MONDAY, AUGUST 3 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU D3
the athletes to stay lockstep on
their demands for the next six
months.”
If the conference responded by
punting the college football sea-
son to spring, effectively chal-
lenging players to stay resolved
for six months while the pandem-
ic presumably abated, Huma said,
the players would rise to that
challenge. The past few months
have reminded these athletes of
their power, and the pandemic
has highlighted the importance
of voicing their concerns.
“You have college football play-
ers, most of whom are players of
color, really being put on the front
lines in a football season to make
money that they’ll never see,
without even proper protections,”
Huma said. “They want to play,
but they want to play in an envi-
ronment where everything is be-
ing done to keep them as safe as
possible and where they’re treat-
ed fairly.”
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]plans, we are, and always will be,
directed by medical experts, with
the health, safety and well being
of our student athletes, coaches
and staff always the first priority.”
Ricky Volante, the chief execu-
tive and co-founder of the Profes-
sional Collegiate League, which
wants to become an alternative to
the NCAA, said his organization
consulted with Stanford corner-
back TreyJohn Butler and offered
input to the group.
Volante said players in larger
numbers than ever before are
coming to terms with what he
described as a power imbalance.
Volante said he didn’t believe the
conference would ask the com-
missioner, administrators or
coaches to take a pay cut or give
up bonuses, describing those de-
mands as “incredibly naive.” He
suggested the Pac-12 may post-
pone the season until the spring
as a challenge to the players who
organized the group.
“That would take the sting out
of what happened,” Volante said.
“They would essentially be daringing a civic-engagement task force
and a Pac-12 Black college athlete
summit. They ask that 2 percent
of conference revenue go toward
financial aid for low-income
Black students and other commu-
nity initiatives.
The athletes are seeking medi-
cal insurance for sports-related
conditions, including those that
result from the coronavirus, that
lasts six years after the end of
their college eligibility. The play-
ers want the conference to dis-
tribute 50 percent of its revenue
generated by each sport to the
athletes. Huma noted this would
not lead to any Title IX issues
because the Pac-12 is a private
entity.
The Pac-12 Conference has yet
to hear from the group about
these demands and said in a state-
ment: “We support our student-
athletes using their voice, and
have regular communications
with our student-athletes at many
different levels on a range of top-
ics. As we have clearly stated with
respect to our fall competitionunpaid athletes was painfully
stark.
“We realized that all of the
issues — racial injustice, covid-19
and economic justice — were the
same thing, and we wanted to
think about a blueprint to address
what college sports might look
like,” Cooper said.
Athletes from across the Pac-12
collaborated in a GroupMe chat
that began a month ago with just
a dozen players. It allowed them
to connect with one another
through social media and orga-
nize.
“We didn’t really know exactly
what we wanted to get out of this,”
said Cody Shear, an offensive line-
man at Arizona State. “But we
knew that we had the same mor-
als and that we wanted to make a
statement on behalf of the college
football players.”
The players’ demands include a
reduction of excessive spending
on facilities and the salaries of
coaches and conference leaders.
The players want the Pac-12 to
address racial injustice by form-ported Saturday that, while an
MLB investigation found some
Marlins did visit bars in Atlanta, it
probably didn’t cause the out-
break. The Cardinals, experienc-
ing a smaller outbreak, have
many questioning their recent
whereabouts on social media.
“I think it’s like incredible how
people are just like looking to find
this answer, as if to create this
blame game,” Cardinals President
John Mozeliak said in a Zoom call
with reporters Saturday. “And so I
find that rather sickening and
annoying. We’re in the pandemic.
The likelihood of where someone
could have gotten this could be
anywhere from a grocery store to
a bar and everywhere in between.
But trying to determine that I
don’t think is very helpful.”
“Honestly, only the person that
tested positive knows what trans-
pired. I can’t comment on that,”
Nationals Manager Dave Marti-
nez said Saturday of the stigma
attached to players testing posi-
tive. “What I do know is we’re
doing everything we can in our
power to keep everybody healthy.
