Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Jordan Love won’t be practicing with Packers with contract situation
GREEN BAY, Wis. | Jordan Love was wearing street clothes as he ran out alongside coach Matt LaFleur before the Green Bay Packers’ first training camp workout Monday.
Love won’t be practicing as long as negotiations on a contract extension for the quarterback remain unresolved, general manager Brian Gutekunst said before practice.
Gutekunst said Love reported to camp last week, but wouldn’t be working out until a deal is reached. Love’s contract is set to expire at the end of the season.
“We certainly understand where he’s coming from,” Gutekunst said. “We’d like him to be out there. It’s important for him to be out there. Obviously you guys know how important practice is, and working with his teammates. But as of now, until we get that resolved, he will not be practicing.”
Gutekunst remained optimistic the Packers and Love could reach a deal soon. He noted that Love is participating in all other team activities.
“Yeah, I think so,” Gutekunst said. “Again, you never know. We’re working really hard to get that done. I think it’s really important for us. … The thing that I have confidence in is we both want the same thing.”
LaFleur is taking things in stride.
“That’s part of our game and part of our business, but we’re confident that he’ll be out there sooner than later,” he said. “I know how he prepares, so I’m not overly concerned about that. He’s going to do everything he can to get the mental reps. Obviously, the physical reps are really what’s important.”
Love’s decision meant the Packers opened training camp with Sean Clifford and rookie seventh-round pick Michael Pratt as their only quarterbacks.
“The thing about Jordan is during OTAs (organized team activities), he was here 100 percent of the time,” Clifford said. “He’s been working the whole summer. Guys know that. Nobody’s questioning his work ethic. I got in here at 7. His bag was already in here. He’s in early, he’s staying late. He’s doing all the little things, so it’s no worry from the players.”
The Packers signed Love to a one-year extension in May 2023 that included $13.5 million in guaranteed money with another $9 million in incentives. That deal gave the Packers time to evaluate Love as he entered his first season as a starter after four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets.
Love responded by leading the NFL’s youngest team to a 10-9 season that included an NFC divisional playoff appearance.
While the Packers and Love have tried working out an extension this offseason, other quarterbacks have signed lucrative deals. Detroit’s Jared Goff signed a four-year, $212 million extension with $170 million guaranteed and Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence agreed to a five-year, $275 million extension with $142 million guaranteed.
“We’re going to support him 100%, just like he does for us,” receiver Christian Watson said. “He deserves every penny that he’s going to get — and more. I’m happy for him and, hopefully, he gets what he wants and we can get this thing chopping.”
Love, 25, completed 64.2% of his passes for 4,159 yards with 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions last season and improved dramatically as the season went on.
He threw 21 touchdown passes with only one interception during a nine-game stretch that culminated with a 48-32 upset of the Dallas Cowboys in a wild-card playoff game. Love did throw two second-half interceptions the following week in a 24-21 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Gutekunst said he wasn’t thinking much this spring about the likelihood Love might sit out some practices, but added that “if you get to a certain point, there’s a certain level of risk that a player takes by going out there, so you’re always aware that could happen.” Gutekunst praised Love for being “very open and forthright” throughout these negotiations.
“This is just part of it, not unexpected,” Gutekunst said. “We’ll work to get it done, and hopefully he won’t miss too much time.”
While Love waits for a new contract, defensive tackle Kenny Clark signed a three-year extension through the 2027 season on Sunday. The three-time Pro Bowler was entering the final season of the contract extension he signed in 2020.
“It’s great that everybody put the trust in me,” Clark said. “It’s just a testament to my work and how consistent I’ve been and how I take care of my body and the work I put in. I’m going to keep doing that, keep focusing on ball, keep focusing on helping this team get to a Super Bowl. That’s the goal.”
Bengals say QB Joe Burrow has been
cleared for contact
CINCINNATI | Joe Burrow and his surgically repaired wrist have been cleared for contact, and the Cincinnati Bengals star quarterback is ready to go for the opening of training camp on Wednesday.
Burrow was sidelined last season when he suffered a torn ligament in his right wrist in the 10th game, a loss to Baltimore on Nov. 16. He had surgery Nov. 27.
“We just we need Joe to be out there,” new offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher said. “He’s going to be out there. He’s worked himself in a really good place physically and mentally.”
Coach Zac Taylor doesn’t know yet if any kind of accommodations will be made for Burrow in training camp and doesn’t know yet if the quarterback — or any of the regulars — will play in the preseason games.
