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By NewsPress Now
Review: The U.S. Tennis Association can do
more to prevent abuse
An outside review of the U.S. Tennis Association’s safeguarding system offered 19 specific recommendations for how the group that oversees the sport in the country and runs the U.S. Open Grand Slam tournament can do more to protect players from abuse such as sexual misconduct.
A 62-page report written by two lawyers — Mary Beth Hogan and David O’Neil of New York-headquartered firm Debevoise & Plimpton — was presented to the USTA Board of Directors last week and made public Thursday.
“The USTA complies with all of the requirements of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, and in several respects has policies and procedures that are more protective than the Center’s requirements. … We did, however, identify several ways to increase player safety that the USTA should consider adopting,” Hogan and O’Neil wrote.
The report arrives less than two months after a tennis player was awarded $9 million in damages by a jury in federal court in Florida following her accusation that the USTA failed to protect her from a coach she said sexually abused her at one of its training centers when she was a teenager. O’Neil — former head of the Justice Department’s criminal division — and Hogan wrote that their “review did not encompass the investigations of specific incidents involving allegations of sexual misconduct apart from reviewing whether the USTA met its obligations when abuse was reported to the USTA” and so they “did not investigate the events leading to” that Florida case.
They also noted that the USTA was a defendant in four other lawsuits — one of which resulted in a settlement — related to sexual abuse of tennis players over the last two decades.
The lawyers said they conducted “a thorough independent review” of the USTA’s “current policies and procedures for preventing, reporting, and responding to reports of abuse, including sexual misconduct.”
The review encompassed interviews with USTA employees and access to hundreds of the organization’s documents. It also included an assessment of safeguarding at 51 other national governing bodies for sports in the United States, Paralympic sports organizations and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, along with the guidelines set forth by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
The report says “the Board expressed its intention to incorporate” the suggestions into the USTA’s Safe Play Program.
“We view this report, including recommendations from the Debevoise team, as an important step forward in our efforts to further ensure a safe environment for all those involved in the sport of tennis,” USTA CEO and executive director Lew Sherr said in a written statement. “We are working to implement the recommendations as thoroughly and swiftly as possible.”
Investigators recommend Northwestern enhance hazing prevention training
A team of investigators led by former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch recommended Northwestern enhance its hazing prevention training in the wake of a scandal that rocked the school’s athletic department.
Though the 47-page report by the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP released Thursday by Northwestern stated “the results of our review have been largely positive,” investigators found room for improvement when it came to preventing hazing during a nearly year-long review.
“Some people expressed an interest in more interactive and scenario-based anti-hazing trainings, while others thought a greater emphasis on bystander intervention would be valuable,” the report said. “Accordingly, we recommend that the Athletics Department consider ways in which it can incorporate more bystander intervention, interactive, and scenario based trainings into its existing anti-hazing training program.”
The report also said the school and athletic department are “aligned in their commitment to ensure that their student-athletes have excellent academic and athletic experiences, despite forces at play — many of which are not unique to Northwestern — that make equal pursuit of those two goals increasingly difficult. We hope that our recommendations, if implemented, will only enhance the Northwestern student-athlete experience.”
Lynch and her team interviewed more than 120 people, including current and former student-athletes, non-athlete students, coaches, athletic administrators and staff, faculty, university administrators and trustees. They reviewed documents and data including athletic department policies.
“Our top priority is providing the best possible experience for our student-athletes, both academically and athletically,” athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg said in a statement. “We cannot do this without being open to continuous learning and improvement. The Department of Athletics and Recreation takes the findings of the review seriously and is eager to apply these lessons towards enhancing our programs and support systems.”
Northwestern fired football coach Pat Fitzgerald in July 2023 after 17 seasons amid a hazing scandal that led to lawsuits across multiple sports with allegations including sexual abuse by teammates as well as racist comments by coaches and race-based assaults.
Fitzgerald was initially suspended following an investigation by attorney Maggie Hickey of law firm ArentFOX Schiff. That probe did not find “sufficient” evidence that the coaching staff knew about ongoing hazing but concluded there were “significant opportunities” to find out about it. Fitzgerald is suing the school for $130 million, saying his alma mater wrongfully fired him.
Northwestern hired Lynch in July 2023 to lead an investigation into the culture of its athletic department and its anti-hazing procedures. The school is implementing RealResponse — a platform that tracks issues raised by student-athletes — this summer, and has added more anti-hazing training requirements for athletes that includes an emphasis on bystander intervention. Other measures include QR codes in athletic facilities that link to resources and the creation of a new portal explaining avenues to report misconduct.
Big East signs six-year rights agreement with FOX Sports, NBC and TNT
The Big East Conference will expand to having games on three networks and see a significant increase in revenues under a new six-year media rights deal announced on Thursday. FOX Sports will remain as the conference’s lead network under the new agreement, which begins with the 2025-26 season, while NBC and TNT will carry Big East games for the first time. The conferences’s 12-year deal with FOX and CBS expires at the end of the upcoming 2024-25 season and averaged $41.67 million per year.
The Big East Conference will expand to having games on three networks and see a significant increase in revenues under a new six-year media rights deal announced on Thursday.
FOX Sports will remain as the conference’s lead network under the new agreement, which begins with the 2025-26 season, while NBC and TNT will carry Big East games for the first time.
