The 'mystery' behind Beasley's gambling scandal
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Miami Herald
4 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Greg Cote's Hot Button Top 10: Amazin' Marlins, Messi hurt, sex toys on court & more
GREG COTE'S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (AUGUST 3): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Sizzlin' Fish, Messi's injury, Heat's rough week, Dolphins and Canes seasons near ... and Trump champions fitness!? No, seriously. Welcome to the 112th edition of HB10, back after a week off to bring you what's on our minds from a Miami lens and accentuating stuff that's big, weird, damnable, funny or worth needling as the sports week past pivots to the week ahead: 1. MARLINS: Smokin'-hot Fish go for sweep of Yankees, .500 today: Marlins atop the HB10? A first. But earned. Miami is 54-55, with four straight wins and 24-10 since June 22, after a wild 13-12 home comeback over the Yankees and then Saturday's 2-0 on Eury Perez's gem. Fish go for the sweep of NYY and can reach .500 today. As important, the Fish won this year's trade deadline with restraint. A year ago Miami led the majors in deadline deals as Peter Bendix went crazy in a prospects get. This time only two trades: OF Jesús Sánchez to Houston for starter Ryan Gusto and two prospects, and C Nick Fortes to Tampa Bay for outfielder Matthew Etzel. Gusto is a nice add, but the best deals were the ones not done: Keeping starters Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera despite a market for both. The statement: Marlins are all-in in chase for wild card playoff spot. 2. INTER MIAMI: Despite win, Messi injury clouds hopes of Leagues Cup advance: Inter Miami added midfielder Rodrigo de Paul as a de factor bodyguard for Lionel Messi, but that did not prevent Messi from incurring a thigh injury Saturday and leaving early in a win on penalty kicks over Nexaca in a Leagues Cup match in Fort Lauderdale. The injury is not believed serious but could jeopardize Messi 's availability Wednesday at home vs. Pumas in another Leagues Cup game. Miami is 2-0 in the MLS vs. Mexico tournament but even at 3-0 may be at risk of not advancing due to goal-differential. 3. HEAT: Bad week redefined: Theft scandal, Rozier still on roster: Miami reportedly declined a trade to get Marcus Smart from Washington in exchange for Terry Rozier. Extremely upset were Heat fans, many of whom would gladly trade Rozier for a used pair of Keds. Also this past week: The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office began an investigation of merchandise theft of items including game-worn jerseys stolen from the Heat's uniform equipment room. The scandal was first reported by Amin Elhassan on the Dan LeBatard Show. (Apparently Amin found out before Pablo Torre did.) 4. HURRICANES: Practice on, UM second in ACC poll as mega-opener nears: A healthy QB Carson Beck led the way as the Canes under fourth-year coach Mario Cristobal opened practice for the high-hopes season kicking off at home vs. Notre Dame August 31. The annual ACC media poll found Clemson picked as the favorite to repeat atop the conference, with Miami edging SMU for second and Georgia Tech and Louisville rounding out the top five. SMU and L'ville are on UM's schedule. 5. DOLPHINS: It's opening week for Miami preseason: Dolphins first of three exhibition games is next Sunday at Chicago, followed by a trip to Detroit then a home date with Jacksonville prior to the regular season opener September 7 at Indianapolis -- a near pick-'em game with Colts a (very) early 1-point favorite. Fins theme this preseason based on the depth chart: Anybody wanna play cornerback? Show of hands, please? 6. MLB: Speedway Classic will set record today (but not really): Baseball's exhilarating trade-deadline moves left adjusted World Series odds favoring three NL teams with Dodgers at 14-5, Phillies at 17-2 and Mets at 19-2. MLB has spotlight again with Braves-Reds in the Speedway Classic in Bristol, Tenn. today in the first MLB game at a NASCAR track (after Saturday's rain postponement). With mofre than 85,000 tickets sold, it'll break the regular-season mark of 84,587 set at a Yankees game in Cleveland in 1954. But the most to ever watch any MLB game will remain 115,300 for a spring training game between the Dodgers and Red Sox at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in 2008. 