Sports briefs
In college football
Deion Sanders arrived at Colorado in December with much fanfare and a blunt message to Buffaloes players who had just endured a 1-11 season under the previous coaching regime.
Be ready to transfer, the new head coach told them in his first team meeting.
Colorado has had a total of 52 scholarship players enter the transfer portal in the five months since the Pro Football Hall of Famer was hired away from Jackson State. The pace picked up rapidly last month:
The spring transfer period in college football closed Sunday night with 43 scholarship players – the equivalent of half a roster – from Sanders’ program having entered the portal since more than 40,000 fans showed up at Folsom Field in Boulder for Colorado’s spring game on April 15.
It is unprecedented turnover in this new era of loosened transfer rules, and almost double that total of the next largest number of players entering the portal among the 11 Power Five programs with a new head coach.
Arizona State is next with 27 scholarships players entering the portal. Nebraska has had 23 scholarship players enter the portal since November.
- Wisconsin wide receiver Markus Allen is facing a charge of carrying a concealed weapon after officers found a gun on him at a block party over the weekend, Madison police said.
Allen was one of more than 40 people arrested at the party Saturday on various charges.
In the NHL
The Calgary Flames started the 2022-23 season making a long-term commitment to head coach Darryl Sutter, and ended it looking for a different voice behind the bench.
The Flames fired Sutter on Monday in the latest major change at the NHL club after a disappointing season. Sutter’s dismissal comes 11 months after being the winner of the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.
“I interviewed 25 players, coaches, coaching staff, training staff, spoke to prominent agents who represent key players on our team, and it became clear to me that we need a new voice to guide us forward,” Flames president of hockey operations and interim general manager Don Maloney said.
One year after winning the Pacific Division and advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flames fell to fifth in the division and missed the postseason with a 38-27-17 record.
- There appears to be celebrity interest in buying the Ottawa Senators, the National Hockey League team for sale in Canada’s capital city.
Rap impresario Snoop Dogg said in an Instagram post Monday that he was “looking forward” to being part of a bid by Los Angeles-based businessman Neko Sparks, who would be the first Black owner of an NHL team.
- Minnesota Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek, whose participation in the first-round NHL playoff series loss to Dallas was limited to just one shift, was trying to play with a broken left leg that he wound up having surgery to fix.
Eriksson Ek revealed Monday that he suffered a fractured fibula, the smaller of the two bones in the lower leg, from a shot he blocked April 6 at Pittsburgh. Eriksson Ek missed the last four regular-season games and the first two games of the series against the Stars before being cleared April 21 for Game 3.
His return lasted only 19 seconds, and he had the procedure after that.
In the NFL
The Buffalo Bills signed running back Latavius Murray to a one-year contract, adding a veteran and productive presence to their relatively young and thin backfield.
The 33-year-old Murray has nine seasons of NFL experience and combined for 760 yards and six touchdowns split between Denver and New Orleans last year. He is the league’s active leader in scoring at least four touchdowns rushing in eight consecutive seasons.
In the NBA
The New York Knicks know how difficult it is having to play a postseason game without their do-everything forward.
The Miami Heat don’t want to be reminded what it’s like now.
Jimmy Butler’s status is uncertain for Miami. The Knicks aren’t sure yet about Julius Randle. That makes it hard to predict what will happen when the Heat try for a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference semifinal series on Tuesday night.