Sports
Tottenham are asking not to be called Tottenham
Eagle-eyed viewers of Sky Sports’ coverage of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 win against Manchester United last Sunday will have noticed a change.
When head coach Ange Postecoglou was interviewed before kick-off and asked about the lift of having players back from injury, he was described as “Tottenham Hotspur Head Coach”. When the Tottenham starting XI was displayed down the left-hand side of the screen, it said “Spurs” at the top. And when the graphics showed the team in their positions, starting with a cutout of Postecoglou, arms crossed, the word across his chest was “Spurs”.
Nothing too surprising about that, you might think. Tottenham Hotspur is the name of the club. Spurs is their common nickname.
But if you saw the Sky Sports coverage of Tottenham’s 3-2 defeat at Everton on January 19, it looked subtly different. During Postecoglou’s pre-match interview, he was described as “Tottenham Head Coach”. The team graphic just had the word “Tottenham” at the top. And the cutout image of arms-crossed Postecoglou again had “Tottenham” written across his chest. When Sky Sports showed the current Premier League table, it was “Tottenham”. And the form table, in which they were 18th out of 20, “Tottenham” again.
Sky Sports’ form guide graphic on January 19 (Sky Sports)
So what changed? What happened to the word ‘Tottenham’ over the last few weeks?
The answer lies in an email that was circulated to Premier League broadcasters on February 10, that has been seen by The Athletic. Titled “Tottenham Hotspur Naming Update”, the email makes clear how the club wants to be referenced.
“Tottenham Hotspur have provided clarification regarding the club’s name. They have requested that the club are primarily known as Tottenham Hotspur, with Spurs being the preferred short version. The club have requested that they are not referred to as Tottenham.”
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This guidance has gone out to Premier League broadcasters all around the world. The changes that Sky Sports made to their graphics have also been made by other networks that show Tottenham matches. The Premier League website is in line too. It is always “Tottenham Hotspur” or “Spurs” there, never “Tottenham”.
The club’s explanation for this is simple: Tottenham is the name of the area, but not the name of the club. It is long-standing club policy not to refer to themselves as ‘Tottenham’. There is nothing new about this, it has been the club’s position going back to 2011.
Sky Sports’ league table graphic on February 16 (Sky Sports)
What specifically changed is that in November last year, the club unveiled a “remastered brand identity”, which was “rolled out across all the Club’s physical and digital touchpoints”. This came with a “Brand Playbook”, which explains in comprehensive detail what the new brand identity means. Towards the end of a section titled “Tone of voice” (“Defiant, Authentic, Rallying, Energetic”), there is a paragraph that makes very clear how the club wants to be described.
“In a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers, there is only one Hotspur, Tottenham Hotspur. When referring to the team or the brand, please use ‘Tottenham Hotspur’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur Football Club’ or ‘THFC’. Never refer to our Club as ‘Tottenham’, ‘Tottenham Hotspur FC’ or ‘TH’.”
This month’s fresh guidance to broadcasters is an apparent attempt to underline this, and to make sure that ‘Spurs’ rather than ‘Tottenham’ becomes the common shorthand when ‘Tottenham Hotspur’ does not fit.
On the one hand, there certainly is an argument to be made that ‘Tottenham’ is just the name of the local area, and not the name of the club itself. There are plenty of Premier League clubs for whom no one would just use the first geographical part of the name.
You would get some strange looks turning up at Villa Park saying you were looking forward to watching ‘Aston’ play. Very few would refer to the side who play at Molineux simply as ‘Wolverhampton’, or at the City Ground as ‘Nottingham’. And that is before we confront the thorny issue of places, including Manchester or Sheffield or Bristol, where two clubs share the same regional descriptor.
Tottenham fans have long referred to their team as… Tottenham (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
But on the other hand, there are clubs where the first part of the name does the job. Everyone knows who Newcastle or Leeds or Leicester are. And for many Spurs fans, the name ‘Tottenham’ is perfectly serviceable in telling the world who they support. It has always been commonplace in the Spurs community in a way that ‘Aston’ never has been at Villa Park.
