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| Former Alabama QB Ty Simpson Is the Kind of Quarterback Every NFL Team Needs, Wh |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (12 reads) | |
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There are flashier prospects.
there are quarterbacks with bigger headlines, louder hype, or gaudier measurables.
but when nfl teams sit down in draft rooms and truly ask themselves which player will elevate a locker room, stabilize an offense, and fight for every inch on sunday afternoons, alabama’s ty simpson deserves to be near the top of that list.
because simpson isn’t just a quarterback.
he’s a competitor in the purest sense of the word.
during his time in tuscaloosa, simpson never had the smooth, uncontested path that many five-star recruits expect.
he had to wait.
he had to develop.
he had to battle through depth charts, coaching transitions, and constant scrutiny that comes with wearing that script “a.”
and through it all, he never complained publicly, never fractured the locker room, or never made it about himself.
he just kept working.
that matters more in the nfl than people realize.
simpson brings toughness that can’t be measured at the combine.
he’s willing to stand in the pocket and take a hit to deliver a throw. He’ll lower his shoulder for a first down. He plays with an edge... Not reckless, but fearless.
teammates rally around players like that.
coaches trust players like that.
and while critics point to a lack of “elite traits,” what simpson does possess is often what sustains long nfl careers: anticipation, football iq, leadership, and resilience.
turn on the film and you see a quarterback who processes quickly, throws receivers open, and understands situational football.
he’s not just throwing routes, he’s reading defenses, manipulating safeties, and making smart decisions when chaos breaks loose.
that’s the difference between a talented thrower and a true field general.
his arm strength is more than sufficient. His mobility is underrated. He can extend plays, escape pressure, and pick up yards with his legs when needed. In today’s nfl, where pocket mobility is no longer optional, that versatility is a major asset.
but perhaps simpson’s greatest value isn’t found in mechanics or measurables.
it’s found in his mentality.
he’s clutch.
he’s composed.
he’s the kind of player who doesn’t shrink in big moments.
alabama quarterbacks are forged under pressure, and simpson is no exception.
playing in the sec, under the brightest lights in college football, prepares players for the intensity of sundays in a way few other experiences can.
any nfl franchise looking for a quarterback who will outwork expectations, embrace coaching, and steadily improve year after year would be wise to invest in simpson. He may not arrive as a ready-made superstar, but he absolutely has the tools, and more importantly, the mindset, to become one.
and here’s the truth: championships are rarely built on hype alone.
they’re built on toughness, discipline, leadership, and belief.
ty simpson embodies all of it.
whichever team calls his name on draft night won’t just be getting a quarterback.
they’ll be getting a culture piece.
a locker-room stabilizer.
a competitor who will fight for the city on his helmet as hard as he fought for the script “a.”
don’t be surprised when, a few years from now, people look back and wonder how so many teams let him slide.
because ty simpson isn’t just draftable.
he’s dependable.
he’s durable.
he’s driven.
and he will be an asset to any franchise lucky enough to land him. |
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| Oregon footballs Matthew Bedford, slowed by injuries, made his mark in Eugene he |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (8 reads) | |
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When offensive lineman matthew bedford transferred from indiana to oregon in 2024, he expected to perform well enough to earn an invite to the 2026 nfl scouting combine, held this week in indianapolis.
injuries altered those plans. Now, bedford trains in his hometown of memphis, hoping to impress nfl scouts at oregon’s pro day in march.
despite setbacks, bedford values his oregon experience, leaving eugene grateful for his growth and contributions.
his time at oregon was not only about football. Last fall, bedford, along with oregon’s blessyn mcmorris (acrobatics and tumbling), received the big ten conference jackie robinson community & impact award, honoring student-athletes making a difference in their university’s community.
after practice late last season, oregon coach dan lanning announced bedford’s achievement.
bedford was honored but felt undeserving of the award.
“we need more people doing this in the world if that’s an award,” he said. “Because we don’t, is why it’s glorified.”
helping is mandatory
bedford’s parents, glenith bedford sr., A healthcare representative, and enid bedford, a nurse, instilled in him a sense of community responsibility.
almost everyone, they taught him, needs help.
bedford’s commitment to those lessons grew at indiana.
near the team’s hotel for home games was a homeless park. As team buses passed, homeless fans held up encouraging signs.
“they’re just cheering us on, excited to see us play,” bedford said.
the moment inspired bedford to take action. During a bye week, his mother visited indiana, and together they set up tables at the park to serve hot dogs and potato chips and distribute toiletry kits.
“it was a really great experience,” bedford said. “I met a lot of people my age, honestly, who needed things, but didn’t have resources.”
he later organized food and jacket drives.
after making 39 starts at indiana from 2019 to 2023, bedford entered the transfer portal in 2024.
as he weighed new opportunities, bedford evaluated which programs would best support his charitable work.
“it was mandatory to find ways to help in that area,” bedford said.
oregon stood out. Soon after arriving, bedford began getting involved.
he volunteered with the boys and girls club, boy scouts, a family for every child, a homeless youth center and drug recovery programs.
bedford inspired teammates to join him. Linemen iapani laloulu, kawika rogers and dave iuli participated in several outings.
“i just wanted to be an example for those guys,” he said.
during one event, the group went around downtown eugene, handing out bags of non-perishable food and drug overdose reversal kits.
another group made beds for sleep in heavenly peace, which delivers beds to children.
bedford wanted teammates to appreciate the struggles of those with less.
“it’s such a surreal moment and once you see it, it sticks with you,” he said.
bedford finds the same thrill in helping others as he does in knocking a defender on his back while blocking for a teammate.
that role aligns with his protective instincts, which is why he moved from defensive line to offensive line in high school.
“the joy i get from being available and helping someone reminds me a lot of football,” he said.
next chapter
bedford, who earned a degree in liberal arts and sciences at indiana, wants to work in television. Whatever he does, he will remain active in the community he lives in.
he aspires to ensure football remains a catalyst in his life. But he faces an uphill battle.
a kneecap injury during the 2024 fall camp limited him to one appearance that season. He played in seven games as a backup in 2025, despite being fully healthy.
not bitter, bedford said he understood that oregon’s coaches played those they felt gave the team its best chance to contend for a national title.
“when that purpose is that big, it’s bigger than you,” he said.
oregon’s season ended with a loss to indiana in the college football playoff semifinals.
the loss stung, but bedford also felt joy for his former hoosiers teammates, who went on to defeat miami in the national title game.
“i had a proud alum feeling,” he said.
bedford returned to memphis following the season to work out. He said he feels completely healthy and is moving well.
“i’m feeling like i’m in my prime again,” he said.
he’s also back doing what he can to make a difference in his community. That includes helping coach players at his alma mater, cordova high school.
bedford’s name doesn’t appear much in 2026 mock drafts.
ebonybird.Com lists him as a possible seventh-round pick to the baltimore ravens.
the lack of draft buzz doesn’t concern bedford. He compared the process to high school when his performance at the memphis football mega camp skyrocketed his recruiting profile. He went from having just a few offers to 30 by the end of his senior season.
bedford is optimistic he can make a similar impression during pro day. He trusts that his 2023 season, when he allowed just one sack in 755 snaps, won’t be ignored and that he’ll find his way into nfl training camp, even as an undrafted free agent.
“the opportunity is still there,” he said.
playing in the nfl would elevate bedford’s visibility and his bank account, helping him make a greater impact and potentially inspire others. But even if his playing days are over, his mission moving forward will remain the same.
“being able to be a blessing for people when they have nothing,” bedford said. “Small gestures can change somebody’s life.” |
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| Patriots Predicted To Draft 27-Sack, Game?Breaking Pass Rusher | NESN |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (8 reads) | |
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The new england patriots might want to focus on selecting a pass rusher in the first round of the 2026 nfl draft, and ralph d. Russo from the athletic has a preferred player in mind.
the athletic published a mock draft on tuesday, featuring russos prediction that the patriots will select texas a&m pass rusher cashius howell with the no. 31 pick.
the patriots produced only 35 sacks last season, putting them in the bottom third of the nfl, russo wrote. Howell comes off the line with big-time speed and quickness, though at 6-2 and 250 pounds, he will need to develop as a run defender. The bowling green transfer blew up last season after serving in a rotational role at a&m in 2024, becoming one of the best pass rushers in the country with 11.5 sacks in 13 games.
howell spent his first three seasons at bowling green before transferring to texas a&m in 2024. Throughout his 56-game college career, he recorded 27 sacks and 35.5 tackles for loss.
the patriots should consider selecting howell and allow him to develop over the next few years, potentially transforming him into one of the top pass rushers in the nfl.
more nfl: ravens aiming to thwart patriots offensive line plans for second straight offseason |
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| Fixing the Bengals defense goes so much deeper than traits vs. production |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (7 reads) | |
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Fixing the bengals’ defense goes so much deeper than traits vs. Production
indianapolis — the biggest issue with the cincinnati bengals’ roster between 2023 and 2025 wasn’t the fact that they prioritized traits over production.
the problems were how the visions for the players they were acquiring weren’t clear enough, how many times they drafted a guy to play one role before reversing course and having him play another and a few notable cases where players the team was counting on didn’t end up being consistently reliable.
the number of misses in player acquisition over the last three years is the biggest reason why the bengals haven’t made the playoffs since the 2022 season. The defining question of this offseason is how specifically the bengals’ front office — working in tandem with a fully-returning coaching staff entering year 2 of al golden’s system — can pinpoint the right players to fill specific needs and bring more stability and experience to the locker room.
“i feel really good about our process, what we’re looking for, why we’re looking for it and what we’re trying to uncover,” duke tobin said at the combine on tuesday. “There are a lot of things you can’t control in football and life in general. Injuries, motivation changes, opportunities. Those things have to come together for players to maximize themselves. When one of those elements isn’t there, sometimes it’s hard for that player to overcome that.”
the bengals’ front office is still digging out of some of the mistakes that it made in recent offseasons.
in free agency, the bengals thought that nick scott could play free safety, that geno stone could tackle, that sheldon rankins could be a dt1 and that 2024 vonn bell still had juice left in the tank.
in the draft, the bengals drafted dax hill to be a safety, zach carter to rush the passer, myles murphy to showcase speed around the edge, kris jenkins jr. To stop the run, mckinnley jackson to be the team’s primary nose tackle and shemar stewart to slot in as a super-versatile defensive lineman. Hill, carter (one of the bengals’ worst picks of the last few years), murphy, jenkins and jackson weren’t used in those roles early in their careers. Hill and murphy found success in 2025, once they started playing the roles they should have been in all along.
the process wasn’t working, and lou anarumo took the fall at the end of the 2024 season.
the recent success of hill, murphy and dj turner shows that leaning into “traits” players can really work. The best example is on the other side of the ball — the bengals are really happy to have amarius mims, one of the traitsiest prospects in recent memory.
tobin wants to build a football team that’s big, fast and strong.
“you want guys that play football well, but you want guys that can play nfl football well,” tobin said. “Those traits are what drive a lot of really great players. We do like guys that are big enough, fast enough, strong enough. You have to have those things. You can’t just have desire. With just desire and not any physical traits, you’re going to be doing my job. There’s a marriage between the two.”
in addition to traits and production, there are two buckets that are essential. That’s where the bengals’ have to be better.
they need to have a clearer vision for the roles that additions are going to play right away. This front office and coaching staff can’t afford another scenario like what happened with dax hill, who didn’t find his full-time position until his fourth season in the nfl.
to get this done, the front office and the coaching staff has to be in total lockstep. That’s the value in coaching continuity entering 2026.
“sometimes, when teams have heavy turnover in every area of their team, they’re looking to make changes,” tobin said. “Maybe the changes they’re making aren’t great changes. Just change. Change for change sake isn’t something i’m all about. If i think the guy we have the best of these seven guys who are available, i’m going to go with that still.”
in 2025, golden had to use a scheme that fit a defense that was as young as it was. As the defense gained more confidence in the second half of the year, he started leaning into more blitzes and versatility.
another offseason and another chance to add to the defense gives golden a better chance to dial up a defense that really looks like his own.
“it evolved over the course of the season,” zac taylor said. “He’s in a great place with the confidence level he has, what we have in the locker room and the potential that we can add. It’s just exciting. That’s the best word. We’re excited for this offseason.”
last season, the bengals ran into depth chart problems that forced them to put players in unideal places. The biggest example was how many times demetrius knight jr. Was asked to set the edge on the defensive line in a five-man front. That’s not knight’s game. Now entering 2026, the bengals know the style of linebacker that they need to complement what they’re try to be on defense.
the bet on continuity is the thesis statement of the entire offseason. It has to work.
“we’ve got continuity,” zac taylor said. “We’ve got to capitalize on that and continue to build and move forward.”
the next layer in building the bengals’ defense is arguably the most important one.
during the middle of last season, taylor memorably pounded the table at the podium and stressed that someone had to step up and lead the defense.
dj turner, myles murphy, dax hill and jordan battle became a part of the solution. But this is still a defense that needs more leadership.
“you want a guy who loves football and elevates everyone around them,” taylor said. “You want force multipliers. If you put them in a spot, the two guys next to them are going to be better players because of his football iq, communication and talent level.”
the bengals have to be better at identifying and bringing in force multipliers.
the bengals haven’t done a good enough job at that in recent offseasons. Rankins, the 2024 version of bell, geno stone and tj slaton didn’t lift the entire unit around them. In the draft, cam taylor-britt, mckinnley jackson, jordan battle (now one of the bengals’ best young leaders) and shemar stewart had some rocky moments early in their careers. The biggest miss was jermaine burton.
the 2026 bengals need more guys in the mold of 2020 logan wilson. Guys who come in and immediately help set a tone. The bengals have to nail the evaluations of the types of people they’re bringing in this season.
“sometimes there’s an elite talent level that’s maybe deficient in other areas,” taylor said. “You have to decide what are we accepting. Those are decisions we have to make.”
on a transactional level, the task at hand for the bengals this offseason feels pretty simple.
-follow the path that the bengals used in 2021 and 2022 in free agency.
-build a “wave” of defensive line depth through free agency and the draft, including one or two potential starters.
-add a veteran linebacker who, in the words of coach mike hodges, can be a “caddy” to lift up the young guys around him.
-build up the versatility the defense by adding potential playmakers in the slot and at safety.
-on offense, sign a backup quarterback, your right guard (ideally dalton risner) and draft a bit more skill position player depth.
the bengals still feel like they’re close to being back where they were in 2021 and 2022.
“we’ve got a team that in my opinion can win it all,” tobin said. “That’s my opinion. If nobody else believes it, fine. Do i think we can make additions this offseason that push us over the hump? I do.”
the director of player personnel believes in the process — one that worked perfectly between 2020 and 2022 but hasn’t been successful in recent years.
“believe me, if i thought we had coverage lapses, i would fix that,” tobin said. “We don’t have coverage lapses. We don’t have information gaps at all. Maybe we have too much information.”
every team has misses in the draft and in free agency. That’s the nfl. But this is also a league that’s ever-changing. Taylor is suddenly the only returning coach in the afc north. Mike brown looped tobin in with taylor back in january in brown’s end of season statement.
tobin made it clear that this offseason, the bengals will have the resources to “attack the offseason.”
the bengals just have to pick the right guys.
