USA Today - 09.10.2019

E2 USA TODAY z WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019 z SECTION C

MLB playoffs

NLDS Game 5 previews; Nightengale on Yankees 3C

NFL power rankings

All four NFC North teams now in Top 10 4C

Biles nails down US title

Armour: Team title gives gymnast record gold 6C

IN SPORTS

WALKER BUEHLER BY GARY A. VASQUEZ/USA TODAY SPORTS

FIRST WORD

The football that I
know and love brings
people together and
embraces differences.
Black, white, brown,
Catholic, Jewish or Muslim.
Rich or poor. Rural or urban.
Republican or Democrat.
Long hair, short hair ... no
hair. They’re all in that
locker room together.”

Penn State football coach
James Franklin on Tuesday
with a rebuke of an apparent
racist letter from an alumnus
written to Nittany Lions safety
Jonathan Sutherland complain-
ing about the sophomore’s
“disgusting” dreadlocks and
tattoos. The Johnstown
(Pennsylvania) Tribune-
Democrat tracked down the
letter writer, who said he is a
1966 Penn State graduateand
“would just like to see the
coaches get the guys cleaned
up and not looking like Florida
State and Miami guys.”

HIRED

Former Patriots tight end Rob

Gronkowski by Fox Sports as an

analyst. He will make his debut

on “Fox NFL” on Thursday as

part of the coverage of the

Giants-Patriots game.

FILED

A lawsuit against Florida

prosecutors by lawyers for

Patriots owner Robert Kraft,

who is accused of receiving sex

acts for money at a Jupiter spa.

The filing alleges prosecutors

haven’t turned over certain

records related to the case,

arguing State Attorney Dave

Aronberg, his office and an

assistant state attorney

“knowingly and willfully ne-

glected their statutory duties

under the Public Records Act.”

Kraft, 78, and a number of

other men are accused of

paying for sex services at

Orchids of Asia Day Spa.

LAST WORD

Dad didn’t have it high

and tight. That’s why

the guy knocked it out.”

Cooper Witten, son of Cow-

boys tight end Jason Witten, to

his mother, Michelle, about his

father’s fumble in a 12-10 loss

Sept. 29 at New Orleans. Jason

relayed the story to USA

TODAY’s Jori Epstein.

SPORTS WEEKLY

We preview Oklahoma-Texas,

Penn State-Iowa, Florida-LSU

and other college football

games. Plus, Week 6 NFL pre-

views and picks. In baseball,

last season’s postseason failure

fuels the Yankees’ Gleyber

Torres. Available on news-

stands. Subscribe at mysports

weekly.com or 800-872-1415.

The digital edition is available

in the Apple, Google Play and

Amazon Kindle stores.

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When NBA commissioner

Adam Silver went to the podi-

um in Tokyo on Tuesday to

answer questions about the

international crisis his league

has found itself in the middle

of, he had already made an

important choice.

Instead of continuing ac-

quiescence to Chinese politi-

cal sensitives that were

stirred over a since-deleted

tweet from Rockets general

manager Daryl Morey in sup-

port of protests in Hong Kong,

Silver put his league’s highly

lucrative relationship with a

country of 1.4 billion potential

customers on the block and all

but told China to deal with it.

“The long-held values of

the NBA are to support free-

dom of expression and cer-

tainly freedom of expression

by members of the NBA com-

munity, and in this case, Daryl

Morey as the general manager

of the Houston Rockets enjoys

that right as one of our em-

ployees,” Silver said. “What I

also tried to suggest is I un-

derstand there are conse-

quences from that exercise of,

in essence, his freedom of

speech and we’ll have to live

with those consequences. It’s

our hope that for our Chinese

fans and our partners in Chi-

na they’ll see those remarks in

the context of now a three-

decade if not longer relation-

ship.”

It’s hard to know at this

stage whether Silver changed

course as a result of the back-

lash to the NBA’s initial

squishiness or whether he

had come to the realization

over the course of the previ-

ous 24 hours that no amount

of groveling was going to sat-

isfy the interests that have

See WOLKEN, Page 2C

Dan Wolken

Columnist

USA TODAY

NBA has

limits in

making

nice

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – If
you were one of the naysayers,
a prognosticator or just a plain
non-believer who didn’t see
this particular collection of
49ers amounting to much,
Richard Sherman is speaking to
you.

In other words, there’s no

more room on the 49ers’ band-

wagon, though their season is

just a quarter of the way

through. And there’s nobody

better than Sherman to make

that point clear.

After San Francisco (4-0)

put a fresh layer of kick-butt on

the Browns in prime time – the

49ers rushed for 275 yards,

threw effectively enough, suf-

49ers cornerback Richard Sherman encourages the home crowd before a play Monday against the Browns at Levi’s Stadium.
CARY EDMONDSON/USA TODAY SPORTS

Sherman calls out ‘idiots’

after 49ers’ 4-0 start

See BELL, Page 2C

Jarrett Bell

Columnist

USA TODAY

“You want idiots to sound

like idiots,” Sherman said after

a 31-3 win over Cleveland Mon-

day night. “You want them to

hold that position the same

year. Don’t flip-flop with us. If

you said we weren’t going to

make it, that we were some way

early on, stick with that posi-

tion. Hold it. Don’t try to give us

credit now. If you had us going

3-and-whatever, stick to your

word, because I want you to

sound like an idiot at the end.”

“If you had us going

3-and-whatever,

stick to your word,

because I want you to

sound like an idiot at

the end.”

Richard Sherman

49ers linebacker