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Eighteen-team Quaid-e-Azam trophy to start from October 26

Published in Cricket
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 09:19
Days after the 2024-25 Quaid-e-Azam trophy was delayed, the PCB have announced the final schedule for Pakistan's premier domestic first-class competition. The tournament will begin on October 26, with the final on December 19.

In a major overhaul, the days of parsimony when it came to the number of teams have flown out of the window. This year's QeA will see 18 teams spread out into 16 regions take part; Lahore and Karachi have two teams each. Last year, just eight teams played the tournament, with the four years prior seeing just six participants. Karachi Whites are the defending champions.

"Quaid-e-Azam Trophy is the pinnacle of domestic cricket in Pakistan as it is not just a tournament but also an event that showcases the immense talent across the country and prepares them for the challenges of international cricket," Abdullah Niazi, the director of domestic operations, said in a statement. "As always, we will continue to provide the best possible platform for players to excel and show their capabilities on the biggest stage in domestic cricket as they will be rubbing their shoulders with the best players of the country.

"Earlier we demonstrated a successful Champions One-Day Cup, and are fully committed to strengthening our domestic structure. The successful execution of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy remains at the heart of this commitment."

Just days ago, though, the fate of this year's Quaid-e-Azam Trophy was uncertain. ESPNcricinfo understands the tournament was delayed, with the domestic cricket department awaiting the chairman's sign-off for the tournament. The QeA was tentatively scheduled to start on October 20.

The start date of October 26 is considerably later than usual. Just two of the last 15 years have seen the tournament begin after this date. The PCB opted to host the Champions One-Day Cup in September, Pakistan's only meaningfully empty window until May, pushing the first-class competition deeper into the season.

This means the Quaid-e-Azam trophy starts while Pakistan's Test season - it's busiest this century - will already be well into the fifth of seven home games. The final begins on December 19, a week out from the first Test in South Africa on December 26. Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistan vice-captain Saud Shakeel suggested the first-class competition could be used to prepare for the tour of South Africa by attempting to replicate those conditions.

"If you want to prepare for SENA [series in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia], you can do it during practice and first class cricket," Shakeel said. "If there's first-class cricket before South Africa, we could prepare those kinds of pitches there. But we should prepare pitches and conditions series-by-series, and according to the opposition."

Stokes and England braced for Pindi spin-quisition

Published in Cricket
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 09:39
England's men do not play another Test in Asia for more than two years after Rawalpindi. It will therefore act as a decider in more ways than one, not only dictating the result of a gripping three-match series in Pakistan, but also informing long-lasting judgement on just how well equipped, or otherwise, Ben Stokes and his team are to compete in the subcontinent.

It is a quirk of the schedule that after 17 Tests in Asia over the last four years, England are not due to return in the next two. Their white-ball sides will be back regularly, including for next year's Champions Trophy and the T20 World Cup in 2026, but their next Test tour is not until February 2027, in the form of a two-match series in Bangladesh.

Since Stokes took over as captain two-and-a-half years ago, England's record in Asia is an even one: five wins and five defeats, with one of those victories coming under Ollie Pope's leadership. They are not the only team to have struggled in India over the last decade, losing 4-1 earlier this year, but a second successive win in Pakistan would put the shine on their subcontinent record.
Rawalpindi was the scene of one of England's greatest wins two years ago, when their batters racked up 506 for 4 in 75 overs on the first day of the series, before their bowlers' skill and Stokes' ingenuity enabled them to take 20 wickets on a lifeless surface. They are braced for a significantly different challenge this time around, which is reflected in their selection.

"It looks like it will be a pretty decent wicket for the first couple of days," Stokes said. "There's not too much grass on it to hold it together, so the reasoning behind three spinners was, as the game progresses, that will probably come into the game It was just weighing up who we think will be effective as the game goes on.

"It's pretty obvious there's been a few rakes put across it I've never been a groundsman, but you'd think a rake would assist the spin. You look down it, and we can have a good guess which ends the Pakistan spinners will operate from." When asked if only one end had been raked, Stokes clarified: "No, both have - but there are certain areas."

While the grass was cut short on the strips either side of the playing surface in the second Test in Multan, there are only three pitches cut across the square in Rawalpindi this week. "With the outfield being like it was, lush and green, and not too much [on the] square to work with, we'll probably struggle to get reverse-swing," Stokes conceded.

