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Alabama football will learn against Texas Longhorns what it couldn’t vs Utah State | Goodbread
For the first time since hosting Kent State in 2011, Alabama football opened a season at home Saturday, so after a decade of empty silence at Bryant-Denny Stadium while the Crimson Tide forged its first victory at points all over the map, things felt a little different.
For players, a departure from neutral-site openers against marquee Power Five opponents; for fans, the advent of alcohol availability and cashless points of sale all over the stadium.
But the one status quo that held was what mattered most, at least for one night: The Crimson Tide looked its usual dominant self in routing Utah State 55-0 for its 21st consecutive season-opening win. There were walk-in touchdowns and suffocating defense and all the merry enthusiasm that naturally ties itself to the hip of 1-0 starts.
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Simultaneously, as star quarterback Bryce Young was stringing together six touchdowns (five passing, one rushing) in less than three quarters of action, another feel-good story was unfolding about 750 miles to the west in Austin, Texas. There, the Texas Longhorns gave their fans the very same warm feeling in trouncing Louisiana-Monroe 52-10 for a home-field hammering of their own.
Two savory sips from the victory cup, neither of which came with even a modicum of resistance from the opposition.
Wins like that can be intoxicating. They can be deceiving, as well.
Where is Alabama’s weak point? If one exists, Utah State didn’t prove capable of exposing it. As for Texas’ Achilles heel, that remains shrouded as well, camouflaged by the hapless Warhawks in a game that was over by halftime. Coaching staffs in both locales will work tirelessly this week to find the cracks, but it’s not an easy task when poring over film of a blowout.
Whatever holes can be punched in these two blueblood programs, they’ll be laid bare for a national TV audience to see when the Crimson Tide travels to Austin in Week 2 for its first real test of the season.
And without mentioning Texas specifically, Alabama coach Nick Saban made reference to it.
“No disrespect to Utah State, their players played hard, they’ve got a good little team. We’re going to play teams that are much more physical and aggressive and talented than what they are,” Saban said. “So we’re going to have to do things correctly, and it’s going to be important to get guys to understand that.”
Texas, ranked No. 18 in the USA Today Sports AFCA Coaches poll, will welcome the Crimson Tide with a few familiar faces, starting with former UA offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, now in his second season at the Texas helm. A handful of transfers have left Alabama for Texas as well, although you’d have barely known it from their impact in UT’s opener. The atmosphere at a tradition-rich venue like Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium is worth a few points by itself, as long as the crowd has reason to make all the noise it can.
ESPN’s “College GameDay” show will emanate from UT as well, as if any more hype is necessary.
“We know we’re going to hostile environment, so we’re going to learn all we can throughout the week. We’ll study, we’ll prepare, because we have a tremendous amount of respect for them,” Young said. “We know it’s going to take everything. We have to work hard throughout the week to put ourselves in the best circumstance to be successful.”
A hostile environment, indeed.
And all the more so for the team that finds out it wasn’t as good as its opener suggested.
Reach Chase Goodbread at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football will learn plenty against Texas Longhorns
Nick Saban
American football coach
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury in U.S. District Court ordered the NFL to pay nearly $4.8 billion in damages Thursday after ruling that the league violated antitrust laws in distributing out-of-market Sunday afternoon games on a premium subscription service.
The jury awarded $4.7 billion in damages to the residential class and $96 million in damages to the commercial class. Since damages can be tripled under federal antitrust laws, the NFL could end up being liable for $14.39 billion.
The lawsuit covered 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses in the United States who paid for the package of out-of-market games from the 2011 through 2022 seasons on DirecTV. The lawsuit claimed the league broke antitrust laws by selling its package of Sunday games at an inflated price. The subscribers also say the league restricted competition by offering “Sunday Ticket” only on a satellite provider.
The NFL said it would appeal the verdict. That appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and then possibly the Supreme Court.
Should the NFL end up paying damages, it could cost each of the 32 teams approximately $449.6 million.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s verdict today in the NFL Sunday Ticket class action lawsuit,” the league said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our media distribution strategy, which features all NFL games broadcast on free over-the-air television in the markets of the participating teams and national distribution of our most popular games, supplemented by many additional choices including RedZone, Sunday Ticket and NFL+, is by far the most fan friendly distribution model in all of sports and entertainment.
“We will certainly contest this decision as we believe that the class action claims in this case are baseless and without merit.”
The trial lasted three weeks and featured testimony from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
“Justice was done. The verdict upholds protection for the consumers in our class. It was a great day for consumers,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Carmody said.
During his closing remarks, Carmody showed an April, 2017, NFL memo that showed the league was exploring a world without “Sunday Ticket” in 2017, where cable channels would air Sunday afternoon out-of-market games not shown on Fox or CBS.
The jury of five men and three women deliberated for nearly five hours before reaching its decision.
Judge Philip S. Gutierrez is scheduled to hear post-trial motions on July 31, including the NFL’s request to have him rule in favor of the league because the judge determined the plaintiffs did not prove their case.
Payment of damages, any changes to the “Sunday Ticket” package and/or the ways the NFL carries its Sunday afternoon games would be stayed until all appeals have been concluded.
The league maintained it had the right to sell “Sunday Ticket” under its antitrust exemption for broadcasting. The plaintiffs said that only covers over-the-air broadcasts and not pay TV.
Other professional sports leagues were also keeping an eye on this case since they also offer out-of-market packages. A major difference though is that MLB, the NBA and the NHL market their packages on multiple distributors and share in the revenue per subscriber instead of receiving an outright rights fee.
DirecTV had “Sunday Ticket” from its inception in 1994 through 2022. The league signed a seven-year deal with Google’s YouTube TV that began with the 2023 season.
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2015 by the Mucky Duck sports bar in San Francisco but was dismissed in 2017. Two years later, the 9th Circuit, which has jurisdiction over California and eight other states, reinstated the case. Gutierrez ruled last year the case could proceed as a class action.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
The average high in Paris on Aug. 1 is 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). The rooms will also be equipped with fans.
“I want the Paris Games to be exemplary from an environmental point of view,” Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has said about the plans for the Olympics.
According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning, and the numbers in Paris are lower than that. The study said that of the 1.6 billion AC units in use across the globe in 2016, more than half were in China (570 million) and the United States (375 million). The entire European Union had around 100 million.
The Olympics mark the most important stop on the athletic careers of the 10,500-plus athletes who will descend on Paris, which has led some high-profile countries to undercut environmental efforts for the sake of comfort.
“It’s a high-performance environment,” Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Strath Gordon explained to The Post.
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers seemed determined to keep playing. And playing. And playing.
The teams opened their Eastern Conference final playoff series with Florida’s 3-2 victory in four overtimes early Friday, with the game ranking as the sixth-longest game in NHL history.
Matthew Tkachuk’s goal came at the 19:47 mark of the fourth OT to end this one, which marked the 15th four-overtime game in NHL history and the longest game in franchise history for each team.
The longest game in NHL history came on March 24, 1936, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Maroons 1-0 in the sixth overtime on Mud Bruneteau’s goal at 116 minutes, 30 seconds of extra play.
Florida’s previous record for longest game was 104:31 in Game 4 of the 1996 Stanley Cup final against Colorado. Carolina’s previous record was 114:47 for Game 3 of the 2002 Stanley Cup final.
The only good news for the teams is they had an extended break before this series began. Carolina closed out New Jersey exactly a week earlier, while Florida eliminated Toronto a day later.
But this game ended roughly six hours after Thursday night’s puck drop, and the teams have a Game 2 in less than 48 hours.
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
