be a most powerful antidote to it all.

For the moment, though, we still have Finals Day and even the sceptics should treasure it a little. Sir John Betjeman would have loved the whole ridiculous rigmarole. Even though he knew next to nothing about cricket, that fine poet always appreciated English people displaying all their daft exuberance; the lines of people in fancy dress doing some version of the conga would, I suspect, have brought forth howls of laughter from him. Though capable of serious poetry, he relished popular entertainment - Coronation Street in its golden years was a great favourite - and Edgbaston on the third Saturday in September is a right royal knees-up.

And of course it is bloody daft. From the first chorus of the morning to the final spray of champagne it is gloriously unhinged. You cannot stage an obstacle race between 18 adult humans, most of them dressed in felt animal costumes, and hope that it will look anything but absolutely bonkers. You cannot celebrate the fall of every wicket by sending people hurtling into the air in a glass pod - it is called the Bungee Blast - and think you are presenting an image of maturity.

You cannot hire Mr Motivator - ask your parents - to exhort 6,000 people in the Hollies Stand to exercise when most of the people he is encouraging have been drinking for England and many are dressed as bananas / Donald Trump / chickens / Roman Catholic priests, and still hope to look sensible. Someone might have suggested to the ECB that it is tricky to exercise when you cannot stand upright. But never mind, welcome to Birmingham's House of Fun.

It is also about the beauty of seeing a great city in its crepuscular light; the beauty of seeing Birmingham's great business houses disappear into the darkness until they are revealed only by tiny pinpricks of red. The English season should always end with the last day of the County Championship but there is a certain elegiac richness about this particular Saturday evening. Gone is the expectation of early morning. All we have before us is the season's final game of short-form cricket.

And so we are left with the cricketers. They must always have the final word. We are left with Worcestershire's Daryl Mitchell going over to his team-mate, Wayne Parnell, when he has been hit for four off the penultimate ball of the Final. We are left with Simon Harmer returning to console Parnell when his blows off that bowler have secured the trophy for Essex. And we are left with Harmer telling the press that his team will celebrate their victory properly but will not "go nuclear". Many of the 24,550 folk at Edgbaston, on the other hand, have been going nuclear all day. The first beach-ball was confiscated at 11.24am. Freddie the Falcon won the Mascots' Race.

Two new teams - Qalandars and Bangla Tigers - will take part in this year's T10 League in Abu Dhabi. The latest team, Qalandars, was unveiled on Sunday, with Shahid Afridi signing on as the franchise's icon player.

"I was very excited to be a part of it (T10) from the time I heard it was going to be played in Abu Dhabi," Afridi said at a press conference in Abu Dhabi. "The first two editions of T10 were in Sharjah and now it is in Abu Dhabi. We will be here to provide fans all the entertainment in this short format of the game.

"T10 is a different concept where batsmen will have to have a go from the start. It's good to have some variety for the fans."

Qalandars have close links with their Pakistan Super League (PSL) namesake Lahore Qalandars, with the Pakistani businessman Fawad Rana serving as chairman of both teams. Rana had also invested in a franchise, Durban Qalandars, in the stillborn T20 Global League in South Africa, which later gave way to the Mzansi Super League (MSL).

Bangla Tigers, owned by Bangladeshi businessmen Yasin Chowdhury and Sirajuddin Alam, a former BCB director, were unveiled on Thursday.

The league had previously included a team named Bengal Tigers, but that team - owned by the India-based Danube Group - have since changed their name to Delhi Bulls. The erstwhile Sindhis franchise, meanwhile, have been rebranded following a takeover by the Indian businessman Gaurav Grover, and will now be called Deccan Gladiators.

South Africa 140 for 1 (de Kock 79*, Reeza 28, Bavuma 27*) beat India 134 for 9 (Dhawan 36, Rabada 3-39, Beuran 2-14, Fortuin 2-19) by nine wickets

Testing left-arm seam from Beuran Hendricks, making his first appearance of the series, and a breezy half-century from Quinton de Kock led South Africa to a series-levelling nine-wicket win at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. The victory was emphatic, arriving with 4.1 overs still left to play, but South Africa's cause was aided by India's strategy, which was drawn up with one eye on next year's T20 World Cup.

No team had ever chosen to bat first in six previous T20Is at this ground, but India did so. They did so, Virat Kohli said, because they wanted to improve on their weaker suit - setting targets and defending them. "Come the World Cup," he said, "toss is not in your control."

