Yahoo Sports AM: The value of an NFL running back

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🚨 Headlines

🏀 32-0: South Carolina beat LSU on Sunday in an SEC title game marred by mass ejections. For the second straight year, the Gamecocks (32-0) will enter the NCAA tournament as the nation's only undefeated team, men or women.

🏈 Russ to Pittsburgh: Veteran QB Russell Wilson plans to sign with the Steelers, he announced Sunday night on social media.

🏈 More NFL transactions: The Patriots traded Mac Jones to the Jaguars; the Bucs gave Baker Mayfield a three-year, $100 million extension; the Chiefs signed DT Chris Jones to a historic five-year deal; Eagles legend Fletcher Cox retired.

🏒 Deadline deals: A flurry of moves took place ahead of Friday's NHL trade deadline, none bigger than the Golden Knights landing Tomáš Hertl from the Sharks.

🏀 Luka's historic run: Luka Dončić put up 39 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists on Saturday for his record sixth consecutive 30-point triple-double.

⚽️ Premier League title race: Liverpool and Manchester City played to a 1-1 draw on Sunday, leaving Arsenal (2-1 win over Brentford) at the top of the standings.

🥊 Fight night: Rising star Sean O'Malley defended his bantamweight title at UFC 299; Former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua knocked out UFC champion-turned-boxer Francis Ngannou.

🎓 The Prime Effect: Deion Sanders' first season at Colorado coincided with a 20% increase in student applications, including a 50% spike from Black students.

🏈 The plight of the modern running back

As NFL free agency gets underway, the list of available running backs is once again deep with stars seeking lucrative contracts they'll probably never get, Jeff writes.

Who's available: The top five guys read like the first round of a fantasy draft: Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry, Austin Ekeler, Tony Pollard and Josh Jacobs.

Three played on one-year deals last season: Barkley ($10.1 million), Pollard ($10.1 million) and Jacobs ($11.8 million).

The other two were in the final season of four-year deals: Henry (four years, $50 million) and Ekeler (four years, $24.5 million).

A familiar refrain: For the second straight offseason, the devaluing of running backs looks to be a central theme. All five players above were among those who met on a Zoom call last summer to discuss the position group's frustration and problems securing long-term deals.

Front offices are increasingly investing in offensive linemen, rather than backs, to establish their running game. And many teams now prefer a running back by committee approach.

"You want guys that can carry the ball, guys that can protect, and guys that can be dynamic out of the backfield. Sometimes that's one player, sometimes that's three," Titans head coach Brian Callahan told Yahoo Sports.

Consider this: The plight of the modern running back, summed up in two stats…

187 NFL players are on multi-year contracts worth $10+ million annually. Only five are running backs: Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, Jonathan Taylor, Nick Chubb and Aaron Jones.

No Super Bowl–winning team since 2013 has paid its leading rusher more than $2.5 million.

What to watch: NFL teams can start negotiating with free agents today at 12pm ET, and players can begin signing contracts on Wednesday at 4pm.

⚾️ Banana Ball's big league debut

The Savannah Bananas' mission to make baseball fun again reached new heights on Saturday when the team made its MLB ballpark debut in Houston, Jeff writes.

Stars take the mound: Seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens and 13-year MLB veteran Roy Oswalt both took the mound as guest pitchers for the Georgia-based exhibition team in front of a sold out crowd at Minute Maid Park — the fourth stop on their 2024 Banana Ball World Tour.

Banana Ball, explained: In 2020, the Bananas — then a collegiate summer team — debuted their own version of the game called Banana Ball that featured 11 new rules including no bunting, no walks and my personal favorite: if a fan catches a foul ball, it's an out.

Their idea started small with a one-city "tour" in 2021 but has grown each year to the point where they are now exclusively a barnstorming team.

Every Bananas game is a spectacle, featuring mid-game song-and-dance numbers, baby races on the infield, dancing umpires, and more.

Most games — including Saturday's walk-off victory — are played against the Party Animals, who are like the Washington Generals to the Bananas' Harlem Globetrotters.

Coming up: The 2024 Banana Ball World Tour has 22 cities left, including five more one-night-only stops at MLB ballparks.

June 8: Fenway Park (Boston)

July 13: Nationals Park (D.C.)

Aug. 10: Progressive Field (Cleveland)

Sep. 21: Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia)

Oct. 12: LoanDepot Park (Miami)

What they're saying: "It's a dream come true for so many of us," team owner Jesse Cole said before the game, wearing his trademark yellow tuxedo and top hat. "A lot of these players had dreams of playing Major League Baseball and many of them [were] drafted and they didn't quite get there. And now to play in front of a sold-out crowd is pretty special."

⛳️ Scottie learned how to putt

Scottie Scheffler is the best ball-striker in the world. Add a hot putter to his game, like he did this weekend, and he might just be unstoppable.

Victory at last: The No. 1 player in golf won the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday for his first official PGA Tour victory in a year. And he did it with his putter, which had been the only thing holding him back over the past 12 months.

