Author: tourist_yp6g7u

The unthinkable became the Jets’ devastating actuality.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was acquired by the franchise last April with enormous expectations that he was the missing piece to a potential Super Bowl team, tore his left Achilles tendon on Monday. 

In the season-opening game for the Jets and Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Rodgers was sacked by Bills defensive end Leonard Floyd on just the offense’s fourth snap, causing what was confirmed on Tuesday as a season-ending injury.

To frame the occurrence in a more exasperating and emotionally piercing context for Jets fans who have craved another Super Bowl title since the team’s first and only in 1969, 54 years ago, Rodgers, who many believed could help deliver the coveted prize, played less than 5 minutes of the 2023 season. 

The Jets defeating the Bills 22-16 in overtime on a dramatic 65-yard game-ending punt return by rookie Xavier  Gipson with 9:02 remaining had the relevance of a footnote contrasted with Rodgers’ injury. The Jets’ swarming, relentless defense and quarterback Zach Wilson, who replaced Rodgers, limiting his consequential mistakes to one interception, helped the team fight back from a 13-3 halftime deficit was commendable. 

Second-year running back Breece Hall, playing his first regular season game since tearing the ACL in his right knee last October 23 in Week 7 and cutting short a sensational rookie season, was inspiring. Hall looked explosive and fully recovered on Monday night, rushing for a dazzling 127 yards. However, it was an afterthought in light of the Jets’ championship aspirations and the 39-year-old Rodgers’ career in doubt.   

“I’m going to enjoy this win,” said Jets head coach Robert Saleh in his postgame press conference. “Winning in the NFL is hard regardless of who the quarterback is. But personally, I don’t hurt for me, I don’t hurt for the locker room. I hurt for Aaron. I’m still going to say a prayer, hold out hope. My heart’s with Aaron now, no one else.”

On Tuesday, Saleh expanded on his sentiments. 

“I feel more for Aaron than anyone,” he said of the four-time NFL MVP. “He’s invested so much into this organization, so much into this journey he’s embarked on and wanting to be a part of what we have going here, and…into not only this organization, but his teammates, himself, this fanbase, this city. I have a lot of emotions for him.” 

The Jets will face the 1-0 Dallas Cowboys on the road this Sunday (4:25 p.m.). The Cowboys crushed the Giants at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night 40-0.

The post Jets recalibrate after Aaron Rodgers is lost for season  appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here

After two weeks of compelling and history-making tennis, the 2023 U.S. Open ended this past Sunday with the men’s singles final between No. 2 seed Novak Djokovic and No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev. Djokovic earned his 24th Grand Slam singles title with a 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 win to tie Margaret Court for the most ever.

After the match, which included an epic second set that lasted 1 hour, 44 minutes, Djokovic reflected on the significance of the moment.

“It obviously means the world to me, I’m really living my childhood dream to compete at the higher level in sport, which has given me and my family so much from difficult circumstances,” he said. “I never thought I would be here but I thought I had a shot at history. Why not grab it when it is presented?”

While still on the court, Djokovic displayed a shirt featuring a picture of himself and Kobe Bryant with the caption “Mama Forever.”

A touching tribute to the late basketball legend.

“I thought of doing this t-shirt eventually, if I get the chance to win the tournament, about seven days ago,” he explained. “I didn’t share it with anyone until a few days ago when I asked my people to help me out to make this shirt.

“Kobe was a close friend, we chatted a lot about winners mentality,” the 36-year-old star from Serbia explained. “When I was struggling and trying to make my comeback, work my way back to the top of the game, he was one of the people I relied on the most. He was always there for any kind of support in the most friendly way.

“Of course what happened a few years ago with him and his daughter passing, hurt me deeply. I thought ‘24’ is the jersey that he wore when he became a legend of the Lakers and of the world of basketball. I thought it could be a nice symbolic thing to acknowledge him for all of the things he’s done.”

Djokovic defeated 20-year-old Ben Shelton in the semifinals, while Medvedev upset No. 1 seed and last year’s U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcaraz.

