With final details ironed out, camps will open on time
NFL training camps are set to open after the league and the players’ union reached agreement on several issues, including future salary cap mechanisms and how players can opt out of the upcoming season because of the coronavirus.
The NFL Players Association’s executive committee and 32 player representatives approved the offers Friday, people with knowledge of the decisions told The Associated Press.
Players who decide they want to opt out have until Aug. 3 to do so, and they will receive a stipend from the owners. The amount of the stipend will be $350,000 for medical opt outs and $150,000 for voluntary opt outs.
The sides had agreed to cancel all preseason games, as well as to a reduction in the number of roster spots in training camp from 90 to 80 — though teams will have until Aug. 16 to get down to 80.
Training camps are to open Tuesday, though the Texans and Chiefs, who meet in the season opener Sept. 10, have veterans scheduled to arrive this weekend for COVID-19 testing.
Actual practices in camps won’t begin for about three weeks.
Tuesday is the reporting date for 30 teams.
ALEX SMITH CLOSE TO RETURN >> Alex Smith could move one step closer to returning to the football field after a gruesome injury.
The Washington quarterback needs to pass his physical with a team doctor Monday before being cleared for football activities, a team spokesman said. ESPN had reported Smith was already cleared after the 36-year-old said that during an interview while filming a documentary for the network.
Smith hasn’t played since November 2018 when he broke the tibia and fibula in his right leg. He underwent multiple surgeries since the injury.
Motorsports
F1 CANCELS U.S. GRAND PRIX,
OTHER RACES IN AMERICAS >> Formula One announced Friday the cancellation of its races in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil this season. Formula One CEO Chase Carey said the series would bring the races back in 2021.
The U.S. Grand Prix was scheduled for the Oct. 2325 race weekend at Circruit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. The U.S. Grand Prix cancellation comes along with the removal of the Mexican Grand Prix in Mexico City, the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo, and the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal from this year’s schedule as well. ZANARDI BACK IN INTENSIVE CARE >> Italian auto racing champion-turned-Paralympic gold medalist Alex Zanardi was moved back into intensive care, three days after being transferred to a neurological rehabilitation center.
Zanardi was moved from a hospital in Siena, Italy, to the Villa Beretta rehab center in Costa Masnaga, a month after getting seriously injured in a handbike crash.
But the hospital which runs the center said Zanardi has been transferred to the intensive care unit at the San Raffaelle hospital in Milan after his condition became unstable.
Soccer
DE BOER OUT AS ATLANTA
UNITED COACH AFTER DISMAL RESTART >> Frank de Boer is out as coach of Atlanta United.
After a dismal performance in the MLS Is Back tournament, the team announced Friday that it had mutually agreed to part with de Boer. United won its first two games this season before play was halted because of the coronavirus pandemic. When play resumed with the tournament in Orlando, Atlanta United lost all three of its group games by 1-0 scores.
College football
ACC, NOTRE DAME EYE 2020
FOOTBALL MEMBERSHIP >> The Atlantic Coast Conference could welcome Notre Dame as a full member for the 2020 football season, ESPN reported.
One of the scenarios under consideration by the conference would allow the Fighting Irish to compete for the right to play in the ACC championship game. ESPN said “various scheduling models” are being weighed, and the ACC board of directors will make the decision about how to proceed with football this fall as the nation’s battle with the coronavirus continues. The board of directors is scheduled to meet on Wednesday. MICHIGAN STATE FOOT
BALL TEAM QUARANTINING >> Michigan State says all members of its football team will quarantine or isolate after another staff member and an athlete tested positive for COVID-19. The team had already paused workouts after a staff member tested positive.
Swimming
U.S. OLYMPIC COACHES TO
COME FROM CAL, STANFORD >> USA Swimming managing director Lindsay Mintenko has reconfirmed Cal men’s coach Dave Durden, Stanford women’s coach Greg Meehan and former USC associate head coach Catherine Kase as head coaches for the U.S. Olympic swimming team for next summer’s Games.
Golf
TWO SHARE LEAD AT 3M OPEN>> Michael Thompson highlighted the early wave of golfers, carding a 5-under-par 66 to vault into a share of first place during the second round of the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota.
Thompson answered Thursday’s 64 with another sterling performance at TPC Twin Cities to pull even with Richy Werenski at 12-under 130. Tony Finau finished with a 66 and is one shot back.