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Cincinnati Bengals rookie quarterback Joe Burrow was among the notable athletes to speak out Friday in the wake of George Floyd's death while in police custody Monday in Minneapolis, saying the "black community needs our help." "They have been unheard for far too long," Burrow, the Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 overall draft pick, said Friday on Twitter. "Open your ears, listen, and speak. This isn't politics. This is human rights."

After delaying its launch when sports shut down due to the coronavirus, DC sports betting is finally here — but without an app. The Gambet DC platform, which was slated to go live at the end of March, is finally live. That means mobile sports betting will be available in DC by Sunday at the latest. “While we recognize there will be a limited number of events to wager on, this ‘soft launch’ will provide us with an opportunity to roll out the Gambet DC website to potential players in the District in preparation for the return of sports,” said...

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Thursday that outdoor stadiums will be allowed to open to fans next month at limited capacity for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began. While many state leaders have discussed the possibility of reopening stadiums to professional sports teams, most have said welcoming fans inside to watch competitions will not be possible until the country achieves better containment of the virus. Abbott signed the proclamation as an expansion of another he announced last week that approved more businesses and services to reopen. While the original proclamation last Friday allowed professional sports teams to resume...

At least one player thinks there won't be a 2020 MLB season as players and owners dispute over money. Jon Heyman of MLB Network discussed a recent call between the league and the players association Thursday on Ordway, Merloni & Fauria (via Ryan Hannable of WEEI), relaying a message from someone involved. "The call was last night. I was getting texts. I got a text from a player—and I think they are going to get a deal, I think they are going to work it out. I can't believe they are going to blow it up over economics. But, from...

MINNEAPOLIS -- Two days after a black Minnesota man died after being pinned by police, the University of Minnesota announced it will sever its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department. School president Joan Gabel made the announcement Wednesday night in a letter that was sent to students, faculty and staff members, writing that the university will no longer use local officers to assist at major events, including Gophers football games.

Gov. Tom Wolf announced a series of reopening guidelines for professional sports and their teams in Pennsylvania on Wednesday. Most professional sports leagues have been on hold since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the announcement, professional sports are allowed to resume practices and events or games without spectators in counties in the yellow or green phase of reopening if the team or league has developed a coronavirus safety plan. The coronavirus safety plan must be approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and “include, among other requirements, testing or screening and monitoring of all on-venue players and...

“Any quick history lesson about how owners in sports have acted over time, how they’ve interacted with communities and governments and public coffers and everything else will tell you that greed dictates basically whatever they try to do,” Bryant Gumbel bluntly says of the motivation behind leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB and the NHL to get their players back in action from the coronavirus lockdown of the past two months. “I think they view athletes as commodities to get them to an end,” the host of HBO’s Real Sports added. Never one to play it safe over the 25-seasons...

Eddie Sutton, the first college basketball coach to lead four different schools to the NCAA tournament, died on Saturday, his family said in a statement. He was 84. Sutton's family said he passed away at home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, due to natural causes, surrounded by his sons and their families. His wife of 54 years, Patsy, died in 2013. Sutton -- a four-time National Coach of the Year -- was one of nine honorees to be elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in April. He will be inducted posthumously, along with legend Kobe Bryant, on August 29. His...

The sports void is real. Those figuring out how to fill it are reaping the rewards. After ESPN announced record viewership numbers for its 10-part Michael Jordan series “The Last Dance,” Turner Sports recorded similar ratings for a golf exhibition. The network group announced on Monday that Sunday’s airing of “The Match” drew an average of 5.8 million viewers, rivaling ratings recorded by “The Last Dance,” the most-watched documentary in ESPN history. At its peak, 6.3 million people tuned in. Those ratings set a record for a cable golf telecast, according to Turner Sports. That means more people tuned in...

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said Wednesday that his athletic department has run several social distancing models to consider having fans in the stands at games this fall, and Ohio Stadium, with a normal capacity of more than 100,000, would hold a crowd closer to 20,000-22,000 fans and up to 40,000-50,000 "if guidelines are relaxed." "We've played with that a little bit as a framework to start as we move forward and think about what we'd ultimately be allowed to do," Smith told reporters before later clarifying the low-end estimate in a tweet. "We're fortunate, with 100,000 seats in...

