ATHENS, Ga. — When Jalon Walker was a boy, he told his mother he was going to become famous and arrive in Hollywood in a limousine.
As a potential first-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft, there’s a good chance the Georgia linebacker might soon become a household name.
And if professional football doesn’t work out for some reason, the aspiring sports commentator and voice-over actor might still work in Hollywood one day.
You might have already heard Walker’s deep and resonant voice in one of the SEC’s “It Just Means More” TV commercials.
That’s not the only way Walker is using his commanding pipes. He’s one of the leaders of a unit that is starting to play like dominant Georgia defenses of the recent past going into Saturday’s game against Florida at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville (3:30 p.m. ET/ABC/ESPN+).
“I don’t take that lightly,” Walker said. “I feel that our standard at the University of Georgia is incredibly long and historic, and I want to keep that torch and flame going. I want to set an example for the younger guys to see what it takes and what you need to do to be a leader.”
In the Bulldogs’ 30-15 victory at Texas on Oct. 19, Walker had seven tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery — all in the first half. Going against offensive tackles Kelvin Banks Jr. and Cameron Williams, who are considered potential high NFL draft picks, Walker was the first player in at least the past 20 seasons to have three sacks and seven tackles against a No. 1-ranked team in the AP poll.
After Georgia’s defense surrendered 39 points in a 41-34 loss at Alabama on Sept. 28 and 21 in the second half of a 41-31 victory against Mississippi State two weeks later, coach Kirby Smart called on Walker and others to take ownership of the unit.
The Bulldogs responded with seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss and shut out the Longhorns in the first half.
“He gets everybody pumped up,” Bulldogs cornerback Daylen Everette said of Walker. “He’s doing his job, and then even off the field, his leadership, he motivates people to be good. He’s a great leader, great guy.”
Walker has been around football his entire life. His father, Curtis Walker, was a Division II All-American linebacker at Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He still holds the school’s single-game record with 25 tackles against Wofford in 1991 and was a team captain and MVP.
In 1995, Curtis joined Catawba’s coaching staff as linebackers coach and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2001.
Two years later, Curtis was hired as Coastal Carolina‘s first defensive coordinator under coach David Bennett. He spent 10 seasons with the Chanticleers.
After one season as Western Carolina’s defensive coordinator, Curtis was hired as Catawba’s head coach in December 2012. He was the first Black head football coach at his alma mater and at any school in the South Atlantic Conference.
Jalon and his brother Deuce, who is 2½ years younger, attended practices of their father’s teams nearly every day when they were old enough.
“I got the opportunity to be around football a lot,” Jalon said. “Being on the sideline, being at his games, being in the locker room, being at his practice. It was a great opportunity for me to learn football in a different way, from a different point of view.”
Jalon didn’t start playing football until the seventh grade. His small Christian-based middle school didn’t have a team, so he played basketball, soccer and track and field growing up. His father was pleased when Jalon joined the Salisbury 49ers, a recreational league team.
“It was a little strange being the head coach in this community, and my son’s not even playing football,” Curtis joked. “We were excited that he finally decided that he wanted to play.”
“I appreciate my dad, because he let me fall in love with football myself,” Jalon said. “He didn’t press me to play football. He just let football come to me.”
At Salisbury High School, Jalon helped the Hornets reach the Class 2A state championship game as a sophomore. The next season, they defeated St. Pauls High School 42-14 to win a state title. Jalon had 12 tackles in the final contest. During an 11-game season, which was played in the spring of 2021 because of COVID-19 restrictions, he had 97 tackles, 19 for loss and eight sacks.
“He’s just such a high-character kid with high moral values and a great family,” Smart said. “You think back to all those wins you get in recruiting and how you really don’t know how important they are. I think back to when he called and told us he was coming, what that changed his life towards and what it changed for us.”
Curtis and his wife, LaSheka, who works as a development officer at Catawba College, raised their sons to be well-rounded students and not just athletes. Deuce is a freshman defensive back at Georgia State.
