Sports briefs

By NewsPress Now

NFL distances itself from Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker’s comments

NEW YORK | The NFL is distancing itself from Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker, saying “his views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”

Butker appeared as the commencement speaker last week at Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school in Kansas, and said most of the women receiving degrees were probably more excited about getting married and having children.

Butker also said some Catholic leaders were “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.”

“Harrison Butker gave a speech in his personal capacity,” Jonathan Beane, NFL senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, said in a statement released Thursday. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger.”

The three-time Super Bowl champion delivered his roughly 20-minute address Saturday at the school in Atchison, Kansas, which is located about 60 miles (97 kilometers) miles north of Kansas City. He received a standing ovation from graduates and other attendees.

Butker, who’s made his conservative Catholic beliefs well known, also assailed Pride month, a particularly important time for the LGBTQ+ rights movement, and President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion.

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” Butker added in his speech.

“Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” he said.

Butker, 28, said his wife embraced “one of the most important titles of all. Homemaker.”

Butker also criticized as disparaging to the Catholic Church an article by The Associated Press highlighting a shift toward conservativism in some parts of the church.

Butker also referred to a “deadly sin sort of pride that has a month dedicated to it” in an oblique reference to Pride month. Butker also took aim at Biden’s policies, including his condemnation of the Supreme Court’s reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and advocacy for freedom of choice — a key campaign issue in the 2024 presidential race.

The 2017 seventh-round pick out of Georgia Tech has become of the NFL’s best kickers, breaking the Chiefs’ franchise record with a 62-yard field goal in 2022. Butker helped them win their first Super Bowl in 50 years in 2020, added a second Lombardi Trophy in 2023, and he kicked the field goal that forced overtime in a Super Bowl win over San Francisco in February.

Rose Zhang withdraws from this week’s LPGA tournament

JERSEY CITY, N.J. | Rose Zhang found an opponent she couldn’t beat in the Mizuho Americas Open — an upset stomach.

Zhang withdrew from the event in the the shadow of the New York City skyline on Thursday because of illness after completing only three holes of the opening round.

Zhang started on the back nine at Liberty National just before 8 a.m. She shot par on No. 10, double bogey on 11 and par on 12. She left playing partners Lydia Ko and Albane Valenzuela on the tee box of the par-5 No. 13 and was driven back to the clubhouse.

“I am really disappointed that I had to withdraw from the Mizuho Americas Open today,” Zhang said in a statement on social media. “This tournament holds a special place in my heart, having had such an amazing week last year when I captured my first LPGA Tour win here at Liberty National.

“I was really looking forward to trying to defend my title, but unfortunately spent the last 12 hours with really bad intestinal pain,” said Zhang, whose 12 career wins at Stanford broke the old school record previous held by a group that included Tiger Woods.

Kevin Hopkins, Zhang’s agent with Excel Sports Management, said the two-time NCAA champion was feeling fine all week but she had an upset stomach Thursday morning.

“I didn’t think she was going to make it out on the course,” Hopkins said. “She tried.”

The 20-year-old Zhang ended Nelly Korda’s record-tying run of winning five straight LPGA tournament starts by finishing first last week at the Cognizant Founders Cup. It was her first victory in almost a year.

“It’s unfortunate that she isn’t feeling well,” Ko said after shooting 72. “She tried to gut it out. She said she was in pain.”

Korda was playing on the group in front of Zhang. She didn’t notice until about the sixth or seventh hole that there was a twosome behind her. She said she stayed focused on her game in finishing with a 70, which has her in the hunt for a sixth win this season.

Zhang won this event last year in a playoff with Jennifer Kupcho, becoming the first player to win on the LPGA Tour in their professional debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951.

This was Zhang’s eighth event of the year. She birdied four of the final five holes to rally from a three-shot deficit and beat Madelene Sagstrom by two shots last weekend. Her best previous finish was a tie for fifth. She also missed two cuts.

FIFA wants global standard for punishing racist abuse

GENEVA | FIFA wants all 211 national federations to make racist abuse a disciplinary offense, and designate a crossed hands gesture by victims to alert referees to abuse.

Soccer’s world body on Thursday detailed the tougher and more unified approach it wants to take to tackle racism after months of consulting with victimized players, including Real Madrid star Vinícius Júnior.

The crossed hands gesture was made on a medal podium at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 by United States athlete Raven Saunders who won silver in women’s shot put. At the time, she said it was “the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet.”

FIFA is encouraging players to use the gesture and for referees to then cross hands to indicate they are taking action.

