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Sept. 28, 2025, 6:01 AM EDTBy Andrew GreifOne month to the day after the divorce heard around the NFL, here comes the reunion.Week 4 of the NFL season is highlighted by the potential drama in Dallas when pass rusher Micah Parsons returns to face the Cowboys four weeks after an impasse in contract negotiations led Dallas owner and general manager Jerry Jones to deal away the team’s defensive cornerstone to Green Bay.Myriad other factors could affect whether the Packers (2-1) or Cowboys (1-2) win, from whether Green Bay can move the ball as it did during its 2-0 start, to the viability of a Dallas defense that has been shredded for yards and points in each of the past two weeks.Yet the spotlight on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” of course, will center on cutaway shots of Parsons on the field and Jones in the owner’s box, a distance that is representative of the way both grew apart. Parsons, the 12th overall pick of the Cowboys in 2021, had long been complimentary of Jones during his first four NFL seasons. In the spring, Jones suggested the feeling was mutual, telling reporters that the defender was one of only three people with his personal cellphone number.But as Parsons became the first defender since Reggie White to record a dozen or more sacks in each of his first four seasons and pushed for a contract extension, Jones didn’t quickly make a deal to keep Parsons in Dallas for the long term.In July, as the Cowboys opened training camp, fans yelled “Pay Micah!” as Jones addressed a crowd. Three weeks later, while Jones was addressing another group of Cowboys fans before a practice, cries of “We want Micah!” could be heard. Jones reportedly believed he had negotiated a deal with Parsons through discussions with the player himself; when Parsons reportedly requested that his agent be included, Jones balked.“The issue very frankly is we’ve had the negotiation in my mind, and the agent’s trying to get his nose in it right now and try to come in there and improve off the market we had already set,” Jones told former Cowboys wideout Michael Irvin on a podcast before the trade.Jones has a history of attempting to hammer out contracts directly with players and bypassing their agents, but in the case of Parsons, “this did get personal,” ESPN reporter Adam Schefter said on the day of the trade.“It was nothing personal,” Jones said this week on a Texas radio show. “I told you, I liked Micah. … As much as people wanted to make that of it, there was no issue regarding feelings relative to the negotiations. Certainly not on my part. It was just par for the course. And the facts are the negotiation was ongoing.”Parsons has said he never wanted to leave Dallas, but in Green Bay, he received not only a warm welcome as a potential missing piece for the Super Bowl candidate but also a four-year, $188 million deal.Any goodwill toward Jones for the trade was not helped when Green Bay started hot — after opening 2-0, Packers fans thanked Jones for the deal — while the Cowboys struggled. His modest counting statistics with the Packers while playing through a back injury — 1 ½ sacks, five tackles — have often belied the way his threat to rush can have a larger effect. With Parsons on the field, the Packers have allowed 3.6 yards per play and a passer rating of a minuscule 63.0; when he is off the field, those numbers increase to 4.0 yards per play, and a 107.4 passer rating, according to NBC Sports research.“It’s gonna be painful” to potentially sack former teammate and Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, Parsons told The Associated Press this week.“I accepted my fate weeks ago when the trade happened. For me, it’s just all about playing another game and doing what I do best, and that’s being a disruptive football player. I think the media and the fans are trying to blow it up to be such a big thing. But I just look at it as just another game at AT&T [Stadium].”Jones made headlines in early August, shortly after Parsons demanded a trade, when he remarked that it was good for business that his franchise was “a soap opera 365 days a year.” That continues this week when Parsons returns to Dallas — where the Cowboys will not welcome him with a videoboard tribute.“That’s not to diminish Micah,” Jones said this week. “I think Micah’s got enough welcome out there.”More from SportsFor the second straight year, a New York Giants castoff is an MVP candidateFamous for losing leads, the Chargers might finally be trusted as a title contenderThe Lions are back to being the Lions — and this time, that’s a good thingWhat we’re watching for in Week 4:Minnesota (2-1) at Pittsburgh (2-1): The first NFL regular-season game ever played in Ireland features the Vikings — who are 4-0 in international games — and backup Carson Wentz, who won his debut stepping in for J.J. McCarthy last week. But Wentz has not won consecutive starts since 2021.Washington (2-1) at Atlanta (1-2): Falcons running back Bijan Robinson’s 403 yards from scrimmage rank second in the league, but will Atlanta’s passing game click? QB Michael Penix Jr. has gone two straight games with less than 200 yards of total offense.New Orleans (0-3) at Buffalo (3-0): Bills QB Josh Allen has not turned the ball over in eight consecutive games, including the playoffs. If the Saints lose, it will be their eighth straight loss, the franchise’s longest losing streak since 1980. Cleveland (1-2) at Detroit (2-1): The Browns’ defense has allowed the fewest yards of any team. Myles Garrett needs two sacks to pass Reggie White as the record holder for most sacks by the age of 30.Carolina (1-2) at New England (1-2): Can the Patriots win at home? Since 2023, they own the NFL’s worst winning percentage at home (3-16). Can QB Drake Maye hold on to the ball? He’s lost seven fumbles since the start of last season.Los Angeles Chargers (3-0) at New York Giants (0-3): Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart gets his first carer start. Chargers receiver Keenan Allen needs seven catches to reach 1,000 for his career. If he reaches 1,000 in his next eight games, Allen will become the fastest wideout ever to crack four digits.Philadelphia (3-0) at Tampa Bay (3-0): There is no team more clutch than the Buccaneers, who have won with three consecutive comebacks. They’ve done it in part by failing to turn over the ball once, one of three teams, joining Buffalo and Indianapolis, who have done that.Tennessee (0-3) at Houston (0-3): Time is running out on postseason ambitions. In NFL history, only the 1992 Chargers started 0-4 and went on to make the playoffs.Indianapolis (3-0) at Los Angeles Rams (2-1): The Rams, whose 12 sacks lead the NFL, must get pressure on Colts quarterback Daniel Jones while still finding ways to stop Jonathan Taylor, the only running back averaging more than 100 yards per game.Jacksonville (2-1) at San Francisco (3-0): The Jaguars lead the league with three takeaways per game.Baltimore (1-2) at Kansas City (1-2): Who in the preseason could have envisioned one of these teams with a 1-3 record? Baltimore is here despite leading the NFL in scoring. Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is 1-5 against Kansas City.Chicago (1-2) at Las Vegas (1-2): Since the start of last season, the Bears are 1-8 on the road.Green Bay (2-1) at Dallas (1-2): The Packers’ defense has yet to allow an opponent to score more than 20 points. Meanwhile, the Cowboys have allowed 720 passing yards during their last two games.New York Jets (0-3) at Miami (0-3) on Monday: Neither of these teams has produced a takeaway this season. The only other team yet to record either a fumble or interception is Washington.Cincinnati (2-1) at Denver (1-2) on Monday: The Bengals have committed the most turnovers (five interceptions and three fumbles), yet have a winning record.Andrew GreifAndrew Greif is a sports reporter for NBC News Digital. 