Pakistan's approach towards pitch preparation in the last two weeks has raised some eyebrows: the decision to recycle the same strip in Multan was unprecedented, and groundstaff have gone to great lengths to tailor the surface in Rawalpindi to suit Sajid Khan and Noman Ali. But Stokes has declined opportunities to complain, delivering a simple verdict on Tuesday: "It's good, innit?"

Brendon McCullum believed that the toss skewed the second Test "65-35" in Pakistan's favour, and it will be significant again this week. "The toss, out in the subcontinent, plays a bigger role than anywhere in the world," Stokes said. "[But] I don't think we're going to have as extreme conditions as the game goes on: it will be a day-one wicket when we start, not day six."

Historically, England tend to under-adjust to overseas conditions and find themselves wondering why their medium-pacers are ineffective on pitches without a blade of live grass on them. This year, they have been much more open-minded - as evidenced by Rehan's inclusion as a wildcard third spin option, who they hope will create chances even if the pitch is flat.

"Adding Rehan's free spirit and desperation to change the game every time he's got the ball in his hand is a massive bonus for us this week," Stokes said, while discarding the relevance of his quiet season for Leicestershire. "Legspinners have an amazing ability to break a game open You'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

The decider also presents Stokes with a final chance for some time to shift perceptions around his batting in the subcontinent: his batting average in Asia is 27.22, his lowest on any continent, with his single century coming on a Rajkot road eight years ago. In eight innings in Pakistan, he is yet to score a fifty.

His farcical dismissal in Multan disguised the fact he top-scored in England's second innings, and was the only batter to find a successful method by relying almost exclusively on his sweeps and reverses. For all his inspirational leadership, Stokes has not scored a Test century for 16 months: with the series on the line, he will be desperate to end that run.

The success of the McCullum-Stokes regime will ultimately be dictated by their results next year against India and Australia, but this week will go a long way towards determining their team's reputation in Asia. When asked how important winning would be, Stokes gave a one-word answer: "Very." For all that England want to entertain, they have a singular focus this week.

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98

Mitchell Santner has been named New Zealand's interim captain for the upcoming white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, NZC confirmed on Tuesday. Santner will lead a 15-man squad that includes maiden call-ups to bowling allrounder Nathan Smith and wicketkeeper-batter Mitchell Hay to face Sri Lanka in two T20Is and three ODIs next month. NZC also confirmed that a decision on the team's long-term ODI and T20I captain will be taken later in the summer.
Smith, 25, was recently named the NZC's Men's Domestic Player of the Year at the New Zealand Cricket Awards in March, before earning his first central contract last month. Smith had claimed 24 wickets across all domestic white-ball competitions for Wellington last season, including career-best figures of 4 for 5 against Otago in the Super Smash. Hay, who made his New Zealand A debut last year, was crowned Canterbury's Male Player of the Year back in April.

Lockie Ferguson, meanwhile, will spearhead the pace attack, comprising Smith, Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes, and Josh Clarkson. Tim Robinson earns his second call-up after excelling on his maiden international tour to Pakistan in April.

Michael Bracewell and Glenn Phillips are the spin-bowling allrounders in the squad, alongside Santner, while Dean Foxcroft can also offer some handy offspin. Legspinner Ish Sodhi is the most experienced T20I player in the squad, with 117 appearances.

Glenn Phillips, Will Young and Henry Nicholls provide the batting reinforcements, with Nicholls coming off an impressive Ford Trophy campaign last summer where he scored 301 runs in six games at 75.25.

Six members of the New Zealand Test squad in India have been included, and will relocate straight to Sri Lanka at the conclusion of the third Test in Mumbai. The New Zealand-based players, however, will depart for Sri Lanka on November 4 ahead of the first T20I in Dambulla on November 9. Bracewell will join the white-ball squad from New Zealand, following his return home from India this week for the birth of his second child.

Tom Blundell, Devon Conway, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Will O'Rourke, Rachin Ravindra, Tim Southee and Kane Williamson were not considered for selection as they prioritised the upcoming three-Test series against England, starting in Christchurch on November 28.

"This [Sri Lanka] tour is the beginning of the build-up towards the ICC Champions Trophy in February 2025 and we also have an eye towards the 2027 ODI World Cup," chief selector Sam Wells said.

"Building depth is of critical importance due to the demands of the international schedule and the need to peak for pinnacle events.

"For that reason it's particularly exciting to include a number of players that we believe represent the future of the Blackcaps."

