D2 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022
AUTO RACING
Allmendinger scores
Xfinity win in Austin
AJ Allmendinger and Kaulig
Racing scored their first victory of
the season Saturday in the
NASCAR Xfinity Series race at
Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
I t was Allmendinger’s first win
through six races this season and
first for Kaulig, which dominated
the Xfinity Series last year and
this year has added two Cup
Series cars to its program.
Austin Hill finished second for
Richard Childress Racing to give
Chevrolet a one-two sweep.
Kaulig and RCR have a technical
alliance.
Cole Custer finished third in a
Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing and
was followed by seven more
Chevrolet drivers as General
Motors dominated the r ace on the
permanent road course.
Allmendinger led 27 of the 46
laps.
Earlier, Zane Smith inherited
the Truck Series win at Circuit of
the Americas w hen a three-wide
move for the lead went awry and
Smith sailed past his rivals for the
victory in double overtime.
It was Smith’s fifth career
victory and second through four
races this season....
S ergio Perez won the first pole
of his career for Sunday’s Saudi
Arabian Grand Prix in Jiddah.
Perez of Red Bull surged to the
top of the chart for the first time
in 215 F ormula One races with a
late push to edge Ferrari
teammates Charles Leclerc and
Carlos Sainz Jr.
Lewis Hamilton, winner of a
record 103 pole positions, had his
worst qualifying session since
2017, winding up 16th. H e m oved
up to 15th after Mick
Schumacher crashed and was
ruled out of Sunday’s race.
Schumacher, s on of seven-time
champion Michael Schumacher,
mangled his car with a hard hit
into the concrete barrier. He was
flown by helicopter to a hospital
for an evaluation before
returning to his hotel.
PRO FOOTBALL
The Kansas City Chiefs signed
Ronald Jones II to a one-year
contract, adding d epth behind
Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the
running back room.
Jones, a second-round pick of
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in
2018, started 25 g ames over his
first four seasons in the NFL. He
carried 192 times for 978 yards
and seven touchdowns in the
2020 regular season, then helped
Tampa Bay defeat Kansas City in
the Super Bowl....
T he New York Jets signed
former Dallas Cowboys and Los
Angeles Rams kicker Greg
Zuerlein to a one-year deal worth
up to $2.75 million.
Zuerlein, 34, h as one of the
strongest kicking legs in the
league and is a former all-pro.
F or his career, Zeurlein has
made 82.2 percent of his field goal
attempts.TENNIS
Top-seeded Daniil Medvedev
opened his bid to reclaim the
No. 1 ranking by topping Andy
Murray, 6-4, 6-2, in the second
round of the Miami Open in
Miami Gardens, Fla.
M edvedev, who n ever faced a
break point, can regain the No. 1
spot by making the Miami
semifinals.COLLEGES
Connor Shellenberger netted
three goals and added two assists
to lead the N o. 3 Virginia m en’s
lacrosse team (7-1) to a 12-8
victory over No. 10 Notre Dame
(2-4) in Charlottesville....
In Bethlehem, Pa., Dylan
Watson scored five goals to spark
No. 5 Georgetown (6-2) to a 14-11
men’s lacrosse victory over No. 19
Lehigh (4-3)....
Isabella Peterson scored five
goals to lead No. 15 James
Madison (6-4) to a 13-8 women’s
lacrosse upset of No. 3 Maryland
in College Park.
Libby May and Hannah
Leubecker scored three goals
apiece for the Terrapins (8-1)....
Ashlyn McGovern and Rachel
Clark recorded hat tricks as
No. 16 Virginia (6-6, 2-3 ACC)
posted a 12-11 w omen’s lacrosse
victory at Louisville (5-6, 1-4)....
Reagan Roelofs and Charlotte
Ryan netted three goals each as
No. 17 Navy (8-2, 2-0 Patriot
League) notched an 11-7 women’s
lacrosse win against Lehigh (3-6,
0-2) in Annapolis....
Syracuse h ired Felisha
Legette-Jack as head coach of the
women’s basketball program.
