Sports
Victorious debut provides validation for Napier at Florida
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) Defensive tackle Tyreak Sapp finally got to bed around 4 a.m. following Florida’s season opener.
He woke up a few hours later still reveling in a 29-26 victory against seventh-ranked Utah that set the tone for coach Billy Napier’s tenure and provided validation for a new regime that spent nine months tweaking and tuning nearly every aspect of the program.
The extended celebration ended as soon as Sapp walked into a team meeting Sunday afternoon.
”You got to understand you can’t be complacent,” he said Monday. ”You’ve got to understand that there’s room for improvement, and the biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. You’ve got to take that for what it is and move on to the next week and have laser-beam focus on the next team and get ready for your next opponent.”
On tap for the Gators is their Southeastern Conference opener Saturday night against No. 20 Kentucky (1-0), which stormed the field after upsetting penalty-prone and 10th-ranked Florida 20-13 in Lexington last October.
That loss was the start of Florida’s freefall, which led to Dan Mullen getting fired in November and Napier being hired a few days later.
Napier has made sizable strides since taking over in Gainesville. If the win against Utah gave his rebuild a jump start, beating Kentucky would thrust the Gators another step closer to returning to national prominence.
Florida is expected to move into The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll, which will be released Tuesday, and Napier already is bracing his team for a week of praise.
”How is this group of players and this staff going to handle everybody patting them on the back for the next week?” Napier said. ”I think it’s one of the things about the University of Florida. You’re in a state with 21 million people. You’ve got a huge alumni network. You’ve got unbelievable amount of passion.
”So when it’s good, it’s good. When it’s bad, it’s bad. Learning how to navigate that, ignore some of the subjective opinions and call it what it is.”
It’s really good right now.
Anthony Richardson looks like a budding star, a 6-foot-4, 232-pound quarterback with the size to take on linebackers, the speed to run by defensive backs and enough arm talent and improvisation skills to make opposing defensive coordinators lose sleep.
His offensive line appears stouter than it’s been in years. Receiver Ricky Pearsall, a transfer from Arizona, looks like a legit playmaker. And Florida’s defense has enough bright spots – pass rusher Brenton Cox, linebacker Ventrell Miller and cornerback Jason Marshall, for starters – to offset the unit’s run-stopping woes.
Richardson masked other deficiencies. The sophomore ran for 106 yards and three touchdowns, including the go-ahead score with 1:25 to play. He also completed 17 of 24 passes for 168 yards and was at his most dynamic during a 2-point conversion early in the fourth. He pump-faked a blitzing linebacker while spinning in the air and then outran another defender before finding a receiver all alone in the back of the end zone.
The conversion was the play of the game until linebacker Amari Burney intercepted Cam Rising’s pass in the end zone in the waning seconds. It was the second of two goal-line stops for Florida’s defense.
It also set off a raucous celebration in the Swamp in front of 90,799 – the 10th-largest home crowd in school history and the largest for a home opener. Athletic director Scott Stricklin gave Napier two game balls in the locker room afterward, one from Florida’s first touchdown and another from the final score.
It was a memorable moment in a night filled with them, all of which could do wonders for Napier’s program and its current trajectory.
”When you’re new and you’re doing things a different way and you’re trying to establish trust and you’re trying to connect with people, I think that it’s important that they see progress,” Napier said. ”They taste a little bit. .
”There’s always a little bit of doubt until they see, `Hey, maybe we’ve got a chance here.’ I think early on in your tenure you’re always looking for these type of opportunities. And it ain’t over.”
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Billy Napier
American-football player (1979-)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages Thursday after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14.39 billion.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then possibly the Supreme Court.
Should the NFL end up paying damages, it could cost each of the 32 teams approximately $449.6 million.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The trial lasted three weeks and featured testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said.
During his closing remarks, Carmody showed an April, 2017, NFL memo that showed the league was exploring a world without “Sunday Ticket” in 2017, where cable channels would air Sunday afternoon out-of-market games not shown on Fox or CBS.
The jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching its decision.
Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 31, including the NFL’s request to have him rule in favor of the league because the judge determined the plaintiffs did not prove their case.
Payment of damages, any changes to the “Sunday Ticket” package and/or the ways the NFL carries its Sunday afternoon games would be stayed until all appeals have been concluded.
The league maintained it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs said that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
Other professional sports leagues were also keeping an eye on this case since they also offer out-of-market packages. A major difference though is that MLB, the NBA and the NHL market their packages on multiple distributors and share in the revenue per subscriber instead of receiving an outright rights fee.
DirecTV had “Sunday Ticket” from its inception in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year the case could proceed as a class action.
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EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
The average high in Paris on Aug. 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). The rooms will also be equipped with fans.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said about the plans for the Olympics.
According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.
The Olympics mark the most important stop on the athletic careers of the 10,500-plus athletes who will descend on Paris, which has led some high-profile countries to undercut environmental efforts for the sake of comfort.
“It’s a high-performance environment,” Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strath Gordon explained to The Post.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers seemed determined to keep playing. And playing. And playing.
The teams opened their Eastern Conference final playoff series with Florida’s 3-2 victory in four overtimes early Friday, with the game ranking as the sixth-longest game in NHL history.
Matthew Tkachuk’s goal came at the 19:47 mark of the fourth OT to end this one, which marked the 15th four-overtime game in NHL history and the longest game in franchise history for each team.
The longest game in NHL history came on March 24, 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the sixth overtime on Mud Bruneteau’s goal at 116 minutes, 30 seconds of extra play.
Florida’s previous record for longest game was 104:31 in Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup final against Colorado. Carolina’s previous record was 114:47 for Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup final.
The only good news for the teams is they had an extended break before this series began. Carolina closed out New Jersey exactly a week earlier, while Florida eliminated Toronto a day later.
But this game ended roughly six hours after Thursday night’s puck drop, and the teams have a Game 2 in less than 48 hours.
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