Reid says contract proof owners colluded
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Eric Reid has signed a threeyear contract worth more than $22 million with the Carolina Panthers, a deal the safety believes is additional proof that NFL owners conspired to keep him out of the league last season.
Reid said Monday he believes he got “fair market value” after making just $1.69 million last season from the Panthers.
“If anything, it proves my point from last year,” Reid said. “I didn’t sign until the (fourth) week and did for almost the league minimum. And this year I signed a more substantial contract. And nothing has changed. I’m still the same player.”
Reid still has a collusion case pending against NFL owners, alleging that he wasn’t signed last offseason as a direct result of his decision to kneel for the national anthem alongside former teammate Colin Kaepernick in protest of social and racial injustice.
Kaepernick is still out of the league and Reid believes that won’t change anytime soon.
“Knowing what I know my hope tank is on E (empty),” Reid said.
Reid also addressed the joint statement from the NFL and the NFL Players Association in January that he was not targeted by the league with too many drug tests in 2018.
“I believe otherwise,” Reid said.
Mickelson takes 5th win at Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Phil Mickelson is closing in on three decades on the PGA Tour and a half-century on Earth, and he still feels his best golf is good enough.
He was at his best at Pebble Beach, and no one had a chance.
A Monday finish brought on by rain and a freak hail storm was only a minor inconvenience for the 48-year-old Mickelson. He played two holes just as well as the previous 16 and polished off his bogeyfree final round with one last birdie for a 7-under 65 and a three-shot victory over Paul Casey in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am.
Mickelson won at Pebble Beach for the fifth time, matching the record set by Mark O’meara. He has gone 28 years since his first PGA Tour victory and his 44th, and he joined Tiger Woods as the only players to surpass $90 million in career earnings.
“It’s a lot more work and effort to play at this level,” Mickelson said. “And I have believed for some time that if I play at my best, it will be good enough to win tournaments. The challenge is getting myself to play my best. It’s a lot more work off the course, it’s more time in the gym, it’s more time eating, it’s more time focusing, it’s all these things that go into it.
“And so it’s gratifying to see the results and to finish it off the way I did.”
Making it even more special is Pebble Beach, where he made his pro debut at the U.S. Open in 1992, where he won the first of his five titles in another Monday finish in 1998, this one in August because of rain. It’s where his grandfather, Al Santos, was among the first caddies when the course opened in 1919, and Mickelson still uses as a marker the 1900 silver dollar his grandfather kept in his pocket to remind him he was not poor.
There was plenty of sunlight for the Monday morning finish, just no drama.
Tennessee remains at No. 1 in AP poll, ahead of Duke
Tennessee remains No. 1 in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll despite Duke earning the top overall seed in the NCAA’S initial rankings for March Madness.
The Blue Devils received the top seed in the NCAA Division I Basketball Committee, but the Vols received 40 of 64 first-place votes from a media panel in the AP Top 25 released on Monday.
No. 2 Duke had the remaining 24 first-place votes. No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 4 Virginia were the other top seeds in the selection committee’s rankings released on Saturday, with Kentucky rounding out the fifth spot in the AP poll.
Tennessee was selected No. 1 in the South Region by the selection committee in rankings that will change before Selection Sunday on March 17. The Vols beat Missouri and Florida last week.
S. Dakota ranked for 1st time in history
NEW YORK – South Dakota is ranked in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll for the first time in school history.
The 25th-ranked Coyotes (22-3) have won nine straight games and are off to the school’s best start since moving up to Division I in 2008.
Baylor is still No. 1 on Monday, receiving 22 votes from the national media panel. Louisville is second with Oregon, Uconn and Mississippi State rounding out the top five teams. Louisville and Oregon each received three first-place ballots. The Ducks are coming off an impressive 40-point win over Stanford on Sunday. It was Oregon’s first victory at Stanford in 32 years.
Despite the loss, the Cardinal moved up a spot to 10th. They beat then-no. 7 Oregon State on Friday.
Notre Dame dropped to sixth after losing at Miami this week before beating Florida State. Maryland, Marquette and Oregon State fill out the remainder of the top 10. Utah fell out of the poll after losing to UCLA and USC.
Lin may move on to the Raptors
MIAMI – Jeremy Lin is about to be on the move again, with the veteran guard in the process of getting bought out by the Atlanta Hawks so he can sign with the playoff-contending Toronto Raptors.
Jim Tanner, one of Lin’s agents, confirmed the pending move to The Associated Press. ESPN first reported Lin’s plan to join the Raptors.
Toronto will become Lin’s eighth NBA franchise, after stints with Golden State, New York, Houston, the Los Angeles Lakers, Charlotte, Brooklyn and this season Atlanta.