Trinity Rodman, the daughter of five-time NBA champion Dennis Rodman, called out her father for the "joke" apology he posted on social media after an interview the soccer star gave earlier this week when she spoke out about their strained relationship. 

Appearing on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, Trinity spoke openly about their relationship and said the NBA Hall of Famer has largely been absent from her life. 

"He’s not a dad. Maybe by blood, but nothing else," she said. 

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The interview prompted the former Chicago Bulls star to issue his own apology on social media, claiming that he’s previously been told not to attend her games and that Trinity had been told to ignore his repeated attempts to contact her. 

"Sorry I wasn’t the Dad you wanted me to be but either way I still tried and I still Try and Never will Stop. I will keep Trying even when you’re being told as an adult not to respond to my phone calls. I will try even when it’s difficult and if it takes a long time. 

"I’m always here And tell you all the time rather it’s your voice or voicemail how proud I am. I always had one wish and it was I wish my kids would call me and come see me. Hopefully one day I can get that. I’m here and I’m still trying pick up the phone you have my number, You see me calling, I’m still here."

DENNIS RODMAN OFFERS APOLOGY TO SOCCER STAR DAUGHTER AFTER SHE RIPS HIM ON PODCAST

Unsurprisingly, the public apology was not received well by the U.S. women’s national team star.

"A joke," she wrote to her Instagram story Thursday. "The response alone. And the attention. Wiping my hands with it and I’m done. Thank you." 

​​Trinity, who also plays for the Washington Spirit in the National Women's Soccer League, called her father an "extremely selfish human being" during the lengthy interview. 

"I think everything has always been about him. He's gone through s---, but at the same time, I'm like, he loves the spotlight. He loves the cameras. He loves bringing his children on stage and being like, ‘Oh, these are my kids.’ All that stuff and even the mind … the mind f---, but like, for me emotionally, he's put me through, like, oh my gosh."

Trinity’s mother, Michelle Moyer, divorced Dennis Rodman in 2012. In the podcast, she said her mother tried to shield her and her brother, DJ Rodman, who plays in the NBA's G League, from their father’s chaotic lifestyle growing up. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Netflix has inked a deal with FIFA to snag exclusive US broadcasting rights to the next two Women’s World Cup tournaments, according to a report by ESPN. This contract covers both the 2027 and 2031 events.

Neither entity has described the financial value of the deal, but it has been reported to be the most significant contract that FIFA has ever signed with a streaming service for a major tournament. FIFA president Gianni Infantino called it a “landmark moment for sports media rights and a “truly historic day for broadcasting and for women's football.”

This happened because FIFA unbundled the media rights for the women’s event for the very first time, which goes into effect after Fox airs the next Men’s World Cup in 2026. The 2027 Women’s World Cup is being held in Brazil. The 2031 event doesn’t have a home yet, but the US is expected to make a bid.

This is a fairly big deal for Netflix, given that FIFA reported that a full 1.12 billion people watched the 2019 Women’s World Cup, which the US won. This is a global number, of course, but the 2023 tournament recorded the highest-ever US domestic viewership. The sport is certainly catching on over on this side of the pond.

Netflix has been making big moves into the world of live sporting events as of late. There was that utterly ridiculous Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight, but the platform will soon be home to the weekly WWE Monday Night Raw broadcast.

If you want to watch the next two FIFA Women’s World Cups in the US, you’ll need a Netflix subscription.

FIFA confirmed the news today, marking an unexpected change for the sports event, which has historically played on free-to-air broadcast channels. The shift to a streaming platform inevitably makes it more costly and hurts viewer accessibility, while likely injecting FIFA with a lot of cash.

Netflix and FIFA haven’t said how much Netflix is paying for exclusive airing rights. But Netflix and other streaming services have been paying out hefty, sometimes record-setting sums to air live sporting events as the company seeks to earn more revenue from commercials and draw more viewers. Netflix, for example, paid $5 billion to swipe the World Wrestling Entertainment’s weekly RAW program from the USA cable network for 10 years, starting next month.

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Basketball Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman apologized to his daughter, Trinity, after the soccer player aired out some family issues on a podcast.

Trinity Rodman appeared on the "Call Me Daddy" podcast and called her father an "extremely selfish human being" as she dished about her strained relationship with him.

The former Chicago Bulls star wrote a message directed at Trinity in a post on Instagram.

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"Sorry I wasn’t the Dad you wanted me to be but either way I still tried and I still Try and Never will Stop," he wrote. "I will keep Trying even when you’re being told as an adult not to respond to my phone calls. I will try even when it’s difficult and if it takes a long time. I’m always here And tell you all the time rather it’s your voice or voicemail how proud I am. 

