Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Commanders hiring Cowboys defensive coordinator as coach
The Washington Commanders have an agreement with Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn to hire him as coach, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the team had not yet announced the move. Washington was the final NFL team to fill its head-coaching vacancy.
Quinn, 53, spent the past three seasons running the defense for the NFC East-rival Cowboys after five-plus seasons coaching the Atlanta Falcons. Quinn coached the Falcons to a Super Bowl appearance in 2016 before being fired after an 0-5 start in 2020.
He became Washington’s choice after Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, considered a top candidate, told teams Tuesday he was staying with Detroit and the Seahawks hired Baltimore defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald on Wednesday.
Controlling owner Josh Harris, new general manager and head of football operations Adam Peters and Quinn give the organization a much-desired new approach after four years of Ron Rivera in charge of everything turned out to be a disappointment. Harris was committed to splitting the personnel and coaching duties this time around.
Much like Peters with the ability to hire a new coach, Quinn now gets the chance to fill out his own staff in his second stint as an NFL head coach. It remains to be seen if Eric Bieniemy returns as offensive coordinator, though that’s not expected, and that position on defense is vacant after Rivera fired Jack Del Rio midway through this past season.
Quinn’s defense ranked fifth in the league in yards and points allowed, helping Dallas win the NFC East before losing in the first round of the playoffs. He inherits the Commanders after they went 4-13, including two blowout losses to the Cowboys.
Washington does have the second pick in the draft, more than $80 million in salary cap space and the opportunity for Peters and Quinn to handpick the next quarterback for a franchise that has not had any consistency at the position in decades.
After Johnson pulled himself out of consideration, Washington brass had to pivot to other candidates. Macdonald going to Seattle made Quinn the front-runner, and he got the job over the likes of Detroit defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and Baltimore assistant Anthony Weaver.
Quinn represents the leader Peters was looking for in the successor to Rivera.
Quinn had also been linked to the Seahawks, for whom he worked under Pete Carroll as defensive coordinator in 2013 and 2014 before getting his first chance to run a team with Atlanta. The Falcons led 28-3 in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5, 2017, before losing to the New England Patriots.
A New Jersey native, Quinn broke into coaching by running the defensive line for William & Mary in 1994 before one year at Virginia Military Institute and five at Hofstra. He worked on staff for San Francisco, the New York Jets and Seattle from 2001-10, returned to college at Florida and went back to the Seahawks, helping them win the Super Bowl in the 2013 season.
Quinn joins an organization that hasn’t won a championship since 1992 and owns only two playoff victories over the past three decades.
Quarterback — as usual in Washington — is the biggest question, and Peters and Quinn now have a major decision to make at the most important position in football, after Sam Howell petered out in 17 games as the starter. The No. 2 pick could be an opportunity to take North Carolina’s Drake Maye, or they could decide to explore options by trade or through free agency.
Lewis Hamilton
will leave Mercedes
to join Ferrari
Lewis Hamilton shocked the motorsports world Thursday when the seven-time Formula One champion said he will leave Mercedes at the end of the season to join Ferrari, which had tried to land Hamilton before he signed his latest contract extension with the Silver Arrows.
Hamilton only finalized a two-year extension with Mercedes at the end of August. Mercedes said Thursday the 39-year-old British driver has activated a release clause in that new deal that will allow him to join Ferrari in 2025.
“I have had an amazing 11 years with this team and I’m so proud of what we have achieved together. Mercedes has been part of my life since I was 13 years old,” Hamilton said in a team statement. “It’s a place where I have grown up, so making the decision to leave was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. But the time is right for me to take this step and I’m excited to be taking on a new challenge.”
Hamilton moved from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013 and won six of his seven titles with the Silver Arrows. His 103 race victories are an F1 record, but his last win was in the penultimate race of the 2021 season as Mercedes has struggled to get its new car up to speed against rival Red Bull.
News first broke early Thursday about Hamilton’s move, but it took the remainder of the day for the teams to address the speculation. Mercedes, with comment from both Hamilton and team principal Toto Wolff, finally said Hamilton was leaving and moments later Ferrari posted a team statement that said simply “Scuderia Ferrari is pleased to announce that Lewis Hamilton will be joining the team in 2025, on a multi-year contract.”
Next came a statement from current Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr., who had been in talks on a contract extension but negotiations had seemed to stall near the end of last year.
“Following today’s news, Scuderia Ferrari and myself will part ways at the end of 2024,” Sainz wrote. “We still have a long season ahead of us and, like always, I will give my absolute best for the team and for the Tifosi all around the world. News about my future will be announced in due course.”
Hamilton will finish his run at Mercedes alongside current teammate George Russell. He will be teammates at Ferrari with Charles Leclerc, who in December agreed to a long-term extension.
Hamilton will be 40 when he moves into a red and black uniform to represent Ferrari. His last championship was in 2020 and he was enroute to a record-breaking eighth title in the 2021 season finale until a controversial finish gave the title to Max Verstappen, who has since gone on to win three consecutive titles as Red Bull has surpassed Mercedes as the top team in F1.
Ferrari, meanwhile, has not won a drivers’ title since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.
