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Page 8 - Wednesday, March 25, 2015
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Texas begins spring drills with QB duel
Obama not for paying college athletes
Jim Vertuno
AP Sports Writer
Darlene Superville Associated Press
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — President Barack Obama says compensation for college athletes would “ruin the sense of college sports.” Obama said in an interview released Saturday that what frustrates him, though, is college coaches, athletic directors and the NCAA making huge amounts of money while an athlete is banished for getting a tattoo or free use of a car. “That’s not fair,” Obama told The Huffington Post in response to a question about whether college athletes should be compensated because they are moneymakers for the NCAA, television stations and advertisers. Compensation would “create a situation where there are bidding wars. How much does a Anthony Davis get paid as opposed to somebody else?” Obama said, referring to the power forward who played one season at Kentucky before heading to the NBA. “And that I do think would ruin the
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP PHOTO President Barack Obama, left, with his brother-in-law Craig Robinson, right, react to to Wisconsin-Green Bay scoring against Princeton during the second half of a women’s college basketball game in the first round of the NCAA tournament in College Park, Md., Saturday.Obama’s niece Leslie Robinson, plays for Princeton which advances to the next round after winning 80-70. sense of college sports,” Obama said. The interview was released Saturday, hours after Obama cheered as his niece’s Princeton team remained undefeated by topping Wisconsin-Green Bay in an NCAA Tournament first-round game played in Maryland. Obama’s niece is Leslie Robinson, daughter of Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson. She did not appear in the
game for her team. Obama sat a few rows away from courtside surrounded by an entourage that included his daughter Malia, motherin-law Marian Robinson, Craig Robinson and other Robinson family members. Both Craig Robinson and the first lady are Princeton graduates. Michelle Obama missed seeing her niece because she is traveling in Cambodia.
Darren Sharper pleads no contest in rape case Brian Melley & Jacques Billeaud Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Former NFL star Darren Sharper removed all doubt Monday that he drugged and raped women, taking the first of several legal steps to own up to sex assaults in four states that will send him to federal prison for nine years. He pleaded guilty to sexual assault in Arizona and no contest in California to raping two women he knocked out with a potent sedative mixed with booze. Sharper, 39, wearing a striped, light blue suit, said he was entering the plea because it was in his best interest. He had faced up to 33 years in prison if convicted of all counts against him in California. By not contesting the charges, the former all-pro safety who won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints, admitted he raped
two women he drugged after meeting them at a West Hollywood bar in 2013 and 2014. The no contest plea has the same effect as a conviction. The women were not in court, but prosecutors said they had agreed to the plea deal. Earlier, Sharper appeared in a Phoenix courtroom by video-conferencing from Los Angeles, where he has been jailed since February 2014. He admitted sexually assaulting one woman and trying to attack another in suburban Phoenix in 2013. Under the deal negotiated by his lawyers and state and federal prosecutors, Sharper will serve a nine-year federal prison term for similar crimes in Louisiana, Nevada, Arizona and California. Hearings will follow in Las Vegas on Tuesday and in New Orleans in the next month. In each state, he’s accused of drugging
and sexually assaulting women when they were unconscious or otherwise unable to resist or consent. He was sentenced immediately in the Arizona case, which is very unusual. Sentencing in California was scheduled July 15. Sharper retired from the NFL in 2011 after a 14-year career with three teams and later worked as an analyst for the NFL network. All the alleged sexual assaults happened after Sharper’s retirement as a player. Sharper admitted sexually assaulting one victim and trying to assault another in Arizona, though police said he drugged three women and sexually assaulted two of them at a Tempe apartment in November 2013. Prosecutor Yigael Cohen on Monday cited a letter in which one of the victims says she suffered emotional harm as a result of the attack and that she didn’t have the ability to resist.
AUSTIN, Texas — After a rough first season with the Texas Longhorns, coach Charlie Strong is still in search of a quarterback. He hopes to find one for 2015 starting this week when spring practice begins Wednesday. Last year’s starter, junior Tyrone Swoopes, and redshirt freshman Jerrod Heard will be given “equal reps” in their duel for the starting job, Strong said Monday. But he also left the door open to playing both next season if they earn it. The Longhorns open the 2015 season Sept. 5 at Notre Dame. Strong also sent a message to Heard and anyone else trying to unseat a starter from last season: if you want a position, take it. “Don’t ever think because a guy started last year means he can’t be unseated. If you work hard enough, you will beat him out. I don’t play favorites,” Strong said. Swoopes started 12 games in 2014 after David Ash went down with a head injury suffered in the season opener. But he was erratic the entire season and bore much of the criticism from fans for an offense that struggled badly all season. Swoopes finished with 2,409 yards passing with 13 touchdowns and 11 interceptions with a completion rate under 60 percent. The worst came at the end when Swoopes had five turnovers in a crushing home loss to TCU. Then the Longhorns managed just 59 total yards in a blowout loss to Arkansas in the Texas Bowl in Houston. Strong chose not to play Heard rather than burn his redshirt season. The two-game skid sent Texas to a 6-7 finish in Strong’s first season, the program’s second losing season in five years. Strong met with his team Sunday night as they returned from spring break. “When you signed on here, you signed on to win championships. That hasn’t happened,” Strong told them. Texas hasn’t won a Big 12 title since 2009. “We’re no longer the big dog. When will this dog rise back up?” Strong said. While he’s trying to rebuild his players’ confidence, Strong said he’s not afraid to remind them of how bad things finished last year. “I know (they) get tired of questions because I get tired of them. What’s wrong with the program?” Strong said. “I love to burn them with it .... We got embarrassed. That’s what burns me more than anything.”