We’ve done well. We really have.”
On one hand, there’s evidence
around baseball of some poor and
expected decisions. On the other,
there’s the reality that a virus can
be contracted in many ways. Soto
saying “it is out there” was a nod
to the latter. He was back in action
Sunday, hoping to return by the
middle of this week. After Soto
made a catch in front of the w all,
Adam Eaton offered this narra-
tion from the dugout: “Ladies and
gentlemen, he does it all.”
And if you ask Soto, that in-
cludes adhering to baseball’s
2020 honor code.
[email protected]FROM NEWS SERVICES
AND STAFF REPORTSPhiladelphia Eagles Coach
Doug Pederson tested positive for
the novel coronavirus, the team
said Sunday night.
The Eagles confirmed Peder-
son’s positive test in a written
announcement and said he is
asymptomatic and “doing well.”
Pederson is in quarantine and is
in touch with members of the
team’s medical staff, according
the Eagles.
The team said it is following
the protocols established by the
NFL and the NFL Players Associ-
ation. Those testing protocols
and treatment procedures apply
to coaches and certain team staff
members as well as to players.
“Any individuals in close con-
tact with Pederson at our facility
have been notified and will con-
tinue with daily testing proce-
dures and compliance with all
protocols before returning to the
facility,” the Eagles said.
Pederson, 52, is entering his
fifth season as the team’s head
coach. The former NFL quarter-
back coached the Eagles to a
Super Bowl title in the 20 17
season. He is the second NFL
head coach known to have tested
positive for the coronavirus. New
Orleans Saints Coach Sean Pay-
ton disclosed in March that he
tested positive. He said soon
thereafter that he had recovered.
— Mark Maske
l GIANTS: Defensive tackle
Leonard Williams was designat-
ed with a non-football injury.
Williams was acquired from
the New York Jets in October for
two draft picks. He h as 17.5 sacks
in five seasons but finished with a
career-low half-sack last year. Hewas the No. 6 overall pick in the
2015 draft by the Jets.
l PATRIOTS: Wide receiver
Marqise Lee and tight end Matt
LaCosse joined a list of six other
New England players who have
declared their intentions to sit
out this season.
l PACKERS: General Manager
Brian Gutekunst said Devin
Funchess’s decision to opt out of
this season isn’t necessarily caus-
ing Green Bay to get more aggres-
sive in seeking help at the wide
receiver position.
“I wouldn’t say we’re any more
active than we ever have been in
looking for help at any position,”
Gutekunst said Sunday in a Zoom
session with reporters.
l BROWNS: Wide receiver
Jarvis Landry was placed on the
active/physically unable to per-
form list following offseason hip
surgery.The team made the roster
move Sunday while stressing that
Landry remains on schedule to
return this season. Landry, who
has not missed a game during six
NFL seasons with Miami and
Cleveland, has said he expects to
be back on the field sometime in
August.
Landry, 27, had surgery in Feb-
ruary and played through a pain-
ful condition last season, when he
finished with 83 receptions for
1,174 yards and six touchdowns.l (^) JETS: New York released
right guard Brian Winters.
The Jets will save $7.28 million
— Winters’s entire salary due this
season — on the salary cap. Win-
ters, 29, was the Jets’ longest-ten-
ured player and had been mostly
a solid starter for New York,
which drafted him in the third
round out of Kent State in 2013.
— Associated Press
NFL NOTES
Eagles’ Pederson tests positive for coronavirus
and teammates. Those close to
Soto say he was frustrated by how
the public could perceive his posi-
tive test result. He didn’t want to
be seen as reckless or immature,
contracting the virus at a b ar or
restaurant in the hours between
games. He w as hellbent on clear-
ing his name, regardless of
whether anyone was judging him.
