Chelsea disgusted at Metro abuse

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Roman Abramovich was described as “disgusted” at the racist behaviour of Chelsea fans on the Paris Metro.


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London - Roman Abramovich was described as “disgusted” on Friday at the racist behaviour of Chelsea fans on the Paris Metro, a rare occasion when the club have made a public declaration about their owner's feelings on an issue.


The sentiment from Abramovich, conveyed by the club's director of communications Steve Atkins, underlined the severity with which Chelsea view the actions of some of their fans towards a black man they prevented boarding a Metro train on Tuesday. At a press conference in which no punches were pulled by the club, manager Jose Mourinho said he was “ashamed” of those involved. Chelsea later suspended a further two fans from Stamford Bridge while the incident is being investigated, following the three supporters banned on Thursday.


The club began Mourinho's Friday press conference with a statement read on behalf of the club by Atkins in which Chelsea expressed their “disgust” at the fans who chanted “We're racists - and proud of it”. The club said they were “appalled” by the mobile phone footage of the incident and wanted to “apologise unreservedly to Souleymane [the victim] for the behaviour of a small number of individuals and their unforgivable actions towards him.”


The club have written to the man, known as Souleymane S, whose full identity has not been disclosed, to invite him to be a guest of the club's board at Stamford Bridge for the return leg against Paris Saint-Germain on 11 March. The club's chairman Bruce Buck went to meet his counterpart Lord Herman Ouseley of the anti-racism organisation Kick It Out on Friday.


A group of Chelsea fans had previously begun an online campaign to raise money to bring Souleymane S to Stamford Bridge to demonstrate that their club's support was not racist.


On Souleymane S, Mourinho said: “At this moment, he has maybe the wrong idea of what Chelsea Football Club is. I don't know if the gentleman loves football, but for sure he would love to feel that the miserable people that had this [inter]action with him are not Chelsea Football Club. This is not Chelsea. They are not Chelsea.


“Chelsea is the owner, the board, the manager, the players, is the people that works here, is the true Chelsea supporter. Yes, I would support the idea [of Souleymane coming to a match], even not knowing whether the gentleman loves football or not.”


Mourinho said he did not believe Tuesday's incidents should discourage non-white supporters from attending Chelsea games. He said: “I don't believe they [non-white fans will] think about not coming. Everybody knows what Chelsea is.


“You don't need words to know what our club is. What our club defends. We feel ashamed, but maybe we shouldn't. I refuse to be connected with these people. I am connected with Chelsea and so many good things the club defends and represents.”


He said that he had watched the video of the incident only once. “It is enough for me, it is sad enough for me. It is a humiliation for that gentleman. I imagine myself in that same situation. I want to go home after a day of work and a couple of guys kick me out of my public transport. And I cannot go home. It is difficult to believe that this can happen in modern times, but the reality is that it happens.”


Mourinho, whose team face Burnley at home this afternoon, was asked later whether there was still a cloud over the club from John Terry's Football Association charge for racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand during a game at Loftus Road in October 2011. Terry was cleared by a court of racial abuse in 2012. A regulatory commission, acting on the FA charge, fined him £220,000 and banned him for four games. The club said they took disciplinary action, undisclosed, against him.


The incident, and subsequent court case, took place when Andre Villas-Boas and then Roberto Di Matteo were in charge. Mourinho said: “I don't know. The only thing I know, and I know 100 per cent for sure, is that John Terry is not one single second of his life a racist. That I can assure you.


“He had a bad episode, I don't know, I was not here, maybe yes. But I can assure you, and you ask every player who has shared the dressing room with John - we are talking about dozens and dozens of players - they would tell you that John is not a racist.”


Mourinho said that his players had been “disgusted” by the Paris incident and warned that it would not be the last of its kind in football. “Unfortunately we will not be the last episode. Emphatically, it will not be the last, but we have to deal with it as if it is the last. We can't make it the last, but we have to deal with it as we can. And especially in relation to people who have some connection with our club if you can call it that. Everybody has to know that the club is ready to finish it. No more Stamford Bridge for them [those responsible].”


The Independent






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Rodgers: Balotelli must work harder

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Brendan Rodgers has brought Mario Balotelli crashing back down to earth with a warning to improve his work rate.


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London - Brendan Rodgers has brought Mario Balotelli crashing back down to earth with a warning he must improve his work rate to become a success at Anfield.


Liverpool’s manager yesterday clarified the controversy around Balotelli’s spot-kick against Besiktas, insisting the Italy striker was justified in taking the responsibility off Jordan Henderson as he is No 2 penalty taker to Steven Gerrard, who was not on the pitch.


Rodgers was unhappy with the bickering that took place after the penalty had been awarded but of far greater concern to him was the way Balotelli played after he had given Liverpool a lead to take to Istanbul.


This was the former Manchester City player’s third big contribution in 10 days, following his goal against Tottenham that secured three points and a free-kick that created Adam Lallana’s winner at Crystal Palace. But Rodgers is still looking for much more from his £16million signing.


Balotelli has been the subject of public criticism from Rodgers before, notably on Boxing Day when he explained that the 24-year-old’s qualities did not fit Liverpool’s system.


When asked if he had been happy with Balotelli’s cameo against Besiktas, Rodgers replied: ‘No. Not really. No. We need to ensure that we have everyone working as a team and once we got the penalty he stops working.


‘He needs to improve on that facet of his game - to play in his position rather than standing on the side of the football field. He has contributed. He has got the penalty and scored the goal but that is what he is paid to do.