“(we use) every resource imaginable (to evaluate a potential signing or draft pick),” taylor said. “It’s every connection we have to someone who has been around him. Whatever scouting report on them we had coming out of college. There can be a lot of ways to approach it. We try to use every one of them. We want to make sure we’re getting the right person who wants in and you’re not bringing in a problem. We want to bring in one of us.”
copyright 2026 wxix. All rights reserved. |
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| Genomic landscape of oral squamous cell carcinoma from the southwest coast of Ka |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (9 reads) | |
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Abstract
background:
oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc) remains a major health burden in india, yet region-specific genomic data are limited. This study aimed to characterize the mutational landscape of oscc patients from the southwest coast of karnataka using ffpe tissues and assess potential clinical correlations.
methods:
whole-exome sequencing was performed on tumor and adjacent normal ffpe samples from 21 oscc patients. Variants were annotated using multiple clinical databases, and stratified analyses were conducted across clinicopathological parameters including age, sex, tumor site, and tnm stage.
results:
we identified extensive inter-patient variability in clinically relevant mutations, with intronic and missense variants being most frequent. A core set of 21 genes including abcb1, cd44, il6, padi2, and vkorc1—carried pathogenic or drug-response variants in all patients. Ten tumor-exclusive mutations were observed, including tlr1 rs5743618, present in 100% of tumors. Pathway and network analyses highlighted enrichment in p53 signaling, immune pathways, and platinum-drug resistance. Stratified analyses showed no significant differences in mutation burden across tnm stages (kruskal–wallis p = 0.952), nodal status (p = 0.460), age, or sex. Polygenic risk score estimation revealed that 15 of 21 patients belonged to the highest-risk quartile, suggesting strong inherited susceptibility.
conclusion:
ffpe-based genomic profiling successfully captured key oscc-associated alterations and revealed region-specific mutation signatures. The predominance of germline and pharmacogenomic variants and strong prs enrichment underscore the potential of incorporating hereditary risk assessment and targeted therapy selection into oscc management strategies in this population.
1 introduction
head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (hnscc) arises from the mucosal lining of the upper aerodigestive tract, including the larynx, hypopharynx, tonsil, oropharynx, and oral cavity. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc), the most common subtype of hnscc, originates from the epithelial and mucosal surfaces of the tongue, buccal and labial mucosa, alveolar ridge, palate, and other oral cavity regions (ranganathan et al., 2023; paul et al., 2025). According to globocan 2022 estimates, cancers of the lip and oral cavity remain a significant health burden in india, accounting for approximately 390,000 new cases and over 188,000 deaths annually, with oscc representing more than 90% of all oral malignancies (johnson et al., 2020). These alarming statistics underscore the urgent need for improved prevention, early detection, and personalized treatment strategies.
although tobacco and alcohol are well-established risk factors for oscc, disease development and treatment response are influenced by complex interactions between environmental exposures and host genetic susceptibility (tan et al., 2023; kunhabdulla et al., 2024). Cases in individuals without any known habits further highlight the contribution of genetic factors to oral carcinogenesis. Variation in driver mutations and dysregulated pathways between populations suggests the importance of region-specific genomic profiling to inform tailored therapies (paul et al., 2025; abdulla et al., 2023; uddin et al., 2022; mishra et al., 2023).
next-generation sequencing (ngs) enables comprehensive detection of somatic alterations, providing opportunities to identify clinically actionable biomarkers (leemans et al., 2018). Genotypic analysis of long noncoding rnas (lncrna) such as anril and h19 and their genetic polymorphisms have recently been associated with oscc (ghapanchi et al., 2020; amiri et al., 2023; salah et al., 2024). However, reliance on fresh tumor biopsies limits routine implementation. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (ffpe) tissues offer a practical alternative for genomic studies, allowing integration of mutational profiles with long-term clinical outcomes (gayathri et al., 2022; henshall et al., 2023; mäki-nevala et al., 2021). Despite several genomic investigations in india, primarily involving north indian patients or focusing on targeted cancer gene panels (goel et al., 2021; tandon et al., 2022; india project team of the international cancer genome consortium, 2013; patel et al., 2021; paul et al., 2025) there remains a lack of whole-exome studies from south indian populations, particularly those along the southwest coast of karnataka where oscc is highly prevalent.
to address this critical knowledge gap, the present study performed whole-exome sequencing of paired tumor and normal ffpe samples from oscc patients in coastal karnataka. By characterizing somatic and germline variants and correlating them with clinicopathological features, this work aims to identify population-relevant genomic alterations with potential diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic significance.
2 methods
2.1 sample collections
forty-eight ffpe tissue samples from patients diagnosed with oscc, including both tumor and adjacent normal tissues from the southwest coast of india, were collected from yenepoya dental college and hospital, deralakatte within a duration of 2022–2024. The study received approval from the institutional ethical review boards of yenepoya medical college and hospital ethics committee (protocol no: yec-1/2023/131). After quality control measures 13 samples were discarded. The remaining 35 samples were employed for the downstream analysis.
2.2 whole exome sequencing
whole exome sequencing (wes) was used to identify the mutation. Tumor and adjacent normal tissues of the oscc patients were collected from the yenepoya dental college and hospital for the mutational profiling. Out of the 35 samples 14 pairs (n = 28) were associated with the same patient (14 normal adjacent tissues as control and 14 oscc tumor tissues as cases) from 14 individuals were employed in this study. Remaining seven were single tissue samples (five only tumor tissues and two only normal tissues). Total number of tumor tissues were 19 and total number of normal tissues were 16. The clinical details of the recruited samples is summarized in table 1.
table 1
| hpe no | original tnm | medical history | age | sex | site | simplified stage | mutational profiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10026e/23 | pt2n0 | radio therapy done before surgery | 44 | male | right lateral border of tongue | stage ii | only normal tissue |
| 10175r2/23 | pt2n0mx | chemo done before surgery | 58 | female | tongue left lateral border | stage ii | none |
| 4384a/23 | pt2n0 | no relevant history | 44 | male | right buccal mucosa | stage ii | only tumor tissue |
| 4741h/23 | pt1n0 | no relevant history | 80 | male | left upper lip | stage i | only tumor tissue |
| 4968e/23 | pt2n0 | radio therapy done before surgery | 49 | male | left lateral border of tongue | stage ii | both tumor and normal |
| 4975/23 | pt2n2b | no relevant history | 56 | female | right retromolar trigone | stage iv | both tumor and normal |
| 5058f/23 | pt4an1 | hyperthyroidism under medication, surgery post chemo | 47 | female | left lower alveolus | stage iv | only tumor tissue |
| 5103g/23 | pt4anx | radio therapy, cancer recurrence, chemo done | 53 | male | right upper alveolus | stage iv | only tumor tissue |
| 5212e/23 | pt2n2b | no relevant history | 41 | male | right buccal mucosa | stage iv | both tumor and normal |
| 5286g/23 | pt4anb2 | hypertension under medication | 46 | female | right buccal mucosa | stage iv | both tumor and normal |
| 5288g/23 | pt4an3b | radio therapy done before surgery | 75 | male | left lower alveolus | stage iv | both tumor and normal |
| 5521f/23 | pt2n2b | chemo done before surgery | 41 | male | right buccal mucosa | stage iv | both tumor and normal |
| 6331d/23 | pt1n0 | diabetes, hypertension | 55 | female | left buccal mucosa | stage i | both tumor and normal |
| 6627b/23 | pt2n1 | cisplatin poor tolerance | 59 | female | right buccal mucosa extending to upper alveolus | stage iii | only normal tissue |
| 6702e/23 | pt2n0 | no relevant history | 76 | female | right lower alveolus + marginal mandibulectomy | stage ii | only tumor tissue |
| 6750c/23 | pt3n1 | diaphragmatic palsy, adjuvant radio therapy | 72 | male | right lateral border of tongue | stage iii | both tumor and normal |
| 7736j/23 | pt4an2b | no relevant history | 80 | female | left buccal mucosa | stage iv | both tumor and normal |
| 8412e/23 | pt2n0 | diabetic under ayurvedic medication | 58 | male | right buccal mucosa | stage ii | both tumor and normal |
| 9392e/23 | pt2n2bmx | radio therapy done post-surgery | 52 | male | lateral border of tongue | stage iv | none |
| 9465c/23 | pt1n1 | no relevant history | 55 | female | right lower lip | stage iii | both tumor and normal |
| 9472c/23 | pt2n1 | no relevant history | 69 | male | left buccal mucosa | stage iii | both tumor and normal |
| 9640e/23 | pt2n0 | hypertension under medication | 82 | male | lower lip | stage ii | both tumor and normal |
| 9653e/23 | pt3n0 | no relevant history | 75 | male | left angle of mouth + right buccal mucosa | stage iii | none |
| 9675d/23 | pt2n0 | no relevant history | 50 | male | left lateral border of tongue | stage ii | both tumor and normal |
clinical details of the recruited samples.
whole exome sequencing (wes) libraries were prepared using twist exome 2.0 kit. Genomic dna was extracted from the tissue samples, and samples with a dna concentration of ?20 ng/?L were selected for wes. All samples were sequenced on illumina novaseq6000 system. The raw paired-end sequencing reads (pe150) generated from ffpe samples were initially processed for adapter removal and quality filtering to obtain high-quality trimmed reads. These processed reads were then mapped to the homo sapiens reference genome grch37 using the burrows–wheeler aligner (bwa) with default parameters (li and durbin, 2009). Variant calling followed standard best-practices workflows, where aligned bam files were refined and variants were identified. The resulting vcf files were subsequently annotated using ensembl’s variant effect predictor (vep) (hunt et al., 2022) to assign functional consequences to each variant. A matched tumor–normal comparison strategy was used to distinguish somatic mutations from germline variants, emphasizing those alterations potentially driving tumorigenesis. All processed datasets comprised fastq, bam, vcf, and annotated output files, as delivered in the sequencing report from ncgm.
2.3 discovery of mutational landscape
to annotate the detected genetic variants, multiple clinically relevant databases and prediction tools were employed to classify variant types and assess their pathogenic potential. Tumor tissue was compared with adjacent normal tissue to distinguish somatic alterations from germline variants, particularly those implicated in tumor development. The dbsnp database was used as a comprehensive resource for cataloging genetic variations across different species and providing detailed information on each variant. Clinvar, a specialized repository for clinically important genetic alterations (landrum et al., 2018), was utilized to identify variants classified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic. Additionally, integrated computational tools, polyphen-2 (adzhubei et al., 2010) were applied to predict the functional consequences of the mutations. The omim® database was further consulted to determine any known links between the identified variants and genetic disorders.
2.4 polygenic risk score (prs) estimation
to estimate prs, we merged exome-wide data from 21 oscc patients with genome-wide data of 204 south asian individuals from our lab database using plink v1.9. The merged. Bed file assessed 5,341 snps. Prsice2 (choi et al., 2019) was employed to estimate prs of oral cancer for the 21 oscc patients and other individuals present in the merged dataset. Summary statistics from mvp_r4.1000g_agr.Phe_145_2. Meta.Gia.Dbgap.Txt was downloaded through gwas catalogue and was employed as the reference (--base) data during prs estimation. Notably, the reference file compared 2,203 oral cancer patients against 570,152 controls, assessing 17, 701, 051 snps. The test samples were divided into prs quartiles; the lowest quartile (bottom 25%) was considered as reference. All subsequent prs groups were considered to have an increased risk of developing oral cancer compared to the reference quartile.
3 results
3.1 patient details
this retrospective study analysed 48 patients with histopathologically confirmed oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc) who underwent surgical resection at yenepoya medical college hospital, mangalore. Within a duration of (2022–2025) formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (ffpe) tissue samples were retrieved from the archives of yenepoya dental college hospital after oscc diagnosis confirmation. Collected clinicopathological data included (table 2) age, gender, surgery date, primary tumor site, ajcc 8th edition tnm stage, tumor size, and tobacco use history.
table 2
| variable | category | frequency (n = 24) | percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| age (years) | <45 | 7 | 29.2 |
| | ?45 | 17 | 70.8 |
| sex | male | 16 | 66.7 |
| | female | 8 | 33.3 |
| habits | tobacco chewing | 20 | 83.3 |
| | tobacco smoking | 6 | 25.0 |
| | alcohol consumption | 4 | 16.7 |
| | none | 0 | 0.0 |
| site of lesion | buccal mucosa (left & right) | 7 | 29.2 |
| | lateral border of tongue | 7 | 29.2 |
| | lower alveolus + rmt lesion | 5 | 20.8 |
| | upper alveolus | 1 | 4.2 |
| | upper lip | 1 | 4.2 |
| | angle of mouth | 1 | 4.2 |
| tnm staging | stage i | 7 | 29.2 |
| | stage ii | 7 | 29.2 |
| | stage iii | 1 | 4.2 |
| | stage iv | 9 | 37.5 |
| broder’s classification | scc g1 | 2 | 8.3 |
| | scc g2 | 22 | 91.7 |
| location | south karnataka | 17 | 70.8 |
| | north karnataka | 5 | 20.8 |
| | kerala | 2 | 8.3 |
| language | kannada | 9 | 37.5 |
| | malayalam | 2 | 8.3 |
| | hindi/tulu (others) | 3 | 12.5 |
molecular correlates of clinicopathological variables in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
the numbers in the “percentage” column, shown in parentheses, represent the percentage of the total observations that fall into each category. Abbreviations used: oscc: oral squamous cell carcinoma rmt: retro molar trigone, tnm: tumor, node, metastasis (a cancer staging system), sccg1: squamous cell carcinoma grade 1, sccg2: squamous cell carcinoma grade 2.
the cohort comprised 18 (37.5%) females and 30 (62.5%) males. The mean age was 54.80 years (sd = 10.1), with a median of 55. The most common primary tumor site was the buccal mucosa (n = [10], (41.6%), followed by the [lateral border of tongue] (n = [6] % choi et al., 2019) and the [lower alveolus and lower lip] (n = [5,3], [20.8,12.5] %)., Tnm stage distribution, mean tumor size. The most common site was the buccal mucosa presenting as moderately differentiated oscc (table 3).
table 3
| site | pt1 | pt2 | pt3 | pt4a | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| buccal mucosa | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| lip | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| alveolus/gbs/rmt lesion | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 7 |
| tongue | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| total | 3 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 24 |
distribution of tumor stages (pt1-pt4a) across oral cavity subsites.
bold values indicate pathological tumor (pt) staging categories, where “p” denotes pathological staging and t1–t4a represent tumor stage.
the table illustrates how tumor stage (pt1-pt4a) varies across different subsites in the oral cavity, highlighting the distribution of tumor advancement at diagnosis for each location. Pt (pathological tumor): this refers to the size and extent of the primary tumor, determined after surgical removal and pathological examination. Pt staging describes the size and local extent of the primary tumor after pathological examination. Pt1-pt4a indicate increasing tumor size and/or invasion into nearby tissues, with specific measurements and involvement of adjacent structures defining each stage.
3.2 genetic variation among the recruited patients
clinvar classification system was used to determine clinically relevant genetic variants (snvs and delins). Variants designated with classifiers such as pathogenic, likely pathogenic, risk allele, drug response, association, likely association, and protective were used for downstream analysis. We found discernible variation among the 19 recruited patients with tumor tissue samples in terms of the total number of clinically relevant mutations identified. While patient no.1 had the lowest number of (n = 132) clinically relevant variants, patient no.4 had the highest (n = 197).
among the various types of genetic variants identified, the intronic variants comprised of 56% ± 7% of all identified variants, followed by missense variants (12% ± 1%) and non-coding transcript variants (10% ± 2%). Stop-gained mutations were found to be present in very low frequencies (<1%) (figure 1).
figure 1
the origin of the mutation was determined by comparing the mutations identified in the tumor tissue and those identified in the nearby normal tissue. Based on the origin of the mutations, out of an average of 171 clinically relevant mutations (range: 150–197), most were germline (93.3% ± 3.9%), and 6.7% ± 3.9% were somatic.
we identified 56 genes with at least one clinically relevant mutation in at least 80% of the recruited patients in the tumor tissue (figure 2). Interestingly, mutations in 21 of these genes (abcb1, capn10, cd44, cdc27, chi3l1, cnn2, comt, ctbp2, igsf3, il6, il6-as1, mapkapk3, mgst3, nat2, nos3, oprm1, padi2, slc2a9, tbxt, tlr1 and vkorc1) were identified in all recruited patients. We identified 69 clinically relevant mutations that are present in at least 80% of the recruited patients in the tumor tissue (figure 3). Among them, 19 mutations were identified among all recruited patients. The clinically relevant mutations that were identified in the tumor of at least 50% recruited patients are summarized in supplementary table s1.
figure 2
figure 3
we note here that, in the cancer genome atlas (tcga) - head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (tcga-hnscc) dataset, recurrent somatic alterations are largely confined to well-established oncogenic drivers, including tp53, pik3ca, and fat1. In contrast, most genes found to be mutated in ?50% of the recruited patients in our cohort predominantly encompassing drug-metabolizing enzymes, receptor genes, and immune-related regulators.
