Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Denver Broncos releasing star safety Justin Simmons
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. | Justin Simmons became one of the top free agents on the market Thursday when the Denver Broncos released their star safety in a cost-cutting move.
Simmons is the first veteran to pay the price for the enormous dead cap charges the Broncos are facing when they release quarterback Russell Wilson next week.
A second-team All-Pro in four of his last five seasons, Simmons intercepted multiple passes in each of his eight years in Denver and his 30 picks lead all NFL players since his rookie season in 2016, when the Broncos selected him in the third round out of Boston College.
Simmons was set to earn $14.5 million this upcoming season, the final year of the four-year, $61 million deal he signed in 2021.
All high-earning veterans on the Broncos roster are vulnerable to release because the team is facing a record $85 million in dead cap charges in the fallout from Wilson’s impending departure.
The team hasn’t decided whether to absorb $35.4 million or $53 million of Wilson’s dead-cap hit in 2024, but either way they’ve got a long way to go to get under the salary cap, and Simmons’ release is just the beginning of a painful roster purge this offseason.
Others who could follow Simmons out of Denver include left tackle Garett Bolles, linebacker Josey Jewell and receivers Tim Patrick and Courtland Sutton.
Simmons teamed with cornerback Patrick Surtain II the last three years to form one of the NFL’s most spectacular secondaries even as the Broncos extended their playoff drought to eight seasons and their string of losing campaigns to seven.
Simmons was also the Broncos’ most active player in charitable appearances and was a fan favorite on a team that’s had little to cheer for since winning Super Bowl 50 after the 2015 season.
In a series of posts on the social media site X, the Broncos thanked Simmons for his work both on and off the field, saying his “impact as a Bronco extends far beyond his exceptional play during eight seasons with our organization.”
“In addition to growing into an All-Pro and team captain, Justin became our perennial NFL Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year devoted to uplifting others and using his influence for positive change,” the team said. “Whether it was in Denver or his hometown of Stuart, Florida, Justin inspired and mentored countless youth while providing unwavering support to the community. The hundreds of hours he spent at the Denver Broncos Boys & Girls Club will be as much a part of Justin’s legacy with the Broncos as his leadership, dependability and many interceptions.
“Justin will always be a Bronco.”
In their hearts, at least.
Jake Paul fight
against Mike Tyson is announced for July 20
ARLINGTON, Texas | Social media star-turned-boxer Jake Paul will fight former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson on July 20 at AT&T Stadium, Netflix announced Thursday.
The streaming platform will provide live coverage of the bout between the 27-year-old Paul and 57-year-old Tyson, who hasn’t fought since he took on Roy Jones Jr. in an exhibition in November 2020. Paul and Tyson will be the main event of the first combat sports show for Netflix in its recent forays into live sports production.
It’s still uncertain whether this bout will be staged as an actual pro fight or an exhibition, particularly given the age of Tyson, who will be 58 by July. The specifics still must be approved by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which regulates boxing in the state.
Tyson posts workout videos on social media in which he looks sharp in training, but boxing is dangerous at any age. The California State Athletic Commission required his bout against Jones to be an exhibition — essentially a lively sparring session.
Paul built a significant fan following as a YouTube influencer before he embarked on a professional boxing career four years ago. He has won nine of 10 fights with six knockouts against mostly undistinguished opponents, including several mixed martial artists and a fellow YouTuber.
His only loss came last year to Tommy Fury, the less-accomplished half brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
“My sights are set on becoming a world champion, and now I have a chance to prove myself against the greatest heavyweight champion of the world, the baddest man on the planet and the most dangerous boxer of all time. Time to put Iron Mike to sleep,” Paul wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Iron Mike” Tyson was the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987-90. He retired in 2005 after winning 50 fights, 44 by knockout. His entertaining exhibition bout with Jones was unofficially ruled a draw.
“I’m very much looking forward to stepping into the ring with Jake Paul at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas,” said Tyson, who was in the crowd in Saudi Arabia last year when Paul lost to Fury. “He’s grown significantly as a boxer over the years, so it will be a lot of fun to see what the will and ambition of a ‘kid’ can do with the experience and aptitude of a GOAT. It’s a full circle moment that will be beyond thrilling to watch; as I started him off on his boxing journey on the undercard of my fight with Roy Jones and now I plan to finish him.”
