Saturday's Women's Six Nations fixture between Ireland and France in Dublin is set to go ahead as scheduled.

"We have been told that the game on Saturday will not be impacted so we are going ahead as scheduled," confirmed the IRFU.

Whoever wins Saturday's contest will finish top of Six Nations Pool B.

The winners will then meet England on 24 April in the final of the re-structured championship.

Both Ireland and France opened their accounts with thumping wins over Wales, but the developing international travel situation in Ireland put their meeting at Donnybrook in doubt.

The Irish Government has yet to issue guidance on the elite sport policy for athletes arriving from countries on the mandatory quarantine list.

With La Rochelle due to travel to Dublin to meet Leinster in the Champions Cup semi-final on 2 May, the IRFU is awaiting guidance on the wider implications for rugby matches in the coming weeks and months.

GREENWOOD, Neb. — While the temperatures may have been a bit on the chilly side for mid-April at the I-80 Speedway, the action during the inaugural Tuesday Tickler made up for it with some hot action on the track.

Proving to be the hottest of the night was Tony Jackson Jr., who came away with the $5,000 victory in a caution-free, 35-lap event.

Jason Papich Grabbed the Illini Racing Supply Fast time of the night with his 16.592-second lap followed by scoring victory in his respective heat race. Papich started on the pole alongside of Mason Oberkramer. Oberkramer use an aggressive move on the start to follow Papich into turn one on the bottom and make quick work in turn three in taking the top spot and leading the first four circuits.

Third-starting Billy Moyer Sr. played it smooth early on and found his way past Oberkramer to lead the fifth time by the stripe. It appeared that Moyer was going to pull away from the field in the early going stretching out a near two-second advantage only to see if slowly fade nearing the midpoint of the race.

Jackson, who started fourth, battled for a good portion of the early going with Papich and Oberkramer before finally finding his way into the runner up position nearing lap 10.

Jackson used the lapped traffic to slowly reel in Moyer setting up a battle between the duo. Jackson rolled his Rocket XR1 along the low line in turn three and four to catch the race leader. After a two lap back and forth battle with Moyer, Jackson made the move to the top spot on the 15th lap of the race.

Jackson pulled away in the closing laps and cruised to his first MLRA win at I-80 and eighth with the series.

“These guys are awesome and this race track is great,” exclaimed Jackson. “You know when I saw it (I-80 Speedway) come out on the schedule, we were excited to come back here, it’s just always a multi groove race track.”

Chase Junghans charged through the field from eighth starting position to finish second.

“I wish we could have gotten a caution there with a bout 10 to go,” stated Junghans. About halfway through there I looked up at the scoreboard and seen there was only about 15-17 laps left and I was like I’ve got to go. Sliding those guys down in one and two kind of hurt my tires. I did it about three laps in a row and after that I would have to maintain for about three laps and then they would take back off. It was a lot better result than we have been having so I think we are going in the right direction.”

Ashton Winger rounded out the MLRA podium. Oberkramer finished his strong night in the fourth spot, while Moyer rounded out the top five.

The finish:

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[4]; 2. 18-Chase Junghans[8]; 3. 12W-Ashton Winger[12]; 4. 93-Mason Oberkramer[2]; 5. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[3]; 6. 15-Justin Duty[6]; 7. 04-Tad Pospisil[10]; 8. 91P-Jason Papich[1]; 9. 53-Andrew Kosiski[5]; 10. 49T-Jake Timm[7]; 11. 59-Garrett Alberson[15]; 12. 1J-Jake Neal[16]; 13. 25-Chad Simpson[11]; 14. 75-Terry Phillips[13]; 15. 00-Jesse Stovall[17]; 16. 58-Jeremiah Hurst[9]; 17. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[18]; 18. 76-Blair Nothdurft[22]; 19. 91T-Tony Toste[23]; 20. 11R-Justin Reed[19]; 21. 3W-Brennon Willard[24]; 22. 77Y-Jordan Yaggy[20]; 23. 3C-Mike Collins[21]; 24. 14B-Kyle Berck[14]

HAMPTON, Ga. — The fourth and final SuperTuesday race of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship was a wild one with Team Honda HRC’s Ken Roczen getting the 450SX class victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Earning second place and his second 450SX class podium was Roczen’s Team Honda HRC teammate Chase Sexton with Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Jason Anderson earning a hard-fought third place in front of the limited-capacity, pod-seated fans across the speedway grandstands.

The Western Regional 250SX Class Main Event was hard to believe, but when the checkered flag flew Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Justin Cooper notched his third win of the year to stretch his points lead to nine.

When the racers emerged from the first corner in the 450SX Class Main Event, points leader Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb darted into the lead at the holeshot stripe. But Roczen, down 22 points and second in the title chase, got around Webb immediately and was never challenged for the lead as the Honda rider steadily stretched out a gap on the field.

Webb was slightly off the pace and steadily fell back in the early laps, allowing his points lead to shrink with each pass in the 20-minute plus one lap race.

