The 2027 NFL draft is heading to the nation’s capital on the National Mall, President Donald Trump said Monday, bringing the widely popular event back to Washington for the first time in more than eight decades.

After word of Washington getting the draft two years from now surfaced Sunday night, Trump made the formal announcement in the Oval Office flanked by Commissioner Roger Goodell, Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

“I don’t think there’s ever been anything like that,” Trump said. “It’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be something that nobody else will ever be able to duplicate that, I don’t suspect. It’s very exciting.”

It is the latest off-field victory for the Commanders, who a week ago reached an agreement with the D.C. government to build a new home on the old RFK Stadium site, pending council approval. Trump also endorsed that plan in his remarks, saying, “I don’t think there is a better site anywhere in the world.”

Under former owner Dan Snyder, the team previously tried multiple times to land the draft and was unsuccessful. Now, it’ll happen behind the team’s new Harris-led ownership group, which bought the Commanders from Snyder in 2023.

“What a great day for Washington,” Harris said. “I believe we’ll get over a million people, and it’s going to be an amazing day and it’ll showcase what Washington’s all about.”

Washington last hosted the draft in 1941 at the Willard Hotel.

“We believe in investing in sports because they have helped us transform neighborhoods, and the NFL bringing this event to the nation’s capital will help us fill hotel rooms, our restaurants,” Bowser said. “Americans from all 50 states will come to their nation’s capital and enjoy our beautiful city and museums.”

Green Bay, the NFL’s smallest market, hosted the most recent draft in late April outside historic Lambeau Field. The NFL announced a crowd of 600,000 fans attended over the three days.

“The draft has really become one of the great entertainment and sports events,” Goodell said, trumpeting the popularity of the draft in recent years. “It will not just be an event. It will be something that will show the world how far the nation’s capital has come and where it’s going.”

The NFL draft used to be a fixture at Radio City Music Hall in New York and has become an even bigger hit since it hit the road in 2015. Chicago hosted the draft in 2015 and ‘16. Philadelphia had it in ’17, followed by Dallas and Nashville.

The Baltimore Ravens announced Monday they are releasing kicker Justin Tucker, months after the NFL said it would look into reporting by the Baltimore Banner that more than a dozen massage therapists had accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior — and shortly after the team drafted another kicker.

Tucker has maintained he did not act inappropriately while receiving professional treatment.

“Sometimes football decisions are incredibly difficult, and this is one of those instances,” Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said in a statement issued by the club. “Considering our current roster, we have made the tough decision to release Justin Tucker.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Michigan is expected to suspend coach Sherrone Moore for two games next season to address allegations that he failed to cooperate in the NCAA’s sign-stealing investigation that rocked college football during the Wolverines’ championship season under Jim Harbaugh in 2023, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Moore is expected to miss the Wolverines’ third and fourth games — home against Central Michigan on Sept. 13 and at Nebraska a week later — and all athletic-related duties during those weeks, they said.

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Monday because the school’s proposed self-imposed sanction has not been announced. It has also not been finalized, according to a third person with knowledge of the situation, also speaking on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing. ESPN was the first to report the expected suspension.

The NCAA investigation into impermissible in-person scouting and sign stealing by Michigan hung over the second half of the team’s unbeaten season in 2023 and is still looming over college football’s winningest program.

The NCAA does not have rules against stealing signs, but it does prohibit schools from sending scouts to the games of future opponents and using electronic equipment to record another team’s signals. Records from other Big Ten schools showed former staffer Conor Stalions bought tickets to games involving future opponents, sending people to digitally record teams when they signaled plays.

Stalions initially was placed on leave by the school and later resigned. He did not participate in the investigation.

Last August, the NCAA alleged in a notice relating to its sign-stealing investigation that Moore violated rules as an assistant under Harbaugh, who served a three-game suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its own investigation into the allegations after the two wound up in court.

Moore was accused of deleting text messages with Stalions before they were recovered and provided to the NCAA. Moore has said he has and will continue to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation.

Moore served a one-game suspension during the 2023 season related to recruiting infractions and filled in as head coach for four games last year when Harbaugh was punished by the school and the Big Ten.

The NCAA previously put Michigan on three years of probation, fined the school and implemented recruiting limits after reaching a negotiated resolution in a recruiting case and banned Harbaugh from coaching college football for four years.

Michigan opens the season on Aug. 30 at home against New Mexico State and at Oklahoma, where Moore was an offensive lineman.

Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen and longtime administrator Jeff Long have been appointed to the College Football Playoff selection committee, CFP executive director Rich Clark announced Monday.