Head coach Gary Stead will lead the group alongside bowling coach Jacob Oram. Former England international James Foster, meanwhile, will rejoin New Zealand as their batting coach, as full-time batting coach Luke Ronchi heads home to focus on the start of the New Zealand home summer.

New Zealand T20I and ODI squad:

Mitchell Santner (c), Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Josh Clarkson, Jacob Duffy, Lockie Ferguson, Zak Foulkes, Dean Foxcroft, Mitch Hay (wk), Henry Nicholls, Glenn Phillips, Tim Robinson, Nathan Smith, Ish Sodhi, Will Young

Sri Lanka vs New Zealand series schedule

Watkins, Bueckers lead preseason All-Americans

Published in Breaking News
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 10:35

USC star JuJu Watkins and UConn's Paige Bueckers headline The Associated Press preseason All-America women's college basketball team released Tuesday that for the first time includes three sophomores in a clear sign of the young talent in a sport coming off a record year of fan interest.

Watkins and Bueckers were unanimous choices by the 30-member national media panel that selects the AP Top 25 each week. It's the third appearance on the team for Bueckers, who also was a preseason choice in her sophomore season and last year.

The duo was joined by Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame, Madison Booker of Texas and Kiki Iriafen of USC. Watkins, Hidalgo and Booker are all second-year players.

"It's unbelievable. Those players excelled as freshmen, and their teams won. They did it in multiple ways," USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. "It's really exciting for the game and the future of it."

Gottlieb's stars, Watkins and Iriafen, are the first pair of teammates selected to the All-America team since 2017-18, when UConn had three of the five players chosen. Iriafen entered the transfer portal soon after Stanford Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement in April.

"Kiki came because she wanted to play with JuJu, who recruited her because she wanted to play with Kiki," Gottlieb said. "It's exciting to see their personalities mesh."

Watkins and her fellow sophomores were part of the ratings and attendance boom last season for women's college basketball that was led by Iowa's Caitlin Clark and LSU's Angel Reese. NCAA tournament attendance was the highest it has ever been, and the championship game that featured Clark and Iowa against undefeated South Carolina had a record TV audience of 18.7 million, the highest for a basketball broadcast of any kind in five years.

Bueckers averaged 21.9 points and 5.2 rebounds per game to help UConn reach the Final Four, where the Huskies lost to Iowa in another game that drew high viewership. UConn's star has eligibility left after sporadic injuries but has said this will be her last year in school. She finally had a healthy season for the Huskies after missing most of her sophomore year.

Watkins burst onto the national scene as a freshman and put up eye-popping numbers. The Los Angeles native averaged 27.1 points per game, second only to Clark, and set the national record for a freshman with 920 points. She helped the Trojans reach the Elite Eight in their deepest NCAA tournament run in three decades.

There are high expectations for the team, which is ranked third in the preseason poll behind No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 UConn. Iriafen averaged 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game for Stanford last season, including scoring a career-high 41 in a second-round win over Iowa State in the NCAA tournament.

Hidalgo, like Watkins, had a stellar freshman season. She averaged 22.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game for the Fighting Irish, helping them win the ACC tournament and advance to the Sweet 16.

Booker stepped up her play for the Longhorns after Rori Harmon went down with an ACL injury in late December. She was thrust into the starting point guard slot and shined, averaging 16.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. Those numbers were even higher after Harmon's injury.

Bueckers, Watkins and Hidalgo were all first-team AP All-Americans in the spring. Booker was on the second team with Iriafen earning honorable mention.

The AP began releasing a preseason All-America team before the 1994-95 season.

IT WAS GETTING late the night of Sept. 12, and Dr. Julian Bailes had settled in to watch a little football. The renowned neurosurgeon and concussions expert tuned in just as Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained yet another head injury.

There was Tagovailoa, lying on the ground with his arms outstretched and his fingers curled into the fencing response, an involuntary position that occurs after a brain injury. To Bailes, it looked almost like a replay from a previous Thursday night game, Sept. 29, 2022, with Tagovailoa on his back, his fingers splayed in front of his face in another automatic response to a concussion.

Bailes was one of the doctors the Dolphins consulted during Tagovailoa's string of concussions two years ago, and the quarterback eventually sat out the rest of the season after suffering another one in a Christmas Day game against Green Bay.

"Why do you think we're back here in the same situation two years later?" Bailes said. "It's the style of play for him. He stuck his head in there and he's not afraid and he's a great athlete and he wanted to get a few more yards. He stuck his head in there without thinking in that split second.