This week, as the Miami Mar-
lins dealt with a coronavirus out-
break, it was revealed that some
players may have been too lax
during a road trip to Atlanta,
going to clubs and a hotel bar. On
Saturday, as Soto returned, Com-
missioner Rob Manfred issued a
pointed statement through ESPN
that angered a handful of Nation-
als. Manfred’s message was that if
this season doesn’t work, it will be
the players’ fault.
It was then worth weighing
that against Soto’s comments as
the left fielder insisted he did
nothing “wrong.”
“We are playing. The players
need to be better, but I am not a
quitter in general, and there is no
reason to quit now,” Manfred said
through ESPN on Saturday, re-
sponding to doubt about whether
the season could continue amid a
rash of cancellations. “We have
had to be fluid, but it is manage-
able.”
“Because I’ve been following
the rules, I’ve been being really
serious with this because it is out
there,” Soto said of why he thinks
it was a false positive. Then, on a
Zoom interview with a group of
reporters, he shrugged off caring
about what people think: “But for
me, they can look at me however
they want. I’m going to be the
same guy.”
Once MLB and the players’
union agreed to health and safety
protocols in June, an obvious flaw
was highlighted. There were
113 pages of guidelines, rule
changes and directions for such
things as how to safely go to the
bathroom on planes. But rules for
conduct away from club facility’s
were thin, murky and framed as
strong suggestions.
This was always going to be the
challenge of not playing inside a
bubble. Players never would have
agreed to completely restrictive
policies. The overall plan was
signed by MLB and the union,
which means praise or blame
should be doled out to both par-
ties. The players, though, will face
the public litigation when coro-
navirus cases pop up.
That’s what Soto braced for in
late July. It’s what the Marlins and
St. Louis Cardinals are experienc-
ing firsthand. The Athletic re-
SOTO FROM D1
Back with Nats, Soto says
he received false positive
NATIONALS ON DECK
vs. New York Mets
Tuesday7:05 MASN2
Wednesday6:05 MASN2
vs. Baltimore Orioles
Friday6:05 MASN,
MASN2
Saturday6:05 MASN,
MASN2
Sunday12:35 MASN,
M ASN2
at New York Mets
Aug. 10 7:10 MASN
Aug. 11 7:10 MASN
Aug. 12 7:10 MASN
Aug. 13 1:10 MASN
Radio: WJFK (106.7 FM)
BY JON MEOLI
baltimore — When the Balti-
more Orioles last swept a series, at
the end of August 2018, it seemed
that competitive baseball in what
normally counts as baseball’s dog
days might never come back.
Two years of abundant losing
since make it hard to believe this
Orioles team, which just swept the
Tampa Bay Rays over three games
at Camden Yards thanks to a 5-1
win Sunda y, is going to change
that ahead of schedule.
But the way the Orioles (5-3) are
playing in the first week-plus of
their season, with the novel coro-
navirus pandemic serving as an
ominous background, makes it
tempting to think otherwise.
Renato Núñez’s second home
run in as many days gave them a
1-0 lead in the first inning. Tommy
Milone, more than a week after his
disappointing Opening Day start,
rebounded to strike out eight in
five scoreless innings before al-
lowing a game-tying home run on
the first batter of the sixth.
Once he left, the bullpen held,
and the hitters did the rest. Cedric
Mullins bunted his way on to lead
off the inning and stole second
before scoring on a double by Han-
ser Alberto. Núñez singled and
scored Alberto, and José Iglesias
doubled to score Núñez.
Pat Valaika homered in the
eighth inning to extend the lead to
5-1, and Cole Sulser finished off his
second six-out save in a week.
— Baltimore Sun
Orioles finish o≠ Tampa Bay
to cap first sweep since 2018
ORIOLES 5,
RAYS 1
calls, but he looks at the rewards
over the obstacles. He feels a
deeper connection has been
established with this team. He tells
stories of heartfelt conversations
about heavy topics such as racial
inequality and Zoom moments
that might have been more
powerful than in-person
interactions.
