FOOTBALL

Rookie Darnold to start at QB for Jets — Todd Bowles finally revealed the big decision that everyone expected: Sam Darnold will start at quarterback in the New York Jets’ season-opening game at Detroit on Monday night. The 21-year-old Darnold will also make some NFL history by becoming the youngest quarterback to start in Week 1 since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger. At 21 years and 97 days, the rookie surpasses Drew Bledsoe (21 years, 203 days), who held the distinction since starting for New England in 1993. The announcement came as no surprise as the rookie from USC was solid while starting the Jets’ second and third preseason games. New York traded Teddy Bridgewater to New Orleans last week, and Darnold then sat out the preseason finale at Philadelphia — clear signals the No. 3 overall draft pick would be under center against the Lions.

Network suspends analyst for tweets — The Big Ten Network has indefinitely suspended college football analyst Braylon Edwards for violating its social media policy after the former Michigan receiver tweeted harsh criticism of the Wolverines and Jim Harbaugh’s coaching. BTN would not elaborate on why Edwards was suspended. But on Saturday, when the 14th-ranked Wolverines lost 24-17 at No. 12 Notre Dame, Edwards posted to his Twitter account that Michigan football was “trash.” He specifically targeted center Cesar Ruiz and quarterback Shea Patterson. Harbaugh said Monday that “if somebody wants to attack character of anybody on the ballclub, come after me — not the youngsters.” Edwards was an All-American at Michigan in 2004 and is the school’s career leader in catches, yards and touchdown catches.

MOTOR SPORTS

Back-to-back Funny Car titles for Todd — J.R. Todd successfully defended his Funny Car title Monday at the Chevrolet Performance Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsville, Indiana. Todd, the top qualifier for the event, drove his Toyota Camry to a 4.062-second pass at 311.70 mph. He became the first Funny Car driver to notch consecutive wins at Indianapolis since Mike Neff in 2011-12. “This is by far a dream come true,” Todd said. “You don’t know if you’re ever going to win Indy, let alone go back to back. For whatever reason this year just felt different. It felt like we had a car that could come in here and win. Last year the confidence wasn’t there like it is this year.” Matt Hagan finished second with a 4.141-second pass at 300.60 mph in his Mopar Express Lane Dodge Hellcat SRT.

— From wire reports