Bills’ Hamlin receives award at Super Bowl event
Damar Hamlin made a brief appearance in Phoenix during Super Bowl week to receive the NFLPA’s Alan Page Community Award.
Hamlin read a brief statement Wednesday with his parents on stage with him at the Phoenix Convention Center. The Buffalo Bills safety received the award a little over a month after he went into cardiac arrest and needed to be resuscitated on the field in Cincinnati.
The Alan Page Award annually recognizes one player who goes above and beyond to perform community service in his team city and/or hometown.
Hamlin’s toy drive fundraiser has raised more than $9 million since he collapsed.
IRVIN PULLED FROM NFL
NETWOR’S SUPER BOWL COVERAGE Michael Irvin has been pulled from the remainder of NFL Network’s Super Bowl week coverage after a complaint about Irvin’s behavior in a hotel Sunday night.
The Hall of Fame wide receiver went on a Dallas radio station Wednesday and said he was asked by network officials to move to another hotel on Monday after what he described as a brief encounter with a woman. RIVERA: HOWELL GOES INTO
SPRING AS COMMANDERS’ STARTING QB >> Sam Howell is going into offseason workouts as the Washington Commanders ‘ starting quarterback, coach Ron Rivera said Wednesday.
The second-year pro will still have competition along the way, but Rivera’s declaration appears to take the organization out of the running for highprofile veterans such as Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr or even Jimmy Garoppolo, who was an option last year before the trade for Carson Wentz.
Howell made his NFL debut in the regular-season finale after the Commanders were eliminated from playoff contention. He threw and ran for a touchdown in beating the playoff-bound Dallas Cowboys.
Olympics
PROBE INTO US OLYMPIC
FALLINGS STUNTED BY RED TAPE IN DC >> More than 27 months since it was greenlighted by Congress, the panel established to investigate the inner workings of the U.S. Olympic structure has yet to conduct a formal interview because of bureaucratic red tape and slow action from the same lawmakers who had expressed a pressing need for better oversight.
Two Olympics — the Summer Games in Tokyo and Winter Games in Beijing — have come and gone since the Commission on the State of U.S. Olympics and Paralympics was signed into law and charged with looking into, among other topics, the handling of sex-abuse cases that were mismanaged for decades.
IOC RESPONDS TO PARIS
MAYOR ON OLYMPIC PLAN FOR RUSSIANS >> The International Olympic Committee pushed back against the mayor of Paris on Wednesday, insisting there were no plans for “a Russian or Belarusian delegation” at the 2024 Games while also acknowledging that some athletes from those countries could be welcomed.
The IOC statement came a day after Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said no Russians or Belarusians should be allowed to compete at next year’s Olympics because of their involvement in the war in Ukraine.
Olympic leaders have set out a path for athletes from Russia and Belarus who have not actively supported the war to try to qualify and compete as “neutral athletes” without a national identity such as team uniforms, flags and anthems.
High school sports
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS OFFICIALS
RECONSIDER MENSTRUAL QUESTIONS >> Facing blowback, the director of Florida’s high school sports governing body is backing away from using an eligibility form that requires female athletes to disclose their menstrual history in order to compete.
Instead, the executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association is recommending that most personal information revealed on medical history forms stay at the doctor’s office and not be stored at school.
Women’s basketball
GRINER ABSENT FROM USA
CAMP, BUT KEEPING IN TOUCH >> Brittney Griner texted her good friend Diana Taurasi on Tuesday asking how the USA Basketball training camp was going.
Griner was back in Arizona, choosing to skip the camp in Minnesota so she can be with her wife and recover from her time in a Russian jail. She returned to the U.S. in December after a dramatic prisoner swap.
“She wants to be a part of this like no one else,” Taurasi said. “So, she’ll get there eventually. She’ll find her footing.”
WNBA INVESTIGATING HAMBY’S
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ACES >> The WNBA is investigating Dearica Hamby’s allegations that the Las Vegas Aces bullied and manipulated her for being pregnant, the league said in a statement Wednesday.
It was the first time the league acknowledged it was looking into the situation. The players’ union had pushed for an inquiry into whether Hamby’s rights under the league’s 2020 labor agreement were violated, as well as state and federal laws. SOUTH CAROLINA’S STALEY
DEFENDS TEAM AFTER
AURIEMMA COMMENTS
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley strongly defended her top-ranked Gamecocks on Tuesday following critical comments by UConn coach Geno Auriemma two days earlier.
Auriemma said after the top-ranked Gamecocks’ 81-77 victory that Huskies guard/forward Lou Lopez Senechal had bruises on her body from the game.
“It’s just appalling what teams do to her now,” he said. “It’s not basketball anymore. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not basketball.”
Staley fired back Tuesday on her radio call-in show, saying when her team has success, “we’re called something other than players that are locked in.”
“They play the right way,” she continued, “and approach it the right way whether they win or lose. We don’t denounce anybody’s play. They are always uplifting the game of women’s basketball and when we were getting our heads beat in by UConn for all those years, I said nothing.”
Skiing
ITALY’S BASSINO BEATS SHIFFRIN TO GOLD >> Marta Bassino beat Mikaela Shiffrin to win the women’s super-G on Wednesday and give Italy its second gold medal at the Alpine skiing world championships, with her American rival settling for silver.
Shiffrin, who won super-G gold in 2019 and bronze two years ago, led Bassino by three-tenths of a second at the second split but couldn’t match the Italian’s pace in the last part of the Roc de Fer course and finished second, 0.11 seconds behind.