Browsing: emotional

Sep 27, 2025, 10:12 PM ET

PITTSBURGH — Returning to Pittsburgh for one final farewell just felt right for Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury stopped all eight shots he faced during the third period of his final game with the Pittsburgh Penguins, a 4-1 preseason win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

“It was a little surreal, a little crazy, but also comfortable,” Fleury said. “When I played here with other teams, I always felt a little weird, but this felt normal … like it used to.”

Fleury officially retired from the NHL as a member of the Minnesota Wild at the end of last season. But the beloved 40-year-old goaltender signed a ceremonial professional tryout contract earlier this month to see old teammates and friends, come full circle and complete a 21-season NHL career that began in Pittsburgh.

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“I feel bad because I’ve done so many laps and goodbyes, and I keep coming back,” Fleury said. “I’m thankful I got the opportunity to come back for one more go-around.”

Fleury, a former Vezina Trophy winner who also played with Vegas and Chicago, is second in NHL history only to Martin Brodeur with 575 wins and 1,051 regular-season games played, and his 76 NHL shutouts are tied for 10th in league history.

But this night was meant to celebrate Fleury, who is most well-known for his time in Pittsburgh, where he won three Stanley Cups and holds nearly every major goaltending record in Penguins history, including games played (691), wins (375), goals-against average (2.58), shutouts (44), playoff games (115), playoff wins (62) and playoff shutouts (10).

Fleury, who practiced with the Penguins on Friday, wore his familiar bright, yellow pads and a specially made mask to commemorate the special weekend. Fleury was offered a choice as to when he could play Saturday, and he opted for the third period to try to win one more game with the Penguins.

The sellout crowd gave Fleury a standing ovation as he led the Penguins from the tunnel to begin the third period. Loud chants of “Fle-ury” “Fle-ury” and “One More Year” filled the arena minutes after the puck dropped to begin the period. Fans erupted with thunderous applause each time Fleury made a save or touched the puck, including stops on Hudson Fasching, Cole Sillinger and Erik Gudbranson.

Marc-Andre Fleury signed a ceremonial professional tryout contract earlier this month to play one final game with the Penguins, a 4-1 preseason win over Columbus on Saturday night. Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

In the final two minutes, with the victory in hand, the crowd showered Fleury with chants of “Thank You, Fleury.” When the final horn sounded, fellow franchise cornerstones Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang embraced Fleury one more time in the crease.

“Every time he touched the puck, the reception was unreal,” Crosby said. “It felt like a playoff game. It was nice to get him the win.”

Fleury spent the first 13 seasons of his career with the Penguins. He helped Crosby, Malkin and Letang win the Stanley Cup in 2009, 2016 and 2017 before Vegas selected Fleury in the 2017 expansion draft.

Pittsburgh traded up to draft an 18-year-old Fleury No. 1 in 2003 during a tumultuous period in which the franchise nearly moved. More than two decades later, Pittsburgh is no longer a playoff fixture, but Fleury helped stabilize the franchise and turn the Penguins into one of the NHL’s marquee teams.

His signature moment with Pittsburgh came June 12, 2009, in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final against Detroit. Fleury made a last-second desperation, post-to-post diving save on Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom to seal a 2-1 win and deliver Pittsburgh its third Stanley Cup.

The fans remembered Saturday.

Before the game, crowds gathered multiple rows deep behind the Penguins’ goal, hoping to catch a glimpse of Fleury during his final pregame warmup with the team. Many took photos and video to commemorate the moment, wore familiar No. 29 jerseys and held homemade signs expressing their love for Fleury, who lobbed pucks over the glass in between facing shots.

“It was surreal to be back with the Penguins and seeing the guys in front of me,” Fleury said. “It was amazing. It was just like old times.”

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The American crowd dialed up the temperature (too much in many spots), some spectators got kicked out, and emotions boiled over for members of both teams on Saturday afternoon at Bethpage Black.

And yet, Europe withstood it all, winning the second fourballs session, 3-1, and taking a record seven-point lead, 11.5-4.5, entering Sunday singles at the 45th Ryder Cup.

