FOOTBALL
Wearing a red cap and a Buffalo Bills pullover, safety Damar Hamlin sat down at the podium and declared he’s ready to resume playing football.
“This event was life-changing, but it’s not the end of my story,” Hamlin said Tuesday, speaking at a news conference at the team’s facility for the first time since he went into cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated on the field during a game at Cincinnati some four months ago.
“I plan on making a comeback to the NFL,” Hamlin added.
Hamlin spoke a few hours after GM Brandon Beane announced that Hamlin was cleared to play and was attending the team’s voluntary workout program, the latest and biggest steps in the 25-year-old’s remarkable recovery.
Beane said the clearance came after Hamlin met with a third and final specialist on Friday, with all three being in agreement that Hamlin can resume playing without any fear of setbacks or complications.
• The Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers are working on a deal that would send wide receiver Allen Robinson to Pittsburgh.
A source with knowledge of the pending agreement tells the Associated Press that Los Angeles would send Robinson and its seventh-round pick (No. 251 overall) in the draft to the Steelers for one of Pittsburgh’s two seventh-round picks (No. 234).
• Former NFL defensive end Chris Smith, who was touched by tragedy while he played for the Cleveland Browns, has died. He was 31.
Smith’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, and the Browns confirmed his passing. The cause of death was not immediately known.
TENNIS
PORSCHE GRAND PRIX: Jelena Ostapenko swept past Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-1 at the indoor clay tourney at Stuttgart, Germany, for the British player’s second consecutive first-round loss.
In a meeting of two former Grand Slam champions, the 2017 French Open winner from Latvia broke Raducanu – the 2021 U.S. Open champion – twice in the first set and ran away with the match in the second as she broke Raducanu to love in consecutive service games.
BMW OPEN: Fifth-seeded Sebastian Baez was upset by Oscar Otte in the first round at Munich as out-of-form Dominic Thiem progressed in his match thanks to a retirement.
Otte was the only one of four Germans to win in front of the home crowd as he beat Baez 6-3, 7-5 with a break of serve in each set.
Former U.S. Open champion Thiem has been plagued by injuries and only got past the first round once in the first three months of 2023. He’s now in the second round for the third tournament in a row after Constant Lestienne retired following Thiem taking the first set 6-3.
BARCELONA OPEN: Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz opened his title defense with a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 win over Nuno Borges in Spain.
Alcaraz’s next opponent will be fellow Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, the 13th-seed who defeated Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-2, 6-2.
Fifth-seeded American Frances Tiafoe lost 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-4 to Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland.
Earlier, Casper Ruud reached the quarterfinals for a second straight year by beating Ben Shelton 6-2, 7-6 (1).
SOCCER
U.S. MEN: United States striker Daryl Dike will be sidelined for up to nine months because of an Achilles tendon injury, his English second-division club said.
West Bromwich Albion said Dike will require surgery to repair a full rupture of the Achilles in his right leg and that he will be out for 6 to 9 months.
The 22-year-old Dike was injured during West Brom’s 2-1 win at Stoke in the Championship on Saturday.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: NASCAR’s final appeals officer restored points that had been stripped from Kaulig Racing for unapproved parts modifications to match the amendments made to Hendrick Motorsports’ penalty for the same infraction.
Both teams were stripped of 100 championship points and 10 playoff points for having unapproved parts in inspection at Phoenix Raceway last month. Both teams appealed and a three-member panel restored the Hendrick points, but upheld $400,000 in fines and four race suspensions for four HMS crew chiefs.
The Kaulig initial appeal upheld all the penalties and Kaulig took its case to NASCAR’s final appeals officer.
OLYMPICS
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Russia has been excluded from qualification for the men’s Olympic basketball tournament in Paris next year, basketball’s international governing body FIBA said.
The decision was widely expected since FIBA has suspended Russia’s teams from international play since shortly after the invasion of Ukraine last year. The International Olympic Committee favors allowing individual athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to compete as neutrals, but not as national teams, like in basketball.
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