The New Orleans Saints week got off to a relatively quiet start, but the franchise quickly started making noise. On Tuesday, multiple reports stated that the franchise made a big splash by landing Justin Reid.

The star defensive back and the Saints reached an agreement on a three-year contract, according to ESPN. Reid spent the past three seasons with the Chiefs, but entered the free agent market after he did not appear to be part of Kansas City’s future plans. Reid won a pair of Super Bowls during his three-year stint with the Chiefs. 

Reid played college football at Stanford before the Houston Texans selected him in the third round of the 2018 NFL Draft. He departed Houston after the 2021 season and joined the Chiefs.

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Reid and the Chiefs came up short in the quest to win three consecutive Super Bowls. The Eagles dominated the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX last month. The 40-22 victory marked the second time in history that the Eagles won the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid (20) in the fourth quarter of an NFL game between the Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs on September 15, 2024 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, MO.  (Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Shortly after the game, New Orleans named Kellen Moore the franchise’s next head coach. Moore spent the 2024 season as the Eagles offensive coordinator.

New Orleans’ acquisition of Reid — who has 10 interceptions, six sacks, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries in his career — comes a day after former Saints starting cornerback Paulson Adebo reportedly agreed to a free-agent deal with the New York Giants.

Justin Reid #20 of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates a defensive stop against the Las Vegas Raiders during the fourth quarter in the game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on November 29, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (David Eulitt/Getty Images)

The Saints also signed tight end Juwan Johnson to a three-year, $30.75 million extension that could grow to $34.5 million with incentives, agent AJ Vaynerchuk said.

Johnson entered the NFL as a receiver with New Orleans in 2020 and was converted into a tight end in 2022, when he caught a career-best seven touchdown passes. He has played in 67 games with 34 starts. He has 1,622 yards and 18 receiving touchdowns.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A leading member of the California Senate is urging Dodgers owner Mark Walter to end the team’s sponsorship deals with oil and gas companies, telling him that “continuing to associate these corporations with our beloved boys in blue is not in our community or the planet’s best interest.”

In a letter Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) wrote that Angelenos “breathe some of the most polluted air in the country, with demonstrated links to negative health outcomes.”

The recent L.A. County wildfires, she said, have called attention to the fact that “fossil fuel pollution is responsible for not only the climate crisis, but also the persistently harmful air quality in the region.”

One of the Dodgers’ most visible advertisers is Houston-based oil giant Phillips 66, which owns the 76 gas station chain. Orange-and-blue 76 logos are displayed throughout Dodger Stadium, including above both scoreboards — a climate red flag that I highlighted in a column last year.

My column prompted climate activists to rally outside Dodger Stadium and start a MoveOn.org petition — which as of Tuesday afternoon had garnered nearly 23,000 signatures — calling on Walter to dump Phillips 66. Activists and academic experts say fossil fuel companies, like tobacco companies before them, use ads at sports stadiums and other cultural institutions to build goodwill and normalize the harms caused by their products.

Gonzalez noted that California is suing major oil and gas companies, including Phillips 66, for climate damages, with state officials accusing the industry of a “decades-long campaign of deception” to hide the truth about global warming and delay the transition to clean power. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed the lawsuit to move forward.

Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, charged Phillips 66 last year with violating the U.S. Clean Water Act by dumping oil and grease from its Carson refinery, just outside Gonzalez’s district, into the L.A. County sewer system.

Removing the Phillips 66 ads from Dodger Stadium “would send the message that it’s time to end our embrace of polluting fossil fuels and work together towards a cleaner, greener future,” Gonzalez wrote.

The Dodgers didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The 2024 World Series champions aren’t the only pro sports team taking fossil fuel money. A recent survey from UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute tallied at least 59 U.S. franchises that accept sponsorship dollars from oil giants, or utility companies whose energy sources are primarily fossil fuels. The list included five other California teams: LAFC, the Sacramento Kings, the Athletics (formerly of Oakland), the San Francisco Giants and the San Francisco 49ers.

The Dodgers, though, occupy a unique place in American sports history.

As Gonzalez wrote, the team has long been ahead of the curve. The Dodgers broke baseball’s color barrier when they signed Jackie Robinson in the 1940s, and when they barred cigarette ads from Dodger Stadium in the 1960s. More recently, the team has encouraged fans to take public transit to games and launched sustainability efforts.

These efforts “make the Dodgers’ continued partnership with Big Oil all the more anachronistic,” Gonzalez wrote.

Gonzalez wrote to Walter after hearing from Zan Dubin, the climate activist leading the push for the Dodgers to drop Phillips 66. Dubin, who has worked with the local Sierra Club chapter on the campaign, praised Gonzalez for showing “true leadership and unflinching courage as the first elected official to endorse our campaign.”

