(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS LA Dodgers 4, Atlanta 3 (LA wins series 4-3)
NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE Tennessee 42, Houston 36 (OT) NY Giants 20, Washington 19 Indianapolis 31, Cincinnati 27 Atlanta 40, Minnesota 23 Chicago 23, Carolina 16 Detroit 34, Jacksonville 16 Pittsburgh 38, Cleveland 7 Denver 18, New England 12 Baltimore 30, Philadelphia 28 Miami 24, NY Jets 0 Tampa Bay 38, Green Bay 10 San Francisco 24, LA Rams 16
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER Columbus 3, New York City FC 1 Orlando City 1, New York 1 (Tie) D.C. United 2, Cincinnati 1 Toronto FC 1, Atlanta 0 Houston 2, Minnesota 2 (Tie) Los Angeles FC 1, Portland 1 (Tie) LA Galaxy 1, Vancouver 0 Seattle 0, San Jose 0 (Tie) Real Salt Lake at Colorado (Postponed)
(NEW YORK) – LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers made history as they clinched the 2020 NBA Championship in a Finals series victory against the Miami Heat. It was the seventeenth time the Lakers franchise won an NBA title—tied for the most in league history. In the WNBA, the Seattle Storm did the same thing, clinching their fourth championship—also tied for the most in WNBA history.
Returning to action after the coronavirus pandemic shut down play, NBA and WNBA players spoke out against social injustices and advocated for change. They wore names of African-Americans killed in police shootings on their gear and jerseys, as well as other phrases such as “Say Her Name” and “Respect Us.” Player protests even led teams to postpone games in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Not limited to just basketball, athletes across professional sports took stands: they kneeled during the playing of the National Anthem and spoke out during press conferences. Many even received unprecedented support from league leadership as well.
Author and ESPN senior writer Howard Bryant spoke with ABC News’ “Perspective” podcast this week. He says the outspokenness of professional athletes marks the beginning of a new era and the end of an old one:
“Depending on what generation you are from, you remember when sports didn’t have all the flags and the flyovers and the cops singing the national anthem and the surprise homecomings and the military tributes and all of those different things. From 9/11 to about 2012, you really did have nothing but patriotism on the field. After Trayvon Martin was killed, you saw the Miami Heat wearing their hoodies. Then, you had Ferguson and then, obviously, Kaepernick takes a knee in 2016. So, you’re starting to see this collision. On the one hand, you see the patriotism being sold to fans by the leagues. Now, you’re seeing the protests being demonstrated by the players on the field.”
Bryant is the author of several books, including his latest “Full Dissidence: Notes From An Uneven Playing Field,” and recently published an article for ESPN titled, “Police, Protest, Pandemic and the End of the 9/11 Era,” in which he discusses colliding forces in sports today. “We’ll see if the 9/11 era is over. To me, it’s over, but we’ll see when the fans come back what the sports leagues do. Are they willing to simply embrace the polarization? And are they going to say, yes, it’s possible for us now to sell sports to one part of our paying customers. We’re going to sell them with police and then we’re going to have Law Enforcement Appreciation nights, and we’re going to do that while we have Black Lives Matter painted on the basketball court. Can these two images, which are in direct conflict with each other… both coexist?”
Now, according to Bryant, athletes are transitioning into a new era that raises new questions for leagues and their players:
“The question for me is going to be, how do the leagues respond to this assault that we see right now of people saying, well, the NBA ratings are down because of black activism. What do they do with that?”
The weeks and months ahead, Bryant says, could prove to be a critical test of players’ risk tolerance:
“I think that the players risking some of their salary when they walked out and risking the anger of the public is important because now they’re actually willing to risk something that belongs to them, which is their money. At the same time, they are in a very good position to risk some of this because they make so much money. Tommie Smith was a busboy. He was a security guard. He lost everything.”
Bryant also notes that wherever activism goes in sports will not necessarily be dictated by the athletes:
“America is obsessed with celebrity. It’s obsessed with money. It’s obsessed with visibility… it’s the star culture. But it’s really not what’s happened. It’s been completely ahistorical to suggest the players started this because they didn’t. Why were the players out there after Ferguson? Because the people were already on the street. The WNBA has been out there and has done a better job. They’ve shown more leadership than the men have. All of this movement has followed what people are doing. We constantly follow the athletes, so we think they’re the leaders when they are actually following the public.”
2020 in professional sports, especially in the NBA and WNBA, has very much been defined by athlete activism. Whatever institutional change comes as a result of their activism could dictate how athletes continue using their voices going forward:
“We’ll see if the laws change. We’ll see if the jury’s change. We’ll see if the conviction rates change. If that stuff doesn’t change, then we’re going to be asking ourselves what this was all about.”