‘So he needs to keep that efficiency in his game and show that he can affect the team whether he is asked to play from the bench or from the start. If he works harder than when he came on, he will (become an influence).’


One of the main qualities Rodgers looks for in a forward is an ability to relentlessly press and put opponents on the back foot.


‘In a different country and a different style of football (scoring goals) would be all that matters,’ said Rodgers. ‘But in this team it is more than that.’


Balotelli was roundly condemned for his behaviour before Thursday night’s winning spot-kick and former Liverpool midfielder and Sportsmail columnist Jamie Redknapp believes the Italian is coming to the end of his time at Anfield.


He said: ‘The problem with Mario is I don’t think he has got a lot of respect for anybody.


‘He has worked with some of the best managers in Cesare Prandelli, Jose Mourinho, Roberto Mancini — everybody has tried with this man but nobody seems to get to the bottom of it.


‘The objective is to put the ball into the back of the net, thankfully that is what he did, but it is not nice to see players arguing like that on the field.


‘He is an incredibly confident penalty taker and very good at it, but it is that lack of respect that he has.’


Explaining the penalty situation, Rodgers continued: ‘Steven and Mario are the top two penalty takers, but neither of them were on the pitch at the start so Jordan was nominated.


‘But when we had a penalty Mario had come on to the field so Jordan, being someone with responsibility and trust, gave the penalty to Mario so there was no issue. There was a little bit of a kerfuffle around it because he wanted to make sure Mario was happy to take it, but that was it really.


‘If you are the vice-captain and the captain is on the bench and then he comes on, it is the etiquette to give him the armband. It is a similar thing with the penalty.


‘Mario has scored nearly 30 penalties in big games and he is an outstanding penalty taker. Jordan was happy enough to take it, but he gave it to Mario. There is no drama.’


Rodgers, whose side travel to Southampton tomorrow, stressed that no decision has been made about whether Henderson will take over the captaincy when Gerrard eventually moves to LA Galaxy.


‘Jordan showed what a team player he is,’ said Rodgers. ‘People see him as that automatic next captain but that’s not necessarily the case. People are trying to catapult him into the next Steven Gerrard but he is a totally different player. He is working his role very well.’


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Mourinho urges refs to protect Hazard

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Eden Hazard wants shin pads that protect the back of his legs after suffering a record number of fouls this season.


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London - Eden Hazard has asked Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho to find him shin pads that also protect the back of his legs after suffering a record number of fouls in the Premier League and European competition this season.


Mourinho, who urged referees to offer the tricky Belgium forward more protection, said Hazard suffered from dangerous fouls and from sneaky, tactical challenges to prevent him racing away from defenders on the counter-attack.


“He told me to speak with my friends that make carbon shin pads to try to make some for the back like a horse that does jumping because he also gets fouled from behind,” the Portuguese told reporters ahead of Saturday's home game against Burnley,


Hazard, 24, holds the record for the most fouls suffered in the Premier League, at 74 a full 14 more than second-placed Raheem Sterling of Liverpool.


Against Paris St Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday the Chelsea player was crunched nine times.


Mourinho bemoaned the fact that, because Hazard was an honest player who tried to stay on his feet, opponents often escaped sanction.


“He should be the player that creates more yellow cards from opponents but he doesn't,” Mourinho said.


“Eden wants to play. Eden doesn't want people to get a red card... did you see a referee give a penalty for a player that didn't go (down)?.”


Mourinho said Hazard attracted strategic fouls because of his skill and quick feet.


“Referees have to understand exactly that. Sometimes little fouls are big fouls in the context of the game ... it can be a small foul but it stops the counter-attack,” he added.


“I think Eden is punished in both ways. He's punished by aggression. In Paris he had nine fouls but three of them are very bad fouls, very dangerous fouls and he can do nothing.”


Mourinho said it was perfectly normal that some players attracted more attention from defenders and were double marked.


“But after that there are fouls and the fouls need to be punished,” he explained, adding that dangerman Hazard was clearly a lucky player because he hadn't been seriously injured.


“He deserves to be lucky.”


Chelsea go into Saturday's game holding a seven-point lead at the top of the table.


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News sport : NASCAR suspends Kurt Busch indefinitely; will miss Daytona 500

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Kurt Busch, right, talks with his crew chief Tony Gibson, left, in his garage during a practice session for the Daytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race at Daytona International Speedway, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015, in Daytona Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Terry Renna) DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - NASCAR has suspended driver Kurt Busch for an indefinite period of time, effective immediately, which means he will not be in Sunday's Daytona 500.


"Given the serious nature of the findings and conclusions made by the Commissioner of the Family Court of the State of Delaware, NASCAR has indefinitely suspended Kurt Busch, effective immediately," NASCAR said in a statement. "He will not be allowed to race nor participate in any NASCAR activities until further notice."


The former champion and current driver for Stewart-Haas has spent the last six months embroiled in a dispute with his former girlfriend Patricia Driscoll. The precipitating event was an incident at Dover, Del., last fall in which Busch allegedly choked Driscoll. During that Sept. 26 incident at Busch's motor home, Busch claimed he simply "cupped her head" and she struck her head by accident, while Driscoll claimed she was choked and thrown into a wall.


In the subsequent protective order hearing, Driscoll and Busch threw increasingly severe charges at one another, with Busch saying Driscoll claimed she was a trained assassin. In the end, the court sided with Driscoll, approving a protective order against Busch. Still unresolved are criminal charges against Busch; local police have completed their report but no charges against Busch have been filed.


Busch's attorney fought back on Thursday, seeking to reopen the protective order and charging that Driscoll had perjured herself. On Friday, Kent County commissioner David Jones released a report that indicated Busch's "actions on that occasion constituted conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening or harmful."


