April 25, 2020 3:40 am
UNDATED (AP) – The Philadelphia Eagles selected Oklahoma quarterback Jalen Hurts in the second round of the NFL draft and hybrid safety-linebacker Davion Taylor from Colorado in the third round. After taking TCU wide receiver Jalen Reagor with the 21st overall pick in the first round, the Eagles made a stunning move to get Hurts at No. 53. Carson Wentz, who signed a $137 million contract extension last season, is Philadelphia’s starter and there’s no quarterback controversy. Hurts transferred from Alabama to Oklahoma and became a Heisman Trophy finalist last year when he threw for 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns.
April 24, 2020 1:59 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Steelers spent the first round of the NFL draft as spectators. The team traded its first pick in this year’s draft last September for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. He earned All-Pro honors in 2019 thanks to a series of dynamic plays that helped keep the injury-ravaged club in the playoff hunt until the final weeks of the season. Pittsburgh likely won’t be on the clock until the middle of the second round, where it has the 49th overall pick.
April 22, 2020 3:45 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Rob Gronkowski spent nine seasons catching passes from Tom Brady in New England. The two are about to reunite in Tampa Bay. Gronkowski’s agent says the tight end is about to come out of retirement and has accepted a trade to the Buccaneers. The Patriots also would send a seventh-round pick to the Bucs for a fourth-rounder. The deal is pending a physical and would give Brady one of his most dependable pass-catchers. Brady signed a two-year, $50 million contract with the Bucs last month. Gronkowski has caught 521 passes for 7,861 yards and 79 touchdowns in 115 regular-season games. The five-time Pro Bowl selection has another 81 catches for 1,163 yards and 12 TDs in 16 playoff games.
April 22, 2020 2:17 am
You asked. We listened. Due to several requests, we’re adding a daytime broadcast to our Championship Classics through the rest of the month. Now, each featured state championship game will air at 1 pm and again at 7 pm.
Over the past 10 years, WJPA has carried a dozen state championship games involving Washington County high school teams. This month, we’re re-playing those games, just as they aired originally. Every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night through the month of April, we’re opening the championship game archives. Our remaining coverage includes state championship games in softball, hockey and wrestling. Championship Classics are available on WJPA-AM (1450) and online. LISTEN HERE! Here’s the remaining schedule:
Thursday, April 23–2013 Team Tournament Wrestling–Canon-McMillan vs. Central Dauphin
Friday, April 24–2012 Team Tournament Wrestling–Canon-McMillan vs. McDowell
Tuesday, April 28–2010 Softball–Chartiers-Houston vs. Montgomery
Thursday, April 30–2010 Hockey–Canon-McMillan vs. Cardinal O’Hara
April 21, 2020 3:44 am
UNDATED (AP) – Novak Djokovic says he won’t take any anti-coronavirus vaccination if it becomes compulsory for tennis players to return to the world tours. The world’s top-ranked men’s tennis player said in a live Facebook chat he wouldn’t “be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel.” Djokovic and his wife have two children and have spoken previously against vaccinations. Djokovic won the Australian Open in January for his 17th grand slam singles title.
April 19, 2020 8:02 am
An online petition addressed to Tokyo Olympic organizers and the city government has drawn tens of thousands of signatures for permission to occupy the massive Athletes Village going up alongside Tokyo Bay. The village was to be home to 11,000 Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes. It is largely complete and empty with the Olympic opening postponed by the virus outbreak until July 23, 2021.
April 19, 2020 8:01 am
Youth sports leagues are bracing for even bigger financial losses with no end in sight for the shutdown of activity because of the outbreak. Communities with sprawling, empty fields and arenas are losing millions of dollars with lucrative tournaments canceled or postponed. Team sports participation dipped after the 2008 recession, so officials wonder what youth sports will look like when kids begin to return to fields and courts.
April 18, 2020 4:13 am
UNDATED (AP) – Two of college basketball’s young stars have announced they are entering the NBA draft before completing their eligibility.
The list of draftable players now includes consensus All-American and Mountain West Conference Player of the year Malachi Flynn, who will forego his senior season at San Diego State. Flynn became the most decorated player in Aztecs history in his one season at SDSU after transferring from Washington State and sitting out a year. Flynn averaged 17.6 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds this season as the sixth-ranked Aztecs went 30-2. Cole Anthony is entering the NBA draft after just one season at North Carolina. He had been considered a likely one-and-done player and a high first-round draft prospect before his arrival in Chapel Hill. The son of former NBA player Greg Anthony set an ACC freshman record by scoring 34 points in his conference debut and finished the season averaging a team-high 18.5 points for the Tar Heels.
April 17, 2020 3:46 am
UNDATED (AP) – The PGA Tour is laying out an ambitious plan to resume its season, with hopes of a restart at Colonial on June 11-14 and keeping fans away for at least the first month.
Tour officials said Thursday that if government and health authorities give golf the green light, the tour will have an official event every week through Dec. 6 except for the week of Thanksgiving.
The Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, was pushed back a month to June and would be followed by the RBC Heritage, which was postponed this week. The PGA Tour season would conclude with the Tour Championship on Labor Day, and a new season would start the following week (Sept. 10-13) in Napa, California. That would mean only one major – the PGA Championship – is held in this 2019-20 season, and as many as seven majors would apply to the following season. Meanwhile, the Canadian Open was added Thursday to the list of canceled events. The event was scheduled for June 8-14 at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto.
April 16, 2020 3:45 am
UNDATED (AP) – Little League has been benched. The youth baseball program that boasts more than 2.5 million kids spread over 6,500 programs in 84 countries is on hold at least until May 11 due to the corona virus pandemic.á Even that target date for a return to the sports lineup seems optimistic, and the fate of its signature event, the Little League World Series in August in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania is unclear. The LLWS is scheduled to run Aug. 20-30 and any kind of cancellation would stagger the hospitality industry. There is no timetable for a return to play.
