Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Sean Payton hints at moving on from Wilson
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. | Sean Payton isn’t providing anything definitive on Russell Wilson’s time in Denver but he did hint at the Broncos moving on from him when he suggested the team cannot afford to miss on “the next one” at quarterback.
Payton met with the media at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis on Tuesday and said the club should know by the end of next week what direction they’ll take at QB.
Asked if he embraced the idea of finding a solution at quarterback, one that’s eluded coaches and GMs ever since Peyton Manning retired eight years ago, Payton retorted, “Yeah, we better. In this league, which is very competitive in our division, it’s vital.”
Payton then relayed a funny meme that caught his attention recently.
“There’s a Broncos fan with a shirt on with like eight quarterbacks’ names crossed through them and he’s drinking the quarterback ‘Kool-Aid,’” Payton said. “Our job is to make sure this next one doesn’t have a line through it.”
The next one.
That sounds as though Wilson’s time in Denver might be over, something that’s seemed imminent since he was benched for Jarrett Stidham the last two weeks of the season.
The Broncos have delved into the free agency class of quarterbacks and will meet with the college passing prospects at the combine this week.
Wilson, who has won just 11 of 30 starts with the Broncos since his trade from Seattle two years ago, said over the weekend that he hopes to return to Denver in 2024.
Wilson said he still aims to win a pair of Super Bowls in the next half decade.
“I want to go back to Denver. I hope I get to go back. I’d love to go back, to be honest with you. I’ve got amazing teammates,” Wilson said on former NFL receiver Brandon Marshall’s “I Am Athlete” podcast that went live Sunday night.
Wilson also repeated his contention that the Broncos threatened to bench him at midseason if he didn’t adjust an injury guarantee in his contract, something the team has called a mischaracterization.
Wilson declined to remove the injury guarantee from the approximately $245 million contract he’d signed about a year earlier and ended up starting seven more games before Payton benched him for the final two games.
“I didn’t want to set a precedent for players to remove their injury guarantees,” Wilson told Marshall. “… No way I was going to do that.”
On Tuesday, Payton said he didn’t watch Wilson’s appearance on the podcast and general manager George Paton demurred when asked about Wilson raising anew the notion that he was threatened with a benching if he didn’t alter his contract.
“We’ve addressed that, and we moved forward. Everything we did was above board,” Paton said. “I appreciate Russ, but we moved forward. We have a lot of work to do. We’re here at the combine. We have free agency around the corner, and we’re focused on bettering our team and winning football games.”
If the Broncos are going to move on from Wilson after two mostly disappointing seasons, they’ll have to do so before March 17, when his $37 million base salary for 2025 becomes fully guaranteed.
The Broncos owe Wilson $39 million in salary this upcoming season whether he’s on their team or not. If they part ways, they’ll also have to take an $85 million dead cap hit, more than doubling the record $40-plus million the Falcons incurred in dead cap charges following QB Matt Ryan’s departure from Atlanta last year.
Despite benching Wilson after he threw for 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions in a bounce-back 2023 season, the Broncos have hinted a Wilson return was possible.
Wilson said he could play for Payton again and that he hadn’t pondered other possible destinations. At one point in the podcast, Marshall joked with Wilson about where he’d live if he stayed in Denver given a recent report that Wilson and his wife, Ciara, are showing their $25 million Cherry Hills mansion to potential buyers.
“It’s not on the market right now,” Wilson said.
That could change soon.
Since Manning retired following Denver’s triumph in Super Bowl 50, the Broncos have churned through five head coaches and 13 starting quarterbacks while going 52-79, missing the playoffs all eight seasons and posting seven consecutive losing seasons.
Athletes in Iowa State gambling sting say evidence was seized illegally
Four former or suspended Iowa State athletes contend in a court filing Tuesday that evidence in a state sports wagering investigation was gathered illegally and all charges against them should be dismissed.
Attorneys for former football players Isaiah Lee, Jirehl Brock and Enyi Uwazurike and suspended wrestler Paniro Johnson filed the motion to suppress in Story County.
The four are among about two dozen Iowa State and Iowa athletes criminally charged last year. They each face a felony charge of identity theft and an aggravated misdemeanor charge of tampering with records.
Most of the athletes who were charged pleaded guilty to underage gambling, paid fines and had identity theft charges dropped.
The identity theft charges stemmed from athletes registering accounts on mobile sports betting apps under different names, usually a relative.
Defense attorneys reiterated their contention that there was no probable cause for the searches into online wagering activities that resulted in criminal charges and lost NCAA eligibility.
In the motion to suppress, the defense alleges a special agent for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation violated the agency’s limited-use agreement with a geofencing tracking firm when he used its software to locate places inside ISU athletic facilities where athletes were making wagers on mobile betting platforms. The agent later obtained account information from the platforms to identify the athletes and third parties whose credit cards were used.