LaSheka encouraged her sons to write their goals on Post-it notes, which littered the inside of their closet and dresser. She recited Habakkuk 2:2 from the Bible: “Write the vision and make it plain.”
During a Sunday sermon at Southern City AME Zion Church in Salisbury, the pastor announced that he was searching for a child to compete in a singing contest. The winner would be awarded a trophy.
“Jalon’s eyes lit up,” LaSheka said. “And so, of course, in true Jalon style, he went and won the trophy. He won it a few years back-to-back. [His musical talent] comes from just being around it and hearing it.”
Back then, Jalon’s voice didn’t sound like the late James Earl Jones’ — his high-pitched tone was more like Cyndi Lauper’s. Before long, Jalon was singing with the church choir and performing with 100 Men in Black, a community male choir in Salisbury.
After Curtis became Catawba’s head coach, Jalon sang the national anthem at the Indians’ home openers. He also performed at Catawba basketball and minor-league baseball games. Curtis remembered a woman crying in the stands during one of Jalon’s performances.
Jalon also took up acting; he was the Tin Man in the “Wizard of Oz” and Scott Kunkle in “Dear Edwina” musicals at school.
“For all those who know Jalon Walker, you know his work ethic,” Curtis said. “You know that guy grinds. When he did the musicals in middle school, he was there every day, as long as it took for him to learn his lines and perfect his songs.
“When he was running for the student government president in high school, he did everything in his power to make sure that he was going to be the one selected. It’s the same work ethic we see now.”
Curtis resigned as Catawba College’s coach in November 2022. He works as an analyst at Livingstone College in Salisbury, which gives him more flexibility to attend his sons’ games.
Jalon’s opportunities at Georgia didn’t come quickly. He played behind veterans like Nolan Smith Jr., Smael Mondon Jr. and Jamon Dumas-Johnson the previous two seasons. Still, he led the Bulldogs with five sacks to go with 20 tackles in 14 games in 2023.
“I feel that there was development that I’ve always needed,” Jalon said. “I feel like that time I took learning and being able to be developed by the coaches here has helped a lot. We have great players here. But when an opportunity was presented to me, I definitely had to capitalize on every opportunity that I got.”
Despite not starting a game at Georgia until this season, Jalon has opened the eyes of NFL scouts. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. ranks him as the No. 10 prospect eligible for the 2025 NFL draft; Matt Miller has him at 14th.
Jalon’s proclamation to his mother many years ago might just be coming true.
Before the Bulldogs played TCU in the CFP National Championship in Los Angeles in January 2023, Jalon visited with his parents and brother in a hotel lobby. LaSheka reminded Jalon of what he’d told her as a child.
“Well son, you made it,” LaSheka told him. “You may not have made it in the limo, but you made it to Hollywood.”
“Looking back, you hear a child say that and you think they’re just talking and dreaming,” LaSheka said. “It melts my heart. It really makes me happy. I smile from ear to ear because ever since he was a little boy, he always knew that he wanted to do something great.”
The San Francisco Giants acquired three-time All-Star Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox on Sunday in a stunning trade that sent a player Boston once considered a franchise cornerstone to a San Francisco team needing an offensive infusion.
Boston received left-handed starter Kyle Harrison, right-hander Jordan Hicks, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and Rookie League right-hander Jose Bello.
The Red Sox announced the deal Sunday evening.
The Giants will cover the remainder of Devers’ contract, which runs through 2033 and will pay him more than $250 million, sources told ESPN.
The trade ends the fractured relationship between Devers and the Red Sox that had degraded since spring training, when Devers balked at moving off third base — the position where he had spent his whole career — after the signing of free agent Alex Bregman. The Red Sox gave no forewarning to Devers, who expressed frustration before relenting and agreeing to be their designated hitter.