It does lead you to question why ‘Spurs’ might be preferable to ‘Tottenham’ as the shortened name of the club. ‘Spurs’ certainly is distinct “in a world full of Uniteds, Citys and Rovers”, although maybe less so in the global marketplace, given San Antonio Spurs in the NBA. Still, it is memorable and punchy and looks good emblazoned on merchandise.
‘Hotspur’ is certainly unique and indispensable heritage. The name comes from when a new football club was established in the area in 1882, and two brothers, Hamilton and Lindsay Casey, were searching for a brand identity of their own. They named their club after Henry Percy, the box-office medieval knight who tried to overthrow Henry IV and was killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. His nickname was ‘Hotspur’, hence the name of the club, and hence the club’s logo too. This is history worth clinging to.
But Tottenham is inseparable from Tottenham Hotspur too. It was on Tottenham Marshes where the Casey brothers started playing 143 years ago, Tottenham where the old White Hart Lane ground was opened in 1899, closing in 2017, and then Tottenham where the futuristic new stadium was opened in 2019. Other than their brief spell at Wembley while the new stadium was built, Tottenham Hotspur have always played in this very specific corner of north-east London. This is the club’s home, and their community, for whom they do so much good work.
For many fans, there is no distinction between the club and the area itself. They are synonymous. And they will continue to be ‘Tottenham’ regardless of what the guidance says.
(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
Sports
Pirates star pitcher makes unfortunate history after being taken out in middle of perfect game bid
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Jared Jones was flirting with Major League Baseball history on Wednesday night — he got it, but it was not what he originally envisioned.
The Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher retired the first 18 batters he faced, but he was taken out in the middle of his perfect game bid after six innings.
Now, the Pirates certainly have their reasons — the 24-year-old Jones hasn’t thrown more than 81 pitches in eight starts since returning May 20 after missing all of last season while undergoing ulnar collateral ligament internal brace surgery on May 21, 2025. He was yanked with 77 pitches and likely would have needed more than 100 pitches to record the 25th perfect game in MLB history.
Jared Jones of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during the first inning against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park on July 8, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
However, Jones left the game after getting zero run support, so when the Atlanta Braves tacked on three runs late for a 3-0 victory, Jones instead found himself in the wrong chapter of the history books.
According to Opta Stats, Jones became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1920) to pitch at least six perfect innings and not record a win.
“It does suck. Something’s cool coming on, but I’m on what? My eighth start off of surgery? I completely understand it, and it is what it is,” Jones told reporters after the game.
Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Jared Jones (17) makes his way to the field to warm up before pitching against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. (Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images)
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Jones said he didn’t entertain attempting to complete the perfect game.
“Not with the pitch count,” he said. “Not really ever expecting to go nine right now, so that was never in my head.”
Joey Bart, traded to the Braves from the Pirates on June 18, followed a double by Mike Yastrzemski with a 422-foot, two-run homer to left-center field off a slider from Dennis Santana. Drake Baldwin added an RBI single to center in the ninth for good measure.
It was the second time in less than a week that a pitcher was taken out of the game with a perfect bid through six innings — the Miami Marlins took Eury Perez out after seven innings in which he had 92 pitches. Perez, too, is in the midst of returning from injury and has surprisingly found himself right in the postseason mix.
He was pulled for Lake Bachar to start the eighth, and the Marlins allowed eight runs to the Athletics in the final two innings, but held on to win 9-8.
Jared Jones (17) of the Pittsburgh Pirates delivers a pitch during a MLB game against the Cincinnati Reds on June 27, 2026, at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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The Pirates are 4.0 games out of the final wild card spot, which is held by the Marlins.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON — The Dodgers are scheduled to visit the White House on July 23 to celebrate their latest World Series title.
“President Trump is excited to welcome the Los Angeles Dodgers BACK to the White House to celebrate their World Series championship!,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Times.
The date falls on a scheduled off day in the middle of a nine-game East Coast road trip for the Dodgers. The team will play three games in Philadelphia against the Phillies July 20-22 before ending the trip with a three-game series against the New York Mets July 24 to 26.