Anderson, who started outside the top five after a trip through the Last Chance Qualifier left him with a less than ideal gate pick, was aggressive and wasted little time moving through the pack. With just over three minutes off the race clock Anderson broke into the top five, cut under Webb and into fourth less than two minutes later, and at the race’s midpoint got around Troy Lee Designs / Red Bull / GASGAS Factory Racing’s Justin Barcia to reach his finishing position of third.

Barcia, who’d gotten around Webb in the early laps, found himself under attack by the KTM rider in the final minutes of the race. Barcia was aggressive holding his position and after a few close calls he and Webb made contact; Webb went down.

Fortunately, it was a gentle crash and Webb remounted with the loss of only one position, to Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac. It was a dramatic race and a big points swing in Roczen’s favor with three races remaining on the schedule.

The Western Regional 250SX class event was one that will likely become a legend of the sport. Less than three laps into the race, Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Cameron McAdoo, who was battling in fifth, crashed over the handlebars and was slammed brutally by his own bike into the steep face of a bridge jump.

Worse still, the bike caught McAdoo’s foot and whipped him violently in a full, body-extended front flip to deposit him with another hard slam onto the top of the flat jump obstacle. McAdoo lay still for a frightening moment but soon was attended to by the trackside Alpinestars medical crew.

With an injured rider down on the top of the jump the race was red flagged. With fewer than three laps completed, though the Atlanta track’s lap times were nearly twice as long as on a standard track, the rule book called for a full restart.

As the racers loaded back into the gate, miraculously Cameron McAdoo was among them, pleading to officials to allow him to restart. He’d been evaluated and cleared to ride, and with a second evaluation completed on the spot, the rider was allowed to remount his bike. McAdoo was obviously sore but with no signs of concussion or broken bones. McAdoo, four points down in the title chase with three rounds remaining in that series, was back in the hunt.

When the gate dropped, last weekend’s first-time winner, Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha’s Nate Thrasher grabbed his second holeshot, just as he’d done before the restart, and Justin Cooper slid quickly into the lead, just as he’d done before the restart.

Amazingly McAdoo was right up front again. The evaluations seemed to have been spot on – the Kawasaki rider had the speed and clearly the desire and started to push hard from fifth place.

Two and a half minutes into the 15-minute plus one lap event he made his first pass on ClubMX / IAMACOMBACK / Yamaha’s Garrett Marchbanks, but the Yamaha rider battled back around. Less than a lap later McAdoo made his second pass stick with an inside line in the sand and set his sights on second place rider, Thrasher.

Just five minutes into the race McAdoo got past Thrasher and into second, with only a 3.6 second deficit to Justin Cooper out front. But as much heart as McAdoo was showing, Cooper was matching it with a composed ride on the brutal track.

Cooper slowly stretched his lead to over nine seconds as Team Honda HRC’s Hunter Lawrence clawed his way forward past Marchbanks and eventually past McAdoo with two laps remaining. Justin Cooper’s speed may be eclipsed in racing lore by McAdoo’s heart, but it was a significant night in the championship for both riders.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has said Manchester United's poor home form has forced the club to change the banners at Old Trafford so the players can see each other more clearly.

United are unbeaten away from Old Trafford in the league this season but have only won eight of their 15 home games.

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Solskjaer's side are yet to register a home win in the Europa League but have won at Real Sociedad, Milan and Granada and ahead of the quarterfinal second leg with Granada at Old Trafford, Solskjaer has revealed he hopes the change from red seat coverings to black will aid a change in fortunes.

His comments come a day after the 25th anniversary of United's 3-1 defeat at Southampton in April 1996 when Sir Alex Ferguson made his players change out of their grey kit at half-time because he believed it was clashing with the backdrop at The Dell.

"You'll see a change now, if you see the banners around the club it's not red anymore," Solskjaer told a news conference on Wednesday.

"We've looked into this, there shouldn't be a reason, really. But some of the players have mentioned that split second decision you have to make where you look over your shoulder to see if your teammate is there or not and the red shirt is on a red background with red seats.

"So we've tried to change that along with the anti-racism campaign, that was important that it wasn't red anymore.

"I still think we've played some good football at home; we started off badly with three defeats with Palace, Tottenham and Arsenal very early on, but we've improved."

United lead 2-0 from the first leg in Spain and are playing for a place in the semifinals against either Roma or Ajax.

Harry Maguire, Scott McTominay and Luke Shaw are all suspended while Marcus Rashford is a doubt after missing training on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"It's never a positive thing to not have every player available but we've got players who are ready to come into the team of course," said Solskjaer.

"We have to make sure we go through. I always pick a team that I think will win a game and we will go into it wanting to win.

"I know Granada will want to come and give it their all but we want to build on our momentum and have a good performance. There will be a few changes; some are forced and some are maybe rotation."

With Maguire missing and Eric Bailly still unavailable after testing positive for coronavirus, Axel Tuanzebe could get a chance to impress alongside Victor Lindelof.

