Page 27 - Florida Sentinel 12-8-17

Sports
FSU Gets First Black Head
SI Names Colin K As ‘Muhammad Ali Legacy’ Award Recipient; He Finally Breaks Silence At ACLU Awards
Football Coach – Bradenton
Native Willie Taggart
After less than a week on the hunt, Florida State has its man.
FSU on Tuesday an- nounced that Willie Tag- gart, the former coach at Western Kentucky, the Uni- versity of South Florida and Oregon, has agreed to become the next coach of the Semi- noles’ football team.
A Bradenton native, Tag- gart has now realized a dream come true — he was a huge Florida State fan growing up.
He is the 10th full-time head coach in program his- tory.
He succeeds Jimbo Fisher, who recently left FSU to become head coach at Texas Tech for a reported 10-year, $75 million contract after 11 seasons with FSU, including 8 as head coach.
Taggart brings a 47-50 overall record as a head coach. Oregon offered him a new deal that would have paid him a little more than $20 million over five years in late Novem- ber hoping that he would stay in Eugene. However, the Florida native decided to come
home.
Taggart’s tenure at USF,
saw him go from a 2-10 mark in his first season, double with the Bulls’ winning 4-8 in 2014 and 2015 (8-4). His best sea- son at USF was the Bulls set- ting a school record with 11 wins and capping their season with a 46-39 victory over Southeastern Conference foe South Carolina in the Bir- mingham Bowl.
Taggart’s Florida roots – – have helped him make strong inroads in the state’s
Bradenton native, and former USF and Oregon coach, Willie Taggart is headed to Tallahassee.
prep football community which will be much needed due to the recruitment sched- ule ending on December 20th.
The turnarounds at WKU and USF were both built on a new influx of talent, and he was in the midst of putting to- gether a potential top-10 class at Oregon when FSU came calling.
Before becoming a coach, Taggart was first a four-year starter at quarterback at West- ern Kentucky, where he was coached by Jack Harbaugh and recruited by Harbaugh’s son Jim.
Taggart went on to be- come a two-time finalist for the Walter Payton Award, which is presented annually to the top player in the NCAA FCS, and he is one of only four players in the program’s his- tory to have his jersey retired.
He later reconnected with Jim Harbaugh when Har- baugh hired him to coach running backs at Stanford in 2007.
Taggart and his wife, Taneshia have three children – sons Willie Jr. and Jack- son, and daughter Morgan.
Sports Illustrated named Colin Kaepernick the 2017 Muhammad Ali Legacy Award recipient for his tireless activist work.
The magazine announced its decision last Thursday with Lonnie Ali, Muhammad Ali’s widow, who consults with SI to choose the recipient each year.
“Like Muhammad, Colin is a man who stands on his convictions with confidence and courage, undaunted by the personal sacrifices he has had to make to have his message heard,” Ali said in a statement.
“He has used his celebrity and philanthropy to benefit some of our most vulnerable community members. I know the Ali family joins me in con- gratulating Colin as he re-
Warren Moon Sued For Sexual Harassment By Assistant At His Sports Marketing Firm
WARREN MOON
Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon has been accused of sexual ha- rassment and sexual battery in a lawsuit filed by a female em- ployee of his sports marketing firm and will take a leave of ab- sence from his role on Seattle Seahawks radio broadcasts.
Moon denied the allega- tions in a text to Seattle's KING 5 TV, according to on-air host Paul Silvi. KING also employs Moon as part of its Seahawks coverage.
The Seahawks released a statement on Wednesday say- ing the team has accepted Moon's request for a leave. The statement did not list a reason.
The lawsuit was filed Mon- day in Orange County Superior Court in California. Wendy Haskell said that Moon made "unwanted and unsolicited" sexual advances toward her while she was working for Sports 1 Marketing as Moon's assistant. The lawsuit lists Moon as president and co- owner of the Irvine, California- based company.
Colin Kaepernick breaks his silence with powerful ACLU Courageous Advocate Award ac- ceptance speech last weekend (photograph above). He was also awarded the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award by Sports Illus- trated. (Hear speech on our Face-book page).
ceives the 2017 SI Muhammad Ali Legacy Award.”
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown and Bill Russell
were the 2017 co-recipients. In a news release, Executive Edi- tor Stephen Cannella said only a few athletes have “fol- lowed [Ali’s] example as fully” as the former San Fransisco quarterback who began kneel- ing during the pre-game na- tional anthem to protest racial injustice against Black people.
“In this noisy political and media environment, it’s easy to forget his core message: that all people in this country deserve to be treated with dignity, re- spect and recognition of their civil rights,” Cannella said.
The Legacy Award was pre- sented at the Sportsperson of the Year Awards on Dec. 5. Kaepernick, who re-mains unsigned to an NFL team, was also recently honored as GQ’s Citizen of the Year.
Rob Gronkowski Suspended One Game For Cheap Shot
Rob Gronkowski injures Tre'Davious White on cheap shot.
JuJu Smith-Schuster, George Iloka Suspended One Game For Illegal Hits
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster was suspended one game for his illegal blindside.
New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski has been suspended one game by the NFL for a viola- tion of unnecessary rough- ness rules.
Gronkowski will sit due
to a late cheap shot on Buf- falo Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White. Gronkowski suspension will cost him $281,250.
Gronkowski will appeal the suspension.
Monday night’s game be- tween the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals fea- tured a number of eye-popping hits, and two of them have re- sulted in suspensions.
The NFL announced on Tuesday that Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and Bengals safety George Iloka have each been suspended for one game.
Smith-Schuster leveled Vontaze Burfict with an ille- gal peel-back block, and he didn’t help his cause by stand- ing over the Bengals linebacker and taunting him after he lev- eled him. The type of block the rookie threw was outlawed sev- eral years back, and he was flagged 15 yards.
Iloka’s suspension stems from a brutal helmet-to-helmet shot he threw on Antonio Brown in the end zone.
Of course, many Steelers fans took satisfaction in Smith-Schuster’s hit be- cause Burfict was on the re- ceiving end. The Bengals linebacker has a long history of dirty play and has been sus- pended for it himself, which is why one Pittsburgh player es- sentially celebrated the hit after the game.
After Rob Gronkowski was suspended for a cheap shot on a Buffalo Bills defender, Smith-Schuster and Iloka give us three players who have been suspended for in-game hits this week.
PAGE 16-A FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017