Page 25 - Florida Sentinel 12-25-15 Edition

Sports
Bucs To Face Bears In Final Home Game
Will Smith ‘Concussion’ Battles NFL In Film
Cam Newton's List Of Achievements Keeps Growing
Add a bunch more accolades to Carolina Panthers quarter- back Cam Newton’s list of ac- complishments in 2015.
The Elias Sports Bureau notes that Newton is the first player to have at least 340 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in the same game, and is also the first to have five touch- down passes and 100 rushing yards in the same game. It's the third time this season that he has thrown five touchdown passes.
Newton now has five sea- sons with at least 3,000 pass- ing yards and 500 rushing yards. That’s the most in NFL history.
Newton became the fourth different quarterback to win at least 17 straight regular-season starts in the Super Bowl era.
The 100 rushing yards ele-
CAM NEWTON
vated Newton from 16th all- time in rushing yards by a quarterback to 13th.
Newton has now thrown 19 touchdowns, rushed for two touchdowns and thrown only one interception in his past six games.
JAMEIS WINSTON
DOUG MARTIN
Based On A True Story; Opens Christmas Day
Will Smith plays Dr. Ben- net Omalu, who discovered chronic traumatic en- cephalopathy in the brains of NFL players.
In their final home game of the 2015 season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be hosting the Chicago Bears at Raymond James Stadium.
The Bears will be trying to salvage what’s left of a disap- pointing season, much like the Buccaneers.
The Bucs (6-7) and the Bears (5-8) will both be entering Sunday’s contest hoping to im- prove on both sides of the ball, stay healthy, and finish the season strong in their final games.
For the Bucs, Coach Lovie Smith (Bears former head coach) hopes the 2-game los- ing streak will end for his team as well as penalties that con- tinue to stymie efforts by the team to win games.
For the Bears, their head coach, John Fox, hopes to get better play out his offense and defense, and make sure the Green Bay Packers and Min- nesota Vikings pay attention to
them in third place
The Buccaneer offense aver-
ages 374.2 yards-per-game, with the Bears putting out 350.2 yards-per-game.
If either team decides to fea- ture their running game, the Bucs average almost 30 yards more a game than the Bears, with Bucs running back chart- ing 1,305 yards in 256 carries this season with 5 touchdowns, versus the Bears’ Matt Forte, who has gained 721 yards on 182 carries and scored 4 touchdowns.
If it comes down to the quar- terbacks, Jay Cutler of the Bears has passed for 3,027 yards and 16 touchdowns with Jameis Winston putting up 3,422 yards and 20 touch- downs.
Most observers believe the contest will come down to who makes the fewer mistakes, and who will be willing to sustain a ground attack.
Game time will be 1 p.m.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In one of the most significant scenes in "Concussion," a doctor on the payroll of the NFL meets with Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith), the neuropathologist who discovered chronic trau- matic encephalopathy, or CTE, in the brains of former NFL players who died young.
Omalu, performing autopsies for the county coroner in Pitts- burgh, came on CTE by accident when legendary Steelers center "Iron Mike" Webster ended up on his schedule. He won- dered why Webster – and, later, other players -- had spi- raled into mental illness, home- lessness, chaos and desperation.
In the scene, Omalu wants the NFL to take responsibility for the long-term health of its players, whose job description includes sustaining hundreds of blows to their heads, and to make changes to ensure their safety.
The NFL – to no one's sur- prise but Omalu's – does not see it his way. The doctors deny Omalu's findings and attack his credibility, though it's clear (at least in the movie) that they and the NFL know very well that he's right.
"Tell the truth," Omalu pleads with the doctor (shrewdly played by Arliss Howard), who responds with an appalling twist on the "think of the children" cliche.
"If 10 percent of mothers in this country begin to see football as a dangerous sport," he tells Omalu, "that is the end of foot- ball."
Smith is terrific as Omalu, a Nigerian immigrant who is both an outsider and something of an oddball, given to making blunt observations that other people might think but would never actually say.
Smith deploys a musical ac- cent and a formal bearing to soften that oddball factor into a funny charm. His Omalu is a quiet, arrogant man of deep moral and religious convictions, an immigrant who loves Amer- ica and all it stands for, but who has not quite caught on to American social cues and be- haviors.
The movie opens Christmas Day.
Russell Wilson Throws Three TDs As Seahawks Clinch Playoff Berth
SEATTLE -- When the Seat- tle Seahawks were 2-4 and the offense was struggling to find its rhythm, quarterback Rus- sell Wilson thought they were close to putting it all to- gether.
Turns out he was right. Wilson continued one of the hottest stretches in NFL his- tory Sunday, completing 21 of 30 passes for 249 yards and three touchdowns. The Sea- hawks'30-13 victory over the Cleveland Browns, combined with the New York Giants' loss to the Carolina Panthers, means Seattle is headed back to the postseason for the fourth
straight season.
And Wilson is the No. 1 rea-
RUSSELL WILSON
son why. In the past five games, he has completed 74.3 percent of his attempts, aver- aged 9.6 yards per attempt and tossed 19 touchdowns without an interception.
Panthers Win Again!: Josh Norman Calls Out Giants Star Beckham
Beckham Suspended For One Game
A Carolina Panthers practice squad player carried a black baseball bat onto the field in pregame warm-ups Sunday and was motioning with it to- ward Odell Beckham Jr. while making comments to the New York Giants receiver.
Beckham, according to an- other source, felt threatened, and it helped put him in a cer- tain state of mind for a game in which he was penalized three times for unnecessary roughness, including a hel- met-to-helmet hit on Panthers cornerback Josh Norman.
The pregame incident could provide context to what pre- cipitated Beckham's actions during the game, for which the receiver had been widely criti- cized. Beckham was sus- pended by the NFL for one game Monday.
The source identified the practice squad player as Mar- cus Ball. Norman later
ODELL BECKHAM JR.
grabbed the bat but didn't en- gage in pregame words with Beckham and never mo- tioned it toward the receiver, according to the source. An NFL Films camera captured images of Norman holding the bat.
The Panthers have carried bats onto the field during pregame warm-ups through- out the season. The bats are meant to symbolize home-run plays and "bringing the wood."
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Josh Norman learned a lot about Odell Beckham Jr. during their showdown on Sunday.
Norman, one of the top cor- nerbacks in the league, had strong words for Beckham Jr. following Carolina’s 38-35 win on Sunday against the New York Giants at MetLife Sta- dium.
“He’s out here dancing around, prancing around like he’s a ballerina ... " Norman said. "That goes to show you the type of player he is. The maturity level on him is just [like] a little kid.
Shortly after the game started, Beckham Jr. beat Norman on a deep route, but dropped the sure touchdown, stunning the crowd and setting the tone for the rest of the half.
After the initial drop, Nor- man played physical against Beckham, holding him to zero catches on two targets in the first half. It was the first time in Beckham's NFL ca- reer that he was held without a reception in the first half.
The battle between the two
Odell Beckham Jr., goes after Josh Norman during Sunday’s game.
culminated in the third quar- ter, with Beckham and Nor- man each getting whistled for two unnecessary roughness penalties on the same drive.
With just over three minutes to play the frustrated Beck- ham launched himself, helmet first, into Norman, leading to a scuffle between the two teams and offsetting flags.
“The guy took a shot at me,” Norman said. “I know you’re rattled, and that’s cool. If that’s not your game, don’t play somebody else’s.’’
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