Comment on Week Ahead: Free-agent dominoes still to fall

Football players weren’t the only ones taking hits during the Colorado-Colorado State game on Saturday night. In a video published by TMZ, Celtics guard and former CU Buffs star Derrick White looked like he was struck in the head during a small kerfuffle in the stands at Canvas Stadium during the Rocky Mountain Showdown in Fort Collins. #NBA star #DerrickWhite was hit in the head by a spinning backfist on Saturday, new video obtained by @TMZ_Sports shows.

The American Athletic Conference has ramped up interest in adding Air Force as a member to put all three service academies into the same league for the first time, a person with knowledge of the AAC’s discussions told The Associated Press on Monday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because conference officials were not making their internal discussions public. ESPN first reported the American was targeting Air Force, a charter member of the Mountain West, which is now the next conference in danger of being picked apart in another wave of realignment. Last week, the Pac-12 announced Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State would be leaving the Mountain West to join Oregon State and Washington State in a reconstructed Conference of Champions, starting in 2026. The Pac-12 still needs to add at least two more schools to be an NCAA and College Football Playoff-recognized conference in 2026. With speculation that the Pac-12 could target schools in the American such as Memphis and Tulane, the AAC isn’t standing still under new Commissioner Tim Pernetti. The conference added Army as a football-only member this year to go along with rival Navy, which is also a football-only member.

Mike McGlinchey is going to be sidelined for a matter of weeks rather than days. The Broncos right tackle sprained his left MCL in Sunday’s 13-6 loss to Pittsburgh, a source confirmed to The Denver Post, and he’s expected to miss approximately four weeks because of the injury. NFL Network first reported the extent of the injury. The nature of the sprain puts Denver in a position where it will have to decide whether to place McGlinchey on injured reserve — he’d have to miss at least four games in that case — or attempt to ride it out and see if he can get back earlier than that. “Obviously he’s a hell of a player,” Broncos defensive lineman Zach Allen told reporters Monday afternoon.

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court refused Monday to revive a defamation lawsuit that former NFL quarterback Brett Favre filed against a fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame member — former tight end Shannon Sharpe. Favre filed the lawsuit over comments Sharpe made in 2022 on a Fox Sports show amid a developing Mississippi welfare scandal involving millions of dollars diverted to rich and powerful people. Mississippi State Auditor Shad White said Favre improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees to go toward a volleyball arena at The University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre had played football and where his daughter was playing volleyball.

FORT COLLINS — CSU Rams football coach said Monday that he’d “be surprised” if star wide receiver Tory Horton plays this weekend’s game against UTEP. “I don’t believe Tory will play,” Norvell said during his weekly news conference, “and (he) probably shouldn’t have played last week.” Horton, a 6-foot-2 senior and one of the top wideouts in Mountain West history, played in the Rocky Mountain Showdown against CU — a 28-9 Rams loss — while clearly hobbled by a groin injury he’d suffered in a win over UNC the weekend prior. Norvell had said the Monday prior that he expected Horton would play against the Buffs, especially given the stakes of the rivalry, and the stakes of its being the first CU-CSU game at Fort Collins since 1996. The California native caught just two balls for 24 yards, his lowest yardage total in a game since a loss at Utah State (20 yards) last Oct.

Perhaps the road will do the Broncos some good. They’re about to see plenty of it. Denver is 0-2 after a pair of limp offensive outings and now has to try to turn its fortunes around while playing back-to-back road games at Tampa and the New York Jets. Instead of returning home for the week of practice between those games, head coach Sean Payton and company are staying out that way and spending the work week in West Virginia. “It’s not a make-or-break, but we’re going to have a better idea of where this team is going to be after these next two weeks going on the road to Tampa, then of course practicing a week on the Eastern seaboard and then playing the Jets,” Payton told reporters Monday. “Sometimes that can work as a positive relative to your team being together the whole time.” A year ago, Payton didn’t like the way Denver played when it traveled east.