"I always had one wish and it was I wish my kids would call me and come see me. Hopefully one day I can get that. I’m here and I’m still trying pick up the phone you have my number, You see me calling, I’m still here."

He added that he watches her compete in the National Women’s Soccer League.

EX-NBA COACH RICK PITINO FLOATS IDEA TO HELP RATINGS

"FYI: I watch you play All the time actually flew in to watch you play and was told not to show up bc who I was with instead and me just wanting to support you," he added. "So I watched you from my hotel balcony just to make everybody happy. I love All My Kids."

Trinity Rodman spoke at length about the frustrating relationship she had with the former NBA player and expressed frustration about giving him sympathy.

"It's just hard because it's like even now I'm trying to be honest about it, and I'm still giving him sympathy, which is frustrating for me because, in reality, I think he's an extremely selfish human being," she said. 

"I think everything has always been about him. He's gone through s---, but at the same time, I'm like, he loves the spotlight. He loves the cameras. He loves bringing his children on stage and being like, ‘Oh, these are my kids.’ All that stuff and even the mind … the mind f---, but like, for me emotionally, he's put me through like, oh my gosh."

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American soccer star Trinity Rodman spoke out against her father, former NBA champion Dennis Rodman, during an interview on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast this week. 

Trinity, who plays for the Washington Spirit of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), reflected on the strained relationship she has with her father, despite his efforts to help maintain a close public image. She insisted she finds it "frustrating" whenever she is doing interviews and is asked about her father, due to the "trauma" that she has held inside about him. 

"I think we never want to make him look bad, and that is at the cost of kind of holding in a lot and a lot of issues that we’ve gone through and just trauma per se," she said in the episode. "I just feel like I’ve been in a place of going through interviews where people are like, ‘Oh, was your dad there? What’s your dad feeling?’ and I feel like I try to make it obvious that I don’t know."

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Trinity says she is even frustrated with herself at times for giving sympathy to her father, especially when he tries to flaunt his children in public. 

"It's just hard because it's like even now I'm trying to be honest about it, and I'm still giving him sympathy, which is frustrating for me because in reality, I think he's an extremely selfish human being," she said. 

"I think everything has always been about him. He's gone through s---, but at the same time, I'm like, he loves the spotlight. He loves the cameras. He loves bringing his children on stage and being like, ‘Oh, these are my kids.’ All that stuff and even the mind… the mind f---, but like, for me emotionally, he's put me through like, oh my gosh."

JOEL EMBIID'S SINUS FRACTURE 'NOT NEARLY AS SEVERE' AS PREVIOUS FACIAL INJURIES

Trinity added that she doesn't have her father's number saved in her phone and that they will often go months without talking at all. But despite their long gaps in communicating, she claimed that he will still reach out to her to invite her to appear in a reality TV show alongside him. 

According to her, simply hearing his voice is "painful," and oftentimes when he calls her, he's drunk. 

At one point, Trinity said that her father attempted to call her from a different phone number that was based in Texas, then left her a voicemail that was too long for her to feel comfortable listening to. 

"He’s been trying to call me, and it’s a Texas number. Didn’t know he lived in Texas, so that’s news to me. So, I’m just thinking it’s spam risk, all this stuff and I’m like, ‘Okay. They’re just spam calls. Ignore them.’ I get those all the time, so I was ignoring it, and then I see voicemails from it, and then I look, and I hear it for a second. I was like, ‘F---,’ and I think I heard it for a second because I saw that the voicemail was 40 seconds long. I was like, ‘Nah. I’m not doing that,’ and it’s just like a hit or miss day for me. It’s like if I want to go through that or not, and I’m just like, ‘No," she said.

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Brawlers Absolver and Sifu put Sloclap on the map thanks to their memorable looks, slick action and crunchy animations. So naturally the next project for the French studio is [checks notes] a 5v5 arcade soccer game. Uh, sure!

Rematch, which is slated to arrive next summer, perhaps makes more sense for Sloclap than first meets the eye. The studio says the title falls within its remit of making challenging action games with a stylized look.

Each human player controls one character, including the goalkeeper, though you may find yourself quickly transitioning from a striker role to defense. Given the third-person perspective, it may feel more aligned with Rocket League or the career mode in the FIFA/EA Sports FC series rather than the full-pitch view you see in most of the latter's modes.

Rematch is skill-based, so you won't be packing your team with players filled with high stats à la FC Ultimate Team. How you perform is down to your own abilities, not how many points you've plowed into your player's shooting and dribbling attributes.

