Boston Legacy FC sign defenders Emerson Elgin, Laurel Ansbrow

Boston Legacy FC has signed defenders Emerson Elgin and Laurel Ansbrow to contracts through 2027.

Ansbrow has a team-held option for 2028. Elgin will go on loan to USL Super League team Tampa Bay Sun and Ansbrow will go on loan to USLSL team Ft. Lauderdale United until the end of the year. Both players will join Legacy FC for the 2026 preseason.

In 2026, Boston Legacy FC will become the 15th team in the National Women’s Soccer League.

A native of Cary, N.C., Ansbrow played for four years at Wake Forest, appearing in the 2024 NCAA championship game against the University of North Carolina. She then joined USLSL club Ft. Lauderdale United in January 2025.

Elgin, from Franklin Lakes, N.J., most recently played for Gotham FC, signing a short-term contract in April of this year as an injury replacement player. She won the 2024 NCAA national championship with UNC.

— Boston Herald staff

The Pittsburgh Steelers make star linebacker T.J. Watt the NFL’s highest-paid defender

PITTSBURGH >> T.J. Watt has wanted to be a “one-helmet guy” from the second he arrived in Pittsburgh eight years ago.

The star outside linebacker took one big step toward that goal on Thursday, agreeing to a new pact that will make him the league’s highest-paid defender and keep the perennial All-Pro in black-and gold well into his 30s.

Watt, who was entering the final season of the four-year extension he signed in 2021, is scheduled to make $123 million over the course of the three-year agreement, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract had not yet been made public.

ESPN first reported the extension.

Watt appeared to celebrate by making a rare Instagram post on Thursday afternoon, sharing a picture of him flexing in his signature No. 90 jersey. Watt also posted a photo in his Instagram stories of him posing alongside protégé and third-year Steelers outside linebacker Nick Herbig.

The agreement’s average annual value of $41 million eclipses the previous record contract for a defender set by Cleveland defensive lineman and reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett in March.

— The Associated Press

Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice sentenced to 30 days in jail over Dallas high-speed crash

DALLAS >> Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Rashee Rice was sentenced to 30 days in jail on Thursday after authorities said he and another speeding driver caused a chain-reaction crash that left multiple people injured on a Dallas highway last year.

The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said Rice pleaded guilty to two third-degree felony charges of collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury in the March 30, 2024, crash. As part of a plea agreement, Rice was sentenced to five years of deferred probation and 30 days in jail as a condition of his probation, prosecutors said.

The judge will allow Rice, 25, to find a time or times to serve the jail sentence, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said.

— The Associated Press

Prosecutors said he was also required to pay the victims for their out-of-pocket medical expenses, which totaled about $115,000.

Rice was driving a Lamborghini Urus SUV at 119 mph (191 kph) when he made “multiple aggressive maneuvers around traffic” and struck other vehicles, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said that after the crash on North Central Expressway, Rice failed to check on the welfare of those in the other vehicles and fled on foot.

The news release from prosecutors included a statement from Rice that was released by his attorney. Rice said in the statement that he’s had “a lot of sleepless nights thinking about the damages that my actions caused, and I will continue working within my means to make sure that everyone impacted will be made whole.”

“I am profoundly sorry for the physical damages to person and property,” Rice said in the statement. “I fully apologize for the harm I caused to innocent drivers and their families.”

Brian McCarthy, the NFL’s vice president of communication, said in a statement, “We have been closely monitoring all developments in the matter which remains under review.”

The Chiefs said Thursday that they did not have a comment.

Rice was leasing the Lamborghini that police said was speeding along with a Corvette when the crash occurred. Rice’s attorney has said that the Corvette belonged to Rice. The driver of the Corvette, who police said also left the scene, was also charged in the crash. The status of that case was not immediately clear on Thursday.

Rice, a member of the Super Bowl-winning Chiefs team, is from the Dallas area. He played for SMU in Dallas and grew up in the Fort Worth suburb of North Richland Hills. Rice was selected by the Chiefs in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft and has caught nine touchdowns in his two seasons with Kansas City.

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AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta contributed to this report from Kansas City, Missouri.