NFL pledges to halt ‘racenorming’

The NFL pledged to halt the use of “racenorming” — which assumed Black players started with lower cognitive function — in the $1 billion settlement of braininjury claims and review past scores for any potential race bias.

The practice made it harder for Black retirees to show a deficit and qualify for an award. The standards were created in the 1990s in hopes of offering more appropriate treatment to dementia patients, but critics faulted the way they were used to determine payouts in the NFL concussion case.

Wednesday’s announcement comes after two Black players filed a civil rights lawsuit over the practice, medical experts raised concerns and a group of NFL families last month dropped 50,000 petitions at the federal courthouse in Philadelphia — where the lawsuit had been thrown out by the judge overseeing the settlement.

College baseball: Stanford head coach David Esquer will go with righthander Alex Williams (22, 4.24 ERA) in the Cardinal’s regional opener against North Dakota State (4117) at Sunken Diamond on Friday.

That means Stanford (3314), the top seed in the fourteam, doubleelimination event, will have its No. 1 starter, Brendan Beck (71, 3.03), set to pitch Saturday against either UC Irvine (4016), the second seed, or thirdseeded Nevada (2518).

— Steve Kroner NHL: Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Eric Staal and Nick Suzuki scored in the first period and the Montreal Canadiens won 53 at Winnipeg to get off to a flying start in their secondround series.

⏩ The Sharks will pick seventh in the July 2324 draft after the lastplace Buffalo Sabres won the draft lottery. The exapnsion Seattle Kraken will get the No. 2 pick.