Sloclap designed the game for fast-flowing action. There are no fouls or offsides here. The ball doesn't go out of play as there's a Rocket League-style boundary wall. You even can use that to your advantage by bouncing the ball off the barrier to set up a teammate for a shot at goal.

Soccer is about "being in the right place at the right time and executing to perfection," according to Pierre Tarno, creative director and executive producer at Sloclap. The studio is hoping to capture that in Rematch. Along with the importance of positioning, the game is said to place an onus on "deep tactics."

Sloclap

Goalkeepers don't need to be kicking their heels while waiting for the opposition to take a shot at their goal. They can push up outside of their penalty area and play as a Manuel Neuer-style sweeper keeper to close down counter attacks if they're willing to take a risk.

When your team has possession, but you don't have the ball, you can call for a pass. The player who has it will see a line to the teammate who made the request, which should help with spatial awareness (there seems to be a minimap too).

Sloclap built the game around three core tenets: helping players feel like athletes, the pressure of high-stakes matches and the joy of being part of a team. "It's about the joy of playing football with friends," Tarno said, and as much about setting up a teammate to bag a goal — perhaps with a perfectly executed volley — as it is to score yourself. And when you lose a game, the idea is that you'll dust off and queue up with your friends for another one. Hence the name Rematch.

Along with competitive modes and quick play options, you can expect private games with customizable rules. There's a seasonal content system that will gradually introduce more features, events, environments and ways to customize your character.

Don't expect to see the likes of Liverpool or Real Madrid in Rematch, at least not right away. The game is set in the future, so there isn't much in the way of licensing, but Sloclap isn't ruling out such agreements down the line.

Rematch will be a premium game rather than a free-to-play title. It's coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC next summer. Sloclap plans to run beta tests this spring.

Two years after the World Cup was played in Qatar, where human rights were questioned, FIFA is running back a similar template a decade from now.

The organization announced Wednesday the 2034 World Cup will be hosted by Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia was the only country to submit a bid prior to the Oct. 31, 2023, deadline.

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Qatar hosted the tournament last year, which was won by Argentina, and the country was dogged by years-long allegations of rights abuses of migrant workers needed to build its stadiums.

However, FIFA and Saudi officials have said hosting the 2034 tournament can accelerate change, including more freedoms and rights for women, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Wednesday calling the World Cup a "unique catalyst for positive social change and unity."

The win will kick off a decade of scrutiny on Saudi labor laws and treatment of workers needed to help build and upgrade 15 stadiums, hotels and transportation networks ahead of the 104-game tournament.

During the bid campaign, FIFA has accepted limited scrutiny of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record that was widely criticized this year at the United Nations.

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Saudi and international rights groups and activists warned FIFA it has not learned the lessons of Qatar’s much-criticized preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.

"At every stage of this bidding process, FIFA has shown its commitment to human rights to be a sham," said Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of labor rights and sport, who added that it is "reckless" to have Saudi Arabia host. Cockburn also said "many lives" will be "at risk."

The Saudis have dipped into the sports world with the Public Investment Fund financially backing LIV Golf. Cristiano Ronaldo, who said in an X post he expects the 2034 Cup to be "the best … ever," also joined a league in Saudi Arabia in 2022, making $75 million annually.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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• When my son asked to join a soccer team, I signed him up right away.
• I was asked to help coach the team, and though I knew nothing about the sport, I agreed.
• The team only won one game, but we all learned a lot about being resilient.

My son had never expressed any interest in organized team sports, so when he tentatively asked whether he could join our local soccer club, I couldn't sign him up for tryouts fast enough. At the trial session, he performed well.

Standing on the sidelines with some of the other parents, I joked that if they needed help, I'd be happy to take care of the physical conditioning side of things. I also followed this joke with the truth: I didn't know anything about soccer outside of watching "Ted Lasso."

I was asked to help coach even though I knew nothing about soccer

A few days after doing so, I received a call from the club's upper management. It turned out that if my son wanted a place on the team, some parents would need to step up and offer to help with the coaching. They had the numbers for the team but no one to lead the way.

The club manager had heard that I was offering help and wanted me to commit. But it was a joke, I told him. He stressed again that if they couldn't find anyone to volunteer, the team wouldn't be able to proceed.

Given these two options, I took a deep breath, reiterated that I had no idea what I was doing, and said yes. Then, I was off to the library to check out a dummies guide to soccer. Fortunately, two other parents also volunteered to help — it's possible they got suckered into it, too, but either way, we were all in it together.

