Cooper Kupp and the Seattle Seahawks have agreed on a three-year, $45 million contract, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Friday because the contract hasn’t been signed.

Kupp, the Super Bowl 56 MVP, was released by the Los Angeles Rams on Wednesday. He’ll help replace DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett for his home state team in Seattle, which traded quarterback Geno Smith and signed Sam Darnold in free agency.

Kupp, who starred in college at Eastern Washington and is from Yakima, Washington, was the AP Offensive Player of the Year in 2021 when he won the receiving triple crown by catching 145 passes for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns. Kupp added 33 catches for 478 yards and six TDs in the postseason, including the winning touchdown in a Super Bowl win over Cincinnati on the Rams’ home field.

Bills’ free-agent additions face suspensions >> The Buffalo Bills stand to open the season minus two new free-agent defensive line additions upon learning Larry Ogunjobi and Michael Hoecht both face six-game suspensions for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drugs policy, general manager Brandon Beane announced.

Beane said the team was aware of Hoecht’s positive test before agreeing to sign the hybrid defensive lineman/linebacker to a three-year, $24 million contract on Monday. Hoecht spent his first four NFL seasons playing with the Los Angeles Rams.

As for Ogunjobi, who signed a one-year contract with $8 million guaranteed, Beane said the player revealed he had just received notice of testing positive upon arriving at the team’s facility to sign the deal that the two sides agreed to on Tuesday. The 34-year-old has no history of testing positive and, last season, was the Pittsburgh Steelers nominee for Walter Payton Man of the Year award.

College basketball

Hawkeyes’ worst season in 7 years prompts firing of McCaffery >> Iowa fired coach Fran McCaffery after the Hawkeyes won their fewest games and had their lowest Big Ten regular-season finish in seven years.

The 65-year-old McCaffery, who was under contract through 2028, had said last week that he intended to return for a 16th season rather than retire.

Athletic director Beth Goetz decided a change was in order amid declining attendance at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and will sign off on McCaffery’s $4.2 million buyout. McCaffery was 297-207 with the Hawkeyes after Thursday night’s 106-94 loss to Illinois in the conference tournament.

Watkins becomes first women’s college athlete to sign with Fanatics >> The Fanatics and Fanatics Collectibles sports merchandise platforms announced a multi-year deal with Southern California women’s basketball star JuJu Watkins.

Fanatics said Watkins is the first women’s college athlete to sign a deal with the company. The returning All-American is the nation’s No. 2 scorer and a leading candidate for national player of the year honors.

Fans will be able to purchase Watkins-themed memorabilia through Fanatics, such as autographed photos and basketballs.

Golf

Min Woo Lee, Bhatia share lead at The Players >> Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia shared the lead at The Players Championship going into a weekend with strong wind in the forecast and the potential for a wide-open chase. That includes Justin Thomas, the biggest surprise.

Thomas opened with a 78 and was tied for 134th when he set the tournament record with 11 birdies. A bogey from the water on the 18th hole forced him to settle for a 10-under 62 to tie The Players record with Tom Hoge.

Lee made a sloppy bogey on his final hole at the par-5 ninth. Bhatia got creative with a wedge to make birdie on the ninth. Both had a 66 and were tied for the lead at 11-under 133.

Baseball

Braves’ Riley hit in right hand >> Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley left a Grapefruit League game after a pitch hit him in the hand that he broke last season.

Riley got hit by a pitch from Jackson Rutledge in the first inning of the Braves’ game with the Washington Nationals. Riley held out his right hand immediately afterward in apparent pain before heading up the first-base line. Riley stayed in the game as a base runner but was removed when the Braves took the field in the top of the second inning.

The Braves announced that the two-time All-Star had been taken out of the game “as a precaution.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and MLB.com reported that X-rays were negative.

Rays pick up option on Díaz >> The Tampa Bay Rays have picked up their $12 million team option on Yandy Díaz for the 2026 season.

The Rays announced that they had added a vesting option for 2027, pending 2026 performance thresholds.

Díaz batted .281 with 14 homers, 65 RBIs and a .341 on-base percentage in 145 games last season.

Soccer

Piqué questioned by judge >> Former Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué was questioned by a judge on Friday as part of judicial probe into the business deal that led to the Spanish Super Cup being hosted in Saudi Arabia.

The probe is examining suspicions of corruption and money laundering in a lucrative move made by Luis Rubiales, the former Spanish football federation president, in 2019.

Neither Piqué nor his lawyer spoke to reporters gathered outside the courthouse.

The Madrid-based court has said that the federation and Saudi Arabia signed contracts in 2019 and 2020 to seal a 10-year agreement to stage the mini soccer tournament in the Middle Eastern nation for 40 million euros a year. Another 4 million euros a year was to be paid as a commission to Piqué’s sports entertainment company Kosmos while Piqué was still playing for Barcelona and participating in the Super Cup.

Piqué has since retired from soccer. He has denied wrongdoing.

Hockey

Golden Knights sign goalie Hill to extension >> The Vegas Golden Knights have signed goaltender Adin Hill to a six-year contract extension worth $37.5 million, rewarding him for backstopping them to the Stanley Cup in 2023 and excelling in the starting job since.

Hill will count $6.25 million against the salary cap from when the deal kicks in next NHL season through 2031.

This season at age 28, Hill has played in a career high 53 games and has a 2.53 goals-against average and .906 save percentage to help Vegas vault to the top of the Pacific Division.

Iditarod

Former reality TV star wins longest-ever race >> Jessie Holmes, a former reality television star, won the longest-ever Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, celebrating with fist pumps to a cheering crowd and posing for photos with his two floral wreath-adorned head teammates, Hercules and Polar.

Holmes was first to the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome, on the Bering Sea coast. The race began March 3 in Fairbanks after a lack of snow forced changes to the route and starting point.

That made the normally 1,000-mile race a staggering 1,128 miles across the Alaska wilderness. Holmes finished in 10 days, 14 hours, 55 minutes and 41 seconds.

He will take home $57,200 for winning the race, along with awards including $4,500 worth of gold nuggets and 25 pounds of fresh salmon for finishing first in earlier stages.

Athletics

Kandie suspended for failing to provide doping sample >> Former half-marathon world record holder Kibiwott Kandie was suspended while under investigation for failing to provide a doping sample, the Athletics Integrity Unit said.

Track and field’s investigation body said Kandie has been charged with “evading, refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.”

The AIU gave no other details or a timetable for the disciplinary case.

Kandie set a world record in December 2020 with a time of 57 minutes, 32 seconds in Valencia, Spain. It is now third on the all-time list.

Skiing

Brignone closes in on overall World Cup title >> Federica Brignone all but locked up the women’s overall World Cup title by winning a super-G, giving the Italian a near-insurmountable lead in the season standings.

Brignone extended her advantage over her only remaining challenger, defending champion Lara Gut-Behrami, to 382 points with four races left at the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.

A race win is worth 100 points, but Gut-Behrami usually doesn’t compete in slalom. Skipping that event at the finals would leave the Swiss standout with only three races, not enough to be able to close the gap.