Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 1-24-17 Edition

Sports
Atlanta Falcons Headed To Super
Buccaneers' Sean Renfree: Inks Futures Deal With Bucs
SEANRENFREE
Sean Renfree signed a fu- ture/reserve contract with the Buccaneers on Friday.
Renfree appears to have a legitimate path toward making the final roster in Tampa Bay, as 2016's No. 2 QB, Mike Glennon, seems destined to land elsewhere via free agency for a chance to earn a starting gig. In turn, third-stringer Ryan Griffin should bump up into the No. 2 role, clearing room for Renfree to secure No. 3 duties.
Floyd Mayweather Won $25,000 Betting On Atlanta Falcons
FLOYD MAYWEATHER Floyd Mayweather, being
the savvy gambler that he is, made a ton of money when he bet on the Atlanta Falcons’ first half spread.
The old adage “defense wins championships” was put to bed in the NFC Championship Game when the Atlanta Fal- cons, the league’s number one offense, made it to the Super Bowl. Given all the adversity the Green Bay Packers had to overcome this year, it was amazing that they even made the Championship Game. But once they got there, the Falcons completely overpowered them.
Anyone who bet on them came away satisfied. One of those people was Floyd May- weather. Now that he’s hung up his gloves, he’s made a ton of money on sports betting. This weekend was just another ex- ample of that. In the past three days, he made $45,000 on the Golden State Warriors to beat the Houston Rockets, and $100,000 on Cincinnati to beat Tulane by more than 16 points.
Once the NFL Playoffs rolled around, he wasn’t finished. The Falcons were six-point favorites to beat the Packers, but that wasn’t going to make Floyd a lot of money. Instead, he got creative and bet on the Falcons to win by more than three points at halftime. They went above and beyond when they rushed out to a 24-0 lead. And after placing a $30,000 bet, Mayweather collected $55,000 from the Falcons.
LeBron James Considering Return To US Olympic Team Under Gregg Popovich
Bowl After Thrashing Green Bay
LeBron James says Gregg Popovich taking over as coach of the U.S. Olympic team will be a factor in whether he plays in the 2020 Tokyo Games.
James has won two Olympic gold medals, but he skipped last summer’s Rio de Janeiro Games to get rest after leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to an NBA championship. On Saturday, James said Popovich “factors a lot” in his plans going forward with the U.S. team.
James was asked about Popovich, San Antonio’s long- time coach, before the Cavs hosted the Spurs.
For the first time since 1998, the Atlanta Falcons are going to the Super Bowl. Thanks to a beautifully domi- nant 44-21 beat down of the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at the Georgia Dome, Matt Ryan and Co. left no question as to which team was best.
If there's one play that best sums up the Falcons' beat- down of the Packers in Sun- day's NFC Championship Game, please see Julio Jones' 73-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Jones has eight catches for 167 yards and two touch-
Julio Jones destroyed the defense of the Green Bay Packers.
downs midway through the third quarter. And here's the bad news for whichever team comes out of the AFC: Jones now gets two weeks to rest his bum toe.
LEBRON JAMES James considers “Pop” the
greatest coach in NBA history and called him a “great master- mind of the game of basket- ball.”
Popovich is replacing Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who led the U.S. team to three con- secutive gold medals.
Steelers No Match For
Antonio Brown Has 6 Figure Deal With Facebook
Brady-Led Patriots; Will
Play In 9th Super Bowl
So you know that Facebook Live stream where NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown showed the innards of his Pittsburgh Steelers’ team’s locker room causing his coach Mike Tomlin to go off?
Well Brown may not have been caught up in the excite- ment of the win. And maybe the generous baller is going to have some extra coins to spare when the league fines him.
NFL.com reports that Brown actually has a six-fig- ure marketing deal with Face- book. NBC Sports reports that the tech giant actually encour- aged Brown to engage in a Facebook Live session from the locker room after the game.
Not only did Brown break the NFL’s social media ban until after postgame inter- views, but he may have “vio- lated the league’s broadcast deals by infringing on the ex-
The New Eng- land Patriots are headed back to the Super Bowl.
With a 36-15 win over the Pitts- burgh Steelers in Sunday's AFC title game, the Pats won their record ninth AFC championship and in two weeks New Eng- land will become the first franchise ever to appear in their ninth Super Bowl.
This was the 11th AFC title game of both Bill Be- lichick's and Tom Brady's careers, and that duo is now 7-4 in those contests -- and 2- 0 against Pittsburgh, the team they also beat to head to their third Super Bowl back in 2005.
Brady played a great game moving the ball around to nine different receivers. He
Star WR Antonio Brown streamed live from the Steel- ers locker after beating the Kansas City Chiefs.
clusive rights of the networks to broadcast locker-room video and audio,” reports NFL.com.
Coach Tomlin, who was seen flipping on the New Eng- land Patriots during the Face- book Live post, last week called Brown’s actions “foolish and inconsiderate.”
Brown later apologized and explained “emotions and gen- uine excitement” got the best of him.
Tom Brady was fitted with a warmed buff coat.
finished the evening 32 of 42 for 384 yards and three touchdowns, good for a 127.5 passer rating -- the fourth- best of his storied postseason career.
The Steelers averaged south of five yards per play for most of the game, only nudg- ing over that mark once things had gotten out of hand. Le'Veon Bell's injury con- tributed to the performance, but the Patriot defense was al- ready balling when Bell went down.
Steelers RB Le'Veon Bell (Groin) Knocked Out Of AFC Title Game
Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell exited Sunday's 36-17 AFC Champi- onship Game loss to the New England Patriots in the first half with a left groin injury and did not return.
Bell revealed after the game he had played through a groin issue for weeks until it flared up.
"I had no burst anymore," Bell said.
After breaking franchise records for single-game rush- ing performances in the regu- lar season and the playoffs, Bell's monster season ended with a quiet 20 yards on six carries.
Bell said the injury oc- curred on the second play of the game and "progressively got worse" despite his at- tempts to re-enter the game.
"I felt like I was holding the team back," Bell said from his locker after the game. "It's real disappointing. We work so
LE’VEON BELL
hard to get here. I felt like I had done a lot to help us get here. To not play and not go to battle with my teammates, it hurt."
After doctors evaluated Bell, he returned for a 2-yard run in the second quarter but looked compromised.
"There was a nice seam, I just felt like I couldn't get there," he said.
Bell returned to the side- line in the second half but never took the field.
DeAngelo Williams
rushed for 34 yards on 14 car- ries and a touchdown in relief of Bell.
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