Author: staff
DESTIN — Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher said he’s ready to move on from his spat with Alabama’s Nick Saban.Just to be clear, Fisher said so 10 times Wednesday. The 56-year-old coach concluded an at-times exasperating 15-minute news conference at the SEC Spring Meetings by saying, “I’m not talking about that. I’m moving on. I’m moving on.”Advertisement[ Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher NIL feud seizes center stage at SEC Spring Meetings ]A two-week-old soap opera between Fisher and his former boss stole the spotlight entering a week featuring a busy agenda for the league’s football coaches.Saban said Tuesday, “I have no problem with Jimbo at all,” prior the first of two hours-long meetings with each man in the same room.AdvertisementFisher said Wednesday he and Saban had spoken, made amends and turned their attention to the work at hand.“We spoke in the beginning,” Fisher said. “It’s over with. We’re done talking about it and we’re moving on to the future, what goes on and try to fix the problems we have in college football.“There are a lot more pressing needs than our arguments.”Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher (right) said he and Alabama head coach Nick Saban have ended their feud to focus on the issues facing college football, including NIL — the genesis of the two men’s public feud. (AP)Name, image and likeness — the most complicated and perhaps most pressing issue — was the genesis of the Fisher-Saban dust-up.Their sport’s competitive, combative nature fueled the fire.“You oughta hear a headset; you oughta hear a staff meeting sometimes,” Fisher said. “I go back to that.”Speaking May 18 in Birmingham, Alabama, Saban called out Texas A&M for enticing recruits with NIL deals. The next day, Fisher responded vociferously while essentially accusing Saban of wrongdoing he witnessed firsthand during five seasons together at LSU (2000-04).Fisher deflected those allegations Wednesday.Advertisement“I’m through talking about that. We’ve moved on,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out our schedule. I got a 1,000 little kids coming on Saturday or Sunday.”Fisher, who serves as chairman of the coaches group, said interactions were collegial and productive among the SEC’s 14 coaches.“One of the best dialogues as far as a group of coaches … that I’ve been around,” Fisher said. “Everybody knows the pressing issues. We had dialogue. We had an opinion. We all discussed things in a very professional right way.”Alabama coach Nick Saban meets with then-FSU coach Jimbo Fisher and his son Ethan before September 2017 game in Atlanta. (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)An SEC scheduling model to address the 2025 arrival of Texas and Oklahoma was among the key issues on the table.The league is focused on two alternatives.Chicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.As eight-game conference slate would feature one permanent foe and seven rotating annually. Nine league games would feature three permanent opponents and six rotating.AdvertisementSolutions to NIL are more vexing.States have different laws and schools have different standards about how to apply them. The NCAA has not set any clear guidelines.“The thing you got to have in all those things is uniformity,” Fisher said. “It has to be concrete across the board whatever each state’s rules are. Now how you get to that? The answer is: There is no answer.”If nothing else, Fisher and Saban seem to have come to a meeting of minds. Two headstrong, highly successful coaches able to compromise might be a positive sign.“Sometimes it takes controversy to unite, to [show] there is an issue or a problem that brings us all together to get the best product,” Fisher said. “Because at the end of the day, it’s still about kids. It’s still about the kids.”This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osgators.
