Sports category, Page 1814
5th-year options due on Steelers safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick, Terrell Edmunds
There are plenty of decisions that need to be made by the Pittsburgh Steelers during an offseason that began after this past Sunday’s playoff loss. A couple of the easier ones involve picking up fifth-year contract options. For the first time, the Steelers have a pair to exercise — and...
Sidney Crosby’s jersey top seller on NHL’s store in 2020
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby had the top-selling jersey on the NHL’s online store for 2020. Sales of Crosby jerseys topped those of Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and Toronto’s Auston Matthews for 2020, according to the NHL. Former Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, now with the Las Vegas Golden...
Kevin Stefanski out of basement, back with Browns after covid-19
CLEVELAND — Browns coach Kevin Stefanski doesn’t plan a trip downstairs to his basement any time soon. “Those walls were closing in on me,” he said. Stefanski returned to the team’s facility Thursday, 10 days after the first-year coach tested positive with the virus and after he missed Cleveland’s playoff...
Steelers part ways with offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, 2 other assistants
The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t waste time shaking up their coaching staff after their sudden exit from the AFC playoffs. The franchise announced Thursday that offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett and defensive backs coach Tom Bradley won’t have their contracts renewed for the 2021 season. The announcement...
Urban Hire: Meyer returns to sidelines with NFL’s Jaguars
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Urban Meyer has won everywhere he’s coached. Small colleges. Big-time programs. He’s been a difference maker at each stop during his storied career. He’s ready to try something new: the NFL. Meyer agreed to become head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday, leaving the broadcast booth...
Bucs, Browns, Bills out to follow footsteps of champ Chiefs
Aside from winning the final Super Bowl before the merger in 1970, the Kansas City Chiefs’ biggest claim to fame for over half a century was team founder Lamar Hunt coining the phrase Super Bowl. Patrick Mahomes changed all of that a year ago when he led a furious fourth-quarter...
NFL wild-card games show potential for alternate broadcasts
LOS ANGELES — Brian Robbins directed “Varsity Blues” and was the producer of “Coach Carter,” but both of those might have been eclipsed last Sunday with Nickelodeon’s successful kids-oriented broadcast of an NFL playoff game. Even a couple days after last Sunday’s game, the president of Nickelodeon as well as...
Andy Murray tests positive for coronavirus before Australian Open
Andy Murray has tested positive for the coronavirus days before he was due to leave Britain for the Australian Open, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday. The three-time Grand Slam champion is isolating at home near London and still hopes to compete in...
First Call: JuJu Smith-Schuster refutes claims about exit plans, radio host walks back Kevin Colbert story
Plenty of Steelers talk in Thursday’s “First Call.” Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster is denying that he’s already planning to find a bigger market in free agency. The Detroit radio host who advanced the “Kevin Colbert to the Lions” story admits where he went wrong. And we find out if the...
U mad, bro?: Fans lambaste Steelers after humiliating playoff loss, Penguins after bad opener
This is one of those moments where I get out of the way and let Steelers fans get after it. The team just allowed its season to end in ignominious, humiliating fashion to the Cleveland Browns on wild-card weekend 48-37. People are fed up with head coach Mike Tomlin, quarterback...
Tim Benz: Based on his own ‘Tomlinisms,’ Mike Tomlin has failed to meet that ‘standard’ lately
We all know about the “Tomlinisms” from Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. His colorfully descriptive phrases to spin a sound bite. There’s usually a message underscoring those quotes, too. Truth and lessons underneath. The problem is, if you judge Tomlin by his own slogans, he hasn’t measured up to them...
Empty Thoughts: Flyers 6, Penguins 3Video
Observations from the Penguins’ 6-3 loss to the Flyers: This contest was not the best display of hockey. Sure, it was entertaining, particularly if you live east of Harrisburg. There were lots of goals, plenty of skating and relatively little defense. It looked like something from the 1980s, particularly when...
