Wednesday Sports in Brief

November 4, 2021 GMT

NFL

GREEN BAY, Wisc. (AP) — Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is in the NFL’s COVID-19 protocol and will miss Sunday’s game at Kansas City.

Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur confirmed Wednesday that Rodgers was in the protocol, but would not say if Rodgers had tested positive nor if the reigning NFL MVP has been vaccinated.

Rodgers is the latest Packers player to deal with the coronavirus. Wide receivers Davante Adams, a 2020 All-Pro, and Allen Lazard missed last week’s victory at Arizona because of COVID-19 protocols.

Green Bay’s backup quarterback is 2020 first-round draft pick Jordan Love, who has thrown seven passes in his short career.

MLB

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey plans to announce his retirement on Thursday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the decision.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday because Posey had yet to make his formal announcement.

The Giants said last month that they would exercise Posey’s $22 million club option for the 2022 season as long as the veteran catcher wanted to keep playing after a stellar year.

Posey hinted during the playoffs he might be done — the seven-time All-Star ready to embrace more family time with four young children at home.

— By Baseball Writer Janie McCauley.

NHL

CHICAGO (AP) — The Hockey Hall of Fame has covered the name of an assistant coach engraved on the Stanley Cup after the assistant was accused of sexually assaulting a player during the Chicago Blackhawks’ run to the 2010 championship.

Brad Aldrich’s name was covered with X’s on Sunday, the same day that the names of the 2020-21 champion Tampa Bay Lightning were added to the Cup, according to the Toronto-based Hall.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Penguins placed star center Sidney Crosby and defenseman Brian Dumoulin in the COVID-19 protocol on Wednesday after both tested positive.

Coach Mike Sullivan said Crosby is dealing with mild symptoms while Dumoulin remains asymptomatic. Crosby’s positive test came less than a week after he made his season debut, missing the opening six games while recovering from left wrist surgery.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Division-leading Minnesota and coach P.J. Fleck agreed Wednesday to a new seven-year contract that lasts through the 2028 season.

Terms of the deal, which is pending approval by the university’s board of regents, weren’t immediately available. Fleck’s base salary this year is $4.65 million, in the middle of the pack for head coaches in the 14-team Big Ten.

Minnesota (6-2, 4-1) landed at No. 20 in the first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings this week after beating Northwestern 41-14 for its fourth straight win.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

The NCAA on Wednesday denied an appeal by Oklahoma State in an infractions case, meaning the Cowboys will be banned from the postseason next spring — a decision that prompted a tearful coach Mike Boynton to declare there is no point in cooperating with the the organization.

Last year, an NCAA infractions committee hit the Cowboys with a one-year postseason ban and other penalties after former assistant coach Lamont Evans accepted up to $22,000 so he could help steer athletes to certain financial advisers. Evans was arrested as part of a federal corruption investigation in 2017, and he pleaded guilty in 2019.

Oklahoma State immediately fired Evans after the arrest, and the school said it has fully cooperated with the NCAA since the beginning. The school felt the NCAA would view Evans as a rogue employee acting on his own.

GOLF

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Bellerive Country Club has been selected to host the Presidents Cup in 2030, making it the seventh American course to host the biennial event.

It adds to the list of big events Bellerive has hosted, from Gary Player completing the career Grand Slam in the 1965 U.S. Open to Nick Price winning his first major at the 1992 PGA Championship.

It most recently held the 2018 PGA Championship when Brooks Koepka held off Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

The Presidents Cup, matches between Americans and international players from outside Europe, will be at Quail Hollow in North Carolina in 2022, followed by Royal Montreal in 2024 and Medinah in the Chicago suburbs in 2026. An overseas site has not been selected for 2028.

AUTO RACING

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit City Council approved a contract Wednesday to return the Detroit Grand Prix downtown from its current home on an island in the middle of the Detroit River.

Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix Inc. told councilmembers in September that it wanted to hold the IndyCar race from 2023 through 2025 on a 1.7-mile track along city streets instead of on Belle Isle.

Next year’s race still will be held in June on the popular island park, east of downtown.

RUNNING

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Marathon will return to a full field of 30,000 for next year’s race — and all runners will need to be fully vaccinated.

The Boston Athletic Association says proof of vaccination with a World Health Organization-certified vaccine will be required to pick up bib numbers before the race on April 18, 2022.

B.A.A. President Tom Grilk said 93% of the athletes in this year’s race were vaccinated.

COURTS

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Former Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was driving at 156 mph with a blood-alcohol content twice Nevada’s legal limit before his sports car slammed into the rear of a vehicle that burned, killing a 23-year-old woman, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Raiders released Ruggs late Tuesday, just hours after the crash and shortly after he was released from a hospital and booked into a Las Vegas jail.

The 22-year-old former first-round NFL draft pick remained seated in a wheelchair with a foam brace on his neck and jail guards at his elbows during his initial court appearance Wednesday on pending felony charges of driving under the influence of alcohol resulting in death and reckless driving.

Court records showed that Ruggs posted a $150,000 bond. His lawyer said he was released from jail Wednesday evening.

OBITUARY

Tom Matte, who spent his entire 12-year NFL career as a gritty running back for the Baltimore Colts — except for a star turn for three games in 1965 as their quarterback — has died. He was 82.

The Baltimore Ravens confirmed Matte’s death during coach John Harbaugh’s news conference Wednesday. No details were provided.

After scoring three touchdowns to carry Baltimore past Cleveland in the 1968 NFL championship game, Matte became the first player to top the 100-yard rushing mark in a Super Bowl, totaling 116 yards in a huge upset loss to Joe Namath and the New York Jets. He earned a championship ring with the 1970 Colts.

He rushed for 4,646 yards, caught 249 passes for 2,869 yards and scored 57 touchdowns and spent most of his time with the Colts operating in the shadow of future Hall of Famers Johnny Unitas, Lenny Moore, Raymond Berry and John Mackey.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jane Brown Grimes, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame for contributions to the sport as an executive who held roles at the U.S. Tennis Association, the precursor to the WTA Tour and the Hall itself, has died at age 80.

The Hall announced Brown Grimes’ death on Wednesday, based on information from her daughter, Serena Larson. The Hall said Brown Grimes passed away at her home in New York City on Tuesday.

Brown Grimes opened a New York development office for the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1977 and was the Rhode Island-based Hall’s Executive Director from 1981-86, then its President and CEO from 1991-2000.

In 1986, she became the Managing Director of the Women’s Professional Tennis Council. She was the Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of the USTA in 2007-08. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014.

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