"So, that's a big part of why we're back again. Same guy, same susceptibility and same style of play."

Tagovailoa is a high-profile quarterback who has now sustained three diagnosed concussions over the span of two years, plus another head injury that prompted the NFL to change its concussion policy. So, naturally, Tagovailoa's health and playing future have been among the most heavily scrutinized stories in the NFL this season.

Pundits have discussed how many concussions are too many; TV analysts and social media types implored Tagovailoa to retire; and South Floridians held their collective breath as Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel delivered updates in the weeks since Tagovailoa was placed on injured reserve.

When Tagovailoa addressed reporters' questions Monday, the matter appeared to be settled. He plans to return to practice Wednesday with the hope of being cleared to play Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. And he firmly stated he would not wear a Guardian Cap for additional head protection, saying that's his "personal choice."

"I love this game, and I love it to the death of me," Tagovailoa said. "... For me, this is what I love to do. This is what makes me happy, and I'm going to do it."

Tagovailoa said he has been symptom-free since the day after the Sept. 12 game against the Buffalo Bills and has been cleared by doctors to resume playing.

He said he has no plans to retire. It has never been an option for him.

Bailes, a system physician executive in neurosurgery with Endeavor Health in the Chicago area, was not one of the independent doctors consulting Tagovailoa this time. But he does have concerns about Tagovailoa's intent to play this season.

"The biggest question is, does he need a prolonged period of rest?" Bailes said. "That's No. 1, which would mean probably not returning this year.

"If you have three or more concussions in a finite period of time, then that's consideration for pause. ... I'm sure he and his advisers are going to make whatever decision they make, but you have to be concerned."

ESPN spoke with concussion experts and former NFL athletes who have grappled with head-injury issues, and none of those interviewed the past few weeks said definitively that Tagovailoa should retire. That decision is nuanced, with no hard-and-fast guidelines to determine which concussed athletes can continue their careers and which ones should quit playing football.

But when it comes to Tagovailoa, everyone has an opinion.

IN MANY MODERN-DAY events, perceptions shift within a modicum of time. The declarations were swift in the hours after Tagovailoa's concussion on Sept. 12, with passionate pleas for him to retire. On Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe's account on X, a post said that he hoped the quarterback was OK but that "he's gotta seriously think about shutting it dwn ... His concussions are getting worse and worse and he's a young man with his entire life ahead of him."

A post on ex-Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant's account read:

"That's it....

"NFL go ahead and do the right thing

"Tua has had entirely way too many concussions

"He need to retire for his longevity health concerns"

A day after Tagovailoa's most recent concussion, a current NFL coach -- a former linebacker, no less -- told reporters he thought Tagovailoa should retire.

"It's not worth it," Las Vegas Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said. "I haven't witnessed anything like I've seen that's happened to him three times. Scary. You can see right away the players' faces on the field. You can see the sense of urgency from everybody to get Tua help."

Six weeks later, Tagovailoa is still the center of the NFL's attention, but now that his return appears inevitable, the questions are shifting: Can he save the Dolphins' season and protect himself?

Tagovailoa has become a modern-day avatar for the brutality of football. He was projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, part of the NFL's next generation of dominant quarterbacks. He had ankle surgery in his final season at Alabama in 2019, and that was the least of his problems. He returned three weeks later and, in his second game back, was leading his team to a blowout victory over Mississippi State but wanted to keep playing.

Right before he was to be pulled, two defenders came up from behind and sacked him. His helmet spun off, his nose was bloodied and Tagovailoa had to be helped off the field. He suffered a dislocated hip, a fractured posterior wall, a broken nose and a concussion. Six months later, the Dolphins selected him with the fifth pick of the 2020 draft.

He broke several ribs in 2021 and was carted off the field. His head-injury issues in the NFL started in the third game of the 2022 season. In a game against Buffalo, Tagovailoa's head bounced off the ground after he was pushed, and he shook his head as he got up, then stumbled and had to have two teammates prop him up. But Tagovailoa was listed with a back injury and returned in the second half.

Four days later, in Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was knocked unconscious and stretchered off the field. He was undeterred. Each of his three head injuries in 2022 was the result of him falling and hitting the back of his head, so Tagovailoa spent that offseason training in jiu-jitsu so he could learn a safer way to fall to lessen his risk of another concussion. And he went concussion-free in 2023, leading the NFL in passing yards.

Vinny Passas, Tagovailoa's high school quarterback coach, said Tagovailoa has a high threshold for pain. "He's 10.5 on a scale of 1 to 10," he said.