3.3 identification of exclusively tumor-specific mutations
we identified exclusively tumor specific mutations by comparing the mutations identified in the tumor tissue with those identified in the nearby non-tumor normal tissue (n = 14 pairs). We identified ten mutations that were exclusively tumor specific, and present in at least 20% of the recruited patients (table 4). Among them a single nucleotide variant rs5743618 of tlr1was found to be present in the tumor tissue of all recruited patients, followed by rs1805010 (intergenic) and rs546905091 (in prkdc) that were present among 46% recruited patients. Notably, while the minor allele frequency (maf) of rs5743618 is low (0.25) among european descents, it is very common among asians (0.89 among south asians and 0.99 among east asians), underscoring the importance of multiple reference genomes to understand the global mutational landscapes (karczewski et al., 2020). On the contrary, the pathogenic insertion mutation rs546905091 is extremely rare among south asians (maf = 0.0076), and this highlights its potential role in cancer (auton et al., 2015). Interestingly, rs1805010, while designated as a pathogenic snv in clinvar, is also quite common among south asians (maf = 0.44) and also globally, indicating the importance of understanding the role of common genetic variants in the development of multifactorial disorders such as cancers.
table 4
| mutation | frequency (%)* | chromosome | position | variant class | variant type | gene | clinvar_clnsig | amino_acids | codons | comparison with tcga-hnscc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| rs5743618 | 100 | 4 | 38798648 | missense variant | snv | tlr1 | uncertain risk allele | s/i | agc/atc | no recurrent somatic calls in tcga-hnsc (?0% in public somatic lists) |
| rs1805010 | 46 | 16 | 27356203 | regulatory region variant | snv | il4r | pathogenic | - | - | not reported as recurrent somatic in tcga-hnsc. |
| rs546905091 | 46 | 8 | 48844056 | intron variant | insertion | prkdc | pathogenic | - | - | no evidence of this rsid as a recurrent somatic event in tcga-hnsc. |
| rs4337789 | 31 | 4 | 69973044 | intron variant | snv | ugt2b7 | drug response | - | - | not observed as a recurrent somatic hotspot in tcga-hnsc. |
| rs752940775 | 31 | 15 | 93540315 | frameshift variant | insertion | chd2 | pathogenic | e/ex | gaa/gaaa | not a tcga-hnsc somatic hotspot |
| rs1143634 | 23 | 2 | 113590390 | synonymous variant | snv | il1b | affects | f | ttc/ttt | not a tcga-hnsc somatic hotspot |
| rs5744168 | 23 | 1 | 223285200 | stop gained | snv | tlr5 | risk factor | r/* | cga/tga | no recurrent tcga-hnsc somatic evidence |
| rs61737946 | 23 | 22 | 42523505 | missense variant | snv | cyp2d6 | drug response | g/s | ggt/agt | very rare somatic hits in tcga |
| rs764008859 | 23 | 13 | 77581682 | frameshift variant | deletion | fbxl3 | pathogenic | l/x | tta/ta | not a recurrent tcga-hnsc somatic variant |
| rs7809208 | 23 | 7 | 87214275 | intron variant | snv | abcb1 | drug response | - | - | not a recurrent tcga-hnsc somatic variant |
mutations identified exclusively in the tumor tissue of at least 20% recruited patients.
further, we systematically queried tcga and focused on tumor-specific somatic variants, which revealed either very low or an absence of such mutations for these genes (table 4). This disparity highlights a distinct mutational landscape in our cohort relative to tcga, potentially reflecting cohort-specific biological features or differences in variant origin and detection.
subsequently, a patient-wise comparison was performed to evaluate the overlap between mutations identified in this cohort and the most frequent canonical somatic drivers described in the tcga-hnscc dataset (table 5). Of the established tcga-hnscc driver genes assessed, tp53 was the most frequently detected, present in five of 21 patients, followed by cdkn2a, identified in three patients. In addition, egfr, a gene predominantly altered through copy-number amplification in tcga-hnscc, was observed in a single patient. Notably, several other genes that are commonly reported as recurrently mutated in tcga-hnscc: including fat1, notch1, kmt2d, nsd1, casp8, and hras were not detected in this cohort. Collectively, these findings indicate a restricted overlap with the canonical tcga-hnscc mutational spectrum, suggesting that the genomic architecture of this cohort is shaped by distinct, potentially population- or exposure-specific factors rather than reflecting the dominant driver landscape reported in large, predominantly western tcga datasets.
table 5
| genes commonly mentioned in tcga- hnscc | recruited patients (n = 21) | tcga relevance |
|---|---|---|
| tp53 | 5 | core tcga-hnscc driver |
| cdkn2a | 3 | core tcga-hnscc driver |
| egfr | 1 | tcga-hnscc amplification-driven gene |
| others (fat1, notch1, kmt2d, nsd1, casp8, hras, fbxw7, ccnd1, myc, pik3ca) | 0 | - |
presence of canonical tcga–hnscc driver gene alterations across the study cohort.
3.4 stratified analyses
stratified analyses were performed to investigate whether the mutation landscape varied across key clinical and demographic dimensions, including age, sex, primary tumor site and pathological tnm stage (supplementary table s2). Comparison of mutation burden across disease stages using the kruskal–wallis test did not reveal statistically significant differences (p = 0.952), and post-hoc dunn’s multiple comparison tests further confirmed that mutation burden did not vary significantly between any individual stage pairs (all adjusted p = 1.0). Likewise, comparison between node-negative and node-positive tumors (n0 vs. N+), used as a proxy for metastatic potential, demonstrated no significant difference in mutation burden (wilcoxon rank-sum test p = 0.460). Subgroup analyses based on age category and sex also showed no discernible variation in mutational load across these strata. Fisher’s exact tests for each gene similarly did not identify any individual variant or gene disproportionately associated with advanced vs. Early disease after false-discovery rate correction. Collectively, these results suggest that in this oscc cohort, comprising patients with predominantly uniform gene panels, the global mutation burden and the presence of the pharmacogenomically associated variants assessed here do not appear to be strongly driven by tnm stage progression or major demographic parameters. Further, our results indicate that additional molecular mechanisms, such as copy-number changes, epigenetic dysregulation, immune microenvironmental factors, or environmental exposures, may have a more prominent role in oscc clinical heterogeneity.
3.5 comparison of high-frequency mutation genes with dbgenvoc database
out of the 40 most frequent genes identified in the tumor tissue that have at least one mutation in at least 95% of the recruited patients, 38 were found to be present in dbgenvoc, the comprehensive database with clinically pertinent somatic and germline variation data originating from >100 indian oral cancer patients (pradhan et al., 2021). This indicates that clinically relevant mutations identified in tbxt and perm1, present in 100% and 95% recruited patients are novel mutations associated with oscc patients from southwest india. Novel mutations in xrcc1 and itpkb, previously identified by our team (paul et al., 2025) was found among ?80% and 95% of the recruited patients respectively, further highlighting the importance of understanding local mutational landscape. Notably, the missense variant rs25487 in xrcc1 has been associated with chemotherapy response. Among the 21 genes with exclusively tumor specific mutations in at least two recruited patients, 18 were found in dbgenvoc and two (chromr and dnaaf4) were novel. Chromr (cholesterol induced regulator of metabolism rna) (barriocanal et al., 2022) is a long noncoding rna (lncrna) gene that is a key arbitrator of antiviral innate immune signaling in human while dnaaf4 (dynein axonemal assembly factor 4) is involved in the preassembly of the multi-subunit dynein protein, which is essential for the proper functioning of cilia and flagella.
3.6 go annotation of genes with exclusively tumor specific mutations
gene ontology analysis was performed on the 21genes with exclusively tumor specific mutations in at least two recruited patients revealed. The biological processes (bp) of these genes are related to b cell lineage commitment, replicative and cellular senescence, hematopoietic stem cell differentiation, protein destabilization, rrna processing, cell cycle g1/s phase transition, and regulation of g1/s transition of mitotic cell cycle. The main cellular components (cc) of these genes involve striated muscle dense body, cajal body, nucleoid, z-disc, i-band, sarcomere, and spliceosomal complex. The major molecular functions (mf) associated with these genes are mitochondrial promoter sequence-specific dna binding, biotin transmembrane transporter activity, mdm2/mdm4 family protein binding, cyclin-dependent protein serine/threonine kinase inhibitor activity, disordered domain specific binding, transcription coactivator binding, protein kinase inhibitor activity and p53 binding.
3.7 pathway analysis
the 21genes with exclusively tumor specific mutations in at least two recruited patients were analyzed for kegg enrichment. The results revealed significant enrichment of these genes in various cancers and cancer-related pathways such as pathways in cancer (hsa05200), bladder cancer (hsa05219), melanoma (hsa05218), non-small cell lung cancer (hsa05223), p53 signaling pathway (hsa04115), pancreatic cancer (hsa05212), chronic myeloid leukemia (hsa05220) and gastric cancer (hsa05226), as well as platinum drug resistance (hsa01524) (kanehisa et al., 2021; gene ontology consortium, 2021) (figure 4). In congruence with kegg, reactome pathway analysis revealed that these 21 genes are significantly associated with programmed cell death and senescence. This analysis also identified enrichment of these genes in immune system related pathways such as interleukin signalling and disorders associated with immune system (figure 5).
figure 4
figure 5
3.8 protein-protein interaction (ppi) network complex
a protein–protein interaction (ppi) network of 21 genes with exclusively tumor specific mutations in at least two recruited patients was constructed to elucidate their interactions using string v12 (figure 6). The network comprised of 19 nodes and 17 edges. The expected number of edges was 9. This indicates that our network has significantly more interactions than expected (p-value <0.00847), suggesting close interactions among these genes in various cancer related and tp53 associated biological pathways. Notably, ak2, nanos1, dnaaf4, frg1, il4r, and myo6 were not part of the ppi network.
figure 6
3.9 polygenic risk score (prs) estimation
the study participants, comprising oscc patients and south asian individuals from our lab database, were categorized into polygenic risk score (prs) quartiles (choi et al., 2019) using the lowest quartile (bottom 25%) as the reference group. All higher prs quartiles were associated with an elevated risk of developing oral cancer relative to this reference (q1 vs. Q2: chi square = 2.04, p-value = 0.15; q1 vs. Q3: chi square = 4.15, p-value = 0.042; q1 vs. Q4: chi square = 17.6, p-value = 2.72 x 10?5). The median prs was ?0.0055362, with an interquartile range (iqr) from ?0.00595 to ?0.0050734. Strikingly, 15 of the 21 oscc patients were classified in the highest prs quartile (q4), suggesting a strong genetic predisposition to oral cancer (figure 7). Of the remaining patients, four were in quartile 3 (q3), and two were in quartile 2 (q2). These findings underscore the potential of prs as a valuable tool for cancer risk prediction.
figure 7
3.10 association of frequently mutated genes in oscc with nuclear hormone receptors
a considerable subset of recurrently altered genes in oscc are influenced by nuclear hormone receptor signaling, particularly pathways governed by the vitamin d receptor (vdr), estrogen receptor (er), and androgen receptor (ar). These receptors are critical regulators of epithelial cell differentiation, proliferation, and immune modulation, and their dysregulation has been linked to malignant transformation and tumor progression. To investigate potential mechanistic and therapeutic relevance, we evaluated whether the commonly mutated genes in our cohort are connected to these hormonal regulatory networks. The genes exhibiting consistent variation across all oscc samples are summarized in table 6, while the involvement of these genes in hormone receptor–mediated pathways is presented in table 7.
table 6
| parameter | count |
|---|---|
| total number of oscc samples analyzed | 19 |
| number of genes showing variation/mutation in ?80% of samples | 56 |
| number of genes showing variation/mutation in 100% of samples | 21 |
summary of gene variation patterns identified in oscc samples.
genes with 100% prevalence (n = 21) were considered for subsequent association analysis with nuclear hormone receptors.
table 7
| genes associated | number | percentage |
|---|---|---|
| genes associated to all three nrs | 7 | 30% |
| genes associated to only vdr and er, no ar | 3 | 7% |
| genes associated to only ar and er, no vdr | 4 | 5.20% |
| genes associated to only ar and vdr, no er | nil | |
| genes associated to vdr alone | nil | |
| genes associated to er alone | 1 | |
| genes associated to only ar | 1 | 0.47% |
| genes associated to both vdr and er (with or without ar) | 10 | 49.50% |
| total no of the genes linked to any/or all of the nrs | 16 | 76% |
summary of genes exhibiting 100% variation in oscc samples.
abbreviations used: nrs- nuclear hormone receptors; vdr-vitamin d receptor; er: estrogen receptor; ar-androgen receptor. Association with nrs, were checked only for genes with 100% prevalence.
we identified multiples genes that exhibited variations in all oscc samples and have been documented to have associations with nuclear hormone receptor signaling (table 8). Notably, several of these genes including abcb1, cd44, chi3l1, comt, nat2, nos3, padi2, tlr1, vkorc1, cyp19a1, cyp2d6, fkbp5, hmgcr, bglap, esr1, cyp2b6, cyp3a5 and xbp1 — are linked to both vitamin d receptor (vdr) and estrogen receptor (er) pathways, highlighting the relevance of these hormonal axes in oscc biology. Interestingly, all genes associated with vdr signaling also showed connections to er regulation, and a subset further exhibited interactions with androgen receptor (ar) pathways. Given the established role of er activation in promoting tumor progression and the antagonistic regulatory influence of vdr on er signaling, these observations reinforce the importance of hormonal crosstalk in shaping oral carcinogenesis (supplementary table s3).
table 8
| sl. No. | Gene | frequency | prevalence (%) | role in cancer | vdr | er | ar | nr association category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | abcb1 | 19 | 100 | multidrug resistance | yes | yes | yes | all three nrs |
| 2 | capn10 | 19 | 100 | - | no | no | no | no known association |
| 3 | cd44 | 19 | 100 | tumor metastasis | yes | yes | yes | all three nrs |
| 4 | cdc27 | 19 | 100 | tumor suppressor/oncogene | no | no | yes | ar only |
| 5 | chi3l1 | 19 | 100 | angiogenesis, proliferation, survival | yes | yes | yes | all three nrs |
| 6 | cnn2 | 19 | 100 | regulates egr1 expression | no | yes | yes | ar & er only |
| 7 | comt | 19 | 100 | estrogen metabolism | yes | yes | - | vdr & er only |
| 8 | ctbp2 | 19 | 100 | corepressor of er and ar | no | yes | yes | ar & er only |
| 9 | igsf3 | 19 | 100 | - | no | no | no | no known association |
| 10 | il6 | 19 | 100 | anti-tumor immune response | yes | yes | yes | all three nrs |
| 11 | il6-as1 | 19 | 100 | - | no | no | no | no known association |
| 12 | mapkapk3 | 19 | 100 | tumor suppressive and promoting | no | yes | no | er only |
| 13 | mgst3 | 19 | 100 | - | no | no | no | no known association |
| 14 | nat2 | 19 | 100 | metabolizing carcinogens | yes | yes | yes | all three nrs |
| 15 | nos3 | 19 | 100 | angiogenesis and drug response | yes | yes | yes | all three nrs |
| 16 | oprm1 | 19 | 100 | opioid receptor | no | yes | yes | ar & er only |
| 17 | padi2 | 19 | 100 | chemoradiotherapy resistance | yes | yes | yes | all three nrs |
| 18 | slc2a9 | 19 | 100 | tumor suppression | no | yes | yes | ar & er only |
| 19 | tbxt | 19 | 100 | - | no | no | no | no known association |
| 20 | tlr1 | 19 | 100 | tumor suppressive/promoting | yes | yes | no | vdr & er only |
| 21 | vkorc1 | 19 | 100 | ferroptosis repressor | yes | yes | no | vdr & er only |
genes harboring clinically relevant mutations in 100% of oscc patients with functional roles and nuclear hormone receptor associations.
abbreviation used: nrs: nuclear hormone receptors; vdr: vitamin d receptor; er: estrogen receptor; ar: androgen receptor.
these findings further emphasize the need to investigate the functional implications of these variants in the context of the diverse environmental exposures and genetic backgrounds observed in the indian population. Comprehensive characterization of how such hormone-associated molecular alterations influence tumor behavior may facilitate the discovery of actionable biomarkers and therapeutic targets. Our study supports the rationale for evaluating personalized treatment approaches that integrate vitamin d supplementation or hormone pathway modulators alongside conventional therapies to improve oscc clinical outcomes.