L egette-Jack, 55, h as been head
coach at Buffalo for a decade. She
will take over from interim Vonn
Read and inherits a p rogram that
finished 11-18 overall and 4-14 in
the ACC....
Georgia hired Central Florida’s
Katie Abrahamson-Henderson,
making her just the third full-
time head coach in the history of
the women’s basketball team.
Abrahamson-Henderson, who
played two seasons at Georgia in
the 1980s, was hired just three
days after Joni Taylor left for the
coaching job at Texas A&M.
Abrahamson-Henderson also
has been a head coach at Albany
and Missouri State....
Joe Williams, who coached
Artis Gilmore and Jacksonville
University to the 1970 NCAA
tournament championship game,
died Saturday. He was 88.
Williams, who also coached at
Furman and Florida State, died in
Enterprise, Miss., after a lengthy
battle with cancer, son Joe
Williams Jr. said.
The Dolphins and the 7-foot-2
Gilmore lost, 80-69, to UCLA in
the middle of Bruins coach John
Wooden’s dynasty.
— From news services
and staff reportsDIGEST
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BY MARK MASKE
The chairman of the NFL’s
competition committee said Fri-
day that there is “a lot of momen-
tum” within the league for chang-
ing the overtime format.
But Rich McKay, also the presi-
dent of the Atlanta Falcons, ac-
knowledged that summoning the
support necessary for an over-
time modification to actually be
enacted “is not easy to get.”
NFL owners will consider two
overtime-related proposals at the
annual league meetings in Palm
Beach, Fla., beginning Sunday.
“I think there’s a lot of momen-
tum to have a change,” McKay
said Friday in a conference call
with reporters. “I think the dis-
cussion is going to be around...
these two proposals. The reason
that we didn’t as a committee put
one forward is because we felt
like with these two proposals,
there’s going to be the potential
for an amendment on the floor if
somebody wants to change either
one of these. And these encom-
pass, really, the major discussion,
which is: Should both teams beguaranteed a possession?”
One proposal, made by the
Indianapolis Colts and Philadel-
phia Eagles, would guarantee
each team at least one offensive
possession in overtime. The oth-
er, made by the Tennessee Titans,
would require a team to get a
two-point conversion following a
touchdown to win the game on
the opening possession of over-
time.
Any rule change must be rati-
fied by at least 24 of the 32 teams.
The proposals cover both regular
season and postseason games.
But there could be consideration
during the Palm Beach meeting,
McKay said, of making a postsea-
son-only change.
“I think that will get discussed
by some teams because I’ve heard
it discussed, as opposed to both
the regular season and the post-
season,” McKay said. “I think my
history on this rule tells me that,
you know, 24 votes is not easy to
get. But I do think the statistics
absolutely warrant an examina-
tion of whether our overtime
rules need to be further modi-
fied.... In my opinion, it is time to
talk about it. And I think the
statistics say that. But 24 votes?
That’s usually a pretty big hill to
climb the first time. But let’s see
what happens.”
The long-running debate over
the NFL’s overtime rules was
reignited after the Kansas CityChiefs beat the Buffalo Bills with
a touchdown on the opening
possession of overtime in a mem-
orable AFC divisional-round
playoff duel in January. But the
Chiefs lost the AFC champion-
ship game to the Cincinnati Ben-
gals despite having the ball first
in overtime.
Under the current format, a
team can win the game on the
opening possession of overtime
only by scoring a touchdown.
NFL officials also are contem-
plating making safety-related
rules changes to the punt play.
But they said Friday that is un-
likely to occur in time for the
2022 season, after the NFL stud-
ies punt-related changes being
planned by the USFL, which be-
gins play next month.
“From an injury standpoint, I
think we want to see that,” McKay
said. “And I think we’re going to
go probably one more year and
see where the injury data is, to
see: Do we need to change where
the gunners line up?... What can
we do to try to lower the number
of lower-extremity injuries that
are happening on this play?”
Said Jeff Miller, the NFL’s exec-
utive vice president of communi-
cations, public affairs and policy:
“There’s no easy answer to the
question of how to drive down
some of the injuries on those
plays. And so we’ve got a lot of
people working on it and doingthe research that needs to be
done over a period of time.”