He also knows Tagovailoa's intense desire not to let anyone down.

"It's just that competitive spirit in him and his obligation he feels to his team," Passas said. "Because in football, they all work hard together and you get this bond that you establish with everyone where it becomes family. Tua is a big family guy, and he never, ever wanted to disappoint his family."

Passas said he cried and prayed during that Thursday night game last month, waiting for any updates after the commercial break, which seemed to take hours. Passas now trains younger children to play the position, and in the past two years since Tagovailoa's concussion struggles, parents of course have asked him about Tagovailoa. He hopes the man he calls a "brother" eventually will have some kind of clarity.

"Sometimes I just hope that he reconsiders thinking about his future," Passas said. "Now that he has a boy and a girl and a wife. It's not like high school [when] you can just go home to Mommy and Dad. ... I just think he has so much more to offer, not only to his family but the people around him.

"He believes that God has a path for him, and I'm just going to believe in what path God has for him. That's what I pray for is that God has the right path for him and sends him in the right direction."

DR. DAN DANESHVAR, chief of the division of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, said he never officially clears a concussed athlete who participates in contact sports. He approaches it as a conversation about risk.

If a person is cleared, he said, they might think they're completely fine to go back and engage in the high-risk activities that prompted the concussion. Some athletes, Daneshvar said, are never completely back to normal after a brain injury. There is always risk, he said, because every brain is different.

"We know that hits to the head, getting hit in the head a lot, is not good for you," he said. "But if someone's completely back to their baseline in terms of symptoms, then they're more likely to get back toward that green[-light] side.

"Now, for someone like, like Tua -- I've never evaluated him, so I can't say for sure what's going on with him, his brain and him overall in terms of his recovery -- but with someone who it appears with hits that are associated with less and less force or higher frequency is getting symptomatic head impacts, is getting concussions in response to these lower-force hits, that makes me think that they might never get back to that green level where there's going to be low risk for future problems. And that's kind of how I approach conversations with the athletes."

CTE is the pall looming over tackle football, but concussions, Daneshvar and Bailes said, are just part of the overall picture, a sliver of the total amount of brain injury an athlete has experienced.

Junior Seau and Mike Webster, former NFL stars who were found to have CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) after their deaths, had no reported concussions in their careers.

Daneshvar said helmet-sensor studies have shown that on average, a college offensive lineman diagnosed with one concussion probably has experienced more than 300 hits to the head that were the same force or greater than the one that gave him the concussion. All of those hits, he said, are what increase the risk of CTE.

Bailes, who has served on concussion committees from Pop Warner football to the pros, said that, in his three decades of work, he has been tasked with telling more than 100 football players they needed to retire. He bases that decision on factors such as how old the player is, how long they've been playing, what position they played and their style of play.

Quarterbacks, for example, aren't susceptible to as many repetitive blows to the head as a lineman. But Tagovailoa's calculus is adjusted by the way he plays. "Instead of sliding," Bailes said of the latest concussion, "he went headfirst ... and his neck flexed to the side kind of violently.

"So that style of play, the total number of concussions, that doesn't tell the entire tale because it's a bit of a surrogate of the exposure they've had."

He weighs personal circumstances and the wishes of the family. He weighs the risk-reward benefits, especially with younger people who have smaller bodies.

"I have made many high school players who are 130 pounds with long skinny necks retire," he said. "What more do they have to gain by playing monetarily? [Can they] make a career, make a name for themselves, get a college scholarship and maybe that's their only way out sort of thing. ... With a knee injury, maybe it's more straightforward. With the brain, there's a lot of factors to consider."

DEEP IN JT DANIELS' Instagram is a photo of him with Tagovailoa when they were high schoolers playing 7-on-7 football together. They once had similar dreams of being NFL quarterbacks, and Daniels' journey took him from USC to Georgia to West Virginia to Rice. Now he's retired from football because of concussions.

His decision to let go came in a doctor's office in Houston late last year. Daniels had suffered what he believed to be his fourth concussion in November 2023. It wasn't even from a big hit, he said. Daniels was sacked and came up feeling a bit dizzy, but he had felt that way after hits before and not been concussed. So he kept playing, but "wasn't in the best of head spaces." He remembers getting hit again -- on second down, he thinks -- and at some point was living that old battered quarterback saying: If you're seeing triple, throw it to the guy in the middle.

