Page 26 - Florida Sentinel 9-18-20

Sports
Pau Gasol, Wife Honor
Brady's Mistake-Prone
Cam Newton Has Chain Yanked In Postgame Skirmish With Dolphins
CAM NEWTON
Cam Newton’s first game
with the New England Patriots ended with a bit of a postgame skirmish. The Patriots won 21- 11.
Newton got into a con- frontation with several Dolphins players postgame. It appeared that he had his chain yanked, and he had to be restrained.
If that is what did happen, Newton’s response is under- standable. It’s also not entirely clear why that would have hap- pened in the first place, or if words were exchanged before.
Several NFL Teams Remain Off Field For National Anthem While Some Players Kneel In NFL Week 1
Bears players and staff during the national anthem at Ford Field.
Four years after Colin Kaepernick first began kneel- ing during the national anthem as a means of protesting police brutality and racial injustice, NFL players and teams once again used the platform to make statements.
On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and Arizona Cardinals remained off the field for the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The Houston Texans became the first team to stay in the locker room for both the anthem in Thursday's kickoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs. They also did not take the field for "Lift Every Voice and Sing," which the NFL said this offsea- son would be played before every game in the opening week- end.
The Dolphins announced Thursday they would not be on the field for either song.
Bucs Debut Shows
Kobe Bryant's Family With
Competent Football Isn't As
New Daughter's Name
Easy As Patriots Make It Look
Pau Gasol and his wife, Catherine, honored the memory of Kobe Bryant and his family by naming their first-born daughter Elisabet Gianna Gasol, the former Los Angeles Lakers big man announced Sunday.
"Our little one has finally arrived!! The delivery went re- ally well and we couldn't be happier!! Elisabet Gianna Gasol, a very meaningful name for our super beautiful
Tom Brady’s first inter- ception was intended for Tampa Bay teammate Mike Evans. When Brady let it rip, he threw it to Marshon Latti- more, who plays for New Or- leans. Brady thought Evans should keep going deep. Evans, correctly it turned out, thought the Saints’ coverage called for him to stop. So he did.
“Mike read it right,” Bucca- neers head coach Bruce Ari- ans said.
The second one was an out- let that Brady telegraphed so hard that the Saints’ Janoris Jenkins jumped the route, in- tercepted the ball and took it 36 yards the other way for a touch- down.
It was mostly bad all around for Brady and the Buc- caneers on Sunday. Tampa did- n’t just lose its highly anticipated season opener 34- 23, but the Bucs did it by re- peatedly making silly mistakes.
On paper, the Brady-led Tampa Bay offense looked po- tent. In practice, well, it needs practice.
No one should write off the Brady Era Bucs quite yet. Please be reasonable. There are still a lot of weapons there. It was their first game together.
TOM BRADY
The lack of a preseason didn’t help. New Orleans is the bully of the NFC South for a reason.
Besides, this is Brady. He always makes a comeback.
Turnovers, Mistakes Doom Buccaneers
This was a team loss if there ever was one. Bad execution. Turnovers. Dumb penalties. A blocked field goal. Terrible field position.
“You never go backward for a football,” Arians said of the kickoff fumble. “You learn that [expletive] in high school ...”
As for the offsides, “we practice fourth-and-short, and we haven’t jumped offside a million times,” Arians said. “Guys are telling each other not to jump offsides. And we jump offsides. That’s unexplainable to me.”
Paul Gasol and his wife, Catherine McDonnell, wel- comed a baby girl on Sunday.
daughter!! #girldad," Gasol wrote.
Saints, Alvin Kamara Agree To Five-Year Extension
It was the season of massive quarterback extensions until Saturday, which turned into payday for the skill players.
One running back to cash in on a new deal, according to multiple reports, was the New Orleans Saints' Alvin Ka- mara. The fourth-year player out of Tennessee agreed to a five-year, $77.133M extension — $75M in new money.
More than $34M of that is guaranteed, the reports said, which is more than any other NFL running back. The next
ALVIN KAMARA closest is Christian McCaf-
frey, whose new deal signed during the spring has $30.1M guaranteed. The Saints beat theBuccaneersSunday,34-24.
U. S. Open Champion Naomi
Osaka Says Kobe Bryant
Jersey 'Gave Me Strength'
During Tournament
Naomi Osaka felt the sup- port of late NBA legend Kobe Bryant while competing to win this year's U.S. Open.
On Saturday, while cele- brating her victory over Victo- ria Azarenka to win the 2020 U.S. Open Women's Singles final, the 22-year-old tennis star shared a photo of herself holding her trophy while wear- ing Bryant's Los Angeles Lak- ers jersey.
"I wore this jersey every day after my matches. I truly think it gave me strength. Always," she captioned the post.
After her match, Osaka told reporters it meant a lot to know that Bryant believed in her. "I just want to be the type of person that he thought I was going to be. He thought I was going to be great, so hopefully, I will be great in the future," she
NAOMI OSAKA
said.
Osaka — who met Bryant
in June 2019 — recalled how he became her mentor in the sports world.
“There would be some really tough losses,” she said. “I didn’t even know he was paying atten- tion, but he would text me pos- itive things and tell me to learn from it. For me, it was definitely helpful.”
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