McKay reiterated that the NFL
has no plans to change the em-
phasis on sportsmanship that led
to last season’s strict enforce-
ment of the existing anti-taunt-
ing rule.
“At no time did we hear any-
thing from either the surveys [of
NFL teams] or from the coaches’
subcommittee and certainly not
from the NCAA that either col-
lege football or pro football
should be backing up on the issue
of sportsmanship,” McKay said.
“It is paramount to the integrity
of our game. That includes coach-
es, and that includes players.
We’ll do some video [presenta-
tions] to show that and to make
sure that everybody is clear on
what is allowed and isn’t.”
No tweaks to the instant replay
system are planned for this off-
season after last season’s change
that allowed the replay official in
the press box to communicate
with the on-field officials about
certain rulings.
“I can’t remember a year
where we’ve not had more discus-
sion or a rule proposal on instant
replay,” McKay said. “I think
that’s because the replay-assist
rule that we put in last year really
was very effective. It’s only been
in place one year. So we definitely
want to see how it evolves in Year
2.”New rules for NFL overtime o n tableOwners will consider
t wo proposals this week
at their annual meetingsASSOCIATED PRESS
One match required a come-
back the likes of which Austin
Country Club has never seen. The
other was easy enough to feel like
a warm walk along Lake Austin.
Either way, Kevin Kisner just
seems to win in the World Golf
Championships Match Play.
Three down on the 15th tee,
Kisner won the next four holes to
beat Adam Scott in the fourth
round Saturday morning. In the
quarterfinals, he was 3 up on Will
Zalatoris after four holes and nev-
er trailed in a 4-and-3 victory.
Kisner reached the final day of
this fickle tournament for the
third time, the most of anyone
since it changed from single elimi-
nation to group play in 2015. He
lost in the championship match in
2018 and won the next year.But he has plenty of company
among the semifinalists.
Scottie Scheffler got a tiny
measure of revenge when he went
18 holes to outlast Billy Horschel,
who beat him a year ago in the
final match. Scheffler advanced in
the afternoon by beating Seamus
Power of Ireland, 3 and 2.
Also in the semifinals is Dustin
Johnson, who eliminated R ichard
Bland in a scrappy fourth-round
match, 3 and 2, then went the
distance with Brooks Koepka in
the quarterfinals.
Johnson had to rally from 2
down against Koepka in a fasci-
nating duel between former world
No. 1 players and multiple major
champions. They were all square
when Johnson halved the 12th
hole with a 15-foot birdie, took the
lead with a 25-foot birdie putt on
the 15th hole and saved anothertough par on the 16th.
Johnson closed him out by driv-
ing the 18th green, forcing Koepka
to aggressively try to hole a chip
from left of the green that went off
the putting surface into a drain-
age ditch.
J ohnson, who won the Match
Play in 2017, will face Scheffler in
the semifinals Sunday morning.
K isner will play Corey Conners,
the first Canadian to reach the
Match Play semifinals. Conners
had an easy time with Takumi
Kanaya in the morning (5 and 3),
then played the 18th hole in com-
petition for the first time all week
to hold off Abraham Ancer, 2 up.
For Scheffler, more is at stake
than his third w in in his past five
starts. Jon Rahm, the world’s No. 1
player, lost to Koepka in 19 holes
in the morning. That means
Scheffler can go to the top of theworld ranking by winning t he
Match Play.
l PGA TOUR: Ben Martin shot
a 2-under-par 70 t o post a 14-un-
der 202 total and hold on to a
two-shot lead in the C orales Pun-
tacana Championship in Punta
Cana, Dominican Republic.
Chad Ramey was second after a- He eagled the par-5 14th.
l LPGA TOUR: N anna Koerstz
Madsen shot a 3-under 69 to take
a three-shot lead into the final
round of the J TBC Classic over Na
Rin An in Carlsbad, C alif. An made
a triple-bogey on her final hole.
l DP WORLD TOUR: Mat-
thew Jordan (70) and Adrian Mer-
onk (72), each searching for h is
first European tour win, s hare the
lead heading into the final round
at the Qatar Masters with 5 4-hole
totals of 8-under 208 at Doha Golf
Club.
