NFL TELLS TEAMS TRAINING CAMPS WILL OPEN ON TIME
The NFL has informed teams their training camps will open on time.
League executive Troy Vincent sent a memo to general managers and head coaches on Saturday informing them rookies can report by Tuesday, quarterbacks and injured players by Thursday and all other players can arrive by July 28.
Rookies for Houston and Kansas City are set to report Monday.
The league and the NFL Players Association are still discussing testing for the coronavirus and other health and safety protocols. Union leadership expressed several concerns in a 90-minute conference call with reporters Friday.
However, under the collective bargaining agreement, the NFL can impose report dates.
The NFLPA could file a grievance to argue the league isn’t providing a safe work environment under the labor deal.
“The league is management,” NFLPA executive director Demaurice Smith said Friday. “They have the exclusive right, just like somebody who owns a plant, regarding when it opens and when it closes. They want training camps to open on time. The role of the union is to hold them accountable about whether it’s safe to open now.”
The players’ union wants players tested daily for the virus. A joint committee of doctors, trainers and strength coaches formed by the NFL and NFLPA recommended testing every other day.
Other outstanding issues include number of preseason games. The league has planned to cut the exhibition schedule from four games to two while the union wants none.
Authentic wins Haskell for Baffert at Monmouth Park.
OCEANPORT, N.J.» Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert got yet another win in the Haskell Stakes with a talented, developing colt who is now very much in the picture for the coronavirusdelayed Kentucky Derby.
Authentic gave Baffert his recordextending ninth victory in the $1 million Grade I Haskell on Saturday, holding off late charging Ny Traffic by a nose at Monmouth Park.
Jockey Mike Smith put the Santa Anita Derby runner-up on the lead at the start and they covered the
1 k- mile Grade 1 stakes in 1:50.46. The win was the third in four starts this year for the colt.
Yanks’ Lemahieu unsure for opener after positive COVID test.
NEW YORK» Yankees second baseman DJ Lemahieu isn’t sure if he’ll be ready for Thursday’s season opener after missing much of preseason camp because of a positive coronavirus test.
Lemahieu finally reported to camp last week after testing positive at his home in Michigan last month. The three-time All-star said it was “shocking” to get the result because he had no symptoms. The 32-yearold took the test because he wanted to be sure he didn’t have COVID-19 before visiting his father.
“It’s definitely a scary thing,” Lemahieu said in his first public remarks since reporting to New York this week.
Umpire Rick Reed, who worked 1991 World Series, dies at 70. YORK» Rick Reed, whose career as a big league umpire spanned three decades and included two All-star games and a World Series, has died. He was 70.
Reed died Thursday night. Born in Detroit, Reed first worked a handful of American League games in 1979 before eventually becoming a full-time ump in the big leagues four years later. He worked the classic seven-game World Series between Minnesota and Atlanta in 1991 and also received All-star assignments in 1986 and 1998.
Reed appeared as the plate umpire in the 1999 movie “For Love of the Game” that starred Kevin Costner.