“Greenwashing must end so we can accelerate adoption of renewable energy,” Dubin said.

A spokesperson for Phillips 66 didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did a spokesperson for Ohio-based Marathon Petroleum, whose Arco gas stations have run ads at Dodger Stadium in recent years.

In an interview, Gonzalez described herself as a “huge baseball lover” who grew up cheering for the Dodgers. She said she wishes players on the team would start talking about fossil fuel advertisements, too.

“I’d love for [Shohei] Ohtani or [Freddie] Freeman or someone to say, ‘This is important to us, too,’” she told me.

The Dodgers travel this week to Tokyo, where they’ll open the season with two games against the Chicago Cubs. They’ll return to Los Angeles for the home opener at Dodger Stadium on March 27.

The 76 logos will loom large. Just a few months removed from the Eaton and Palisades fires, Dodgers fans taking pictures and posting them on social media will, in many cases, be providing free publicity to Phillips 66.

The 76 logo sits above the left field scoreboard at Dodger Stadium.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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Manchester United intend to build a 100,000-capacity new stadium rather than redevelop their existing Old Trafford home.

United announced the ambitious plans on Tuesday, with London-based architecture firm Fosters + Partners selected to lead the project.

The new-build will be situated on land surrounding Old Trafford, as part of a wider regeneration of the Trafford Wharfside area. The club said in a press release that the new stadium and regeneration project have the potential to deliver an additional £7.3billion ($9.7bn) to the local economy, create 92,000 job opportunities and build more than 17,000 new homes, as well as drive an additional 1.8 million visitors annually.

The Old Trafford regeneration task force, which was set up to review options for the stadium and regeneration project, held a final meeting on Friday before being stood down.

Digital renders of what the new stadium and surrounding area could look like were unveiled by Foster + Partners on Tuesday. These included a three-pronged stadium canopy inspired by the Red Devils trident on the club’s badge. The conceptual images and scaled models will now provide “a masterplan for more detailed feasibility, consultation, design and planning work as the project enters a new phase”, the club said.

While it was determined that the capacity of a redeveloped Old Trafford could be as high as 87,000, it was found that a new build could accommodate as many as 100,000 supporters.

A survey of United supporters last year identified that 52 per cent of fans asked were in favour of building a new stadium from scratch, while 31 per cent preferred redevelopment.

“Today marks the start of an incredibly exciting journey to the delivery of what will be the world’s greatest football stadium, at the centre of a regenerated Old Trafford,” Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the club’s co-owner, said in the release.

“Our current stadium has served us brilliantly for the past 115 years, but it has fallen behind the best arenas in world sport. By building next to the existing site, we will be able to preserve the essence of Old Trafford, while creating a truly state-of-the-art stadium that transforms the fan experience only footsteps from our historic home,” Ratcliffe said.

“Just as important is the opportunity for a new stadium to be the catalyst for social and economic renewal of the Old Trafford area, creating jobs and investment not just during the construction phase but on a lasting basis when the stadium district is complete. The government has identified infrastructure investment as a strategic priority, particularly in the north of England, and we are proud to be supporting that mission with this project of national, as well as local, significance.”

Ratcliffe expects “a five-year project rather than a 10 year” with the planned “modular build” — where structures are built elsewhere and shipped in — designed to significantly cut down the build time.

The task force delivered its options report looking into the benefits of both a new build and a redeveloped stadium earlier this year.

The report concluded that while both options will “deliver transformative benefits for the club as well as Trafford and beyond”, those benefits would be “amplified under the new build option”.

“Our long-term objective as a club is to have the world’s best football team playing in the world’s best stadium,” chief executive Omar Berrada said. “We are grateful for the feasibility work done by the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force exploring options for the future of Old Trafford.

“We have carefully considered its findings, together with the views of thousands of fans and local residents and concluded that a new stadium is the right way forward for Manchester United and our surrounding community. We will now embark on further consultation to ensure that fans and residents continue to be heard as we move towards final decisions.”

(Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Sir Alex Ferguson, the club’s legendary former manager and winner of 13 Premier League titles, said: “Manchester United should always strive for the best in everything it does, on and off the pitch, and that includes the stadium we play in. Old Trafford holds so many special memories for me personally, but we must be brave and seize this opportunity to build a new home, fit for the future, where new history can be made.”

Funding remains a significant question mark, with the cost of a newly-built stadium estimated at more than £2bn. As reported by The Athletic in June, United would consider selling the naming rights to their new home to help pay for the project.