GOLF ROUNDUP
Kisner rallies, Johnson nips Koepka in Match Playemphatic when asked if he and
the organization believed there
was no wrongdoing. Instead of
being direct, Berry deflected.
“We feel very confident in
Deshaun the person, and we
have a lot of faith in him,” Berry
said. “And we believe that as he
gets into our community and our
organization, he’s going to make
a positive impact.”
The Browns want women in
their fan base, survivors living in
their city or anyone struggling to
look past these detailed
accusations to feel like the team
does. That the scandal will die in
Houston. That Watson’s image
can be rehabilitated as soon as
he starts throwing some
touchdown passes and does
community work in front of
cameras. That your concerns will
turn to cheers.
For now, the Browns want to
move forward — even if plenty of
NFL fans are not ready. The
Browns see you and hear you.
But as you cringe, they’re
perfectly comfortable.they are reinforcing a certain
cynicism in sports.
When given a chance,
franchises will pursue an elite
yet troubled athlete, believing
they can combat any public
backlash with a few good
buzzwords. In all of their
remarks — from the GM, t he
coach and the owners — the
Browns said the right things. But
when reporters asked hard
questions? They weren’t quite so
comfortable.
The Haslams gave no
explanation as to why the NFL
spoke with some accusers during
its investigation but the Browns
did not, merely referencing their
legal advice. On the major
question as to why he had
contacted so many different
massage therapists during his
time in Houston — reportedly at
least 40 — Watson offered only a
vague excuse about scheduling
conflicts. And while Watson
denied the claims — “I never
done the things these people are
alleging” — Berry was lesspresumably don’t have any civil
suits pending against any NFL
players.
But more than anything else
in their choreography of crisis
management, the Browns need
you to know that they’re
comfortable.
It’s the single word they
peppered throughout the day.
They are comfortable with their
own investigation, in which they
clearly heard what they wanted
to hear while not speaking to a
single accuser. And they’re
comfortable with the legal
process in which two Texas
grand juries declined to indict
Watson on criminal charges,
though he still faced a potential
NFL suspension for his conduct
and, of course, the 22 civil suits.
In their remarks, the Haslams
used the phrases “get
comfortable,” “got comfortable”
or “got more comfortable” at
least a dozen times in regards to
the situation or Watson as a
person. But as the Browns sit
comfortably in their decision,Coach Kevin Stefanski will
reassure you he understands
there are questions. That’s why
the Browns put such a
tremendous amount of
background work into studying
Watson. They hired a team of
investigators and attorneys and
talked to people who have
known Watson since he was a
boy in Gainesville, Ga., as a
college football star in Clemson,
S.C., and in Houston, where he
emerged as a three-time all-pro
quarterback. Even though the
Browns’ legal team advised them
against speaking to any of the
women, this was an extensive
investigation. Honestly.
Stefanski said so.
Step 3: Use women as human
shields.
The new Browns quarterback
will remind you that he was
raised by a woman, unlike actual
abusers, who apparently were
spawned in laboratories. That
his aunties are women. His sister
— also! — is a woman. And he
will use these biological facts as
some way to back up his claims
that he has never assaulted,
disrespected or harassed a
woman. This is the phrase he will
repeatedly use when answering
questions because he needs you
to believe it, too.
He will also prop up his
charity work, mention how he
wrote a book about being a
servant leader and make an
unfortunate slip-up when
referring to repairing his image.
“That’s what I want to do, is be
able to get back to that brand —
or get back to that person that
people knew I was before all
these allegations,” he said.
Then, when conducting a joint
interview over video hours later,
Browns managing and principal
partners Dee and Jimmy Haslam
will identify with you, too,
because they have close friends
who have been victims of sexual
abuse. And Dee will share with
you the long process that she had
to go through to feel secure with
signing Watson because, you
know, she has daughters, whoBUCKNER FROM D1
CANDACE BUCKNER
Concerned about Watson? The Browns sure aren’t.RON SCHWANE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
While Deshaun Watson denied the claims against him, his new general manager was less emphatic.