Yahoo Sports AM: Britt Reid cuts the line out of prison
In today's edition: The haves and have-nots, CBB game flagged for unusual betting activity, the highest-paid athletes of all time, block of the year, and more.
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🚨 Headlines
🏀 Nuggets 115, Celtics 109: Nikola Jokić had a 32-point triple-double as Denver improved to 2-0 against Boston this season. Possible NBA Finals preview?
🥶 Frostbite is no joke: Remember that frigid Chiefs-Dolphins playoff game with a wind chill of -27 degrees? Many of the fans who got frostbite now need amputations.
🥊 Tyson vs. Paul: Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will face off on July 20 at Jerry World as part of a main event card airing on Netflix. Tyson will be 58 years old at the time of the fight.
🏀 KAT needs surgery: Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns will undergo surgery on a torn meniscus in his left knee. He's expected to return early in the playoffs.
⛵️ Around the world in 130 days: Cole Brauer became the first American woman to sail solo, nonstop around the world. The New York native completed the 30,000-mile journey in 130 days.
🏀 Aces tix sold out: Season tickets to see the back-to-back WNBA champions are completely sold out, a first in league history.
🏈 Britt Reid cuts the line again
Britt Reid cut the line into the NFL, becoming the Chiefs linebacker coach despite having virtually zero experience. Now, he's cut the line out of prison.
From Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel:
On Feb. 4, 2021, Britt Reid was a 35-year-old assistant for the Kansas City Chiefs, where his dad, Andy, was and is the head coach. On that day, Britt got drunk while working in the team facility. He then attempted a half hour commute home.
He didn't make it a mile before slamming his pickup truck, traveling 84 miles an hour, into two cars parked on the side of an interstate on-ramp. … Britt Reid injured six that day, including himself. Four were initially hospitalized in serious condition, including a then 4-year-old girl.
The fifth victim was then 5-year-old Ariel Young, who Reid sent into an 11-day coma and a lifetime of challenges. Reid was eventually given a three-year prison sentence, a plea deal down from the maximum seven-year stint. Ariel's family fumed at that, but it only got worse.
The latest: Last week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson commuted Reid's sentence after just 16 months served. He has since ducked the local media and his office didn't respond to a request for comment. Ariel's attorney, Tom Porto, however, says he knows why Britt Reid is out early.
"It's because the Governor of Missouri is a Chiefs fan, went to the Super Bowl, went to the after parties, went to the parade and the rally, and even has a Chiefs tattoo," Porto told Yahoo Sports.
Can three Super Bowl victories get your son out of jail early? Perhaps. In Kansas City, the Chiefs run a self-described kingdom. What does a governor matter against that?
"It seems the laws don't apply equally to the haves and have-nots," Ariel's mother, Felicia Miller, said in a statement. "The haves get favors. The have-nots serve their sentence."
Silence from the Chiefs and NFL: The Chiefs said they would "review" what happened in their facility that day, but they've never revealed a thing and refuse to answer questions. The NFL, which said it would look into the situation, has also gone silent.
This, the NFL, is an organization that once fought all the way to federal court over the inflation level of some footballs in New England. Yet on this, a real-world issue impacting real-world families … the league has never commented on if it even looked into, let alone found anything.
Everyone seemingly wants it to just fade away, memories blinded by the glimmer of all those Lombardi Trophies. … They'll outlast the outrage and put it behind them, even if Ariel Young never will.
🏀 UAB-Temple game flagged for unusual betting activity
The UAB-Temple men's basketball game was flagged for unusual wagering activity on Thursday, SI reports.
The news: Gambling watchdog U.S. Integrity sent out an alert to casinos after an inexplicable shift in the point spread ahead of the game. At one sportsbook, the line moved from UAB -1.5 to -8 before settling at -7. The Blazers won in a rout, 100-72.
Context: U.S. Integrity has been monitoring Temple games for a while, per SI. Thursday was the second straight game that the Owls didn't come close to covering the spread. They're 11-19 this season under first-year head coach Adam Fisher.