Jones' decision reads, in part:


The court is satisfied that the evidence presented at trial established that it is more likely than not that on September 26, 2014, Respondent committed an act of abuse against Petitioner by manually strangling Petitioner with his left hand on her throat while placing his right hand against her chin and face, causing her head to forcefully strike the interior wall of Respondent's motor home, thereby recklessly causing physical injury to Petitioner and recklessly placing Petitioner in reasonable apprehension of physical injury. The Court further finds that Respondent's actions on that occasion constituted conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening or harmful.

In granting Driscoll a protective order, Jones ordered Busch to remain a "practicable" distance from his ex-girlfriend and that he be evaluated “for mental health problems related to anger control and impulse control."


NASCAR had waited for further outside confirmation before taking action.


Domestic violence issues have surged to the forefront of sports in recent months, largely as a result of the NFL's inconsistent punishment of violators such as Ray Rice, and the last perception any league needs to have is that it doesn't take domestic violence seriously enough. The Friday release of the highly critical report left NASCAR with no real option but to levy some form of punishment on Busch.


____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.



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News sport : Mitch Kupchak won't surround Kobe Bryant with vets just 'because it’s Kobe’s last year'

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In a typically-interesting interview with GQ that was published earlier in February, Kobe Bryant told Chuck Klosterman this about the Lakers’ plans for the 2015-16 season, one that will probably serve as Kobe’s last year in the NBA:



The Lakers are not going to make the playoffs this year, and it seems unlikely that they will challenge for a title next year. So if titles are your only goal, why even play these last two seasons?




I know what Mitch [Kupchak, the Lakers GM] tells me. I know what Jim and Jeanie [Buss, the team owners] tell me. I know that they are hell-bent about having a championship caliber team next season, as am I.



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The Lakers, as was the case last summer when they attempted to surrounding Bryant with stars, will once again have significant cap space to work with in a market that would seem to want to encourage players to leave their current environs in order to come to Los Angeles. Stars like Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge might not want to leave their current winning teams to play for less money in LA, but Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak could possibly put together a full roster of well-meaning vets via savvy signings and salary cap space-encouraged trades.


Speaking to reporters as the Lakers prepared to begin the final two months of their lost season, Kupchak more or less put the kibosh on that idea:



“This team primarily has been Kobe’s team now for almost 18 or 20 years,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said in a wide ranging interview with media, “and we’re much closer to the end of those 18, 20 years than we are to the middle or the beginning. So at some point we have to start a new run.




[…]




“To jeopardize the next five or seven years,” Kupchak said, “bring in old veterans that make a lot of money, just to win one more year, because that’s Kobe’s last year or could be his last year, I’m not sure that fits into doing it the right way.”



No, that would not be doing it the right way. Even if the hypothetical high-priced-veteran-players-that-could-also-pair-with-Kobe-for-a-ring existed. To date, few Laker fans have come up with a cogent list of candidates that were also going to be realistically available this summer.


Kupchak, who told reporters that this subject “was not something you would talk about” with Bryant, went on:



“We’re going to look to do this the right way,” Kupchak said, “which is to try to make prudent decisions about youth and veterans and making commitments to players under the existing rules. I’d love to be able to put together a young team that can win 55 games next year, but it’s not that easy.”



No, it is not easy. Those teams have really never existed. There have been young and exciting teams cobbled together out of a series of lottery picks that have shown glimpses in the playoffs, but these were not 55-win teams. The young Thunder, even when making the playoffs in 2010 after three years with Kevin Durant, still fell five wins short. Those out-of-nowhere 2007 Golden State Warriors featured quite a few players in their prime. And it is far easier to go from 35 to 45 wins than it is to go from 45 to 55.


As the Lakers stand, they might have to settle for going from 21 wins (their current 2014-15 pace) to 31. That’s just how these things work.


Kobe knows this. He’s not acting out of touch or defiant in the face of GQ, because truly what is the guy going to say? He’s going to admit that the Lakers are likely just rolling over during his last year, sustaining cap space and acquiring assets as they attempt to make a big splash when his contract comes off the books in 2016? Bryant is as severe a competitor as the game has ever known, and he’ll sometimes take the loss if it meant shooting for the win his particular way, but he’s no dummy in this regard.


It’s just that “yeah, the 2015 offseason is probably going to be a lot like the 2016 offseason” isn’t much of a party line moving forward. Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to say that.


Save for Mitch Kupchak, apparently.


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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : Suns GM Ryan McDonough had some choice words about Goran Dragic's departure

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By all accounts, the Phoenix Suns had a rough week. The franchise can walk away from Thursday’s trade deadline giddy at the idea of pairing new addition Brandon Knight with Eric Bledsoe, it can just as giddily rub its figurative hands together at the thought of taking in two first-round draft picks from what might be a terrible Miami Heat team in a few years, but by and large this was an embarrassing and destructive week.


Former guard Goran Dragic asked to be moved, he told reporters that he didn’t trust the team’s front office, and he was eventually sent to the Miami Heat in a move that convinced the well-versed Charles Barkley that the Heat were now one of three teams to beat in the Eastern Conference.


Many media outlets, even the ones aware of leverage-less trading position Dragic (who is an unrestricted free agent this summer) put the Suns in, still felt lukewarm at best about Phoenix’s two massive trades on Thursday. As such, it was understandable that Suns general manager Ryan McDonough was a little brusque in his assessment of the outsiders’ reaction to his work.