The Hamilton move is fairly stunning, even after prolonged negotiations on the extension he signed last year led to speculation he was considering a move to another team. During one news conference last season, Leclerc was asked about the rumors of a new teammate at Ferrari and turned to Hamilton, laughed, and said “Hello, Lewis.”
Still, Hamilton signed the Mercedes extension and insisted he wanted to end his career with his current team because of “unfinished business” and a desire to help Mercedes rebuild its struggling team.
Instead, Wolff said both sides knew their relationship “would come to a natural end at some point, and that day has now come.”
“In terms of a team-driver pairing, our relationship with Lewis has become the most successful the sport has seen, and that’s something we can look back on with pride; Lewis will always be an important part of Mercedes motorsport history,” Wolff said. “We accept Lewis’s decision to seek a fresh challenge, and our opportunities for the future are exciting to contemplate. But for now, we still have one season to go, and we are focused on going racing to deliver a strong 2024.”
Hamilton also praised Wolff for his leadership.
“I will be forever grateful for the incredible support of my Mercedes family, especially Toto for his friendship and leadership and I want to finish on a high together,” Hamilton said. “I am 100% committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows, one to remember.”
Mercedes won only one race in 2022 — and it was a Russell win — as the team admittedly badly missed in the design of its new car. Mercedes has spent the past two years trying to improve the car and was winless last season, although Hamilton finished third in the driver standings with six podium finishes.
Leclerc ended last season with three podiums in the last four races as Ferrari began to show signs of being able to contend with Red Bull.
There had been reports for much of last season that Hamilton was being personally courted by Ferrari chairman John Elkann, but former Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said Thursday the Hamilton signing was “unexpected.”
“I hope it can be useful not only for the competitiveness of the team but that it also represents a way to attract attention to the Scuderia, which was needed,” said Montezemolo, who led Ferrari from 1991 to 2014 when the team won six drivers titles and eight constructors championships with Michael Schumacher setting records.
“Hamilton is a great champion who will want to end his career by winning the world title. Leclerc is seeking his first title, so it will be fun,” Montezemolo continued. “But with two No. 1s, it will be even more important to have a winning car — that will be key, otherwise this choice could end up being a big risk.”
F1’s preseason testing begins in Bahrain on Feb. 21 and the first race is in Bahrain on March 2.
NCAA places 15-year show cause against ex-Alabama baseball coach
The NCAA handed down a five-year suspension as part of a 15-year show cause order against former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon on Thursday, effectively banning him from college coaching, after he provided information to a gambler who used it to make illegal wagers against the Crimson Tide.
The NCAA and Alabama came to a negotiated resolution in the case that involved multiple Level I and II violations, although Bohannon didn’t participate in the investigation. The school was hit with three years of probation and a $5,000 fine, and agreed to additional education programming for athletes, coaches and staff on the potential harms of gambling.
Bohannon was cited for violating NCAA principles of “honesty and sportsmanship” when he provided information about an injury to his starting pitcher to Bert Eugene Neff on April 28, 2023, before Alabama played LSU. Neff pleaded guilty Wednesday to obstruction of justice in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Under conditions of the show cause order, if another school hires Bohannon in an athletically related position during the 15 years, it would be required to appear in front of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions to explain why and to suspend him for 100% of regular-season games over the first five years of his employment. After the five years, a school would still be subjected to increased penalties if rules violations occurred under Bohannon.
The NCAA released redacted text messages from Bohannon urging Neff to make a big bet against his team “HAMMER … (Student-athlete) is out for sure … Lemme know when I can tell LSU… Hurry.”
Starting pitcher Luke Holman was a late scratch because of back issues before that game and Alabama lost 8-6.
Shortly after that, Neff attempted to place a $100,000 bet on the Alabama game, but the sportsbook limited him to $15,000 and wouldn’t let him place more bets “due to suspicious activity,” the NCAA said. That included telling the staff that LSU was “for sure going to win” and “if only you guys knew what I knew.” He also showed them messages from Bohannon, the NCAA said.
“Integrity of games is of the utmost importance to NCAA members, and the panel is deeply troubled by Bohannon’s unethical behavior,” said Vince Nicastro, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the Big East and chief hearing officer for the panel. “Coaches, student-athletes and administrators have access to information deemed valuable to those involved in betting. Improperly sharing that information for purposes of sports betting cuts to the heart of the honesty and sportsmanship we expect of our members and is particularly egregious when shared by those who have the ability to influence the outcome of games.”
Alabama issued a statement citing its cooperation with the investigation and noting that nobody else at the university was cited for wrongdoing.
“The university remains committed to investigating and addressing compliance issues on a fully transparent and cooperative basis with the NCAA,” the school’s statement said. “Moreover, we have and will continue to provide student-athletes, coaches and staff with robust training on the strict rules surrounding gambling and warnings about the inherent personal dangers of loss and addiction.”
Under Neff’s plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend he receive a sentence on the lower end of the federal guidelines, which could result in a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $250,000. The plea deal says Neff shared Bohannon’s information with four other gamblers, who placed wagers on the game, and then lied to FBI agents.