7. POLITICS: Trump finds odd way to revive physical fitness: Donald Trump is bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test for children, a fixture in public schools for decades. Make your own jokes about Trump as the face of fitness. I'd rather note the oddity of a president under a Jeffrey Epstein cloud having Lawrence Taylor among guests at the White House announcement. Taylor's past, of course, includes cocaine, tax evasion and a guilty plea to the statutory rape of a 16-year-old. Are Trump's advisers all on vacation? Turns out the President's Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition includes Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa, whose surname Trump mispronounced as 'Tag-o-valley-a.' 8. NFL: Shannon Sharpe mess clouds Hall of Fame weekend: Chargers beat Lions 34-7 Thursday in earliest NFL preseason opener in 25 years to kick off what should-a been a feelgood weekend in Canton. But Shannon Sharpe's firing by ESPN following his paying big to settle a sexual-assault lawsuit hung over everything like a thundering cloud as his brother Sterling was one of four men inducted along with Eric Allen, Jared Allen and Antonio Gates. PS, a weak class, too. Gates merited Canton; the other three were dubious picks at best. (Better next year, as Class of '26 first-time eligibles include Drew Brees and Larry Fitzgerald.) 9. WNBA: Dumb Fans Alert! Arrest over sex-toy launch: A spectator who ought to be publicly named and shamed was arrested for throwing a sex toy onto thr court during a Golden State game in Atlanta. Since then, another sex toy was thrown onto the court during Golden State's game in Chicago. Said Sky center Elizabeth Williams: 'It's super disrespectful. I don't really get the point of it. It's really immature. Whoever is doing it needs to grow up.' 10. NASCAR: As Wallace ends drought, a nod to Wendell Scott: Bubba Wallace's third career win in the NASCAR Cup Series ended a 100-race winless drought for the second Black driver to win a race in the sport's main series. It invites a nod of respect for Wendell Scott, please? Scott in 1963 in Jacksonville became the first Black driver to win on NASCAR's main stage, despite racism at the time that saw him receive death threats, be poisoned once and often wrecked intentionally. He never received the trophy for the one race he won, his family finally was given it in 2021 -- 31 years after his death. THE LIST: MIAMI TEAMS' MOUNT RUSHMORES: The top-four career leaders for the Dolphins, Panthers, Heat and Marlins based on WAR (wins over replacement) or that sport's equivalent, combining players' longevity and accomplishent with club: Dolphins--Dan Marino 216, Jason Taylor 146, Zach Thomas 141, Bob Griese 138. Panthers--Roberto Luongo, 124, Aleksander Barkov 86, Aaron Ekblad 70, Jonathan Huberdeau 65. Heat--Dwyane Wade 116.1, LeBron James 65.3, Alonzo Mourning, 64.9, Bam Adebayo 57.6 Marlins--Giancarlo Stanton 35.8, Hanley Ramirez, 26.9, Josh Johnson 25.7, Luis Castillo 22.5 Other select most recent stuff from me: This one goal for Dolphins and another for Hurricanes will define success or failure in 2025 // Previous HB10 // Poll Dance: Dolphins or Canes win more games? // Why Miami staunchly remains a Football Town even as Dolphins and Canes disappoint // Strobe lights? Trajekt Arc? How Marlins' trust in youth, player-development is paying off // Jalen Ramsey, now Asante Samuel drama = Dolphins mess at cornerback // Heat getting 3-point ace Powell a pickpocket-win for Riley // Champion Panthers keep revving this summer while Heat stays quiet // Dolphins' gamble on Waller after Ramsey & Smith for Fitzpatrick was net loss // Inter Miami falls to PSG but won big to reach Club World Cup final 16 // Panthers celebrate as 1 of 4 South Florida sports dynasties -- with no end near // Major news on future of Dan Le Batard Show, Meadowlark Media, DraftKings // A tribute to Miami sports legend Jimmy Johnson as he retires from Fox TV // 15 years later, Dolphins Cancer Challenge is the life-saving legacy of Jim Mandich // And my latest podcast:
NBC Sports
5 hours ago
- NBC Sports
Questions linger regarding potential self-dealing by former NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell
