(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events: NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Atlanta 108, L.A. Clippers 99 Houston 107, Washington 88 Utah 108, New York 94
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Buffalo 3, NY Rangers 2 Philadelphia 5, New Jersey 3 Washington 3, NY Islanders 2 Florida 4, Columbus 3 (SO) Boston 3, Pittsburgh 2 (OT) Winnipeg 6, Edmonton 4 Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 1 Nashville 3, Chicago 2 (OT) Dallas 2, Detroit 1 (OT) Toronto 4, Calgary 3 Anaheim 1, Arizona 0 Colorado 7, San Jose 3 St. Louis 5, Vegas 4 (SO)
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL Oklahoma 80, Texas 79 Alabama 70, Kentucky 59 Auburn 88, Missouri 82 Tennessee 56, Mississippi St. 53 Dayton 76, Saint Louis 71
Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesBy ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Tom Brady, the star quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is currently training hard for the Super Bowl in two weeks. However, little did fans know, Brady was secretly worrying about his parents at the start of the season because they were battling COVID-19.
Tom Brady Sr. opened up about his diagnosis on ESPN Radio’s #Greeny about how he and his wife Galynn — both 76 — both tested positive for the virus. However, the patriarch revealed he needed to be hospitalized for three weeks because he was “sick as a dog.”
The elder Brady said the virus was so severe, it prevented them from watching their son’s first two games, something that never happened before.
“We’ve never missed a game at Michigan or New England or wherever,” he explained. “For the first two games when I was in the hospital, I didn’t even care if they were playing — much less missing the game. It was a matter of life and death, just like anybody who goes to the hospital. That’s serious stuff.”
Galynn, he adds, is a breast cancer survivor and expressed gratitude that the virus didn’t affect her nearly as much. He adds that one of his daughters, who is a nurse, cared for her while he was hospitalized.
Adds Tom Sr., his son really struggled during his hospitalization and would “FaceTime me every day on his way to and from practice.”
“Tommy fought through it, and so now it’s in the rearview mirror,” noted the family patriarch, adding that his son was “stressed out” by the ordeal. Now, everyone can focus on the upcoming Big Game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Getting to the 10th Super Bowl in 19 years of playing is pretty — it’s incomprehensible,” said Brady Sr., “It’s beyond anything we could ever imagine.”
Morgan Hancock/Getty ImagesBy BRITT CLENNETT, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — For decades, Margaret Court was the pride of Australia.
In her 17 years on the professional tennis circuit, the now 78-year-old notched up a record 24 singles Grand Slam titles, making her the most successful female tennis player in Australian history.
But Court’s legacy has been profoundly tarnished by a slew of homophobic comments in recent years.
Court — now a Christian pastor — is a vocal critic of transgender athletes and once called the teaching of LGBTQ content in schools the work “of the devil.”
Court, who collected her record haul of grand slam wins between 1961 and 1975, wrote an open letter in 2017 saying she would boycott airline Qantas over its support over same-sex marriage. That same year she said tennis was “full of lesbians.”
It is these comments over the years that lost her respect among the Australian public and led to the deluge of anger that broke out after it was leaked that Court would be awarded with the highest possible public service honor, the Companion of the Order of Australia.
Court had already been recognized with an Order of the British Empire honor in 1967 and another Australian service honor in 2007 and she has now received the top accolade on Tuesday, Australia Day, in recognition of her “outstanding achievement and service”.
However, rights groups and the country’s political opposition have voiced their outrage at the expected appointment and it has even prompted a doctor in Canberra to hand back her own award in protest.
Dr. Clara Tuck Meng Soo, a trans woman, says the decision to hand Court Australia’s most prestigious honor “promotes discrimination” to LGBTQ people. Meanwhile, Australian journalist Kerry O’Brien has rejected the honor he was due to receive on Tuesday because of the “deeply insensitive and divisive decision.”
Victorian state leader Premier Daniel Andrews said, “I don’t believe that she has views that accord with the vast majority of people across our nation that see people, particularly from the LGBTQ community, as equal and deserving of dignity, respect and safety.”
Without naming names, Andrews also took to Twitter to say he doesn’t “want to give this person’s disgraceful, bigoted views any oxygen.”
His comments come as Victoria gets set to host the Australian Open at Melbourne Park, where the main arena is named after Court.
Other tennis stars have called for her name to be stripped from the venue — including John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova — who said it should be replaced with that of Indigenous champion, Evonne Goolagong.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to wade into the debate, saying: “It is an announcement that will be announced on that day. It is a system that recognizes the full spectrum of individuals across this country.”
