He shed the bulky knee brace strapped around his right leg, stuck his vault cold to open one of the biggest competitions of his life, and Brody Malone still didn’t crack a smile as he scurried off the mats at Target Center on Thursday.

Malone’s mission is far from done.

In second place after the first day of Olympic trials, the three-time U.S. champion is in a strong position to earn his second Olympic team berth with 85.100 points in the all-around. He trails 2023 world all-around bronze medalist Frederick Richard, who surged into the top spot in the final two rotations and finished with an 85.600.

The top all-around finisher locks in a coveted Olympic berth on the five-man team that will be announced Saturday (2 p.m. PDT, NBC). Malone, third-place finisher Shane Wiskus (84.300 points) and Yul Moldauer, who is tied for fifth (83.700), are vying for their second Olympic berths.

An encore Olympic performance seemed improbable for Malone when he was on an operating table in Germany in March 2023.

Competing in the event finals at the DTB Pokal Team Challenge, Malone peeled off the high bar on his dismount and mangled his right knee. He was rushed to surgery, one of three procedures he needed to repair ligament tears, cartilage damage and a fractured tibial plateau. Brett McClure, USA Gymnastics men’s high performance director, was on the floor in the arena and didn’t think he would see Malone perform again.

Then the former Stanford star won his third U.S. championship this month in his first all-around performance in 17 months.

“Absolutely incredible,” McClure told reporters Wednesday. “It’s mind-blowing. Obviously from my position, high performance director, I want to just see him safely get through Olympic trials. That’s not good enough for him. He wants to go out there and win.”

Malone started with a triumphant vault in the first rotation, sticking his routine while competing without his knee brace for the first time. The brace is designed to push the joint inward while on floor and vault to reduce pain. But it was pushing against his shin and affecting his run. Competing without it marked another major milestone in his comeback.

“Sticking it was the cherry on top, for sure,” Malone said, finally smiling.

Malone’s only misstep came on pommel horse when he nearly slipped off the apparatus, but he muscled through the traveling element to stay on as the crowd exhaled. The slip-up allowed Richard and Asher Hong to jump briefly into a tie for first place over Malone, passing the veteran by just five-hundreths of a point after four rotations.

Brody Malone competes on the still rings at the U.S. Olympic trials on Thursday.

(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)

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Hong, who won the all-around national championship in 2023 during Malone’s absence, bounced back from a 10th-place finish at the U.S. championship to finish Day 1 tied with 2023 world championships teammate Moldauer in fifth place (83.700). Moldauer slipped off the pommel horse in his opening routine but rallied with the night’s second-best parallel bars score of 15.150.

Stanford star Khoi Young, who won silver medals on vault and pommel horse at the world championships — a breakthrough event for the U.S. men, who claimed the bronze team medal — struggled on high bar and pommel horse and slipped to 12th.

The mistakes were uncharacteristic for the 21-year-old, who was the first American man to win multiple event medals at a world championships since 1979. Stanford coach Thom Glielmi said he’s never seen Young make those mistakes in practice, let alone competition.

But the trials are no normal meet.

“For a lot of us, it’s the biggest competition of our lives,” Malone said. “All the guys out there that haven’t made the Olympics before, this is their ticket to go. So I mean, of course the nerves are going to be going crazy. Even us that have been to the Olympics before, we want to go again, so the nerves are there for sure.”

Wiskus turned the nerves into energy, thanks to his home court advantage. The Spring Park, Minn., native is competing just 20 miles from his hometown. After a floor routine that pushed him from fourth to second in the standings, Wiskus held one hand to his ear to soak up the adulation from the fans. When he completed his final routine, finishing his rings performance with a small hop on the dismount, Wiskus clapped up a cloud of chalk dust, pumped his fist at the crowd and pounded his chest.

Normally the mild-mannered Midwesterner wouldn’t play to the crowd as much. Maybe when he was younger, an atmosphere like this would rattle him, Wiskus said. Hearing the roar from the crowd when he was introduced helped him let loose.

“I allowed myself to have some fun considering what could potentially be the last meet of my career,” the 25-year-old said.

With another strong performance Saturday, Wiskus could extend his career all the way to Paris.

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It’s been a fun few weeks for Trevor Lawrence.

Earlier this month, he inked a $275 million deal, making him tied with Joe Burrow for the second-highest paid player in NFL history.

Well, he and his wife, Marissa, announced on Instagram that they are expecting their first child.

“A little Lawrence on the way,” the couple wrote in a joint post.

In the post, the couple shared 10 photos of a sonogram and of Marissa showing off her baby bump.

