Sports
Georgia football’s Nazir Stackhouse and his long struggle with narcolepsy entering NFL

ATHENS, Ga. — They were the most tense, most exciting moments of the Georgia football season, arguably the most exciting in the entire college football season: an epic game against Georgia Tech that stretched to eight overtimes and well past midnight. And as Nazir Stackhouse stood on the sideline, he was fighting an internal battle.
Stay awake, he kept telling himself. Somebody score and end this. Stay awake. Don’t fall asleep.
That’s what happened a few years before at Tennessee. The Georgia offense was on a long drive, and Stackhouse, a nose tackle, was on the bench with the rest of the defensive linemen.
“I’m on the bench fighting sleep, fighting it,” Stackhouse said.
Then, like it so often happens, bam. He was out.
Stackhouse was diagnosed with narcolepsy during his first year at Georgia. During his career, he started 42 games and won two national championships. Now he’s an NFL draft prospect, while still dealing with the condition on an everyday — or every minute — basis.
For one thing, Stackhouse rarely drives. He has a license but always has someone in the car with him and keeps the drives short. He never falls asleep when he’s on the field during game action, whether it be a game or practice. He did fall asleep during meetings, but coaches would work with him; Kirby Smart was known to lean over to tap Stackhouse: “Right, Nazir? Right?”
Former Georgia defensive lineman Nazir Stackhouse has been projected from the fourth to the seventh round in the 2025 NFL Draft. (Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)
“Yeah, yeah, coach,” Stackhouse would reply, jolted back awake.
“More than once,” Smart said with a chuckle. “It was real. I’ve never seen a guy on the sideline in the game go out.”
Smart mimicked going to sleep.
“But he’s a great kid,” Smart said. “Once they got it under control, it was not a big deal. … It never affected his performance.”
NFL people, who tend to project Stackhouse anywhere from the fourth to the seventh round, don’t appear to think the narcolepsy is an issue. One area scout said that it “sounds like he has a handle on it, so I wouldn’t call it a red flag or anything.”
“It’s a new one for me,” a second area scout said. “Haven’t had this pop up with a player before. The coaches say it isn’t an issue.”
Stackhouse talks about the condition freely, how suddenly it hits, and can’t help but laugh at some of those times. He once slept while on a treadmill. He felt it coming on, so he grabbed the handrails, then the next thing he knew he woke back up.
“And I’m like, ‘Damn, how long was I out?’ I look down. I was down there for like 12 minutes,” Stackhouse said.
Narcolepsy symptoms usually begin between the ages of 7 and 25 and often are misdiagnosed, according to the National Institutes of Health. The exact cause is unknown, there is no cure, and the condition will be lifelong. It is a rare condition, estimated to be found in about .002 percent of the U.S. population. But some of the symptoms can be managed with a combination of medications and lifestyle changes, according to the NIH.
That Stackhouse is an athlete helps. The NIH says daily exercise of at least 20 minutes improves nighttime sleep quality and reduces “excessive daytime sleepiness.” Eating healthy helps too, so access to Georgia’s training table during the past few years has been beneficial.
Stackhouse dealt with it long before college. Growing up in Stone Mountain, Ga., he fell asleep in class. His mother started taking him to sleep studies when he was 11. The family didn’t think it was much of a problem at first. Then, as he got older, the problem didn’t go away, but it was too expensive to get an official diagnosis or even treatment. When he got to Georgia, his mother asked the medical staff to test her son, and the narcolepsy was confirmed.
Georgia put him in touch with a pulmonary doctor in Athens, and Stackhouse took a medication, WAKIX, for about a year but stopped because it gave him headaches. Stackhouse is looking at other possible medications, but otherwise just has years of knowing how to manage it on his own. If he feels sleep coming on, he moves around, if he can, or takes precautions, like the time on the treadmill.
“It never affected me on the field,” he said. “It was if I was stationary, comfortable. That’s where it hits.”
On the field, Stackhouse seemed unaffected. He played as a reserve on Georgia’s 2020 and 2021 teams, which had a remarkable collection of defensive line talent, including nose tackle Jordan Davis and defensive tackle Jalen Carter. When Davis left after the 2021 season, Stackhouse took his starting job. He had three tackles and a hurry of C.J. Stroud in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff and a tackle for loss in the national championship game.
Off the field, Stackhouse dealt with narcolepsy, often during games. When a game was in hand, and the starters were pulled, Stackhouse would head into a tent on the sideline and fall asleep.
“It definitely didn’t affect my playing,” he said. “But say we were playing one of those, I don’t know, I would say under-talented teams. I’d play one or two quarters. After that, I’m on the sideline. We had a tent, and I would literally sit down and watch the guys play. And I’d fall asleep.”
But he did not during the epic eight-overtime win over Georgia Tech. In fact, Stackhouse fought it off so well that when he got home, he actually couldn’t get to sleep for three more hours.
“Narcolepsy is so unpredictable,” Stackhouse said. “Because people are like, ‘Are you tired, are you tired?’ No, I’m not tired, I just fell asleep. I dozed off. It’s like a curse.”
Dane Brugler contributed to this story.
(Top photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

