Dates and times for Saints preseason games have been set and we’ll see if they actually get played. The Black and Gold will kick off the preseason in Los Angeles on Friday, August 14th. 9 PM is the start time. The next week, New Orleans travels to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers on Sunday night. In week three of the preseason, New Orleans hosts Houston on Saturday, August 29th. The Saints conclude the preseason on Thursday night, September third against the Miami Dolphins.

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association is investigating ten schools that have allegedly started summer workouts before the June eighth start date. The LHSAA says they’ve received reports involving six schools in the New Orleans area, two from the Lafayette area, and two north Louisiana schools. Executive Director Eddie Bonine declined to name the schools, but if they violated this rule, they face fines and the coaches could be suspended.

The NBA continues to discuss how it should finish its season. Dallas Owner Mark Cuban has suggested an expanded playoff format. ESPN reports that Cuban recommends the league should re-start its season with five to seven regular-season games than the top ten teams in each conference would qualify for the playoffs. The teams that qualify for the playoffs with the worst records would have play-in games, before the traditional start of a 16-team NBA postseason featuring the best of seven-game series format.

Today, the Major League Baseball Players Association will reportedly deliver a counterproposal to the owners’ economic plan that called for the top players in the game taking the largest pay cuts. The M-L-B-P-A is disappointed by that offer and they will reportedly recommend no pay cut and playing more than 82 games as the owners have suggested. The belief is a deal needs to be reached soon in order to begin a second spring training in mid-June.