Journalism sucks. That's what I told Pablo Torre at the end of our third (and probably not final) collaboration on the misadventures of the NFL Players Association. (Here's episode one. And episode two.) Journalism sucks because journalism is hard. It takes effort. A lot of it. There's not always (or not often) a financial incentive to spend the time and effort contacting this source and that source and working on this person and that person to become a source and to convince trusted sources to trust the reporter sufficiently to turn over very sensitive information and to piece it all together into a narrative that is both accurate and interesting. It is, as I told him, exhausting. We taped the latest foray on Monday. Roughly two hours of conversation were distilled to half of that for a Thursday morning release. That was Hall of Fame game day for NBC, so it's taken me a little while to circle back to it. Here are my biggest takeaways from the sequel to the sequel. First, the lingering federal probe of the NFLPA resulting from its involvement in OneTeam Partners is far from over. OneTeam, essentially an NIL repository for pro athletes, has mushroomed into a $2 billion business with stated aspirations to quintuple that. With so much money comes the temptation to siphon it off, particularly for those who may have a pattern and practice of grabbing any and every dollar they can. This is what happened. The NFLPA, which owns 44.5 percent of OneTeam, has four seats on the board of directors. Two come from the NFLPA and NFL Players, Inc. Two come from private industry. As the story goes, the two from private industry wanted to be paid for their service to the board. (They previously weren't, and still aren't.) That prompted an effort to devise a way to create a legitimate method for paying them — along with the two other NFLPA-appointed board members. One of whom was former NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell. In June 2024, the OneTeam board of directors passed a resolution implementing a plan, vetted and approved by multiple outside law firms, to provide a tangible benefit to the unions involved in OneTeam, with those unions then deciding whether to keep the benefit or to convey it to the individuals providing services to the board of directors, as compensation for their work. The plan landed on the radar screen of the federal government after someone filed an anonymous whistleblower claim with the National Labor Relations Board regarding MLBPA executive director Tony Clark. One of the specific complaints focused on the convoluted OneTeam compensation program. That sparked an effort by the NFLPA to hire an outside lawyer to investigate its own role engineering potential payment to Howell (and others) for providing services to the OneTeam board, even though (ostensibly) Howell's job as executive director already included serving as the OneTeam board chairman. While OneTeam itself isn't a target, the feds continue to explore the situation. The two key questions, as we see it, are these: (1) how exactly did the compensation issue arise?; and (2) why was the June 2024 board resolution later abandoned? At one level, it's hard to believe that a potential effort to bamboozle the NFLPA into giving Howell more money for the job he was already paid to do would be reduced to writing. At another level, it's hard to believe Howell reportedly charged strip-club expenses to the NFLPA. Basically, once a set of facts takes on the feel of a Coen Brothers film, it's impossible to rule out further Fargo-style moronity. As the OneTeam compensation program goes, it likely boils down to whether there are text messages or emails that are damning to Howell, and possibly others. Would it be ludicrous for such communications to exist? Yes. But, again, we're firmly in the realm of Joel and Ethan Coen. The episode touched on other issues relating to the events that have consumed the NFLPA, including the hiring of Howell in June 2023 and the selection of Jalen Reeves-Maybin over Kelvin Beachum to be the NFLPA president in March 2024. The potential theme that emerges from the three episodes is, for me, this: Someone apparently wanted to stack NFLPA leadership with people who could be controlled. People who wouldn't ask, or couldn't formulate, questions that would push back against the things that Howell and/or former NFLPA president (and now-former NFLPA chief strategy officer) JC Tretter wanted to do. Beachum, for example, may have been a superior candidate to Reeves-Maybin. But Beachum, as Pablo reports, was asking questions about OneTeam. Whether it was deliberate or accidental, the effect of creating a top-secret approach to union matters was to enable potential (or actual) abuses to occur undetected and