After a season-ending injury to first baseman Triston Casas in early May, the Red Sox asked Devers to move to first base. Devers declined, suggesting the front office “should do their jobs” and find another player after the organization told him during spring training he would be the DH for the remainder of the season. The day after Devers’ comments, Red Sox owner John Henry, president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow flew to Kansas City, where Boston was playing, to talk with Devers.
In the weeks since, Devers’ refusal to play first led to internal tension and helped facilitate the deal, sources said.
San Francisco pounced — and added a force to an offense that ranks 15th in runs scored in Major League Baseball. Devers, 28, is hitting .272/.401/.504 with 15 home runs and 58 RBIs, tied for the third most in MLB. Over his nine-year career, Devers is hitting .279/.349/.509 with 215 home runs and 696 RBIs in 1,053 games.
Boston believed enough in Devers to give him a 10-year, $313.5 million contract extension in January 2023. He rewarded the Red Sox with a Silver Slugger Award that season and made his third All-Star team in 2024.
Whether he slots in at designated hitter or first base with San Francisco — the Giants signed Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman to a six-year, $151 million deal last year — is unknown. But San Francisco sought Devers more for his bat, one that immediately makes the Giants — who are fighting for National League West supremacy with the Los Angeles Dodgers — a better team.
To do so, the Giants gave a package of young talent and took on the contract that multiple teams’ models had as underwater.
Harrison, 23, is the prize of the deal, particularly for a Red Sox team replete with young hitting talent but starving for young pitching. Once considered one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, Harrison has shuttled between San Francisco and Triple-A Sacramento this season.
Harrison, who was scratched from a planned start against the Dodgers on Sunday night, has a 4.48 ERA over 182⅔ innings since debuting with the Giants in 2023. He has struck out 178, walked 62 and allowed 30 home runs. The Red Sox optioned Harrison to Triple-A Worcester after the trade was announced.
Hicks, 28, who has toggled between starter and reliever since signing with the Giants for four years and $44 million before the 2024 season, is on the injured list because of right toe inflammation. One of the hardest-throwing pitchers in baseball, Hicks has a 6.47 ERA over 48⅔ innings this season. He could join the Red Sox’s ailing bullpen, which Breslow has sought to upgrade.
Tibbs, 22, was selected by the Giants with the 13th pick in last year’s draft out of Florida State. A 6-foot, 200-pound corner outfielder, Tibbs has spent the season at High-A, where he has hit .245/.377/.480 with 12 home runs and 32 RBIs in 56 games. Scouts laud his command of the strike zone — he has 41 walks and 45 strikeouts in 252 plate appearances — but question whether his swing will translate at higher levels.
Bello, 20, has spent the season as a reliever for the Giants’ Rookie League affiliate. In 18 innings, he has struck out 28 and walked three while posting a 2.00 ERA.
The deal is the latest in which Boston shipped a player central to the franchise.
Boston traded Mookie Betts to the Dodgers in February 2020, just more than a year after leading Boston to a franchise-record 108 wins and a World Series title and winning the American League MVP Award.
Devers was part of that World Series-winning team in 2018 and led the Red Sox in RBIs each season from 2020 to 2024, garnering AL MVP votes across each of the past four years. Devers had been with the Red Sox since 2013, when he signed as an international amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic. He debuted four years later at age 20.
Boston is banking on its young talent to replace Devers’ production. The Red Sox regularly play four rookies — infielders Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer, outfielder Roman Anthony and catcher Carlos Narvaez — and infielder Franklin Arias and outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia are expected to contribute in the coming years.
Ohtani, 21 months removed from a second repair of his ulnar collateral ligament, will be used as an opener, likely throwing one inning. Because of his two-way designation, Ohtani qualifies as an extra pitcher on the roster, giving the Dodgers the flexibility to use a piggyback starter behind him.
That is essentially what will take place in his first handful of starts — a byproduct of the progress Ohtani has made in the late stages of his pitching rehab.
