Fire midfielder Fabian Herbers is a fan of MLS’ new broadcast deal with Apple TV that takes effect next season. And he has a very personal reason for supporting the pact: it will make matches easier for his father to watch back in Germany.

“Sometimes the VPN doesn’t work, so he has to put his location into the United States so he can watch the game,” Herbers said. “So I was just happy personally for my dad, for my family, so it makes it easier overall globally to watch the games and I think for MLS it’s a huge step forward to get consistency in the games.”

Beyond Herbers’ family, the 10-year agreement has significant implications for the league and Fire.

Announced in June, the $2.5 billion deal pairs MLS with one of the world’s most global brands and one known for technological innovation. The agreement also ends digital blackouts and makes it easier for MLS fans to know where to watch their teams, as every game will be available on the same platform. The league is also expected to carve out separate deals with traditional English- and Spanish-language networks for a smaller handful of matches – that would still be simulcast on Apple TV – to maintain some exposure on broadcast television.

“We like the deal with Apple very much,” Fire owner Joe Mansueto told the Sun-Times in July. “It’s a transformative deal for Major League Soccer. I don’t think you could find a better partner than Apple in creating a world-class consumer experience to view our games, and in exposing the club to a vast global audience.

“I’d underscore that global audience; MLS has never really had that, and now will be available in 100-plus countries around the world.”

The deal, though, has some potential drawbacks.

The MLS package will be available on a subscription basis. And perhaps most crucially for the Fire, the deal means the end of local broadcasts, taking them off WGN after effectively replacing the Cubs, Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox on the channel in 2020.

“I guess the negative is I have loved being on WGN in Chicago,” Mansueto said. “We have, I think, a best-in-class broadcast team in Tyler Terens, Tony Meola, Arlo White [and] the quality of production. Being on Channel 9 has a special meaning in Chicago. Formerly the home of the Cubs, what I grew up watching on Channel 9, the Blackhawks have been on it. It’s just kind of been the sports channel in Chicago. It’s free, available to everybody, and so I’ll certainly miss being on WGN.”

The subscription nature of the deal could potentially limit the chances for casual fans to find a match and enjoy what they see, which might hurt the Fire’s efforts to get viewers to sample their product. One of Mansueto’s major objectives since taking over for Andrew Hauptman has been to reintroduce the Fire to the city, and along with shifting back to the lakefront, WGN was a significant part of that initiative as the team’s viewership has been building on the station.

Mansueto will miss the potential “serendipity” from WGN, and he said friends of his came across the Fire and loved it after watching some action.

“That’s one of the negatives of the Apple deal from my perspective, that we’ll miss being on WGN, having it free to all Chicagoland,” Mansueto said. “We’re trying to build the Chicago Fire brand here in Chicago and WGN was phenomenal for that. Free, people can stumble across it, get hooked. That’s going to be a little harder, candidly, in the short term with the Apple deal.”

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Malik Elzy is one of the most gifted high school football players in the country.

That’s an established fact and the Cincinnati recruit lived up to his billing on Saturday at Gately Stadium. Elzy wowed the crowd with a trio of breathtaking moments in Simeon’s 41-23 win against Wheaton-Warrenville South.

The Wolverines have another gamebreaker on offense this season, however.

Running back Andre Crews was nearly unstoppable for Simeon, finishing with 21 carries for 295 yards and three touchdowns.

“We started off a little rocky but at halftime we talked to each other in the locker room about our mistakes and in the second half we made it happen,” Crews said.

Simeon (1-0) trailed 23-7 in the second quarter. Crews busted loose for a 33-yard run to make it 23-14 and then Elzy caught a 49-yard pass from junior quarterback Keshaun Parker to pull the Wolverines within 23-20 at halftime.

Crews scored on a three-yard run in the third quarter to give Simeon its first lead and then provided a 34-23 cushion with an electric 69-yard touchdown scamper.

Crews has played all over the field for Simeon the past fourseasons, logging time at quarterback, receiver and on defense.

“Sticking to running back and a little bit of corner has helped me keep my energy and stamina so I can get out and make those breakout runs like I did today,” Crews said.”

Elzy had three receptions for 124 yards. Parker was 8-for-12 passing for 167 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

“[Elzy] is our team, Simeon coach Dante Culbreath said. “He punts, he plays defense and offense. He might be the player I’ve seen at Simeon.”

Wheaton-Warrenville South (0-1) was unable to establish much of a running game, finishing with 27 carries for just more than 50 yards.

Tiger quarterback Luca Carbonaro was effective. The sophomore was 12-for-14 passing for 122 yards and two touchdowns.

It was an impressive opening week of the season for Public League football. The top teams in the conference have clearly turned the corner after the COVID setbacks.

Morgan Park beat Richards on Friday and Kenwood and Simeon both showed on Saturday that they could hang with and defeat top suburban programs.

“It shows that when we have adequate time to prepare for our season, unlike last year with COVID and things, we can compete,” Culbreath said. “This is a competive club and a competitive league.

Simeon has another major measuring stick next week against Bolingbrook. The No. 5 Raiders, which beat Minooka 49-12 on Friday, will be at Gately at 3 p.m. on Saturday.