From Paul Coro at AZCentral Sports:



After hearing fans and media comment that the Suns traded their best player (Dragic), McDonough said Friday, "Our response to that, I think, is that Eric Bledsoe and Markieff Morris are still in Phoenix Suns uniforms."




In commenting on Knight, McDonough also added, "We feel like we got the best player in the trade, coming or going."



There was more:




Free to now do his work with the 22-30 Heat, alongside a guard in Dwyane Wade that has never been known for dominating the ball or taking a lot of shots, Dragic went breezy on Thursday night:






Nobody looks great, here.


As Tom Ziller at SB Nation wondered on Thursday morning, in the hours between Dragic’s trade request and the move that eventually sent him to Miami, the parallels between Carmelo Anthony’s 2011 silent trade demand and Dragic’s very public assertion of his wishes were striking. Dragic is not the star that Anthony was and is, but he also demanded his way off a pretty good team (the 2010-11 Denver Nuggets won 50 games, Phoenix is on pace to win 45) in order to play for a squad with a inferior record by comparison.


Anthony and Dragic also managed to have their cake and eat it too – Anthony did and Dragic can use Bird Rights to re-sign to a mark far over the salary cap. Instead of the critical backlash that Anthony (who, again, never went public with his trade demands), most in Dragic’s wake merely pointed to Phoenix’s repeated acquisitions of point guards before happily looking forward to Goran suiting up alongside Dwyane Wade.


No athlete should just shut up and put up with their lot in life, just because they get paid heaps of money to work at a game. It was just fine for Anthony to realize that his Nuggets had become too top-heavy, even though the Knick teams he starred on also became far too top-heavy with him on the roster, also acquiring several former Nugget teammates along the way, as the Anthony-less Nuggets roared past the Knicks in the overall NBA standings.


Dragic’s Heat will have the same problem. When healthy (thinking about you, Mr. Bosh, please hang in there) Miami’s starting five is as good as anyone’s on paper. Beyond those starters, though, sits a woefully thin bench. And, as we snarked about above, Dwyane Wade is going to have the ball quite a bit, Goran. That doesn’t make Wade or former Suns teammate Eric Bledsoe or Dragic selfish in the slightest, it’s just how it is. There are only so many possessions to move around.


The Suns swear that they got what they wanted, but that also shouldn’t preclude them from tossing out pointed comments like this in the wake of both the trade and the (slight) criticism. Again, most mindful media outlets were well aware of what the Suns were dealing with prior to the trade deadline, and credited them for bringing back a player in Knight (who is having a better year than Dragic, so far) and two future firsts.


Dragic and the Suns, loud and on record, appear to prefer their current surroundings to the ones that were in place on Thursday morning. We’ll see where this turns out.


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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!


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News sport : Court decision: 'More likely than not' Kurt Busch committed 'act of abuse'

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After granting Patricia Driscoll a protection order from Kurt Busch, the commissioner assigned to the case issued an decision on Friday.


It comes a day after Busch's attorney, Rusty Hardin, filed a motion to re-open the hearing regarding the protection order, which stems from an alleged assault on Sept. 26. Driscoll accuses Busch of slamming her head against the wall of his motorhome, an accusation he denies.


In the conclusion of Kent County commissioner David Jones' decision, he says it's more likely than not that Busch committed "an act of abuse" against Driscoll by "manually strangling" her "with his left hand on her throat while placing his right hand against her chin and face, causing her head to forcefully strike the interior wall" of his motorhome.



The court is satisfied that the evidence presented at trial established that it is more likely than not that on September 26, 2014, Respondent committed an act of abuse against Petitioner by manually strangling Petitioner with his left hand on her throat while placing his right hand against her chin and face, causing her head to forcefully strike the interior wall of Respondent's motor home, thereby recklessly causing physical injury to Petitioner and recklessly placing Petitioner in reasonable apprehension of physical injury. The Court further finds that Respondent's actions on that occasion constituted conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening or harmful.



Busch has said he cupped Driscoll's face in his hands after she came to visit him uninvited that Friday night in Dover. He also testified in the hearing that she was a trained assassin, a claim that she denies by saying Busch can't separate fact from fiction.


The criminal case is still with the Delaware attorney general's office and no decision has been made regarding criminal charges. Busch is expected to compete in the Daytona 500 on Sunday. Earlier in the week, NASCAR said that it was awaiting "the full findings of the Commissioner and any actions by the Attorney General of Delaware related to the allegations against Busch."


You can read the entire decision below.


Kurt Busch Patricia Driscoll PFA Decision



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News sport : Dan Enos: Being a head coach is 'not all it’s cracked up to be'

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Sep 20, 2014; Lawrence, KS, USA; Central Michigan Chippewas head coach Dan Enos on the sidelines against the Kansas Jayhawks in the second half at Memorial Stadium. Kansas won the game 24-10. (John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports) It came as a surprise when Arkansas announced nearly a month ago that it had hired Dan Enos as offensive coordinator. Enos already had a job – he was the head coach at Central Michigan – but resigned to take a lesser role on Bret Bielema’s staff.


It turns out that being a head coach wasn’t as great as Enos thought it would be.


“At one point in my career, I wanted to be a head coach and that was the whole thing I dreamed about and talked about,” Enos said on SportsTalk with Bo Mattingly, per CoachingSearch.com. “I’ve been a head coach. The one thing I’ll say about a head coach: It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I had a coach tell me once that, one time, a very successful NFL coach told him that. ‘Remember, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.’ That hit home with me.”


