Page 23 - Florida Sentinel 1-5-18

Sports
Jordan Greenway Will Be First Black U.S. Hockey Player In Winter Olympics
Jordan Greenway will be the first Black U.S. hockey player in the Winter Olympics.
Bucs Want Brent Grimes To Return
BRENT GRIMES
Like the rest of his Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates, star cornerback Brent Grimes packed up his locker on Monday morning and pre- pared to leave One Buccaneer Place, the 2017 season quickly put in the rearview mirror.
Before Grimes left, how- ever, Head Coach Dirk Koet- ter tried to convince him to make it a round trip.
"I tried to give him a sell job this morning," said Koetter in his end-of-season address to the media about an hour later. "I told him we would love to have him back.
I think Brent defies his real age and there have been other guys around the league that have been able to do that. He's a free agent, so he's in control of it, but we'd love to have him back, and I told him that."
In some ways, the reaction to this revelation – the Bucs want their best cornerback to come back next year – should be along the ways of, "Well, yeah."
But Grimes has played out the two-year contract he signed in March of 2016 and will turn 35 before the start of the Bucs' next training camp. That makes Grimes still very much a young man, but on the older end of the NFL's pool of cor- nerbacks.
It was reasonable to believe, when Grimes signed that con- tract 21 months ago, that it could be his last, that he would choose to hang up his cleats when the 2017 season ended.
Maybe he will. Maybe he won't. He's going to figure that out in the weeks ahead, but he said he wouldn't take too long to make the decision.
T. J. Ward Arrested
Boston University men’s hockey player, Jordan Greenway is bigger than anyone else on the ice. Stand- ing 6-5, 235 pounds, Green- way isn’t just the biggest player on the ice, he is mak- ing history in the Winter Olympics.
Greenway’s combina- tion of size and skill makes him a rare prospect. With the body of an 18-wheeler, but the motor of a sports car, he’s a physical specimen NHL scouts gush over. In Febru- ary, Greenway joins USA Hockey on its 2018 Olympic men’s hockey team in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
In doing so, he’ll become the first African-American man or woman to ever skate with USA Hockey at the Olympics, breaking a color barrier that is 98 years old.
Greenway doesn't want to be wholly defined by his race, but he made it clear that he is aware of the impact his presence on the team will
have on the younger genera- tion.
“I’ve been able to accom- plish a lot of good things and just allowing a lot of African American kids who are younger than me who see kind of what I’m doing, I hope that can be an inspira- tion for them,” Greenway said. “Go out and do some- thing different against the typical stereotypes that most African Americans play bas- ketball, or whatever the case is.”
According to the NCAA, there are only 13 self-identi- fied black hockey players among the 1,690 men’s Divi- sion I collegiate hockey play- ers. That's just 0.77 percent of all DI college players. Only 2.29 percent of the NHL’s current players are black.
He joins Maame Biney, who also made history by be- coming the first black woman to qualify to compete in the Olympics for the U.S. speed- skating team.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety T. J. Ward was ar- rested Wednesday morning on a pair of drug charges.
Ward was charged with "possession of cannabis" and "possession of drug parapher- nalia," per the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office. Ward was released from jail Wednesday after posting $2,500 bond, according to jail records.
The arrest stems from an Oct. 25 incident when Tampa police investigated an alarm call at Ward's apartment, ac- cording to an incident report. During the investigation police discovered approximately 99.9 grams of marijuana in two glass jars. Wednesday's arrest was on "an outstanding war- rant" related to the October in- cident.
"Reports from various sources revolving around my client, T.J. Ward, and an in- cident nearly 3 months ago are inaccurate," Ward's agent Josh Arnold said in a state- ment obtained by NFL Net- work Insider Ian Rapoport. "We dispute the claims being reported and T. J. adamantly denies these allegations. It was
T. J. WARD
our understanding that the matter had been resolved in October and my client was never arrested at that time. Nor was he even at the resi- dence when the police al- legedly located marijuana. T. J. never received a notice to appear or any other notice of a court date regarding this mat- ter in October or subsequently thereafter. T. J. is uncertain as to why this is coming up now given the fact it was resolved months ago, but nonetheless he looks forward to resolving the issue as expeditiously as possible."
The veteran defender signed a one-year deal with the Buccaneers last September and started five games.
On Marijuana
Possession Charge
Bengals Coaches Reportedly Stunned By Marvin Lewis Extension
You’re not the only one who is surprised that the Cincinnati Bengals brought Marvin Lewis back on a two- year contract extension. Even his own staff was surprised by the news.
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported on Tuesday that the Bengals’ as- sistant coaches were stunned by the news that Lewis signed a two-year extension with the team.
MARVIN LEWIS
Multiple reports towards the end of the season had sug- gested that Lewis would not return to the team next season. However, Cincinnati must have put on the full-court press to retain him for fear of losing Lewis to another team.
What probably also helped Lewis’ case was that after consecutive embarrassing losses to the Bears and Vikings in which his team was outscored 77-14, the Bengals closed the season with wins over the Lions and Ravens, both of which helped keep the other team out of the playoffs.
Perhaps those victories convinced the front office that Lewis hadn’t lost the team.
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