But Taylor said he is feeling optimistic about Burrow.
“My impression of him, just seen him over the last several months, has been very positive, and he’s ready to go,” Taylor said.
Burrow knows the drill when it comes to rehab. In his rookie year in 2020, he injured his knee while being sacked in Week 11 against Washington. He finished rehab just in time for the start of the 2021 season.
Appendicitis caused him to miss all of training camp in 2022. On the second day of camp in 2023, Burrow strained a calf muscle. He didn’t miss any games, but the injury limited his mobility in the early part of the season.
Pitcher said having Burrow at 100% or close to it for training camp is critical to the ramping up of the Bengals offense, which will be operating with a new No. 1 running back, likely Zack Moss, a new right offensive tackle in Trent Brown, and a new No. 3 receiver following the departure of Tyler Boyd via free agency.
“So just having him and, you know, the effect that he has on everyone around him,” said Pitcher, the former quarterbacks coach who was promoted after Brian Callahan was hired as the head coach at Tennessee. “I think we feel it because we’re out there. We’re standing there. We know what it does, you know? But that’ll be a nice part of having him out there for all of camp.”
Another storyline of training camp is the possible timing of a new contract for wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, which owner Mike Brown and Duke Tobin, director of player personnel, said is a priority.
The 24-year-old star, who is under contract through 2025, likely will command a long-term deal in the neighborhood of Justin Jefferson’s four-year, $140 million deal with the Minnesota Vikings.
“Yeah, we’re aware of the numbers,” Tobin said. “We were aware of what other players have, and we were also aware of what we feel is right, what we can do with our team and what makes sense for us going forward. And so we talk about that, and we talked to Chase’s people about that. And we’ll see if something can get done. And we hope it can.”
ACC’s Phillips touts financial gains, intent
to fight lawsuits
CHARLOTTE, N.C. | Commissioner Jim Phillips firmly believes in the future of the Atlantic Coast Conference amid the uncertainty of realignment and the wholesale changes to the model of college athletics itself.
He was ready to tell everyone why, too, as the league opened its preseason football media days Monday.
Trading his typically reserved comments for a more assertive message, Phillips touted the gains made from years of working to improve the ACC’s financial standing. He promised the league will fight “as long as it takes” in legal cases against Florida State and Clemson as those member schools challenge the league’s ability to charge hundreds of millions of dollars for leaving the conference. And he came bearing specifics, from dollar amounts to recent national-title counts.
“This league is better than the narrative that it’s getting right now because people want to talk about what may happen instead of about what is happening,” Phillips said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The league opened its four-day “ACC Kickoff” event Monday in an expanded format after the additions of California and Stanford from the Pac-12, and SMU from the American Athletic Conference. Phillips, preparing for his fourth full season leading the ACC, pulled back the curtain a bit on a league that he described as “aggressive” in battling a growing revenue gap behind its Big Ten and Southeastern Conference peers.
“Our M.O. has not been to do this in the public eye,” Phillips told the AP. “Ours is to do it internally, to be aggressive, and to look at every avenue possible for us to grow the revenue. … That will continue, not only what we’ve done and what we’re going to do in the future.”
For example, Phillips said the league’s addition of the three new schools will create $600 million in additional incremental revenue gains through the ACC’s current ESPN deal running through 2036. Additionally, a league that has long leaned on equitable distributions has Cal and Stanford taking reduced payouts (around 30%) through the first seven seasons before gradually increasing those amounts to a full share in the 10th season, while SMU is forgoing nine years of TV money.
Additionally, there’s this season’s launch of a success-driven incentive model with schools able to keep more money based on their own postseason success instead of sending them to conference coffers to be divvied up evenly. Phillips said that could amount to $20 million to $25 million in additional payouts for schools based on success in the College Football Playoff, bowl games and the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Throw in corporate partnerships and sponsorships of marquee events like the high-profile men’s basketball tournament earlier this year, and Phillips is pointing to multiple revenue streams to enhance the bottom line.
“I think we’ve done a really good job in a challenging situation to generate the revenue we’ve generated, new revenue,” Phillips said. “To also be able to unanimously accept disproportionate revenue for the first time with the success initiative and (expansion), that takes alignment. That’s not easy to do.
“The idea is we have to continue this kind of forward momentum into the future. So we have to be creative.”
