Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Browns signing Kadarius Toney to practice squad
CLEVELAND | Coming off a lackluster offensive performance in their opener, the Cleveland Browns are signing former Kansas City wide receiver — and Super Bowl star — Kadarius Toney to their practice squad, a person familiar with the move told The Associated Press on Monday.
A first-round draft pick in 2021 by the New York Giants, Toney was waived in August by the champion Chiefs after two seasons.
Toney will join the Browns’ practice squad this week, said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the 25-year-old has not yet signed his contract. Toney visited the Browns on Friday.
He also drew interest from the Seattle Seahawks.
Toney made two spectacular plays while helping the Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII. He caught a 5-yard touchdown pass and returned a punt 65 yards to set up another score.
Toney was inactive for Kansas City’s title win last season.
Maybe he can help the Browns.
Quarterback Deshaun Watson and Cleveland’s offense sputtered on Sunday in a 33-17 loss to Dallas. The Browns picked up just one first down in the first half and never threatened the Cowboys.
Toney gives the Browns some depth behind receivers Amari Cooper, Jerry Jeudy, Elijah Moore and Cedric Tillman. Cleveland, which plays at Jacksonville this week, could also use another weapon for Watson with Pro Bowl tight end David Njoku expected to miss several weeks with a sprained ankle.
Toney has 82 catches for 760 yards and three touchdowns in 32 career NFL games. He had his best season as a rookie with 39 catches for 420 yards.
Deshaun Watson
accused of sexual
assault by Texas woman
CLEVELAND | Deshaun Watson has been accused of sexual assault in a new civil lawsuit brought by a woman who alleges the Cleveland Browns quarterback forced himself on her four years ago when he played with Houston.
According to the lawsuit filed Monday in Harris County, the woman is suing Watson for $1 million in damages.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in the court documents, said the incident took place after she invited Watson to her apartment. She said Watson undressed shortly after arriving and demanded a massage.
It’s the latest legal entanglement for Watson, who settled 23 of 24 lawsuits against him in 2022 after two dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct and harassment during massage therapy sessions.
The 28-year-old Watson served an 11-game NFL suspension in 2022 for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, stemming from those accusations. He also had to pay a $5 million fine and underwent independent counseling before he was reinstated.
The new lawsuit was filed by attorney Tony Buzbee, who represented the other women who alleged Watson’s misbehavior.
The Browns did not have an immediate response to the latest lawsuit. The NFL declined to comment.
Watson could also face further discipline from the league.
The three-time Pro Bowler has been plagued by issues since Cleveland traded five draft picks, including three first-round selections, to the Texans in 2022 for him. The Browns then signed Watson to a fully guaranteed $230 million contract.
Watson has been limited to just 13 starts due to the suspension and a shoulder injury that required surgery last season.
He played for the first time in 10 months on Sunday and completed 24 of 45 passes for 169 yards with two interceptions and a touchdown in a 33-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Deadline approaching for appeals in case that exonerated Jannik Sinner
ROME | Time is running out for appeals to be filed in the case that exonerated U.S. Open champion Jannik Sinner from doping.
The World Anti-Doping Agency and Nado Italia, Italy’s anti-doping agency, likely have only a few more days to challenge the decision announced by the International Tennis Integrity Agency on Aug. 20.
There is a 21-day window to appeal that started when the parties received the decision. Any appeal would be filed to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Sinner tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March but was not suspended because the ITIA determined the banned performance-enhancer entered his system unintentionally through a massage from his physiotherapist.
The doping case was kept secret until last month’s announcement and the top-ranked Sinner went on to beat Taylor Fritz in the U.S. Open final on Sunday.
An appeal could jeopardize his U.S. Open title but Sinner and his legal team have provided detailed scientific evidence to show that his explanation is credible.
Sinner said after winning his second Grand Slam title that the months before his case was resolved were not easy.
“It was very difficult for me to enjoy in certain moments,” he said, “so whoever knows me better, they know that something was wrong. But during this tournament, slowly I restarted to feel a little bit more how I am as a person.”