“This is the seventh time that I’ve been involved directly with a team … and I have to say, that’s the best I’ve ever seen,†said Paul McGinley, NBC analyst and European team advisor. “Over the first two days is the best performance I’ve ever seen. I mean, the resilience that these guys have shown, the character they’ve shown on top of a brilliant golf game is just phenomenal.â€

“I don’t think America had a chance the way that we’ve played.â€

McGinley’s Golf Channel colleague Brandel Chamblee took it a step further: “You’re watching the greatest performance of any team since it became continental Europe and the United State.â€

The previous record since 1979, when the format moved to five sessions and 28 points, was six, done twice.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry got more than they deserved from the galleries but won anyway by birdieing each of their last five holes. Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose drew the ire of their opponents, mainly Bryson DeChambeau, but won anyway thanks largely to Rose’s eight birdies. Even with the Americans gutting out a win over previously 3-0 Jon Rahm in the third match, an anchor point by Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton, who subbed in late for an injured Viktor Hovland and birdied his last four, ensured a fourth straight session victory.

“They’re playing unbelievable golf,†Xander Schauffele said after teaming with J.J Spaun for the Americans’ lone afternoon point. “I think if you look at it – the course is set up relatively easy, and they’re making a lot of birdies and we’re not. They’re just beating us flat out, and I’m just happy to get a point with J.J. We’re going to try and have small victories right here, and a little bit of red on the board is a win today.â€

Here’s how this emotional and testy Saturday afternoon four-ball session played out:

Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry (Europe) def. Justin Thomas/Cameron Young, 2 up

McIlroy and Lowry reached their breaking points with the New York crowd in this one. Extra security was called in as the heckles grew more personal and more vicious. The broadcast picked up McIlroy, who told a heckler to “shut the f— up’ in the morning session, saying, “I’m not putting until they shut up,†as spectators were counting the number of seconds it took McIlroy to play on the fourth green.

Aside from the extracurriculars, Lowry punched back at the crowd with a 20-foot eagle make at the par-5 fourth, and with McIlroy still with a 6-footer for birdie, he rolled one in from 8 feet at the par-4 fifth to put the Europeans 2 up. But the Americans wouldn’t go away. Young, arguably the Americans’ best player so far, got a hole back with a 36-foot birdie make at the par-4 seventh. Thomas then got in on the action, hooping one from 20 feet to win the par-4 ninth and tie the match.

The multiplying security quelled the crowd slightly on the back nine as the match stalled with traded pars. Finally, though, McIlroy birdied from 9 feet at the par-3 14th and Thomas missed from 6 feet to give the Europeans not only a 1-up lead but also painted the leaderboard fully blue for the first time all afternoon.

Lowry birdied three of the last four holes with McIlroy birdieing the only hole during that stretch that his partner didn’t, No. 16. That kept the Americans, who also birdied Nos. 15-17, at bay. And Lowry sealed the emotional point with a 5-foot birdie at the last.

“I’m so proud of this guy,†McIlroy said. “He was with me – he was there for me all day. I’m drained, to say the least, and he dug in big time when he had to. I chipped in when I could here and there, but the credit goes to this man today.â€

Asked if some of the spectators went over the line, McIlroy shrugged it off: “It’s not for me to say. People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not. I’m just proud of us for being able to win today with what we had to go through.â€

Tommy Fleetwood/Justin Rose (Europe) def. Scottie Scheffler/Bryson DeChambeau, 3 and 2

The McIlroy match wasn’t the only one filled with drama. Hoping to unlock his two superstars, Keegan Bradley paired Scheffler and DeChambeau – and it worked early as the American duo played the first six holes in 6 under. Unfortunately for the U.S., that results in only a 1-up lead.

Rose stuck his tee ball at the par-3 third to 5 feet and birdied the hole to give he and Fleetwood the first lead of the match. DeChambeau came within inches of an albatross on the next, and he rolled in a 6-footer for birdie at the par-4 fifth to win that hole as well.

But Rose was cooking. He needed just eight putts in his first eight holes, and his 7-foot birdie at No. 7 and 21-foot birdie that he walked in at No. 8 flipped the match back to Europe, 1 up. Fleetwood earned a conceded birdie to win the par-4 10th after he hit his approach 182 yards to 10 inches and Scheffler hit the base of the flagstick with his approach, his ball instead bouncing back off the green.

DeChambeau did his best to rile up the crowd by going crazy after birdieing the par-4 11th from 12 feet; both Euros had already missed their par putts, and the loss cut their lead in half, to 1 up. But they got it right back at the par-4 12th, where Scheffler drove it into the left trees and both Euros threw darts at the hole. Rose didn’t have to putt after Fleetwood drained his 6-footer for birdie to retake the 2-up lead. Scheffler rebounded with a wedge shot to 4 feet at the par-5 13th, but Fleetwood canned a 26-footer for birdie that would tie the hole.