Sports
Buccaneers bring back 464-pound defensive lineman Desmond Watson

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers re-signed defensive tackle Desmond Watson and added him to the practice squad as the team prepares to take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4.
Watson, the 464-pound rookie defensive lineman out of Florida, failed to make the 53-man roster in the preseason. He was forced to the sideline as he failed to meet the conditioning requirements to take the field. He was considered to be the heaviest player in NFL history.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive lineman Desmond Watson (56) warms up during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Rookie Mini Camp workout on May 9, 2025 at the AdventHealth Training Center in Tampa, Florida. (Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said on Monday that Watson had a “good workout” when the team brought him in last week.
The Buccaneers will look to try to find a way to stop the Eagles’ tush push, which has come under the spotlight in the last few weeks as it appeared some players had been jumping before the ball was snapped to Jalen Hurts.
Bowles said Watson wasn’t just being brought in as the answer to the tush push.
“We’ll never bring him in just to stop a tush push. If we’ve got to bring in a guy to stop one play and the tush push never comes up, you’re wasting your time,” Bowles said. “If we bring him in, we think he can play, not just for a Philadelphia thing.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Desmond Watson watches from the sideline during practice at NFL football training camp, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
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“It’s very unlikely he’d be ready to play, once we bring him in, for Philadelphia right now anyway. It’s just a matter of us making room and seeing if we have a place for him, and then what we see for him in the future.”
The 6-foot-6 defensive tackle was working with a nutritionist during the summer. The team didn’t say what an ideal weight for him would be.
Watson spoke about his weight gain to reporters earlier this year. He said he would consistently stop off to get food while at Florida.
“Stopping while driving,” Watson said when asked about bad habits he’s tried to shed at his pro day. “My biggest thing is keep going, get to where I need to get. There are stores and a lot of temptations. That’s helped me immensely.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers nose tackle Desmond Watson (56) runs a drill during the NFL football team’s rookie minicamp Friday, May 9, 2025, in Tampa, Florida. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
“Don’t go inside the gas station. Pay at the pump. Because inside it’s snacks and all types of things like that. Don’t pull over. If you’re on the highway, stay on the highway until you get where you’ve got to go.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Sports
Prep talk: Another day, another life saved by high school athletic trainer

