GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers are keeping Matt LaFleur as head coach, sources told ESPN on Saturday.

He has signed a multiyear contract extension that a source said is “not a prove-it deal but a real commitment.”

The two sides met early in the week to discuss the future direction of the organization. They were joined by general manager Brian Gutekunst and vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball, and the first order of business was to make sure they had the right threesome in place.

Once they all agreed to move forward, LaFleur’s contract was the first order of business. It didn’t take long, and the deal was agreed to on Friday evening and signed on Saturday. Deals for Gutekunst and Ball are also in the works, sources said.

It was the first major decision by new team president Ed Policy, who took over in July for Mark Murphy. It was Murphy who hired LaFleur in 2019 to replace Super Bowl-winning coach Mike McCarthy.

The Packers are keeping their organizational structure in place even with the new extensions, sources said, as Gutekunst and LaFleur will continue to report to Policy.

The Packers lost in the wild-card round of the playoffs for the second straight season, but this time it was in a devastating fashion. Not only did they blow an 18-point halftime lead and give up 25 points in the fourth quarter, but they did it against the rival Chicago Bears.

LaFleur and Policy spoke briefly on the plane ride home from Chicago after the loss and then again after they returned to Green Bay to discuss the coach’s future.

LaFleur had one year left on the contract extension he signed in 2022. He would not say whether he would be willing to coach the 2026 season without a contract extension, but he reiterated that he would prefer to remain as the Packers’ coach even though he would likely be a top candidate for other NFL head coaching jobs.

“This is one-of-one,” LaFleur said Sunday when he met reporters the day after the season ended. “I love this place. I love the people. … I love our players, the locker room, everybody in our organization. I mean, this is a unique place. The community has been outstanding.

“I’ve lived in other places, so I think this is a unique place, and it’s a special place. My kids love it here; my family loves it here.”

Policy said last summer that he would prefer not to have a coach or general manager work into the final year of their contract, but at that time also said he was not ready to offer any extensions.

“I’m generally opposed — I’d never say never — [but] I’m generally opposed to a coach or GM going into the last year of their contract,” Policy said last June, shortly before he officially took over as president. “That creates a lot of issues. I think normally you have a pretty good idea of where that relationship is going when you have two years left — not always, but normally.

“So I think generally speaking I would avoid lame-duck status. It’s oftentimes difficult on everybody involved. But there are certain situations that probably call for it, so I would not say never.”

That ramped up the pressure on the 2025 season, which ended with five straight losses.

LaFleur has a 76-40-1 regular-season record as the Packers’ coach, the fourth-highest winning percentage (.654) among all active NFL head coaches, and his 76 wins tied for second most in NFL history by a coach in their first seven seasons.

LaFleur received a strong vote of confidence from quarterback Jordan Love after Saturday’s loss.

“I definitely think Matt should be the head coach,” Love said. “I’ve got a lot of love for Matt, and I think he does a good job. And that’s it.”

The Packers have made the playoffs in all but one of LaFleur’s seven seasons. However, after posting three straight 13-win seasons and going to two NFC Championship Games, LaFleur is 37-30-1 over the past four seasons with only one playoff win — a wild-card game in the 2023 season.

LaFleur was hired in 2019 in part to get Aaron Rodgers back to an MVP level, and that’s exactly what happened. Rodgers won the award twice (2020 and 2021) under LaFleur. He also was charged with developing Love, who three seasons into his starting career appears to be Green Bay’s franchise quarterback.

LaFleur came to the Packers after one season as playcaller with the Tennessee Titans. Before that, he was part of the Kyle Shanahan-Sean McVay coaching family.

Perhaps the biggest issue during LaFleur’s tenure was his hiring of coordinators. He fired four coordinators in his first five seasons. He retained defensive coordinator Mike Pettine from previous coach Mike McCarthy’s staff but moved on after two seasons. Pettine’s replacement, Joe Barry, lasted three seasons before LaFleur hired Jeff Hafley in 2024. LaFleur also had three different special teams coordinators. Rich Bisaccia has been in that position since 2022 after LaFleur fired Shawn Mennenga after two seasons and Mo Drayton after one.

LaFleur said he expects to lose Hafley to a head coaching job but would not say whether he planned to make any other coaching changes.

Liverpool have completed the signing of North Carolina Courage captain and Republic of Ireland international Denise O’Sullivan, the clubs announced Saturday.

The 31-year-old midfielder departs as the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) club’s all-time appearance leader after playing in 186 games during her nine seasons in North Carolina.

O’Sullivan now joins a Liverpool team that sits bottom of the Women’s Super League (WSL), without a win in 12 matches.

