JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Travis Hunter started in one corner of EverBank Stadium and worked his way around to the other side, stopping to sign autographs and take pictures with dozens of fans.
All of them wanted a keepsake with the NFL's only two-way star.
Hunter played offense and defense in his regular-season debut, seeing action on both sides of the ball in Jacksonville's 26-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
He played primarily on offense — he was on the field for 44 of 63 snaps — and chipped in six defensive snaps.
“I did my job," said Hunter, the second pick in the NFL draft. "That was the main focus. I did what they asked me to do. I know I can do more and I know I can do better.”
The 2024 Heisman Trophy winner at Colorado, Hunter finished with six receptions for 33 yards. Coach Liam Coen and quarterback Trevor Lawrence said Hunter made no mistakes on any of his plays.
“He was great. Had some big catches, obviously," Lawrence said. “He's a weapon for us, and he's going to continue to get better and better. He's a matchup in space, great with the ball in his hands. Could have more out there. I felt like I could have gave him a few more opportunities with some of the ones I missed.”
Hunter looked like he might have a touchdown catch late in the second half, but Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn made a leaping, one-handed snag for an interception.
“If he doesn’t get up and make a great play like he did, yeah, I think that was a touchdown,” Hunter said.
Hunter played sparingly on defense mostly because he missed 10 days late in the preseason because of an upper-body injury. Coen said he missed practices in which the defense installed unique coverage schemes for the Panthers.
“It was maybe a little bit less for him this game,” Coen said. “I think it will only continue to evolve and go more. ... I can only see it going and expanding from here.”
During the opener, Hunter gladly served as a sideline cheerleader who was one of the first to revel in big plays with teammates.
“I was just excited to go out there and ready to go out there and win with my team and just bring that energy,” Hunter said. “Every game, I’m trying to bring the energy and bring the guys up and make sure we stay true to ourselves and be the team we know we can be.”
Hunter cut his dreadlocks before the game, saying “it was just time. Time to let it go. New me, new person. Welcome to a new chapter in my life. Just chop it off.”
He also spent time with his grandmother and other family members in the stadium before kickoff. After the game, he celebrated with fans by taking a victory lap like he often did in college.
“It's not hard. I just got to go out there and be myself,” Hunter said. “I've been doing this for a long time, and my job is to go out there and bring the energy and do my job.”
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Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) gives autographs to fans after an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) runs with the ball against Carolina Panthers defensive end Derrick Brown (95) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) signs greets fans after an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Jacksonville, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
MILAN (AP) — Milan’s storied Teatro alla Scala celebrates its gala season premiere Sunday with a Russian opera for the second time since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But this year, instead of drawing protests for showcasing the invader’s culture, a flash mob will demonstrate for peace.
La Scala’s music director Riccardo Chailly will conduct Dmitry Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” for the gala season opener that draws luminaries from culture, business and politics for one of the most anticipated events of the European cultural calendar.
Shostakovich's 1934 opera highlights the condition of women in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and was blacklisted just days after the communist leader saw a performance in 1936, the threshold year of his campaign of political repression known as the Great Purge.
The Italian liberal party +Europa announced a demonstration outside the theater as dignitaries arrive “to draw attention to the defense of liberty and European democracy, threatened today by Putin’s Russia, and to support the Ukrainian people.’’
The party underlined that Shostakovich's opera exposes the abuse of power and the role of personal resistance.
Due to security concerns, authorities moved the protest from the square facing La Scala, to another behind City Hall.
Chailly began working with Russian stage director Vasily Barkhatov on the title about two years ago, following the 2022 gala season premiere of the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,” which was attended by Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, both of whom separated Russia’s politicians from its culture.
But outside the Godunov premiere, Ukrainians protested against highlighting Russian culture during a war rooted in the denial of a unique Ukrainian culture. The Ukrainian community did not announce any separate protests this year.
Chailly called the staging of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth" at La Scala for just the fourth time “a must.’’
“It is an opera that has long suffered, and needs to make up for lost time,’’ Chailly told a news conference last month.
La Scala’s new general manager, Fortunato Ortombina, defended the choices made by his predecessor to stage both Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth” and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov " at the theater best known for its Italian repertoire, but which has in recent years showcased other traditions.
‘‘Music is fundamentally superior to any ideological conflict,’’ Ortombina said on the sidelines of the press conference. “Shostakovich, and Russian music more broadly, have an authority over the Russian people that exceeds Putin's own.’’
American soprano Sara Jakubiak is making her La Scala debut in the title role of Katerina, whose struggle against existential repression leads her to commit murder, landing her in a Siberian prison where she dies. It’s the second time Jakubiak has sung the role, after performances in Barcelona last year, and she said Shostakovich's Katerina is full of challenges.
“That I’m a murderess, that I’m singing 47 high B flats in one night, you know, all these things,’’ Jakubiak said while sitting in the makeup chair ahead of the Dec. 4 preview performance to an audience of young people. “You go, ‘Oh my gosh, how will I do this?’ But you manage, with the right kind of work, the right team of people. Yes, we’re just going to go for the ride.”
Speaking to journalists recently, Chailly joked that he was “squeezing” Jakubiak like an orange. Jakubiak said she found common ground with the conductor known for his studious approach to the original score and composer’s intent.
“Whenever I prepare a role, it’s always the text and the music and the text and the rhythms,'' she said. “First, I do this process with, you know, a cup of coffee at my piano and then we add the other layers and then the notes. So I guess we’re actually somewhat similar in that regard.''
Jakubiak, best known for Strauss and Wagner, has a major debut coming in July when she sings her first Isolde in concert with Anthony Pappano and the London Symphony.
Barkhatov, who has a flourishing international career, called the choice of “Lady Macbeth,” “very brave and exciting.”
Barkhatov's stage direction sets the opera in a cosmopolitan Russian city in the 1950s, the end of Stalin’s regime, rather than a 19th-century rural village as written for the 1930s premier.
For Barkhatov, Stalin’s regime defines the background of the story and the mentality of the characters for a story he sees as a personal tragedy and not a political tale. Most of the action unfolds inside a restaurant appointed in period Art Deco detail, with a rotating balustrade creating a kitchen, a basement and an office where interrogations take place.
Despite the tragic arc, Barkhatov described the story as “a weird … breakthrough to happiness and freedom.’’
“Sadly, the statistics show that a lot of people die on their way to happiness and freedom,’’ he added.
Stage director Vasily Barkhatov sits during an interview with The Associated Press prior to the dressed rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A wig receives final touches ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
External view of Teatro all Scala ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Soprano Sara Jakubiak has her makeup done ahead of the dress rehearsal of Dmitri Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
The stage is prepared ahead of the dressed rehearsal of the Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, by Dmitri Shostakovich, at La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