Rose stretched the lead to 3 up with a 16-foot birdie at the par-3 14th, and then things got testy on the 15th green as Rose told DeChambeau’s caddie, Greg Bodine, to back off as the American player-caddie duo were going through their reads while it was Rose’s turn to putt. U.S. team members took issue, and even after Rose and DeChambeau traded birdie makes, players, caddies and captains from both sides exchanged words all the way to the 16th tee.

After the Europeans closed out the match in 16 holes, DeChambeau and Scheffler declined to comment, but Rose said, “It was a shame that the match got to that point because it was actually a really great match. I was waiting to putt, the boys were obviously working on their read, obviously going through a lot of their sort of whatever, calculations and bits and pieces, so I sort of waited a few seconds and then I felt like they came up again and … I was like, ‘It’s my putt,’ right, or however I said it. Maybe I didn’t say it as politely as I could have said it in the moment, but by no means was there any disrespect or anything like that, but obviously it was taken the wrong way.

“Yeah, I don’t think we should dwell on that, honestly. I said to the boys, ‘If you want me to say, excuse me, please, then yeah, my bad.’â€

J.J. Spaun/Xander Schauffele (U.S.) def. Jon Rahm/Sepp Straka, 1 up

Other than Schauffele’s eagle at the par-5 fourth hole, where he canned a 41-footer, there were few American highlights on the front nine as Straka elevated his game alongside Rahm.

After Rahm birdied the first, Straka won holes with 12-foot birdie makes at Nos. 2 and 7. Rahm then added a birdie from 8 feet at No. 9 to turn 2 up.

Spaun showed shades of Oakmont by getting a 41-footer for birdie to drop to win the par-4 10th, and it took seven holes for the U.S. to finally draw level thanks to Nos. 13-15 all being tied with birdies. Rahm missed an 8-footer for birdie at No. 17, allowing Spaun to roll in his 3-footer to tie the match.

A hole later, Spaun earned his first career Ryder Cup point by making a 3-footer for birdie at No. 18. The U.S. win knocked Rahm’s record this week to 3-1.

Tyrrell Hatton/Matt Fitzpatrick (Europe) def. Sam Burns/Patrick Cantlay, 1 up

Each of the first eight holes were tied with 1-under golf, and it wasn’t until Fitzpatrick rolled in an 8-footer for birdie at the par-4 ninth that one of these duos got on the board.

Burns, who’d earned a halve but struggled in Friday fourballs, poured in a 36-footer for birdie at the par-4 10th, but Fitzpatrick answered from 32 feet to maintain the 1-up lead for Europe. Burns later chipped in at the par-3 14th to win the first hole of the match for the U.S. and square things back up.

Then it was the Cantlay and Hatton show. Hatton subbed in late for the injured Viktor Hovland, who is dealing with a neck issue, and he combined with Cantlay to make six birdies, including five outside of 10 feet, on Nos. 15-17, all of which were tied.

A potential session tie was reversed on No. 18, where both Euros stuffed approach shots inside 3 feet – Fitzpatrick did so from the fairway bunker – while Cantlay spun one pin high and off the green and Burns couldn’t convert a birdie try from 22 feet.

“It was definitely a slow burner for this group,†Hatton said. “We couldn’t really hold a putt, all of us, and then just kind of really came alive in the last five holes.â€

Added Fitzpatrick: “I think he’s under selling it big time. That was by far one of the best afternoons I’ve ever had on a golf course, by far, by far.â€

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson recently got emotional while talking about his daughter, Ava, and her journey in the world of pro-wrestling. During a media event tied to his film The Smashing Machine, he paused, collected himself, and shared how proud he is of her for forging her own path.

Oh man, Iâ€m so proud of her,” The Rock said. “I am so proud of her because itâ€s what I did and I love what I did and I love wrestling, I grew up in wrestling. She was born into it too just like I was and when she said, ‘Hey, I wanna do what you do.†But the difference is — itâ€s where I get emotional because sheâ€s like, ‘I wanna do what you do… I wanna carve my own path,†and thatâ€s the difference and that was a big deal when I heard that.,” he added.

