BUCS KEEPING SUPER BOWL GANG TOGETHER
Tom Brady doesn’t merely lead teams to Super Bowl wins on the field. He also helps keep together championship teams that have salary cap issues.
So sackmaster Shaq Barrett, fellow standout linebacker Lavonte David and old buddy Rob Gronkowski will remain in Tampa Bay.
Just as he had done several times in New England, Brady reworked his big-ticket contract last week to free up money in free agency. The Buccaneers used it to keep
David, and on Monday, the first day of “legal tampering” before the
NFL’s business year begins on Wednesday, the 28-year-old Barrett agreed to a four-year, $72 million contract with $36 million guaranteed, agent Drew Rosenhaus confirmed.
Later in the day, Gronk agreed to return for his 11th season with Brady on a oneyear, $10 million deal — up from the $9.25 million he earned in 2020.
Meanwhile, back in Brady’s former stomping grounds, the Patriots were spending wildly in an attempt to recapture the glory he produced before heading south last season.
New England opened its vaults wider than any other team, something unusual for a club that normally avoids chasing the most expensive free agents. Of course, the Patriots went 7-9 without Brady in 2020.
Joining them are linebacker/edge rusher Matthew Judon from Baltimore; tight end Jonnu Smith from Tennessee; nose tackle Davon Godchaux from Miami; and defensive back Jalen Mills from Philadelphia.
Judon, 28, will get a fouryear, $56 million pact with $32 million guaranteed, a person with knowledge of the contract told The Associated Press. Smith, 25, will be paid $50 million over four years to try to fill the void created when Gronkowski retired after the 2018 season — only to return last year to reunite with Brady in Tampa Bay.
The 26-year-old Godchaux gets $16 million for two years, with $9 million guaranteed. Mills, soon to turn 27, comes in at four years for $29 million, also guaranteed $9 million.
Clearly, the salary cap that decreased by about $16 million this year due to lost revenues because of the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t prevented New England from diving headfirst into the free agency waters.
But they let perhaps the best offensive lineman in this crop get away, as 28-year-old guard Joe Thuney agreed to a five-year, $80 million contract with Kansas City. It might seem a stretch to think the Chiefs have problems on offense, but anyone who saw their line fall apart in the Super Bowl recognizes the value of adding Thuney.
Two other AFC West teams were busy as well.
The Raiders, who have suffered defensively since trading Khalil Mack in 2018, agreed to a two-year contract with edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue. They are last in the NFL with 66 sacks and 357 pressures, according to SportRadar, since the trade.
Denver defensive end Shelby Harris agreed to a three-year, $27 million deal. The 29-year-old Harris played on a one-year deal last year after finding no suitors in free agency despite setting personal highs with 49 tackles, six sacks and nine passes defensed in 2019. Elsewhere:
• The Rams agreed with pass rusher Leonard Floyd on a four-year deal. Floyd, who is coming off the best season of his five-year NFL career, signed last April after the Bears released him.
• Cleveland might have found a gem in Rams safety
John Johnson III. The 25-yearold playmaker is a strong run defender who had four interceptions in 2018 and has eight over a career spanning 48 starts. His three-year deal with the Browns reportedly is valued at $33.75 million, with $24 million guaranteed.
• Jacksonville added Bears defensive lineman Roy Robertson-Harris with a threeyear, $24.4 million deal that includes $14 million guaranteed. The Jaguars also grabbed safety Rudy Ford and receiver Jamal Agnew (USD), both special teamers, as well as receiver
Phillip Dorsett and running back Carlos Hyde. Defensive lineman Dawuane Smoot was retained.
• San Francisco re-signed 29-year-old cornerback Jason Verrett for one year. He has been plagued by injuries throughout his career but stayed healthy in 2020 and excelled for the 49ers.
• Arizona re-signed linebacker Markus Golden for two years.
• Baltimore agreed with guard Kevin Zeitler , 31, on a three-year, $22 million contract. Zeitler, a nine-year veteran, was released by the New York Giants last week.
In the matchup of baseball’s most prominent two-way players, Shohei Ohtani had it all his way against Michael Lorenzen.
Ohtani hit two home runs off Lorenzen on Monday, earning plenty of praise from the Cincinnati Reds pitcher/outfielder.
“If I have to pick a favorite player, it’s him,” Lorenzen said.
Off to a sizzling spring start at the plate for the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani lofted an opposite-field drive to left in the first inning. The next time up, Ohtani went way deeper to left-center.
“I think he made up for the first one because it went about twice as far,” Lorenzen said. “Man, he’s impressive. I’ve always said he’s the real deal, I’ve always said it from Day One. I love what he’s doing.”
Ohtani is 9 for 16 with three homers. The 2018 AL Rookie of the Year has made two starts this spring — one strong, the other shaky — while showing excellent velocity.
Ohtani hit .286 with 18 homers in 2019 but didn’t pitch while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He struggled during the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, batting .190 as a designated hitter and making two brief appearances on the mound.