"There was a game earlier this year — Temple vs. Memphis. Memphis got bet for no reason. Temple didn't have any injuries. So, it's weird to see it a second time with Temple. This is bizarre. And it's not a normal happening in the market. Especially this late in the season." — Jim Root, who sniffed out the unusual line movement
Behind the scenes: U.S. Integrity is employed by many NCAA conferences to monitor gambling activity and helped expose the Alabama baseball betting scandal last spring.
💵 The 50 highest-paid athletes of all time
The 50 highest-paid athletes of all-time have brought home a combined $50 billion when adjusted for inflation, according to Sportico's calculations.
Top 10:
🏀 Michael Jordan: $3.75B
⛳️ Tiger Woods: $2.66B
⚽️ Cristiano Ronaldo: $1.92B
⛳️ Arnold Palmer: $1.76B
🏀 LeBron James: $1.7B
⛳️ Jack Nicklaus: $1.67B
⚽️ Lionel Messi: $1.67B
⚽️ David Beckham: $1.5B
🎾 Roger Federer: $1.49B
🥊 Floyd Mayweather: $1.48B
Breakdown by sport: Basketball leads the way with 12 athletes on the list, followed by Golf (8), Boxing (7), Racing (7), Tennis (5), Soccer (4), Football (4), Baseball (2) and MMA (1).
📸 Behind the lens
Each week, we go "Behind the Lens" with Getty Images to get the backstory on the best photographs in sports.
This week's photo: Team Germany during their second run of the 4-man Bobsleigh competition at the IBSF Bobsleigh And Skeleton World Championship.
Location: Winterberg, Germany
Date: March 2
Behind the lens: Here's photographer Lars Baron…
I really enjoy shooting events where there are no exact photo positions, as it's always a fun challenge to find nice angles and create new pictures.
For this shot, I positioned myself on an elevated bank above the so-called "Kreisel" where the track is like a circle, with spectators gathered in the middle.
I used my mirrorless Canon R3 with a slow shutter speed (1/40 of a second) to follow the fast-moving bobsleigh (~80 mph) and had to trust my ears, as you hear the bobsleigh coming before you can see it.
The bobsleigh is pin sharp because it's moving. Everything else is still, which turns into a blur. The group of spectators created a colorful foreground, and the focus goes to the main thing: the Germany team.
📆 Mar. 8, 1971: The "Fight of the Century"
53 years ago today, Joe Frazier (27-0) defeated Muhammad Ali (31-1) by unanimous decision, handing Ali the first loss of his career in the opening bout of their famous trilogy*, Jeff writes.
The "Fight of the Century": The fight had a circus-like atmosphere, with scores of policemen doing their best to control the 20,455 fans in attendance at Madison Square Garden. ESPN's Mark Kriegel paints a picture of the scene:
"It was the early '70s, and New York — for all its turmoil and incipient decrepitude — felt like the most potent city in the world. There were cops and mob guys and hustlers and Playmates and everywhere one looked an abundance of stars."
"It was a star, by the way, who pulled off the evening's most unlikely coup: Frank Sinatra finagling an assignment as a ringside photographer for Life magazine."
⚾️ 1941: Phillies RHP Hugh Mulcahy became the first MLB player drafted into World War II. Over 500 more big leaguers would join him.
🇺🇸 2019: The USWNT filed a federal gender discrimination lawsuit against U.S. Soccer. Three years later, they achieved equal pay.
*The trilogy: Ali won the second and third installments, taking 1974's Super Fight II by unanimous decision and 1975's Thrilla in Manila by corner retirement after the 14th round.
📺 Watchlist: Duke vs. UNC
No. 9 Duke hosts No. 7 UNC on Saturday (6:30pm ET, ESPN) to close out the regular season, Jeff writes.
What's at stake: For the first time since 2012, the bitter rivals* meet with at least a share of the ACC regular-season championship on the line. A Tar Heels win gives them the outright title, while a Blue Devils victory means they'll share it.