Dannen will replace Damon Evans, who recently became athletic director at Southern Methodist. Long will serve a one-year term, replacing Steve Weiberg, who stepped down from the committee for personal reasons.

TENNIS

Rarely has an athlete been welcomed back from a doping ban with so much fanfare.

Top-ranked tennis player Jannik Sinner was treated to a stadium filled with nearly 5,000 fans for his first practice session at the Italian Open on Monday — the day his three-month banishment from the sport expired.

The training session — which was shown live on local TV — came after Sinner was the most celebrated player in a ceremony to honor the Italian teams that swept the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup last year.

Both trophies were on hand and the Campo Centrale crowd belted out Italy’s national anthem.

It’s the first time that Italy has had a No. 1 player for its home tournament. Still, Sinner was at a loss to explain why he attracts so much attention.

“I don’t know. Honestly, I think I’m a simple 23-year-old kid. I’m good at playing tennis but I’m not changing the world,” he said. “I always remember that I come from a small town of 2,000 people. Being here in Rome and playing in front of so many people is a big deal.”

With a conclave to elect a new pope set to begin just down the road at the Vatican on Wednesday, Sinner’s return prompted local headlines that declared “Habemus Sinner” — a variant of the Latin words “Habemus Papam!” that are announced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica when a pope is elected.

The scene at the Foro Italico came in sharp contrast to how Sinner felt back in February when he received a three-month ban in a settlement with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“At the start I was a bit confused because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do,” Sinner said. “Then I went home and stayed with my family. I tried to understand better what was really important to me.

“I know how many sacrifices I made and my daily routine was always practice, practice, practice. But at that moment I didn’t have any of that. I came to understand that what’s important to me are the people by your side. That they give you the strength to move forward and continue smiling.”

Besides his family in the German-speaking Alto Adige region of northern Italy, Sinner also spent more time with friends at home in Monaco, participated in other sports like cycling, and then only gradually came back to tennis.

“We went about a month without touching (a racket) and then we restarted really softly,” Sinner said. “When we started pushing more, blisters developed on my hands. That was something I hadn’t experienced in a long time.”

The settlement was made after WADA appealed a decision last year by the International Tennis Integrity Agency to fully exonerate Sinner for what it deemed to be an accidental contamination by a banned anabolic steroid in March 2024.

The settlement raised questions, since it conveniently allowed Sinner not to miss any Grand Slams and return at his home tournament.

The Italian Open is the last big clay-court event before the French Open, which starts on May 25.

“I didn’t want to do it in the beginning, and also it was a bit not easy for me to accept it, because I know what really happened,” Sinner said of the ban. “But sometimes we have to choose the best in a very bad moment, and that’s what we did. So it’s all over now. So I’m happy to play tennis again.”

Many fellow pros feel Sinner was treated too lightly.

Serena Williams told Time magazine she “would have gotten 20 years” if she was involved in a similar case: “Let’s be honest. I would have gotten Grand Slams taken away from me.”

Sinner hasn’t played a match since January when he won his second straight Australian Open title.

After a first-round bye in Rome, he will be play his opening match on Saturday against No. 99 Mariano Navone or 18-year-old Italian wild card Federico Cinà.

Iva Jovic, a 17-year-old, and Emilio Nava, a 23-year-old, claimed French Open wild-card invitations from the U.S. Tennis Association on Monday by finishing atop the standings based on points earned at tournaments across five weeks.

Jovic will participate in her third consecutive Grand Slam event; she reached the second round at the U.S. Open last September and the Australian Open in January. She is ranked 120th this week.

At Flushing Meadows, Jovic, then 16, became the youngest American to win a women’s main-draw match at the U.S. Open since 2000, eliminating 2023 Australian Open semifinalist Magda Linette of Poland.

Nava, currently ranked 137th, earned a spot at the French Open for the second time after qualifying in 2023. He also played in the U.S. Open’s main draw in 2022 and 2023.

Both Jovic and Nava are from California.

The clay-court French Open starts in Paris on May 25.

MOTORCYCLE RACING

Two motorbike riders died and another suffered significant injuries during a British Supersport Championship race at Oulton Park on Monday in Little Budworth, England.

English rider Owen Jenner, aged 21, and New Zealand rider Shane Richardson, 29, were fatally injured in an 11-bike crash at the first corner of the opening lap.

Tom Tunstall, 47, was transferred to Royal Stoke University Hospital with significant back and abdominal injuries.

Five other riders were treated at the track for minor injuries, while three more escaped unharmed.

Organisers MotorSport Vision Racing said “a chain reaction incident involving 11 riders falling” was a “catastrophic accident,” and canceled the rest of the British Superbike Championship event.