Enos went 26-36 in five seasons at Central Michigan, but the program improved under his watch and finished at .500 or above in each of the past three seasons. Enos will receive a bump in pay at Arkansas, but FBS head coaching jobs are coveted. Stil, Enos says he hasn’t thought twice about his decision and doesn’t know if he’ll pursue another head coaching job in the future.


“To be honest with you, my family and I left for this opportunity. I really haven’t thought too much beyond,” Enos said. “I just would like to be here and be at Arkansas and be the coordinator for many years. Beyond that, I don’t have any other further aspirations, other than to help this program get better and do my part to help our team win a championship.”


Enos replaces Jim Chaney with the Razorbacks (after Chaney left to join Pat Narduzzi’s staff at Pittsburgh) and inherits a run-heavy offense that averaged 31.9 points per game in 2014 – up from 20.7 in 2013.


To replace Enos, Central Michigan hired Detroit Lions special teams coach Jon Bonamego, a CMU alum.


For more Central Michigan news, visit ChippewaCountry.com.


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News sport : Confident Jameis Winston says he can be the face of an NFL franchise

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INDIANAPOLIS – The buzz was that interviews with teams would be the most important part of the NFL scouting combine for Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.


Based on how he handled his press conference on Friday, he’ll do just fine in that arena.


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Winston was remarkably confident and at ease during his nearly 12 minutes with the media. From his opening words about understanding the mistakes he has made off the field, he kept hammering home the same theme: That he will earn his next team’s trust by his actions moving forward.


“When I do get to a city, with a team, I plan on getting involved in the community and creating an image – a positive image – and put everything else behind me,” Winston said.


“My job as a quarterback is to be the face of a franchise. My job is to win games, hopefully win Super Bowls, and that’s a big responsibility. That’s a job up here. Whatever is behind me is behind me, so this is a new face.”


It won’t be so easy to put his past behind him. There were some silly allegations like stealing soda from the machine at a fast-food restaurant, some dumb ones like stealing crab legs from a supermarket, and a very troubling sexual assault allegation at Florida State. No charges were brought in that case because there wasn’t sufficient evidence, and he was cleared in a FSU code of conduct hearing.


Winston talked about visiting an elementary school in Tallahassee and his 7-year-old brother and how he realized that the bad headlines affected the little kids looking up to him. He didn’t mind laying it on a little thick.


“I’ve got so many people to inspire and I’ve got so many little kids looking up to me, not only as a quarterback but as a person,” Winston said. “I want to be that role model for them.”


Do you buy it? Winston sold himself incredibly well, and if teams aren’t totally put off by the allegations and incidents in his past, it’s easy to see them being smitten by how he can own a room. That’s a big intangible for any quarterback. He showed off a lot of charisma (he brought up a photo of him from weeks ago looking overweight and joked “I look good and I know it,” to laughter from the media) and either confidence or arrogance, depending on how you viewed it. He was aware he's riding that fine line.


“I’m a confident person. People may buy that as arrogance,” Winston said. “But I’m just out there confident because when my team looks at me, they’re going to see a smile on my face because I’m going to tell them you know what we’re capable of doing and we’re not going down with a loss.”


His confidence isn’t lacking at all. He and Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota have been discussed as possibilities for the top pick, but Winston seemed to dismiss that competition a bit because he has bigger things in mind.


“This is not no competition just between me and Mariota. Because one thing about me, I plan on winning a Super Bowl in the next year,” Winston said. “So it’s going to be Jameis vs. Peyton Mannings and Jameis vs. Tom Bradys. I want to be viewed like that. After all this combine stuff, you’re not going to hear any more about Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. But I want my name to remain relevant for the next 15, 20 years of my career.”


People talk about winning the press conference, and Winston did that on Friday. He laughed off concerns about weakness in his shoulder, saying he had an MRI like everyone else did and his shoulder feels great. He said he'll throw on Saturday at the combine because he's a competitor. Winston talked about what a privilege it would be for the Glazer family that owns the Buccaneers to make him the first pick – and as long as his shoulder issues are as much of a non-factor as he claims, that seems to be a logical outcome when the NFL draft starts.


Everyone wondered how Winston would react to answering questions about his past and his future at the combine, but he was as comfortable as could be when the moment came.


“This is what I dream of,” Winston said. “I dream of being a Hall of Famer someday. And I dream of being the face of someone’s franchise.”


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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : Meet the lady who's been at every single Daytona 500

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Lightnin' Epton at Daytona. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - There was a time when ladies attended the Daytona 500 wearing high heels, gloves, and hats more fit for a Kentucky Derby than a NASCAR race. It’s true. Just ask the woman who was at those races … and every one since.


Juanita Epton, who goes by the name “Lightnin’”, has worked in the ticket office at Daytona International Speedway since the very first day the track opened in 1959. Sunday will mark her 57th Daytona 500, and the latest stop on a journey that’s gone from the dirt tracks of Carolina to the high-sheen superspeedway of Daytona. At age 94, she’s one of the final connections to NASCAR’s earliest days, and she’s a reminder of how very much the sport, and the world around it, have changed over the last century.


“I love the people that I work with,” she says, “but I also love the customers. I have people who I’ve been waiting on for years and years.”


Lightnin’ got her nickname from her late husband Joe, who said you never knew when or where she might strike. It was Joe who brought her down here more than half a century ago, accompanying him as they dodged winters in North Carolina.


Shortly after World War II, Bill France, the man who would form NASCAR in the late 1940s, hired Joe to serve as an official scorer at dirt tracks around Charlotte. Joe earned a tidy $20 per race, about $275 in today’s dollars. Joe was also responsible for making payouts to the winners, and in an era when promoters often skipped out during the race with gate receipts in hand, Joe and his cash money were a welcome sight among drivers.