He threw a touchdown on third down at the end of the first half. And that was it. The training staff saw him walking awkwardly, he said, then noticed that his eyes "weren't adjusting." He was pulled into the training room, was ruled out for the second half and began to feel progressively worse in the days that followed.

Weeks later, his eyesight was still so bad that he had to arrange a ride to see his doctor at the Houston Medical Center. He had been staying indoors mostly, because when he'd see something moving too fast, he'd get a sharp head pain. The loss of visual acuity was causing him to sometimes see one picture in his right eye and a different one in the left.

It wasn't the first time he had kept playing after a concussion. In high school, Daniels said, he got "knocked loose" early in a game and played all four quarters. That concussion forced him into a dark room for a few weeks.

The worst concussion he ever had was when he was in a game against Utah, he said. Daniels said he had more memory issues with that one.

Doctors would tell him there were risks if he kept playing, but after each concussion, his recovery seemed to take longer and the symptoms were more pronounced. The vision problems this past winter were jarring. "When you literally need someone to come pick you up every single day or you have to Uber everywhere ... that alone is a pretty big deal," he said.

So he asked his doctor what he should do, if he should keep going. He said the recommendation was a "strong no."

Daniels said his symptoms have abated and his vision is back to normal. He is now a graduate assistant at the University of West Georgia, but there's still a natural void.

"I played football pretty much every month of the year since I was 5 years old," Daniels said. "It was hard for my mom and dad. This is the first year they didn't watch me play football, and my grandpa as well. We talk all the time about it.

"There's definitely a level of sadness. There is absolutely a level of relief. Everyone that goes on the field, at least to some extent, acknowledges the potential significant harm that could come across you. And for most people, that'll never happen, right?"

IN 2012, WHEN more than 1,000 former NFL players sued the league for failing to protect them from head injuries, Dominic Raiola was asked whether someday he would do the same. Raiola, then a longtime center for the Detroit Lions, said he couldn't imagine himself at 40, in a rocking chair, pondering suing the NFL.

"I have so much fun playing the game, I really don't worry about it," Raiola said then. "It's common knowledge that people are going to suffer. Memory loss is going to come. You're hitting every time you step on the field. I am ready for it. It's worth it -- totally worth it. This is the best job in the world. I would never trade it for anything."

Raiola is 45 and retired now. In an interview with ESPN earlier this month, he said he remembered one concussion in his 13-year NFL career. It was in a game against Arizona. He played the whole fourth quarter with it. Raiola watched film of the game later, and the average person would never know he was concussed.

But after the game he kept asking for teammate Kyle Vanden Bosch, who wasn't around because he was on injured reserve with a torn ACL. He also had to call his neighbor to give him a ride home because he couldn't drive.

"To me it was part of the game," Raiola said. "You can call it ignorance; you can call it what you want. But I guess I was never going to blame the NFL. Or blame concussions."

He said nowadays, he probably wouldn't have gotten through that last quarter because of the expanded coverage of the NFL and all the eyes that are on the game. Raiola said that he thought that was a good thing but that he probably wouldn't change anything he did.

Raiola, who went to the same high school as Tagovailoa -- St. Louis High in Honolulu -- said football was a way to provide for his family. He was good at it and did everything he could to be the best at it, so that's what he did.

He said his mind still feels sharp. There are moments when he forgets something, but he doesn't think that has as much to do with concussions as it does with being 45.

"There might be a day where I don't know where this thing could go," he said. "But I do think you got to take care of yourself. You got to be healthy, you got to be active. You do the things that keep you moving. My kids tease me all the time about lifting weights, and I got to get my farmer's walk in every day.

"I'm going to run this race until the wheels fall off. That doesn't mean being reckless. It just means to keep going."

Raiola said Tagovailoa's recent concussion gave him pause. Raiola has two sons who are quarterbacks. Dylan, a freshman, starts for Nebraska, Dominic's alma mater, and Dayton is a junior at Buford High in Georgia.

He says he thinks about the health of his sons both on the field and when their playing careers are over. He'd never ask them to tough it out; he said that's not his race to run. He said the family dealt with concussions with daughter Taylor, a former outside hitter for the TCU volleyball team. She suffered two of them.

Raiola said he was thankful his sons aren't run-first quarterbacks. He tells his sons to build up their neck muscles the way he did in college and the NFL. That, he believed, helped sustain him through his career. And Daneshvar said there were some studies that suggest stronger neck muscles might help decrease the force of a head injury.