Iâ€m telling you, it never happened. I never got that call. Like, hey, can you call someone? I never got that call and thatâ€s the truth, and thatâ€s the thing that makes me proud… When you donâ€t get that call — look, I would have been there anyway. I would have made that call. But when you donâ€t get it, it gave me a profound sense of pride because I was like, alright, I helped, with her mom, raise an amazing human being.†(H/T: Fightful)

The Rock became emotional when talking about his daughter, Ava, and her journey in pro wrestling:

“I am so proud of her because itâ€s what I did and I love what I did and I love wrestling, I grew up in wrestling. She was born into it too just like I was…â€

🥹â¤ï¸

(TikTok | mtvuk) pic.twitter.com/3Ll51OsPFB

— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) September 25, 2025

His remarks underscore two things: his love for the sport, and his admiration for a child who wants to earn her place rather than trade on a name. He acknowledged that, of course, he would have made calls if she had asked, but the fact that she never did made all the difference.

Ava’s Path in WWE NXT

Ava began her WWE journey at the Performance Center, where she trained extensively before making her on-screen debut in NXT. She was first introduced as a member of The Schism, a faction that gave her a platform to gain valuable experience and presence in front of fans.

Over time, she has transitioned into a leadership role, now serving as the General Manager of NXT. This position highlights WWEâ€s trust in her abilities and showcases how she is steadily carving out her own identity within the brand, separate from her fatherâ€s legacy.

She wasn’t available on the September 23 episode of NXT, which saw the invasion of TNA wrestlers during the main event of the night.

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Sep 24, 2025, 01:28 AM ET

Former No. 3-ranked Elina Svitolina said she will end her tennis season early because she is “not in the right emotional space.”

“I haven’t been feeling like myself lately,” Svitolina said in a social media post on Instagram which was followed by a statement on the WTA Tour’s website. “I don’t feel ready to play, so I am therefore ending my season here.”

Svitolina, now ranked 13th, said she needed time to rest and recharge.

“When I step back on the court,” she said, “I want to fight with everything I’ve got and put my best self on the court for the fans, for the game and for myself.”

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Svitolina had a strong 2025, finishing with a 35-14 record and one title, the WTA 250 clay tournament in Rouen, France in April. She also had quarterfinal showings at the Australian and French Opens.

But after reaching the quarterfinals in Montreal, she lost her first match in Cincinnati and her first-round match at the US Open.

After her loss to Naomi Osaka in Montreal, Svitolina spoke out about receiving hateful online abuse from frustrated gamblers.

Last week Svitolina helped lead Ukraine to the semifinals of the Billie Jean King Cup in China before losing to Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.

The 31-year-old Svitolina married French veteran Gael Monfils in 2021 and they have a daughter, Skai, who was born in 2022.

Fellow player Beatriz Haddad Maia also said that she needs an extended period of rest time and will end her 2025 season.

“I am posting this to share with you that I am wrapping up my 2025 season a little ahead of schedule so that I can rest my body and mind for a longer period,” the Brazilian player said. “…Rest assured that I will come back stronger and the best is yet to come!”

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As Scottie Scheffler finished off his sixth win of the season on Sunday at the Procore Championship — a tournament he entered to stay sharp for next week’s Ryder Cup — Lanto Griffin was overcome with emotions thinking about where he has been and what could have been.

Griffin, a 37-year-old pro, ruptured his L5-S1 disc in 2020 and had to undergo a microdiscectomy in 2022. Last season, Griffin had just one top 10 in 22 starts. He finished 158th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings but won PGA Tour Q-School to retain his full PGA Tour membership.

Griffin’s 2025 season was rocky. He finished T9 at the Farmers Insurance Open and then missed four of his next six cuts.

“Sometimes when you work hard and work on the wrong stuff you get worse, and that’s kind of what happened,” Griffin said on Sunday, after he shot 65 to finish solo third. “My work ethic hasn’t changed. I kind of went down the wrong path and it went backwards.”

After withdrawing from the Corales Puntacana Championship, Griffin went back to his old coach, Todd Anderson, at TPC Sawgrass. He also started working with Alex Bennett, director of athletic performance. A T14 at the Barracuda and T23 at the season-ending Wyndham Championship put Griffin 142nd in the standings entering the FedEx Cup Fall and needing some magic to crack the top 100 to maintain his fully exempt status.