On an evening where conditions changed significantly at the innings break, the toss turned out to be quite significant. Dew came into play particularly during the second innings, and batting became easier. Even so, de Kock was in terrific form, and there was little India's bowlers could do to stop him. All the trademark shots - the pull, the flat-bat slaps over the covers, the pick-up shot over backward square leg - were in evidence as he ran to an unbeaten 79 off 52 balls, with Reeza Hendricks and Temba Bavuma slipping neatly into his slipstream in partnerships of 76 and 64 (unbroken) for the first two wickets.

India could have had de Kock when he missed a sweep off Washington Sundar's offspin on 28, and had a confident lbw appeal turned down by umpire Nitin Menon. Ball-tracking suggested that the ball would have gone on to hit a good chunk of leg stump, but India had wasted their review in the previous over, when a Deepak Chahar hit Reeza's front pad with a delivery that would definitely have missed leg stump.

That appeal apart, India didn't seem to have any real ideas to dismiss de Kock or even tie him down. Two of India's less experienced bowlers, Navdeep Saini and Krunal Pandya, had off-days, going for a combined 65 in 5.5 overs, and Hardik Pandya - who took the only wicket - went for 23 in two overs as de Kock punished anything remotely short.

In the past, India have often adopted a conservative, ODI-inflected approach that has hurt them against teams with more hitting depth. In this series, their selection has emphasised batting depth, with three spin-bowling allrounders at Nos. 7, 8 and 9. With this cushion below them, the top order seemed to be under instructions to go after the bowling and not worry too much about preserving wickets.

The new approach helped them get off to an excellent start, with Shikhar Dhawan looking full of purpose, moving around the crease or stepping out of it, to try and put bowlers off their lengths and exploit the Powerplay restrictions. It was most evident in the sixth over, against the left-arm wristspin of Tabraiz Shamsi. Mid-on was initially inside the circle, and Dhawan stepped out and hit a six over that fielder. Mid-on dropped back, long-off became mid-off, and Dhawan launched the next ball over the new man in the 30-yard circle.

When Dhawan fell for 36 off 25 in the eighth over - Beuran Hendricks had earlier dismissed Rohit Sharma for the third time in only four balls in all T20 cricket - India seemed well placed at 63 for 2.

But the pitch was beginning to change perceptibly, with the ball no longer coming on with the shine off, and South Africa's bowlers were beginning to find ways to exploit it. There was turn for spinners Shamsi and Bjorn Fortuin, and the seamers began varying their pace regularly and bowling into the surface. Run-scoring became a struggle, and the big hits stopped carrying.

Between them, Nos. 3 to 8 - Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, the Pandya brothers, and Ravindra Jadeja - made 70 off 85 balls. Beuran was particularly impressive with his left-arm seam, getting the ball to move off the seam and extracting steep bounce. He finished with figures of 2 for 14 in four overs. India only scored 58 in their last 10 overs, and South Africa were well on their way to squaring the series.

Ahead of the Under-19 World Cup next year, Bangladesh will have an opportunity to gain match time when they play New Zealand in five Youth ODIs. The tour is significant given this will be the first time a Bangladesh team will travel to New Zealand following the terror attacks in Christchurch in March.

Back then, members of Bangladesh's senior side were "about 50 yards from the mosque" - one of two in Christchurch - where a gunman opened fire. They managed to escape through Hagley Park and the tour was called off shortly after.

ALSO READ: 'There's shooting here, please save us'

All the matches on the U-19 tour will be hosted at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln. The matches are scheduled for September 29, October 2, 6, 9 and 13. This series was slated for April, but New Zealand Cricket cancelled the tour at the time. They had felt sending an age-group side to the country affected by the tragedy at that point would be "insensitive and inappropriate".

Bangladesh U-19s, led by Akbar Ali, have had a busy year so far. This tour comes hot on the heels of the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka, where they lost to India by five runs in a low-scoring final.

Bangladesh Under-19 squad: Akbar Ali (capt), Tawhid Hridoy, Tanzid Hasan, Parvez Hossain, Shahadat Hossain, Rakibul Hasan, Asadullah Hill Galib, Shoriful Islam, Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, Mahmudul Hasan, Tanzim Hasan, Avishek Das, Shamim Hossain, Anik Sarker, Hasan Morad

Jack Leach returns for one of the most important matches in Somerset's history when leaders Essex visit Taunton for the Specsavers County Championship title decider, starting on Monday.

The hosts must win to secure the pennant for the first time. They go into the match 12 points adrift in second place, but optimistic of making home advantage tell, having won five and drawn one of their six Championship games at the Cooper Associates County Ground this season.

