Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a compensation bill for college athletes, see News+Notes:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed into law a bill that will allow college athletes in the state to earn money from endorsement deals. The law won’t go into effect until July 2021. By then, both the NCAA and Congress could have rules or legislation in place to lift restrictions on college athletes being paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses.
Florida is the third state, joining California and Colorado, to pass an NIL law targeting current NCAA rules that restrict college athlete compensation.
Florida’s law, however, increases the urgency for the NCAA to act because it goes into effect 18 months earlier than California’s and Colorado’s. More than 20 more states are working on similar legislation. The NCAA’s board of governors signed off in April on recommendations to allow athletes access to a free market while also emphasizing that it will need help from Congress to avoid a patchwork of state laws.
Pro basketball
NBA GIVES TEAMS, PLAYERS MORE DETAILED SCHEDULE >> The NBA gave teams a more definitive timetable for the restart to the pandemic-interrupted season, including required coronavirus testing that is set to begin this month and mandatory individual workouts in early July before training camps.
The league gave teams the go-ahead to immediately start allowing two assistant coaches to deal with voluntary player workouts. NBA head coaches can be one of those two coaches involved in the voluntary sessions starting June 23.
June 23 is significant in another way as well. That would be the first day players on the 22 teams that will be going to the Disney campus would be required to undergo coronavirus testing conducted by those teams.
Pro football
BROWN GETS PROBATION FOR FIGHT WITH DRIVER >> NFL free agent Antonio Brown pleaded no contest to charges related to a fight with a moving truck driver outside his South Florida home earlier this year.
As part of a deal with Broward County prosecutors, Brown pleaded no contest to burglary with battery, burglary of an unoccupied conveyance and criminal mischief. He will serve two years of probation, undergo a psychological evaluation and follow-up treatment, attend an anger management course, perform 100 hours of community service and follow a stay-away order from the truck driver and the moving company owner. NFL PLANS TO OBSERVE JUNETEENTH AS LEAGUE HOLIDAY >> NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced plans to recognize Juneteenth as a league holiday in an internal memo.
Juneteenth is considered the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. It was originally celebrated on June 19, the day that Union soldiers in 1865 told enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, that the Civil War had ended and they were free.
“This year, as we work together as a family and in our communities to combat the racial injustices that remain deeply rooted into the fabric of our society, the NFL will observe Juneteenth on Friday, June 19th as a recognized holiday and our league offices will be closed,” Goodell said in the memo.
Tennis
DJOKOVIC DEFENDS PACKED STANDS AT CHARITY EVENT >> There was no social distancing and few among the thousands of fans wore face masks — and Novak Djokovic approved.
The fans filled the makeshift stands at Djokovic’s Belgrade tennis club on the banks of the Danube River for the opening day of his charity tennis tour organized by him and his family.
The Serbian government recently lifted lockdown restrictions in the coronavirus pandemic, only recommending people stay 1 meter apart. Djokovic defended the freedoms of the crowd.
“We have different circumstances and measures so it’s very difficult to think of international standards,” he said before the ceremonial opening of his Adria Tour.
Soccer
‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ REPLACES PLAYER NAMES ON EPL JERSEYS >> English Premier League jerseys will feature “Black Lives Matter” instead of player names for the first 12 games after the competition’s shutdown ends on Wednesday.
The movement’s campaign logo will then feature elsewhere on jerseys through the July 26 conclusion of the pandemic-delayed season as players decided to highlight racial injustice following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.