Off the wire
COLLEGE FOOTBALL Colorado State hires Norvell
Colorado State hired the first Black head football coach in program history Monday, bringing in Nevada’s Jay Norvell to take over for Steve Addazio. Norvell is coming off a season in which he guided the Wolf Pack to an 8-4 record and a spot in the Quick Lane Bowl against Western Michigan on Dec. 27. “From the outset, the interest in our coaching position was significant, but one name and resume stood above the rest from the very beginning — Jay Norvell,” Colorado State Director of Athletics Joe Parker said in a statement. An offensive innovator, Norvell has led his team to bowl games in four of the five seasons he’s been at Nevada. He’s 33-26 since being hired by the Wolf Pack on Dec. 9, 2016. That includes a 2-1 mark against fellow Mountain West member Colorado State. The Wolf Pack beat Colorado State 52-10 on Nov. 27 in a game where Addazio was ejected. It would prove to be Addazio’s final contest with the Rams. The hiring of Norvell didn’t take long after Addazio was fired on Thursday. Addazio was let go after posting a 4-12 record over two seasons in Fort Collins. Addazio’s tenure got off to a rocky start last year when the university opened an investigation into the program’s handling of covid-19 cases, which uncovered allegations of racism and verbal abuse toward athletes.
1972 Heisman winner in ICU
Johnny Rodgers, the 1972 Heisman Trophy winner and a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, is in an Omaha, Neb., hospital intensive care unit with covid-19. Rodgers’ business partner, Denny Drake, said the Cornhuskers’ football great was hospitalized Thanksgiving morning with the virus at Nebraska Medical Center, the Omaha World-Herald reported. Rodgers also developed pneumonia but seemed to improve after a few days in the hospital, Drake said. However, he took a turn for the worse last week and was placed in the ICU. Rodgers, 70, has since improved and is “feeling much better,” Drake said. “He was pretty weak until late yesterday,” Drake told the World-Herald on Sunday. “He called me this morning, and his voice sounded good.”
Rodgers did not immediately return a text message left Monday by The Associated Press. Rodgers, nicknamed “The Jet,” grew up in Omaha, played on Nebraska’s national championship teams in 197071 and won the Heisman as a senior in 1972. He is well known for his electrifying punt return for a touchdown against archrival Oklahoma in 1971. He also was a consensus All-American his last two seasons. He was an NFL first-round draft pick in 1973, but played most of his professional career in Canada.
Texas linemen to profit
Every Texas Longhorns offensive lineman on scholarship will get $50,000 annually for use of their name, image and likeness to support charitable causes, a new nonprofit entity announced Monday. Horns with Heart said “The Pancake Factory” would start in August 2022. The organization said it hopes to expand the program to other football position groups and Longhorns athletes in the future. The name comes from the “pancake” blocks linemen sometimes do during play. The Horns With Heart announcement said it was founded by six Texas alumni and supporters “”with experience across multiple industries and disciplines to make a positive impact on local communities,” but did not say who they are. Horns With Heart did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. The effort is capped at $800,000 annually, which would cover 16 scholarship linemen. The announcement comes with early signing day for football recruits coming up on Dec. 15. Texas finished 5-7 this season and won’t play in a bowl game, and Coach Steve Sarkisian has identified the offensive line as a key recruiting area.
BASEBALL Federal mediator Moffett dies
Kenneth Moffett, the federal mediator during the 1981 baseball strike who briefly succeeded Marvin Miller as the second head of the players’ association, has died. He was 90. Moffett died Nov. 19 at his home in Alexandria, Va., said his wife, the former Mary Taddeo. He had been ill with dementia for about six months and the death certificate cited natural causes, she said Monday. His death was first reported by the Washington Post. Moffett was part of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in 1980, when baseball players and owners reached an agreement that put off a work stoppage until the following year. As deputy director of the FMCS during the 50-day strike that interrupted the 1981 season, he shuttled between the parties, set up bargaining sessions and suggested frameworks for settlement. He also worked at the FMCS during the August 1981 strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization against the Federal Aviation Administration. President Ronald Reagan ordered the firing of workers who did not return to their jobs.
TENNIS Andreescu taking mental break
Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, will take a mental break from tennis and sit out the start of next season, including the Australian Open, saying Monday she wants to “re-set, recover, and grow” after a “challenging” two years that included getting covid-19. The 21-year-old from Canada wrote in a posting on Twitter that she was affected mentally and physically by “multiple weeks in isolation quarantining” and that her grandmother’s stay for several weeks in a hospital’s intensive care unit because of the coronavirus “really hit me hard.” “A lot of days, I did not feel like myself, especially while I was training and/or playing matches. I felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders,” Andreescu said. “I could not detach myself from everything that was going on off the court; was feeling the collective sadness and turmoil around and it took its toll on me.” Andreescu joins other professional athletes who have cited the need for time away from competition to gather themselves mentally — including, for example, Naomi Osaka, a fourtime major title winner and former No. 1-ranked player in tennis. Osaka took a break after pulling out of the French Open in May and again after her loss at the U.S. Open in September, sitting out the remainder of the season. Andreescu was 19 when she capped a breakthrough season by upsetting her idol, Serena Williams, in the U.S. Open final two years ago. Soon after, Andreescu rose to a career-best No. 4 in the WTA rankings.
HOCKEY Flyers fire head coach
The Philadelphia Flyers fired coach Alain Vigneault on Monday following eight straight losses, two shy of matching a team record of 10 in a row, and with the franchise far from ending a 47-year Stanley Cup drought. The Flyers have been one of NHL’s biggest flops of the season. Their latest loss was a 7-1 defeat by Tampa Bay on Sunday night that sealed Vigneault’s fate. Assistant coach Michel Therrien also was fired. The Flyers are 8-10-4 and in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division. Vigneault went 147-74-54 with the Flyers and missed the playoffs last season. Mike Yeo was named interim coach. The Flyers are scheduled to play Monday night against Colorado. General Manager Chuck Fletcher tried to blame injuries last week for the team’s recent slide, but it became clear as the losses piled up, a change was needed. “The last ten, we slipped back. There’s no question,” he said last week. “Now the onus is on our group to get it back. When injured players come back, it makes it easier. We can’t kid ourselves. We have to get better.” Vigneault lasted just 2-plus seasons in Philadelphia and never could lead the Flyers in the right direction this year after a promising first season in which he led them to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference in the NHL’s restart bubble. Vigneault had led the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks to the Stanley Cup Final and was trying to do the same in Philadelphia, where the Flyers haven’t won it all since consecutive championships in 1974 and 1975.