Top Stories

  • The NFL Players Association disclosed that 56 of the league’s players have tested positive for COVID-19 since the opening of training camps last month. The figures, which are from tests gathered daily from July 21 through Wednesday, puts the share of players who contracted the virus at 2 percent of the roughly 2,600 athletes on training camp rosters, and the league has set a benchmark to reduce the frequency of testing if the positive rate for players, coaches and other team staff members remains below 5 percent. (The Washington Post)
  • Sixty-seven NFL players opted out of the 2020 season ahead of yesterday’s deadline, with only the Atlanta Falcons, Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Chargers experiencing no defections. Players with a high-risk designation receive a $350,000 stipend, and those who voluntarily opted out will receive a $150,000 salary advance they are required to pay back next year. (ProFootballTalk)
  • A league source said the NFL is considering using virtual fans in stadiums on game days in order to fill a vacuum likely to be left in many stadiums. Some teams, such as the Las Vegas Raiders, have already announced that no fans will attend home games, and others are hoping for a 33 percent to 40 percent limit on capacity. (ESPN)
  • Texas Tech fired Marlene Stollings, its women’s basketball coach, following the release of a scathing report that described a culture of abusive behavior in the program, which reportedly saw 12 of 21 players leave over the course of a two-year period. Among the allegations was the use of a heart monitoring system to ensure players maintained at least a 90 percent operating capacity during games, and players were punished if they fell below that level. (The Associated Press)

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Watch On-Demand – Most Loved Brands: What Drives Brand Love In A Year Like No Other

Recently, Morning Consult held a webinar breaking down the results in this year’s edition of Most Loved Brands.

Watch the webinar on-demand to learn which brands topped the list, what factors tend to drive brand love and how brands can excel in the COVID-19 era.

Media

FAANG NFL Offensive Is Toothless as Legacy TV Partners Rally for One Last Big Score
Anthony Crupi, Sportico

Just a few weeks before the National Football League Players Association voted to approve a new collective bargaining agreement back on March 15, media insiders were confident that a formalized peace offering would fast-track negotiations on the next round of broadcast rights packages. But any hopes of locking in those multi-billion-dollar TV and streaming pacts before the start of the 2020 NFL season were effectively scuttled by the coronavirus; on the same day the NFLPA signed off on the CBA, New York began the process of shutting down.

ViacomCBS Earnings Down in Second Quarter
Jon Lafayette, Broadcasting & Cable

ViacomCBS reported lower second-quarter profits as the COVID-19 pandemic reduced ad revenue. Net earnings fell to $481 million, or 78 cents a share, from $977 million, or $1.57 a share, a year ago.

Phelps, Ohno open up about suicide, depression in new doc
Amanda Lee Myers, The Associated Press

Athletes Stephen Scherer, Jeret Peterson and Kelly Catlin have two things in common: They all reached their dream of becoming Olympians, and they all died by suicide. Olympians are known for pushing their bodies to the extreme but much less understood are the mental and emotional rigors paving their road to greatness.

NFL

The Denver Broncos are misting their players to protect against COVID-19. Does it actually work?
Lorenzo Reyes, USA Today

The Denver Broncos social media team posted a video Monday that showed its players, masked up and in jerseys and shorts on their way to practice, filing through a walk-through sanitizing booth that misted them. “Time for work,” the tweet read. “But first; we sanitize.”

One coach believes one or more COVID-19 deaths are inevitable
Mike Florio, ProFootballTalk

As the pandemic continues to surge through the country, and as some in politics and media continue to pooh-pooh it all, the NFL is in the early stages of what will be a significant experiment regarding the operation of a full-contact sports league without a hardened, league-wide bubble. Given the raw numbers of players and coaches and other essential staff, and coupled with the extent to which the virus has permeated much of the country (including many of the communities in which NFL teams operate), the NFL should be braced for the inevitability that someone — a player, a coach, an assistant coach, or a staff member — will die of COVID-19.

No Packers fans at Lambeau Field for first two home games
Rob Demovsky, ESPN

The Frozen Tundra will be the Silent Tundra — at least for the first month of the 2020 NFL season. The Green Bay Packers announced Thursday that they will play at least their first two home games of the season without fans at Lambeau Field.

