AP Sports SummaryBrief at 11:06 p.m. EST

Sammy Sosa appears to acknowledge PED use, apologizes; Cubs welcome him back into fold CHICAGO (AP) Sammy Sosa appeared to acknowledge using performance enhancing drugs during a career in which he hit more than 600 home runs, and the Chicago Cubs said they were ready to welcome him back.

Sosa says in a statement "there were times I did whatever I could to recover from injuries in an effort to keep my strength up to perform over 162 games." He adds: "I never broke any laws.

But in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize.

Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said the team plans to invite Sosa to the annual fan convention Jan.

17-19 in Chicago.

Taking advantage of an obscure rule, Chargers' Dicker makes NFL's first fair-catch kick in 48 years INGLEWOOD, Calif.

(AP) Cameron Dicker of the Los Angeles Chargers made the first successful fair-catch kick in the NFL since 1976 on Thursday night.

He connected from 57 yards right before halftime against the Denver Broncos.

Dicker and the Chargers took advantage of a seldom-used football play called the fair-catch kick, which allows a team that has just made a fair catch to try a free kick for three points.

Only five NFL teams had previously tried the kick in the 21st century, and nobody had successfully executed it since Ray Wersching did it for the San Diego Chargers 48 years ago.

12-team college football playoff arrives after 100 years, a few billion dollars and many detours It took more than 100 years, a few billion dollars and the cold, hard realization that you cant fight progress forever.

And now, finally, college football has what the rest of sports have: a legitimate postseason tournament.

The first-of-its-kind 12-team College Football Playoff kicks off Friday and Saturday with four first-round games on campuses steeped in gridiron tradition: Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Winners advance to play over the New Years holiday, and the tournament concludes Jan.

20 with the national title game.

US women's team star Trinity Rodman says her relationship with father Dennis Rodman is strained U.S.

womens soccer team forward Trinity Rodman has opened up about her strained relationship with father Dennis Rodman, saying he is largely absent from her life.

She told the Call Her Daddy podcast that the former NBA star is only a father by blood.

Dennis Rodman responded to his daughter with a post on Instagram saying he tried to be a father and will keep trying.

Celtics' Jaylen Brown calls out ref for technical calls on himself, Joe Mazzulla in loss to Bulls BOSTON (AP) Celtics forward Jaylen Brown took issue with back-to-back technical fouls called on coach Joe Mazzulla and himself late in the fourth quarter of Bostons 117-108 loss to the Chicago Bulls.

Trailing 99-90, Celtics scored six straight points before consecutive techs were called on Mazzulla and Brown with 5:12 left to play after both protested a non-foul call as Brown scrambled for a loose ball.

A jump ball was called instead.

Brown said he approached referee Justin Van Duyne to get an explanation on Mazzullas tech, which Brown felt was unwarranted.

Brown was eventually whistled for a technical as well.

Towns returns to Minnesota, trying to embrace the moment and handle the emotion for Knicks-Wolves MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Karl-Anthony Towns smiled at the surreal moment as he walked into the Target Center interview room hours before the Knicks played the Timberwolves in his return to Minnesota for the first time since being traded to New York.

Towns spent nine seasons with the Timberwolves before being dealt three days before training camp began.

He said he was simply trying to appreciate the experience as emotional as taking the court against his close friends was going to be.

Towns has by all accounts adjusted well.

His scoring average of nearly 25 points per game is his highest in four years.

RFK Stadium site provision removed from federal spending bill, a blow to the Commanders and NFL WASHINGTON (AP) A provision to transfer the land that is the site of the old RFK Stadium from the federal government to the District of Columbia is no longer included in Congress short-term spending bill that lawmakers are racing to pass before a government shutdown.

The removal of that part of the bill is a loss for the NFL's Washington Commanders, who were hoping to have the land available as an option to build a new stadium.

Controlling owner Josh Harris and Commissioner Roger Goodell lobbied on Capitol Hill in favor of its inclusion earlier this month.

Lindsey Vonn hits back at critics who think she's crazy to return to ski racing at age 40 ST.

MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) Lindsey Vonn didnt just pop into the hospital one day for a new titanium knee and then decide on the way out that she wanted to return to downhill ski racing.

Its been a long and calculated process involving several minor and some major knee surgeries with careful vetting of the medical issues involved.

So shes getting fed up with how several of her fellow skiing champions are questioning why she would return to the sports most dangerous disciplines at such an advanced age.

The 40-year-old Vonn says she's getting pretty tired of people predicting negative things about my future." Scandals, some changes in public perception highlighted the year for sports betting Sports bettors in the U.S.

are expected to set another record in 2024 for the amount of money wagered legally.

That coincides with what has been a year of reckoning for U.S.

sports betting, which was rocked by scandals.

The bad publicity included Jontay Porters lifetime ban from the NBA for trading on inside information to fix prop bets, and MLB star Shohei Ohtanis interpreter pleading guilty to bank and tax fraud after prosecutors said he stole nearly $17 million from Ohtani to pay off illegal gambling debts.

That, along with an oversaturation of advertising and some low tax benefits in the 38 states that currently allow betting, has contributed to what one expert says is an ongoing moral reboot surrounding the publics attitude about sports betting.

'Raygun: The Musical' won't use the name of the notorious Australian breaker BRISBANE, Australia (AP) Australian breaker Rachael Raygun Gunn has tried to be a good sport about the jokes and criticism that poured in from around the globe after her controversial performance at the Paris Olympics.

But maybe Raygun: the Musical was a bridge too far.

Comedian Stephanie Broadbridge called off the show just hours before it was set to premiere in Sydney, after Gunns lawyers contacted its comedy club venue and threatened legal action.

On Thursday, Broadbridge said the musical had been rebranded as Breaking: The Musical," A completely legal parody musical." Gunn said in a video posted to social media that decision to demand her name be removed from the musical was not about not being able to take a joke..

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