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SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. — Dottie Pepper recalls being paired with Meg Mallon for the final round of the 1991 U.S. Women’s Open with what she viewed as an impressive $110,000 first-place prize on the line.Things have changed, but Lydia Ko says not enough.AdvertisementMallon would win that tournament and earn the record-breaking payday.“It was the first time a winning check was six figures,” Pepper said. “That was a big deal.”AdvertisementPepper has a hard time believing that a little more than three decades later, the top female golfers in the world will be competing for a record $10 million purse, including a winner’s share of $1.8 million at the U.S. Women’s Open that begins Thursday at Pine Needles, after the USGA secured a major sponsorship from ProMedica.Ko, the No. 3-ranked women’s golfer in the world, said players should be grateful for steps toward equal pay but added “there’s still a ways to go.”There is.Even with the prize purse increasing $4.5 million from a year ago, the women still lag behind the men.The men’s 2021 U.S. Open purse was $12.5 million, with $2.25 million going to champion Jon Rahm. The prize money for this year’s tournament is expected to increase substantially when it is announced next month. The Masters’ purse went from $11.5 million to $15 million this year and the men’s PGA Championship increased from $12 million to $15 million.It is a gender pay discrepancy that is reflective in many professional sports.In basketball, the average NBA player made $5.3 million per season, according to Basketball Reference, while WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart earned a league-maximum $228,094. That’s a mere drop in the bucket for Golden State’s Stephen Curry, whose annual salary is $45.7 million.Women’s basketball players including Brittney Griner, who the U.S government says is being wrongfully detained in Russia, take their games overseas during the offseason to supplement their incomes.AdvertisementProfessional female athletes’ paychecks are smaller across various sports, according to a study by Adelphi University published in 2021:The average salary of a Major League Baseball player was $4 million, compared with $6,000 for those with Women’s Professional Fastpitch.Major League Soccer players earned an average of $410,730, compared with $35,000 for their female counterparts in the National Women’s Soccer League.Male tennis players made on average $335,946 last year while the women earned $283,635.Male golfers averaged $1.25 million versus $48,993 for their female counterparts.Of Forbes’ top 50 highest-paid athletes in 2022, tennis player Naomi Osaka was the only woman to make the list at $59.2 million — the vast majority of that coming from endorsement deals.But strides are being made.Earlier this month, the U.S. Soccer Federation reached a milestone agreement to pay its men’s and women’s teams equally, making the American national governing body the first in the sport to promise both sexes equal salaries. That came after fans chanted “Equal pay!” following the women’s team’s 2019 World Cup win and the team filed a discrimination lawsuit.In tennis, there have been equal payouts for men and women at all four Grand Slam events — Wimbledon, the French Open, U.S. Open and Australian Open — since 2007, the result of Billie Jean King’s threat of a boycott back in 1973. However, men earn more than women at other, smaller tennis tournaments.“I think women have not been paid as much because male executives, overwhelmingly white, saw less value in women’s sports,” said Richard Lapchick, the director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. “Also sport is a reflection of society where women are underpaid compared to men.Advertisement“Now attendance at women’s games and viewers on TV are increasing dramatically. That coupled with a better climate for social justice in the last two years is finally ramping up the discussions for equal pay. On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, I hope sports can help lead the way for equal pay for women everywhere.”Female golfers are working hard to bridge the pay gap.Australian Minjee Lee said gaining the confidence and backing of a major sponsor like ProMedica is “a huge step in the right direction” for women’s golf. And female pro athletes in general.“I think it’s only going to get better and better,” Lee added.When Annika Sorenstam won this event in 1996 at Pine Needles, she took home $212,500 and became the first female golfer to surpass $1 million in career earnings.On Sunday, the champion will earn nearly twice that for winning one tournament.Advertisement“I think it’s fantastic,” Sorenstam said. “That is a massive change. It’s a massive boost. It gives the women a lot more credibility and respect. … I hope other tournaments will follow suit, and let’s keep working this direction for other women.”With ProMedica’s backing, the U.S. Women’s Open purse is set to increase annually to $12 million in the next five years.“Seeing the sponsors that we have out here on the LPGA Tour, seeing the purse increases, the TV coverage, that’s what we want,” said American Lexi Thompson, the world’s No. 6-ranked golfer. “We want to grow the game and leave it in a better place.”Karen Stupples started playing on the LPGA Tour in an era when women struggled to make a living.Her first career tournament paycheck was for $1,306 in 1999 when she finished tied for 58th at the Phillips Invitational.“I just can’t wrap my head around what a difference this could possibly make for somebody,” said Stupples, now a commentator for NBC covering this week’s U.S. Open. “I can’t even properly speak about it. I mean, my goodness, what a move this is.”AdvertisementJin Young Ko, the world’s No. 1 female player, said it’s a lot of money at stake — and she plans to donate some of it back if she wins.“I want to help children that want to be LPGA players,” Ko said. “I want to help them. If I win, I will do that.”AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contributed to this report.