ABC NewsBy KELLY MCCARTHY and KIERAN MCGIRL, ABC NEWS
(NEW YORK) — After almost two years since Alex Smith suffered a severe leg injury with life-threatening complications, the quarterback made his triumphant return to the NFL gridiron on Sunday, which all but solidified his story as comeback player of the year.
Smith spoke to ABC News’ Good Morning America about the difficult journey he’s been on since being sidelined for 693 days after his personal perseverance, family commitment and human triumph were on full display when he took the field for the game between the Washington Football Team and the Los Angeles Rams.
On Nov. 18, 2018 Smith was sacked for the 410th time in his NFL career against the Houston Texans, but something was different.
“It seemed like just it’s just another one,” he recalled. “I certainly felt something strange down in my lower leg at that point. I will say to look down to see what had happened in and I knew right away that I had broken my leg.”
Smith broke the tibia and fibula in his right leg, sustaining both spiral and compound fractures that required 17 surgeries to repair, and later an infection that doctors feared could have led to amputation.
“I had absolutely zero idea that this may have obliterated my career,” Smith said.
“I was getting ready to go home and that the last thing I really remember, there was obviously my temperature spiking before I went home,” he remembered. “You know, looking down my leg once it was unwrapped and realizing actually that something was wrong.”
A bacterial infection had been eating away at Smith’s leg and his entire body went into septic shock, prompting concerns for his life from his doctors.
After that, Smith — the No. 1 draft pick in 2005 — said, psychologically, the sport and his professional career were the furthest things from his mind.
“I had a lot of time to myself … to sit and wonder if I’d ever be able to do those things that I, that I took for granted for so long. If I’d ever be able to go … going to walk with my wife, going to hike, play with my kids, you know, just everyday things,” he said candidly. “Football was never, at that point, in the picture. For me, that was the last of my concerns.”
Despite his past recovery from career setbacks such as multiple benchings, injuries and trades, nothing compared to the dark place he was in this time.
“I think that without a doubt in my life that certainly the hardest thing I’ve ever been faced with — it was going to be a long, long, long process to come back,” Smith explained.
His road to recovery started in San Antonio, Texas, at the Center for the Intrepid, a military hospital that specializes in limb recovery.
“I don’t know if I’d be here with it without their involvement in this process, not only from the expertise in the science and care but also from the motivation for me to go down there,” he said. “And that was really the first time that I ever thought about attempting to try and play football again.”
After multiple surgeries and a year of rehab, Smith got cleared to play again and his family surrounded him with champagne to celebrate the exciting news.
“There were so many ups and downs and complications along the way with it,” he said. “So to finally get the green light from all the doctors in agreement that my leg was it was good to go — it was very cool.”
Smith pushed through self-doubt and the rigors of NFL training camp to earn a spot on the team as a backup, which was a triumph in and of itself. Then after 693 days away from the action, his number was called during Week 5 in to replace Kyle Allen in the second quarter against the Rams.
As Smith ran onto the field, he said there was “a small moment there were I like, you know, here it goes. This is it. You know, I felt like I was ready.”
“I was so thankful we hadn’t had any fans in our first couple of home games and we had just progressed to just family,” Smith said of the new precautions due to the pandemic with his wife and kids in the stands. “So I knew going, you know, obviously that they were gonna be there. And for me, that’s all that mattered.”
Alex and his wife designed a T-shirt collection with Attitude is Free, a brand they felt paralleled his drive to stay positive through difficult obstacles.
The shirt has his motto “Just Live” printed on the front — a phrase that Smith has lived by and hopes it will motivate others to live in every moment. One hundred percent of proceeds will go to the Center For the Intrepid (CFI), the facility that he worked with and credits for his comeback.
Phil Ellsworth / ESPN ImagesBy JEANETTE TORRES-PEREZ
(NEW YORK) — Nick Saban, the head coach of the University of Alabama’s football team, has tested positive for COVID-19.
“I found out earlier this afternoon that I had tested positive for COVID-19,” the 68-year-old said in a statement Wednesday. “I immediately left work and isolated at home.”
“At this time, I do not have any symptoms relative to COVID, and I have taken another PCR test to confirm my diagnosis,” he added.
The coach said he informed his team of his positive test Wednesday afternoon on a Zoom call.
“[I] let them know offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will oversee preparations at the complex while I work from home,” Saban said in his statement.
Greg Byrne, Alabama’s athletic director, has also since tested positive for COVID-19. The university plans to test everyone involved in the football program on Thursday.
While he isolates at home, Saban, the highest paid college football coach in the country at over $9 million a year, said he will continue to monitor the team’s practices virtually. He did so on Wednesday via Zoom.
“I had the manager have a phone,” he told reporters. “If I wanted a play repeated, I said, ‘Repeat that play. So-and-so messed up.’ I didn’t leave the country or anything. I’m just right down the street. And we have this technology, so it’s really unique.”
Alabama, the second-ranked team in the country, is gearing up to play No. 3 Georgia on Saturday.
iStockBy ABC News