- Latest News - September 28, 2025

One month after the Dallas Cowboys traded away star pass rusher Micah Parsons in a stunning divorce, they reunite on the field in Week 4 of the NFL season

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Sept. 27, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Molly Hunter and Tony BrownDUBLIN — They’re already storied franchises, but when the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings take to the field at Dublin’s Croke Park on Sunday, they’ll make history as the first NFL teams to play a regular season game in Ireland. And that has many fans of both teams so stoked that they made their way across the Atlantic to the Irish capital.“This is the Steelers’ game, and the Vikings are just humbly invited to come get whooped,” Steelers fan Ryan Gray told NBC News earlier this week. Gray, who traveled from Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the game, added he was enjoying “not only Dublin but Ireland as a whole” and he was “very very thankful for that.” Vikings fans Cindy and Johnny File, who came from Minnesota with their friends Fred and Jerri Menth, were also soaking up the atmosphere, enjoying “the craic,” as it’s known in Ireland, and equally bullish about their team’s chances.

- Latest News - September 28, 2025

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings will make history as they become the first NFL teams to play a regular season game in Ireland.

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Sept. 28, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Last winter, Brian Noonan read online that some doctors were prescribing an obscure drug, typically given to cancer patients, for autism. Curious, he looked into it for his son Benjamin, who had just been diagnosed with autism in October.“We jumped on it,” Noonan said. “It felt right and it made sense.”The medication was leucovorin, also called folinic acid. It’s a synthetic form of vitamin B9 or folate, which the body needs to make healthy blood cells. During pregnancy, folate is important to reduce the risk of birth defects.Last Monday, the drug was thrust into the national spotlight by President Donald Trump in a rambling press conference about autism that mainly focused on the president and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s claim that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy could cause autism. Trump briefly mentioned that an “existing drug” — referring to leucovorin — may help with certain symptoms of autism. For those in the autism community, leucovorin is not new. Dr. Richard Frye, a behavioral child neurologist in Phoenix has studied leucovorin and autism for two decades. He made clear that it is not a cure for autism and that more research is needed. He does, however, prescribe it to some people with autism.Noonan’s son Benjamin, who is 4 years old, is one of Frye’s patients. “He’s higher functioning,” Noonan said. “He’s verbal, but he really struggled to put together sentences.” Since starting on the medicine, the family believes Benjamin’s speech has improved, though he still has difficulties with hyperactivity and impulsiveness.Still, Noonan added, he’s under no impression that the drug is a miracle pill. Benjamin also attends a behavioral program preparing him for kindergarten, Noonan said, and he plans to enroll him in speech and occupational therapy. “We very, very much understand we’re still taking an experimental medication,” he said. The Noonan family. Benjamin, 4, who has autism, has used leucovorin.Courtesy of Brian NoonanOther families say the drug conferred larger benefits.Ben Blomgren, of Minneapolis, said his 11-year-old son, Josh, had been prescribed leucovorin off-label in February after he was at risk of being kicked out of school, even as they tried behavioral modification methods.“He’s pretty severe,” Blomgren said. “He didn’t have any language skills. He was not toilet trained.” After starting the medication, Blomgren said Josh’s sleep improved, he’s fully toilet trained and he’s stopped running away from them. “It wasn’t overnight, but we saw major improvement,” he said. Yomarie Miranda, of Florida, said she saw improvements in her 7-year-old son Ethan after he started the medication, including following instructions in class.Ethan was prescribed the medication off label earlier this month, she said.