Paul had his second pro bout on the undercard of the Tyson-Jones fight, knocking out former NBA player Nate Robinson. His most recent fight was last Saturday, when he stopped journeyman professional boxer Ryan Bourland.
Paul has gradually raised his level of competition in recent years while pursuing his dream of fighting for a real world title. A bout against the still-revered Tyson would be a sidestep on that quest, but still his highest-profile stage yet.
Paul’s company, Most Valuable Promotions, is partnering with Netflix to stage the show.
The fight card at the Dallas Cowboys’ home stadium will be the third venture into live sporting events for Netflix, which staged a golf/auto racing crossover event last November. Last weekend, the streaming giant held The Netflix Slam, an exhibition tennis match between Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas.
Cole Brauer becomes first American woman to race sailboat alone and nonstop around world
A CORUNA, Spain | Alone, Cole Brauer braved three oceans and the elements as she navigated her sailboat for months.
When she and her 40-foot sailboat arrived Thursday in A Coruña, Spain, the 29-year-old became the first American woman to race nonstop around the world by herself, traveling across about 30,000 miles.
Brauer, all 5-foot-2 and 100 pounds of her, is one of more than a dozen sailors competing in the Global Solo Challenge. Brauer was the youngest and only woman in the group that set sail in October from A Coruña.
The starts were staggered. Brauer took off Oct. 29. As of Thursday, some in the field had dropped out of the race.
The race took Brauer south along the west coast of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and then eastward toward Australia. From there, she continued east where Brauer faced the unpredictable, treacherous and deadly Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America before continuing northeast across the Atlantic Ocean toward Spain.
The race took her 130 days to complete.
“This is really cool and so overwhelming in every sense of the word,” NBC News reported Brauer saying before drinking Champagne from her trophy Thursday while being celebrated by family and fans.
While Brauer is the first American woman to circumnavigate the globe alone by sea, she is not first woman to do so. Polish sailor Krystina Chojnowska-Liskiewicz finished her 401-day voyage around the globe on April 21, 1978, according to online sailing sites.
Kay Cottee of Australia was the first woman to achieve the feat nonstop, sailing off from Sydney Harbor in Australia in November 1987 and returning 189 days later.
The global voyage is not an easy one, even on a vessel with a full crew.
“Solo sailors, you have to be able to do everything,” Brauer told the NBC “Today” show Thursday. “You need to be able to take care of yourself. You need to be able to get up, even when you’re so exhausted. And you have to be able to fix everything on the boat.”
Satellite communications allowed Brauer to stay in touch with her racing team and connect with fans on social media, where she posted videos from the race and her boat, “First Light.”
Along the way she encountered 30-foot (9.1-meter) waves that tossed her about the boat, according to NBC News.
She injured a rib and even gave herself an IV to fend off dehydration.
Sailing solo means not just being a skipper but a project manager, said Marco Nannini, the race’s organizer. That means steering the vessel, making repairs, knowing the weather and keeping yourself healthy, he said.
“The biggest asset is your mental strength, not the physical one,” Nannini said. “Cole is showing everyone that.”
One of Brauer’s social media posts from Dec. 8 showed her frustration.
“I haven’t really had the bandwidth to get into everything that’s been going on the past 48 hours, but the short version is the autopilot has been acting up again and I needed to replace some parts and do a rudder recalibration,” she wrote. “For once the light air is actually helping, but it’s been exhausting, and I’m sore and tired.”
“It’s all part of the journey, and I’m sure I’ll be feeling better once the work is done and I’ve gotten some sleep,” Brauer added. “But right now things are tough.”
But she’s handled the tough, even though some in the sport believed it wouldn’t be possible due to her gender and small frame.
“I push so much harder when someone’s like, ‘no, you can’t do that,’ or ‘you’re too small,’” Brauer said.
“It would be amazing if there was just one other girl that saw me and said ‘oh, I can do that, too,’” she added.
Toronto Maple Leafs
join the NHL trade deadline party
With one sleep left before the NHL trade deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs joined the party Thursday by bulking up on defense, while two Western Conference Stanley Cup contenders made more moves to improve in crucial areas.
Colorado acquired a pair of versatile forwards from Central Division rivals, Brandon Duhaime from Minnesota and Yakov Trenin from Nashville, Edmonton got defenseman Troy Stecher from Arizona and Toronto received Joel Edmundson from Washington.