Injured downhill star Kilde calls for better World Cup schedules
GENEVA | Skiers must be consulted about better World Cup race-day schedules to help protect them from injuries, downhill star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde said Thursday.
The former overall World Cup champion and two-time Olympic medalist spoke out in his first call with international media since a shocking Jan. 13 crash on the storied Wengen downhill ended his season.
“It’s super important that we look at something that’s more sustainable,” Kilde said in an online call from his winter base in Austria where he expects to spend several weeks using a wheelchair. “We as athletes need to speak up.”
The 31-year-old Norwegian is among a slew of World Cup, Olympic and world champions to crash hard in a packed January program, including his partner Mikaela Shiffrin. The American standout women’s skier is chasing a women’s record-equaling sixth overall World Cup title.
Kilde hit the fences at the last turn of the longest downhill of the season when racing for the third straight day, and after two third-place results loaded his schedule with media and public events.
His injuries were reported as a dislocated shoulder and lacerated calf though both were more serious than first seemed.
Kilde explained he posted a vivid photograph of his leg injury on social media to help people understand the severity. He got calls and messages from people congratulating him that the injuries were not more severe and hoping to see him race again soon.
“I was like: ‘No, you won’t!’” he said Thursday, adding the photo included in an Instagram slide show was aimed at “getting sort of respect around my injury that I feel like I needed.”
Kilde is renowned as one of the strongest and hardest working ski racers, though he acknowledged his future is unclear.
“It’s too early for me to say whether I’ll be able to ski the way I want to and win races again,” he said, adding his first focus is on just walking again. “I’m pretty positive it’s going to be all good in the end.”
Kilde wants to be heard by race organizers including the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS).
Currently, a top skier’s day can start before sunrise and include inspecting the hill, racing, post-race ceremonies and media work at the course. Later, there is a televised evening event typically in a town square for another trophy presentation, media interviews and presenting start bibs for the next day’s race.
“We have to sit down with the people involved with this and see what we can do better for the upcoming years,” he said. “We don’t have any room to lose anybody.”
The evening events are often broadcast live by the host resort’s national public broadcaster and serve to promote the races.
“It is a balancing act to minimize the athletes’ time obligations while still giving World Cup competitions proper promotion both on site and for television,” FIS said. “The athlete voice is vital in helping all of the stakeholders to find the best solutions and an open dialogue is always welcome.”
Kilde agreed that new technology like cut-proof layers of clothing can help protect athletes.
Also sidelined for the season are: Alexis Pinturault, the 2021 overall World Cup champion one year after Kilde; Marco Schwarz, who led the overall standings when he crashed Dec. 28; and Petra Vlhova, the women’s overall champion three years ago.
Shiffrin crashed in a downhill last Friday at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, that will host women’s races at the 2026 Olympics. She avoided serious injury though is taking time off racing to recover.
“That’s been very, very nice,” Kilde said of spending more time with his partner, “but also a little bit stupid to have this situation where we’re both injured.
“It’s a risky sport and we know the consequences of crashing.”
FIA-commissioned report takes aim at social media companies
An FIA-commissioned report on online abuse in sports released Thursday suggests social media companies should do more to curb targeted attacks toward athletes, officials and even fans.
The United Against Online Abuse Campaign surveyed 22 global sporting federations, among them FIFA, World Athletics, the International Tennis Federation, and the FIA, which is the governing body for Formula One and other European motorsports series.
FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem began planning the campaign when a female race steward received online threats after her ruling against Spaniard Fernando Alonso during a 2022 race. That came after Nicholas Latifi was subjected to death threats after his race-changing crash in the closing laps altered the 2021 season finale.
When people are abused online, the report’s authors wrote, why do “the social media publishers fail to adopt more obvious forms of intervention?” The report asked why social media platforms aren’t immediately removing harmful content, pursuing perpetrators and banning them.
The topic is a familiar one beyond sports as well. On Wednesday, the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X and other social media companies went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify as lawmakers and parents are growing increasingly concerned about the effects of social media on young people’s lives.
The UAOA report said there are dangers with X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, since Elon Musk’s 2022 purchase — it cited “changes in the ownership and organizational structure” of the company” — and the report noted concerns with the rise in TikTok, specifically for younger demographics.
The report found Europe and South America account for “around 75% of all online abuse, notably in other major sports such as association football.”
“Online abuse is a persistent issue within the sporting world,” said Sulayem, founding partner of UAOA. “The survey findings highlight the importance of united anti-abuse efforts across sporting ecosystems and beyond. The aim of our coalition is to rid our sport of the scourge of online abuse.”
The UAOA said 22 sporting federations participated in the survey and among the main findings were:
— Three quarters of federations said sports stars regularly face threats of harm against themselves or their families, with 90% saying it likely has led them to quit the sport.
— Of the federations that participated, 95% said social media platforms must either “voluntarily or under obligation” police harmful online abuse.
— The report noted the data comes after “a spate of high-profile online abuse cases,” that targeted England midfielder Eni Aluko, world tennis No. 8 Daria Kasatkina, Chelsea forward Lauren James and recently retired World Cup rugby referee Wayne Barnes.
Coalition members will meet to discuss next steps at a Conference in Paris this May.
—From AP reports
