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Let’s lead off with the big news of the day: New York City Mayor Eric Adams is expected to announce today a change to the city’s private-sector vaccination mandate allowing unvaccinated home-team pro athletes to play in the five boroughs, effective immediately.

That means Nets star Kyrie Irving would be eligible to play six additional games down the stretch (five at home, one at Madison Square Garden) starting Sunday at Barclays Center against the Hornets and in every postseason game, barring a trip to Toronto. And it’s a reprieve, arriving two weeks before Opening Day, for any members of the Yankees and Mets to whom the prohibition might have applied. Mike Vaccaro assesses the policy shift and questions “the separate standards for celebrities and civilians.”

The final window is wide-open to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and it would be catastrophic for the U.S. men’s national team to allow it to slam shut on them once again.