NFL Prospects Without a Season Force Agents to Recast Wagers
Emily Caron and Jacob Feldman, Sportico

In a typical year, the NFL’s top prospects would leave college soon after their seasons end to train for the league’s draft, with funding provided by prospective agents. Eligible players would declare their intentions in December or early January and renounce any remaining eligibility. But 2020 has been anything but typical.

NBA

Lakers not exactly rolling along as playoffs approach
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press

This is the land of in-between for the Los Angeles Lakers. Games right now matter, in the sense that only three contests are left to build momentum for the postseason.

The long days and wild nights that saved the Wolves from leaving Minnesota
Jon Krawczynski, The Athletic

A large table sat in the middle of a conference room at the law offices of Gray, Plant, Mooty and Mooty and Bennett. On one side, a financially stressed owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves with roots in Minneapolis’s hardscrabble North side sat with a cadre of lawyers and accountants, holding a No. 10 envelope in his hand with a number written on it.

MLB

A’s coach apologizes for apparent Nazi salute
The Associated Press

Oakland Athletics bench coach Ryan Christenson has apologized for raising his arm during a postgame celebration in what looked like a Nazi salute. Christenson made the gesture while greeting closer Liam Hendriks following the A’s 6-4 win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday.

NHL

How the NHL makes sure teams departing the bubble don’t break it on the way out
Scott Burnside, The Athletic

Back in February of 1998, the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team — a pre-tournament favorite to win gold as NHL players made their first appearance in the Olympics — was bounced in the quarterfinals by the Czech Republic. Some members of that disappointed star-studded team responded by tearing up some of the furniture in the Olympic athlete apartments in Nagano, Japan.

College Sports

Notre Dame opens ACC play against Duke, won’t play Navy
Aaron Beard, The Associated Press

Notre Dame opens its season as an Atlantic Coast Conference football member against visiting Duke on Sept. 12 and won’t face Navy for the first time in more than nine decades as part of the ACC’s reconfigured schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic. The league on Thursday released the schedule featuring the Fighting Irish, who are giving up their coveted football independence and competing for the ACC title this season.

Maryland’s Michael Locksley founds organization to help minority football coaches develop and advance
Emily Giambalvo, The Washington Post

Maryland’s Michael Locksley, one of 14 Black head coaches in the 130-team Football Bowl Subdivision, has founded a nonprofit organization that aims to help minority football coaches advance and develop at all levels. The National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches, established in June and publicly unveiled Thursday, will offer its member coaches professional development opportunities while serving as a resource for teams looking for qualified candidates.

Louisville soccer dismisses 3 players, suspends 3 others for holding party
ESPN

Three Louisville soccer players have been dismissed from the program and three others have been suspended after the school found they held a party last week that resulted in 29 positive tests for the coronavirus and required four other programs to temporarily suspend workouts. The school is not releasing the names of the athletes involved, but all are members of Louisville’s men’s soccer team.

Report: Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh accuses Ohio State’s Ryan Day of breaking rules
Mark Schlabach, ESPN

Michigan and Ohio State will meet in the Horseshoe on Oct. 24 if the upcoming college football season is played, but their head coaches aren’t waiting to exchange strong words. During a conference call among Big Ten coaches on Monday, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh reportedly interrupted Ohio State’s Ryan Day and accused the Buckeyes of breaking rules regarding on-field instruction.

Soccer

Can Pep Guardiola learn from Zinedine Zidane to end Champions League wait?
Mark Ogden, ESPN

There are not too many occasions when Pep Guardiola looks across at his opponent in the technical area and casts an envious glance, but when Manchester City face Real Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie on Friday, he might just do that with Zinedine Zidane. Here you have two managers who are defined by the Champions League. Guardiola won it twice by the time he was 40, in 2009 and 2011 with arguably the best team in history at Barcelona, and Zidane bagged three European titles in a row in his first spell as Real coach, between 2016 and 2018.