By the numbers: Scheffler arrived at the Bay Hill Club ranked No. 1 on the PGA Tour in strokes gained tee-to-green, No. 1 in strokes gained approach-to-green, No. 1 in greens in regulation … and 144th in strokes gained putting.

He switched from a blade to a mallet model this week and it appears to have paid immediate dividends, as he led the field in putting on Sunday and ranked fifth for the week.

He didn't miss a putt inside of 15 feet all weekend, made a career-best nine straight one-putts, and rode his new mallet to a bogey-free 66 final round to take home $4 million.

What they're saying: "Yeah, it would be borderline unfair if he starts putting really good," said Wyndham Clark, who finished five strokes behind Scheffler in second. "His ballstriking, honestly, is on another level compared to everyone else … We knew if he started to hole putts, then this sort of stuff would happen," added Rory McIlroy.

What's next: The Players Championship tees off this week at TPC Sawgrass, where Scheffler will be looking to repeat as champion.

🌎 The world in photos

San Diego — The USWNT won the inaugural W Gold Cup on Sunday, beating Brazil 1-0 on a commanding header from captain Lindsey Horan.

Las Vegas — USC beat Stanford, 74-61, on Sunday to win the final Pac-12 women's basketball tournament. Farewell to the "Conference of Champions."

Durham, N.C. — The Har Heels were unfazed by the Cameron Crazies, beating Duke 84-79 on Saturday to win their first outright ACC regular-season title since 2017.

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — Red Bull's Max Verstappen cruised to his ninth straight win at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where the biggest story was the off-track controversy threatening to tear the team apart.

📆 Mar. 11, 2020: The shutdown begins

Four years ago today, the NBA indefinitely suspended play following the WHO's declaration of a pandemic, with the announcement coming mere minutes after news broke of Rudy Gobert's infamous positive test for COVID-19, Jeff writes.

The beginning of the end: The NBA was the first domino to fall. Just one day later, MLB canceled spring training and delayed Opening Day, the NHL suspended its season, and the NCAA canceled all winter and spring championships, including March Madness.

More on this day:

🏀 1892: The first public basketball game was played at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, where 200 spectators watched the students beat the teachers, 5-1.

🎾 1991: 17-year-old Monica Seles dethroned Steffi Graf as the world's top-ranked player, ending Graf's record streak of 186 consecutive weeks* at No. 1.

*The longest streaks: Five women and five men have had streaks of at least 100 weeks at No. 1. Graf (186), Serena Williams (186), Martina Navratilova (156), Ash Barty (114) and Chris Evert (113) for the women; Roger Federer (237), Jimmy Connors (160), Ivan Lendl (157), Novak Djokovic (122) and Pete Sampras (102) for the men.

📺 Watchlist: Four tickets to the dance

Four more March Madness tickets will be punched tonight, with two men's and two women's conference title games headlining Championship Week, Jeff writes.

Men: SoCon: Samford vs. ETSU (7pm ET, ESPN+); Sun Belt: JMU vs. Arkansas State (7pm, ESPN+)

Women: Sun Belt: JMU vs. Marshall (2pm, ESPNU); Big East: UConn vs. Georgetown* (7pm, FS1)

More to watch:

🏀 NBA: Warriors at Spurs (8pm, NBA); Celtics at Trail Blazers (10:30pm, NBA)

🏀 NCAAM: No. 23 Saint Mary's vs. Santa Clara (9pm, ESPN); No. 19 Gonzaga vs. San Francisco (11:30pm, ESPN2) … WCC semifinals.

🏀 NCAAW: No. 19 Oklahoma vs. Iowa State (2:30pm, ESPN2); No. 6 Texas vs. No. 16 Kansas State (5pm, ESPN2) … Big 12 semifinals.

🎾 Tennis: Indian Wells (2pm, Tennis) … Round of 32.

⚽️ Premier League: Chelsea vs. Newcastle (4pm, USA)

⚾️ Spring training: Pirates at Red Sox (1pm, MLB); Dodgers at Guardians (4pm, MLB)

*This one's for Tasha: Georgetown lost its head coach, Tasha Butts, to cancer in October. Five months later, on what would have been Butts' 42nd birthday, the Hoyas advanced to their first-ever Big East title game.

⚾️ MLB trivia

Joey Votto, who signed with his hometown Blue Jays on Friday, ranks second among Canadian-born MLB players with 2,135 career hits.

Question: Who does he trail?

Hint: 1997 NL MVP.

Answer at the bottom.

🍿 Baker's Dozen: Top 13 plays of the weekend

🏀 Cardoso at the buzzer

🏀 Jalen Green takes flight

🥍 Underhand, between the legs

🏒 Ridiculous shootout goal

⚽️ Spectacular goal

⚽️ Sanabria gets on his bike

🏀 Half-court heave

🏀 Posterized (college version)

🏀 Posterized (high school version)

⚽️ Insigne's spectacular strike

🏀 Arkansas State buzzer-beater

⛳️ Theegala showing off

🥎 Full extension grab

Trivia answer: Larry Walker (2,160 hits)

We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.