Still, Raiola will worry like any other parent.

"There's going to be a time when they go get that first down, and it's scary," he said.

"I'd be lying to you if I didn't say it was scary watching [Tua], especially because it's his third one. But man, if he's going to take the necessary steps to make a return, I admire that too."

FORMER MIAMI DOLPHINS quarterback Don Strock says he figures he had four major concussions during a 15-year NFL career that included backing up Bob Griese and Dan Marino. Unlike Tagovailoa, the violent hits Strock suffered did not play out in front of millions in Thursday night showcase games.

In Strock's day, the concussion protocol went something like this: A trainer would come and wave a finger in front of his eyes. He'd administer some smelling salts and ask Strock how he was feeling.

"I think I can still go," Strock would say.

Strock is 73 and still lives in South Florida. He said he's doing OK all these years later. But he attends Dolphins reunions and notices some of his former teammates who aren't the same.

"They keep saying that concussions are down," he said. "That's what I keep reading in the newspaper. But it's a physical game. It's going to happen every game at some point."

A few months ago, Strock said the excitement in South Florida was palpable. The Dolphins, who have been searching for a franchise quarterback since Marino retired in 2000, were coming off another playoff season, and this time, their quarterback was healthy.

Over the summer, Miami signed Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212.1 million contract extension. Shortly after that, the Dolphins extended McDaniel, too.

A few months later, the mood is different.

"There's an uneasiness down here right now," Strock said.

He's not sure he would play again if he were Tagovailoa. Strock remembers that concussion, hip injury and broken nose Tagovailoa sustained at Alabama. He says he thinks about what has happened to the quarterback since then.

"It's going to be a call for him and his family," Strock said. "I have a good idea of what my wife would say."

Celtics NBA title faves for 3rd consecutive season

Published in Basketball
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 10:54

The New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers enhanced their rosters this summer, but the Boston Celtics remain the consensus betting favorites to win the championship entering the NBA season.

Boston has been the preseason title favorite for three consecutive seasons. The defending-champion Celtics are the favorites at +290 at ESPN BET, their shortest preseason title odds in the past three years.

Boston has the most interest from bettors at U.S. sportsbooks. FanDuel reported Tuesday that 43% of the money bet on the sportsbook's NBA championship odds was on the Celtics. The preseason favorites have won nine of the past 16 NBA championships.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, the favorites in the Western Conference, have the second-best title odds at +675, followed by the Knicks (+700) and 76ers (+825).

The Knicks' title odds shortened through the offseason, moving from +1800 to +700, with the additions of Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns. The Knicks have attracted the second-most money from bettors at ESPN BET, behind only the Celtics. Boston hosts the Knicks in the season opener Tuesday.

"Right now, the Celtics and Thunder have taken the most handle, but that is expected by the two teams with the shortest odds," Halvor Egeland, trading manager for BetMGM, said in a company release. "The Knicks are not a great result either."

David Lieberman, who oversees NBA odds for Caesars Sportsbook, said he has been surprised by the amount of support the Knicks have received from bettors, but noted that two West Coast teams pose the biggest liability in their NBA titles futures markets.

"The [Los Angeles] Lakers are typically the worst-case scenario, and that's the case again this year, followed closely by [Golden State] Warriors," Lieberman told ESPN. "With both being popular teams and at relatively high odds, it's not surprising."

The Lakers are 33-1 and Warriors 40-1.

The 76ers' title odds improved in the offseason with the addition of veteran Paul George, moving from +1600 to +825. Those are the shortest preseason title odds the 76ers have had since 1986, according to ESPN Research.

The Brooklyn Nets begin the season among the biggest long shots to win the title at 1,000-1. Caesars Sportsbook reported taking a $750 bet on the Nets to win the title at 1,000-1 odds in June.

Embiid to miss first week; George out for opener

Published in Basketball
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 10:54

The Philadelphia 76ers announced that Joel Embiid and Paul George will both miss Wednesday's season opener against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Embiid, who didn't play in the preseason, will miss not just Wednesday's game but also Friday's game in Toronto and Sunday's game in Indiana, despite the team saying he is "responding well to his individualized plan" and will ramp up his return-to-play activities this week, including going through scrimmages.

George will be reevaluated later this week after he suffered a hyperextended left knee that left him with a bone bruise Oct. 14 against the Atlanta Hawks.

The other injured 76ers player at the moment, rookie Jared McCain, will have his status for Wednesday's game updated later Tuesday after he suffered a pulmonary contusion in a rough fall last week against the Brooklyn Nets.