“He’s now looking at me when I speak with him. He’s talking more than before with complete sentences,” she said.A highly unusual moveThe Food and Drug Administration first approved leucovorin in the 1980s to help reduce the toxic side effects of certain chemotherapy drugs.In the decades since, researchers have also studied whether it might treat cerebral folate deficiency (CFD), a neurological condition that makes it harder for folate to reach the brain. Some children with autism also have cerebral folate deficiency, which neurologists say can affect speech, mood and behavior. Last Monday, the FDA said it planned to update the drug’s label to include that use.But the agency’s decision, experts say, rests on just a handful of small studies. And despite Trump’s endorsement, the maker of the brand-name version, GSK, has yet to submit an application to the agency to change the label. In a statement, GSK said it will be submitting the request to expand the approval to include cerebral folate deficiency, though the statement does not mention autism. (Because leucovorin is already an FDA-approved drug, doctors have been able to prescribe it “off label” for other uses, though insurance may not cover it.) It’s a highly unusual move for the FDA: pushing a drug for chemotherapy side effects as a therapy for autism without a formal submission and limited evidence.“It’s incredibly irresponsible,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “For 60-plus years, we’ve counted on the FDA to help patients distinguish between products that work and products that don’t work. And here we saw the FDA making an announcement relying on a summary of unclear data and announcing that they had already decided to approve it.”Alycia Halladay, chief science officer at the nonprofit Autism Science Foundation, was frustrated by the implication that this is a breakthrough in autism research.“It’s not like scientists have just been staring at their belly buttons for 20 years, not looking at autism treatments,” Halladay said in an interview earlier this week. “They have, but the standards have been very high to get [treatments] approved.”Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, said in a statement: “Analysis across 23 publications from 2009-2024 demonstrated the effectiveness for CFD. Overall, 85% of patients experienced some type of clinical benefit including improved speech/communication capabilities.” Nixon’s statement did not mention autism, and he did not respond to follow-up questions.David Mandell, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said HHS’ claim that 85% of patients experienced a benefit is a “quite a conceptual leap” because it assumes people with cerebral folate deficiency also have autism.Cerebral folate deficiency “is an extremely rare event, and it is accompanied by symptoms of epilepsy, really severe neurodevelopmental problems and some of those symptoms can look like autism, but it’s not,” he said.“I could not think of a single FDA approval that has such weak evidence in the past 20 years,” Mandell added.Frye, the Phoenix neurologist, estimates up to three-quarters of autistic children have antibodies linked to cerebral folate deficiency, based on his research. Other estimates are much lower: Alycia Halladay, chief science officer at the nonprofit Autism Science Foundation, put the rates at roughly 10% to 30%.The studies on leucovorin are small but look interesting, said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner.“It certainly merits follow up,” Gottlieb said.One of the studies was conducted by Frye: a placebo-controlled trial of more than 40 children with the antibodies, published in Molecular Psychiatry in 2018. It found around two-thirds of kids who got the drug saw improvements in verbal communication after 12 weeks. Others saw no changes. The children all had language impairments, as well as a common type of autism that’s not linked to other neurological diseases.Mandell, however, said the results shouldn’t be taken as evidence.“They claim that in certain subgroups of kids in their already small sample, they find these very large effects,” he said, adding that larger-scale trials that establish clear outcomes ahead of time are needed to verify the results. Kesselheim said it’s important for patients to have access to medications that could have a benefit, especially when there is an unmet medical need. But, he said, there are still a number of unanswered questions.“There is no accurate testing for this,” he said. “What are low folate levels? What are normal folate levels? All of that stuff should be worked out.”Frye said he currently uses two methods to assess whether a child has a folate deficiency: a spinal tap — also known as a lumbar puncture — which involves inserting a needle into the lower back to collect fluid from the spinal cord, and a folate receptor antibody test originally developed for pregnant women that isn’t approved by the FDA for diagnosing folate deficiency in children. Edward Quadros, a research professor at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University who has worked with Frye studying leucovorin for autism, said parents are already trying the drug, including supplement versions, which aren’t regulated and can be dangerous.“By making the FDA approve it, and reputable pharmaceutical companies manufacturing it and selling it, at least it gives you quality dosing,” Quadros said.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.Aria Bendix contributed.