There was little enthusiasm for it from Kick It Out, the British fans’ group that campaigns against racism. It said “rather than introducing new hand gestures, FIFA should focus on empowering players and their management to leave the pitch when they feel it’s appropriate.”

Teams whose fans or players racially abuse opponents could soon face disciplinary punishments such as forfeiting games, typically as a 3-0 loss, as part of a five-pillar pledge on tackling discrimination. The measures will be put to FIFA member federations on Friday at their annual meeting in Bangkok.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino promised months ago to make a worldwide proposal and has consulted with Brazil star Vinicius Junior, who is Black and has been repeatedly abused by opposing fans in Spanish stadiums.

He broke down in tears at a news conference in March before Spain hosted Brazil in a friendly organized in fallout of the persistent abuse he has faced in his adopted home.

“The time has come for football to unite to unequivocally commit as a global community to address the issue of racism in the game,” FIFA said in a letter to member federations.

FIFA also wants to create a panel of players who will “monitor and advise on the implementation of these actions around the world.”

Soccer has struggled for more than a decade to deal with racism in stadiums, with previous measures including coordinated on-field responses by match officials and post-match disciplinary action by federations and competition organizers.

Tougher sanctions, such as match forfeits, points deductions or even disqualification from a competition, have been judged too difficult to enforce legally. They also risk enabling agitators to try and provoke incidents.

Soccer leaders in countries such as Italy and Spain have consistently denied the sport has a racism problem.

In some cases, investigations were dropped by soccer authorities, including UEFA, because there was no evidence beyond a claim by the player alleging abuse.

Black players who claimed they were racially abused by opponents or fans and tried to leave the field have themselves been shown a yellow card for their actions.

FIFA wants referees also use crossed hands to signal starting a long-standing three-step process at a game where racial and discriminatory abuse is heard: To pause the play and broadcast warnings in the stadium, to take teams off the field, then abandon games.

Kick It Out, which has worked in soccer since 1993, said the three steps had “failed to protect players for years” though it acknowledged FIFA’s intentions “appear to be genuine.”

That three-step process should be mandatory across all 211 federations, FIFA said on Thursday. They also will be asked to lobby their governments to make racism a criminal offense and prosecute cases, plus promote anti-racism work in schools.

Before Saunders crossed her hands in Tokyo, the gesture was used by the men’s marathon silver medalist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Feyisa Lilesa raised his arms above his head and crossed his wrists at the finish line in Rio in protest against government oppression at home in Ethiopia.

Saunders initially was in trouble with the IOC for making the gesture which also was a broader statement celebrating diversity. The IOC investigation into whether she breached rules prohibiting political statements at medal ceremonies was paused days later after Saunders’ mother died.

Ericsson has no regrets headed into Indy 500

INDIANAPOLIS | Marcus Ericsson returned to the Indianapolis 500 with zero regrets.

He’s moved past the controversial ending to last year’s race that cost the Swede a second consecutive win in the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Ericsson has made up with teammate Colton Herta following their spat last weekend.

And as for his move from powerhouse Chip Ganassi Racing to Andretti Global, where Ericsson’s results have shown a sharp drop-off?

Nope. Nothing to be concerned about there, either.

“Why would I have regrets?” Ericsson asked Thursday. “You should never have regrets.”

And yet the 2022 Indy 500 winner finds himself in a dramatically different situation than he was a year ago, when he waltzed around Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the hottest free agent in the series.

Rival teams found it inexplicable that Ganassi had not yet signed Ericsson to an extension, especially as he entered the biggest race of the year with a victory already on the year and the IndyCar points lead.

Ganassi was holding out for the sponsorship needed to offer Ericsson a lucrative new deal, but by the time he found the funding, Ericsson had already accepted an offer to move to Andretti.

It didn’t matter to Ericsson that Andretti had dropped a peg and was no longer at the same level as IndyCar powerhouses Ganassi and Team Penske. And when it came to the Indy 500, the former Formula 1 driver felt the Andretti cars have been as strong as any other team on the grid.

“Andretti over the years has been very strong around here,” Ericsson said. “When I came over (to IndyCar) five, six years ago, they were the team to beat around here. They were really strong and then it seems the last couple of years they’ve lost their edge, maybe. But I thought it was pretty promising.”

Ericsson opened the season at St. Pete, where he won last year, with a mechanical failure and 23rd-place finish. He bounced back with a fifth-place finish at Long Beach, but then was 18th at Barber and 16th last weekend on the speedway road course.

More troubling about last week’s race was the contact he had with Herta, who was the IndyCar points leader at the time. Herta was incensed on his radio when Ericsson made contact with him, and was still seething after the race.

