The National Football League’s new list of approved player helmets for the upcoming 2025 season is seen by the league as “a seminal moment” in the push to reduce on-field concussions. 

The league released the results of its annual helmet performance and safety study Friday, conducted with the NFL Players Association, and is banning seven additional models for next season. Three others have been moved to a “not recommended” category, but notably, all 10 models in question were deemed top performers by the league as recently as 2022. 

Taking their place are a series of upgraded helmets that include more force absorption and additional customization for individual positions. Ten recommended helmet models now perform well enough that they are considered “Guardian Cap optional,” exempting players with those helmets from also using the caps during training camp and practice.

“The helmets are getting better, the technology is getting better, players are getting more choices, and they get to see how those helmets actually perform and what their risk profile is,” said NFL EVP Jeff Miller, who helps lead the league’s health and safety efforts. 

The results arrive as the league saw during the 2024 season its lowest recorded number of concussions, with a 17% reduction from 2023. The NFL’s move last season to the dynamic kickoff, made permanent at last week’s annual league meeting, and the reduced speed of player impacts in that play is a significant factor in the reduction of concussions. So, too, is the accelerating pace of helmet technology, as well as the increasing acceptance of the use of Guardian Caps. 

“While we’re thrilled that we saw the fewest number of concussions ever in the NFL last year, we believe that based on equipment alone, we can see an enhanced ability to protect players this season,” Miller said. 

Miller acknowledged there is a sentiment within the NFL to pursue a more aggressive “mandate” and prohibit a greater number of helmet models, but the league is balancing that stance with that of the union and is more oriented to player choice. 

Each of the NFL’s helmets for 2025, meanwhile, will also be part of a newly liberalized uniform program, boosting the frequency of throwback and alternate looks.

The NBA has faced criticism all season for its declining ratings. But with the postseason starting in less than a week, the league may be rewarded with a gift to counter its detractors: a playoff series between the Lakers and Warriors.

As of April 11, Los Angeles has an 88.9% chance to secure the No. 3 seed, according to Basketball Reference. It would then face the No. 6 seed in the first round, which currently belongs to Golden State. 

There is still a lot that can change in the final four days of the regular season—especially considering five teams jockeying for seeds No. 4 to No. 8 are separated by one game (Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors, Grizzlies, and Timberwolves). However, Golden State has the best odds of securing the position (28.7%). Each team has two games remaining.

A Warriors vs. Lakers playoff duel would feature two of the league’s marquee franchises led by its two most famous, albeit aging, stars in Steph Curry and LeBron James. The two have played 28 games against each other in the postseason—but there’s no guarantee that they will face off again before one—or both—calls it a career.

When the two teams played in conference semifinals in 2023, the series drew 7.8 million viewers—the most-watched semis in 27 years.

Both teams also made high-profile midseason acquisitions (Lakers: Luka Dončić, Warriors: Jimmy Butler) that have turned each team into more credible contenders for the championship.

Based on this season’s viewership data, a series between the two teams, even in the first round, would likely draw massive numbers for the NBA. The Christmas Day game between the two teams on ABC drew 7.9 million viewers, the most-watched regular-season game in five years. The Jan. 25 battle between the two West Coast teams on ABC averaged 3.05 million viewers, the second-most-watched non–Christmas Day game this season. 

Their final meeting of the year was last Thursday, and it drew 2.5 million viewers on TNT, the second-most-watched game of the regular season on cable (excluding opening day). It was also the only game between the two teams this year when both Dončić and Butler played.

Even if Golden State does not finish in sixth, finishing with the No. 7 seed, which it has a 26.3% chance of receiving, could open the door to a second-round meeting between the two franchises. A lot would have to happen to get there—the Warriors would have to win their first play-in game and win a first-round series without home court advantage—but a semis duel would likely drive even higher viewership numbers for the NBA.

NBA ratings have recovered from a weak start to the season and should end the year at close to equal with last year’s numbers. 

Major League Soccer is more committed than ever, at least conceptually, to shift its schedule to the sport’s international standard of fall-to-spring. Getting there, however, is proving to be tougher than expected.

The league’s board of governors, meeting this week in Chicago, agreed to expand its exploration of the move. A possible shift coming out of the men’s FIFA 2026 World Cup in North America will not happen, though, and any pivot will not happen until at least 2027—and perhaps much later than that.

“We’re not there yet,” said MLS commissioner Don Garber. “No decision has been made, and frankly, sitting here today, I’m not sure whether or not we have all the support we need to be able to achieve that.”

Since MLS’s 1996 debut, the league has operated on a winter-to-fall schedule, beginning this year in February, with the postseason to follow starting in October and the MLS Cup in early December. A handful of other leagues follow a similar model, including the United Soccer League and Canadian Premier League, but fall-to-spring remains the dominant model across the world.

A variety of business issues related to an MLS shift—including media, sponsorship, and venue-related deals—all remain substantial hurdles. Climate-related and geographic concerns also come into play, with MLS’s 30 clubs spanning broadly from warmer locales such as South Florida to three teams in Canada. 

“Though there’s momentum to try to get that done, there’s a lot of things that need to happen,” Garber said. “We’ve got to figure out the commercial impact. We’ve got to get closer to researching our players to get a sense as to what their point of view is. We’ve got facility issues to look at.”

Moving to a fall-to-spring schedule is also seen as a tool to help MLS increase its global standing, particularly relating to the player transfer window. Both commercially and competitively, the league is currently seen as trailing many of the major European ones, including the Big Five of the U.K.’s Premier League, Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, and France’s Ligue 1.