February 11, 2022 4:00 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – If Aaron Rodgers elects to retire before training, he’s going out as the NFL’s reigning Most Valuable Player. The Green Bay Packers quarterback is the MVP for the fourth time in his career, becoming just the fifth player to earn the honor in consecutive seasons. Rodgers earned 39 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the NFL. Rodgers said at the NFL Honors that he hasn’t made up his mind about retirement.
In other AP awards: Steelers edge rusher TJ Watt is the Defensive Player of the Year. Watt tied the NFL sacks record with 22 1/2 and joined older brother J.J. in taking the award.
– Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp got one vote for MVP, but he easily took top offensive player honors. Kupp led the NFL with 138 receptions, 1,829 yards receiving and 15 touchdown catches while leading Los Angeles to the NFC West title.
– Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase has won the Offensive Rookie of the Year award. Chase had 81 receptions for 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns during the regular season before helping Cincinnati earn its first Super Bowl berth in 33 years.
February 10, 2022 3:48 am
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Ithiel Horton scored 24 points, shooting 7 for 13 from 3-point range, and Pittsburgh beat a diminished Florida State squad 56-51 to end its four-game skid. It was the Panthers’ first road win in the ACC since a 63-60 victory over Syracuse on Jan. 6, 2021. Horton made eight of Pitt’s 18 field goals and seven of the team’s eight 3s. The Panthers never trailed in the second half. On the defensive end, Mouhamadou Gueye tied a career-high with eight blocked shots. Caleb Mills scored 19 points for Florida State which shot 16 for 56.
February 10, 2022 3:55 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Boston Bruins star Brad Marchand was suspended six games by the NHL on Wednesday night for roughing and high-sticking Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry the previous day.It is Marchand’s eighth career suspension and second this season. Marchand received a match penalty with 25 seconds to play in the Penguins’ 4-2 win Tuesday night after throwing a punch at Jarry’s head and poking the goaltender’s mask with his stick as a linesman was escorting him away from the fray. Marchand sat for three games for slew-footing a Vancouver player in late November.
February 10, 2022 3:56 am
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Major League Baseball and its locked-out players agreed to resume negotiations Saturday after an 11-day break. The session in New York will follow three days of owners’ meetings in Orlando that end Thursday and three days of players’ association sessions in Arizona and Florida. It will be just the fifth negotiating session on core economics since the lockout started in early December. There is virtually no chance spring training workouts can start as scheduled on Feb. 16, a casualty of baseball’s ninth work stoppage, its first since 1995.
February 9, 2022 3:48 am
BOSTON (AP) – Sidney Crosby scored his 499th career regular-season goal as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied from a two-goal deficit and beat the Boston Bruins 4-2. Danton Heinen scored twice in a 28-second span in the second period, and Crosby added another with 7:07 left in the frame, moving him one goal shy of joining Washington’s Alex Ovechkin as the only active players to score 500 goals in the regular season. Tristan Jarry stopped 43 shots for the Penguins, and Bryan Rust scored into an empty net with 1:29 left in the third as Pittsburgh snapped a four-game winless streak.
February 9, 2022 2:58 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Former Carolina Panthers assistant Frisman Jackson is the new wide receivers coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jackson replaces Ike Hilliard, whose contract was not renewed following an underwhelming season by a wide receiver group that received solid production from Pro Bowler Diontae Johnson but not much else. Frisman spent the last two years with Carolina, coming to the Panthers after a two-year stint at Baylor. He followed then-Baylor head coach Matt Rhule when Rhule made the jump from college to the NFL before the 2020 season.
February 9, 2022 3:50 am
LAS VEGAS (AP) – New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara is accused of punching a man about eight times, badly injuring him in an attack also involving at least three men who were with Kamara at a Las Vegas Strip nightclub. That’s according to a police arrest report made public Tuesday. The alleged victim fell unconscious while police say video shows he was punched, kicked and stomped on more than 20 times early Saturday. Identities of the three other alleged attackers were blacked out in the police report. No other arrests have been made. Kamara played in Sunday’s Pro Bowl game before he was arrested on a felony battery charge.
February 8, 2022 3:54 am
UNDATED (AP) – The Houston Texans are expected to hire Lovie Smith as their head coach, a person familiar with the process told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity because the team had not announced that Smith would be hired. The same source said an official announcement was expected later Monday or Tuesday morning. Smith, who is Black, will be the second minority candidate to be hired this offseason after the Miami Dolphins hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, who is biracial, on Sunday.
February 8, 2022 3:53 am
BEIJING (AP) – Marie-Philip Poulin capped a three-goal run by scoring on a penalty shot with 2:35 left in the second period and Canada upended the defending Olympic champion United States 4-2 to claim the women’s hockey tournament’s top seed entering the playoff round. The two global hockey powers are still expected to meet once more in the gold-medal final next week. Brianne Jenner scored twice, Poulin had a goal and assist and Jamie Lee Rattray also scored for Canada. Alex Carpenter and Dani Cameranesi scored for the Americans. Maddie Rooney stopped 23 shots.
February 8, 2022 3:56 am
UNDATED (AP) – Two people familiar with the sport’s Joint Drug Program tell The Associated Press that Major League Baseball has stopped testing players for steroids for the first time in nearly 20 years due to the expiration of the sport’s drug agreement. When the 2017-21 drug agreement was negotiated, the sides included a provision that states “the termination date and time of the program shall be 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1, 2021.” That matched the expiration of the five-year labor contract.