Leach's availability after his Ashes heroics is a major boost. The left-arm spinner, who has just been awarded an England incremental contract, trained with the squad on Friday and could prove a key figure on a pitch sure to turn as the match progresses.

With rain forecast, Somerset will be keen to play on a result wicket in the hope of forcing a victory well inside four days. A gamble on a bowler-friendly surface appears to offer their best chance, even though Essex have two of the most prolific wicket-takers in the Championship.

Off-spinner Simon Harmer is top of the list with 78 wickets, while seamer Jamie Porter is also in the top 10, with 48.

Somerset head coach Jason Kerr is in confident mood, despite last week's 136-run defeat by Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.

"It's an incredibly exciting week ahead, not just for the players, but for the many supporters, who have taken the emotional journey with us in recent weeks," he said. "What could be better than the two best teams in the Championship going head-to-head with the title as the prize.

"We cannot control the weather, but I believe there will be enough play to achieve a decisive result and we back ourselves against anyone on our home pitch."

"Essex have had the distraction of Vitality Blast Finals Day this weekend and hopefully we can capitalise on that" Somerset head coach Jason Kerr

A packed crowd and large media circus will descend on the County Ground, most of the latter expecting Essex to be crowned champions.

Kerr acknowledges that Somerset's batsmen will need to raise their game. None of them is averaging more than 33 in the competition this season, whereas Essex have three with an average of more than 40 in Sir Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara and Dan Lawrence.

"Statistically, our batting looks poor, but we have played on some tough pitches and there have been some fine innings in difficult circumstances that have helped us win through," said Kerr.

"I am expecting the players concerned to step up on last week when we came across a bowler in exceptional form. Kyle Abbott's performance was just incredible."

After discussions with director of cricket Andy Hurry and skipper Tom Abell, Kerr looks set to stick with the same batting line-up against Essex, with Leach's inclusion likely to be the only team change.

Jamie Overton missed the Hampshire match with a back injury and was sent for a scan on Friday. He was already facing surgery on an ankle spur at the end of the season.

Kerr's final message to the Somerset players will be to "go out and enjoy the occasion". While he accepts there is pressure to deliver that elusive first title, he wants his team to ignore the hype as much as possible.

"So much work has gone into getting us this far," he said. "Now it is important we stick to the processes which have put us in the top two.

"Essex have had the distraction of Vitality Blast Finals Day this weekend and hopefully we can capitalise on that. Given a reasonable amount of luck with the weather, I'm sure we can do it."

Kerr ruled out a sentimental recall for Marcus Trescothick, who announced some time ago that this would be his final season as a player. Somerset will make a presentation to the 43-year-old at the lunch interval on Monday to mark his 27 seasons of service.

Trescothick will be in and around the dressing room during the game and Kerr said: "I hope he gets around the ground and soaks up the atmosphere. It would be fitting if we could win the title he has dreamt about for so long."

Wisconsin moved into the top 10 for the first time this season, landing at No. 8 in The Associated Press college football poll after a weekend during which seven ranked teams lost.

The top of the AP Top 25 presented by Regions Bank remained mostly unchanged, with Clemson staying No. 1, followed by three Southeastern Conference teams: No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 LSU. Ohio State edged past Oklahoma to No. 5.

Clemson received 55 first-place votes from the media panel. Alabama had six, and Georgia received one.

Auburn moved up a spot to No. 7 after beating Texas A&M 28-20, and Wisconsin jumped five spots to No. 8 after defeating Michigan 35-14. Florida remained No. 9, and Notre Dame slipped three spots to No. 10 after losing 23-17 at Georgia.

POLL POINTS

THIS WEEK IN BAMA

Alabama has been ranked for 200 straight weeks, the fourth-longest streak since the AP poll started in 1936.

The Tide's streak began with the preseason poll of 2008. Alabama joins Nebraska (348, Oct. 12, 1981-Sept. 22, 2002), Florida State (211, Sept. 24, 1989-Nov. 11, 2001) and Florida (209, Sept. 9, 1990-Oct. 5, 2002) with poll streaks of at least 200 appearances.

UP

The middle of the rankings got a big makeover after five teams ranked from Nos. 10 to 19 lost. California was the big mover, jumping eight spots to No. 15. The Golden Bears have their best ranking since they were No. 6 on Sept. 27, 2009.

No. 14 Iowa, No. 16 Boise State, No. 17 Washington and No. 18 Virginia all moved up at least three spots.

DOWN

Several ranked losing teams managed to stay in the rankings.

• No. 19 Utah fell nine spots after losing at USC.

• No. 20 Michigan dropped nine spots.