- Latest News - September 28, 2025

The drug leucovorin was thrust into the national spotlight by President Donald Trump in a rambling press conference about autism.

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By Dennis Romero and Bella LoBueThree people were killed and eight others were injured when someone on a boat opened fire on patrons of a waterfront eatery at a North Carolina marina on Saturday night, a city official said.The boat paused in front of American Fish Company at Southport Yacht Basin and a gunman opened fire, said ChyAnn Ketchum, spokesperson for the city of Southport.Details on the conditions of the injured were unavailable.The shooter fled toward the adjacent Intracoastal Waterway, Ketchum said. A person of interest was being questioned late Saturday, the spokesperson said.The earlier report of an active shooter at the marina prompted a law enforcement response. The city of Southport in a statement had urged people in the area to “remain in your homes” and report anyone suspicious to authorities via 911.The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office said that it is one of multiple law enforcement agencies in the region that responded to the incident.”Please keep all those affected, as well as our first responders, in your thoughts and prayers,” the sheriff’s office said.The yacht basin exists in the southeastern corner of the state “where the Intracoastal Waterway, Cape Fear River and Atlantic Ocean converge,” according to state tourism organization Visit North Carolina.The basin is lined with restaurants, it says.This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.Dennis RomeroDennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Bella LoBueBella LoBue is a Assignment Editor at NBC News Digital. Insiya Gandhi contributed.

- Latest News - September 28, 2025

Three people were killed and eight others were injured when someone on a boat opened fire on patrons of a waterfront eatery at a North Carolina marina on Saturday night,.

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