NFL
NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL has expanded its mandate for mask usage on the sideline and is threatening discipline for those who violate the league’s updated COVID-19 protocols.
The league told teams in a memo on Monday that players who are not substituting or preparing to enter the field of play and are not wearing their helmets will be required to wear a mask or a double-layered gaiter on the sideline, starting this week.
Play-callers now must wear a mask even if they have a face shield. Postgame interactions between players and staff will be limited. Also, players and team personnel must wear masks and may briefly greet opponents after games.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - An all-Black officiating crew worked an NFL game for the first time in league history when the Los Angeles Rams faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
Referee Jerome Boger led the crew, which also included umpire Barry Anderson, down judge Julian Mapp, line judge Carl Johnson, side judge Dale Shaw, field judge Anthony Jeffries and back judge Greg Steed.
When the NFL announced the crew was being assembled last week, league executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent hailed the move a “a testament to the countless and immeasurable contributions of Black officials to the game, their exemplary performance, and to the power of inclusion that is the hallmark of this great game.”
MLB
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Mets have abandoned their search for a president of baseball operations and will instead focus on hiring a general manager who will report to team president Sandy Alderson.
In the meantime, Alderson told Luis Rojas on Monday he will return for a second season as manager.
Alderson said Monday he had been thwarted in attempts to gain permission to speak with officials on other teams for lateral moves, and another possible candidate had a family issue that prevented a move.
NEW YORK (AP) - The Chicago White Sox will host the New York Yankees in the rescheduled Field of Dreams game at Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 12.
MLB said Monday the plan is tentative, contingent on the status of public health next summer.
The teams had been scheduled to play at the 8,000-capacity temporary ballpark next to the Field of Dreams movie site last Aug. 13. When the schedule was revamped because of the delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Yankees were replaced as the opponent by the St. Louis Cardinals, but the game was called off on Aug. 4 because of the pandemic.
NBA
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis met with NBA players at the Vatican on Monday, lauding them as “champions” and saying he supported their work on social justice.
The five players - Marco Belinelli, Sterling Brown, Jonathan Isaac, Kyle Korver and Anthony Tolliver - were joined in the delegation by NBA players’ union executive director Michele Roberts and two other union executives, Sherrie Deans and Matteo Zuretti.
“We’re here because, frankly, we’re inspired by the work that you do globally,” Roberts told the pope during the meeting in the papal library.
The union said the players spoke about their “individual and collective efforts addressing social and economic injustice and inequality occurring in their communities.”
NHL
CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago Blackhawks on Monday hired Kendall Coyne Schofield as a player development coach, making her the first woman to hold that position in the organization’s 94-year history.
Coyne Schofield, 28, will work with the coaching staff of Chicago’s top minor league affiliate in Rockford, Illinois, and serve as youth hockey growth specialist. The former U.S women’s national team forward previously held broadcasting jobs with NBC Sports and the San Jose Sharks.
Chicago also added former NHL forward Erik Condra as player development coach, hired Juan Gonzalez from USA Hockey to be a minor league strength and conditioning coach and promoted Meghan Hunter to director of hockey administration and amateur scout.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - The Southeastern Conference has shuffled its schedule, pushing back the Arkansas-Missouri and Tennessee-Vanderbilt games that had been set for Saturday.
The league announced Monday that it has postponed the Arkansas-Missouri game because of a combination of positive tests, contact tracing and the resulting quarantining within the Arkansas program.
Vanderbilt and Missouri will now meet Saturday to make up a game that was postponed on Oct. 17.
AUTO RACING
Tony Kanaan will have another chance for a proper IndyCar farewell tour with a two-year deal to partner with Jimmie Johnson at Chip Ganassi Racing.
Kanaan will compete in the four oval events on IndyCar’s 2021 schedule that Johnson does not plan to run. The seven-time NASCAR champion signed on for the road and street course events, and Ganassi announced Monday that Kanaan will complete the season in the No. 48 Honda.
Kanaan’s 23rd season was supposed to be his last but the popular Brazilian was able to put together only a six-race farewell on IndyCar’s ovals. The pandemic then disrupted the entire year and Kanaan was not able to celebrate the end of his career with fans.
IDITAROD
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner said Monday that he won’t defend his title at next year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race because of restrictions and uncertainty over travel during the coronavirus pandemic.
“I cannot find a way to get the dogs to Alaska,” Waerner said in an email to The Associated Press.
As he learned earlier this year, getting to Alaska is only half the battle: Waerner wasn’t able to return to his wife and five children in Torpa, Norway, for months after winning the world’s most famous sled dog race because travel was restricted as the pandemic took hold. The Iditarod was one of the few professional sports that wasn’t canceled last March.
OBITUARY
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Billy Evans, a member of the 1956 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team and Kentucky Hall of Famer who helped the Wildcats go 25-0 in 1953-54, has died. He was 88.
The school announced Evans’ death on Sunday upon confirmation from his family. He had 716 points and 549 rebounds in 83 career games over three seasons from 1952-55 playing under legendary coach Adolph Rupp.
Evans was selected by the Rochester Royals in the fifth round of the 1955 NBA draft, a year before he won gold with the U.S. at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, with Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame teammates Bill Russell and K.C. Jones.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - Anele Ngcongca, a former South Africa defender who played for the host team at the 2010 World Cup, died in a car crash early Monday. He was 33.
The South African government said Ngcongca died in the crash in the Kwazulu-Natal province. South African media reports said he was a passenger in the car and the driver, a woman, was in the hospital in critical condition. She was not identified.
Ngcongca played for South Africa from 2009-16. He made 53 appearances for Bafana Bafana and was a member of the team when South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup.
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