Auto Racing
African-American pioneer enters NASCAR’s hall
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wendell Scott earned a second NASCAR first Wednesday: He became the first African-American driver to be elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
The late driver from Virginia was among the latest group of five – all drivers, another first – enshrined into the hall Wednesday. Scott joined popular NASCAR champion Bill Elliott, 26-time race winner Fred Lorenzen, two-time series champ Joe Weatherly and 1960 champion Rex White.
Cycling
Rogers cleared of doping, then wins Giro’s Stage 11
SAVONA, Italy – Michael Rogers took advantage of a downhill attack to win the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday, while fellow Australian Cadel Evans retained the overall lead.
Rogers, recently cleared of a doping charge, attacked with more than 12 miles to go in the 155-mile leg from Collecchio to Savona, just after the pack got over a category-2 climb.
Evans’ 57-second lead over Rigoberto Uran remained unchanged entering Thursday’s 26-mile individual time trial.
NFL
Ex-players claim teams gave pain pills ‘like candy’
Former NFL lineman Jeremy Newberry often hobbled into the 49ers locker room on game days using crutches and a walking boot, then lined up behind as many as two dozen teammates, in his case to get a shot of the painkiller Toradol in the butt. Ten minutes later, he sprinted out of the tunnel and onto the field.
The toughness of pro football players may be legendary, but a lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of more than 600 former players contends it was abetted by team physicians and trainers across the NFL who routinely – and often illegally – dispensed powerful narcotics and other controlled substances on game days to mask the pain.
Among them were sleep aids such as Ambien, the painkillers Percocet, Percodan and Vicodin and anti-inflammatories such as Toradol – “handed out like candy at Halloween.” The lawsuit also charges the drugs sometimes were given in combinations as “cocktails.”
The lawsuit covers the years 1968-2008.
Olympics
USOC chief salary bumped by deferred bonus payout
DENVER – U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive officer Scott Blackmun received a payoff on deferred bonuses that inflated his 2013 salary to $1.275 million – a number expected to decrease in future years because of a new contract structure.
In tax forms filed by the USOC, nearly $750,000 of Blackmun’s 2013 salary was listed as bonus and incentive compensation; $425,000 of that was deferred from the time he joined the USOC in 2010 through 2012.
Last year, he signed a new contract that raised his annual base salary 10 percent, to $550,000, and eliminated long-term incentive bonuses.
Among the sports federations receiving the largest USOC grants were the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, which got $4.73 million and produced 17 medal winners at the Sochi Games.
Other notables from the 2013 tax form:
The athlete performance pool, which supports athlete training, increased from $11.42 million to $12.74 million.
The USOC increased funding into the athlete insurance program from $5.12 million to $6.16 million.
Operation Gold, a funding program for athletes who win medals at Olympics and world championships, decreased by more than $4 million because 2013 was a non-Olympic year.
Total expenses dropped from $247 million to $195 million – another byproduct of a non-Olympic year, while total revenue plummeted from $338 million to $168 million because there was no payout for televising the Olympics. The USOC builds its budget in four-year increments that account for the drastic differences between Olympic and non-Olympic years.
Associated Press