NASCAR's Joe Epton, circa early 1960s.

As NASCAR grew in popularity during the early 1950s, France decided to build a track that would challenge Indianapolis Motor Speedway for American superiority. France hired Joe, by now NASCAR’s official scorer, to work at his creation, and Joe brought along Lightnin’. Together, the Eptons watched the historic Daytona International Speedway take shape.


“A lot of people say, if you’ve seen one race track, you’ve seen them all. But if you haven’t seen Daytona, you haven’t seen every race track,” Lightnin’ says. “It was something special, watching them build this. Seeing the dirt piled high on each end for the turns. When you had a swamp to start with … it was like something out of a miracle to be rising out of a swamp.”


At that first race, the one where ladies showed up to the race in their Sunday finest, tickets started at $8 apiece, about $65 in today’s cash. (Today’s a comparative bargain; tickets start at $32 now.) There were only four grandstands, and only the first fifteen rows were even set up for bench seating. But Bill France, who lived every moment of every day with an eye toward promotion, understood racing’s growth potential. When he built those small grandstands, he poured the pilings strong and deep enough to support the much larger structures that would one day be built.


These days, Epton works year-round at the track, which hosts two NASCAR weekends plus a host of other motorsports events. She lives alone, just her and her Chihuahua named Lily, and she still drives herself to work in a new Chevy Equinox. (“People said I was crazy, buying a new car at 94.”) Her grandchild and great-grandchild live nearby.


She doesn’t watch the races. She’s got work to do. “For my 50th anniversary here, they took me upstairs so I could watch the 125s,” she says. “I couldn’t stay up there. I watch my races at other tracks. Here I’m at work.”


She’s also a long way from the tiny all-in-one building that once hosted all of Daytona’s office buildings. Epton’s ticket office today looks out on statues of Bill and Anne B. France. Across Speedway Boulevard, with a majestic view of the track, sits NASCAR’s gleaming headquarters. All around, Daytona is in the midst of a gargantuan $400 million expansion that will transform the entire grandstand and position the track for its next half-century. Fittingly, Epton was one of the first people to ride the new escalators that will service the Daytona Rising expansion.


Progress means change, and Epton admits there are elements of the old NASCAR that she misses. “Big Bill France used to make sure the drivers came by here and thank the girls that worked in the ticket office,” she says, and her use of “girls” is charming in a World War II-era kind of way. “Michael [Waltrip] came by last week and brought me some flowers. But now it’s such big business, and they’re so busy with their appointments, they don’t do that any more. It’s a minus. It would be uplifting if the drivers came by to say hello to the girls who are selling their tickets. Maybe one day it’ll get back to the way it was.”


The message couldn’t be any clearer if it was skywritten above the track: this isn’t Bill France’s NASCAR any longer.


Even so, Lightnin’ keeps on keeping on, just as she has for decades, opening mail, distributing checks, waiting on fans buying tickets. She handles just about every ticket the track distributes, and over the course of a half-century, with hundreds of thousands of tickets each year …. you can do the rough math.


“There’s no end to it. When you think you’re at the end, here comes someone with another bin full,” Lightnin’ says. “You do what you do, and you do it with a smile.”


[Footnote: A moment, here, to talk about Joe’s courtship of Lightnin’. Yes, NASCAR is a very different sport, but you want an idea of the world in which she grew up? Let her tell you one heck of a story:


“I met him on a skating rink in Mississippi. He was working in Oak Ridge (Tennessee) and couldn’t get off work to get married. A girlfriend came with me to Tennessee. You had to wait a week [to get married], and he couldn’t wait a week. So we went to Kentucky, but you had to wait a week there too. So we went across the border to South Carolina in a snowstorm. A friend of his walked in front of the car across the Blue Ridge Mountains so we didn’t go off the mountain. In Greenville, South Carolina, we woke the First Baptist preacher up and got married. After that, we came back across the mountain to Knoxville, Tennessee. What a honeymoon!”]


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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.



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News sport : Who was the fastest OL at the combine? Naturally ... Hobart's Ali Marpet

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The 2014 NFL scouting combine was a fast-running big man's dream, with eventual first-round offensive tackles Greg Robinson and Taylor Lewan blazing 40-yard dash times of 4.92 and 4.87, respectively.

This year's combine was paced by a big man, yes, but one from a very small school.


As in Division-III Hobart College, far more known for its lacrosse than its football.


[All Draft News, All The Time: Follow Shutdown Draft 365 on Tumblr ]


Yes, the Statesmen have not had one of their players land in the NFL since the 1930s, but offensive lineman Ali Marpet is almost assured to end that streak after performing well at the Senior Bowl and following Friday's impressive combine performance.


Marpet led all offensive linemen with an official 4.98-second 40 time, and the fastest 10-yard split of 1.74 seconds. Speed is not going to be an automatic ticket to the NFL, but his athleticism pops, as does his competitiveness. Notable from his Senior Bowl week was locking horns — and holding his own — against possible top-10 pick, Washington defensive tackle Danny Shelton.


Also, Marpet (hence the Hobart degree) is smart, with the school producing far more hedge-fund managers than athletes, but that intelligence is considered a plus. He could project to center or guard, and he played in college (and for one day at the Senior Bowl) at left tackle, so Marpet ranks high in the versatility category, too.


The 6-3, 307-pound Marpet isn't going to be a first-round pick, but it wouldn't be completely stunning to see him drafted on the draft's second day — either Round 2 or 3 — as a multi-positional prospect.