Lorenzen has pitched over 444 innings in the majors. He’s played more than 30 times in the outfield, including six starts in center, and is a career .235 hitter with seven home runs.
Braun may retire
Ryan Braun says he’s strongly leaning toward retirement, but the Milwaukee Brewers’ home-run leader isn’t ready to make any decision regarding his future.
Braun visited the Brewers’ spring training site Monday and said he hasn’t picked up a bat since the end of the 2020 season. The 2011 NL MVP became a free agent when the Brewers declined to exercise a $15 million mutual option in his contract last October.
“I’m strongly leaning in the direction of being done as an active player,” the 37-year-old Braun said. “But I think you can always push that decision back. I’m still young enough, still working out, still in shape. If something were to change, I might as well leave that door open as long as possible.”
Braun has spent his entire major league career with the Brewers and said that “I can’t foresee a scenario in which I play for any other major league team.”
Last season, Braun batted a career-low .233 with seven homers and 27 RBIs in 39 games while dealing with a back issue. He came on strong late in the season and had a .958 OPS in September.
Notable
Sixto Sanchez’s first pitch for the Miami Marlins in the first spring training game of his career squarely met Jose Altuve’s bat.
The Houston Astros star grounded a leadoff single Monday, but Sanchez shook off that setback on his way to 12⁄3 scoreless innings in West Palm Beach, Fla.
• Rays shortstop Wander Franco, regarded as the top prospect in the majors, was reassigned to minor league camp. The 20-year-old hasn’t played above Class A in the regular season. He hit .294 with one homer and two RBIs while appearing in seven exhibition games for Tampa Bay this spring.
• Yankees left-hander Zack Britton had surgery to remove a bone chip from his pitching elbow. The reliever is likely to be out until at least May and perhaps until summer.
Forget what you’ve read elsewhere. And since it’s been a while, remember this one simple rule while filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket: Don’t get carried away.
No matter what color dominated your dreams recently, how much you dislike Rick Pitino or adore Sister Jean, or even how certain you are that Georgetown vs. Colorado is a lock for the annual No. 12 seed over a No. 5 upset ... that is not what those government stimulus checks are for.
At least not the entire amount.
March is mad for college basketball again, and that’s a good thing, even if some of the biggest moments will take place at COVID-19 testing sites and both the celebrations and the games themselves will be muted affairs. We still need distractions.
The pandemic that wiped out the tournament a year ago lingers, so be like the NCAA — in this one instance, anyway — and partake while observing all the necessary precautions: Drink lots of fluids, wash your hands often, mask up where appropriate and close your browser the second you suspect the DraftKings logo starts whispering sweet nothings. (Then seek help.) We don’t want the tender shoots of recovery to wind up as crumpled betting slips littering the landscape.
That said, some 50 million of us are expected to stick at least a toe back into betting pools, legal or otherwise. That’s according to — who else? — the American Gaming Association, the industry’s national trade association, and its estimate tracks the last time the tournament was held in 2019.
There will be fewer office pools, obviously, because there are fewer people back working in offices. But the industry expects online wagering through legal sports books to easily pick up any slack. Indeed, the industry is not only counting on pent-up demand; it’s practically framing betting as your patriotic duty.
“In many ways it’s a signal that America is coming back,” said Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill US. “Beyond the sports betting aspect, it flows into the whole COVID recovery story.”
Maybe.
And whether you’ve got something riding on the outcome, even in these strange times, there’s no shortage of story threads waiting to be tugged. There will be buzzer-beaters, new heroes and old villains and just enough familiar faces so that like comfort food, you’ll be instantly reminded what
made the tournament seem so pleasing in the first place. There’s something for everyone.
If it’s resilience you want, look no further than the return of now-101-year-old (and fully vaccinated) Sister Jean Schmidt, the unofficial mascot for a Loyola Chicago squad back after a Cinderella run to the Final Four three seasons ago. If, for some reason, you want more chaos, then track the progress of historic giant-killers Norfolk State and Cleveland State. And then there’s the just plain weird to savor — teams like Oregon State and Georgetown, that seemingly had no shot to make the tourney a week ago, and look dangerous playing with house money.
Sure, it won’t be the same in Indianapolis without Duke or Kentucky, or the Hoosiers for that matter. You might not have Kansas or defending champion Virginia to kick around,
either, depending on how their quarantine results come back today, the last day they’ll be allowed inside the NCAA bubble.
But there’s enough schadenfreude to go around. Just ask Louisville, for the moment, the last team left out. The school fired Pitino in 2017 after being ensnared in a federal corruption investigation that could still result in sanctions. Pitino, meanwhile, was soon enough tired of sailing on his yacht and got back in the game at Iona, playing just 13 regular-season games before winning its conference tourney and an automatic bid. He wasn’t exactly thrilled, however, with a 15th seed.
“A little role reversal,” is what Pitino called it, which could well be the unofficial motto for the three weeks about to unfold.