Carroll keeps thinking about his
players’ faces on that computer
screen and how clearly he could
see them.
“You never would have thought
that this medium would have done
some good here, but there’s
something about the fact that a
guy is sitting in front of the screen
and his face is on the screen and
everybody’s looking at him and
he’s telling us what he thinks and
feels,” Carroll said. “I’ve thought
about this a number of times: It’s
different than being in a room
together when you’re sitting with
guys behind you and you can’t see
them. This is one on one, and
you’re showing us exactly who you
are. It’s just been an amazing
time.”
Coaching ball is messy. But the
same has been said about
democracy. There is no painless
way to operate. But there is a
human way, a w ay Carroll and the
Seahawks exemplify.
It has helped the franchise
maintain a winning record for
eight straight seasons. Wonder
what it could do, at a h igher level,
for a nation desperate for vision
and unity.
[email protected]
For more by Jerry Brewer, visit
washingtonpost.com/brewer.
that end?”
Make no mistake, Carroll is
teaching football. And he loves
simply coaching ball. But he is also
the student who, at the University
of the Pacific, studied Abraham
Maslow’s self-actualization
theories for his master’s thesis.
Through football, Carroll is
applying a lifetime of loose
thoughts and natural instincts.
His relationship with Gervais
gives shape to his intuitive
methods.
Carroll’s philosophies are
rooted in humanistic psychology.
He considers competition the
central theme of his program, but
really, it’s humanness. He wins
from the inside out: The players
shape his strategy. By NFL
standards, his tactics are simple,
but the intricacies and layers come
from the kind of talent he and
General Manager John Schneider
seek: often unconventional, with
an eye toward outstanding, uber-
specific traits over bodies of work.
Some moments can be nasty
and confrontational, managing
egos and keeping a strong-minded
team united through turbulence.
After a leg injury in his final game
with Seattle, Thomas flipped the
bird at Carroll as he was carted off
the field. Sherman has had
pointed words for his coach since
he le ft for the San Francisco 49ers.
Many of these endings are ugly,
but Carroll doesn’t change. And he
keeps winning.
Ask Carroll about a bizarre
offseason of social distancing, and
he keeps using “rich” to describe
the experience. Like all NFL
coaches, he had to teach an entire
offseason program via Zoom video
QUINN HARRIS/GETTY IMAGES
“We’re looking at who you are,” said S eahawks Coach Pete Carroll,
who adapts to the tune of e ight consecutive winning seasons.
to us, we’re looking at who you are,
and in that environment, it
becomes rich in exchange. And I
think rich in the sense that people
do care about you. In that, you
wind up breaking down some
barriers, and you’re more open to
be part of the team and connected,
and I think we can connect deeper
in that regard.”
Do you see how it applies to
society at larg e? Wouldn’t it be
wonderful if we paused during
tense moments, took an extra look
at a p erson and simply saw a
human being? What if we
celebrated all the textures of our
humanity instead of giving all the
power to symbols, statues and
rigid beliefs?
Would wearing a mask and
avoiding large gatherings feel like
such a hassle if we trusted that our
leaders could juggle our personal
best interests and the greater
good?
The ability to persevere cannot
be assumed or forced. It must be
inspired. And it must be nurtured.
For all of their individuality, the
Seahawks have fought long and
hard together — Bill Belichick
once marveled at their knack for
doing so — because their coach
believes so much in human
connection.
“It’s about being vulnerable to
each other,” Baldwin, a retired
wide receiver, once explained to
me. “You have this team of alpha
males with chips on their
shoulders, and it’s easy to let pride,
ego or whatever get in the way. But
when you’re vulnerable to each
other, it opens up the
communication. You’re free to be
honest. You have fun again. You
appreciate that you can’t do this
alone and that you wouldn’t want
to do this with any other group of
men. The enthusiasm takes you
back to your strengths, and it all
comes from recognizing that being
vulnerable isn’t a w eakness. It’s
human.”