Lawrence’s deal includes $142 million guaranteed. He became the sixth QB making more than $50 million a year, joining Burrow, Jared Goff, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts. Lawrence is the 14th to top $40 million annually, and he’s the youngest on the list.

Trevor Lawrence of the Jacksonville Jaguars kisses his wife, Marissa, after his team’s playoff-clinching win against the Tennessee Titans at then-TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida, on Jan. 7, 2023. (Mike Carlson/Getty Images)

12 SETS OF RECENT BROTHERS PART OF THE NFL: THE KELCES, BOSAS AND MORE

Lawrence has already added his name to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ history books. He is fourth on the franchise’s all-time passing yards list. His 58 career touchdown passes rank fourth in franchise history.

Lawrence finished the past two NFL seasons with more than 4,000 passing yards; he and the Jags won the AFC South in 2022 and were in terrific shape to repeat, but a second half collapse saw them miss the playoffs.

Last season, he threw for 4,016 yards with 21 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He also ran for four scores, lost seven fumbles and was sacked a career-high 35 times.

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence runs with the ball during the game against the Baltimore Ravens at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, on Dec. 17, 2023. (David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The 24-year-old is 21-31 as a starter in three seasons, including 1-1 in the playoffs, and he has a whopping 60 turnovers in three seasons, which is a number he needs to trim to become the player the Jags believe he can be.

Fox News’ Chantz Martin contributed to this report.

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The NFL suffered a huge setback Thursday and was ordered to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages for violating antitrust law in a class-action suit over pricing of DirecTV’s “Sunday Ticket” packages.

A Los Angeles jury voted unanimously that the league colluded with DirecTV, along with CBS and Fox, to drive up pricing of the premium product.

The jury deliberated for roughly five hours over two days. If the verdict stands, the jury said the league owes $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class.

The NFL could be liable up to $12.3 billion under federal laws that triple the amount won in antitrust cases.

Said a spokesman for the NFL: “We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit. We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment. We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit. We thank the jury for their time and service and for the guidance and oversight from Judge Gutierrez throughout the trial.”

The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV.

The trial lasted three weeks and included testimony from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, among others.

Said Bill Carmody, lead attorney for the plaintiff: “It’s a great verdict for consumers around America that this jury, despite the star power of the defendants, upheld the antitrust laws which are geared to protect consumers from overcharges.

“Justice was served.”

The next likely steps for the dispute will be the filing of post-trial motions, which will be heard by the trial judge on July 31.

If the verdict is not set aside, the judge is likely to be asked to consider possible structural changes in the Sunday Ticket package, as well as plaintiff’s lawyers request for an award of legal fees.

Once those issues are resolved, the league will appeal any adverse rulings to the Ninth Circuit. The NFL expects the payment of any damages and imposition of any structural changes to the Sunday Ticket package would be stayed until all appeals have been concluded.

The jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon in the wake of closing arguments from the sides and jury instructions from U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez. Jury deliberations continued Thursday.

It took nearly a decade for the case to wind its way through the legal ecosystem, beginning in 2015 when a San Francisco pub called the Mucky Duck filed a complaint about how the NFL handles its out-of-market broadcasts.

The class action was filed on behalf of more than 2.4 million residential subscribers and more than 48,000 restaurants, bars and other commercial establishments that show the games. It centered on the “Sunday Ticket” package — now sold through YouTube TV — which allows subscribers access to the broadcasts of all out-of-market Sunday games that air on CBS and Fox.

They are not special broadcasts but identical to what people are seeing in those various home markets. By the league’s estimate, a mere 3% of fans subscribe to “Sunday Ticket,” which this season costs $449 absent any discounts or promotions.

The plaintiffs alleged the NFL colluded with network partners CBS and Fox, along with DirecTV, to ensure the pricing of “Sunday Ticket” remained high, thereby violating antitrust law.

The plaintiffs were seeking $7 billion in damages for the period between 2011 and 2022, and those are tripled in antitrust cases. That $21 billion is enough to buy an entire four-team division.

The NFL argued that it was not in control of “Sunday Ticket” pricing but DirecTV was, and often gave away the premium product for free to attract subscribers. Attorneys representing the league frequently pointed out the NFL is the only major sports league that provides fans 100% of local games on free, over-the-air TV.

“It’s a valuable, premium product, and the prices were reasonable,” Beth Wilkinson, representing the NFL, said in her opening statement. “Fans don’t have to buy Sunday Ticket… The league wants as many people as possible to watch the free broadcasts.”

Wilkinson said that after promotions and giveaways, the average price of Sunday Ticket during the period in question was $102.70 per season.