The motion contends use of the tracking software was unconstitutional because no warrant had been issued, and it noted that the software firm, GeoComply, cut off DCI’s access to the tool last month because the user agreement was violated.
The DCI special agent, Brian Sanger, said in a deposition that he opened the investigation because of his concerns about potential match fixing, though he had no tip or specific information that such activity was taking place among ISU athletes.
Defense attorneys have said in court filings that the athletes were told by investigators that the online wagering companies were under investigation, not them. In the motion to suppress, the athletes said they were not read their Miranda rights, which can protect a suspect from self-incrimination, so any admissions or statements should be thrown out.
The state Department of Public Safety, which oversees DCI, said in a statement last month that it believes its methods stand up to legal scrutiny.
Georgia Senate seeks
to let voters decide
sports betting
ATLANTA | Georgians could get a chance in November to vote on authorizing sports gambling after senators on Tuesday approved a state constitutional amendment.
It’s a big step forward for those who want Georgians to be able to bet on pro and college sports after years of being stymied in the Senate. But the measure still has a long way to go, and would require two-thirds approval in the state House before it would go to the ballot.
The Senate voted 41-12 for Senate Resolution 579. It would designate 80% of taxes from sports betting to prekindergarten programs, and then to college scholarships once prekindergarten programs are fully funded. Another 15% of proceeds would go to aiding people with gambling problems, while the remaining 5% would create a fund for Georgia to recruit and fund major sports events.
Some supporters have sought to legalize sports gambling as part of the state lottery without a constitutional amendment. But Republican state Sen. Bill Cowsert of Athens has long said he wants voters to get a say, arguing that when Georgia voters authorized the lottery in 1992, they didn’t believe they were approving sports betting.
“I think it’s the politically appropriate thing to do when we make this type of major policy shift in our state,” Cowsert said. “This is to give voters the opportunity to speak on the issue.”
Sen. Marty Harbin, a Tyrone Republican, said it was a mistake to send sports gambling to the ballot, warning that it’s a ruinously addictive form of gambling.
“The people who vote for the constitutional amendment will not have the knowledge and information that you and I have,” Harbin said.
He said the more than $100 million a year in tax money that sports gambling might raise isn’t worth the problems it would cause, especially when Georgia’s budget is currently flush.
“We have the money,” Harbin said. “We have the No. 1 state to do business in. We have a state that is prosperous.”
The measure passed with relatively little debate after the Senate earlier this year passed a bill that would set up a structure for sports betting as long as a constitutional amendment passes. That measure, though, won only 34 votes, leaving in question whether an amendment could clear the required two-thirds threshold in the Senate.
Nationwide, 38 states allow sports betting. Some states allow only in-person bets, although most allow electronic betting from anywhere. Georgia’s earlier bill would take 20% of proceeds in taxes, after winnings are paid to gamblers. Nationwide, tax rates are set at anywhere from 6.75% in Iowa to 51% in Rhode Island and New York.
Lawmakers continue to maneuver over gambling though, with supporters of casinos and betting on horse racing seeking to push their causes forward by linking them to sports betting. Sen. Carden Summers, a Cordele Republican, for example, argued to other senators Tuesday that lawmakers should give voters a chance to remove all prohibitions on gambling from the state constitution, not just the prohibition on sports betting. That would clear the way for casinos, which Summers favors.
That maneuvering, along with Democrats’ unwillingness to provide needed votes in the face of moral opposition to gambling from some Republicans, has killed efforts in previous years.
Senate Minority Gloria Butler, a Stone Mountain Democrat, said her party agreed to go along with the plan this time in part because it prioritizes money for prekindergarten. Butler, for example, said she’d like to see the state expand its program to cover more 3-year-olds, in addition to 4-year-olds.
“Why not start at 3 years old?” Butler asked.
AP national player of
the week in men’s basketball is Hunter Sallis
Wake Forest guard Hunter Sallis is The Associated Press men’s college basketball national player of the week. That comes after he led the Demon Deacons to a rout of Pittsburgh and then a win against a top-10 foe in Duke. Those wins were crucial for a team that was working to bolster its NCAA Tournament resume. Sallis had 29 points on 11-for-13 shooting against the Blue Devils as the highlight. Marquette’s Kam Jones was runner-up after going for 34 points in consecutive Big East games. Arkansas’ Khalif Battle and Purdue’s Zach Edey were included among honorable mentions.
AP national player of the week in women’s basketball is Esmery Martinez
Esmery Martinez of Arizona is The Associated Press national player of the week in women’s college basketball. The fifth-year forward had 17 points and nine rebounds in the Wildcats’ win over then-No. 3 Stanford. It was Arizona’s first road win over the Cardinal since 2001. She followed that up with a 20-point, nine-rebound, seven-assist effort against California a few days later. The runner-up was Angel Reese of LSU.
—From AP reports