The 23-year-old had a fine game in the victory at Paris Saint-Germain but has found opportunities hard to come by since and hasn't started a game since the 2-1 defeat to Sheffield United in January.

"Axel has always been a very positive boy and hard working," Solskjaer said.

"Victor and Harry have played and have a very, very good partnership. Eric has played really well when he's played and his chances have been limited. He's been training well and he's ready for this opportunity."

Bayern Munich were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday night by Paris Saint-Germain. It was 3-3 on aggregate, meaning it came down to the away goals rule, and if you caught the two legs, you will appreciate how this tie could have easily gone either way, and by a sizable margin to either club. Bayern created far more in the first leg... and lost. PSG created more in the return leg... and lost.

That's the nature of this screwy, wacky sport. It gets even screwier and wackier when, at the tail-end of a congested, grueling pandemic-conditioned season, the list of unfit and unavailable threatens to exceed that of the able-bodied. Bayern took the pitch without Niklas Sule, Corentin Tolisso, Douglas Costa, Leon Goretzka and, above all, Robert Lewandowski. PSG walked out without Marquinhos, Mauro Icardi, Layvin Kurzawa, Marco Verratti and Alessandro Florenzi. (The latter two, just recovered from COVID-19, were on the bench, but in no condition to play.)

So let's pump the brakes on those sweeping conclusions one way or another, shall we?

Still, folks in Bavaria woke up Wednesday to reports that manager Hansi Flick -- who delivered a Treble less than a year ago and is on track for another Bundesliga title, as Bayern are five points clear at the top, with six games to go -- will depart in the summer, possibly to take the Germany job after the Euros. (Lothar Matthaus said Wednesday that it's happening.) Among the reasons cited is an "incompatibility" with sporting director Hasan "Brazzo" Salihamidzic.

Inevitably, Bayern are already linked with Julian Nagelsmann, who happens to coach Leipzig, their main contenders for the German title. (In other leagues, there'd be some consternation at the possibility of the biggest, richest team making overtures to a direct rival during the season; they're used to it in the Bundesliga.)

But the fact is that, as far as Bayern are concerned, there will be a necessary rebuild in the next 12 months. And this time, it might make sense for the club not to believe their own hype and ask themselves whether, despite impressive achievements on and off the pitch -- eight league titles, five German Cups and two Champions League titles, all while operating at break-even or in profit -- they're actually getting the most bang for their considerable buck.

Whoever replaces Flick will become their fifth manager in the past four years. Nobody has lasted more than three seasons since Ottmar Hitzfeld two decades ago. (Admittedly, Pep Guardiola could have stuck around longer, but chose not to. Hey, he's Pep.) Bayern's ability to weather the revolving managerial door and still win was often put down to the club's solidity and the enlightened guidance of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeness (when not serving time in prison) in the club's executive branch.

Maybe so. But then you're left to imagine what they might have achieved with better decision-making, particularly on the recruitment side.

You can take this season as an example. In late-September, Flick himself was sounding the alarm, noting how they were short on players and depth. Salihamidzic addressed it with a Supermarket Sweep just before the transfer window closed that brought in Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting, Bouna Sarr, Marc Roca and Costa. The point isn't that the quartet haven't been particularly good (though, as a group, they haven't) -- it's that Flick had to beg and wait until the final hours of the window to address the issue.

Yes, global pandemic and all that. But this is, supposedly, the richest, best-run club in Germany, nein?

Flick himself commented that this Bayern side were nowhere near as good last season's version. The remarks may have struck some as odd -- other than Thiago Alcantara, it was largely the same players -- but was undeniably true. Heroics from Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Manuel Neuer and Joshua Kimmich (when fit) were papering over cracks. It might still have been enough to win the Champions League and Bundesliga this year, but it wouldn't have changed the underlying facts: there's some major planning to do.

Up front, Muller turns 32 in September and Lewandowski 33 in August. They will need to find replacements in the very near future. Muller is such a unique player that his replacement will likely be a totally different sort of footballer. Unless they sign Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe (and they won't), Lewandowski will be replaced by somebody substantially worse. Both replacements will be pricey.

At the back, David Alaba and Jerome Boateng become free agents in June and here, you have some sympathy for the club. Alaba, having come through the ranks (and therefore having been somewhat underpaid) and turning 29 in June, is looking for one last pay day. (This explains why he's being advised by super agent Pini Zahavi). Boateng turns 33 in September and, while he's been generally fit and productive this year, has had injury woes in the past.

The club don't want to lock themselves into onerous long-term deals for older players: fine. Dayot Upamecano is on his way from RB Leipzig to fill one of the slots at the back: great. But there is little question that the way both their exits have been handled -- with Hoeness labelling Zahavi a "greedy piranha" and Boateng treated like some stiff, despite Flick openly lobbying on his behalf -- hasn't helped matters.

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The question then becomes how much faith you have in Bayern's ability to reload and here, the track record isn't great, particularly when they've spent big, as a look at their record signings suggest.