4 discussion
the study analyzed the mutational landscape of oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc) in 21 oscc patients from southwest coast of india, revealing significant variation in the total number of clinically relevant mutations per patient. Intronic variants were most prevalent (56%), followed by missense variants (12%) and non-coding transcript variants (10%). Clinvar classification system (snvs and delins). Somatic and germline mutations were identified by comparing tumour tissues with adjacent normal tissues. Variants designated with classifiers such as pathogenic, likely pathogenic, risk allele, drug response, association, likely association, and protective were used for downstream analysis. We found discernible variation among the 21 recruited patients in terms of the total number of clinically relevant mutations identified.56 genes harbored clinically relevant mutations in at least 80% of patients, with 21 of these genes (including abcb1, tlr1, and vkorc1) mutated in all patients. Among them cd44, cdc27, comt, il6, and 16 others were identified in all recruited patients. Among 69 clinically relevant mutations identified in at least 80% of patients, 19 were present in all patients. Novel mutations in tbxt and perm1, along with previously reported mutations in xrcc1 and itpkb, highlight the importance of understanding the local mutational landscape. Gene ontology analysis of the 21 universally mutated genes revealed enrichment in biological processes related to b cell lineage commitment, senescence, and cell cycle regulation, as well as cancer-related pathways like p53 signaling and platinum drug resistance. Protein-protein interaction network analysis of these 21 genes showed a significant enrichment of interactions, suggesting close functional relationships within cancer-related and tp53-associated pathways (patel et al., 2021), although some genes (ak2, nanos1, dnaaf4, frg1, il4r, and myo6) were not integrated into the network.
our finding of the tlr1 rs5743618 variant in 100% of our oscc tumor samples is interesting. While previous studies have investigated tlr1 in oscc, a 100% prevalence of this specific snp has, to our knowledge, not been reported (rusanen et al., 2024). Examined tlr1 expression in oscc and found downregulation of tlrs and nf-?B in oscc, and upregulation of tlr4 expression with presence of candida., But they did not investigate specific snps. This difference in methodology and/or population specific variation might explain why we observed such a high prevalence of some of the variant. Sharma et al. Also explored tlr1 in oscc and reported progression and suppression of oscc is associated with different tlrs promoting tumor development and also inhibiting the progression of oral neoplasm (sharma et al., 2021). Merging research within the indian context of oscc has begun to unveil novel genetic and epigenetic alterations that may hold unique significance for this population, where the disease burden is substantial. Studies investigating toll-like receptor (tlr) polymorphisms have identified specific variants, such as the tlr9 rs187084 cc genotype, associated with poorer prognostic outcomes in indian patients (bharadwaj et al., 2019; soni et al., 2023) suggesting their potential as population-specific prognostic markers. Furthermore, high-throughput sequencing efforts have pinpointed novel mutations in genes like chd8, itpkb, and hnf1a (paul et al., 2025), as well as the significant upregulation of ube2d1 (soni et al., 2023), indicating potentially unique pathways driving oscc in this population and offering novel therapeutic avenues. Epigenetic studies have also highlighted the frequent hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes like lats1, with links to prevalent environmental factors such as tobacco use (a study in north indian population), suggesting their utility as diagnostic biomarkers (goel et al., 2021). These findings underscore the importance of investigating the distinct genetic and environmental landscape of oscc in india to identify population-specific risk factors, understand disease heterogeneity, and ultimately pave the way for more tailored diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. This discrepancy could be due to differences in sample size, ethnicity of the studied populations. This highlights the importance of investigating genetic variations at the snp level to gain a deeper understanding of tlr1’s role in oscc (bharadwaj et al., 2019).
x-ray cross-complementing group 1 (xrcc1) is expressed in nearly 80% of oscc tumors and is essential for repairing dna single-strand breaks through its interactions with dna ligase iii, dna polymerase ? (?-Pol), and poly (adp-ribose) polymerase (parp) (london, 2015). Elevated levels of xrcc1 have been associated with poorer prognosis and limited treatment effectiveness in cancer patients. Moreover, xrcc1 genetic variants exhibit varied clinical significance—while certain alleles are linked to improved response in oesophageal cancer, they are also associated with a higher likelihood of treatment-related toxicity in head and neck malignancies (gong et al., 2021). Due to its central role in dna repair, xrcc1 serves as an important pharmacogenomic marker, influencing individual sensitivity to radiotherapy and platinum-based chemotherapies.
in oscc, xrcc1 polymorphisms are particularly relevant to cisplatin response, as reduced repair capacity can amplify drug-induced cytotoxicity while simultaneously increasing adverse clinical outcomes. Notably, functionally significant variants such as arg399gln (rs25487) and arg194trp (rs1799782) impair repair efficiency and have been implicated in cisplatin sensitivity and toxicity profiles (gong et al., 2021). Among the patients included in the present study, the arg399gln (rs25487) variant was identified in approximately 80% of cases. Collectively, these findings highlight xrcc1 mutation screening as a valuable tool for predicting therapeutic response and tailoring individualized treatment strategies in head and neck cancers.
the presence of rs1805010 (intergenic) and rs546905091 (in prkdc) in 46% of our patients suggests a potential role for these variants in oscc development, although their precise functional significance remains to be determined. The limited existing literature on these specific variants in oscc makes it difficult to draw direct comparisons. However, prkdc has been implicated in other cancers suggesting a possible role in cell proliferation and apoptosis. Our findings warrant further investigation to explore the functional impact of these variants and their clinical relevance in oscc.
the polygenic risk score (prs) analysis presented in figure 7 reveals significant stratification of genetic predisposition to oral cancer across different south asian populations. Notably, the majority of oral squamous cell carcinoma (oscc) patients (16 out of 21) fall into the highest prs quartile (q4), reinforcing a strong association between elevated prs and increased oral cancer risk. This clustering above the 75th percentile suggests that individuals in q4 have a heightened genetic susceptibility towards oral cancer. Additionally, populations such as the nri and hindi groups also show median prs values approaching or above the upper quartile threshold, indicating elevated genetic risk. In contrast, groups like tulu, kannada, and konkani predominantly lie below the median and lower quartile, suggesting comparatively lower genetic risk of oral cancer (lee et al., 2024; chande et al., 2022). These observations support the utility of prs as a predictive biomarker and reinforce the need for population-specific risk profiling. Incorporating prs into screening strategies could enable early intervention and personalized prevention in high-risk groups (lewis and vassos, 2020).
additionally, 14 out of 19 genes that have at least one mutation among recruited oscc patients, are associated with vitamin d, estrogen (e2), an androgen/testosterone receptor signaling (supplementary table s1). Among the identified polymorphisms, the genes such as abcb1, cd44, chi3l1, comt, nat2, nos3, padi2, tlr1, vkorc1, cyp19a1, cyp2d6, fkbp5, hmgcr, bglap, esr1, cyp2b6, cyp3a5, xbp1, were associated with both vitamin d and e2 signaling, emphasizing the need to probe into these pathways in context of oral cancers. Interestingly all the 10 genes associated to vdr has associations to er, and 7 of these genes have known associations with ar as well. Among them abcb1 is known to be associated with multi drug resistance (supplementary table s1). Cd44, chi3l1, cnn2, ctbp2, nat2, slc2a9, tlr1 and vkorc1 are associated with bladder, prostate, and breast cancers respectively. It is well established that er is an environmentally regulated gene and promotes cancer progression and vdrs antagonize the action of ers. There are several genes in cancers with well-established cross talks between ers and vdrs. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study from india that identified genes associated with oscc, having link to nuclear hormone receptors. The findings highlight the importance of studying diverse populations to uncover unique mutation patterns influenced by environmental and genetic factors.
our comprehensive molecular profiling of oscc patients in a south indian population revealed several novel mutations, expanding our understanding of the genetic landscape of this disease. Notably, we identified specific genes, e.G., Cd44, cdc27, comt, il6, as harboring previously unreported mutations in this cohort. The identification of these novel mutations raises the possibility that they may also contribute to the development of other cancers. For instance, prkdc mutations have been implicated in other cancer types and could potentially serve as a shared oncogenic driver across different malignancies. Further investigations, including functional studies and large-scale genomic analyses, are needed to determine the prevalence and functional significance of these mutations in other cancer types.
regional genomic characterization is essential for understanding disease heterogeneity in oscc, as mutational landscapes are profoundly shaped by environmental exposures, lifestyle behaviors, and ancestry-linked genetic backgrounds. Comparative analysis with the tcga-hnscc dataset further underscores this regional specificity. While tcga-hnscc predominantly reports high-frequency somatic alterations in canonical oncogenic drivers and tumor suppressors such as tp53, fat1, notch1, casp8, and pik3ca, our cohort demonstrated a contrasting enrichment of variants in genes involved in immune modulation, xenobiotic metabolism, and host–environment interactions, including tlr1, nos3, padi2, nat2, and vkorc1, with comparatively fewer disruptions in classical driver pathways. The universal presence of tlr1rs5743618 in our cohort, rarely observed at comparable frequency in tcga-hnscc, suggests a population-enriched immune-genetic signature that may reflect tumorigenic mechanisms driven by chronic inflammatory exposure, smokeless tobacco use, dietary practices, and region-specific microbial interactions characteristic of coastal karnataka. Consistent with this observation, systematic tcga queries restricted to tumor-specific somatic variants revealed either very low or an absence of corresponding mutations for these genes, reinforcing the likelihood that many alterations identified in our cohort represent germline or population-enriched variants rather than recurrent somatic drivers captured in large western datasets.
a patient-wise comparison with the most frequently mutated tcga-hnscc genes further demonstrated limited overlap between the two datasets. Among canonical tcga-hnscc drivers, tp53 was detected in five of 21 patients, cdkn2ain three patients, and egfr, a gene commonly altered through copy-number amplification in tcga, was identified in a single case, whereas several other hallmark tcga-hnscc genes, including fat1, notch1, kmt2d, nsd1, casp8, and hras, were not observed. Importantly, the regional specificity of this mutational profile is further supported by our previous study (paul et al., 2025), in which variants in itpkb and xrcc1 were identified in over 80% of patients, underscoring their consistent enrichment and potential population-specific relevance within the local oscc cohort.
collectively, these findings highlight a restricted concordance with the tcga mutational spectrum and emphasize the presence of a distinct, regionally shaped genomic architecture in this oscc population. From a clinical perspective, immune-associated polymorphisms may influence carcinogen metabolism, inflammatory signaling, tumor immune evasion, and responsiveness to chemoradiotherapy, while the high prevalence of pharmacogenomic variants in abcb1, xrcc1, and comt may modulate drug transport, dna repair efficiency, treatment tolerance, and therapeutic resistance. Together, these observations underscore the necessity of adopting contextualized precision oncology strategies tailored to the indian oscc population, rather than relying exclusively on biomarker frameworks derived from predominantly western cohorts.
overall, the identification of multiple recurrent mutations distinctive to a patient cohort from southwest coast of karnataka emphasizes the value of studying genetically diverse groups to fully resolve oscc heterogeneity and uncover novel pathogenic mechanisms. Future research should investigate the association between these region-specific mutations and local risk factors, integrate functional characterization to determine their mechanistic contribution to oscc progression, and evaluate their utility as biomarkers for early detection, prognosis, or treatment selection. Validation through expanded, multicentric cohorts, ideally coupled with transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling, will be critical to establish the translational significance of these findings and support the development of community-specific personalized therapeutic strategies.
5 conclusion
our study provides important insights into the genomic architecture of oscc cases from the southwest coast of karnataka, yet several limitations should be considered. The relatively small cohort size may limit broader generalizability, and while whole-exome sequencing offers significant coverage of coding alterations, additional whole-genome approaches could help capture structural and regulatory variants not assessed here. Moreover, functional characterization of the identified mutations is still needed to establish their mechanistic roles in tumor development. Environmental and habitual exposures, key contributors to oscc etiology, were not comprehensively analyzed in correlation with mutational patterns, and the interpretation of causality remains inherently challenging in genomic association studies.
despite these limitations, the findings advance current understanding of region-specific genomic signatures in oscc. The identification of recurrent alterations in genes such as tlr1, prkdc, and xrcc1, including variants linked to immune regulation, dna repair, and chemotherapy responsiveness, highlights their potential translational relevance. These results emphasize the need to develop population-tailored biomarker panels and personalized therapeutic strategies, particularly in high-burden regions like coastal karnataka. Future studies incorporating larger, demographically diverse cohorts and functional validation will be essential to translate these discoveries into clinically actionable interventions and improve precision oncology outcomes for oscc patients.
statements
data availability statement
the genomic data of the participants cannot be made publicly available due to ethical restrictions. The processed data and summary statistics are available upon request to the first/corresponding authors.
ethics statement
the studies involving humans were approved by yenepoya medical college and hospital ethics committee (protocol no: yec-1/2023/131). The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
author contributions
hk: funding acquisition, project administration, formal analysis, resources, writing – original draft, methodology, visualization, conceptualization, validation, investigation. Ra: project administration, resources, supervision, writing – review and editing, conceptualization, investigation. Mdl: investigation, writing – review and editing, visualization, formal analysis, software. Rt: writing – review and editing, validation, software, supervision. Dj: writing – review and editing, investigation, formal analysis, methodology. Vj: writing – review and editing, investigation, methodology, formal analysis. Af: writing – review and editing, formal analysis, software, methodology, investigation. Mm: investigation, supervision, conceptualization, writing – review and editing, project administration, resources, validation. Rd: investigation, visualization, software, conceptualization, writing – review and editing, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, supervision, validation.
funding
the author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. This work was funded by the indian council of medical research – department of health research (icmr-dhr) women scientist a, reference number (r.12013/02/2023-hr) under the research fellowship and project grant scheme awarded to the first author. The apc was covered by yenepoya (deemed to be university).
acknowledgments
this study was supported by the indian council of medical research – department of health research (icmr-dhr), government of india for research fellowship and project funding. The authors gratefully acknowledge the department of oral pathology, yenepoya dental college, and the department of oncopathology, yenepoya (deemed to be university), for providing ffpe archival tissues. We also thank the department of surgical oncology for assistance with data collection, and all clinical and technical staff from zulekha hospital and yenepoya (deemed to be university) for their valuable support.
conflict of interest
the author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
generative ai statement
the author(s) declared that generative ai was not used in the creation of this manuscript.