Shelton bested Tommy Paul in the fourth round and then Francis Tiafoe in the quarterfinals. After being ousted, the former Florida Gator shared his thoughts on his experience playing at the Open.

“I think I learned a lot about myself these two weeks, knowing how deep I can dig and what I can do competitively out on the tennis court, because I think it’s such a mental sport,” said Shelton. “I think that’s such a big side of it.
“Every loss hurts. It cuts you a little bit. If anything, this week has just motivated me more.”

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* This article was originally published here

For several years, Emmanuel Savary and Starr Andrews were the lone African American skaters competing in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. After several injuries, Savary stepped away from the sport, leaving Andrews as the lone Black skater at the 2021 U.S. Championships. That picture changed in 2023, when Alexa Gasparotto joined Andrews in the senior women’s event.

Feeling disappointed by how his skating career halted, Savary has decided to return to competitive skating, and last weekend made a statement by winning the senior men’s event at the Middle Atlantic Figure Skating Championship, held at SkyRink at Chelsea Piers.

“It’s nice to be back; it’s been awhile,” said Savary, 25, who first competed in NYC when he was 11. “Happy to skate and looking forward to the future. I’m coming back for one more year. My swan song season, I guess you could say. The goal is to go to Nationals and skate the best that I can, and I can move on with my other goals in life. I’m finishing up college (studying physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware) and coaching a little bit as well.”

A student of Savary’s, Gabriella Alexander, made the trip to New York with her family to see him compete. “I hope to see more people who look like me skating in the near future,” she said. “Being on the ice is so magical.”

Nathan Chapple won the silver medal in the senior men’s event. “It felt great; it felt easy,” he said. “I like to perform, so it felt good. One of the major things I like to do is perform. I’d like to take that to a higher level.”

Gasparotto finished eighth overall in the senior women’s competition. She has been beset by several injuries over the past few months but is persevering in her training by prioritizing quality over quantity and adding physical therapy. Expectations are high because she is the recipient of this year’s Mabel Fairbanks Skatingly Yours Fund Elite Award, which provided her with $20,000 toward her training.

“I feel very supported,” she said. “I feel I’m turning into the role model that I always wanted to be.”

Rohene Ward and Amber Gil coach both Chapple and Gasparotto. “It’s important for them to put their programs out there and be seen,” said Ward. “I thought it was a great event. Very musical skaters.”

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* This article was originally published here

Middle blocker Nailah Jenkins assumed her competitive volleyball days would end after she earned her bachelor’s degree at Northeastern, but the additional year of eligibility granted to all student-athletes who were in school during the 2020-21 academic year has given her one more year to compete in the sport she loves. She is finding her groove with the volleyball team at Fordham University, which has a record of 7–1.

“It’s definitely a little weird going from living somewhere for four years and being on the same team for four years, to adjusting to a completely new place, new people, new style of volleyball, [and a] new conference and everything, but the girls on the team honestly made the adjustment so seamless and easy,” said Jenkins.

Over the summer, Jenkins joined the Fordham volleyball team for an international trip to Japan. That provided a lot of shared experiences that helped her mesh with the team. She’s enjoying the new team culture and coaching. While she is one of the most experienced players, she is willing to listen and learn from the Fordham veterans on the team.

“The girls have also been really great about asking volleyball advice and letting me share my experiences and knowledge about volleyball,” said Jenkins, who is pursuing a master’s degree in health administration. “They’ve been so receptive to having a grad transfer on the team.”

Jenkins chose Fordham because she had heard many positive things about head volleyball coach Ian Choi and the program. She knew the team needed a middle blocker, so it was a good fit. Also, after four years in Boston, she was eager to play in another big city, and New York City fits that bill nicely. Jenkins said seeing the many different cultures of the city is inspiring, noting there is somewhere for everything.

“I did my undergrad in health sciences and Fordham had the perfect one-year master’s program for me,” Jenkins said. “I think I want to go into healthcare and business. I’m interested in healthcare consulting or medical device sales or marketing. I’m not quite sure yet, but I’m hoping that my master’s will really open my eyes to something I’ll be passionate about in the long run. So I’m excited to take these new classes and gain new skills through my master’s program.”