“It means a lot. It’s a very proud moment for myself and also for my family, who are now only a 40-minute flight away,” O Sullivan told Liverpool’s website.

“Liverpool is a massive club and I think when you join a club as big as Liverpool it comes with massive responsibility and I can’t wait to get to work and to give 100 per cent every day.”

After joining North Carolina in its inaugural NWSL season, O’Sullivan played a part in winning seven league trophies — three Shields, two Championships and two Challenge Cups.

She had been named captain ahead of the 2023 season.

“It’s hard to put into words what this club has truly meant to me,” O’Sullivan said in a statement from the Courage. “North Carolina will always be my home, and I’m forever grateful to the Club, my teammates, and the incredible fans who supported and believed in me every step of the way,”

“I’m on to a new challenge now, but I’ll always be a part of Courage Country. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for everything.”

The arrival of O’Sullivan, who has won 128 caps with Ireland, comes a day after Liverpool announced the loan signing of Martha Thomas from Tottenham.

The Scotland international, who joined Spurs from Manchester United in 2023, has agreed to move to Liverpool for the remainder of the season.

PA contributed to this report.

After delivering a sweeping indictment that led to the arrest of 26 individuals and busted open a college basketball point-shaving scheme that tainted dozens of games over the past two seasons, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf delivered some perspective.

“There has been a spate of these gambling cases recently,” Metcalf said. “I will say that the evidence in this case shows that the monetization of college athletics, through the liberalization and proliferation of sports betting markets, as well as the normalization of compensation in athletics, furthered the enterprise …

“But it’s complicated, right?” Metcalf continued. “As we allege in the indictment, certain players were targeted because they were somewhat missing out on NIL money and they were being targeted so they could supplement their NIL compensation.

“Whether or not they would have done or not done a particular crime based on whether other athletes were being paid, I don’t know.”

Metcalf and his colleagues out of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, not to mention the FBI, appear to have done stellar work here.

Each defendant is presumed innocent in a court of law, but anyone from the court of public opinion who reads the 70-page indictment would likely concede that evidence of malfeasance is strong.

Too many participants to maintain a conspiracy, too much money wagered on obscure games to remain under the radar and way, way too many incriminating text messages.

Some of the athletes might have had their priorities warped by legalized sports wagering and the fact that college athletes can cash in on big bucks these days through name, image and likeness.

As Metcalf smartly noted, though, it’s complicated.

And not an excuse.

If what the indictment alleges is true, then every athlete involved deliberately violated well-known laws, instinctual competitive concepts and the core bonds of team play that are present from D-I basketball down to a random 2-on-2 game at the park.

You don’t need to receive the extensive education that the NCAA provides, lectures from coaches or posters in the locker room to know what’s right and what’s wrong here.

No one should try to cry that they are a victim of a changing society. The proliferation of gambling apps or the fact that some kid at Duke or Kentucky is making millions doesn’t justify bricking a bunch of shots in the first half for a kickback.

NIL gets blamed for nearly everything in college sports these days. Can we spare it from this at least?

This is about personal accountability. This is about consciously choosing alleged criminal behavior.

That’s it.

While it is likely easier to rope in a player who doesn’t have a lucrative NIL deal, recent gambling scandals have caught up NBA and MLB players making millions as well.

That’s just society — there are more than a few doctors and lawyers and Wall Street types shuffling around the prison yard.

And yes, legalized sports wagering is prevalent these days, in your face everywhere you turn, including on ESPN.

So what?

Whether legalized betting is helping or hurting here is, in Metcalf’s terms, complicated.

The increased outlets for placing bets certainly help central figures such as Shane Hennen or Marves Fairley to allegedly wager major sums on minor games — such as $458,000 across multiple sportsbooks on a 2024 Towson-North Carolina A&T contest.

In the old days, you had to walk into a Las Vegas sportsbook to make that bet. It would have been immediately rejected. Whatever amount would have been allowed, probably wouldn’t have been worth rigging the outcome.

That said, the ever-increasing integrity efforts of sportsbooks, not to mention sophisticated state and federal regulators, no doubt played a role in flagging these schemes and then leading authorities to the charges.

Point shaving isn’t new. It was just traditionally done by organized crime to impact illegal, underground betting. That operated largely in the dark, with no protections and few prosecutions.

Legalized betting may have made these schemes easier to pull off, but also easier to bust. It, in turn, should serve as a cautionary tale.

This case isn’t about legalized sports wagering or NIL deals.

It’s about, per the feds’ narrative, a clumsy group of game-fixers convincing individual players to selfishly betray their common sense, their education on existing laws, their teammates, coaches and parents and a dream opportunity to play scholarship basketball in an effort to make a quick extra buck.

They screwed up a great deal to chase a bad one.

That part isn’t complicated.