Ohtani, 30, initially seemed to be progressing toward a return some time around August. But he made a major step during his third simulated game from San Diego’s Petco Park on Tuesday, throwing 44 pitches over the course of three simulated innings and compiling six strikeouts against a couple of low-level minor leaguers.
Afterward, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said it was a “north of zero” chance Ohtani could return before the All-Star break. When he met with reporters prior to Sunday’s game against the San Francisco Giants — an eventual 5-4 victory — Roberts said it was a “possibility” Ohtani could pitch after just one more simulated game.
After the game, Roberts indicated the timeline might have been pushed even further, telling reporters it was a “high possibility” Ohtani would pitch in a big league game this week as an opener, likely during the upcoming four-game series against the Padres.
“He’s ready to pitch in a big league game,” Roberts told reporters. “He let us know.”
If you’re just getting back home from your Father’s Day activities, you had better sit down, because Sunday evening’s Boston Red Sox–San Francisco Giants trade is a doozy.
Rafael Devers, second among third basemen and seventh among hitters in fantasy points this season, is headed to the Giants, traded minutes before their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Boston’s return includes pitchers Kyle Harrison, who was the Giants’ scheduled starting pitcher Sunday night (subsequently scratched), pitcher Jordan Hicks, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and pitching prospect Jose Bello.
Expect Devers to continue to serve in a designated hitter-only capacity with his new team, considering his season-long stance, which is primarily an issue for his position eligibility for 2026. He might factor as the Giants’ future first baseman if given a full offseason to prepare for the shift to a new position — or it could happen sooner if he has a change of heart in his new environment.
As for the impact on Devers’ numbers, the move from Fenway Park to Oracle Park represents one of the steepest downgrades in terms of park factors, specifically run production and extra-base hits. With its close-proximity Green Monster in left field, Fenway Park is a much better environment for doubles and runs scored, Statcast reflecting that it’s 22% and 10% better than league average in those categories, respectively, compared with 8% worse and only 2% above par for Oracle Park.
Devers is a prime-age 28, with a contract averaging a relatively reasonable $31.8 million over the next eight seasons, and he’s leaving a Red Sox team where his defensive positioning — he has played all but six of his career defensive innings at third base — was a manner of much debate, to go to a team that has one of baseball’s best defensive third basemen in Matt Chapman (once he’s healthy following a hand injury). Devers’ unwillingness to play first base probably played a big part in his ultimately being traded, and it’s worth pointing out that one of the positions where the Giants are weakest is, well, also first base.
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Perez: Devers gives Giants a ‘really good offense’
Eduardo Perez, David Cone and Karl Ravech react to the Giants acquiring star 3B Rafael Devers from the Red Sox.
Devers’ raw power is immense, as he has greater than 95th percentile barrel and hard-hit rates this season. He has been in that tier or better in the latter in each of the past three seasons as well. He’s at a 33-homer (and 34 per 162 games) pace since the beginning of 2021, so the slugger should continue to homer at a similar rate regardless of his surroundings. He should easily snap the Giants’ drought of 30-homer hitters, which dates back to Barry Bonds in 2004. Devers’ fantasy value might slip slightly, mostly due to the park’s impact on his runs scored and RBIs, but he’ll remain a top-four fantasy third baseman.
If you play in an NL-only league, Devers is an open-the-wallet free agent target. He’s worth a maximum bid, considering he brings a similar ability to stars you might invest in come the July trade deadline, except in this case you’ll get an extra month and a half’s production.
Harrison is an intriguing pickup for the Red Sox, though in a disappointing development, he was immediately optioned to Triple-A Worcester. A top-25 overall prospect as recently as two years ago, Harrison’s spike in average fastball velocity this season (95.1 mph, up from 92.5) could be a signal of better things ahead. Once recalled to Fenway Park, his fantasy prospects would take a hit, as that’s a venue that isn’t forgiving to fly ball-oriented lefties, but he’d be a matchups option nevertheless.
Expect Hicks to serve in setup relief for his new team, though he’d at best be fourth in the Red Sox’s pecking order for saves.