FOOTBALL
From an 0-16 season in Cleveland to making a crucial play that helped the Patriots secure a Super Bowl (alongside his twin brother, Devin), Jason McCourty experienced the NFL’s highest peaks and deepest valleys.
After 13 seasons, McCourty announced his retirement this offseason. He said he’ll always think of Tennessee as his football home – the corner spent his first eight seasons there – but there’s no doubt where he had the most fun playing ball.
“As any kid can imagine, you have a sibling that’s close in age, let alone an identical twin, and you got to play together and win the Super Bowl together like that. That’s a storybook ending,” McCourty said. “So that was the most fun. But Tennessee is home. … One was home. One was the most fun I’ve had playing football.”
• Las Vegas Raiders offensive lineman Denzelle Good has been placed on the reserve retired list, leaving a potential hole in the weakest part of the team’s offense.
The Raiders made the surprise announcement that Good had decided to retire. Good was expected to compete for a starting spot at guard on Las Vegas’ line as he worked his way back from reconstructive knee surgery.
SOCCER
SOLO PLEADS GUILTY: Former U.S. women’s national team star goalkeeper Hope Solo pleaded guilty Monday to driving while impaired, almost four months after she was found passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle in North Carolina with her 2-year-old twins inside.
Solo also was charged with misdemeanor child abuse and resisting a public officer in connection with the March 31 incident. Her attorney, Chris Clifton, said those two charges were voluntarily dismissed, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
A news release from the Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office said a judge gave Solo, 40, of Roaring Gap in Alleghany County, a suspended sentence of 24 months and an active sentence of 30 days. She was given 30 days credit for time she spent at an in-patient rehabilitation facility. The judge also ordered Solo to pay $2,500 in fines and a $600 fee for the cost of the lab tests. She also has to get a substance abuse assessment and complete all recommended treatment.
In a statement released after her guilty plea, Solo said that although she took pride in motherhood and how she and her husband handled her children during the pandemic, “it was incredibly hard and I made a huge mistake.”
“Easily the worst mistake of my life. I underestimated what a destructive part of my life alcohol had become,” she said.
A police report said Solo was arrested in a shopping center parking lot in Winston-Salem. According to an arrest warrant, a passerby noticed Solo passed out behind the steering wheel for more than an hour with the vehicle’s engine running and the two children in the backseat. A responding officer could smell alcohol, and the warrant said Solo refused a field sobriety test.
FANS: Soccer fans who run onto the field or use objects like smoke bombs and pyrotechnics at matches in England will receive an automatic ban from clubs under new measures to tackle increased anti-social behavior.
Concerns were raised about safety issues inside stadiums following a series of incidents which marred the end of last season in the Premier League and lower leagues.
Among them, Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira kicked out at an Everton fan who was taunting him during a field invasion at Goodison Park and Sheffield United captain Billy Sharp was headbutted in the face by a Nottingham Forest fan at the end of a playoff game in the second-tier Championship. The Forest fan was given a 24-week prison sentence.
MLS: Major League Soccer scoring leader Valentín “Taty” Castellanos is leaving New York City FC on loan to join newly promoted Girona in the Spanish league.
The 23-year-old Argentine forward has 13 goals in the MLS this season, tied at the top with countryman Sebastián Driussi of Austin FC.
NYC said that Castellanos was being loaned to Girona, which like NYC is controlled by City Football Group, the parent company of Manchester City. The loan to the Catalan club is until June 2023.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden was released from a Des Moines hospital and returned to his Tennessee home, where he will wait for an evaluation to determine if he can race this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Team Penske named Santino Ferrucci as its standby driver in case Newgarden is not medically cleared to compete on the road course at Indianapolis. Newgarden collapsed in the motorhome lot Sunday at Iowa Speedway following a late crash in a race he had dominated.
Although the American was cleared by the IndyCar medical staff after his crash, he later lost consciousness and fell to the ground in the bus lot, striking the back of his head. He was airlifted from the track in Newton to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center to speed the 45-minute journey and avoid traffic from the postrace Blake Shelton concert.
Team Penske said Sunday night that all tests on Newgarden had been negative but he was hospitalized overnight for further evaluation.
TENNIS
PRAGUE OPEN: Third-seeded Elise Mertens was eliminated from the Prague Open on Monday after losing her first-round match to unseeded Magda Linette of Poland 3-6, 6-2, 2-6.
Linette next faces Daria Snigur or Viktoriya Tomova in the second round of the outdoor hardcourt tournament.
Sixth-seeded Alison Van Uytvanck retired due to an injury when she was 5-2 down in her first-round match against Dalila Jakupovic. The Slovenian will play next Qiang Wang of China who rallied to beat Rebecca Peterson of Sweden 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4). Eighth-seeded Czech Marie Bouzkova, who reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals, beat Austria’s Sinja Kraus 6-2, 7-6 (2). Lin Zhu, Nao Hibino and Chloe Paquet also advanced.
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