His 40 on Friday helped make this young man some money, which is a good thing considering Hobart's tuition (no scholarships there) of $57,000 per year. Ouch!





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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : Does Frank Clark's future hinge on the NFL's change in culture?

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Feb 20, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Michigan defensive lineman Frank Clark speaks to the media at the 2015 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. (Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports) Former Michigan defensive end Frank Clark told media Friday at the NFL combine that his lawyer was "very confident" his domestic violence/assault charge could be reduced or dismissed, which might be enough to sway NFL scouts to take a chance on him.


Clark was dismissed from Michigan after he was accused of physically assaulting his girlfriend in a hotel room in Sandusky, Ohio, during the Wolverines bye week. He spent two days in jail.


In a time when the NFL is trying to revamp its image following the Ray Rice domestic assault, it’s curious that Clark would even receive an invite to the combine. But Clark said NFL scouts told him they were willing to overlook his transgression.


“Domestic violence is a big issue. I’m not sugar coating it,” Clark said. “It’s a huge issue nowadays in our society. Just talking with the teams I did talk to, they let me know that it’s going to handle itself. But they love me as a football player. They love me as a person. They look at it like I made a mistake. I look at it like a mistake that I can’t ever make again. Not just domestic violence. I can’t close the door too hard. That’s how I look at it.”


The police report detailing the altercation states that hotel guests complained that it sounded like "a head was being bounced off the wall." The report also states other guests claimed small children ran from Clark's hotel room yelling, "Frank is killing our sister."


Not exactly the poster child for the NOMORE.org-championing NFL.


But Clark spent his interviews at the combine making sure NFL execs and the media knew the altercation wasn’t all on him.


"I don't want to get into too much detail — the detail, I did get into with NFL teams," Clark said Friday at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. "But basically what went on, we were in the room. The person involved, you let something basically get out of hand and took something farther than it was planned. You look at a phone nowadays, these phones get a lot of people in trouble. I'm not saying I'm a womanizer or anything of that nature. I'm just saying it was a conversation between me and one of my friends, and the woman involved, she took it to another level that it shouldn't have been taken to.


"That's fine. I'm not throwing her under the bus. I'm not saying she did anything wrong. I'm just saying a lot of things that happened in that room that night could have been avoided."


The police report stated that Clark had blood on his nose and was missing skin from it when he came out to speak with police. Eyewitness details vary about the condition of the woman. One hotel guest said her friend "observed the female laying on the ground, unconscious, only wearing a t-shirt."


The victim’s brother said he came out of the bathroom to see Clark punching his sister and that he "grabbed her by the throat, picked her up off the ground, and slamming her to the ground while also landing on top of her."


Perkins Township police officer Martin Curran told MLive.com that when police entered the room, they found a broken lamp and the victim had “a large welt on the left side of her cheek, and blood near the left side of her temple area."


The victim told police the two argued, she bit his nose and he punched her in the face. Police said there was a noticeable smell of alcohol on Clark while the victim had been given a Breathalyzer and result was .000 percent.


Clark also told police he thought the victim might be pregnant.


Clark said he been involved in regular counseling and claimed that if he hadn’t made the trip to Sandusky, Ohio, during the Wolverines bye week, the entire situation could have been avoided.


"I put myself in a position where I shouldn't have been anyway," said Clark, who claimed he had bad vibes about the trip from the beginning. "When I say I put myself in a position I shouldn't have been in, it could have all been avoided if I just said, 'No, I don't want to go to Sandusky.' Or, 'No, I don't want to go to the water park.'”


Clark, who didn’t have to be at his Friday hearing in Sandusky Municipal Court, said he thanked God for his invite to the combine and cried when he received it. Now, he said, it’s up to him to try to get teams to believe he’s not a bad person.


"It's hard because you can say, 'Well, I didn't do anything.' I could plead not guilty all I want," Clark said. "But at the end of the day, when you look at domestic violence, you don't look at a 270-pound man. You go, 'Did she hit him, or did he hit her?' You don't look at it that way. You look at domestic violence, you automatically assume the man had something to do with it. That's usually how the world goes today. That's how society is set up now.


“I accept full responsibility for everything that happened. I’m going to continue to learn from it and grow from it. In the future, hopefully, one of these teams will give me a shot.”


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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!


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News sport : San Diego mayor is not too happy with the Chargers and their L.A. plan

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The San Diego Chargers' threat to move to Los Angeles has moved into the all-important phase of politicians being publicly angered.


According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer said the city and fans were deceived by the team when it suddenly announced plans to build a stadium with the Oakland Raiders near Los Angeles if they don't get their own stadium deal done in San Diego.


We've all heard this song and dance before in other cities, but let's run it back for San Diego and Faulconer.



"The Chargers weren't being up front with San Diegans, they weren't being up front with their fans...That's not how you get things done," Faulconer said to the Union-Tribune. "We deserve an honest dialogue. What we saw speaks volumes about the true intentions and about what's been happening over the last few weeks."



Sounds bad, right? The Chargers are goners for sure now that they've deceived the mayor and the fans, no?


No.



"I'm more committed than ever to get this done" in San Diego, Faulconer told the Union-Tribune. "San Diegans deserve for the team to stay here."



The NFL's Los Angeles bluff, which they've been running at a 100 percent success rate for 20 years, is really aggressive this time. The joint statement between two teams with the stadium renderings for Carson, Calif. was a unique touch. Now they have two cities feeling the pressure to get taxpayer money to fund a new stadium for incredibly rich owners. The people of San Diego HAVE to pay for a stadium now ... the Chargers showed actual stadium renderings, so they're serious folks!!!


