Sports

For every World Cup, there's a custom official ball. But how does the Telstar 18 actually stack up? To find out, scientists stuck it in a wind tunnel with a bunch of sensors.

E-sports has doubled in size in the last three years and professional athletic associations are now getting more closely involved.

In college football, everybody thinks everyone cheats — everyone except their own team. NPR's Audie Cornish talks with SB Nation reporter Steven Godfrey about allegations of paid players at the University of Mississippi, a years-long NCAA investigation that followed and the shockwaves it sent through the NCAA.

The AFP news service reports one car load was following a GPS and had no idea they were passing through a war zone in eastern Ukraine. Other Swiss fans booked a hotel in the wrong city.

South Korea's men's soccer team tried to confuse scouts from Sweden's team by swapping jerseys so their opponent couldn't tell the players apart. But could a strategy like that actually work?

If this weekend's big matches had one lesson, it was that even great teams don't win every game. The Davids were stronger than expected, and the Goliaths were weighed down by sky-high expectations.

Sean Elmquist of Minnesota planned to run a half marathon but he boarded the wrong bus and realized he would miss his race. The bus he was on was headed for the full marathon — so he went for it.

During the World Cup match between Mexico and reigning champions Germany, Hirving Lozano scored, and fans' collective leap of joy was so huge it was picked up by 2 seismic monitoring systems.

The month-long soccer tournament promises its share of thrilling upsets and political intrigue. Russia hopes that by hosting this global sporting event this year, it will boost the country's prestige.

Peru's underdog World Cup squad lost Saturday to Denmark but has a chance of victory Thursday against France.

The Commission on Violence Prevention was created in response to several cases of alleged domestic violence by NFL players. Law professor Deborah Epstein says the effort was essentially a "fig leaf."

NPR's Scott Simon talks to Howard Bryant of ESPN about this week's sports news.