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What’s in a name? We’ll see with Trubisky

Don’t look now but a paper-thin NFL quarterback draft class — I defy anyone to identify one candidate not named Pickett, Willis, Corral or Howell — has several NFL teams in full-blown panic mode. General managers have used the current free agency period to play “Let’s Make A Deal,” trying to replicate the magic the Rams found last season when they swapped their former No. 1 overall pick for an 11-year veteran with exactly zero playoff wins who promptly steered them to their first Super Bowl in 22 years. The flurry of recent activity involving starting NFL quarterbacks is ...

‘I left my heart in Altoona’

It has been a while, but once again my wife and I get ready for a trip to my hometown, Altoona. The Blair County Sports Hall of Fame banquet and induction ceremony are being held on April 9. The committee that hosts and puts the affair together are to be congratulated on a wonderful evening. I moved from the city over 50 years ago, but I still call Altoona home. When being introduced to a stranger, I will tell them where I live, but that I was born and raised in Altoona. The weekend will be filled with old friends, family and reunions with people I have not seen in years. All ...

Today’s players need dose of humility

By Jim Caltagerone For the Mirror As a ballplayer, Joe DiMaggio was acutely aware of his elevated stature in baseball, but his words and actions never left anyone with the impression that The Yankee Clipper thought that he transcended the game or his ballclub. Even when DiMaggio was engaged in salary disputes with management, his views on the composition of the team roster and gameday strategy were never points of contention. A growing number of professional athletes, particularly in the NFL, are of the opinion that they know best how to manage personnel and/or devise a ...

Hoopla: What’s old is new again

By Jim Litke The Associated Press “Old” is a relative term in college basketball, but if the players in this year’s NCAA Tournament looked somehow older than usual, relax. It’s not your eyesight. It’s the new normal. It began with the COVID-19 pandemic that cut a wide swath through the past three seasons and convinced the NCAA to grant more than a few players an extra year of eligibility. Throw in the usual number who took “redshirt” years to deal with injuries, then add in those who took advantage of the NCAA’s increasingly relaxed transfer rules, which let players ...

VanDerveer assisting Ukraine

By Janie McCauley The Associated Press STANFORD, Calif. — At home over breakfast Thursday morning with sister Heidi, Tara VanDerveer formulated a plan to somehow help the suffering Ukrainian people who still mean so much to her years after she took the U.S. national team to play there. The Hall of Fame Stanford coach pledged $10 for every 3-pointer made in the women’s NCAA Tournament toward humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, and she challenged anyone else who could give to do so — even just a dime per 3 if possible. Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner, whose team played its ...

One betting rule still sacrosant

By Tim Dahlberg The Associated Press Calvin Ridley had no inside information and, apparently, no idea how to bet. In other words, he was just like millions of other neophyte bettors lured in by promises of riches from sports betting operators and the leagues they cohabitate with. Except Ridley plays for the Atlanta Falcons. And that’s where things get a little dicey. Almost everything goes these days in the Wild West of sports betting, but there is still one big no-no that remains sacrosanct: You don’t bet on your own league and you certainly don’t bet on your own ...