Players union opposes rushed EFL move to bring in salary cap
Simon Evans, Reuters

The English Football League’s plans to introduce an American style salary cap for clubs, to help deal with the cash crisis prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, face opposition from the country’s players’ union who say they risk being unlawful.

China’s Chaotic Soccer League Hampers Xi’s World Cup Dream
Trefor Moss, The Wall Street Journal

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, wants the country to become a soccer world power by 2050. By the looks of its professional league, it’s going to take far longer.

Racing

For a Small Stable, Big Prizes Could Lie Ahead
Joe Drape, The New York Times

How lucky is Jack Knowlton? Lucky enough to have the even-money favorite, Tiz the Law, in the 151st running of the Travers Stakes on Saturday in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and with no real pressure to win it.

Jimmie Johnson’s Post-Nascar Plan: ‘I Have Some Other Bucket List Dreams’
Jason Gay, The Wall Street Journal

This isn’t the Nascar farewell Jimmie Johnson imagined. The seven-time Cup series champion, now 44, is in the books as one of the best ever, and he’s still chasing checkered flags and a playoff run.

Golf and Tennis

NSW offers to host Australian Open as Melbourne battles COVID-19 spike
Ian Ransom, Reuters

New South Wales deputy premier John Barilaro says his state would be willing to act as a temporary host for major sports events such as the Australian Open tennis Grand Slam if they cannot be held in neighbouring Victoria due to COVID-19.

Golfers Surge Back to Links but Equipment Makers See Sales Lag
Brendan Coffey, Sportico

Golfers flocked back to tee boxes this spring and early summer, with U.S. courses enjoying a half-billion-dollar jump in revenue. Compared to 2019, rounds played in June were up 13.9%, and there are signs that the game is drawing in lots of newcomers under 17.

Esports

Epic Games Announces $1.78 Billion in Funding as Fortnite Maker Looks to 3D
Randall Williams, Sportico

Epic Games, the developers of the online gaming sensation Fortnite, announced a $1.78 billion round of funding on Thursday, raising the company’s valuation to $17.3 billion. This round, coming from primary capital and secondary purchases from employee equity holders, includes a previously announced $250 million from Sony Corporation, along with investments from Baillie Gifford, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper.

General

XFL Defends Auction and Cites Second Bid Ahead of Sale Approval Hearing
Michael McCann, Sportico

Did Alpha Entertainment, the Vince McMahon-backed company that has agreed to sell the XFL to a group headlined by former WWE star Dwayne “The Rock’’ Johnson, businessperson Dany Garcia and RedBird Capital CEO Gerry Cardinale for $15 million, maximize the sale price? This is a critical question for Alpha’s creditors, who hope to recoup as much money owed to them as possible.

Athletics: London Marathon mass race cancelled, elite race on
Mitch Phillips, Reuters

The mass participation London Marathon has been cancelled due to COVID-19 but an elite-only race, on a multi-lap, fan-free circuit and featuring Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele, will be held on Oct. 4, organisers said on Thursday. The 2021 version of the race – held in March or April since it began in 1981 – will be held on Oct. 3.

Opinions, Editorials, Perspectives and Research

The NCAA whiffed on esports. It’s paying a price but can still learn a lesson.
Ellen Zavian, The Washington Post

The fate of college football and NCAA athletic events this year appear to be in serious jeopardy due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cancellations would carry significant financial repercussions for schools that would lose revenue from events that regularly generate millions.

MLB’s extra-innings experiment is gimmicky, untraditional — and worth keeping
Thomas Boswell, The Washington Post

I like baseball’s new extra-inning rule. So, shoot me. Or use the hidden-ball trick to pick me off second base.

Greatest COVID-19 threat to college football not on the field, according to study
Steve Berkowitz, USA Today

The greatest COVID-19 threat to college football players this fall might not be on the field, but rather on the rest of campus, a newly published study shows. In an article posted on the Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open site last Friday, researchers from Yale, Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital wrote that the safe reopening of college campuses may require testing of all students every two days and “uncompromising vigilance and continuous attention to good prevention practices.”

Morning Consult