FOOTBALL

It didn’t take long for “Hard Knocks: Los Angeles” to reveal its first major surprise of the season as Los Angeles Chargers Coach Anthony Lynn said he had coronavirus during the offseason.

Lynn’s admission came less than five minutes into Tuesday’s season premiere of the show on HBO and produced by NFL Films. He was answering questions about protocols put in place during a videoconference call with his players.

“I can’t promise you you’re not going to get infected. I got infected,” said Lynn, who has recovered from the virus.

Lynn’s experience set the tone for the hour-long show in which the theme was how the Chargers and Rams were taking steps to protect players. The episode also showed the testing procedure for players, which include nasal swab and blood antibody tests.

Players, coaches and some team staff members are tested daily. The NFL extended daily testing until further notice even though the positive test rate from the first two weeks of training camp has been less than 1 percent.

• The Buffalo Bills signed Coach Sean McDermott to a multiyear contract extension.

A person with direct knowledge told the Associated Press the contract is a four-year extension that runs through the 2025 season. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the Bills have not released that information. McDermott had two years remaining on his original deal.

• Eagles Coach Doug Pederson has returned to the team after missing less than two weeks because of the coronavirus.

Pederson said he stayed engaged with the team virtually and watched practices on video while quarantining at home.

“I obviously didn’t want to miss any time. I was able to still run the team from my home,” Pederson said Wednesday.

Pederson, 52, enters his fifth season as Philadelphia’s head coach. He has led the Eagles to three straight playoff appearances and the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory following the 2017 season.

• The Denver Broncos added veteran offensive tackle Demar Dotson to plug an experience gap following Ja’Wuan James ‘ decision to opt out of the season because of the coronavirus.

Dotson, who spent his first 11 NFL seasons with Tampa Bay, signed a one-year deal with Denver.

• Howard Mudd, a former NFL All-Pro player for the San Francisco 49ers and longtime offensive line coach, has died. He was 78.

Mudd was a senior offensive assistant with the Colts last season. The team announced his death but provided no details. Mudd was in a motorcycle accident in the Seattle area recently.

COLLEGES

BIG EAST: The conference announced that men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball and field hockey won’t be contested this fall.

Men’s and women’s basketball are not affected at this time and will be evaluated at a later point.

HOUSTON: Bill Yeoman, the longtime football coach who led Houston to four Southwest Conference titles and a school-record 160 victories, has died. He was 92.

The university announced the death without providing details. Yeoman’s son, Bill Jr., told ESPN his father died of pneumonia and kidney failure.

The school’s first inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame, Yeoman coached the Cougars from 1962-86.

SOCCER

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Paris Saint-Germain staged a stoppage-time comeback to beat Atalanta 2-1 and reach the semifinals for the first time in 25 years.

Marquinho’s 90th-minute goal canceled out Mario Pašalić’s first-half opener for the Italian team and Eric Choupo-Moting got the winner for the French champions in the third minute of stoppage time.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: DeWanna Bonner scored 18 points, Alyssa Thomas added 17 and the Connecticut Sun beat the Dallas Wings, 70-66.

TENNIS

TOP SEED OPEN: American teenager Coco Gauff overcame shaky serving to beat No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-4 and reach the quarterfinals in Lexington, Kentucky, with her third career victory over a top-15 opponent.

ROAD RACING

PARIS MARATHON: The Paris Marathon has been canceled because of the coronavirus after repeated attempts to find a new date, organizers said Wednesday.

The race was originally due to take place in April but was then moved to October. Organizers said they’d recently tried to rearrange the race for November but continuing travel restrictions made that unrealistic.

“Faced with the difficulty that many runners, especially those coming from abroad, had in making themselves available for the 14th / 15th November, it was decided that it would be better and simpler for those concerned if we organized the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris in 2021,” organizers said in a statement.

They will now focus on the 2021 edition of the race. Runners who were registered for this year’s race will be automatically signed up for next year.

CYCLING

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: The road world championships in Switzerland next month were canceled after a government ruling on mass gatherings during the pandemic was extended until October.

However, cycling’s governing body said it still hoped to find a new host for the event on the same dates of Sept. 20-27.

TRACK AND FIELD

RUSSIA PAYS FINE: Russia paid $6.3 million to World Athletics on Wednesday to escape expulsion from track and field’s world governing body.

The federation, known as RusAF had a Saturday deadline to pay a $5 million fine and $1.3 million in costs to World Athletics. That followed the alleged use of forged medical documents to give an athlete an alibi for being unavailable for drug testing. RusAF was threatened with expulsion after it missed an initial July 1 deadline to pay.

“World Athletics can confirm it has today received the funds to settle RusAF’s two outstanding payments,” World Athletics said in a statement.

The Russian Sports Ministry put up the funds after RusAF said it couldn’t pay. The ministry said Wednesday that it gave RusAF “a one-time subsidy for developing the sport, including clearing the debt to World Athletics,” but didn’t specify how much it had transferred.

After the July 1 deadline was missed, World Athletics extended a freeze on allowing Russian athletes to compete as “authorized neutral athletes” in international events until the money is paid and RusAF presents a plan for future anti-doping reforms. The next deadline is to present a draft plan for review by Aug. 31.

RusAF is still serving a suspension imposed in 2015 by World Athletics over widespread doping.

 

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