• No. 22 UCF fell seven places after losing to Pitt, the Knights' first regular-season loss in almost three years.

• No. 24 Texas A&M slipped six spots but stayed ranked with a 2-2 record. The Aggies have losses to Clemson and Auburn.

OUT

One-and-done teams are common early in the season. Arizona State and TCU both had short stays after debuting in the rankings last week. The Sun Devils and Horned Frogs fell out after losing home games.

Washington State dropped out of the rankings for the first time this season after blowing a 32-point lead at home to previously winless UCLA.

IN

Three teams moved into the rankings but only one for the first time this season.

• No. 21 USC has been in, out and back in the past three weeks.

• No. 24 Kansas State, which did not play this weekend, is ranked for the first time since Sept. 10, 2017.

• No. 25 Michigan State jumped back in after a week out.

CONFERENCE CALL

SEC -- 6 (Nos. 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 23)

Big Ten -- 6 (Nos. 5, 8, 12, 14, 20, 25)

Pac-12 -- 5 (Nos. 13, 15, 17, 19, 21)

Big 12 -- 3 (Nos. 6, 11, 24)

ACC -- 2 (Nos. 1, 18)

American -- 1 (No. 22)

Mountain West -- 1 (No. 16)

Independent -- 1 (No. 10)

RANKED vs. RANKED

No. 18 Virginia at No. 10 Notre Dame: This might be the toughest game left on the Fighting Irish's schedule.

No. 21 USC at No. 17 Washington: The Clay Helton Survival Tour heads to Seattle.

Had Antonio Brown not sent intimidating group text messages to a female artist who accused him of unwanted sexual advances last week, the star wide receiver would be playing in the New England Patriots' game Sunday against the New York Jets, league sources told ESPN.

But when Brown sent those text messages as a member of the Patriots -- he was not with New England during the time period when he allegedly sexually assaulted another woman -- the organization felt that it had to move on from him, sources said.

"That crossed the line," one source familiar with the organization's thinking told ESPN. "This was real evidence."

Now the question becomes how New England handles Brown's departure. The Patriots are expected to withhold the $9 million signing bonus they agreed to pay Brown when he signed; $5 million is due Monday and the other $4 million is due Jan. 15, 2020.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that Brown will file a grievance Monday to try to recoup that money, setting up a legal battle between the player and team.

Among other factors, New England will lean on the "representation and warranty" clause in Brown's contract that specifically states: "Player represent warrants and covenants to the club that he will 1) execute in good faith and to the best of his ability all of his obligations to and for the club; 2) he does not and will not participate and is not engaged or will not engage in any conduct or activity that is illegal, unlawful or immoral. And 3) No circumstances exist that would prevent player's continuing availability to the club for the duration of the contract."

However, other NFL sources strongly believe that the Patriots eventually will owe Brown the $9 million. Those sources insist that once a signing bonus is earned, it's earned, and there's no turning back.

"They are going to lose," one NFL executive predicted about the Patriots' plight in a potential financial battle with Brown.

Brown called out Patriots owner Robert Kraft as part of his Sunday morning Twitter tirade, referring to Kraft's ongoing case in Florida in which he was charged with solicitation for allegedly receiving a sex act at a massage parlor. After the tweets, a source told ESPN that "Kraft [is] never writing that check, no matter what the ruling is now."

Brown has deleted the tweet referring to Kraft.

Brown was officially released by the Patriots on Friday, one day after the lawyer for the female artist reached out to the NFL because Brown apparently sent what were described as threatening text messages to her client.

The sides spoke Friday morning, with the woman's attorneys saying in a statement that the league "pledged to conduct a thorough investigation under its Personal Conduct Policy." According to that statement, the league also contacted the Patriots, who then directed Brown to have no further contact with the woman.

As part of a Sports Illustrated report published Monday, the woman accused Brown of sexual misconduct when she was working at his Pennsylvania home in 2017.

Brown also has been accused of sexually assaulting his former trainer, Britney Taylor, according to a lawsuit she filed Sept. 10. Taylor met with the NFL this past Monday. A source had told ESPN that there are "more interviews and information-gathering being conducted now beyond Taylor."

It remains unclear when or if Brown will interview with the league. He is an unrestricted free agent eligible to sign with any team, and the NFL said Friday that Brown would not be placed on the commissioner's exempt list while he is a free agent.

But the league also warned, "If he is signed by a club, such placement may become appropriate at any time depending on the status of the investigation."

Antonio Brown says he won't play in the NFL anymore and took shots at New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in a series of tweets sent Sunday morning.

