Sports briefs
Steelers hold back some ticket inventory
The Pittsburgh Steelers are holding back a portion of their ticket inventory for the 2020 season to be ready in case social distancing measures are required in stadiums this fall.
Individual single game tickets went on sale Friday. Team spokesman Burt Lauten says the club withheld 50% of the allotment as a “proactive” measure should the NFL use social distancing guidelines.
The NFL released its 2020 schedule last month. The Steelers will play 10 games at Heinz Field, beginning with a preseason meeting with Tampa Bay Aug. 14.
The Steelers will make full refunds available “if the NFL or the team cancels a game and it cannot be replayed, or if it is played under conditions that prohibit fans from attending.” If games are postponed or rescheduled, the tickets will be valid for the new date.
NCAA to allow sports workouts
The NCAA is permitting athletes in all sports to participate in voluntary athletic activities on campus beginning June 1.
NCAA’s Division I Council announced Wednesday that it was lifting its moratorium on voluntary workouts in football and men’s and women’s basketball at the end of the month. The NCAA applied it to all sports Friday.
Football Bowl Subdivision members of the Council also have decided FBS schools can’t host football camps and clinics this summer.
Former Jazz coach Sloan dead at 78
Jerry Sloan walked up the steps to the stage at the Basketball Hall of Fame to give his enshrinement speech in 2009, almost as if he were dreading what the next few minutes would bring.
He never wanted the spotlight.
“This is pretty tough for me,” Sloan said that night.
Talking about himself, that wasn’t easy. But basketball, he always made that seem simple.
Sloan, who spent 23 years as coach of the Utah Jazz and took the team to the NBA Finals in 1997 and 1998, died Friday at 78. The team said that for four years he had Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
Sloan presided over the glory days of the John Stockton and Karl Malone pick-and-roll-to-perfection era in Salt Lake City. He is fourth on the NBA’s victory list.
Sloan was a two-time All-Star as a player with the Chicago Bulls, led his alma mater, Evansville, to a pair of NCAA college division national championships and was an assistant coach on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal at the Atlanta Games.
Jets sign Flacco
The New York Jets and quarterback Joe Flacco have agreed to terms on a one-year deal.
The move to bring in Flacco gives third-year starter Sam Darnold a veteran backup, but one who is also coming off a herniated disk that cut short his only season in Denver and required surgery to repair.
The 35-year-old Flacco spent his first 11 NFL seasons in Baltimore, where current Jets general manager Joe Douglas was a scout in 2008 – when the Ravens drafted the quarterback 18th overall out of Delaware.
Ewing has virus
Georgetown basketball coach Patrick Ewing tested positive for COVID-19 and is being treated at a hospital.
The school said the 57-year-old Ewing is the only member of its men’s program who has contracted the coronavirus.
As a player, the 7-foot Ewing helped Georgetown win the 1984 NCAA men’s basketball championship and reach two other title games.