While other players have expressed concern with how Sinner’s case was kept secret, WADA and Nado Italia would likely be interested only in the scientific details.
An appeal verdict at CAS could come quickly — even within just a few months — if the parties agree to cooperate. At least that’s how it worked in another high-profile doping case in tennis involving Maria Sharapova.
Sharapova tested positive at the Australian Open in January 2016 for the newly-banned heart medication meldonium. She was banned for two years in June that year by the International Tennis Federation.
The Russian star appealed to CAS, had an appeal hearing in New York before three judges that September, and four weeks later got the verdict that cut her ban to 15 months.
The entire process for Sharapova with CAS took just four months — far shorter than most doping cases, which typically last about one year. The timeline can stall with the complexities of picking a judging panel, finding a hearing date and parties exchanging documents and evidence from expert witnesses.
During the Indian Wells hard-court event in March, Sinner tested positive for low levels of a metabolite of Clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid that can be used for ophthalmological and dermatological use. It’s the same drug for which San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended by MLB in 2022.
Sinner tested positive again eight days later in an out-of-competition sample.
He was provisionally suspended twice by the tennis integrity body because of those test results, but he successfully appealed twice to an independent tribunal judge and was allowed to keep competing on tour.
Sinner said his test results happened because his fitness trainer purchased an over-the-counter spray called Trofodermin in Italy that contained Clostebol and gave it to Sinner’s physiotherapist to treat a cut on the physiotherapist’s finger. The physiotherapist then treated Sinner without wearing gloves.
The ITIA said it accepted Sinner’s explanation, after 10 interviews with the player and his entourage, and the independent panel agreed at a hearing on Aug. 15.
Sinner later announced that he had fired his two trainers.
While other players wondered whether Sinner was accorded special treatment, most believed he wasn’t trying to dope.
“You can understand why people are upset about it. In anti-doping, it sounds so ridiculous,” said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which wasn’t involved in the case. “But the science is such that, if the facts are actually proven out, it is actually plausible.”
If Sinner did lose in an appeal case to CAS, he would likely face a maximum ban of two years instead of four. Four-year bans are usually reserved for athletes unable to show their positive doping test was unintentional.
Sinner provided a clear explanation to an independent tribunal in London, which judges cases brought by the tennis integrity body.
Any possible ban would likely be backdated to March.
Neither WADA nor Nado Italia tend to announce appeals, so it would likely be up to CAS to communicate if there is a case brought before the sports court.
In addition, Giovanni Fontana, an Italian lawyer who has worked on about 100 doping cases over 30 years, recently told The Associated Press that Sinner’s two trainers could risk a separate inquiry in Italy — pointing to the four-year suspension for a club doctor at an Italian soccer team in 2018 for administering Trofodermin to a player.
Angel Reese uses
social media to
explain wrist injury
Angel Reese took to social media to explain her season-ending injury — a small crack in a bone in her wrist that will require surgery on Tuesday.
“I fell on my hand when I got the and-one, when I fell back (and) fell on my hand and it is a small crack in my bone,” Reese said in a video posted to her TikTok late Sunday night.
“Basically, the doctors told me that I could either not get surgery or have surgery. The risk of not having surgery – I could literally have arthritis at 22 years old. That wasn’t an option. The bone could literally crack and completely shatter. Right now, it’s like a hairline… They’re going to put a small screw in it. And I wasn’t going for it getting any bigger.”
Reese said she’ll be in a hard cast for four weeks and then a soft cast for two.
“Long term, I literally could have not played anymore because this is a very hard place to heal because the blood flow is little to none,” she said while pointing to her right wrist, which was wrapped in a black soft cast.
Reese, the No. 7 pick in the draft, finished the season averaging 13.6 points and 13.1 rebounds. It’s the highest rebound average in the history of the WNBA. Reese also set the rookie record with 26 double-doubles — her last coming in a 92-78 win over Los Angeles on Friday night.
Reese has been intertwined with Indiana rookie Caitlin Clark since the pair faced off in the NCAA championship two years ago. Reese’s LSU squad came away with the win. They have lifted the WNBA in television ratings, attendance and merchandise sale this season.