The good news is those measures come amid years of record revenues, even though the ACC lags behind what many regard now as a Power Two with the Big Ten and SEC.
According to tax documents, the ACC distributed an average of $44.8 million to its 14 football-playing members (Notre Dame receives a partial share as a football independent) and $706.6 million in total revenue for the 2022-23 season. That marked an increase of 13.6% in payouts from the previous year, with Phillips saying increases in the league’s TV contract accounted for roughly two-thirds of that bump.
Additionally, TV revenue has increased from roughly $288.6 million in the 2018-19 fiscal year before the launch of the ACC Network to $481.7 million for 2022-23, an increase of 66.9%.
Overall, the ACC ranked third behind the Big Ten ($879.9 million revenue, $60.3 million average payout) and SEC ($852.6 million, $51.3 million) in the most recent filings, and ahead of the smaller Big 12 ($510.7 million, $44.2 million). Of that quartet, the SEC (six), Big Ten (two) and ACC (two) have combined to win all 10 CFP championships leading into its expansion to a 12-team field for this season.
“All the data says it’s a top-3 conference,” said SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said of the Mustangs’ new home.
And those revenue numbers don’t factor in the recent wave of realignment that tore apart the Pac-12 and scattered its pieces throughout the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12, as well as sending the Big 12’s two top football brands (Texas and Oklahoma) to the SEC.
Still, Phillips knows the league faces challenges beyond money.
He called the lawsuits filed by FSU and Clemson “extremely damaging, disruptive and harmful” during his annual forum. Most notably, those schools are challenging the league’s grant-of-rights media agreement that gives the ACC control of media rights for any school that attempts to leave for the duration of its ESPN deal. League schools signed that agreement in the lead-up to the ACC Network’s 2019 launch.
The league has also sued those schools to enforce the agreement in a legal dispute that has no end in sight and leaves everyone likely locked in position.
“I can say that we will fight to protect the ACC and our members for as long as it takes,” Phillips said emphatically during the forum.
Asked later about his comments, Phillips told the AP: “It’s important for our membership to know, as well as the country, where we’re at.”
Still, there were the awkward optics that came with Florida State being among the schools featured after Phillips’ forum. For Seminoles coach Mike Norvell, there was little to say beyond trying to win a second straight title in a league that FSU is also pushing to exit.
“Life is full of distractions,” Norvell said. “At the end of the day you stay focused on the things that are in front of you and ultimately the things that you can control. I’m fortunate to have the responsibility to help lead this team and that is where my focus is going to be.”
LeBron James scores
final 11 points for U.S.
in win over Germany
On Friday, LeBron James will carry the U.S. flag. But first, he carried the U.S. men’s basketball team.
Again.
James scored the final 11 points for the Americans down the stretch, and the four-time reigning Olympic gold medalists held off World Cup champion Germany 92-88 in London on Monday night in their final tune-up before the Paris Games start later this week.
Announced earlier in the day as the male flagbearer for the Americans in Friday night’s opening ceremony down the River Seine — the female flagbearer will be revealed Tuesday — James came through time and time again down the stretch, just as he did over the weekend when his layup with 8 seconds left gave the U.S. a 101-100 win over upstart South Sudan.
James had 20 points for the U.S., while Joel Embiid scored 15, Stephen Curry had 13 and Anthony Edwards finished with 11.
“It was a good test for us. And I’m glad we were able to once again, you know, keep our composure, persevere like we did the other day versus South Sudan,” James said. “It was a good win for us.”
Franz Wagner led Germany with 18 points. Andreas Obst — the hero of last year’s German win over the U.S. in the World Cup semifinals — had 14, while Dennis Schroder had a 13-point, 10-assist night. Daniel Theis added 13 for Germany and Moritz Wagner scored 12.
The Americans finished their exhibition slate 5-0, but there was only one game that was a true cakewalk. That was against Serbia, the team that’ll face the U.S. on Sunday in the first Olympic game this summer for both teams.
Canada gave the U.S. issues at times, Australia came from way back to make things interesting at the end, South Sudan nearly pulled off an upset as a 43.5-point underdog and the Germans had the lead over the U.S. with 4 minutes left on Monday.
Then it was James’ time. He outscored Germany 11-6 by himself in the final 3:57.
And now, Paris awaits. The games start for real this weekend.