Again, if the NFL wanted a team in Los Angeles, there would have been a team in Los Angeles long ago. The league prints money; they could afford to get that done. Now three teams are playing the L.A. card, because the Rams have their own separate bluff going on to get a new stadium in St. Louis. Whether there's actually a team in Los Angeles anytime soon is another thing, because it wouldn't surprise anyone if there are magically new plans in these cities to keep the teams there and keep the Los Angeles market open for the next time an NFL team needs leverage to extort tax dollars from its city for a new stadium.


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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!






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News sport : Ravens coach John Harbaugh to speak at Michigan spring clinic

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PITTSBURGH, PA - JANUARY 03: Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh (R) celebrates with his brother, head coach John Harbaugh (L) of the Baltimore Ravens after the Ravens defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 30-17 in their AFC Wild Card game at Heinz Field on January 3, 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) Jim Harbaugh has attracted projected first-round pick Jameis Winston and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to Michigan’s campus this week. Next month, another prominent person from the NFL will appear in Ann Arbor – Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, Jim’s brother.


According to a release from Michigan, Harbaugh will “be the featured speaker” at Michigan’s Spring Football Clinic, which takes place on March 13 and 14. Harbaugh is scheduled to speak at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 13.


Harbaugh led the Ravens to the 2012 Super Bowl and has coached the team to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons with the franchise. He’ll join a list of speakers at the event which also includes Wolverines offensive coordinator Tim Drevno, defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin and special teams coordinator John Baxter.


In addition to guest speakers, the clinic includes film sessions, “chalk talks,” sessions with members of the Michigan athletic department and a look at the program’s recruiting operations. Guests will also be invited to a day of Wolverines spring practice on March 14 at Glick Field House.


For more Michigan news, visit TheWolverine.com.


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News sport : Dorial Green-Beckham says he's more mature, but is 10 months enough time to change?

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Feb 19, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Missouri wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham speaks to the media at the 2015 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. (Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports) Dorial Green-Beckham stood in front of media at the NFL combine on Thursday asking for forgiveness.


The much-maligned receiver who spent as much time in trouble with the law as he did catching touchdowns didn’t exactly apologize for his mistakes, but was hoping the NFL could look past them.


“All the decisions I made, I wish I could take it back,” Green-Beckham said. “It happened, I was young, I made mistakes, I understand that. I just want to focus on one thing, and look forward to just this draft and focus on being the best I can be.”


But is it that easy?


It’s been less than a year since Green-Beckham, one of the most dynamic receivers in the country, was dismissed from Missouri for allegedly pushing a woman down some stairs after breaking into her apartment while looking for his girlfriend. It was the third run-in with the law Green-Beckham had during two seasons in Columbia, and coach Gary Pinkel had drawn the line.


Green-Beckham was never arrested for the allegation. The woman involved feared retaliation if she came forward and Green-Beckham’s girlfriend at the time sent her several text messages asking her not to talk to police because it would ruin Green-Beckham’s football career.


During his previous two arrests, both for marijuana possession, Green-Beckham walked away with no consequence on one and a misdemeanor trespassing charge on the other.


He transferred to Oklahoma and the only real punishment he ever suffered was that he couldn’t play in 2014 because the NCAA wouldn’t give him a hardship waiver despite Oklahoma’s attempts to say Missouri ran him off and that he deserved another chance.


So here was, one of the most impressive specimens of a deep wide receiver class, saying that he was a changed man, but noting that the only thing that caused this self-reflection was spending a year on the sideline of one of the perennial powers in college football.


“I proved I’m a better person by just showing them how mature I’ve grown,” Green-Beckham said. “These last few months have been real tough for me. Missing the whole season and missing playing with my teammates and just missing football, period. Just looking from the outside in and seeing things that I’ve never seen before, I just want to take advantage of that and just make sure that I’m there to help my teammates and make sure I’m the best guy I can be off the field and try to show everybody I’m capable of doing those things.”


It’s easy to walk the straight and narrow when the spotlight is off and the fanfare has faded. It helped that Green-Beckham was in Norman and away from a school that wasn’t too long a drive back to his hometown. Green-Beckham’s upbringing has been well documented. He was one of six kids born to a woman who had her own issues with the law. He never knew his father, spent time living in a van and watched several of his half-siblings squander their athletic talent on drugs and in jail.


He was adopted by his high school coach and turned into the top recruit in his class. He stayed home to play at his state school, which was a huge coup for the Tigers. In two seasons, he caught 87 passes for 1,278 yards and 17 touchdowns and was well on his way to being one of the best receivers in the country.


“I’m disappointed in myself for the mistakes I did at Missouri, I wish I could have finished out there, been a home guy, stayed at Missouri," Green-Beckham said. "I regret all the mistakes I’ve done. I still respect Missouri and still respect everyone at Missouri, all the players and all the coaches.”


No one has ever argued with Green-Beckham’s talent, but his off-field decision-making has been suspect. In the NFL, the spotlight will be back on, the bad element will creep out of the shadows and Green-Beckham will now have millions of dollars at his disposal.


It’s up to an NFL team to decide whether Green-Beckham is sincere and whether he can be a model citizen while he’s playing as he’s been while on the sideline.


Green-Beckham said several times that he was young and immature when he made his mistakes, but it’s important to note that Green-Beckham isn’t even a full year older from the time he was dismissed until his time on the combine podium.


Is 10 months enough time to provide perspective for someone whose entire past has been wrought with bad decisions either by himself or someone close to him?


That’s a decision with which NFL execs will have to wrestle.


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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!


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