“Your teammate’s leading the championship and you race him like an ass,” Herta said as he watched a replay after last week’s race. “I don’t know what you’re thinking. He probably braked deeper than he did in qualifying right there, and he runs me clean off the track. You’ve got to be smarter than that, man. So, so dumb.”

Ericsson was taken aback by Herta’s rage.

“It was some harsh words,” Ericsson acknowledged.

The two talked after the race and then proceeded to have conversations over the next few days as Herta admitted it typically takes him time to calm down. He made no apologies for his comments and or that they were directed at his first-year teammate.

“Typically, after a race, if I’m mad, that’s how I react,” Herta said.

Ericsson apologized, and Herta on Thursday became the first driver to step forward and say Josef Newgarden personally apologized to him for the Team Penske cheating scandal when the two spoke ahead of last weekend’s race at Indianapolis.

Other drivers have grumbled that Newgarden has not tried to repair his reputation with them, and Newgarden himself has been unclear on how many of his peers he’s reached out to in the three weeks since IndyCar stripped him of his season-opening victory for illegally using a software system.

Ericsson did not discuss any possible interactions, only his peacemaking session with Herta. But he did discuss how different a year it is for him as he tries for a second Indy win in three years. He finished second to Newgarden a year ago when a late caution led IndyCar race control to make an unprecedented rule change to allow one final green-flag lap to the finish.

Newgarden passed Ericsson for the win — and his block to hold off Ericsson has since been banned — but Ericsson was fuming because never had IndyCar even discussed with the drivers a rules option in which the cars would leave pit lane and immediately go to green for one final lap.

But he also acknowledged that the discussions about his contract extension at Ganassi made life a lot more hectic as he tried to become the first driver to win back-to-back 500s since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002.

“I feel more calm in many ways because last year was quite a stressful year,” Ericsson said. “With the contract, it was not an easy year. But I feel this year has been good, it’s been good getting into a new team. It always takes a little bit of time to get used to things. But this week? The speedway car feels really good.

“I feel pretty confident and looking forward to race here.”

Bad Bunny agency sues baseball players’ union

NEW YORK | Bad Bunny’s sports representation firm sued the baseball players’ association Thursday, asking for a restraining order against the union that would allow it to keep working with the company’s clients.

Rimas Sports, under its corporate name Diamond Sports LLC, sued in U.S. District Court in San Juan, Puerto Rico, accusing the Major League Baseball Players Association of violating Puerto Rico’s general tort claim and tortious interference with its contracts to represent players.

The suit claimed the union’s actions blocked it from taking on NL MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. as a client and negotiating a long-term contract for New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez.

The union issued a notice of discipline to Rimas agents William Arroyo, Noah Assad and Jonathan Miranda on April 10 and fined them $400,000 for misconduct. Arroyo was an agent certified by the union to represent players and represented Alvarez and teammate Ronny Mauricio. Arroyo was decertified and the other two told they could not apply for certification.

Arbitrator Michael Gottesman denied the agents’ request to block the players’ association, a decision the union asked a federal court in Manhattan to confirm.

Rimas was founded in 2021 with the goal of representing Latin players and said it currently has 68 clients, including 14 major leaguers. Rimas said the union had prevented it from representing players with agents who had not been disciplined.

“For nearly two years, the MLBPA scrutinized the agency in a discriminatory, biased and pre-determined investigation, all designed to put Rimas Sports permanently out of business,” Rimas said in its complaint. “From late April 2022 through February 2024, the MLBPA worked to eliminate Rimas Sports from the sports agency market, intentionally preventing certified agents from working with Rimas Sports in any capacity.”

The company said the union banned “MLBPA certified agents from working for or associating themselves with Mr. Arroyo, Mr. Miranda and Mr. Assad or any entity owned by or affiliated with Mr. Arroyo, Mr. Miranda and Mr. Assad including, but not limited to, Rimas Sports, Diamond Sports LLC, and Rimas Entertainment LLC.”

MLB told teams on April 28 that as a result of Rimas’ decertification, clubs should not to speak with Rimas about contracts and should contact players directly, according to a document submitted with the lawsuit.

Rimas said the union told Michael Velazquez, whom the company was considering for employment, that his certification would be suspended if he worked for or associated with Rimas or the banned employees. Velazquez then disassociated with Rimas, the company said.

Rimas claimed the union’s actions were beyond scope of its authority to regulate agents under the National Labor Relations Act and the union’s agent regulations. Rimas asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the union.

The MLBPA declined comment, spokeswoman Silvia Alvarez said.

—From AP reports