The conferences’s 12-year deal with FOX and CBS expires at the end of the upcoming 2024-25 season and averaged $41.67 million per year. With the increased revenue, the Big East should also be on better financial footing with the Power Four conferences, especially since it doesn’t have football.
The Big East though is considered one of nation’s premier basketball conferences and features two-time defending men’s champion Connecticut among its 11 members. UConn also returned to the Women’s Final Four this past season.
FOX signed a deal with the Big East after the seven Catholic schools separated from the football schools to form a basketball-centric conference in 2013. Butler, Xavier and Creighton also joined the conference and UConn returned in 2020.
The new agreement will see more than 150 men’s regular season games aired, including all league contests and conference tournament games. It will also see up to 65 women’s regular season and tournament games, which is more than triple the previous deal.
FOX will air at least 80 men’s and women’s games, including the conference tournament, on FOX, FS1 and FS2 under the new agreement. The men’s tournament final will also remain on FOX.
NBC will get an early start on its Big East deal with 25 regular-season men’s games and five tournament contests being streamed on Peacock this upcoming season. Beginning in 2025-26, Peacock and NBC will carry more than 60 men’s and women’s regular season and conference tournament games.
FOX and NBC also carry Big Ten basketball under a rights agreement that started this past season.
TNT, which airs the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament with CBS, will have at least 65 regular-season games (50 men’s 15 women’s) across TNT, TBS, truTV and Max. It also marks the first time TNT will have a package of games with a college conference.
Oilers, GM Ken Holland part ways after five seasons Stanley Cup
EDMONTON, Alberta | The Edmonton Oilers said Thursday general manager Ken Holland will not have his contract renewed, calling it a mutual decision between the veteran executive and the NHL club.
Holland spent the past five seasons as the Oilers’ GM and built a team that advanced to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Florida Panthers. His departure has been anticipated since Connor McDavid’s longtime agent, Jeff Jackson, took over as CEO of hockey operations last August.
“Over the past five seasons as general manager, Ken has not only built the Edmonton Oilers into one of the NHL’s best teams, but he has also established a deeply rooted foundation of success and a culture of winning that will continue well into the future,” Jackson said in a statement confirming Holland’s departure from the organization.
“Thanks in large part to Ken’s outstanding work, Edmonton has become a destination city for players around the National Hockey League.”
Holland, 68, spent 22 seasons as GM of the Detroit Red Wings, winning the Cup three times: in 1998, 2002 and 2008.
Building around McDavid and elite forward Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers finished the season looking like the potential champions many expected to see when Holland, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builder category in 2020, took over for interim GM Keith Gretzky on May 7, 2019.
But Edmonton’s rise to the top came in fits and starts, with Holland coming under fire over much of his tenure for building a top-heavy roster and failing to solve the team’s goaltending woes.
The Oilers lost in the qualifying round of the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, then were swept by the Winnipeg Jets in the ‘21 postseason.
Edmonton appeared to turn a corner when it advanced to the 2022 Western Conference final before being swept by Colorado, but the team regressed the following season by losing in the second round to eventual champion Vegas.
Faith in Holland’s ability to build a winner in Edmonton was shaken to its core earlier this season when the Oilers stumbled out of the gate with a 3-9-1 record.
However, after Jay Woodcroft was fired and replaced as coach by Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers transformed into one of the league’s best teams, punctuated by a 16-game winning streak that was one shy of the league record.
And by the time the Oilers headed into Game 7 of this year’s Cup final, the team was getting solid goaltending from Stuart Skinner and contributions throughout the lineup, addressing two of the biggest criticisms levied against Holland.
Now the Oilers have a major hockey operations role to fill as they head into the offseason looking for a way to make the final step toward winning their sixth Stanley Cup title and first since 1990.
IOC invites eight Russian tennis players to compete as neutrals
LAUSANNE, Switzerland | The IOC invited eight top Russian tennis players plus Aryna Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus on Thursday to compete as neutral athletes at the Paris Olympics — though some already declined the expected offer.
The Russian men invited to compete in the Olympic tournament at Roland Garros from July 27-Aug. 4 are No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, No. 6 Andrey Rublev, Karen Khachanov and Roman Safiullin.
The Russian women — Daria Kasatkina, Liudmila Samsonova, Ekaterina Aleksandrova and Mirra Andreeva — are ranked currently from No. 14 to 24, respectively.
Sabalenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, already said she will skip the Olympics to avoid switching from Wimbledon on grass, back to clay at the Olympics, then to hard courts in August ahead of the U.S. Open. Rublev has reportedly cited health reasons to not go.
Tennis is the latest of the Olympic sports to have invitations to Paris confirmed as part of a vetting process to let some athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus compete with neutral status in individual sports during the invasion of Ukraine.
The International Olympic Committee is overseeing vetting to block athletes who expressed support for the Russian invasion or had ties to sports clubs linked to the military or state security services.
Russia and Belarus already are excluded from team sports at the Paris Games that open July 26.
The IOC announced this month that a first round of 14 Russians and 11 Belarusians were eligible and invited to Paris, including in cycling, weightlifting and wrestling. Some invitations have been declined.
On Thursday, two athletes in rowing and two in shooting from Belarus were invited to compete in Paris, though none in modern pentathlon. Russia did not have entry quota places in those three sports.
It is still unclear how many Russian athletes will compete at the Olympics. The IOC already barred those that do from taking part in the opening ceremony parade of athletes scheduled on boats sailing along the River Seine.
—From AP reports