Carroll and Michael Gervais, a
high-performance psychologist
who works with the Seahawks, co-
founded the business Compete to
Create seven years ago, aiming to
help people and organizations
function at their best. Their latest
venture is the Audible Original
“Compete to Create: An Approach
to Living and Leading
Authentically,” which details a lot
of Carroll’s approach.
“It’s a working laboratory,”
Gervais said of the Seahawks’
work culture. “What would
happen if a world-class coach was
able to create an environment
where people could do their very
best work and it was a resource to
help them train their mind toward
We, the people of
the pandemic-
bungling United
States, are being
mocked as too
independent and
selfish to sacrifice
for each other. Our
love of
individualism is warring with a
mission that requires collectivism.
Most concerning is that our
perseverance, once an
unquestioned virtue, has turned
languid.
If America needs to be a better
team, perhaps Pete Carroll is the
ideal coach. No leader in the sports
realm weaves individuality into a
group culture and stimulates
tenacity as triumphantly as
Carroll. For the past 20 years,
Carroll, 68, has navigated those
complicated dimensions to create
an exceptional dynamic, first
during a career-boosting run at
Southern California and now with
the Seattle Seahawks.
He wins not with Belichick-ian
strategy and rigid leadership.
Carroll’s superpower is that he is
all over the place and comfortable
being that way. Such agility
enables him to be a shape-shifter, a
coach who prefers to customize
himself to tap into the diverse
personalities and talents of his
roster.
During the Seahawks’ back-to-
back Super Bowl runs five years
ago, the concept was celebrated.
Carroll’s style allowed Marshawn
Lynch to be both an enigma and a
dependable driving force. He
unleashed big personalities such
as Richard Sherman, Michael
Bennett, Earl Thomas and Doug
Baldwin. He helped a 5-foot-11
quarterback named Russell
Wilson grow into a superstar and
gave middle linebacker Bobby
Wagner the freedom to find his
voice on a defense full of big
mouths. Those Seahawks were the
craziest chemistry experiment in
sports, and they won for a long
time even though the potential for
combustibility was always evident.
Then, when age and ego forced
them to break up, Carroll adjusted
a little but kept the same
humanistic approach, and the
Seahawks rebuilt themselves
without suffering a l osing season.
“It may look different than how
other guys look at it, maybe
because of the way we embrace the
individual and how we celebrate
the uniqueness of what somebody
offers to our program,” Carroll said
in a recent interview. “It doesn’t
matter where you come from or
what’s your color or your
background, your religion. None
of that stuff matters. Once you get
To Carroll, his Seahawks
are more than just players
Jerry
Brewer
pandemic, Huma directed them
to Andrew Cooper, a graduate
student and member of Cal’s
cross-country team. Cooper
helped compose a letter to the
NCAA this year urging it to for-
give a year of eligibility for ath-
letes who had lost their spring
seasons because of the pandemic,
and he became part of the discus-
sions that resulted in Sunday’s
statement.
Initially, the three Cal athletes
spoke about covid-19, the disease
caused by the coronavirus, but
the discussions quickly became
more wide-ranging. They saw col-
lege athletes who wanted to play a
role in the conversations and pro-
tests about racial injustice. With-
in the athletic department, Coo-
per said, the financial divide be-
tween millionaire coaches and
which saw numerous college ath-
letes raise their voices against
police brutality in recent months,
and the coronavirus pandemic
combined to create the impetus
for a rebellion unlike any in col-
lege football history.
“Business as usual in college
sports is very abusive,” Huma
said. “That combined with a pan-
demic is a total disaster. NCAA
sports has failed. And with play-
ers, I think there’s just some des-
peration. They’re really con-
cerned about their health and
safety.”
When California at Berkeley
players Valentino Daltoso and
Jake Curhan spoke with Huma
about their concerns returning to
campus to play football during a
PAC-12 FROM D1
Pac-12 players threaten
boycott, make demands