{"id":786507,"date":"2026-05-10T12:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/786507\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T12:25:12","slug":"fort-worth-sports-week-mj-at-nascar-cowboys-rookie-shines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/786507\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth sports week: MJ at NASCAR, Cowboys rookie shines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Michael Jordan\u2019s surprise appearance at Texas Motor Speedway to a community rallying around an injured coach, Fort Worth\u2019s sports week delivered no shortage of headlines. Here\u2019s a roundup of the top stories you should know.<\/p>\n<p>Here are key takeaways:<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Jordan <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/spt-columns-blogs\/mac-engel\/article315620688.html\">attended NASCAR\u2019s W\u00fcrth 400<\/a> at Texas Motor Speedway, where his 23XI Racing team continues to contend after his antitrust lawsuit settled in December 2025 reshaped the sport\u2019s ownership model.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TCU and Baylor have <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/article315660641.html\">declined a $30 million credit line<\/a> offered through the Big 12\u2019s new partnership with RedBird Capital, joining nearly all conference schools in rejecting the private equity infusion over budget control concerns.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cowboys rookie Caleb Downs, the No. 11 overall draft pick, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/nfl\/dallas-cowboys\/article315684191.html\">wowed teammates and coaches<\/a> at minicamp with his deep grasp of the defensive scheme \u2014 already studying film from coordinator Christian Parker\u2019s time with the Eagles.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The PBR World Finals kicked off Thursday in Fort Worth with a $3.3 million purse, and co-founder Cody Lambert <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/article315655960.html\">broke down bull riding\u2019s 100-point scoring system<\/a>, where riders and bulls each account for 50 points across categories like buck, kick and degree of difficulty.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The 2026 Star-Telegram All-Area Soccer <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/dfwvarsity\/article315665295.html\">Super Teams<\/a> were <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/dfwvarsity\/article315571955.html\">unveiled<\/a>, with Southlake Carroll\u2019s Peyton Hayes (40 goals, 23 assists) and Aledo\u2019s Trapper Davis (30 goals, 9 assists) headlining the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/dfwvarsity\/article315665295.html\">girls<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/dfwvarsity\/article315571955.html\">boys<\/a> squads after standout seasons.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 A GoFundMe has raised more than $30,000 for Ponder ISD coach Blake Crutsinger, who <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/sports\/dfwvarsity\/article315640954.html\">remains in the ICU after being struck in the head<\/a> by a shot put at the Class 3A Region II track and field meet.<\/p>\n<p>The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/profile\/311666300\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Jim_Barnes.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Jim Barnes\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.star-telegram.com\/profile\/311666300\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Barnes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n<p>            Jim Barnes is the Star-Telegram\u2019s sports editor. A Fort Worth native and graduate of Castleberry High School, he returned to Texas after 13 years at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He previously was sports editor of the Waco Tribune-Herald and a freelance high school sports reporter for The Dallas Morning News.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Michael Jordan\u2019s surprise appearance at Texas Motor Speedway to a community rallying around an injured coach, Fort&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":786508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,7372,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-786507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fortworth","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116550272691256565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}