Pac-12 football players urge opt-out amid virus concerns
A group of Pac-12 football players say they will not practice or play until their concerns about playing during the COVID-19 pandemic and other racial and economic issues in college sports are addressed.
The players posted a statement Sunday on The Players’ Tribune website and social media with the hashtag #WeAreUnited and sent out a press release. The release listed the names of 12 Pac-12 players, including Oregon star safety Jevon Holland, and provided a statement from each one.
It says hundreds of players throughout the Pac-12 are concerned about the risks of COVID-19 and that the conference and NCAA lack transparency, uniformity and adequate enforcement infrastructure.
The players’ list of demands addresses healthy and safety protections related to COVID-19; protection for all college sports programs from being eliminated by budget cuts; racial injustice in college sports; and economic rights and compensation for college athletes, including 50% of each sport’s total conference revenue distributed evenly among athletes in their respective sport.
“This is important to me because I want to see the young men that are being exploited by the PAC12 & NCAA have the right to earn money for their families,” Holland said in a statement. “I want the safety of my peers lives to be placed higher than the sport they play. If we are treated like employees then we should be compensated as such.”
The other players listed were:
Jaydon Grant of Oregon
State; Treyjohn Butler of Stanford; Jake Curhan, Joshua Drayden and Valentino Daltoso of California; Elisha Guidry of UCLA; Malik Hausman of Arizona; Dallas Hobbs of Washington State; Ty Jones and Joe Tryon of Washington and Cody Shear of Arizona State.
Thomas holds off Koepka to win WGC in Memphis, reclaim world No. 1
MEMPHIS, TENN. » Justin Thomas wants to make his second stint as No. 1 in the world last longer than the first time around.
“I hope so,” Thomas said Sunday after winning the FedEx St. Jude Invitational to take the No. 1 spot for the first time since June 2018. “I feel like I’m a better player, and I feel like I’m more complete of a golfer now than I was then.”
Thomas dueled defending champion Brooks Koepka down the final holes, sealing the World Golf Championship victory on the par-5
16th. Thomas took the lead for good with his second straight birdie, while Koepka bogeyed the hole.
Koepka pulled within a stroke with a 39-footer for birdie on No. 17. But Koepka put his tee shot into the water along the 18th fairway on his way to double bogey, allowing Thomas to finish up an easy par putt for what wound up a threestroke victory.
Thomas closed with a 5-under 66 to finish at
13-under 267 and take the
$10.5 million winner’s check for his 13th PGA Tour title. At 27, he became the thirdyoungest player since 1960 to reach 13 PGA Tour wins, trailing only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.
“I’ve been fortunate to have a good career so far, but I plan on playing out here for a long time and have a lot of things that I still want to accomplish,” Thomas said. “And every milestone and steppingstone is hopefully something that I can learn from and something that will help me even more in the long run.”
One sign of Thomas’ growth was this was the fifth time he rallied to win, and he matched his biggest comeback after starting the day four strokes back of third-round leader Brendon Todd. Thomas has three wins this season, two since the start of the year.
Keselowski wins in New Hampshire for third win since shutdown
LOUDON, N.H. » With about 70 laps to go in his backand-forth battle against Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin radioed in to his team: “This is awesome racing.”
Imagine how Keselowski felt.
The 2012 Cup champion took the checkered flag at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, beating Hamlin by 1.647 seconds after trading the lead with him for most of the 301-lap race.
The two swapped stage wins and held the lead a combined 18 times before Keselowski claimed his third victory since the sport returned from the pandemic shutdown, along with the now-traditional prize of a 18-pound, live lobster. Afterward, Keselowski grabbed a U.S. flag and spun his car around in front of a crowd that spent most of the race masked and socially distanced before crowding the fence to chant “Brad!