Speaking to local reporters on Friday, Court insisted she had been unfairly bullied by her critics.
Said Court: “Always remember I’m a minister of the gospel and have been for the last 30 years, I always say what the Bible says.”
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION Orlando 117, Charlotte 108 Detroit 119, Philadelphia 104 Indiana 129, Toronto 114 Brooklyn 98, Miami 85 L.A. Lakers 115, Cleveland 108 Denver 117, Dallas 113 Boston 119, Chicago 103 Oklahoma City 125, Portland 122 Golden State 130, Minnesota 108 Sacramento at Memphis 8 p.m. (Postponed) San Antonio at New Orleans 9 p.m. (Postponed)
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE Vancouver 7, Ottawa 1
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL (8)Virginia 81, Syracuse 58 (11)West Virginia 88, (10)Texas Tech 87
(NEW YORK) — Happiness can go hand-in-hand with success and a new Super Bowl ad tapped some of the world’s most accomplished athletes, including Peyton Manning and Serena Williams, to show how they have fun off the playing field.
Michelob Ultra’s newest ad campaign poses the question: “Are you happy because you win, or do you win because you’re happy?”
“When I look back on my football career, I felt our teams won a lot of games and I played my best games when I was happy. I had a lot of joy during my football career,” Manning told Good Morning America on Monday. “There’s the old saying, enjoy the journey not the destination. And when I think back on my memories during my 18 years of playing, I think about those plane rides with my teammates, I think about hanging around the locker room, laughing with each other, I think about taking the offensive linemen out to eat on Thursday nights, keeping them well-fed, maybe having a couple of cold beverages and that was well worth it.”
He continued, “Those are some of my greatest takeaways. Those happy moments that I felt brought our team together and helped us win more games on Sunday and help us win a championship. And then of course you’ll have the happiness after, but I think you can certainly do both.”
Manning, who retired in 2016 after leading his Denver Broncos to a Super Bowl title, said “I have no regrets. I left it all out there on the field. But I do miss my teammates.”
Now one of his longtime competitors and close friends, Tom Brady, is headed to Super Bowl LV with Tampa Bay in his first year with the Buccaneers to face defending champion Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
“Tom has just been the ultimate professional — I give him all the credit. He’s put in the time, sacrificed, he’s formed a bond with his new teammates in a short period of time, in a pandemic offseason, so he’s earned the right to have his team in a Super Bowl in his hometown,” Manning said.
He explained that this matchup will make for “a great Super Bowl.”
“It’s kind of the new guard vs. the old school guard — Mahomes is just exciting to watch — a guy that plays with a lot of joy and that’s a big part of him playing so well. I can tell you those Chiefs are having a lot of fun,” Manning said. “But Tom is Tom, he’s been doing it for so long and there’s nothing he hasn’t seen before. So it’s going to be a battle of those two quarterbacks.”
“Picking against Tom Brady at home I’m not sure anybody can do that, but Patrick Mahomes a chance to win back-to-back Super Bowls. The only guy to do that recently has been Tom Brady, so I have such respect for both of those guys, I can’t pick against either one of them,” he said with a laugh.
Manning did make a different prediction about Brady’s career no matter the outcome in Tampa.
When asked if Brady should retire if he wins, Manning said, “I don’t think he will.”
“It’s such an individual decision, nobody can make that decision for you, I have so much respect for Tom, the battles we had on the field, we formed a friendship off the field as well, always felt he brought out the best in me and vice versa for him,” he said. “I don’t think he will because it’s his first year in Tampa. He’s having a lot of fun, he’s happy, he’s joyous and I can see him doing it for a few more years no matter what happens on Super Bowl Sunday.”
Another superstar athlete stressing the importance of happiness, and making an appearance by way of the new Michelob Ultra ad, will be Serena Williams.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner, who is currently quarantining with her husband Alexis Ohanian and her daughter Olympia ahead of the Australian Open, told GMA that they are “a huge contribution” to her success.
“For me, I win because I’m happy,” she said. “I love being around Olympia — It’s so good to have this experience with her, because I’ve gotten so much time to spend with her that I wouldn’t have had otherwise — so it’s been really good to have an opportunity to just be with her 24/7.”
She and her 3-year-old have enjoyed time on the tennis court as well as exercising their imaginations.
“We, like, make up things — l look at something and say, ‘oh, that’s a giraffe,’ or that we’ll go to the fake zoo. And my imagination has been pushed to its limits,” Williams said. “And so it’s kind of cool because I feel like I can be a kid again and have imagination.”
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