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supplementary material
the supplementary material for this article can be found online at: https://www.Frontiersin.Org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2026.1739925/full#supplementary-material
data employed in the stratified analyses. Key clinical and demographic dimensions such as age, sex, primary tumor site and pathological tnm stage were included.
supplementary table s3sex hormone receptor–associated mutated genes identified in oscc patients from the southwest coast of karnataka. Mutated genes associated with vitamin d receptor (vdr), estrogen receptor (er), and androgen/testosterone receptor (ar) pathways and previously reported in cancers such as bladder, prostate, and breast cancer.
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summary
keywords
ffpe, genomic profiling, india, karnataka, mutational landscape, next-generation sequencing, oral squamous cell carcinoma
citation
kunhabdulla h, abdulla r, divya lakshmanan m, thomas r, jayarajan d, jain v, fahizah a, mustak ms and das r (2026) genomic landscape of oral squamous cell carcinoma from the southwest coast of karnataka: insights from ffpe-based next-generation sequencing. Front. Genet. 17:1739925. Doi: 10.3389/fgene.2026.1739925
received
05 november 2025
revised
27 january 2026
accepted
28 january 2026
published
25 february 2026
volume
17 - 2026
edited by
lisa he, harvard medical school, united states
reviewed by
debnath pal, indian institute of science (iisc), india
mohammad javad mokhtari, islamic azad university, iran
updates
copyright
© 2026 kunhabdulla, abdulla, divya lakshmanan, thomas, jayarajan, jain, fahizah, mustak and das.
this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license (cc by). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*correspondence: riaz abdulla, rizdent@yenepoya.Edu.In; mohammed s. Mustak, msmustak@mangaloreuniversity.Ac.In; ranajit das, dasranajit@gmail.Com
disclaimer
all claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. |
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| The role of physical education in achieving the sustainable development goals |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (8 reads) | |
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Abstract
the united nations sustainable development goals (sdgs), adopted by all united nations member states in 2015, are 17 interrelated objectives designed to promote a sustainable future for people and the planet. These goals are operationalized through 169 specific targets, 25 of which this paper demonstrates can be meaningfully integrated into physical education (pe) teaching practice. Models-based practices (mbps), such as cooperative learning, sport education, and teaching personal and social responsibility, offer effective pedagogical frameworks for advancing the sdgs within pe. The paper discusses these existing models and emerging alternatives that broaden the pedagogical repertoire available to educators. Furthermore, this paper identifies key challenges in the discipline and proposes solutions, including curriculum reform, a reorientation toward transformative learning perspectives, and a reconceptualization of health and well-being. The crucial role of universities and service-learning initiatives is emphasized in preparing future pe teachers to align their practice with the sdgs. Finally, the analysis highlights persistent global and local barriers to implementation, such as inadequate infrastructure, heavy academic workloads, and limited recognition of the holistic benefits of pe and physical activity.
1 introduction
the adoption of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development by the united nations (un) in 2015 was driven by the urgent need to address global concerns and ensure prosperity for all. This ambitious agenda aims to establish a sustainable and just society through 17 global goals and 169 specific targets, requiring immediate action from all countries across areas ranging from combating poverty and hunger to addressing health, education, gender equality, climate change, and sustainable cities (1). The goals also integrate sociological, economic, and ethical dimensions to align human development with the future of the planet (2).
despite the 15-year implementation timeline (2015–2030), some studies indicate that the pace of achieving the goals is not as fast as expected (3), underscoring the critical need for coordinated action across all state and non-governmental institutions (4).
education is of paramount importance in this endeavor, as it facilitates the acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to create a sustainable world (5). The significance of mainstreaming sustainability into educational systems, a focus previously highlighted during the un decade of education for sustainable development (2005–2014), is recognized as foundational for promoting widespread change (6). Scholars contend that education plays a vital role in resolving sociological and environmental obstacles (7), a sentiment echoed by its recognition as a key factor in securing the acceptance of the millennium development goals (4).
the potential contribution of physical education (pe) is evident in the importance unesco itself places on pe teaching. The 2015 international charter on physical education, physical activity, and sport reaffirmed a 40-year commitment by the un to sport and pe being a fundamental human right (8). The 2030 agenda further acknowledges sport as a critical driver for sustainable development and peace through its ability to foster social sensitivity, combat discrimination, and promote health, education, and social inclusion (9).
however, a critical gap exists: analyses of un documents regarding sustainability in education often fail to mention pe teaching (5). This omission is a risk, as it may prevent relevant bodies from recognizing and leveraging the disciplines potential benefits. This exclusion is especially concerning given the widespread public health challenge of physical inactivity, with 80% of adolescents and young people failing to perform the minimum recommended amount of physical activity, contributing to a worrying increase in sedentary lifestyles (10).
therefore, this paper addresses this oversight by:
- a)
identifying the specific global and detailed targets within the 2030 agenda for sustainable development that can be achieved through pe.
- b)
presenting the necessary characteristics for a renewed approach to pe curriculum and teacher education that will lead to the achievement of these goals.
2 global sustainable development goals
2.1 education for sustainable development (esd)
education for sustainable development (esd) is a core strategy for achieving the 2030 agenda. It focuses on integrating knowledge, attitudes, and skills related to sustainability into educational systems to promote the creation of a sustainable, inclusive, and just society. This approach emphasizes four key areas: reorienting existing curricula, raising public awareness, ensuring comprehensive training across all sectors, and prioritizing quality education (11).
quality education mandates a holistic approach that nurtures creativity and socioemotional well-being. Key to this is equity and inclusiveness, which requires providing every learner with access to high-quality education and actively addressing systemic barriers such as poverty, gender inequality, and the inclusion of people with disabilities (12). Embracing diversity and accommodating individual learning styles are crucial for creating an equitable environment (13). Furthermore, quality education focuses on developing 21st-century skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration, which are essential for navigating the modern world and preparing students for the labor market, enhanced by the effective integration of technology (14).
beyond unescos call to action (1), other major organizations have recognized the power of education, and specifically physical activity, in achieving the sdgs. The world health organization (who) has explicitly linked physical activity to 13 of the 17 sdgs, highlighting its positive health impact alongside co-benefits such as reducing pollution and improving safety. The who stresses that encouraging and designing policies to promote active transportation, recreational facilities, and sports participation can significantly contribute to achieving the 2030 agenda goals (15–17).
further supporting this perspective, the oecd launched “the future of education and skills 2030” project in 2019 (18) to identify the competencies students need in the modern world. Through its analysis of national pe curricula and practices, the oecd concluded that a quality-oriented, dynamic, and inclusive pe curriculum must center on student well-being. This necessitates adopting a broader, long-term educational view for pe that emphasizes social and emotional skills, student experiences, cognitive development, autonomy, and academic performance (19, 20). This comprehensive shift ensures that physical education is understood as a vital component of holistic student development (21).
2.2 overview of the global sustainable development goals
the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, adopted by all un member countries in 2015, established 17 global goals and 169 specific targets to be achieved by 2030 (22). This comprehensive framework is the result of an international consultative process involving civil society, governments, and the private sector, ensuring its global applicability (1). The goals cover a wide range of issues, including eradicating poverty, fighting inequality, improving education and health, and preserving the environment. They serve a practical role in shaping global policies and strategies, and as a yardstick to assess progress in achieving sustainability (23).
the goals cover four main dimensions of sustainability:
- a)
social well-being: goal 1: no poverty, goal 2: zero hunger, goal 3: good health and well-being, goal 4: quality education, goal 5: gender equality, and goal 10: reduced inequalities.
- b)
economic growth: goal 8: decent work and economic growth, and goal 9: industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
- c)
environmental preservation: goal 6: clean water and sanitation, goal 7: affordable and clean energy, goal 11: sustainable cities and communities, goal 12: responsible consumption and production, goal 13: climate action, goal 14: life below water, and goal 15: life on land.
- d)
governance and partnership: goal 16: peace, justice, and strong institutions, and goal 17: partnerships for the goals (
1).
although the global sustainable development goals represent an ambitious vision, their implementation faces numerous challenges. Financial resources, political will, global inequalities and disparities in the capacities of different countries to achieve the goals are key factors affecting the effectiveness of implementation. Therefore, an international framework for cooperation is important, as is the engagement of all stakeholders, including the private sector, civil society organizations and local communities, to ensure real change on the ground (
23
).
3 the role of physical education in achieving the global goals of sustainable development
3.1 overview of institutional research
institutional research has validated the link between sport, physical activity, and the sdgs. At the sixth international conference of ministers and senior officials in charge of physical education and sports (mineps vi), three broad areas of intervention were established: maximizing sports contribution to sustainable development and peace, protecting the integrity of sport, and developing an inclusive vision for access to physical activity (5, 24, july 14–15). Concurrently, the commonwealth secretariat developed a pivotal study—providing practical indicators to evaluate sports contribution to the 2030 agenda—which is significant because it offers an operational framework that policymakers and practitioners can use to monitor and compare progress across contexts (24, 25).
in 2019, the ibero-american sports council (ibc) identified that while not all goals are equally applicable, sport has a direct connection to 8 of the 17 global goals and 19 specific targets (26). Solidifying these findings, the world health organization (who) confirmed that 13 of the 17 global goals can be achieved through sport (24). While these reports focus primarily on sport, pe offers a unique pedagogical space to address various global challenges (27) (table 1).
table 1
| global goals | specific goals |
|---|---|
| goal 3. Health and well-being | 3.4 reduce premature mortality and promote mental health and well-being 3.5 reduce substance abuse 3.6 reduce road traffic injuries 3.7 ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health services |
| goal 4. Quality education | 4.1 ensure that all girls and boys complete primary and secondary education, which should be free, equitable and of good quality 4.4 improve skills for access to employment, decent work and entrepreneurship 4.5 reduce gender gaps in education and ensure equality for vulnerable groups 4.7 improve knowledge to promote sustainable development (e.G., Sustainable lifestyles) 4.A improve school facilities |
| goal 5. Gender equality | 5.1 eliminate discrimination against all women and girls 5.2 eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres 5.5 inclusion of women and equal opportunities 5.C promote gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls |
| goal 8. Decent work and economic growth | 8.3 entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation and promoting the formalization and growth of enterprises 8.9 promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products |
| goal 10. Reduced inequalities | 10.2 social, economic and political inclusion of all people 10.3 ensure equal opportunities and reduce inequality of outcomes regarding income |
| goal 11. Sustainable cities and communities | 11.6 reduce the per capita adverse environmental impact of cities, paying particular attention to air quality and the management of municipal and other waste |
| goal 12. Responsible consumption and production | 12.1 sustainable consumption and production 12.2 sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources 12.5 significantly reduce waste generation 12.8 ensure information and knowledge relevant to sustainable development |
| goal 13. Response to climate change | 13.1 strengthen the adaptive capacity to climate risks and natural disasters in all countries 13.3 enhance education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacities to mitigate the impacts of climate change |
| goal 16. Peace and justice/strong institutions | 16.7 ensure effective, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels |
sustainable development goals achievable through physical education and health education classes.
3.2 global goals achievable through physical education classes
physical education is not considered to directly address goal 1: no poverty or goal 2: zero hunger in the available literature (24). The achievable targets start with goal 3.
3.2.1 physical educations contribution to health and well-being (goal 3)
physical education has a direct link to health-related targets, most significantly through the established positive impact of continuous, systematic physical activity on students mental and psychological states, directly addressing target 3.4 (reduce premature mortality and promote mental health and well-being) (28). Furthermore, pe instils values that actively deter drug use, linking it to target 3.5 (reduce drug abuse) (29).
the subject also provides an indirect link to other health targets. By contributing to students understanding of their bodies from a biological perspective, pe can support target 3.7 (sexual and reproductive healthcare) (30). When road-safety education is integrated into the curriculum (e.G., Safe movement on roadways, including cycling and other forms of active transportation), pe also links to target 3.6 (reduce road traffic injuries) (24).
3.2.2 fostering quality education and skills (goal 4)
physical education is a fundamental right and an indispensable part of a quality education system, establishing a direct link to target 4.1 (free and quality education) (8, 24). Neuroscientific evidence strongly links physical activity to improved academic and cognitive performance, including enhanced concentration, better executive function, and increased feelings of well-being (31–34).
moreover, pe fosters essential skills for employment, such as cooperation, responsibility, and respect, aligning with target 4.4 (skills for employment) (10). As an ideal setting for co-education and teamwork, pe also helps reduce gender gaps and ensures equality for vulnerable groups, directly supporting target 4.5 (equality) (24, 35). Pes sustainability link addresses target 4.7 (sustainability knowledge and skills) by teaching principles through physical activity in the natural environment and presenting sustainable alternatives (24, 36). The international olympic committee (ioc) noted a two-way connection with this objective: (1) pe can advance sustainability competencies (target 4.7) through structured learning experiences; and (2) education for sustainable development can, in turn, strengthen pe quality by legitimising broader learning outcomes beyond fitness and sport performance (26).
3.2.3 promoting gender equality (goal 5) and reducing inequalities (goal 10)
physical education has a direct link to gender equality by offering opportunities to create a non-discriminatory environment that encourages womens inclusion and empowerment (5, 26). This directly addresses targets 5.1, 5.2 (end discrimination and violence against women), and 5.5 (equality of opportunity) (24). The empowerment of women (target 5.C) can also be achieved by introducing appealing sports initiatives in pe, ideally supported by external institutions (24).
similarly, sport is an opportunity to combat all forms of discrimination (26). Pe promotes cooperative attitudes and inclusion (37), establishing a direct link to goal 10: reduced inequalities, specifically supporting targets 10.2 (inclusion of all people) and 10.3 (ensure equal opportunities) (24).
3.2.4 economic growth and sustainable development
physical education establishes an indirect link to goal 8: decent work and economic growth by cultivating valuable transferable values for employment, such as cooperation, tolerance, and emotional control (38). Target 8.3 (entrepreneurship and innovation) is linked by using models like sport education to encourage careers in the appealing sports sector (24, 26). Furthermore, promoting traditional sports, local games, and cultural customs in pe supports cultural heritage and local tourism, addressing target 8.9 (sustainable tourism).
goal 11: sustainable cities and communities has a pedagogical link through a community service learning framework, allowing pe to engage with targets 11.3 (sustainable urbanization) and 11.7 (access to green and public spaces), for example, by maintaining a local exercise park (24, 26). The subject also addresses target 11.6 (reduce negative environmental impact of cities) by encouraging sustainable modes of transport, such as walking or cycling.
goal 12: responsible consumption and production has an educational link as pe provides a practical context for promoting sustainable consumption habits (targets 12.2, 12.5, and 12.8) (5). This can be addressed through authentic pe tasks such as auditing equipment use and waste during units, designing low-cost activity stations with reused materials (with documented safety checks), and evaluating the environmental impact of sport or school events as part of active learning projects.
a direct link to goal 13: climate action is established through pes impact on environmental protection, aligning with target 13.3 (education and awareness) (24). Participating in activities like “plogging” (running while collecting waste) positively impacts students environmental thinking and attitudes (39).
3.2.5 peace, justice, and partnerships
sport and physical activity promote tolerance, equality, and cooperation (26), providing a pedagogical link to goal 16: peace, justice, and strong institutions. Pe can improve interpersonal relationships and link to target 16.7 (inclusive decision-making) (24). This goal is also connected to the teaching personal and social responsibility (tpsr) model, an increasing used and valid pedagogical model for teaching civic values through pe (40).
finally, pe contributes to goal 17: partnerships for the goals by fostering emotional connections and cooperation among stakeholders (26), thereby aligning with the need for partnership and coordination (1).
