Page 26 - Florida Sentinel 10-12-18

Sports
Falcons Vs. Bucs Odds: Atlanta’s The Favorite At Home In Week 6
JAMEIS WINSTON AND MATT RYAN
Bucs, OL Ali Marpet Agree To Five-Year Extension
ALI MARPET
The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers and offensive lineman Ali Marpet reportedly agreed to terms on a five-year exten- sion through 2023, the team announced Tuesday.
The deal is reportedly worth $54.1 million.
Tampa Bay selected Mar- pet out of Hobart College in the second round of the 2015 NFL draft. He's started all 44 games he's appeared in. He's started each of Tampa Bay's four games this season at left guard. Last season, Marpet started 11 games at center after starting at right guard during his first two seasons.
Marpet, 25, is now one of the highest-paid interior line- men in the league. Marpet's reported contract is the sixth- richest deal among NFL guards.
Drew Brees Sets NFL Passing Yards Record On Long Touchdown
DREW BREES
Drew Brees set an NFL record on Monday night, and he did so in awesome fashion.
Brees tossed a 62-yard touchdown pass to Tre’Quan Smith to put his New Orleans Saints up 26-6 against the Washington Redskins in the second quarter. The touch- down pass gave Brees 71,968 career passing yards, surpass- ing Peyton Manning’s mark of 71,940. Brees actually sur- passed both Brett Favre and Manning on the same night to jump from third to first all time.
After the touchdown, Brees received a card and the football to celebrate the mo- ment and then passed them along to a Hall of Fame repre- sentative so the ball could go to Canton.
13-Year-Old Nevaeh Spillman
Atlanta’s on quite a run, and not the good kind. It says a lot about the perception of both the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that they’re still favored to win this week, by however small a margin.
The Falcons are a field goal favorite against Tampa Bay, a 2-2 team with one impressive win (48-40 over the Saints in Week 1), one increasingly less impressive win (27-21 against the Eagles
in Week 2), one narrow loss (30-27 against the Steel- ers in Week 3) and one ab- solute beatdown (48-10 by the Bears in Week 4). They’re fresh off a bye, but they re- main one of the NFL’s true
enigmas, even in this weird year.
Is this a Bucs team that has turned the corner but still has major problems on defense, or are they a pretender who rode two hot weeks from Ryan Fitzpatrick into a solid start to the season? We don’t know the answer to that—though I’d guess the latter—but this game against Atlanta ought to help clarify things.
One thing is evident: The way Jameis Winston has played against this team be- fore, and Tampa Bay’s defen- sive weakness, means that this turning into anything but a shootout or an Atlanta blowout means big trouble for the Falcons.
Neveah Spillman loves sports. Her current position at Maple Park Middle School isn’t typical of girls her age. Neveah is the football team’s starting quarterback.
Neveah’s talent overtook her nerves when she joined Maple Park’s football team as the starting quarterback. “She does have a good arm,” said Daivion Allen, Neveah’s teammate.
She’s played football since she was 4 years old. Now 13, Neveah is a leader and the only girl on the field. Nevaeh’s response from her classmates and teammates is positive. “It doesn’t matter whether you are a girl or boy quarterback. It matters what you do on the field,” Daivion said. “Nevaeh can do a lot on the field.”
NEVAEH SPILLMAN
pave the way for other girls who want to play football.
Neveah said sometimes players on the other teams are surprised to see her reveal the bouncy curls under her hel- met. “I’ll take my helmet off afterwards to shake hands, and it’s, ‘Oh, that’s a girl. Their quarterback is a girl,'” Neveah said. “They are shocked, but I think they think it’s pretty cool a girl plays football.”
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Release Will Clarke, Promote Demone Harris
WILL CLARKE AND DEMONE HARRIS
Steelers wide receiver An- tonio Brown faces two law- suits from an April incident during which Brown al- legedly yelled at security and threw items from inside a South Florida apartment and off a balcony.
Both lawsuits are for "dam- ages in excess of $15,000, ex- clusive of" attorney fees and interest.
A guardian of a 2-year-old boy is suing Brown for "in- tentional infliction of emo- tional distress and assault" after items flung from the 14th floor of The Mansions at Ac- qualina nearly hit the child, ac- cording to Miami-Dade County court filings. The child was with his grandfather near the pool area of the complex when large items -- including
ANTONIO BROWN
two vases, an ottoman and other pieces of furniture -- fell close to them, according to the filings, which say the child has experienced anxiety and trou- ble sleeping since.
The owner of the multimil- lion-dollar condo Brown leased also has filed a case against Brown for damages and breaching the apartment agreement.
Leads Her Middle School’s Football
Team As Starting Quarterback
Neveah hopes she can
Antonio Brown Accused Of
Tossing Items Off Balcony
The Tampa Bay Bucca- neers continued to adjust their defensive line with the release of veteran defensive end Will Clarke and the promotion of defensive lineman Demone Harris to the active roster.
Clarke played a handful of snaps with the Buccaneers in three games. Tampa Bay cut Clarke following the presea- son but allowed him to return for added depth shortly after. He didn’t record a tackle or a sack on the season.
Tampa Bay promoted
Harris from the practice squad after Clarke was let go. The Bucs signed Harris as an undrafted free agent after Buf- falo. With a deep group of de- fensive linemen, he needed to stand out during camp to make the team.
Tampa Bay also signed wide receiver Damoun Pat- terson to their practice squad. Patterson spent the preseason with the Pittsburgh Steelers but was waived/in- jured before the regular sea- son.
Butler Says Practice Outburst Came From ‘Love Of The Game’
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jimmy Butler con- firmed the reporting about his intense practice on Wednes- day, adding that it came from his love of the game.
Reports Wednesday said Butler called out teammates, coaches, and executives, chal- lenging them and going as far as to say that the Timber- wolves couldn’t win without him. Butler ultimately con- firmed that much of the re-
JIMMY BUTLER
porting was true and he perhaps should have han- dled things differently, but it was simply the result of his honesty and pas-
sion for a game he hadn’t played in some time.
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