VEGAS SPORTS REPORT: Raiders Bench Cousins, Crosby After Practice Fight

Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins and defensive end Maxx Crosby were both held out of practice today (Aug. 8) after their fight at practice yesterday.

Five-time Pro Bowler Crosby hit Cousins, the Raiders’ starting quarterback, twice during practice. The second time, Cousins got into Crosby’s face, grabbing his jersey, before teammates broke it up, with the two players exchanging words. 

Raiders Stars Pay the Price

Both players continued to practice after the scuffle.

The Raiders signed Cousins, a 15-year veteran, as a free agent in April to mentor quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the first overall pick in the National Football League (NFL) draft this year.

“That’s training camp, and that’s two leaders of our team going at it,” said Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak, after practice yesterday.

Today it was a different story.

Mendoza Gets First-Team Reps

“We have very clear expectations on how we want to practice and how we want to go about our business,” said Kubiak, “and we violated that yesterday. So, held those guys out. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

The Raiders are off tomorrow, and both players will be back at practice when the team returns Monday.

Mendoza played with the first-team offence today, getting to throw to the likes of Brock Bowers and Tre Tucker.

“[Fernando] is continuing to get better,” said Kubiak. “He’s improving every day. Every day brings a new challenge – crowd noise today. He’s like every other rookie. They are introduced to a whole new level of football. There’s going to be days of failure, days of success, as long as they keep getting better.”

Wynn Welcomes NBA Expansion

During the company’s Q2 2026 earnings webcast with investors and analysts (Aug. 4), Wynn Resorts CEO Craig Billings was asked about the potential impact of a National Basketball Association (NBA) expansion franchise for Las Vegas. 

The NBA’s Board of Governors voted on March 25 to formally explore expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle. Since then, several powerhouse groups have stepped forward with expansion-team and new-arena plans.

Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley is heading up one of those bids, to play alongside his National Hockey League (NHL) team at T-Mobile Arena.

Other major contenders include a consortium led by Jerry Colangelo, and another fronted by NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, both of whom are proposing brand-new, state-of-the-art arenas.

NBA Could Boost Visitation

Billings was asked about partnering up with one of the groups vying for an NBA franchise to build an arena on land it owns on the Las Vegas Strip.

Billings said the company sees the greater benefits as more visitors would come to the city with a new NBA team, as well as with other pro teams, including the Raiders, the Golden Knights, and the Oakland Athletics, set to move to Las Vegas for the Major League Baseball (MLB) 2028 season.

“If you think about the various sports teams that are in Vegas, you can think about leagues that tend to have a high game count, so the number of games per year, and then you can think about leagues, most notably the NFL, that have a limited game count, and those games tend to occur on or around weekends,” he said.

Vegas Bidders Line Up

“It is the latter category, the Raiders in particular, that are most beneficial to the town, in my humble opinion, because they drive visitation, and in particular to us because they tend to drive premium visitation for a subset of customers that go to those games. 

“The NBA kind of sits somewhere in between, so we would love to see an NBA franchise in Las Vegas. We tend to get the premium end of visitation, folks who are affiliated with the league and with the opposing teams. They’re great customers.”

Lynx Pull Away Late

In a potential Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) playoff preview, the Minnesota Lynx (26-7) defeated the Las Vegas Aces (22-10) earlier today, 98-87, at Target Center in Minneapolis.

The Lynx, first in the WNBA Western Conference, clinched a WNBA playoff berth with the win. Olivia Miles scored 26 points for the Lynx. Jackie Young led Las Vegas with 23 points, while A’ja Wilson had 16 points and eight rebounds.

The Aces were 4-1 since the WNBA All-Star break going into the game, and are 2-2 now, four games into a five-game road trip.

Aces Head to Brooklyn

Minnesota actually led by four at the half and pushed that to a double-figure lead late in the third quarter. Las Vegas bounced back with a 7-0 run before Napheesa Collier scored the next seven points, including back-to-back three-pointers off feeds from Miles to restore their cushion.

The Aces sit third in the Western Conference, 3.5 games back of the Lynx. The Aces are in Brooklyn tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. EDT to play the New York Liberty (19-13).