3.3 models of implementation of physical education teaching and global sustainable development goals
physical education, when strategically integrated with the sustainable development goals, offers a robust framework for fostering holistic development beyond mere physical prowess (41). In addition to identifying the goals of the 2030 agenda that can be achieved through pe, it is also necessary to link specific goals to different models of pe teaching implementation that are based on practice. This step will allow us to more clearly define what teaching aimed at achieving the goals should look like. Pe is characterized by great methodological diversity, which is a consequence of the characteristics of the content itself that is taught. Thanks to this, several teaching methods used in pe have developed. Some of the models that are applicable in pe to achieve global goals are collaborative learning, the sport education model and the teaching personal and social responsibility (tpsr) model. In addition, newer models such as adventure learning, health education, or independent production of teaching aids are increasingly present (24). To strengthen alignment with current pk–12 trends, additional curriculum models and instructional frameworks may also be considered, such as inquiry-based learning, universal design for learning (udl), and restorative practices.
3.3.1 cooperative learning
cooperative learning involves organizing students into heterogeneous groups based on their differing levels of knowledge and ability. Within these groups, students are not only responsible for mastering the learning content but also for supporting the progress of their peers (42). A growing body of literature highlights the value of cooperative learning in physical education (pe). Research indicates that this approach enhances students engagement in physical activity, reduces anxiety related to performance, and strengthens confidence in their physical capabilities (43).
the cooperative learning strategy rests on three core principles: positive interdependence, individual and group responsibility, and promotive interaction (44, 45). Positive interdependence describes the perception that group members success is mutually beneficial—each students achievement contributes to the collective outcome. This interdependence is fostered when learners take ownership of their own actions, engage actively with the content, and complete assigned tasks conscientiously (46–48).
individual responsibility refers to each learners duty to participate meaningfully in the groups work: sharing ideas, listening to others, and preparing for collaborative activities. Students are expected to take responsibility for their assigned roles, assist peers when possible, and seek help when needed. This element ensures maximal engagement and contribution from all participants (49, as cited in (91)). Group responsibility, in turn, encompasses the shared commitment to achieving common objectives through cooperation, mutual support, joint decision-making, and collective accountability for outcomes (46, 47).
although cooperative learning is not unique to pe, the inherently interactive and participatory nature of physical education amplifies its benefits (50). The approach can contribute directly to the advancement of several sustainable development goals (sdgs). For instance, it aligns with goal 16.7, which emphasizes inclusive, participatory, and representative decision-making—features that mirror the cooperative learning process (24, 50). It also relates to goal 4.4, which promotes the development of entrepreneurial and collaborative competences relevant to employability, as cooperative learning nurtures innovation, teamwork, and problem-solving (24, 51). Moreover, the model supports goal 4.5 by fostering inclusion and respect for diverse perspectives, thus enhancing participation among vulnerable groups (52). Finally, cooperative learning connects to goal 8.3, which focuses on encouraging entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation—capacities strengthened through the social and interpersonal skills cultivated in pe (53).
3.3.2 model of teaching personal and social responsibility
the teaching personal and social responsibility (tpsr) (54) model has been widely validated as an effective pedagogical framework in physical education (pe) for fostering students competencies related to responsibility and ethical behaviour (40). This model promotes fundamental social values such as respect, equality, and fairness (37). Within pe, tpsr plays a pivotal role in cultivating both personal and social dimensions of responsibility that extend beyond the gymnasium and into everyday life.
personal responsibility involves an individuals awareness of their own health and wellbeing, and the capacity to make informed, autonomous decisions about physical activity, nutrition, and lifestyle (55). Social responsibility, in contrast, concerns understanding how ones actions affect others and the environment, and actively contributing to the health and wellbeing of the broader community (54). Pe offers a unique context for developing these dual forms of responsibility because it integrates physical, social, and moral learning within a shared activity setting.
through participation in varied physical activities, students learn the importance of physical activity for health, acquire the skills needed to engage in sport and recreation, and develop knowledge about nutrition and healthy living (56). At the same time, pe provides a setting for practising key social skills such as teamwork, cooperation, empathy, fair play, and respect for others. All of which are core elements of social responsibility (57). By embedding tpsr within pe, teachers can guide students to become self-regulated, socially aware individuals who recognise their role in promoting collective wellbeing.
importantly, the tpsr model contributes to advancing several sustainable development goals (sdgs) associated with equality and inclusion. It aligns closely with goal 5 (gender equality)—particularly sub-goals 5.1, 5.2, 5.5, and 5.C which aim to eliminate discrimination and violence against women, ensure equal participation in decision-making, and empower women and girls (58). By promoting respect and equitable participation, tpsr fosters an inclusive learning climate consistent with these global objectives.
the model also aligns with goal 16.7, which advocates for inclusive and participatory decision-making, by empowering students to take responsibility for their actions and contribute ethically within group settings (24, 54). Furthermore, tpsr supports goal 10 (reduced inequalities) but specifically 10.2, which promotes the social, economic, and political inclusion of all people, and 10.3, which seeks to ensure equal opportunities and reduce inequalities of outcome. Through structured reflection and guided practice, tpsr enables learners to recognise inequities, appreciate diversity, and act responsibly toward others.
3.3.3 sports education model
the sports education model (sem) was developed to provide students with authentic, educationally rich sporting experiences within the context pe (59). Its design seeks to replicate the structure and culture of sport as it exists in society, fostering meaningful participation and deeper learning through six defining features: seasons, team affiliation, formal competition, record keeping, culminating events, and a celebratory atmosphere (60).
a defining characteristic of sem is its season-based organisation, which enables extended engagement with a smaller number of activities, thereby deepening students understanding and skill development. Students of varied skill levels are assigned to teams that remain consistent throughout the season, fostering a sense of belonging, continuity, and shared responsibility. Within this stable structure, small-group activities enable students to plan, practise, and collaborate, enhancing both social interaction and cooperative learning (61). The competitive structure of sem mirrors authentic sport experiences. Teams participate in scheduled games that contribute to a ranking system, promoting motivation and accountability.
according to siedentop et al. (55), the overarching goal of sem is to cultivate a learning context that generates experiences as authentic as possible to real sport. Beyond physical competence, the model provides opportunities for students to engage in diverse sport-related roles such as coach, referee, journalist, marketer, or team manager, thereby developing a broad range of transferable skills (55). These experiences strengthen key personal and social capacities including teamwork, leadership, empathy, responsibility, and autonomy (62). The sem can also be interpreted through the lens of the sustainable development goals (sdgs). It aligns closely with goal 8.3, which advocates for the promotion of entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation, as the model encourages students to assume initiative and demonstrate leadership within their teams (24). Furthermore, it supports goal 8.2, which emphasises the pursuit of higher levels of economic productivity through diversification and innovation, and goal 4.4, which focuses on equipping learners with skills relevant to employment and entrepreneurship. Through sem, students can develop collaboration, communication, and organisational skills that extend beyond sport to professional and civic contexts.
finally, sems emphasis on equity, cooperation, and shared decision-making reflects the values of goal 16.7, which promotes inclusive and participatory processes. By integrating authentic sport structures with educational aims, the sem can not only enriche the learning experience in pe but also contribute to students personal development and the broader global agenda for sustainable and inclusive growth (24).
3.3.4 adventure learning model
the adventure learning model (alm) seeks to create learning experiences that engage students with the natural environment through activities involving elements of real or perceived risk (63). Rooted in experiential and environmental education traditions, this model is grounded in the belief that human potential is realised through meaningful interaction with nature. Adventure learning provides an educational context that challenges students physically and psychologically, fostering resilience, self-awareness, and environmental stewardship (64).
in pe, the alm is particularly effective in promoting outdoor learning and physical activity during students leisure time (64). By engaging learners in adventurous and exploratory experiences, it supports the development of problem-solving skills, cooperation, and emotional regulation. The who also highlights the importance of such approaches, recognising that participation in outdoor physical activities can promote environmental awareness and contribute to planetary health (65).
while environmental care is embedded within several sdgs, goal 13 (climate action), goal 14 (life below water), and goal 15 (life on land) have the most direct connections with pe. However, the alm can be meaningfully aligned with goal 13.1, which emphasises strengthening adaptive capacities to climate-related risks and natural disasters, and goal 13.3, which advocates for improving education and institutional action to mitigate climate change (24). Adventure learning activities, such as orienteering, camping, or environmental expeditions, inherently build students understanding of sustainability and climate resilience.
additionally, the model aligns with goal 12.1, which promotes sustainable consumption and the efficient use of natural resources, by encouraging learners to engage with and care for their environment responsibly. It also supports goal 8.3, which highlights sustainable tourism and the promotion of local culture. Adventure-based learning can directly contribute to these aims by integrating physical activity with environmental appreciation and community engagement.
empirical evidence further suggests that experiential learning in natural settings enhances students global self-worth and perceived social acceptance (66). By combining physical challenge with reflective practice, adventure learning cultivates self-efficacy, collaboration, and ecological consciousness. Thus, within pe, the alm not only enriches physical and social development but also contributes to global sustainability and wellbeing through transformative outdoor education.
3.3.5 independent production of teaching aids
the independent production of teaching aids involves the collection, recycling, processing and transformation of raw materials to produce teaching aids needed for pe teaching (67). However, educators should consider safety and liability implications when using independently produced materials. Teaching aids not purchased from certified manufacturers may not be covered under manufacturer liability policies; therefore, extra care should be taken to ensure such materials are safe, developmentally appropriate, and used correctly (e.G., Routine inspection, clear usage protocols, and supervision). Pe teachers believe that the use of self-made objects contributes to the cognitive, motor, physical, effective and value development of students (68). Furthermore, the creation of new resources for pe teaching by reusing materials encourages the development of ecological and responsible awareness, as well as personal values and attitudes that contribute to the achievement of these goals (69).
this model also appears in pe for other reasons. It appears as a solution to limited resources and the lack of sports equipment in many schools, it allows the creation of adaptable aids, increases students motivation, enjoyment and interest, and the approach to this model allows for easy connection with other methodologies (70). In addition, previous research on self-made teaching aids has shown that this model allows for greater availability of props that help students increase their motor experiences in pe classes and increase exercise activity (71). Self-made teaching aids can motivate students to engage in physical activity outside of pe classes (72). In case students have difficulty implementing pe content in their free time due to economic barriers, self-made teaching aids could be a solution (68).
furthermore, these ideas are in line with the global action plan on physical activity 2018–2030 proposed by the who, highlighting the importance of promoting physical activity with an emphasis on environmental protection and sustainable development of the planet (15–17). This model could be linked to goals 13.1 and 13.3, which generally advocate the importance of a clean environment or reducing the consequences of global warming (24). There is also a connection between the model of self-production of teaching aids and global goal 12, or specific goals 12.1, which seeks to achieve sustainability in production and consumption processes, 12.2, which refers to the efficient use of natural resources, 12.5, which refers to the reduction of waste, and 12.8, which refers to ensuring the quality of information (24).
finally, the collaborative environment that is created, as well as the creativity that is encouraged, will enable the development of skills related to entrepreneurship (goals 4.4 improving skills for access to employment, decent work and entrepreneurship and 8.3 entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation and promoting the formalization and growth of enterprises) (24).
3.4 curriculum revision necessary for sdg alignment
to begin with, it is necessary to consider how societies define the purpose of education, which is a controversial and to some extent neglected issue (73). Every education system tries to fulfill a certain purpose (74). It is necessary to ask what this purpose is and how it affects the educational process. In this way, we can create new conditions, reexamine the existing situation and move beyond the usual criticism of pe (75). Lundvall and fröberg (19) propose a critical analysis and revision of curricula and governing documents to determine which parts of the 2030 agenda are applicable and appropriate in teacher education and pe in the context of education for sustainable development. The aim of the revision is to ensure knowledge-rich curricula that are competence-based. Pe should be recognized as a core part of education, on an equal footing with subjects that teach reading and writing and subjects that develop mathematical skills. Along with the arts, social studies, and health education, pe plays an important role in promoting civic education, democracy and human rights. Pe curricula should include objectives aimed at developing social competences, combining theoretical and practical knowledge based on research and best practices. Teaching methods should encourage discussion and exchange of information, with an emphasis on tolerance and understanding of diversity. Pe and sport should be focused on lifelong learning, developing students knowledge, skills and attitudes for active participation in society (85). Despite the clear pedagogical alignment between physical education and the sdgs, significant systemic barriers persist. Foremost among these is the ideological marginalization of the discipline, where deep-seated stereotypes often reduce pe to mere “gym class” or organized play, devoid of academic rigor (86). This cultural perception (87) directly influences fiscal policy, leading to frequent budget cuts, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of professional development resources in both schools and universities (88). Furthermore, the academic workload prioritizes “core” subjects like mathematics and literacy, often at the expense of holistic disciplines (89). To genuinely advance the 2030 agenda, curriculum reform must move beyond content updates to address these structural inequities, advocating for a shift in public and administrative consciousness that recognizes physical education as a critical driver of public health and social justice. Pe objectives should be explored in different contexts, blurring the boundaries between the classroom and the gym, so that pe becomes an indispensable part of education for citizenship and civic values (76). Sustainability issues often have a whole-school approach (90). Taylor et al. (77) encourage each country to analyses its curriculum and initiate discussions on health and local action. Lundvall and fröberg (19) also suggest that, through cooperation with schools, it should be determined which objectives are relevant at the local level.
according to boström et al. (78), achieving sustainability-oriented education requires not only a multidisciplinary and holistic approach but also a fundamental shift in how learning itself is understood. To this end, they advocate for a transformative learning perspective, which mezirow (79, p. 116) defines as “the process by which we transform problematic frames of reference (e.G., Mindsets, habits of mind, perspectives of meaning), assumptions, and expectations to make them more inclusive, open, reflective, and emotionally capable of change”. This perspective invites learners to critically examine their own assumptions, beliefs, and emotions (83), and to reflect on how these shape their interpretations and actions (84).
transformative learning reorients the learning process by fostering awareness of how individuals construct meaning. Within this pedagogical approach, teachers encourage students to interrogate the habits of mind and perspectives that inhibit change or perpetuate conflict across macro, meso, and micro levels (78). These levels reveal the interconnected influences of institutional structures, sociopolitical contexts, and power relations that should not be treated as isolated spheres of knowledge (82).
adopting a transformative perspective allows for a deeper engagement with the structural and cultural barriers that constrain change, positioning the environment not merely as a passive backdrop but as an active dimension of learning (80). Through such an approach, students are better equipped to confront and respond to the complex challenges inherent in sustainability (81).
4 conclusions
the sdgs form a global call to action under the united nations 2030 agenda, aiming to create a fairer and more sustainable world. Pe can play a meaningful role in advancing these goals. Through purposeful activities, students not only develop healthy habits but also acquire social skills that foster sustainable thinking and action.
while not all 169 sdg targets can be implemented through pe, this paper highlights that many are directly applicable. These can be addressed through many pedagogical approaches and strategies supported by over 20 years of research.
however, integrating sustainability principles into pe presents both challenges and opportunities to reimagine the field and universities must play a pivotal role in shaping the future of pe through the preparation of teachers who understand and apply sustainability principles.
despite the obstacles also addressed in this paper, pe serves as a catalyst for transformation when its educational potential is fully recognized. By embedding sustainability in pe, educators can equip students with the knowledge, skills, and values needed to navigate and contribute to a rapidly changing world. This vision underscores the relevance of pe in advancing sustainable development and inspires optimism that meaningful change is possible.
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aŽ: data curation, funding acquisition, writing – original draft, formal analysis, methodology, visualization, software, supervision, conceptualization, resources, validation, investigation, project administration, writing – review & editing. B?: Investigation, writing – original draft, data curation. Dd: writing – review & editing, supervision, conceptualization, formal analysis.