Will not be playing in the @NFL anymore these owners can cancel deals do whatever they want at anytime we will see if the @NFLPA hold them accountable sad they can just void guarantees anytime going on 40m 2 months will see if they pay up !

— AB (@AB84) September 22, 2019

Brown appeared to be referencing the $29.125 million in guaranteed money from the Oakland Raiders and $9 million signing bonus from the Patriots that, sources told ESPN, have both been rescinded.

The Raiders' guaranteed money was voided after the team fined him for detrimental conduct before his release on Sept. 7, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter. The Patriots are planning to withhold the signing bonus based on a representation warranty clause that calls for a player to disclose any situations that might prevent continued availability, a source with knowledge of the situation told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.

Brown is being sued by former trainer Britney Taylor over multiple allegations of sexual assault. He was also accused of sexual misconduct by an artist in a story published by Sports Illustrated last week.

Had Brown not sent intimidating group text messages to the artist who accused him of unwanted sexual advances, the star wide receiver would be playing in the Patriots' game Sunday against the Jets, league sources told Schefter.

When Brown sent those text messages as a member of the Patriots -- he was not with New England during the time period when he allegedly sexually assaulted another woman -- the organization felt as if it had to move on from him.

Brown called on the NFL Players Association to hold teams accountable and get him the money he apparently is still seeking. ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that Brown will file a grievance against the Patriots and the NFLPA will represent him in it.

But after Brown's tirade, a source told Schefter that "Kraft [is] never writing that check, no matter what the ruling is now."

In since-deleted tweets, Brown called out Kraft and former Steelers teammate Roethlisberger. Brown referred to Kraft's ongoing case in Florida in which he was charged with solicitation for allegedly receiving a sex act at a massage parlor and Roethlisberger's four-game suspension in 2010 for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy based on a sexual assault accusation.

"Kraft got caught in the parlor AB speculations fired different strokes different folks clearly," Brown said in a now-deleted tweet that also appeared to include a photo of Taylor.

Of Roethlisberger he earlier tweeted: "4 games for Big Ben crazy world I'm done with it."

Brown's tweets came a day after his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told Schefter that he has had communication "with a few teams that are interested" in his client.

Rosenhaus told Schefter that the teams "want information regarding his legal situation and the NFL investigation" into the wide receiver.

A source told Schefter that some in the NFL believe that it was unlikely Brown would sign with another team until the league's investigation is resolved -- although there may never be a deal, if the wide receiver is to be believed.

The NFL released a statement Friday night that said Brown would not be placed on the commissioner's exempt list while he is a free agent but warned, "If he is signed by a club, such placement may become appropriate at any time depending on the status of the investigation." The NFL also said its investigation into Brown is "ongoing and will be pursued vigorously and expeditiously."

PHILADELPHIA -- Last week, Jamal Agnew lost his job as the team's kick and punt returner in the middle of the game after gaffes throughout the first two weeks of the season. All week long, Lions coach Matt Patricia expressed confidence in Agnew and said that it was a one-game change for the former All-Pro.

Agnew showed in one return Sunday afternoon that the confidence the Lions had in him was correctly placed. Agnew took the ball at the Philadelphia goal line during the first quarter Sunday and took off on the left side. He got a block from one of his upbacks -- believed to be Ty Johnson -- and he was off.

Take it to the house! #OnePride@jamalagnew with the 100-yard kickoff return for the TD. pic.twitter.com/mg8TP5m5z0

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 22, 2019

Agnew reached the sideline and turned upfield, with blocks from Miles Killebrew and Dee Virgin along the left sideline to help and give him a path. By the time Agnew reached the 20-yard line, he had no Eagles in front of him.

And when that happened, with Agnew's speed, no one was catching him. One hundred yards later, Agnew had his first-ever kick return for a touchdown and third career touchdown return. (He had two on punts as a rookie.)

It was a massive change from last week, when Agnew's job looked to be perilous despite Patricia's faith in him.

"We knew that the ball security was going to be really important, and especially in that situation, just made a quick change as far as that's concerned," Patricia said of Agnew's benching last week. "We'll just keep going forward. Like I said, [Sunday] night, Agnew is a tremendous player.

"He has an explosive ability and he's obviously done a lot, so we're just getting back to work. That's really kind of our bottom line there."

It's not the first time the Lions have had returns at Lincoln Financial Field. The last time the Lions had a kick return for a touchdown was also at the Linc, with Jeremy Ross taking one back 98 yards for a touchdown in the snow. Ross also had a 58-yard punt return for a touchdown in that game.