“Every team has a window in which they see success or a key moment of time for the organization — whether it’s two years, five years, depending on expiring contracts who they have to renew,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “There’s lots of teams going all-in: teams that feel like they’ve got a chance to win, if they add certain things to their lineup, they’re going to go all-in. Your goal is to win the Stanley Cup. We’re not trying to be a mediocre team.”
It shows. Colorado and Edmonton stayed active, after the Avalanche added center Casey Mittelstadt and defenseman Sean Walker in separate deals and the Oilers giving themselves serious depth down the middle by trading with Anaheim for Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick.
The Avalanche sent a 2026 third-round pick to the Wild for Duhaime and a 2025 third and defense prospect Jeremy Hanzel to the Predators for Trenin and the rights to unsigned draft pick Graham Sward. The Oilers sent a 2027 fourth-round pick to the Coyotes for Stecher, and the Leafs got Edmundson fromt he Capitals for a a third-rounder this year and a 2025 fifth.
Toronto’s trade for Edmundson started the action Thursday, adding some much needed toughness on the blue line. He’s a left shot, which the Leafs have plenty of, but his playoff experience alone makes Edmundson a potentially important acquisition for a team dreaming of an extended run this spring.
The Capitals are retaining a quarter of Edmundson’s salary after Montreal already has half from a trade last offseason and getting a third-rounder that originally belonged to the New York Islanders. Salary retention makes the him quite the bargain for the Leafs at a cap hit of $875,000, just above the league minimum.
Edmundson, 30, helped the St. Louis Blues win the Stanley Cup in 2019 and is a pending free agent. He has skated over 16 minutes a game this season with Washington.
Earlier in the week, Edmundson seemed content with the possibility of being traded to a contender, though his focus at the time was on helping the Capitals.
“Everyone wants to win,” he said. “I want to win every year, so I think once you get that feeling once, you just want it to happen every year and when you see other teams win it, you just kind of get jealous and frustrated. So yeah, we all want to win it every year.”
But it’s not just the championship contenders getting in on the action. The Predators, who hold one of the two wild-card playoff spots in the West, acquired winger Anthony Beauvillier from Chicago for a 2024 fifth-round pick.
Nashville also claimed forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings. Carolina could be making space for a big move, after the Hurricanes put goaltender Antti Raanta, defenseman Tony DeAngelo and forward Brendan Lemieux on waivers.
Still also likely to be moved before 3 p.m. EST on Friday are Pittsburgh’s Jake Guentzel and Reilly Smith, New Jersey winger Tyler Toffoli, Washington center Nic Dowd and a couple of more Arizona pending free agents: defenseman Matthew Dumba and ex-Penguins forward Jason Zucker. The Devils are holding out Toffoli from their game Thursday night for trade-related reasons, and San Jose is doing the same with Alexander Barabanov and Anthony Duclair.
Seattle’s Jordan Eberle, who’s also on an expiring contract, could also be the next to go after the Kraken sent Alexander Wennberg to the New York Rangers on Wednesday.
“From a player standpoint, we just want to continue to win,” Eberle said. “From a management standpoint, it’s a little harder, right, because they’re stuck between, do we have a chance, or do we want to get rid of some pieces? I can’t really say anything on their behalf. I think I can only say as a player, we’re just focusing on winning.”
College football’s early signing period moves up
College football’s early signing period will move up three weeks from mid-December to the week preceding conference championship games, starting in 2024.
The Collegiate Commissioners Association, which oversees and administers the National Letter of Intent program that schools and recruits use to make verbal commitments official and binding, announced the change Friday.
The start of the traditional signing period will remain on the first Wednesday of February and continue to run through April 1. The three-day early signing period will now start the Wednesday after Thanksgiving weekend, when the major college football regular season ends.
The CCA, which is comprised of the commissioners of all 32 Division I conferences, also said it is still considering a proposal to add a third signing period for college football in June, starting in 2025. A decision will be made by this June, the CCA’s new release said.
The December signing period for football was added in 2017 and quickly became the primary signing period for high school recruits going on to play major college football. Typically, about 80% of available scholarships are accounted for during the December period.
When NCAA transfer rules were loosened in 2021 to allow college football players to more easily switch schools without having to sit out a season, it required the creation of transfer windows after the regular season and led to an overcrowded December recruiting calendar.
The new early signing period would end before the transfer window opens.
—From AP reports