As the only woman present at the practices, I took it upon myself to help with the emotional outbursts that are common for 13-year-old boys on the cusp of — or deep into — puberty. During a training session, teammates could progress from joking to crying to almost getting into fights. The hormones were all over the place and regularly caused interruptions in play. (I also once coached a junior high cross-country team when I was teaching middle school, so I had experience with this exact age group and knew that snickering whenever I mentioned balls was to be expected.)

Our team only won one game

The other coaches and I had a few drills that we used at practice, but most of our time was spent allowing the boys to scrimmage, as this was an excellent way to get them working as a team and emulating actual gameplay. However, because we didn't know much about how to actually coach, we were at a loss as to how to help them improve their skills. This did not bode well for our chance of victory when it came to game days.

The first few matches of the season provided big learning curves for all involved. Coaches, parents, and players alike could tell that it was going to be a long season. We lost the games by huge margins, but I made sure to mention the positives I saw and reminded the boys that we were out there to have fun.

Over time, as we continued to lose, this began to wear thin. But the point is, no matter how many losses we tacked on, we kept showing up. I'd like to think that the resiliency and commitment that we had to not give up is one that my son will not forget.

It turns out that soccer is an amazing game and one that I loved learning about over the course of the very long season. We did end up winning one game towards the end, and it felt extra good knowing all that we had battled through together.

Did I love that I got to blow my whistle and yell at my son to run faster during warmups? Yes. But what I loved more was the time we spent together, traveling to practices and out on the field.

Former U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe defended Barbra Banda, whom the BBC named Women's Footballer of The Year despite controversy surrounding the player's eligibility in Africa.

Banda withdrew from the Zambian squad for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco after failing to meet sex eligibility requirements in 2022, the BBC previously reported. Banda was allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics and has become the second-leading scorer in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) this season, playing for the Orlando Pride. 

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Despite the reported failed eligibility, Banda was still named the award winner while transgender inclusion in women’s sports has become a hot-button issue in the U.S. and abroad.

Rapinoe spoke out in a post in her since-expired Instagram Stories.

"You've thrilled, entertained and inspired us, and the world, all year long," Rapinoe wrote on Friday, via Goal.com. "This is so deserved as is every bit of your success. You stand so much taller than the tiny people trying to tear you down."

The 2024 season with the Pride was the first for Banda, who scored 13 goals in 22 matches.

COACH OF TRANS SJSU VOLLEYBALL PLAYER BLAMES TEAMS THAT FORFEITED FOR 'APPALLING, HATEFUL MESSAGES' TO PLAYERS

Orlando was 18-6-2 and won the NWSL Championship for the first time in league history. Banda scored the lone goal in the match.

Rapinoe has been a staunch advocate for LGBTQ rights and trans-inclusion in women’s sports.

She said in July 2023 she would support a transgender female player on the U.S. women’s national team.

"Absolutely," she told Time magazine last year. "‘You’re taking a ‘real’ woman’s place,’ that’s the part of the argument that’s still extremely transphobic. I see trans women as real women. What you’re saying automatically in the argument – you’re sort of telling on yourself already – is you don’t believe these people are women. 

"Therefore, they’re taking the other spot. I don’t feel that way."

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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Famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling delivered one of her typical sports takes Tuesday. 

The BBC awarded its annual Women's Footballer of The Year award to Zambian player Barbra Banda. Banda withdrew from the Zambian squad for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco after failing to meet sex eligibility requirements in 2022, the BBC previously reported. 

Banda was allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics and has become the second-leading scorer in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) this season, playing for the Orlando Pride. 

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Banda received the most votes from BBC readers after being shortlisted by a panel of what the BBC said were "experts involved in football," including coaches, players and non-BBC journalists.

Rowling spoke out in a post on X. 

"Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women's faces," Rowling wrote. 

Rowling has been one of the most vocal opponents of transgender rights and inclusion, especially in her home country of England. 

Transgender participation in women's sports has become an internationally debated issue, and it became one of the most-discussed issues of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. 

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In June, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to weigh in on whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be permitted to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity instead of their biological sex.

Sixty-five percent answered that it should either never be or rarely allowed. When those polled were asked specifically about adult transgender female athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% opposed it.

The United Nations says nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of the podium because they were beaten out by trans athletes.

The findings were compiled by Reem Alsalem, the UN's Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, titled "Violence against women and girls in sports." 

The report said more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information as of March 30.

"The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males," the report said.

Banda was among the controversial cases involving athletes who previously failed sex eligibility tests at the Paris Olympics. Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan each won gold medals in their respective competitions and were allowed to compete despite failing sex eligibility tests at previous international events. 

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