Lucas Hernandez -- whose transfer cost €80 million from Atletico Madrid -- is the third-most expensive central defender in the history of the game. He has started barely a third of Bayern's games since arriving in 2019 and, in fact, has made more than 13 top-flight starts in a season just once in his career. (He's 25 years old.)

Next up is Leroy Sane: €45m rising to a possible €60m with bonuses, which might not sound like a lot until you consider he was a year away from free agency when he arrived from Manchester City last summer. The issue with Sane is consistency -- when's he good, he's virtually unplayable, but when he's off his game, he's a passenger -- and durability. He has started more than 23 league games just once in his career (he too is 25) and even this year, when he's been mostly fit, he managed just 15 league starts.

Want more? How about Corentin Tolisso, who cost €41.5m, rising to €47.5m, from Lyon in 2017. He's 26. In the past three years, injuries have limited him to 15 league starts combined. Or, indeed, Javi Martinez. He cost €40m back in 2012, but averages less than 13 league starts a season over nearly nine years.

Keep going down Bayern's top 10 list of most expensive signings in the past eight seasons and you'll bump into the likes of Mario Gotze and Renato Sanches, too. Arguably, the only ones who lived up to their fee were Arturo Vidal and Mats Hummels. Sure, it's nobody's fault (usually) if players get injured, and maybe Tolisso, Hernandez and Sane will all stay fit next year and be among the best in the world at their positions. But the track record isn't great. Somewhere along the line, things aren't quite what they should be.

The principle, incidentally, applies to loans too: witness the acquisitions of Philippe Coutinho and Alvaro Odriozola last season. Indeed, Bayern have often done better when acquiring very young players (Alaba, Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, Alphonso Davies, Kingsley Coman) for manageable fees or promoting from within (Muller, Jamal Musiala). In fact, you can make the case that the last big-name signing to really move the needle at Bayern was Hummels, back in 2016... and that did not end well.

That has to be fresh in the mind of Flick -- and help explain, at least in part, why he's considering going back to the German national team. Whether it's Nagelsmann next or somebody else, it will likely be one of the first questions asked by his potential successor.

How does a club that is so successful and enjoys such a massive economic advantage fail to drive that edge home? And how much of their recent trophy haul is simply down to Guardiola's legacy and a trio of generational talents -- Neuer (35), Lewandowski (32) and Mueller (31) -- who are now very much on the clock?

Tonight we have David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad facing off against Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore. We'll have the likes of Rashid Khan, Jonny Bairstow, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar against the likes of AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell and Yuzvendra Chahal. If this blog doesn't load for you, click here. For our ball-by-ball commentary, click here

Delay in getting the results of their Covid-19 tests has ruled out the South African bowling pair of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje from Delhi Capitals' Thursday clash with the Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai. Both players remain in hotel quarantine at the moment.

Both Rabada and Nortje checked into Capitals' team hotel in Mumbai on April 6, having flown commercial flight on business class from South Africa immediately after the second ODI of the home series against Pakistan. Their pair's quarantine period, a week long as per IPL guidelines, was meant to end on April 13, but for now they are still confined to their rooms.

One reason behind delay in getting test results is understood to be because of the fresh lockdown imposed by the Maharashtra government this week which has affected logistics.

The latest update will have come as a significant blow for the Capitals, who would in all likelihood have wanted to field both Nortje and Rabada in their XI against the Royals. Along with Rabada and Nortje, David Miller, who represents the Royals, was on the same flight. The Royals confirmed on Wednesday Miller was available for selection.

Rabada was the highest wicket-taker in the IPL last year, with 30 wickets in 17 games. And although he has played only one season of the IPL - in 2020 - Nortje became a key member of the Capitals line-up after picking up 22 wickets in 16 matches, the fourth-highest in the tournament. His express pace gave a cutting edge to their bowling attack and his partnership with Rabada was one of the biggest reasons they were able to make the final of the IPL for the first time.

Toss Pakistan chose to bowl vs South Africa

Pakistan have opted to field first after winning the toss at SuperSport Park in the third T20I. The series is level at 1-1 after South Africa bounced back from a defeat in the first game with a resounding victory.

Rassie van der Dussen's return to fitness is the most significant development for South Africa, with Wihan Lubbe making way for him. It's the only change to the side that romped home to victory with six overs to spare on Monday. Pakistan, meanwhile, have made three changes. Usman Qadir sits out for middle-order batsman Asif Ali, while Haris Rauf slots back in for Mohammad Hasnain. Most significantly, perhaps, Fakhar Zaman is back fit, meaning Sharjeel Khan drops to the bench once more.