The California native opened with a seven-under 65 at the Procore Championship Thursday and followed with rounds of 70 and 71. He entered Sunday’s final round six shots off the pace set by 54-hole leader Ben Griffin, but he birdied six of his first eight holes to make the turn in 30 and put himself in the mix to win his first tournament since the 2019 Houston Open. Griffin made two more birdies on the back to finish 17 under, two shots behind the mark set by Scheffler.

Griffin’s hot Sunday vaulted him to 98th in the FedEx Cup Fall standings, just inside the number to keep his card … at the moment.

“It’s huge,” Griffin told NBC’s Kira K. Dixon after the round. “One of my goals this week was to give myself a shot [to get into the Baycurrent Classic]. Hopefully, I’ll get in there now, and we have [six] tournaments left. Obviously, you want to win but keeping your job … I went to Q School last year and somehow won and extended the life [of my career]. This week, somehow, it all came together. Going to come up a little bit short.

“Kind of wish Scottie wasn’t here but I know all the fans enjoyed it. Just proud of myself. … Playing good golf is so much fun and playing bad golf is pretty brutal on your psyche. I’ve put a lot of hard work in these last five weeks since Wyndham, so it’s kind of nice to see it come together.”

Scheffler and runner-up Ben Griffin, the only players to finish ahead of Lanto Griffin, were two of the 10 U.S. Ryder Cup players in the field, which added juice to a normally sleepy fall event. Although Lanto Griffin’s emotional interview and his open acknowledgement that having Scheffler in the field highlights an issue the PGA Tour will eventually have to solve.

When new CEO Brian Rolapp spoke at the Tour Championship, he talked about the need for the PGA Tour to abide by his three guiding principles: competitive parity, scarcity and simplicity. Rolapp comes from the NFL, and one thing the NFL does better than every other sports league is create narratives that are easy for fans to follow and become invested in.

With that as our guide, let’s look at the FedEx Cup Fall slate, Lanto Griffin and what happened at the Procore Championship.

6 burning Ryder Cup questions you might have 1 week before Bethpage

By:

Sean Zak

As it’s currently constructed, the FedEx Cup Fall serves two purposes: it’s a vehicle for players who finished outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup to try to play their way into the first two Signature Events of the following season, and it shapes the membership of the Tour for the following season.

If Rolapp is looking for simplicity in his product, Sunday’s affairs in Napa would have been much easier to digest and understand without Scheffler, Ben Griffin and the rest of Team USA in the field. The stakes would have been more clearly defined if those in the field were either playing to extend their careers or elevate their standing on Tour. Instead, the 2025 Procore was a mashup of the PGA Tour’s longstanding status quo and the purgatorial state it has found itself in since reshaping on the fly following LIV Golf’s arrival.

Rolapp, who hammered the importance of competing for and winning people’s attention in the doom-scrolling era, promised to make significant changes where they are needed. If he’s looking to follow his old employer’s model, cleaning up the FedEx Cup Fall slate to make it more easily digestible for the masses is a good place to head — after he finds a way to create a postseason model that all sports fans can understand and follow.

If the stakes of the FedEx Cup Fall were more clearly defined, the product would be elevated. It’s easy for people to understand that Player X needs to win to keep his job and Player Y needs to do Z to become eligible for the marquee events. But things become muddy when you have X and Y happening while top players occasionally show up to play to collect a paycheck, make good on sponsorship deals or, in this case, prep for an event that the PGA Tour doesn’t even own.

All of that leads to the question you don’t want people asking: What does this mean?

Sunday’s events in Napa could have been filled with high drama, as Griffin tried to get his second career win over the line while others trying to claw their way back up chased after him. Instead, we got a fun duel between Scheffler and Ben Griffin that ended with the World No. 1 taking home another trophy, talking about how prepared he feels for the Ryder Cup and being unwilling to commit to returning to Napa for his title defense. Which makes sense given that he normally doesn’t play the event.

Rolapp has a lot on his plate as he looks under the hood and tries to polish and fine-tune the PGA Tour product with his three principles as his guiding light. But as he starts to deliver “significant change,” the events in wine country are a good example of how pro golf can make its product easier to understand and more attractive to both the die-hard golf fan and the casual sports fan: Clearly define the stakes, craft a narrative that’s easy to follow and use the simplicity, scarcity and competitive parity of this part of the schedule to your advantage.

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