“It’s definitely sad whenever you see anyone go down with an injury, especially people that you came into this league with,” Clark said Sunday. “You want to see her finish out this year. Obviously, she’s had a historic year, and she’s done some incredible things.
“For me, getting to play against her, her motor is up there — if not the best in the league. She just doesn’t stop working. I thought she had a tremendous year. I thought she came into the league and really did what she’s done well her entire career as long as I’ve known her. It’s really devastating. It’s never anything you want to see from a player.”
Reese said she’ll continue to train and participate in off-court ventures during her recovery.
“So in the meantime, I will just be in my hard cast for four weeks… during that time I’ll just be lifting, running, conditioning, shooting with my off hand, dribbling and doing stuff with my off hand, working on my nutrition,” Reese said. “(I’ll be) modeling still, podcasting still, being a baddie still… and supporting my teammates from a far. Well, not a far but on the bench… I still believe we’re still making the playoffs.”
Reese responded in the video to social media suggestions that she was pregnant, saying it was untrue.
“That was never a thing… I want to make this crystal clear, I don’t have a man to have kids, I don’t have a ring to have kids I am 22 with no kids. And I’m not coming to kids,” she said. “So that’s not going to be a thing anytime soon. I just want y’all to know that. because I know y’all like to have some clicks.”
Chicago is currently in the final playoff position, one game ahead of Atlanta. The Sky face Washington on Wednesday.
GM Chris Getz working on the future for White Sox
CHICAGO | White Sox general manager Chris Getz is taking a closer look at the organization’s international operations. He is working on hiring a manager. He is shining a light on some of the team’s top prospects.
As the White Sox near the end of one of baseball’s worst seasons ever, the future is a more promising topic than the dismal present.
“This is the cards that we’ve been dealt at this point,” Getz said. “You try to make the best of it, and I think it’s an opportunity to embrace the situation that we’re in. … I view it as kind of the frustrating part of the story, but I also know that the future’s looking bright and it’s going to make it just that much sweeter once we get there.”
First, they have to get through this year.
The White Sox carried a 33-111 record into Monday night’s game against AL Central-leading Cleveland. They broke the franchise record with their 107th loss on Sept. 1.
The AL record for most losses belongs to the 2003 Tigers, who went 43-119. Then there is the majors’ modern record for most losses — 120 by the 1962 New York Mets in their inaugural season.
“I think that there’s a lot to learn from for our players and our staff and personally,” Getz said, “and all you can really do right now is apply those learnings to the future.”
That future includes a new manager after Pedro Grifol was fired on Aug. 8. It also includes a new leader for the club’s international operations after Marco Paddy was let go as part of a flurry of changes to scouting personnel.
Grady Sizemore has been serving as interim manager since Grifol was dismissed. Getz said the team has built out a process for hiring a new manager and has a list of possibilities, but it hasn’t asked for permission to speak to any candidates.
“Our target pool is candidates that are in uniform with other organizations right now,” said Getz, a former big league infielder who was promoted to GM a year ago.
Paddy, 60, was in his 12th season with the organization. The White Sox signed more than 150 international free agents during his tenure, including center fielder Luis Robert Jr.
“Marco was here for years, and he accomplished a lot,” Getz said. “We’ve got players on our major league club that are a reflection of his work. However, where we are right now, we’re in the works of building a new academy, more so focused on the scouting process. It’s different from what you’ll see on the amateur side. We need to make a little bit more of a comprehensive approach.”
As part of their focus on the future, the White Sox had Hagen Smith throw out a ceremonial first pitch before the series opener against the Guardians. Smith, his girlfriend and his family also had dinner with Getz on Sunday night.
Smith, 21, was selected by Chicago with the No. 5 pick in this year’s amateur draft. The left-hander starred at the University of Arkansas and had a 3.52 ERA in three starts for High-A Winston-Salem before he was shut down for the year for rest.
“It’s really cool. It’s my first time here,” Smith said. “Just trying to take it all in. Seeing the stadium, going around the locker room. My family is here so we’ve had a blast.”
—From AP reports