South Africa: 1 Aiden Markram 2 Janneman Malan 3 Rassie van der Dussen 4 Heinrich Klaasen (capt&wk) 5 Pite van Biljon 6 George Linde 7 Andile Phehlukwayo 8 Sisanda Magala 9 Beuran Hendricks 10 Lizaad Williams 11 Tabraiz Shamsi

Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan(wk) 2 Babar Azam (capt) 3 Fakhar Zaman 4 Mohammad Hafeez 5 4 Haider Ali 6 Asif Ali 7 Mohammad Nawaz 8 Faheem Ashraf 9 Hasan Ali 10 Shaheen Afridi 11 Haris Rauf

A capacity crowd will be present at UFC 264 on July 10 in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White announced on Wednesday. The pay-per-view card will be held at T-Mobile Arena and headlined by the trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.

"I signed bout agreement this morning," McGregor told ESPN's Ariel Helwani on Wednesday. "I'm going to rip this game a new a--hole July 10th. The Mac is back in Sin City! Full house!"

McGregor aims to rebound from his second-round TKO loss to Poirier at UFC 257 in January. He had previously beaten Poirier in 2014.

"I'm so happy to finally be able to say Vegas is back," White said in his tweeted video. "This summer Las Vegas is back open for business and on July 10, UFC 264 will be at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas at 100% capacity. Ladies and gentlemen, that's 20,000 fans."

White's tweet comes a day after Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a goal to remove social distancing restrictions by May 1 and reach 100% capacity across the state effective June 1. A statewide mask mandate will remain.

The UFC has held events in Vegas, Florida and Fight Island (in Abu Dhabi) since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. UFC 261 on April 24 features three title fights and will be held in Jacksonville, Florida. It will be the first pay-per-view with a capacity crowd since March 2020.

THE ENDLESS DANCE of the 7-year-old was conducted in its full kinetic glory on an early February day at Holy Redeemer School in Marshall, Minnesota. The second graders in Mrs. Klaith's class bounced in and out of their Plexiglas-enclosed desks, talking in unison in their own delirious language, treating every one of life's minor revelations with frantic wonder. Everyone, it appeared, needed an immediate bathroom break. Mrs. Klaith, a consummate pro, managed the chaos like an auctioneer.

The cause of the commotion sat calmly in a kitchen within sight of the beach in Pensacola, Florida. Trey Lance, former North Dakota State quarterback, likely top-5 pick in the April 29 NFL draft and currently the most famous Holy Redeemer alumnus, instigated the excitement by appearing on a computer screen and beaming his smile into a school more than 1,300 miles away.

Lance began the discussion by telling an assembly of kindergarten-through-eighth-grade students that he was never taught by Mrs. Klaith because "she was not a fan of me at the time" (Mrs. Klaith, momentarily thrown, responded, "Trey, I would have gladly taken you in second grade").

The kids had questions, and as the 25-minute session got rolling, those questions managed to elicit answers that were slyly revealing. Lance was asked his favorite memory of Holy Redeemer, and he said, "Had to be the eighth grade carnival." The first thing he does every morning is read a book (currently: "Blink") and then watch a sermon online, usually delivered by evangelical pastors Steven Furtick or Michael Todd. His favorite prayer is "Hail Holy Queen," and he finds it strange that he is entering into a world where potential employment requires "X-rays and MRIs on pretty much my whole body. It's kind of weird to think that's a thing for a job." When Mrs. Klaith relayed the next question -- "Are you better at running or throwing?" -- Lance looked around as if he suspected an NFL scout had infiltrated the chat. "I guess we'll see what everybody else thinks," he said. "It's not up to me at this point. It's what other people think about me, which is kind of weird to think about, but that's what it is today."

Through it all, the 20-year-old Lance smiled, laughed and generally conducted himself like someone who isn't so far removed from second grade that he couldn't channel the overall vibe. "What's my number?" he asked, repeating a question. "Is that my phone number or my jersey number? My jersey number is 5, but I can't give you my phone number." He asked them if they still played foursquare at recess, which led someone to ask if he would return to play foursquare with them after he makes the NFL. "I'll definitely be back to play foursquare," Lance said, prompting what sounded like a small riot, "and go to HRS basketball games."

Lance's face -- young-man smooth, with eyes crinkling with every smile and eyebrows arched in a permanent state of curiosity -- seems genetically engineered for happiness. It's a big world out there, full of temptation, jealousy and free safeties who swear they didn't hear the whistle, but in this moment Lance is affected by none of it. This face appears to be where skepticism goes to die.

"Going to school with a smile on your face can have a huge impact," he told the second graders. "You don't know what someone right next to you is going through at home, so asking people how they're doing might be weird and awkward right at the beginning, but your positive energy can change your life, and the lives of others."

When he's not handing out life advice to tweens, Lance is the most mysterious potential star in this month's NFL draft. He is 6-foot-4 and 226 pounds, has played in a pro-style offense in college that demanded he make reads at the line, runs the 40 in somewhere around 4.5 seconds and, in response to a question, told the students at Holy Redeemer that he once threw a ball 79 yards. "But that was a while ago," he said. "I think I can beat that now." It sounded more like an aside than a flex.