Duquesne falls apart in 2nd half in loss to Dayton
Let’s examine the state of the Duquesne basketball team through seven games after a 72-63 loss at Dayton on Wednesday night. • The Dukes (3-4, 2-3 Atlantic 10) can’t shoot well enough or find others enough open shots. The result is an unacceptable 34.8 shooting percentage over the past three...
Bills brace for run-dominant, Lamar Jackson-led Ravens
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes feels as if he’s back at TCU, where the Horned Frogs would open training camp prepping for the read-option offense to squeeze in extra time for what had been their annual meeting against Air Force. “Given all the misdirection, and...
Penguins open season with 3-goal loss to Flyers
On Wednesday, Mike Sullivan was somewhere he has not been very often over the previous 10 months. A bench in an NHL arena. Since March, the Pittsburgh Penguins coach had been conducting the duties of his office primarily through the lens of a laptop camera. A few hours before his...
Buttoned-down Baker: Mayfield showing maturity for BrownsVideo
CLEVELAND — Baker Mayfield answered every question with thoughtful responses, carefully choosing each word while knowing a wrong one could spark controversy. Cleveland’s quarterback has matured: buttoned-down Baker. Days before the biggest game of his NFL career and another matchup against Patrick Mahomes and the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas...
Positive coronavirus tests shut down Penn State wrestling program
The Penn State wrestling team shut down because of positive coronavirus tests within the program just days before its scheduled season opener, the school announced Wednesday. The Nittany Lions were set to open the season Saturday at Rutgers. The schools and Big Ten will work to reschedule the match. Penn...
Big Ten releases updated January schedule for Penn State men’s basketball
The Penn State men’s basketball team currently is scheduled to visit Purdue in Big Ten Conference play Sunday afternoon. Now, the Nittany Lions know when they will play previously postponed conference home games against Rutgers and Wisconsin. The conference Wednesday announced an updated January schedule for Penn State, which also...
Bears to keep Matt Nagy, GM Ryan Pace at least 1 more season
CHICAGO — Chairman George McCaskey insisted the Chicago Bears have the right culture to become a winning franchise. So the team is sticking with general manager Ryan Pace and coach Matt Nagy for at least another season. What helped convince him to stay the course rather than make sweeping changes?...
Browns, Chiefs bear unmistakable thumbprint of ex-GM John DorseyVideo
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It doesn’t take Andy Reid long when he pops on film of the Cleveland Browns for the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs to see the unmistakable thumbprint of former general manager John Dorsey in their style and personnel. Probably because Reid still sees it on...
Olympian Klete Keller charged with taking part in U.S. Capitol riot
Five-time Olympic swimming medalist Klete Keller was charged Wednesday with participating in a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol after video emerged that appeared to show him among those storming the building last week. An FBI complaint, citing screenshots from the video, asked that a warrant be issued charging Keller...
Browns get top CB Denzel Ward back from covid-19 list
Cleveland Browns rookie coach Kevin Stefanski said he’s on track to return to the team Thursday for playoff preparations after missing Sunday’s wild-card win in Pittsburgh with covid-19. He’ll get a few of his best players back, too. Stefanski jokingly called himself “probable” when asked if he’ll return as the...
WPIAL ‘publicly censures’ Woodland Hills basketball coach Matt Furjanic for tweet
Woodland Hills boys basketball coach Matt Furjanic tweets mostly about presidential politics to his 436 Twitter followers, but the WPIAL found one of his other posts more controversial. The WPIAL board decided Wednesday that Furjanic should be publicly admonished for using social media to question a technical foul called against...
Penguins place 3 players on injured reserve before opener
The Pittsburgh Penguins placed three players on injured reserve prior to the start of the season. Forwards Zach Aston-Reese, Sam Miletic and defenseman Zach Trotman will open the campaign on injured reserve. Aston-Reese still is recovering from surgery on his left shoulder in August. Based on the time frame of...
James Harden headed to Nets in 4-team blockbuster trade
HOUSTON — The Brooklyn Nets agreed to acquire three-time scoring champion James Harden from the Houston Rockets, a deal that reunites him with Kevin Durant and gives him the move that he has sought for weeks, said a person with knowledge of the situation. Harden is going to the Nets...