More to watch:
⚽️ CONCACAF W Gold Cup Final: USWNT vs. Brazil (Sun. 8:15pm, Paramount+)
🏀 NCAAM: No. 14 Kansas at No. 1 Houston (Sat. 4pm, ESPN); No. 15 Kentucky at No. 4 Tennessee (Sat. 4pm, CBS)
🏀 NCAAW: Conference tournaments (Fri-Sun) … How to watch.
⚽️ Premier League: Liverpool vs. Man City (Sun. 11:45am, USA); Aston Villa vs. Tottenham (Sun. 9am, USA) … 1st place vs. 2nd place and 4th vs. 5th.
🏀 NBA: Timberwolves at Cavaliers (Fri. 7:30pm, ESPN); Bucks at Lakers (Sat. 10pm, ESPN); Celtics at Suns (Sat. 8:30pm, ABC); 76ers at Knicks (Sun. 7pm, ESPN); Timberwolves at Lakers (Sun. 9:30pm, ESPN)
🏒 NHL: Penguins at Bruins (Sat. 3pm, ABC) … Second annual NHL Big City Greens Classic, featuring an alternate, animated telecast on Disney, Disney+ and ESPN+.
🎾 Tennis: Indian Wells (Fri-Sun, Tennis)
⛳️ PGA: Arnold Palmer Invitational (Fri-Sun, ESPN+/Golf/NBC)
⛳️ LIV: Hong Kong (Fri-Sun, The CW)
🏁 F1: Saudi Arabian GP (Sat. 12pm, ESPN2)
🏁 NASCAR: Phoenix Raceway (Sun. 3:30pm, Fox)
⚽️ MLS: 14 games (Sat-Sun, Apple TV+) … Four are free to watch.
🏉 Six Nations: Italy vs. Scotland (Sat. 9:15am, Peacock); England vs. Ireland (Sat. 11:45am, Peacock); Wales vs. France (Sun. 11am, Peacock) … Week 4 of 5.
⚾️ Spring training: Yankees at Blue Jays (Fri. 1pm, MLB); Reds at Dodgers (Fri. 8pm, MLB); Rays at Red Sox (Sun. 1pm, MLB); Cubs at Rangers (Sun. 4pm, MLB)
🥊 UFC: Sean O'Malley vs. Marlon Vera (Sat. 10pm, ESPN+ PPV) … In Miami for O'Malley's bantamweight title.
🥊 Boxing: Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou (Fri. 11am, DAZN PPV)
🏒 PWHL: Montreal at Toronto (Fri. 7pm, YouTube); New York at Boston (Sun. 3pm, YouTube); Ottawa at Montreal (Sun. 4pm, YouTube)
🏀 Overtime Elite Finals: RWE vs. City Reapers (Fri. 7pm, Prime; Sat. 7pm, YouTube) … Games 1 and 2 in the best-of-five series.
*Basketball's best rivalry: Duke and UNC have met 50 times as top-10 teams, which is the most… by a ridiculously wide margin. The next closest? UNC vs. NC State (14 times).
⚾️ MLB trivia
The internet was riveted this week by a Barstool Sports podcast producer trying to name MLB's top 10 all-time home run leaders. He wasn't allowed to leave the studio until he got all 10, which took him 36 hours. How long will it take you?
Question: Who are the top 10 home run leaders in MLB history?
Hint: The player he struggled the most to remember spent his first 12 seasons in Cleveland.
Answer at the bottom.
🍿 Anthony Edwards!!!
Anthony Edwards scored 44 points and completely took over the game in the final minute to lead the Timberwolves past the Pacers, 113-111, on Thursday night.
Block of the year: Edwards sealed the deal with one of the best game-saving blocks you'll ever see. Absolutely incredible.
Trivia answer: Barry Bonds (762 home runs), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714), Albert Pujols (703), Alex Rodriguez (696), Willie Mays (660), Ken Griffey Jr. (630), Jim Thome (612), Sammy Sosa (609), Frank Robinson (586)
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