In truth, Lance seems to have been created for the sole purpose of confounding, and enticing, NFL decision-makers. He has shown all the physical (speed, arm strength, accuracy) and mental (ability to read a defense, leadership, pattern identity) qualities NFL scouts look for, but in precious few repetitions to evaluate their next-level utility. Lance presents the kind of conundrum that no longer seemed possible: He is an underexposed quarterback.

Lance played 17 games for FCS North Dakota State, 16 of them as a redshirt freshman in 2019. His 2019 numbers are cartoonish: 2,786 yards passing, 28 touchdowns and precisely zero interceptions in 287 attempts -- an NCAA record for attempts without an interception. In two games he threw more touchdowns than incompletions. He also ran for 14 touchdowns and 1,100 yards (an impressive total, but probably half of what the two bespectacled boys at the front of Mrs. Klaith's class run in the average recess).

After the pandemic wiped out the fall season for FCS schools, North Dakota State managed to play one game, against Central Arkansas. The game was widely considered to be played for one reason -- to showcase Lance -- but NDSU contended it was a chance to play a game, any game, during a time when schedules and regulations were in constant flux and the team was on campus, practicing and ready to go. Whichever explanation you choose to adopt, there is no doubt it was one of the strangest events of a strange year. "The NFL likes to talk about pressure," says Terry Bahlmann, Lance's head coach at Marshall High. "Well, there was a lot of pressure on Trey in that game. It was like a farewell game for him, just a whole different vibe." Lance had his worst game, throwing his first and only collegiate interception in the first half, but ended up completing 50% of his passes, running for 143 yards, throwing two touchdowns and finishing his career with a 17-0 record as a starter. As bad games go, it was pretty damned good.

"Trey is probably the hardest evaluation I've had to do in 11 years," says ESPN draft scout Matt Miller. "Seventeen starts is a very small picture to get a complete idea of who a player is, and it's not only 17 but 17 against FCS competition. But in those games, I've never seen a player so dominant. If you trust the tape, he should be the No. 2 quarterback taken in the draft, behind [Trevor] Lawrence."

Pre-draft analysis, for what it's worth, indicates Lance won't be the second quarterback drafted (BYU's Zach Wilson, we are told, is all but assured to go to the Jets at No. 2), but there's a rare sense of genuine uncertainty regarding whether Lance, Ohio State's Justin Fields or Alabama's Mac Jones will be taken by the 49ers with the third pick. In the mimetic world of the NFL, where no quarterback exists unless in comparison to someone else, Lance is a generational puzzle. Getting it right could change a franchise. Getting it wrong could, too.

TREY LANCE WAS 5 years old when Carlton and Angie Lance prepared for a big Saturday morning at the local park. Carlton, a former Canadian Football League defensive back who is a Hall of Famer at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, plotted it out: He and Trey would head to the park with Trey's bike, whereupon Carlton would remove the training wheels and proceed to teach the older of his two sons how to ride on two wheels.

"Oh, it was a big deal," Angie says. "A really big deal."

They got to the park, shed the extra wheels and set about the task of some serious bonding. "OK, buddy," Carlton said. "You can do this." He walked next to his son and held his hand on the seat and did all the dad things you're supposed to do until he realized -- about five seconds into this big deal -- that he was even less essential than the training wheels. Trey sped out of his grasp and rode around the park like he was ready for a unicycle. They'd been gone about 10 minutes when Carlton and Trey returned to the house.

Angie met Carlton at the door. "What happened?" she whispered, just in case it had gone badly. Carlton shrugged. "Nothing -- Trey can ride a bike now."

This is an anecdotal way of informing the world that it's best not to make the mistake -- as I did -- of suggesting to Carlton Lance that Trey Lance is a late bloomer. After the fact, when I sheepishly told Angie what I had done, she said, "Oh, you didn't. People say that all the time, like, 'Oh, Trey must have gotten so much better once he got to NDSU.' It makes Carl really mad."

What Carlton said in response was far more diplomatic than his wife would have guessed, but his voice did adopt a crisper tone the second the description hit his ears. "No, Trey is not a late bloomer," he said, each syllable strung like barbed wire. "Everything you have seen him do he has been doing since he was in high school. From that point on, all we were looking for was an opportunity. Did I see it blowing up like this? No, but I was hopeful."

Perhaps to preempt another question, Carlton volunteers, "Trey's had a good upbringing: two-parent home, gets good grades, doesn't have any trouble. That's another box I would check." It is a tacit acknowledgment that character issues is a label that historically gets pinned disproportionately on Black quarterbacks. Trey's offensive coordinator at North Dakota State, former NFL quarterback Randy Hedberg, tells NFL people, "Trey can carry a franchise with his personality. When he walks into a room, you know who he is."

Carlton, a financial analyst, was a volunteer defensive assistant at Marshall. "He was one of our strictest coaches," says Blaise Andries, now an offensive tackle at the University of Minnesota. "Tough love, but it was always love."