Fordham hosts the Rose Hill Classic this weekend, facing off against Dartmouth and Fairleigh Dickinson.

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* This article was originally published here

The last couple of weeks of WNBA regular season play have been jam-packed for the New York Liberty. The team headed into Sunday afternoon’s Fan Appreciation Day game against the Washington Mystics on an eight-game winning streak. Having just secured a playoff spot after an up-and-down 19–21 season, the Mystics were determined to reassert the presence that brought them the 2019 WNBA title.

The game was incredibly tight, with the Mystics prevailing 90–88. The Liberty will get another chance to assert their dominance because the Mystics are the Liberty’s first-round opponent in the playoffs. Game one is at Barclays Center on Friday night and game two is at Barclays on Tuesday. New York and Washington are 2–2 this season.

“Our fans have been great the entire season, so being able to play here in front of them and have them support us and push us through is going to be amazing,” said Jonquel Jones, who had 19 points and nine rebounds in Sunday’s game. “Any time we get them involved and engaged in a game and we play the right style of basketball, it definitely shows and you can feel it out there.”

Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said every bench is important, and this team’s bench has continued to show its skills this season. Marine Johannès has been outstanding all season, and put up 11 points off the bench against the Mystics.

“We want them to come out and continue to bring the energy. We don’t know how the game is going, so they’re vital for our success,” said Brondello. “It’s going to be important for us. We want them to be confident when they’re out there and bring what they do best.”

Jones noted that the Liberty’s toughness and togetherness are hallmarks of this team. “We have a very special group and I’m very excited about what we’re going to do in the playoffs,” she said. 

The Liberty are the only remaining original franchise in the WNBA not to have won a championship. The team hasn’t been to the Finals since 2002.

Round one of the WNBA playoffs begins on Wednesday as the four-time WNBA Champion Minnesota Lynx take on the Connecticut Sun and the defending WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces play the 2021 Champion Chicago Sky. On Friday, after the New York versus Washington game, the Atlanta Dream will take on the Dallas Wings.

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* This article was originally published here

Five MLBbros were recently nominated for one of the most prestigious honors in baseball—the Roberto Clemente Award.

Aaron Judge, Tony Kemp, Josiah Gray, Marcus Stroman, and Hunter Greene are among the players under consideration.
The award annually recognizes “the player who best represents the game through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions, both on and off the field,” according to MLB.com.
Clemente, an Afro Latino from Carolina, Puerto Rico, is widely viewed by baseball historians as one of the greatest players of all-time, spending his entire Major League Baseball career, spanning from 1955 to 1972, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was also a revered humanitarian who died at the age of 38 in a plane crash on December 31, 1972, on a mission to deliver aid to Nicaragua after a massive earthquake shook the country.  
While the five Black candidates for Roberto Clemente Award have had success on the field, the work the players have carried out off the field has also been lauded. The last Black player to earn the accolade was Curtis Granderson in 2016 when he was a member of the New York Mets. Andrew McCutchen won the award the prior year while playing for the Pirates.

Aaron Judge, New York Yankees

The 2022 AL MVP’s ALL RISE Foundation was created in 2018 and has helped more than 2,000 children in New York and his hometown of Linden, California. The organization has a mini-grant program that helps pay for registration and transportation to leadership conferences. The New York Yankees outfielder holds baseball camps as well.

Tony Kemp, Oakland Athletics

Kemp is on the player committee of Players Alliance, a collective of current and retired baseball and softball players, endeavoring to increase opportunities for Black communities in every aspect of baseball.

One of the initiatives in which Kemp is involved is the +1 Effect campaign, which aims to combat social injustice. He also is a avid supporter of the non-profit HCP Cureblindness

 Josiah Gray, Washington Nationals

Gray is a player ambassador to the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy. In that role he helps with fundraising efforts and serves as a mentor to the participants of the program.