There are still some things to work out in the aftermath of Josh Donaldson’s incident with Tim Anderson. The third baseman still does not know when his appeal of the one-game suspension will be and there are some conversations between him and some teammates, like Aaron Judge, that need to happen.But Donaldson will be welcomed back into the Yankees clubhouse, even though Judge said that he felt his teammate’s comments weren’t right.Advertisement“I haven’t spoken to him but that’s something that we’ll handle internally and get it figured out,” Judge said before Wednesday night’s game against the Angels. “But he’s a big part of the [leadership] in this room and a lot of guys look to him and that was a tough situation he’s been in.“He’s gonna be a big part of us moving forward. So I was excited to get him back healthy.”AdvertisementDonaldson said that it was hard to hear Judge and manager Aaron Boone criticize his actions after the incident. The benches cleared after Donaldson repeatedly called Anderson, who is Black, “Jackie,” in reference to Jackie Robinson. White Sox manager called it “racist,” while Anderson and the league called it “disrespectful.”“It’s a tough one. Joke or not, I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do there,” Judge said of the May 21 incident. Boone said he thought it was “somewhere Josh shouldn’t be going.”Josh Donaldson admits he was hurt by internal criticism from his manager and teammates. (Terrance Williams/AP)Donaldson has been adamant that he meant nothing racial toward Anderson with the comments, he was just drawing on an interview from 2019 in which Anderson compared himself to Robinson in trying to break through the “fun barrier” in the game.Donaldson took the criticism from his own clubhouse hard.“I think that was tough to hear. For sure. Just for the simple fact that, I pride myself on being a good teammate,” Donaldson said. “And everywhere I’ve [gone], every organization that I’ve been a part of, minus Oakland, has offered me an extension. They wanted me to stay … They showed that they want to be a part of their team. Obviously, it didn’t work out that way if that’s the business end of it.”“But, and also like everywhere that I went I’ve won,” Donaldson continued. “I think part of winning is having a good team chemistry. And I’ve taken pride like everywhere I went I’ve always tried to help people try to get better. I’ve tried to learn from my teammates as well. So that was definitely tough.”Donaldson said he has spoken with his teammates about it from the minute it happened and he will continue to do so if it continues to be an issue. He issued his statement last week apologizing to the Robinson family because he said he never intended “Jackie” to be taken as an insult. He said that he and Anderson had joked about it in the past, after Anderson called himself the “Jackie Robinson of today,” in an interview, but obviously they have had issues at least going back to the week before the incident at Yankee Stadium with a very physical tag at third base.Donaldson said he was confused because other guys on the White Sox, including Liam Hendricks, who publicly criticized him, were friendly to him off the field last week. The benches-clearing incident actually occurred a few innings after the “What up, Jackie,” comment and began when catcher Yasmani Grandal got in Donaldson’s face and blocked him from walking into the batter’s box.AdvertisementThat — and that his comments have been called racist — is mostly why Donaldson is appealing the one-game suspension issued by MLB dean of discipline Michael Hill.“My intentions weren’t what it was blown out to be,” Donaldson said of why he is appealing. “And I think a big part of the thing was that I incited the benches clearing. When that was like, four innings after. I don’t know how I was inciting anything. I walked up to home plate and the catcher confronted me. I don’t know how that was my prerogative. They decided they wanted to clear benches. So in my opinion, I didn’t do that.”When the Yankees acquired him, there was a lot of talk about Donaldson playing with an edge. He is not shy about saying controversial things, just ask Gerrit Cole. One former teammate said of Donaldson that “he’s a smart guy/great player,” who “thinks he has to be an asshole to add to his natural strengths.”Donaldson isn’t going to change who he is.“I gotta be myself. I play the game a certain way and I’m not going out there to obviously to this extent, but I go out there and play and I play to win,” Donaldson said.