Trey was a sophomore when his dad told him he wasn't running hard on kick coverage. "Yes, I am," Trey said. Carlton went to the film, where the two of them sat down to see who was right. Carlton paused the screen at one point and asked, "Trey, is this an offensive lineman?" Trey nodded. "Are you faster than him?" Another nod. "Then why is he beating you down the field?" Point, Carlton. "He never jogged again," he says. It was around that time that Carlton started saying, "The only one stopping Trey is Trey." Soon it evolved into a motivational call-and-response. "Who's stopping Trey?" Carlton would ask, and Trey would answer, "Trey."

The biggest hurdle for Lance in college recruiting was the same as it is in draft evaluations: There was just never enough of him. At Marshall High, he was routinely lifted from games at halftime with his team leading by five or six touchdowns. "The hype wasn't big on Trey," Bahlmann says, in a classic bit of southwestern Minnesota dryness, brittle as the crunch of snow underfoot. "He just didn't have the stats. He played the whole game just once his junior year. If we were up by 40 at halftime, what was I supposed to do? Keep him in and have him throw?"

It is easy to be overlooked when you come from Marshall, a town of 14,000 with a high school team that had to travel three hours to play a school of comparable size. ("Mostly farm kids who love mudding and shooting people with Airsoft guns," says South Dakota State running back Jefferson Lee V, who, along with Lance, was one of the few Black players at Marshall. "Man, I don't like mud at all.") Lance was throwing the ball 65 yards in the air and running through defenders, but if nobody is there to see it, did it really happen? Two Iowa coaches came to a game only to see Lance lifted at halftime with a 54-0 lead. He barely threw a pass all night, and Iowa walked away with no idea what they did -- or didn't -- see. "I might be partly to blame," jokes high school teammate Reece Winkelman, a defensive end at South Dakota State. "I know I didn't help his stats any. I averaged 28 yards a catch as a tight end my senior year, but only because I would drop all the short passes because Trey's arm strength was unreal. I would bat the short ones down because I didn't want to break a finger."

Boise State was Lance's lone BCS quarterback offer, and it came the day before signing day. He had Big Ten offers to play either safety or linebacker. At some point in his high school career, he found himself traveling the well-worn and sometimes-coded road from "quarterback" to "athlete." Minnesota recruited him as a quarterback until P.J. Fleck took over for Tracy Claeys, at which point the Gophers switched and offered Lance an opportunity to play defense. "U of M stung for about a half hour," Angie Lance says. "Trey didn't need consoling or reassurances. We just dealt with what was there."

It's the plug-and-play storyline: overlooked athlete heads to college or pro sports cultivating the massive chip on his shoulder. He's either under-recruited out of high school or drafted too low in the pros, and from that point forward every fiber of his being is directed toward proving the doubters wrong. He holds on to specific slights and shovels them into his internal furnace to burn through every challenge. Damian Lillard writes rap songs about the high school coach who suggested the NBA might not be in his future; Aaron Rodgers has neither forgotten nor forgiven the highly recruited teammate at Cal who tried to nickname him "Juco" when he arrived on campus from a community college.

But how about a guy who was overlooked but didn't much care? Who didn't turn every perceived insult into a reason to live? Is it possible to be more thankful for the opportunity that was provided than bitter about those that were denied? Is it weird for an athlete to want to get better for the sheer challenge of it and not out of spite?

Lance was a guest on a youth-sports podcast in February of last year, and on it he was asked if the attention he received for his record-breaking, undefeated season at North Dakota State -- an FCS powerhouse claiming Carson Wentz as an alumnus -- made his life more difficult. "I don't know if it's as hard as people think," he said. "It's about eliminating the negative energy. I believe in putting positive energy into the universe and speaking things into existence."

On a dreary February night in Fargo, right after Lance had finished his redshirt season, he got a call from a former high school teammate. Blaise Andries was a year ahead of Lance at Marshall High, and was in his second year as an offensive tackle at Minnesota. It was about 8 p.m. on a Tuesday, and Andries was just checking in.

"What are you doing right now?" Andries asked.

"I'm at the stadium watching film," Lance said.

"Film of what?"

"I'm breaking down some NFL defenses."

Andries let that hang there. His friend, who was redshirting while future pro Easton Stick led North Dakota State to a second straight national title, was sitting in the Fargodome on a random Tuesday night -- in the offseason -- breaking down film of NFL defenses.

"First of all, why aren't you doing schoolwork?" Andries said. "And second, you're studying NFL defenses?"

Andries is telling me this story via Zoom from his apartment in Minneapolis. On the desk in front of him is a pile of study sheets crawling with numbers and formulas. A math major, he set out to become an actuary but then grew to 6-foot-6 and 335 pounds, and got good enough at offensive tackle that his dream is likely to be delayed by an NFL career.

"Is what Trey did normal?" Andries asks. "Oh, no -- very abnormal. That man lived at that stadium. Seriously, it's an obsession. He was looking ahead at a time when nobody would have thought he should be looking ahead. You don't find many people who obsess over anything the way he does with football."