Going back to the start of training camp, the 76ers have been up-front that they are going to take an extremely cautious approach with Embiid and George when it comes to trying to get them through the season healthy and to the playoffs. Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey told ESPN earlier this month that Philadelphia would try to keep both stars out of back-to-backs this season.

Embiid has lost 25 to 30 pounds, with the hope to lose more, and will continue to wear a brace on his left knee despite it being something that Embiid would prefer not to do, instead opting to keep it as structurally stable and protected as possible.

Embiid played in only 39 games last season due to knee injuries. He returned in time to play against the New York Knicks in the playoffs, but he did so at less than 100 percent -- and that was before he was dealing with a sudden onset case of Bell's palsy during the series. Embiid went on to play for Team USA this summer, helping the Americans win a fifth straight gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

George signed a four-year, $212 million max contract with the 76ers this summer after spending the past five years with the LA Clippers playing alongside Kawhi Leonard. Embiid signed a three-year max extension this summer to remain with the only franchise he has ever played for well into his mid-30s.

The 76ers also inked rising star guard Tyrese Maxey to a five-year max contract, re-signed veterans Kelly Oubre Jr. and Kyle Lowry, and signed free agents Eric Gordon, Caleb Martin and Andre Drummond.

Cardinals hire Cerfolio for player development

Published in Baseball
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 10:47

ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals continued the makeover of their front office Tuesday by hiring Robert Cerfolio away from the Cleveland Guardians to serve as their assistant general manager in charge of player development and performance.

Cerfolio began his career in Cleveland in 2015 as an intern in its baseball operations and player development department.

Last month, the Cardinals announced that Chaim Bloom would replace longtime president of baseball operations John Mozeliak after the 2025 season. The expectation is that Bloom would spend the upcoming offseason and season overseeing a reset of the Cardinals' player development program after they missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

Mozeliak has been general manager in St. Louis since 2007. He was elevated to president of baseball operations in 2017.

The Cardinals said that Cerfolio would hire a farm director and director of performance while announcing several in-house promotions. Matt Bayer will become senior director of baseball development, Kevin Seats the senior director of analytics, DC MacLea the manager of video technology and Brady Hall the player development video and tech coordinator.

Mets' Blackburn out months with spinal procedure

Published in Baseball
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 10:47

New York Mets right-hander Paul Blackburn underwent a procedure to repair a cerebrospinal fluid leak earlier this month and will be sidelined at least four to five months, the team announced Tuesday.

The surgery was performed by Dr. Wouter Schievink on Oct. 11 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Blackburn, 30, landed on the 15-day injured list with a bruised hand on Aug. 25. The Mets shut him down in mid-September after the leak was discovered. At the time, the team said it didn't believe it to be a long-term problem.

The Mets acquired Blackburn from the Oakland A's at the trade deadline. He posted a 4-2 record with a 4.41 ERA in nine starts this season with Oakland before going 1-2 with a 5.18 ERA in five starts with New York.

Blackburn is 22-28 with a 4.85 ERA in 86 career games (82 starts) for the A's and Mets.

Stojsavljevic, 15, denied first ever WTA win

Published in Tennis
Tuesday, 22 October 2024 06:55

British teenager Mika Stojsavljevic was denied a first ever WTA win after an agonising 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 7-6 (8-6) defeat by Japan's Moyuka Uchijima in the first round of the Pan Pacific Open.

The 15-year-old, the reigning US Open girls' champion, held a 3-2 lead against Uchijima, ranked 57th in the world, but was broken three games in a row as she lost the first set in Tokyo.

Stojsavljevic saved two match points in the second set and went on to win the tie-break 9-7 to level the match.

She took that momentum into the deciding set, breaking Uchijima to take a 5-2 lead.

But the world number 633 missed the opportunity to serve out the match, allowing 23-year-old Uchijima to level at 5-5.

In the tie-break, Stojsavljevic saved two more match points but Uchijima recovered to see out the win.

Uchijima will face top seed Qinwen Zheng in the second round.

Elsewhere, British number one Katie Boulter is through to the last 16 after easing to a 6-1 6-4 win against Australia's Priscilla Hon.

The 28-year-old broke the Australian three times in the first set, converting 100% of her break points.

It was similarly straightforward for Boulter in the second set as she broke Hon, ranked 184 places below her, twice.

The world number 33 will play Japan's Kyoka Okamura next.

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