“As a PLC we can’t speculate too much about the funding,” Berrada said in a briefing with reporters in London following Tuesday’s announcement. “What I will say is as a centrepiece it is a very attractive investment opportunity. We are very confident we will find a way to finance the stadium.”

Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) welcomed the plans but raised concerns and the need for consultation with fans as the project takes shape.

“The announcement of plans to build a brand new stadium adjacent to Old Trafford is clearly very big news for United fans. Everyone wants the biggest and the best for our club and the visuals look both stunning and exciting. But against the backdrop of uncertainty around next year’s ticket prices, continuing poor performance on the field, speculation around sales of key young players, and the recent financial results, the news probably does beg more questions than it gives clear answers,” a MUST spokesperson said.

“If they are able to produce a new stadium as stunning as the plans suggest without harming the atmosphere, without hiking ticket prices and without harming investment elsewhere, then this could be very exciting. But until the questions are answered, our optimism about plans to make Old Trafford the biggest and the best again will be restrained by caution about what the consequences for fans might be.”

‘The major question is how this will be paid for’

Analysis by Manchester United correspondent Laurie Whitwell

This outcome was trailed as soon as Ratcliffe walked through the doors at Old Trafford. Last July in Los Angeles, senior United figures talked about the possibility of a new stadium reaching 100,000 capacity and Ratcliffe’s desire was clear then.

There is certainly appeal among the fanbase for a ‘New Trafford’ — especially with the urban regeneration plan alongside — but the view is not unanimous and many people will be sad that a ground holding so many memories is being left behind.

That being said, Ferguson’s support of the project, having been cut as an ambassador, is notable given he created so many of those moments etched in the club’s consciousness.

The major question is how the build will be paid for: acquiring more debt, via sponsorship, or through cash injected by INEOS? Ticket price rises would seem inevitable in this scenario, but extreme care has to be taken not to price out fans.

(Manchester United/Foster + Partners)

The actual design of the stadium is crucial also. Old Trafford, for all its faults, has character and history. Many clubs have struggled when moving to new stadiums. Can some of the architecture be retained?

Ratcliffe hails Real Madrid’s Bernabeu and Barcelona’s Camp Nou, but both those grounds have been renovated on their original sites.

Lord Norman Foster, founder of Foster + Partners, said: “It all starts with the fans’ experience, bringing them closer than ever to the pitch and acoustically cultivating a huge roar. The stadium is contained by a vast umbrella, harvesting energy and rainwater, and sheltering a new public plaza that is twice the size of Trafalgar Square.”

Keeping supporters close to the pitch feels essential to sustain that connection to the action.

But the renders put out by United are a dramatic shift from the current stadium and will be hugely divisive. The tent on top of the ground strikes as an odd juxtaposition amid the landscape and what came before.

A naming-rights deal and more debt?

Analysis by senior football news reporter Matt Slater

“Naming-rights deals are like free money for clubs, and those who do not have them are simply leaving money on the table,” Michael Weaver, an expert on sponsorship deals who heads up the valuation advisory team at Kroll’s London office, told The Athletic. “You only have to look at the United States, where almost every stadium is named after a sponsor, to see that.

“If Manchester United sold the naming rights to Old Trafford, our analysis suggests they would earn about £15m a year but you could double that for a new stadium. A naming-rights deal for, let’s say, 10 years, would cover a significant chunk of the construction costs and enable them to borrow money for the rest at a better interest rate. I don’t understand why they would not do a naming-rights deal.”

Who or what would fit at United’s new home? Would anyone even use the new name?

These questions are harder to answer and United fans are divided — but Arsenal fans have got used to the Emirates and Manchester City fans seem to have no problem with calling their home the Etihad.

(Manchester United/Foster + Partners)

“INEOS might be a more palatable sponsor than someone else as Manchester United are already actively associated with INEOS and it would suggest that Ratcliffe’s company is fully committed and in it for the long haul,” suggests Weaver.

“Our research suggests that British fans are no longer as opposed to naming-rights deals as they were. Fans are becoming more financially literate with their clubs and they know what it takes to compete on the pitch, particularly if you are up against rivals backed by sovereign wealth funds. You have to squeeze out all of the juice.”

So, a naming-rights deal will help but what about the rest?

“It is going to be very expensive,” says Tim Williams, who was United’s group financial controller for five years until 2015. “I’m sure it will have to be funded by a mix of equity and debt. There will be no shortage of global banks and private-equity firms that want to lend United money but it will be interesting to see how much they borrow and where that debt sits.

“Debt is a very loaded term at United but it is normally better to put any stadium debt on the club’s books or a club subsidiary. Separating club and stadium rarely works in the long term.”

(Top photo: Manchester United/Foster + Partners)