Back at HRS, Mrs. Klaith was relaying questions solicited from every classroom of HRS. Does Trey like being Bryce's older brother? "Yes," he said of the Marshall High receiver who will play in the fall at NDSU. "He's a lot more fun and exciting than I am." The sixth grade boys wanted to know his Xbox username, but Lance said he doesn't play often enough to remember it.

And just after he refused to name his favorite teacher -- "I see about six of them on here," he said, laughing -- he got a question that changed the mood.

LANCE LEANED IN, reading the question off the chat function on the Zoom call. He read it mostly to himself, kind of mumbly, and his eyes narrowed the more he read, no doubt wondering where it was headed. More than anything, his expression seemed to indicate a gradual realization that he had unwittingly walked chin-first into a friendly Zoom call with the most high-information elementary school in the upper Midwest.

"There was an event you attended in high school that was in Chicago," Lance began, "where all the interviews say you kept getting cut in front of in line. Would you have acted differently that day knowing what you know now, such as being more aggressive and cutting in line to put yourself in front of others?"

Lance leaned back in his chair and stalled a bit. "So I went to a camp in Chicago when I was in high school," he began, and proceeded to tell the story.

It was an Elite 11 quarterback camp the summer before his senior year of high school, and it was a chance for the wider world to get a look at Trey Lance. It was also a chance for Trey Lance to get an idea of where he fit into that wider world. Most of the high school quarterbacks at the camp were already anointed: savvier than Lance, from bigger places, hyped by private coaches, offered scholarships before they played a varsity game. "I was excited about it," Carlton Lance says. "We drove over there telling Trey, 'From my research and what I've looked at, I think you've got it, but I don't want to look at it through dad eyes. This is your chance to see where you stand.'"

But right away, Carlton felt something was off. None of the coaches were paying much attention to Trey, and during the throwing drills he noticed Trey wasn't moving up in the line. He'd be third in line, two guys would take reps and Trey would be second in line. "I'd see them cut him in line, and next thing I know they're taking Trey's reps," Carlton says. "I don't want to sound like sour grapes, because I don't think Trey should have been the one quarterback who moved on from there, but we thought it was an evaluation and we didn't get that."

On the drive home, Trey was quiet. Carlton told Angie, "Well, at least we know we don't need to go to the next camp." Trey piped in: "I don't even want to go."

The Lances were engaging in the dance of the modern parent: Are we doing enough? How much can we afford to spend and sacrifice for our son to reach his dream? Can we sit back and expect college recruiters to find Marshall, Minnesota, and look beyond the sparse statistics to see their son's potential?

Recruiting services sent out sales pitches with the same guilt-driven message: Your son is falling behind. Carlton kept hitting the same key: Don't put your worth onto others. Angie was torn; she wanted to give her son the best opportunity to succeed, but she didn't want her son to turn into an entitled line-cutter, either. "I would see kids playing on two or three AAU basketball teams and going to summer camps and playing in 7-on-7 tournaments in Florida, and I would ask Carl, 'Are we doing enough?'" Angie says. "He never wavered. He would tell me, 'He's good enough, and they'll find him. If he works hard and gets better, they'll find him.'"

In the kitchen in Pensacola, Trey leaned back, formulating the answer in his head. Finally, he bent forward again so his smile filled the screen. "So there were guys cutting ahead of me in line," he said. "But would I do anything differently? No, I really don't think so. That isn't my personality, and that was all in the plan for me to struggle at that camp and be frustrated. In the end, it was a good experience, for sure."

The questions ended, and Mrs. Klaith thanked Lance as the two bespectacled boys rushed the screen, waving frantically. Lance laughed and said, "It was awesome to see you guys."

As you read this, there are NFL scouts spelunking into the depths of Trey Lance's 17 game tapes, searching for flaws. They question the competition. They question the extent of the dataset. They question the ability for someone who has played against limited competition in limited games to pick up the nuances of NFL defenses quickly enough to merit a top-5 pick. Sure, they see the arm strength and the ability to throw on the run in either direction. They see the personality that his coaches believe can carry a franchise. They see a football-obsessive QB who studied NFL defenses before he even took a college snap, still manage to be goofy with second graders. Some of those scouts are undoubtedly falling in love. Some are scared witless. Some, it's safe to assume, are both. Forgive them their torment; there's a good chance they've never faced a set of circumstances like this before and never will again.

Trey Lance could make a franchise or set it back. The evolution of the position from niche obsession to national fetish has spawned a brand of mindless overanalysis that reduces the draft to a binary proposition: Boom or bust; Manning or Leaf; Trubisky or Mahomes. There are no certainties, that's for sure, but there are more variables and far more guesswork than anybody in the business would care to admit.

What do you believe? Carlton Lance believes his son will never let another man define his worth. Trey believes he can speak success into the universe. And the kids at Holy Redeemer School, especially the two bespectacled boys who rushed the computer screen to say goodbye, believe that Trey Lance will be back to play foursquare.