Americans everywhere are tired of the lockdown, and North Carolina racing fans made that abundantly clear yesterday. According to the Charlotte Observer, Ace Speedway opened up in defiance of Democrat Governor Roy Cooper’s orders to stay locked down, prompting hundreds of racing fans to show up and wait nearly two hours to get in. As the Observer reported, the scene looked as if there never was a pandemic with people standing close together and hanging out as people normally would: They lined up more than two hours before the first race Saturday at Ace Speedway, and soon that line stretched...

The only hockey players most Americans can name from the top of their heads are Gretzky, Howe, Messier, and Lemieux. I would rate hockey at the lowest of the 4 big sports. Why doesn't it get much attention?

MADISON — There’s nothing quite like a Badgers home football game at Camp Randall Stadium in the crisp fall air. But Dane County’s stringent, slow, phased-in reopening plan doesn’t allow for the kinds of mass gatherings that University of Wisconsin-Madison home games attract. It could cancel the iconic events — or at least drastically cramp the Camp’s style. The so-called Forward Dane plan, really more of an order, laid out by Public Health Madison & Dane County, includes strict metrics for businesses to reopen and for Madison life to return to anything approaching normal. Even if the the COVID-19 reduction...

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Indians play-by-play announcer Tom Hamilton is keeping his skills sharp for the potential return of baseball, turning his attention to the inside-the-park homer of 18-month-old Cleveland resident J.J. It’s episode 3 of the “Home With Hammy” online series.

Judge Chatigny has a track record of favoring sexual predators over women and children. Now this same judge is prejudicing the case against female athletes by imposing a speech code on their counsel. The year was 2010. President Barack Obama was in office, and Democrats controlled the Senate. Obama could practically get any judge he wanted, but he could not get his nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, Robert Chatigny, confirmed based on ChatignyÂ’s track record of favoring sexual predators over women and children. Now this same judge is prejudicing the case against female athletes...

Tampa Bay Rays ace Blake Snell says he will not play this season for a reduced salary, especially because the risk of contracting the coronavirus is "just not worth it." Snell voiced his opposition to Major League Baseball's reported proposal of a 50-50 revenue split with the players for a coronavirus-shortened season in a video posted to social media Wednesday. "Y'all gotta understand, man, for me to go -- for me to take a pay cut is not happening, because the risk is through the roof," Snell said while answering questions on his Twitch channel. "It's a shorter season, less...

As the ESPN documentary The Last Dance proves over and over, Michael Jordan’s life and career are full of stories that would be hard to believe if there weren’t cameras there to capture them. The intense, pathologic competitiveness, the ability to transcend what seems humanly possible by sheer force of will, the downright meanness that fueled it, the love of making a few bets — it’s all there in spades, which in turn lends credence to some of the more outlandish off-the-court tales about His Airness. Here are some of the wildest tales about Jordan — both from unconfirmed sources...

Two NFL cornerbacks are facing multiple charges after an incident at a party on Wednesday night in South Florida. The New York Giants’ Deandre Baker and Seattle Seahawks’ Quinton Dunbar are each facing four counts of armed robbery with a firearm, while Baker is facing an additional four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, after the two allegedly robbed guests at a party in Miramar, Florida, the Miramar police department said on Thursday.

t's a glorious day for baseball at Yankee Stadium and fans are flocking to watch their team battle the Oakland Athletics, but two words are enough to cloud their joy. One word is "George." The other is "Steinbrenner." After threatening to pull the Yankees out of their stadium in the Bronx and resettle them in New Jersey, it is well the multimillionaire owner is not present, for at this game he has no friends. "The Yankees are a New York tradition," said Brendan Walsh, his voice heavy with sorrow. "To move them would be awful . . . just awful....

Former Yankees player and general manager Bob Watson died at the age of 74 in his Houston home on Thursday night after a long battle with kidney disease, according to the Astros. Watson was the Yankees general manager from 1995 to 1998, a tenure that included leading the Bombers to a World Series title in 1996, their first championship since 1978. He also played for the Bombers for three seasons from 1980 to 1982. Watson was primarily a first baseman and left fielder throughout his 19-year major league career, which began in 1969, including the first 14 with the Astros....