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summary
keywords
academic workload, curriculum, holistic benefits, infrastructure, physical activity, teacher training, well-being
citation
Žnidarec ?U?Kovi? A, ?Osi? B and dudley d (2026) the role of physical education in achieving the sustainable development goals. Front. Sports act. Living 8:1736485. Doi: 10.3389/fspor.2026.1736485
received
31 october 2025
revised
17 january 2026
accepted
23 january 2026
published
25 february 2026
volume
8 - 2026
edited by
nathan hall, brock university, canada
reviewed by
daniel robinson, st. Francis xavier university, canada
martha james, morgan state university, united states
updates
copyright
© 2026 Žnidarec ?U?Kovi?, ?Osi? And dudley.
this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license (cc by). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*correspondence: ana Žnidarec ?U?Kovi? Ana.Znidarec.Cuckovic@kif.Hr
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| Dayton basketball: Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the 1966 Flyers |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (8 reads) | |
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Don donoher’s second season as coach of the dayton flyers men’s basketball team began with great expectations 60 years ago.“I know what people are thinking and saying about us,” donoher said in november 1965. “This is a veteran club that won 22 games last season and we have some fine sophomores coming along. If i wasn’t the coach, i’d probably be predicting great things for this club myself. But i am the coach, and i know it isn’t as simple as it looks.”Despite donoher’s wariness, the 1965-66 flyers rode the momentum generated by the 1964-65 team, which finished 22-7 and earned the program’s first ncaa tournament berth in 13 years, to a 23-6 record and another ncaa tournament appearance.By making the tournament in his first two seasons, after he took over the program following the death of his predecessor, tom blackburn, from cancer in 1964, donoher started building a legacy that would lead him to becoming dayton’s all-time winningest coach.“I think his ability to adjust his style of basketball to the personnel on hand has been a big factor in his success,” assistant coach chuck grigsby said in february 1966. “We set a team field goal shooting percentage record last year with the same players we had the year before. That’s a tribute to his style change.”Donoher’s first two teams laid the groundwork for dayton’s run to the ncaa championship game in the 1966-67 season. Much has been written about that group, most recently in this section in january , but the 60th anniversary of the 1965-66 team provides a good opportunity to look back on another memorable season. Senior class: henry finkel, a 6-foot-11 center from union city, n.J., Who was also known as hank, led dayton with 22.7 points and 12.1 rebounds per game in his senior season.Finkel’s scoring average ranks eighth in ud history. He set a school record that still stands by averaging 25.3 points as a junior after averaging 23.0 points as a sophomore. He won dayton’s mvp award three times.“He didn’t set records,” donoher said after finkel’s final season, “he tore up the record book and sat on it. It’s hard to put into words what this man did for us and our program. Have you ever seen anyone who displayed more unselfishness?”Finkel finished his career as dayton’s all-time leading scorer (1,968 points) but was passed by don may (1,980) in 1968. Both played three seasons of varsity basketball in the era when freshmen were not allowed to play.Roosevelt chapman, who played from 1980-84, scored 1,863 points in his last three seasons plus 370 in his freshman season. He’s dayton’s all-time leader in points scored (2,233).Finkel played nine seasons in the nba with the los angeles lakers, san diego rockets and boston celtics after leaving dayton. He won an nba championship with the celtics in 1974. He ran an office business in lynnfield, mass., For 32 before retiring in 2014, according to the boston globe.• Bill cassidy, a 6-4 senior forward from louisville, ky., Averaged 5.2 points in his final season. He was a co-captain along with finkel.“The word competitor is so overworked i dislike using it,” donoher said before the season, ”but that’s what cassidy is — a competitor. He’s not a real good shooter, yet he’s made 20 straight foul shots in games. He’s better in a game than in practice. I think he works himself up competitively to do everything better.”Cassidy later worked two seasons (1968-70) as a part-time assistant and six seasons (1970-75) as an assistant coach on donoher’s staff.
junior class: dayton’s starters for most of the season were finkel, may, bobby joe hooper, glinder torain and gene klaus, a 6-0 junior guard from delphos st. John’s high school. A member of the last class recruited by tom blackburn, he averaged 8.7 points.Before the season, donoher said of klaus, “he became a regular last year in our ninth game against dartmouth. When we went to the kentucky tournament, we took 12 players, but gene stayed behind. He rated no. 14 or 15 on a squad of 16. But he never quit in practice and did things that forced his attention to me. The development of a kid like this is one of the real thrills of coaching.”Klaus was inducted into the ud hall of fame in the 2003-04 season. He scored 671 points in three seasons. He holds the ud record for most appearances in ncaa tournament games (11).
sophomore class: may, a 6-4 forward from belmont high school in dayton, averaged 20.3 points and 11.4 rebounds in his first season on the varsity team. He was one of four standout sophomores, along with bobby joe hooper , glinder torain and rudy waterman, who played big roles for the 1965-66 team.May chose dayton over notre dame near the end of his senior year at belmont in april 1964. He had more than 75 scholarship offers. He also had a scholarship offer to play baseball at wake forest.“I decided to choose dayton because of the tremendous interest they have shown in me and i think my opportunities at ud are unlimited,” may said then.May was one of the first recruits to pick ud after donoher was named head coach on march 17, 1964, following the death 11 days earlier of coach tom blackburn, who had battled cancer.“I’m going to sleep well tonight,” donoher said after may’s decision. “I’ve really been sweating this one out.”Hype started building for may when he averaged 20 points and 20 rebounds for the freshman team. He earned a spot in the starting lineup on the varsity team with his performance in the first scrimmage.“May is a real athlete,” donoher said before the season. “He’s a fine pitcher and would make an excellent football player. He’s a kid i can talk about without any fear of spoiling. He’s the fastest man in our sprint tests. We test a player’s jumping ability by having him stand on his toes and leaping as high as he can. Don’s our best, testing 23 inches.“If donnie has a weakness, it’s failure to concentrate at times, which leads to a tendency not to bear down on every play. He is blessed with a wonderful disposition. He won’t mind playing second fiddle to finkel any more than he minded playing in bill hosket’s shadow at belmont.”May averaged 22.4 and 22.2 points in his last two seasons. He helped lead dayton to the ncaa championship game, where it lost to ucla in 1967, and to the nit championship game, where it beat kansas, in 1968. He averaged 8.8 points in a seven-year nba career that included stints with five teams.• Hooper, a 6-0 guard from lees creek, ohio, averaged 9.5 points. He battled foot injuries throughout the season and an illness late in the season but appeared in 27 of 29 games. He improved his numbers every season, averaging 11.7 points as a junior and 15.2 as a senior. He ranks 44th in school history with 1,059 points.• Torain, a 6-6 forward from muncie, ind., Ranked third on the team with 9.7 points per game. He earned a starting job early in the season, replacing cassidy in the lineup.• Waterman, a 6-1 guard from waterbury, n.Y., Averaged 6.1 points in 18 games. Team preview: two days before a 90-54 victory in the season opener against villa madonna college, which is now known as thomas more university, 1,600 fans attended the journal herald cage clinic at the ud fieldhouse.Donoher and assistant coach chuck grigsby covered topics such as shooting, pivot play and driving with and without the ball. Players demonstrated various drills, including “dribble tag,” in which four players dribbling balls chased each other around the court.According to a journal herald report by jim zofkie, “in a special sidelight during the rebounding portion of the program, donoher had seven of his players dunk the ball back-to-back. The climax came when seven-foot center hank finkel was followed in his dunking by the spectacular leaping dunk of 6-1 guard rudy waterman.“Donoher later revealed that waterman and 6-4 sophomore don may, the belmont product, get off the ground higher than any of the other flyers. Both have a 23-inch difference from the highest point they can reach without jumping and the highest while leaping.” Injury news: jim wannemacher, a 6-6 forward from ottoville high school, missed the season with a back issue after averaging 6.0 points as a sophomore in the 1964-65 season. He returned in the 1966-67 and 1967-68 season but played limited minutes.• Dennis papp, a 6-3 forward from fairview, missed the season after undergoing knee surgery. He averaged 9.1 points as a junior the previous season.
star power: dayton played a future member of the basketball hall of fame on dec. 15 in its fifth game: wes unseld, of louisville. Unseld, a 6-7 sophomore center, scored 20 points on 8-of-19 shooting in a 76-59 loss to dayton at the ud fieldhouse.Unseld averaged 19.9 points that season. Louisville finished 16-10.Finkel scored 19. May, klaus and hooper all scored 16. Best early victory: dayton improved to 8-0 with an 85-71 victory against auburn on dec. 29 at the sugar bowl tournament in new orleans, la.May tallied 27 points and 15 rebounds against an auburn team that would finish 16-10.“Our consistent play impressed me the most,” donoher said. “We had poise for 40 minutes, which is unusual for us. And we didn’t get too confused, defensively against their shuffle offense.” First loss: despite a career-high 44 points by hinkel, dayton lost 77-75 to maryland in new orleans a day after beating auburn.Maryland built a 14-point halftime lead by making 20 of 30 shots. The flyers rallied to take the lead in the second half but were doomed by three late turnovers.Hinkel scored what was then the second most points in school history. The total now ranks tied for fourth. He made 14 of 27 field goals and 16 of 17 free throws.“I wanted to win the ballgame,” hinkel said. “Forty four points? I had no idea.” Best regular-season victory: dayton beat no. 5 saint joseph’s 79-76 at the palestra in philadelphia on jan. 29, improving to 14-3.After the game, donoher said it was “perhaps my greatest coaching victory.”Dayton won despite cassidy and may fouling out in the second half. Cassidy left the game with 15 minutes, 10 seconds remaining.May’s night ended at the 8:01 mark. He finished with 16 points. Saint joseph’s led 63-61 at that point.Torain and waterman replaced cassidy and may in the lineup.Torain made two free throws to give dayton a 73-72 lead in the final two minutes. After a steal by torain, waterman scored with about a minute to play. Torain scored again in the final minute on a tip-in.Finkel led dayton with 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting.After the game, donoher credited a former saint joseph’s player, paul westhead, who worked as a volunteer assistant freshman coach at dayton under blackburn in the 1963-64 season for providing a scouting report on saint joseph’s. That year, westhead was working at cheltenham high school in philadelphia.Westhead later gained fame as a head coach. He led la salle from 1970-79. He had stints at george mason, loyola marymount and oregon. He also coached the los angeles lakers to an nba championship in 1980.“Westhead was particularly good,” donoher said, “in tipping us off to the different kinds of defenses st. Joe used. It helped us plan our game perfectly.” Only home loss: dayton was 12-0 at the ud fieldhouse when it fell 77-72 to no. 4 loyola chicago on feb. 16. The loss ended a 20-game home winning streak that started the previous season. Loyola finished 22-3 that season.In the dayton daily news, si burick wrote about boston celtics coach red auerbach, who would lead his team to its eighth straight nba championship that year, attending the game to scout the talent with two of his players, john havlicek and k.C. Jones.“Afterward, the old redhead, who had to chew on his famous cigar in a fieldhouse where no smoking is permitted, divested himself of a few opinions,” burick wrote.“Loyola had too much speed for dayton,” auerbach said. “They had quickness, the knack of getting good position and jumping ability. Their little guards, doug wardlaw and jim coleman had great movement and fine shooting eyes.”Finkel scored 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting. May had 25 points on 10-of-24 shooting.Of finkel, auerbach said, “they tell me this wasn’t one of his better nights and that he’s been doing good work from the outside. Well, he certainly impressed me, and this was a night when he belonged on the inside. I don’t suppose i’ll ever get a crack at this big kid in the draft, but i’d take a chance on him. He’s got a good touch. He makes good moves. He’s got enough speed, considering his height. And i watched him in the game and in practice, and it’s easy to see he has the right attitude.”Of may, auerbach said, “for a sophomore, he is a sound ball player and definitely will be a good pro prospect by the time he gråduates.” Best late-season victory: dayton beat houston 78-69 on feb. 24 at madison square garden in new york city.Dayton blew most of a 19-point lead in the second half and led 67-65 with 31 seconds to play when it made a play that helped clinch the game. After a basket by houston, waterman threw what dayton daily news beat writer bill clark described as a “basic football pass” to may to beat a full-court press. The deep pass led to an easy basket for may, who scored 27 points.“John mcvay called that play,” donoher joked after the game, referring to the ud football coach.Dayton won despite getting a career-low seven points from finkel. Both teams had great seasons with houston finishing 25-6 and making the ncaa tournament, but both teams played so poorly in this game, they were booed by the crowd of 11,620 waiting to see two local teams, manhattan and nyu, play in the second game.Donoher said houston and dayton “played horrible basketball and set basketball back a few years.” Ncaa bid: dayton received an invitation to the ncaa tournament on feb. 23 with three games remaining in the regular season. The national invitation tournament extended a bid to dayton on the same day.By this point, the ncaa prohibited member schools that received ncaa tournament invitations from participating in other tournaments. Dayton turned down a nit bid for the first time in 1965.Dayton had other reasons to pick the ncaa tournament over the nit. The school had switched from a two-semester academic calendar to trimesters, and that meant final exams for the second period were held in late march and early april.“What we had to consider,” athletic director tom frericks said, “was what a mass student-body exodus of the kind we used to know would mean academically in the trimester system. Now missing one class is more vital than missing several would have been before the change.“When we first went to the nit, it was a 12-team tourney with four first-round byes. Now it has 14 teams and you have to be pretty lucky to get one of the two byes. It means maybe 10 days away from school for the members of the team and then, if you stay in, the later departure of a large portion of the student body, which should be studying for final exams.” Finkel’s farewell: in his final home game as a flyer, finkel set dayton’s career scoring record, passing don “monk” meineke, who scored 1,866 points from 1949-52. Finkel scored 32 points in a 109-80 victory against detroit to push his career total to 1,876.Finkel, cassidy and the team’s other senior, jack warrell, were honored at halftime. Finkel told a sellout crowd of 5,880, “it has been my pleasure.”Meineke attended the game and congratulated finkel and wished him luck in the postseason.Dayton finished 22-4 in the regular season. Ncaa victory: two days after beating detroit, dayton beat miami university 58-51 in the first round of the ncaa tournament at memorial gymnasium in kent, ohio.This was dayton’s third victory of the season against miami. The flyers won 63-48 in dayton on dec. 7 in the third game of the season and 75-60 in oxford on feb. 19.Miami played a slow-down game to keep the third game close, and it resulted in dayton’s lowest score of the season. Donoher said miami coach dick shrider, who stepped down as basketball coach after the season to become athletic director, had an excellent game plan.“If we had to play dayton again tomorrow, we’d play them the same way,” shrider said. “It’s a lot easier to come back from four down than it is from 20, and if we had made some of those 1-and-1s from the free-throw line, we would have been right on dayton’s tail.” Ncaa losses: four days later, dayton lost 86-79 to no. 1 kentucky at the iowa field house in iowa city, iowa.Finkel’s 36 points were not enough to lead the flyers to the upset. Donoher called it a “typical finkel performance — in other words, “a great one.”“We didn’t win it, so my game couldn’t have been that great,” finkel said. “It was a hard loss.”Dayton led 64-59 midway through the second half. Then turnovers by the flyers led to a 9-0 run by kentucky in a 90-second span. That was the turning point, though the flyers kept it close until the final minute and never trailed by more than the final margin.Louie dampier scored 34 for kentucky. Future nba coach pat riley scored 29 and scored a big basket with 45 seconds remaining to give kentucky an 82-77 lead.Kentucky reached the ncaa championship game before losing to texas western.Dayton’s season ended a day later with an 82-68 loss to western kentucky in the mid-east regional consolation game. Finkel fouled out with 1:47 remaining after scoring 31 points in his final game. He received a standing ovation from a sellout crowd of 13,000.Finkel twice turned down chances to play professional basketball earlier in his career to stay at dayton.“I wouldn’t trade this season at dayton for all the money in the world,” finkel said.Finkel finished his career with most of dayton’s scoring records.“They are like all records — made to be broken,“ he said, ”and donnie may has the ability to break them in the next two seasons.” |
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| Former Minnesota Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah finds a new home in an expected p |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (9 reads) | |
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The minnesota vikings made a difficult decision at the end of january when they fired general manager kwesi adofo-mensah, and he has found his way back into the nfl. San francisco 49ers general manager john lynch spoke at the nfl scouting combine on tuesday and informed the media that they are bringing back adofo-mensah as a personnel executive.
