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The football world is mourning tonight. Former San Diego Chargers linebacker Billy Ray Smith Junior has died at sixty four years old, and his family says chronic traumatic encephalopathy-caused dementia is to blame. A College Football Hall of Famer, Smith's death adds another painful chapter to the NFL's ongoing reckoning with the long-term consequences of the game.
And the hits keep coming off the field. Ahman Green, the Green Bay Packers' all-time leading rusher, has revealed he is battling Parkinson's disease at forty nine years old. Green ran for over eight thousand yards in a Packers uniform and is one of the most beloved players in that franchise's history. The announcement has drawn an outpouring of support from across the league.
Shifting to the diamond, Sonny Gray and the Boston Red Sox are looking to turn a corner. After sitting eleven games below five hundred on July first, Gray was considered a near-certain trade deadline departure. But Boston has steadied itself, and Gray takes the mound against Oakland intent on proving he belongs in the rotation for the stretch run.
That's your play-by-play. Sports Desk, back to the booth.