For those high schools in California that still don’t have an athletic trainer, what happened last week at San Clemente High was another reason why they are so valuable for the safety reasons. And also proven was the requirement that coaches be certified in CPR every two years.
As a soccer class was ending last Thursday, an assistant coach fell to the ground. Head coach Chris Murray thought he tripped. Then he looked into his eyes, which appeared dilated, and saw that his face was purple. While a football coach nearby was calling 911, Murray began chest compressions.
Athletic trainer Amber Anaya received a text in her office that said, “Emergency.” She got into her golf cart that contained her automated external defibrilator (AED) machine and raced to the field within two minutes. She determined the coach was in cardiac arrest.
While Anaya hooked up her AED machine to the coach, Murray continued chest compressions. The AED machine evaluated the patient and recommended one shock. This went on for some seven minutes until paramedics arrived. Another shock was given after the paramedics took over.
The coach was transported to a hospital and survived. He would receive a pacemaker. It was a happy ending thanks to people who knew what to do in case of an emergency.
Last school year, the Culver City athletic trainer helped save a track athlete who went into cardiac arrest.
Murray said what he did was based on instincts and adrenaline. As soon as the ambulance left, he said he collapsed to his knee exhausted.
“His ribs are sore but not broken,” Murray said, “so I guess I did good.”
All the preparation in case of an emergency was put to good use by the coach trained in CPR and the athletic trainer who knew how to use an AED machine.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.
Sports
Police investigating USA Cycling incident as footage of organizers' interaction with activist goes viral

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Police in Livermore, California, are investigating an incident that occurred at a USA Cycling event on Sunday, when organizers were seen berating a women’s sports activist who was inquiring about sex tests.
“At the moment, we are looking into the matter and are in the process of reviewing our report and video footage,” a Livermore Police Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Footage of the interaction at USA Cycling’s Oakland Grand Prix has gone viral in recent days.
Beth Bourne, a California activist known to oppose biological male athletes in women’s and girls’ sports, was seen in the footage asking organizers if the women’s competitors at the event had been sex-tested to prove they were not male. One organizer was then seen approaching Bourne and covering her camera, saying, “We have policies in place. You can stop filming me.”
Bourne was then heard saying, “Give me my phone!”
The footage then showed Bourne walking away from that organizer in a panic before another organizer came up behind her to shout, “Hey! Get the f— out of here!”
Bourne told Fox News Digital that the incident was “emotional.”
“It was so unexpected. I have an idea that we’re going to have people maybe calling us names, or maybe calling us TERFs, which we’ve had, maybe even grabbing our signs. But to have somebody come up from behind me, before I even, I hadn’t even gotten a sign out, I had just asked two or three questions, so that shocked me, I was scared,” Bourne said.
“I was actually terrified, I was terrified that this person might really, really hurt me.”
Additional footage of the incident showed the same organizer who yelled in Bourne’s face later putting a pizza box in front of her face, covering the view of Bourne’s camera, then picking up her protest signs and throwing them in the garbage.
Bourne alleged that the organizer told her, “Your God isn’t going to protect you.”
“‘You’re just a hateful, awful person’” he told Bourne, she alleged. “And then he grabs all my signs and takes them and puts them in the trash can next to the start and finish area. And like that’s insane to me, that someone would grab someone’s property and throw it in the trash can, and it would be the race organizer himself.”
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Fox News Digital has reached out to USA Cycling for comment, but has not received a response.
The same event also drew scrutiny for another viral video of transgender cyclist Chelsea Wolfe telling protesters, “Go suck a sawed-off shotgun,” “You’re a Nazi piece of s—,” and “We kill Nazis.”
Chelsea Wolfe of Team USA competes in the women’s final during the BMX Freestyle World Cup on Dec. 11, 2022, in Gold Coast, Australia. (Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
Wolfe, a former Team USA alternate in women’s BMX who previously said the athlete wanted to win an Olympic medal to “burn the American flag,” took to social media to share multiple posts celebrating Charlie Kirk’s assassination last week.
“We did it!” Wolfe wrote in an Instagram Story sharing a report on the assassination last Wednesday.

Police in Livermore, California are investigating an incident at a USA Cycling event where a ‘protect women’s sports’ protester was berated by organizers. (Getty Images, Courtesy of Beth Bourne)
USA Cycling provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing Wolfe’s posts.
“The views of current and former national team athletes are their own and do not reflect those of USA Cycling. Chelsea Wolfe has not been a member of the USA Cycling National Team or a member of USA Cycling since 2023,” the statement read.
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