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GLASGOW, Scotland — Ukraine’s emotion-filled quest to qualify for the World Cup amid an ongoing war moved a step closer with a 3-1 win over Scotland in a pulsating playoff semifinal on Wednesday.Veteran captain Andriy Yarmolenko lifted his nation by scoring a deft lobbed goal in the 33rd minute and then helped set up Roman Yaremchuk’s header in the 49th.AdvertisementUkraine dominated for much of a deserved win though had to resist a Scotland revival as risk-filled attacks brought a goal in the 79th by Callum McGregor, before Ukraine substitute Artem Dovbyk broke clear to score with the last kick of the game.Dovbyk led teammates toward the corner of the stadium to share the celebration with 3,000 Ukraine fans in the 51,000 crowd, applauding each other with hands raised high above their heads.AdvertisementNow Ukraine moves on to face Wales on Sunday with a place at the World Cup at stake.The winner in Cardiff will go to Qatar in November to play in a group against England, the United States and Iran.Ukraine put in a slick display despite using six starters who had not played a competitive game of any kind since December.Most of Ukraine’s squad play for home-based clubs whose league was shut down after Russia’s invasion, and the playoff in Glasgow was postponed in March. FIFA and Scotland agreed to give the Ukrainian team a fair chance to prepare for games that have become a focus of national identity and pride.Scotland lacked the class needed and its wait for World Cup soccer now extends beyond the 24 years since it went to the 1998 tournament.Ukraine’s win could have been sealed earlier but for saves early and often by 39-year-old Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon. When the Scots chased a way back into the game, John McGinn placed a 67th-minute header inexplicably wide from close range.Ukraine is riding a wave of global goodwill as the victim of Russian aggression and its players’ intense motivation to reward the nation with a place on soccer’s biggest stage was clear.The Ukrainian players all walked onto the field with a blue and yellow national flag draped on their shoulders.AdvertisementThe warm welcome saw Ukraine’s national anthem “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainas” applauded loudly by Scotland fans. Many of those same fans stayed after the game to salute their victorious opponents off the field.Some of the Ukrainian fans had traveled far and had made plans to stay in Britain for the decisive playoff Sunday.George Butromeyev told The Associated Press before the game he came from Toronto with friends to support the players who “need to show the people of Ukraine that we are warriors.”“It’s not only about football,” said Yaroslav Grygorenko, who traveled from Amsterdam. “It’s important to be on the top of the discussions here in Europe, to not let (people) forget what is happening in Ukraine.”Scotland-born Alex Demianczuk wore a kilt in Ukrainian yellow and blue colors and wanted his parents’ nation to advance. Ukraine playing at the World Cup, he said, would be “something that’s really going to get on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s nerves.”In Kyiv, fans determined to get together to see the match had the war-time night-time curfew to contend with, which kicked in at 11 p.m. local time, before the start of the second half.AdvertisementThe Beer & Meet bar in downtown Kyiv got around the restriction on movement by offering fans the possibility to stay there until 5 a.m., when the curfew ends.Police swung by the bar in a patrol car a few minutes before kickoff, asking fans who had gathered outside to go down into the drinking hole’s basement rooms, because of an air-raid warning.Oleksii Safin, 40, who works as a voice actor, stood with his right hand over his heart as he belted out the national anthem. He and other supporters erupted in celebration when Ukraine scored first. But the war raging in the east of the country wasn’t forgotten.“It looks like we are having lots of fun but, actually, we are not,” Safin said. “We are trying to look normal, as far as we can, but we still remember what is going on out in the east.“It’s a good fight, just like the fight that we have right now with the Russians,” Safin said. “We can show that we can do it.”Associated Press writer John Leicester in Kyiv contributed to this report
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