Tim Tebow has been invited to big league spring training by the Mets, taking one of 75 spots after Major League Baseball limited spring roster sizes as a coronavirus precaution. The 2007 Heisman Trophy winner returned to baseball in 2016 for the first time since his junior year of high school and played 77 games at Triple-A in 2019 before the pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor league season. A lefty-hitting outfielder, the 33-year-old Tebow batted .163 with four homers and 19 RBIs two years ago with Syracuse. He’s been invited to major league spring training each of the past four years and has hit .151 in 34 games, connecting for his first and only homer last spring before camps were closed. Despite the poor numbers, Tebow was among the 28 nonroster spring invitees announced by New York on Saturday. The majority of minor league players won’t report to camps until the big leaguers depart for opening day April 1. Tebow, who also dealt with injuries in 2018 and ‘19, said last spring that he wasn’t ready to give up on his dream of reaching the majors.

Jurgen Klopp composed himself, gave a little chuckle, and rubbed his nose. The Liverpool manager had just seen his team collapse at Leicester to a 3-1 loss — a third straight defeat in its faltering defense of the English Premier League trophy — and Klopp was being asked if the defense was over, even with three months left in the season. “Yes,” Klopp eventually said. “I can’t believe it. But yes.” Indeed, Liverpool’s meltdown has been bewildering over the last six weeks. Since a 7-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace just before Christmas, the champions have won just two of their 10 games in the league and are drowning in their defensive shortcomings. They find themselves in fourth place and 13 points behind relentless leader Manchester City, which beat Tottenham 3-0 later Saturday for an 11th straight league win. City still has a game in hand over Liverpool and second-placed Leicester, which is seven points adrift. “I don’t think we can close that gap this year, to be honest,” said Klopp, whose team could actually even struggle to finish in the top four.

The Jaguars strength coach Chris Doyle parted ways Friday night, a few hours after a prominent diversity group called the recent hiring “simply unacceptable.” Coach Urban Meyer and general manager Trent Baalke said Doyle resigned and they accepted. “Chris did not want to be a distraction to what we are building in Jacksonville,” Meyer and Baalke said in a statement. “We are responsible for all aspects of our program and, in retrospect, should have given greater consideration to how his appointment may have affected all involved. We wish him the best as he moves forward in his career.” The team initially attributed the statement to Meyer, but added Baalke’s name Saturday. The Fritz Pollard Alliance, whose mission is to increase diversity in the NFL, criticized Jacksonville’s leadership. “Doyle’s departure from the University of Iowa reflected a tenure riddled with poor judgment and mistreatment of Black players. His conduct should be as disqualifying for the NFL as it was for University of Iowa,” the alliance said in a statement Friday. — AP