Thursday Sports in Brief
NFL
WASHINGTON (AP) — The title sponsor of the Washington Redskins’ stadium wants the NFL team to change its name.
“We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name,“ FedEx said in a statement Thursday.
The company paid the team $205 million in 1999 for the naming rights to FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.
In addition to the stadium name and sponsorship agreement, FedEx CEO Frederik Smith is a minority owner. Majority owner Daniel Snyder has shown no indications he’ll change the name since buying the team in 1999.
Amid the national debate over race, pressure has been mounting on the organization to abandon the name called a “dictionary-defined racial slur” by experts and advocates.
NEW YORK (AP) — “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” will be performed live or played before “The Star-Spangled Banner” prior to each NFL game during Week 1 and the league is considering putting names of victims of police brutality on helmet decals or jersey patches, a person familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press.
The person said the league is working collaboratively with players to recognize victims of systemic racism throughout the season in a variety of ways. The person spoke to the AP on Thursday on condition of anonymity because discussions between the league and the NFL Players Association are ongoing.
Additional plans include the use of educational programs and storytelling about the victims and their families similar to the league’s PSA on Botham Jean released in January and the Super Bowl commercial on Corey Jones featuring his cousin, former NFL star Anquan Boldin.
—By Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi.
MLB
TORONTO (AP) — Tthe Toronto Blue Jays received a Canadian federal government exemption on Thursday to work out at Rogers Centre, ensuring all 30 MLB teams will train at their regular-season ballparks for the pandemic-shortened season.
Toronto will move camp from its spring training complex in Dunedin, Florida., where players reported for intake testing. The Blue Jays will create a quarantine environment at Rogers Centre and the adjoining Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel, which overlooks the field.
Public Health Agency of Canada spokeswoman Marie-Pier Burelle said the players and staff have been issued an exemption to the mandatory isolation order on “national interest grounds.”
This exemption does not cover the regular season and player travel between the U.S. and Canada. Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro said the team hopes to know within 10 days where it will play regular-season games.
NHL
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia Flyers forward Oskar Lindblom has completed radiation treatments for a rare form of bone cancer.
The Flyers tweeted video Thursday showing Lindblom ringing the bell at Abramson Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital, which signifies that he has completed his radiation treatments. The 23-year-old was diagnosed in December with Ewing’s sarcoma, a cancerous tumor that grows in the bones or in the tissue around bones.
His girlfriend, Alma Lindqvist, hugged Lindblom after he rang the bell and they were cheered by nurses who treated him.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma State’s athletic director said late Thursday an internal review had found “no sign or indication of racism” in the football program under coach Mike Gundy after a number of players raised concerns.
“We have spent the past couple of weeks reviewing our program and talking with current and former players,” AD Mike Holder said in a statement posted online. “Our internal review found that Coach Gundy needs to invest more time in building stronger relationships with his student-athletes. However, our review has uncovered no signs or indication of racism.”
Two weeks ago, star running back Chuba Hubbard lashed out at Gundy on social media for wearing a T-shirt promoting a far-right news channel, One America News Network. Hubbard, who is Black, suggested he may boycott the program; OANN has been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Texas A&M’s football program was placed on probation and coach Jimbo Fisher given a six-month show cause order by the NCAA on Thursday after the Aggies were found to have violated recruiting and other rules beginning in January 2018.
Fisher, who had just been hired by Texas A&M, and an assistant coach had impermissible contact with a recruit, the NCAA said without identifying the coaches by name. The assistant, Jay Graham, is now a member of Jeremy Pruitt’s staff at Tennessee.
TENNIS
PARIS (AP) — The French Open will allow fans to attend this year’s postponed tournament.
The French Tennis Federation said Thursday up to 60% of the stands can be filled with fans when play starts in September at Roland Garros.
Tickets will go on sale on July 16 for the Sept. 27-Oct. Oct. 11 tournament.
The clay-court tournament had been scheduled to start on May 24 but was postponed to Sept. 20 because of the coronavirus pandemic. It then got pushed back another week.
The FFT has prepared a health and safety protocol to ensure the safety of fans. No more than four people can sit together in one group and there must also be one chair left empty between each mini-group of people in the same row.
GOLF
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The PGA of America is renaming its Horton Smith Award after a review of history revealed Smith defended the Caucasian-only membership clause when he served as PGA president in the early 1950s.
The PGA of America board voted to rename it the PGA Professional Development Award. It honors a PGA member for outstanding contributions to professional education.
The Caucasian-only clause was part of the PGA bylaws from 1934 until it finally was rescinded in 1961. Smith was president of the PGA of America from 1952 to 1954.
Smith is a two-time Masters champion — he won the first tournament played at Augusta National in 1934 — who finished his career with 32 victories. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990. He also received in 1962 the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor from the USGA.
AUTO RACING
SPIELBERG, Austria (AP) — Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton called out rival teams on Thursday for not doing enough to combat racism, and said the sport still needs to push for more diversity.
Hamilton has spoken widely about racism in recent weeks following the killing of George Floyd -- a handcuffed and unarmed Black man -- by a police officer in Minneapolis in May.
And Hamilton’s Mercedes team will be competing in an all-black car — instead of the usual silver — as a statement against racism when the season starts on Sunday in Austria.
But Hamilton, the only Black driver in F1, said he’d like to hear more from other teams — and criticized some sports figures for only jumping on social media bandwagons instead of pushing for real change.
WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Joanne P. McCallie won’t return for a 14th season as Duke’s women’s basketball coach.
McCallie announced her departure in a 6-minute video posted Thursday on the program’s Twitter account. She said she was “choosing to step away” as coach, saying she wanted to bring “clarity” instead of uncertainty as she entered the final year of her contract.
McCallie led the Blue Devils to a 330-107 record in her 13 seasons and was a three-time Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year. Duke won three ACC Tournament titles and reached 10 NCAA Tournaments, including four straight trips to the Elite Eight from 2010-13.
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Boise State is discontinuing its baseball program just months after the school was forced to cut short its first season in 40 years with only a handful of games played.
The school has also cut women’s swimming and diving because of budget issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On a video conference Thursday, athletic director Curt Apsey said cutting the two programs will save about $2.2 million to $2.3 million. The decision to cut baseball should also save the university long-term since it was in the process of trying to build an on-campus baseball stadium.
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