san francisco 49ers hire back kwesi adofo-mensah
adofo-mensah had a very up-and-down tenure with the vikings. They went 43-25 during his four seasons at the helm, and he was very successful in acquiring free agents to maximize the roster. The biggest issue was the nfl draft.
nearly the entire 2022 nfl draft ended up off the roster after the 2024 season. It felt rough after their first season in 2022. Lewis cine broke his leg in just his fourth game, andrew booth jr. And ed ingram were both traded, and brian asamoah ii got cut. His drafts did get better, but they never got to the point where it made up for the lack of success.
the 49ers were the first to give adofo-mensah a job when trent baalke and jim harbaugh gave him a job in 2013. He was the manager of football research and development, and john lynch kept him around. He spent a total of seven years with the 49ers before andrew berry hired him away to be vice president of football operations.
it’s a nice landing spot for adofo-mensah after getting fired by the vikings. He gets to stay in the league and goes to an organization that knows him very well. There is a chance he will get another opportunity to be a general manager down the line, and having a soft landing spot like the 49ers is a great first step. Who knows, maybe it’ll be with san francisco.
about the author
tyler forness
nfl & college football news writer |
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| Seahawks John Schneider credits crucial Seahawks scout at NFL Combine |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (7 reads) | |
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Seahawks gm john schneider credits crucial seahawks scout at combine
dom skene
seattle seahawks general manager john schneider spoke publicly about their 2026 plans for the first time at the nfl scouting combine today.
you can watch his entire 19-minute press conference on seahawks.Com. Here’s the link.
he gave rare in-depth insight into the team’s process for evaluating players and making personnel decisions. Most of the chatter you’ll find on the internet thus far is around him mentioning kenneth walker iii, but there’s much more interesting quotes on team-building strategy that describes the “why” behind their recent success.
he mentions walker once, saying he’d love to have him back, zach charbonnet once, praising his work ethic, and sam darnold by saying he matched up as a better choice for the organization than any college quarterbacks last offseason. But perhaps the most interesting thing schneider mentions is the single name he refers to twice in the press conference- which isn’t a player at all, but is possibly the single most important person he’ll work with at the combine each year.
that name is aaron hineline, the seahawks’ director of college scouting. There’s less information on scouts than any member of the coaching staff, but they play as vital a role as any in shaping the roster. He’s a woodinville high school and central washington university graduate who’s been with the seahawks for 20 years, working his way up from intern to assistant director of college scouting before being promoted to his current position in 2023.
while the coaches have been working to win games the entire season, hineline has headed seattle’s mission to scout the 1,000s of eligible players for the 2026 nfl draft, managing the area scouts and collecting intel at a clip fans can only imagine. Despite being relatively unknown to the masses, he’s as good of a person to thank as any for the seahawks finding gems in the draft, from grey zabel to ty okada and in between. When thinking of the nfl combine this week, imagine hineline as schneider’s right-hand man as they watch 319 prospects test and interview, knowing more than any media member could dream of. |
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| Little Marcos UFO Secret Exposed After Trump Announcement - NewsBreak |
| Posted on Wednesday, February 25 @ 00:00:33 PST (7 reads) | |
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By the swamp ,
2 hours ago photo illustration by thomas levinson/the daily beast/getty/cspan donald trump wants to crush the swamp. The leaks, the sneaks, and the secrets are all there. Our writers, david gardner, farrah tomazin , and sarah ewall-wice , are sifting through the ooze so you don’t have to. Don’t miss out .
in this week’s news from the ooze : dan scavino, stephen miller, barack obama, king lear, hilary hahn, ric grenell, philip glass, marco rubio, edward “big balls” coristin, paul ingrassia, andrew yang, caitlyn jenner, miss universe fatima bosch, miss universe persia sahar biniaz, miss universe czech republic michaela tomanová, nawat itsaragrisil, and bad bunny.
close encounters of the little marco kind marco rubio was already donald trump ’s man of many hats, and now he is trying yet another one on for size—a tin foil hat.
just when you thought trump’s close encounter of the second kind couldn’t get any more x-files, the president is now ordering the pentagon to cough up whatever it has on “alien and extraterrestrial life .”
“tremendous interest,” trump declared as the reason for his latest bizarre demand, entirely omitting that he was clearly fuming that his predecessor barack obama had just said there definitely are aliens*.
but the swamp has learned that the person most interested is his own national security adviser (yes, remember, marco’s that, too).
long before trump was promising to find out if “the truth is out there,” rubio was a key member of the senate intelligence committee and one of capitol hill’s most persistent voices demanding the government take the matter seriously.
on the committee, rubio received countless briefings about unidentified aerial phenomena, and as its acting chair in 2020, he helped ensure that funding and reporting requirements for uaps were included in the year-end omnibus spending bill attached to the covid-19 relief package. That maneuver forced the intelligence community to produce the widely publicized uap report delivered to congress in june 2021—the one that acknowledged dozens of unexplained encounters and an alleged crash-retrieval effort examining unidentified craft and materials known by insiders as the “legacy program.”
rubio’s line has been consistent: this isn’t about little green men; it’s about national security. “I want us to take it seriously and have a process to analyse the data every time it comes in,” he said at the time.
others in trump-world have also circled the saucer. In 2020, trump’s first treasury secretary, steven mnuchin , received a briefing from former intelligence official jay stratton , who was then the head of the uap task force, a program within the office of naval intelligence examining ufo sightings.
mnuchin’s reported response wasn’t “take me to your leader” but a pointed question, as stratton recalls in dan farah ’s documentary age of disclosure . “What are the economic impacts of the president going to the microphone and telling the world we’re not alone?” He asked.
now, with trump promising disclosure, rubio has gone from senate ufo hawk to west wing truth-seeker-in-chief. The only remaining question: is this about extra-terrestrial transparency—or just the ultimate distraction from the missing epstein files?
*obama had to walk it back, saying he hadn’t seen any evidence. Sorry, marco.
more musicians join kennedy center requiem three weeks after donald trump announced the john f. Kennedy center for the performing arts would close in july for a two-year renovation, staff have been told to “buckle up” for more cancellations as artists continue to head for the door. The swamp can reveal that acclaimed violinist hilary hahn and cellist seth parker woods have become the latest artists to withdraw from the center, where they had been scheduled to perform the world premiere of carlos simon ’s “double concerto suite” for violin, cello and orchestra in march. Insiders say that attempts to get clarity from interim president ric grenell have also occasionally devolved into a “screaming match”, while outside the center, patrons can’t even get refunds for canceled events.
indeed, when one punter sought a refund for their hahn-loving son, the center refused, arguing that the violinist would be replaced with a national symphony orchestra musician playing the same pieces. “This is like advertising king lear with ian mckellen and replacing him with a guy from the local college,” the patron fumed. “Like sure—he’s still doing shakespeare , but the draw was obviously ian mckellen.” The exit of hahn and parker woods is the latest exit in a string of defections since trump moved to rebrand the storied kennedy center in his own image. Composers philip glass and stephen schwartz , soprano renée fleming , and singer-songwriter ben rector have also cancelled in recent weeks, while the national symphony orchestra was forced to postpone this month’s much-touted world premiere program, “american promise” (a collaboration with folksy trio girl named tom) due to painfully low ticket sales ,. Meanwhile, the nso has five 53-foot trucks stuffed with instruments and gear. Where will they park during trump’s renovations? Who will load them? No one seems to know. Management is reportedly scouting alternative d.C. Venues — the anthem, lisner auditorium, dar constitution hall — as if planning a 52-week season on the fly is just a light administrative lift. Travel logistics alone will require more crew, not less. One estimate pegs operational costs rising by 30 percent. The bigger fear? That in two years the kennedy center reopens, less performing arts, more live nation — unions gone, ticketmaster installed, rock tours rolling through.
asked about hahn and parker woods withdrawing, and whether attempts by his staff to get answers from him have descended into “screaming matches,” grenell responded in an epic, breathless, and fact-challenged 99-word meltdown: “the daily beast and its private equity owner iac* have descended into radical leftist gossip* whether it’s in people magazine or southern living*, both of which they own and have hijacked*, or the daily meltdowns from the daily beast reporters* who obviously have no adult supervision leading us to conclude that it is a waste of time for our leadership* to discuss serious issues with because rational conversations don’t exist at iac brands - so you will have to read about the trump kennedy center* happenings from other sources who don’t just make up stories as your group does*.”
*iac is not “private equity,” it is a traded company.
*hahn and parker woods’ withdrawal is documented on the kennedy center website.
*we do indeed share ownership with southern living, but it hasn’t covered the kennedy center. Sorry.
*news to us.
*meaning, we assume, ric grenell.
*you can’t “hijack” something you own, but sure, ric.
*it’s the kennedy center, just ask congress.
*we’ll definitely take that as confirmation of the screaming matches. Thanks ric.
how is congress working? Let’s run the numbers trump delivers the first official state of the union address of his second term to a congress that is barely functioning despite the gop trifecta. Some numbers tell the story. Just 5.5 percent of bills have gotten past the house floor. Is it then any wonder lawmakers have turned to what were once vanishingly rare discharge petitions to try to force votes on bills speaker mike johnson won’t bring to the floor? An extraordinary 25 percent of discharge petitions have received the necessary 218 votes to advance this congress. Seven have passed in the past two years. That’s the same number as in the whole of the previous four decades. Couple that with three shutdowns in the last 100 days, including the longest in u.S. History in october, and a current partial shutdown, and it’s hard to convince americans that the chances of johnson keeping the gavel can be expressed in a very low number. In fact: zero.
why trump’s state of the union is anyone’s guess former golf club manager and current white house deputy chief of staff dan scavino was running his own poll on how long donald trump ’s state of my ego speech would last, with 120 minutes plus offered as a likely favorite.
surely he should know in advance? In fact, no. Trump’s refusal to stick to the script is notorious inside the white house. On tuesday evening, ross worthington (incidentally, a close buddy of beleaguered fbi director keystone kash patel ) was putting the final touches to trump’s state of the union speech with the help of his boss, stephen miller . But worthington told lawmakers investigating trump’s role in the january 6 insurrection that he couldn’t guarantee his boss would stick to the final draft of his speeches.
a transcript reviewed by the swamp shows that worthington said trump made it up as he went along.
after running through the process he used during trump’s first term—sending a first draft to miller—he told the committee that he was as much in the dark as anyone else about what would come out of his boss’s mouth. Asked about his reaction to trump’s jan. 6 speech that he helped write, worthington said: “um, i don’t remember generically, other than that he was ad-libbing…certainly, i remember that from that day, and in general, when the president spoke, he ad-libbed.”
looking for some suggestions for a bingo card? We’ve got windmills, whales, shower heads, penis size, marble, his “movie star” wife, the stock market, the greatest ballroom in the history of the world, and how he could destroy the world if he wanted to. Enjoy… and let dan scavino know if you guessed right.
big balls’ new hustle could leave nazi aftertaste readers of the swamp would be familiar with edward “big balls” coristine’ s latest side hustle: helping donald trump build freedom.Gov , a state department portal designed to let europeans bypass their own governments’ content bans. On paper, it’s about democratic values. Overseeing this digital “liberation” project is sarah b. Rogers , who was appointed undersecretary for public diplomacy in october. The lawyer has already made waves for provocative rhetoric, including a post warning of “barbarian rapist hordes ” in germany, and been accused of being very much opposed to free speech at home if it isn’t what she and trump like. Rogers casts herself as a free speech absolutist exporting american liberty abroad.
in practice, however, freedom.Gov raises some awkward questions the department doesn’t seem eager to answer: how far is trump willing to go? Take mein kampf — adolf hitler’s antisemetic manifesto —which faces tight restrictions in germany and other countries due to its racist content and incitement of hate. Berlin has spent decades constructing legal guardrails around nazi propaganda, and especially holocaust denial. So when washington starts building a government-backed portal explicitly designed to blast through local content laws in the name of free speech, does that include historically toxic material many countries have deliberately constrained? The swamp asked the department this very question. But notably, they have refused to answer. Apparently, they don’t feel free to speak.
the yang gang is back with a bang andrew yang , the serial seeker after higher office, rolled into washington to host one of his new offline parties at hush harbor, h street’s boutique phone-free cocktail bar. The parties are pitched as the antidote to doom-scrolling culture: no screens, no alerts, just curated conversation and booze. Earlier in the evening, the 51-year-old entrepreneur held court at the politics and prose bookstore with tech journalist nancy scola , talking up his latest book and the old campaign days to a mix of loyal yang gang members and curious d.C. Scenesters.
on joe biden , who yang backed after dropping out of the dem primaries in 2020, he still believes he could have done a better job in the white house. “Biden failed us all by running again,” he said. Reflecting on his own exit, he joked that he was the “indefatigable magical asian man from the future who wants to give everyone money,” only to be convinced to leave the race early — a decision he says still stings. (Yang also ran for new york mayor and lost to eric adams .) And when asked if he takes any credit for gavin newsom’ s trademark trolling of donald trump on x? “Gavin’s a bro, honestly. He figured a lot of this stuff out for himself,” yang said, praising the governor’s “political athlete” instincts—and his appearance. “The dude’s really tall and good-looking.” We’ll take that as an endorsement.
is melania a closet bad bunny fan? While her husband raged at bad bunny ’s super bowl halftime performance as “absolutely terrible,” is the first lady secretly a fan of the puerto rican superstar? Melania trump used bad bunny’s song “dtmf” on both her personal and the first lady’s official instagram account for a post about the smithsonian adding her inaugural gown to its exhibit. The president might be enraged that a performer would dare to perform the entire halftime show in spanish, but mrs. Trump selected the very song that closed out his blockbuster performance. The swamp’s question about karoline leavitt watching the bad bunny halftime show in person went unanswered. Now, we’re curious if melania personally picked her bad bunny song and just how many songs by the artist does she have on her playlist. Perhaps she’s planning to add spanish to her supposed list of languages? We’ll let you know if we hear back…
promoting ‘peace’ at mar-a-lago freshly minted trump official katie zacharia was spotted at mar-a-lago just days after being named the spokesperson for ice barbie’s dhs in succession to tricia mclaughlin . Zacharia was presenting a “concert for peace” over the weekend, which was billed as a showcase of, err, musical diplomacy. The 41-year-old blond lawyer (yes, maga has a type) served as mc for the event at the president’s private florida club where attendees celebrated her new gig and wished her luck. The event was drawn from the eccentric end of the mar-a-lago spectrum. Omar harfouch , a french-lebanese-ukrainian pianist, composer and businessman who says he is promoting “peace and unity” performed. Somewhat bizarrely, nawat itsaragrisil , the miss grand international president who went viral for his confrontation with miss universe fatima bosch last year was at the party, along with miss universe persia sahar biniaz and miss universe czech republic michaela tomanová . Also there: paul ingrassia , who lost a doj nomination after his “nazi streak” texts surfaced; caitlyn jenner ; and philip nicozisis , a singing maha campaigner known as the traveling vegan (not sure trump would approve.) Back in washington on monday, zacharia, who once advised none other than ric grenell during the first trump term, was spotted at the white house, looming over dhs secretary kristi noem ’s shoulder. Tricia, we barely knew you.
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