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Glenbard North quarterback Justin Bland knows he can count on his teammates in the crucial, stressful final minutes of close games. And he knows how to lead them.

“I told everyone to calm down and take a break on the last drive,” Bland said. “We just had to lock in and hit our two-minute drill. Stay focused and stay humble, lock in and execute.”

The No. 17 Panthers took advantage of Kenwood’s mental mistakes to pull out a 21-18 victory on Saturday at Gately Stadium.

Damarion Elliston’s three-yard touchdown run with 1:29 to play put Glenbard North ahead for good.

Bland connected with Johnnie Robertson on a 21-yard touchdown pass with 7:22 left to pull the Panthers within a score.

“We just can’t shoot our own toes off,” Kenwood coach Sinque Turner said. “We made some boneheaded mistakes. And it was our decorated players that made the mistakes. That’s unexpected.”

Kenwood (0-1) led 18-7 at halftime but lost starting quarterback Nacari McFarland to an injury in the third quarter. That essentially ended the Broncos’ passing attack.

Last season Glenbard North (1-0) advanced to the Class 8A state quarterfinals. The Panthers lost to Lockport, the eventual champs, by just six points.

“It helps a lot to have so many returning starters from the last two years,” Bland said. “We have the chemistry from winning in the playoffs before.”

That’s where Kenwood’s program wants to get. The Broncos have several highly-recruited players. Junior defensive lineman Marquise Lightfoot, who has offers from most of the Big Ten and Notre Dame, was a dominant force throughout the game. But his roughing the kicker penalty on a punt in the fourth quarter allowed Glenbard North’s final drive to continue.

Bland was 7-for-14 passing for 115 yards. He threw one touchdown and an interception and had 13 carries for 34 yards. Robertson had four catches for 82 years.

“I have to give Glenbard North credit,” Turner said. “They fought all four quarters. They were gritty and played smashmouth football and hung around. Then they took advantage of the opportunities we gave them.”

Kenwood quarterback Nacari McFarland left with a hand injury in the third quarter. He was 7-for-11 passing for 120 yards and one touchdown.

“He’s probably out for now but his backup is pretty good,” Turner said. “We’ll be ok. The guys were used to McFarland but [Kevari Thunderbird] has taken a ton of reps.”

McFarland connected with Omarion Lewis for a 40-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Taylen Goodwin (four carries, 30 yards) scored for Kenwood on a 17-yard run in the second quarter.

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Nebraska vs. Northwestern – Game Summary – August 27, 2022 – ESPN

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When the White Sox lost shortstop Tim Anderson to a hand injury earlier this month, Lucas Giolito noted to reporters that “we’ve been dealing with that kind of stuff all year.”

Just days earlier the Sox had finally gotten Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Jose Abreu, Yasmani Grandal, Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert into the lineup together for the first time this season. The honeymoon didn’t last long before Anderson’s injury threw the latest wrench into things. He’s expected to be out at least another two weeks.

That’s the kind of campaign it’s been so far for the White Sox, who haven’t had quite as many injuries as other teams but have, at times, felt them more acutely given the level of talent sidelined, according to data from Baseball Prospectus’ Injury List Ledger. The Cubs haven’t been much luckier.

The range of games missed for MLB’s 30 teams so far hammers home how the injury gods dispense luck differently. The Reds, one of the league’s worst teams, have seen players miss a combined 1,652 games this season, per BP’s stats. On the flip side you can see part of why the Guardians lead the AL Central: Their players have only missed 510 games, a small fraction of what some other teams have faced.

The White Sox and Cubs, meanwhile, rank among the most injured teams in the big leagues so far this year. Players for the North Siders have missed 1,444 games, the third-highest total in the league behind the Reds and Rays. Sox players have missed 953 games, 13th in the league.

But what separates the Cubs’ plight from their peers on the South Side is that their injuries happened often to players with lower expectations anyway. Relievers like Brad Wieck, Ethan Roberts and Manuel Rodriguez hitting the 60-day IL didn’t upend the team’s daily lineup, even if losing Wieck in particular thinned out the bullpen.

The White Sox haven’t been so fortunate despite being relatively more healthy.

Baseball Prospectus also calculates an estimate of how many Wins Above Replacement Player each team has lost due to injuries.

In that statistic, which weighs both volume of games missed and the projected performance of each player who’s out, the Sox rank fourth in WARP lost at 5.78, very narrowly behind the Reds (5.90) and Dodgers (5.82). The Rays, in part due to Wander Franco’s health issues, have lost 7.22 WARP to injuries. The Cubs (4.50) rank 11th in WARP missed.

Compared to the Guardians, who have lost just 1.33 WARP to injuries, the White Sox have lost an extra 4.45 wins to injuries this year. That’s bigger than the gap that separates the teams in the standings right now.

This is something teams can overcome: Just look at the Rays and Dodgers, first and third in WARP missed, respectively. The former is on track for the playoffs, while the latter is on pace for nearly 113 wins. A more healthy Dodgers team might on pace for the best season in league history.

But for the White Sox, now third in a tight divisional race with the Guardians and Twins, those lost wins could be the difference between a playoff trip and an early offseason.

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