“We’ve had every experience,” Curry said. “Now it’s obviously a matter of showing up when the lights are bright next week. I think we’re ready. I think we’re prepared. Now we have to perform.”
3-point troubles
For the second consecutive game, the U.S. got outscored by 21 points from 3-point range. And it nearly burned the Americans again.
Germany was 13 for 45 from beyond the arc, the U.S. was 6 for 17, and that’s a 39-18 difference in points from deep.
South Sudan outscored the U.S. 42-21 from deep on Saturday.
Also not helping the U.S. cause on Monday: it had 14 turnovers to Germany’s seven.
“I don’t think we’ve played our best offensive game yet,” Curry said.
Looking back
Theis had 26 points, while Schroder and Obst had 24 apiece in Germany’s 113-111 win over the U.S. in the World Cup at Manila a year ago.
That trio was fantastic again Monday, combining for 40 points.
It should be noted that the loss to Germany last year was about when some players — James, for example — started seriously thinking about joining the U.S. program for this run to the Paris Games.
No Durant
Kevin Durant got some pregame shots up again, just as he did Saturday in London. And, again, that was the extent of his game-night action.
The three-time gold medalist did not play while he continues to recover from the calf strain he suffered a few days before the U.S. convened for training camp in Las Vegas.
Durant missed all five pre-Olympic games exhibitions, though he did practice this past weekend. He has not appeared in a real game since late April, when Phoenix was swept in a first-round NBA playoff series by Minnesota.
Tiger Woods watches 15-year-old son Charlie shoot a 12-over 82
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. | Charlie Woods, the 15-year-old son of Tiger Woods, covered his face with his cap after shaking hands with his playing partners on the 18th green at the Oakland Hills North Course.
Woods shot a 12-over 82 on Monday in the U.S. Junior Amateur, a tournament he played his way into.
“He still qualified,” Tiger Woods said to his son’s caddie after the rough round.
“That’s what I keep telling him,” caddie Luke Wise said.
Woods earned a spot in the field of top juniors from around the world when he shot a 1-under 71 to win his qualifier last month in Coral Springs, Florida.
He will have to have quite a turnaround Tuesday on the Oakland Hills South Course, which Ben Hogan called “The Monster,” to be among the low 64 scorers from a field of 264 players from 40 states and 35 countries.
Charlie Woods is the only one in the world who knows what it’s like to be the son of Tiger Woods, and now he’s fully aware of what it’s like to compete with all eyes on him.
At an event that usually draws a few hundred people for the championship match, about 100 were waiting on the first tee to see Charlie play while his dad watched, and at least that many spectators followed them for hours.
Oakland Hills had six members assigned to assist with crowd control. That wasn’t enough, and 10 more men were dispatched to hold ropes to give the players — and Tiger — some space.
After Charlie hit his tee shot on the seventh hole and left behind his tee, adorned with a palm tree, a fan took it out of the ground to keep as a memento.
“I feel like he’s feeling pressure,” said 35-year-old John Pinch of Warren, Michigan. “If his dad could talk to him, he would probably try to get him to settle down.
“You can tell he’s really down on himself.”
Charlie was frustrated and let it show, slamming and swinging clubs into the ground after errant shots and shaking his head from side to side.
His father was relatively helpless because rules prevent parents from coaching their children during the tournament.
After a brief exchange prior to the round on the practice green, Tiger didn’t say a word to his son and didn’t appear to even make eye contact as he watched from afar while surrounded by police officers — at least one of whom snapped photos — and security personnel.
Without a doubt, Tiger wished his son could hear him on the 181-yard, par-3 fourth.
A rules official gave Charlie relief because his ball landed on a metal cap on the right side of the green.
“He gets a club length,” Tiger said, standing out of earshot of his son.
Tiger wanted his son to place his ball to the left, but Charlie elected to take relief to the right.
“No, no, no,” Tiger muttered to himself. “Go the other way.”
Charlie ended up with his first of five double bogeys at No. 4 to go with four bogeys and two birdies — on both of the par 5s.
He was wild off the tee — often missing to the right — came up short on a series of flop shots out of thick rough and sailed some approaches over greens.
Tiger was 14 when he qualified for his first U.S. Junior and reached the semifinals. He won his first U.S. Junior a year later and went on to become the only player to win the tournament three times in a row.
Tiger traveled to suburban Detroit from Scotland after matching his highest 36-hole score as a professional at the British Open, missing the cut for the third straight time in a major.
—From AP reports
