Sports briefs
Wake Forest turns to ETSU’s Forbes
Wake Forest has hired East Tennessee State’s Steve Forbes as its men’s basketball coach.
The school announced the hiring Thursday following a search that concluded less than a week after the school fired Danny Manning.
Forbes, 55, is coming off a five-year run with ETSU that ended with a 30-win season and the Southern Conference Tournament championship before the NCAA Tournament was canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic. He went 130-43 in his time with the Buccaneers, winning at least 24 games each year while also winning the league tournament in 2017 to reach the NCAA Tournament.
Forbes inherits a Wake Forest program mired in a long struggle-filled run. The Demon Deacons have managed just two winning seasons and one NCAA Tournament bid in the past decade going back to the tenure of Jeff Bzdelik. Manning – a former No. 1 overall NBA draft pick – had five losing seasons in his six-year tenure, with the highlight being an appearance in the NCAA First Four in 2017.
The challenges will be about more than just winning games. Wake Forest has been hampered by a lack of roster continuity, with a series of players leaving with eligibility remaining to pursue professional careers or play elsewhere in college.
Cowboys, Worley agree to deal
The Dallas Cowboys have agreed to terms with veteran cornerback Daryl Worley on a free agent deal after the team selected two cornerbacks in last week’s NFL draft.
Worley spent the past two seasons with the Oakland Raiders after playing his first two seasons with Carolina. The 25-year-old Worley, who has five interceptions and 243 tackles in 56 NFL games, was a third-round pick by the Panthers out of West Virginia in the 2016 draft.
Chiefs pick up option on Mahomes
The Kansas City Chiefs insist Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes will play for them for the foreseeable future.
At least for now, that includes the 2021 season.
The Chiefs exercised their fifth-year option on their star quarterback, ensuring he will be under contract for at least the next two seasons. But general manager Brett Veach and coach Andy Reid are hoping to reach a long-term deal with Mahomes by the start of training camp, one that could last four or five years and make the third-year pro the first player in NFL history to make at least $40 million per season.
Woman hit in face by ball sues Cubs
A woman who was struck in the face by a foul ball during a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field two years ago has filed a lawsuit against the team and Major League Baseball.
In her lawsuit filed this week, Laiah Zuniga, 28, says the ball knocked her unconscious, caused fractures under both of her eyes and caused extensive damage to her teeth. She said it hit her because the stadium hadn’t extended the netting that protects fans from foul balls all the way down the third base line, where she was sitting.
The lawsuit also notes that the league’s recommendation for how far to extend such netting still leaves fans like Zuniga at risk of serious injury and points out that had the Cubs extended the netting farther, as some other teams have done, Zuniga would not have been injured.
The lawsuit, which seeks more than $50,000 in damages from the Cubs and MLB, is similar to one filed in 2017 by a suburban Chicago man who was blinded in one eye when he was hit by a foul ball at Wrigley. That case is pending.