The visit continues a tradition from the Dodgers’ two previous World Series championships. They were hosted by President Biden in 2021 and President Trump in April 2025.
After the Dodgers claimed their second consecutive World Series title with a dramatic Game 7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, a visit to the White House was planned, but it wasn’t until Thursday that a date was officially booked and confirmed.
Questions swirled around whether players would decline the visit this year after it did not happen during a scheduled visit to Washington in April.
Kiké Hernández said in 2018 he was unsure he would have gone had the Dodgers won the World Series the previous year. Mookie Betts said he was undecided and needed to talk it over with his family when last year’s visit was announced. After winning his first World Series with the Boston Red Sox in 2018, Betts skipped their trip to the White House the following year during Trump’s first term.
Both players, along with every returning member of the 2024 team who was with the team during its road trip, participated in the visit. The only notable absence was first baseman Freddie Freeman, who remained in Los Angeles to nurse an ankle injury.
Manager Dave Roberts, who indicated in comments to The Times in 2019 he might not go to the White House if Trump was president, also participated in last year’s ceremony.
Asked at the Dodgers’ fan festival in January about the possibility of returning to the White House, Roberts told The Times’ Bill Shaikin: “For me, I stand by: I’m a baseball manager. That’s my job.”
“I was raised — by a man who served our country for 30 years — to respect the highest office in our country,” Roberts said. “For me, it doesn’t matter who is in the office, I’m going to go to the White House. I’ve never tried to be political. … For me, I am going to continue to try to do what tradition says and not try to make political statements, because I am not a politician.”
Clayton Kershaw, who retired after last season but was on Team USA for this year’s World Baseball Classic, told The Times in the spring that he was aware Dodgers fans are split over whether the team should visit the White House again this year, but he said he is looking forward to it.
“I went when President Biden was in office. I’m going to go when President Trump is in office,” Kershaw said. “To me, it’s just about getting to go to the White House. You don’t get that opportunity every day, so I’m excited to go.”
Times deputy sports editor Ed Guzman contributed to this report.
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All eyes were on Caitlin Clark on Wednesday night as she made her anticipated return from injury in a road matchup in Los Angeles.
But instead of a triumphant comeback, the Fever spent the entire night chasing the Sparks as Clark’s rough return fueled a 106-92 rout.
The superstar never found a groove, looking completely out of sync in her return from a back injury.
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Caitlin Clark huddles with teammates as the Indiana Fever battle the Sparks. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images) ((Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images))
Much of that disjointed performance falls squarely on head coach Stephanie White, who kept Clark on a ridiculously tight leash by limiting her to just 16 minutes. The stop-and-go approach could have sabotaged any chance for the phenom to establish a rhythm.
Clark finished with just 9 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Her minus-16 plus-minus told the story.
The Los Angeles Sparks were severely shorthanded, taking the floor without stars Kelsey Plum and Cameron Brink.
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Yet while a depleted Sparks roster played to win, Indiana spent the night over-managing its biggest asset.
With Clark on a minutes restriction and Aliyah Boston out of the lineup, Kelsey Mitchell was forced to shoulder the entire offensive burden.
Mitchell did her part, pouring in 29 points while shooting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
Caitlin Clark orchestrates the Fever offense as Indiana battles the Los Angeles Sparks in primetime action. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images) ((Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images))
But one hot hand couldn’t stop an efficient LA squad.
The Sparks shot 45% from three-point range, going 9-of-20 from deep to cruise to the 106-92 victory.
White’s next move is to sit Clark against the Mercury on Thursday while Boston returns.
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After Wednesday’s loss to a shorthanded Sparks team, it’s fair to question whether Indiana’s cautious approach is working. The Fever dropped to 12-9.
Caitlin Clark and Dearica Hamby face off as Fever and Sparks battle at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. (Photo by Tyler Ross/NBAE via Getty Images) ((Photo by Tyler Ross/NBAE via Getty Images))
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
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