Bengals pin franchise tag on Tee
The Bengals placed the franchise tag on receiver Tee Higgins, which likely will keep him with the team at least one more season, the team said Monday.
If the Bengals can’t reach a longterm agreement with the 25-year-old Higgins before July 15, he’ll play the 2024 season with the Bengals for a salary of $21.8 million, which is the franchise tag amount for receivers.
Higgins, a second-round draft pick in 2020, couldn’t reach a longterm deal before the final year of his rookie contract.
As the 2023 season was beginning, quarterback Joe Burrow signed a five-year contract extension worth $275 million. The Bengals are also expected to offer No. 1 receiver Ja’Marr Chase a lucrative long-term deal.
Higgins has played in 58 regular-season games for Cincinnati and has 257 receptions for 3,684 yards and 24 TDs. He had more than 1,000 receiving yards in 2021 and ’22, becoming one of five players in team history to reach that mark multiple times in his first three seasons.
SHERMAN BAIL AT 5G
Bail was set at $5,000 on Monday for former NFL star Richard Sherman following his weekend arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence.
Sherman was pulled over just before 2 a.m. Saturday for driving 79 mph in a 60 mph zone on Interstate 405 south of Seattle, Washington State Patrol Trooper Jordan
Hazzard-Thomas wrote in a probable cause statement. His eyes were bloodshot and watery, he smelled of intoxicants, and he declined to take a breath test, Hazzard-Thomas wrote.
After spending the weekend in the King County Jail in Seattle, Sherman waived his right to appear at a bail hearing Monday. His bail was set at $5,000, and his attorney, Jon Scott Fox, said he expected Sherman to be processed and released quickly.
Sherman, a three-time All-Pro cornerback, played 11 years in the NFL and helped lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl title during the 2013-14 season. He also was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-Decade Team of the 2010s.
HOUSTON NEW NO. 1
Now it is Houston’s turn at the top of The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll.
The Cougars moved to No. 1 for the first time this season in Monday’s latest poll, climbing one spot to end the six-week stay of reigning national champion Connecticut. Houston (24-3) became the fifth team to hold the top spot this season.
Purdue rose one spot to No. 2, while the Huskies’ loss to Creighton dropped them to third in a poll that included South Florida cracking the rankings for the first time in program history.
$3.7M FOR HOCKEY CARDS
A case of old hockey cards possibly containing the game’s Great One has fetched more than $3.7 million after it was discovered in a Regina home.
Heritage Auctions says the winning bidder bought the case of 16 sealed boxes of O-Pee-Chee’s 1979 hockey card collection, amounting to more than 10,000 cards. The auctioneer says the case could include 25 or more highly coveted Wayne Gretzky rookie cards.
A man in Regina had kept the case in a packed storage room. The auctioneer says the longtime collector asked to remain anonymous.
A company spokesperson has said he doesn’t expect the winning bidder will open the boxes, as they are rarer than the rookie cards.