unchallenged. And here we are. Howell abruptly resigned, on the brink of ESPN releasing the strip-club expense-report story. And that was preceded by reports regarding the OneTeam issue, a hidden collusion ruling that should have been used as a sword by the union, and Howell's cartoonish conflict of interest arising from a paid side gig with a private-equity firm that is in bed with the NFL. The probe of the NFLPA's effort to pay Howell and others for OneTeam work caught the attention of the federal government. The inexplicably hidden collusion ruling sparked my unofficial partnership with Pablo Torre. ESPN's Don Van Natta Jr. and Kalyn Kahler then joined the fray. The snowball grew. Howell resigned. Tretter resigned. The federal investigation may be expanding. Either way, there are still plenty of questions to answer, regarding both how the NFLPA got here and where it will go next. And, yes, it could culminate in yet another collaboration between PFT and PTFO. FML.
Fox News
17 hours ago
- Fox News
Patel fires back at media critics after uncovering secret FBI 'burn bags' with classified documents
FBI Director Kash Patel called out the left-wing media Saturday for labeling him a liar over his discovery of a trove of sensitive documents related to the origins of the Trump-Russia probe buried in multiple "burn bags" in a secret room inside the bureau. Sources previously told Fox News Digital the "burn bag" system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher. Sources also said multiple burn bags were found and filled with thousands of documents. One document FBI officials found in a burn bag, sources said, was the classified annex to former special counsel John Durham's final report, which includes the underlying intelligence he reviewed. Patel addressed the burn bags on X, reminding people of what he proved in 2017 and 2018. "In 2017/18, I proved the Steele Dossier was fictitious intelligence, weaponized by corrupt FBI officials to deceive a federal judge and unlawfully spy on then presidential candidate Trump's campaign – all paid for by his opponent," the FBI director said. "The media called me a liar. "Now I'm the FBI Director: We just uncovered burn bags/room filled with Russia Gate files, including the Durham annex, and declassified them," Patel continued. "Once again, I released the prior FBI's own documents and exposed the truth. The same media is calling me a liar again. Maybe this FBI will release more docs directly, from FBI HQ…so we can see who is lying – wouldn't want to deprive the fake news of more bogus Pulitzers." The declassification of the classified annex is being done in close coordination between CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman. The declassified annex will be transmitted to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who ultimately will release the document to the public. Patel, in a June interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, revealed that he found a room full of documents and computer hard drives "that no one had ever seen or heard of." "Just think about this," Patel told Rogan. "Me, as director of the FBI, the former 'Russiagate guy,' when I first got to the bureau, found a room that Comey and others hid from the world in the Hoover Building, full of documents and computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of. Locked the key and hid access and just said, 'No one's ever gonna find this place.'" Patel and his staff have been working through the documents, some of which are related to sensitive investigations, including the FBI's original Trump–Russia probe, known inside the bureau as Crossfire Hurricane. It is unclear what the latest documents cover specifically, but sources told Fox News Digital that the most recent discovery was pursuant to an investigative request from Grassley. Patel has turned the documents over to Grassley. Grassley has been requesting information related to Durham's probe. Durham was appointed after then-special counsel Robert Mueller completed his yearslong investigation into the origins of the Trump–Russia probe — including intelligence community malfeasance during and in the aftermath of the 2016 election. Sources told Fox News Digital that Grassley's team is now reviewing the underlying information as part of its investigative work. As for the other records, Patel's staff is working to turn them over to Congress pursuant to investigative requests by committees of jurisdiction.