Marcus Stroman, Chicago Cubs 

Stroman’s Height Doesn’t Measure Heart Foundation provides opportunities for young people facing adversity in various aspects of their life. At only 5 foot 8 inches tall, the Long Island native and former New York Met beat the odds as his physical stature did not deter him from becoming a star pitcher for Duke University, two-time MLB All-Star, and 2017 World Baseball Classic MVP.

Hunter Greene, Cincinnati Reds

In his young MLB career, Greene has already become a prominent presence in communities across Cincinnati. One of his signature initiatives is an annual camp named the Hunter Greene Baseball Camp.

Fans can vote for the nominees until October 1 using the link http://mlbtogether.com/clemente21,

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* This article was originally published here

Radical Elders (RE) will have a contingent marching at the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17th in front of the United Nations. 

RE members who spoke with the Amsterdam News say they are excited to take part in the march––and looking forward to, for the first time, physically meeting some of their fellow organizational members.

Following several discussions and ideas about forming some sort of activist group for people over the age of 55, the RE established itself as a national organization and held its first official meeting virtually, on Oct. 27, 2021. 

Writer Maritza Arrastia, a Puerto Rican independence and socialism movement activist, is one of  RE’s founders. “When I was a young activist, I intended to be a lifelong activist,” she said. “And it seemed like there were so many radical elders, and that it would be great if [we] could come together, bring all of our experience, and try to be part of using the opportunity of the current period to maybe change everything.

“I think not only are we elders, but that the planet has been forcefully turned into a kind of elder planet by climate change. So, it seemed like getting active at this period in our lives was key and I wanted to be part of that.”

The initial Radical Elders meeting kicked off with a pre-recorded welcome from the activist-journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Then the groups’ discussion turned to the plight of today’s elders––and how they are treated as a group in the U.S.

Writer Alfredo Lopez, a former leader of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, told those in the meeting that the way elders are treated is in many ways a signal of how all people will soon be dealt with in our society. “As capitalism continues to collapse, it’s not only that we are threatened, but our knowledge is lost,” he said. “One of the reasons societies keep older people around is because we have knowledge, we have experience. All that gets lost, it gets lost in society; the perspectives that we bring to life, that’s obliterated. Because on the one hand, we’re dying more early than we could. We’re incapacitated more early, and, in many cases, for a substantial amount of our lives. We’re so freaked about having to survive, [that] we don’t think about being able to contribute.”

When society misses out on what elders can provide it’s not just a shame, it can be detrimental, said Zakiya Alake, a community activist from Boston. She said the importance of passing on historical knowledge, as an elder, is vital. 

Alake’s oldest son is 49 and she says she wants him to understand that “Social Security didn’t just magically appear because President Franklin Delano Roosevelt waved his pen. No, it was really [the] radical, militant, largely working-class action in the street that brought us the minimum safety-net programs that we have. And this is important because if we don’t inoculate them…talk about a vaccine! We’ve got to inoculate the successive generations with the spirit to fight for what they need: intelligently, with critical thinking and base-building skills.”

As part of the March to End Fossil Fuels, the Radical Elders––the majority of whom are older than 65––will see many of its members travel to New York and march for a mile and a half to demonstrate their anger with how the U.S. government is tackling climate instability. The goal is to push President Biden to permanently end the use of fossil fuels.

RE members want to have a large presence on September 17th to show they’re concerned about climate change. 

And RE members say they want to remain active and pass on important, activist information to others. The organization remains open to new members who want to be part of a group that is designed to be led by people from the global majority: Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.

“It’s funny, you know, I would get on to the Radical Elders webinars and interact with folks, and it’s not so much that I would hear very left-wing politics espoused,” Alake said. “But it’s in the work that we’re doing. 

“We’re saying, it’s not our official tagline, but many of us say, either ‘We’re not done yet,’ or ‘We ain’t finished yet.’ ‘We still have miles to go before we sleep.’”
For more information on  the Radical Elders, see their website https://radicalelders.net/ or email them at: info@radicalelders.net

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* This article was originally published here