More stories

  • in

    On a Rerouted Road Trip, Aaron Rodgers Looked Disoriented

    The Packers quarterback was intercepted twice in a lackluster showing, while the Saints’ Jameis Winston threw five touchdown passes to take down the Packers.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Saints’ home game that was scheduled to be held Sunday amid climate-controlled pandemonium in New Orleans was instead staged in dryer-vent conditions in north Florida before hordes of fans wearing foam blocks of cheese on their heads — and yet somehow all that seemed downright normal compared to what was transpiring on the field.A quarterback at TIAA Bank Field threw the ball to the other team, made reckless decisions and wilted under pressure, but it was not the player whose career has abounded with face-palming blunders. The culprit bore a striking resemblance to one Aaron Charles Rodgers, the N.F.L.’s reigning most valuable player and the protagonist of what will be its most captivating season-long saga.Rodgers said many months ago that his future was a “beautiful mystery,” a term shrouded in inscrutability. Whether he would retire, refuse to play again for Green Bay or host “Jeopardy!” — it all seemed feasible, or at least not unfeasible, as the extent of his dissatisfaction with the Packers front office emerged. He addressed his grievances with the Packers in stunning candor, vowed to compartmentalize and resumed preparing for what very well could be his final season with the team.Late in the third quarter of the Saints’ 38-3 demolition, Rodgers sat slouched on Green Bay’s sun-drenched sideline. The Saints had just converted his second interception in as many drives into a touchdown, and it would soon get worse. On the next drive, the Packers turned the ball over on downs and, given another opportunity to outclass Rodgers, Jameis Winston tossed his fourth touchdown pass. A few minutes later, Winston threw his fifth.If the Packers demonstrated a certain clumsiness in hatching their succession plan at quarterback, believing after the 2019 season that Rodgers had approached an irreversible decline and then trading up to draft Jordan Love without communicating those intentions to Rodgers, the Saints pursued a more conventional route to replacing Drew Brees: They bought low on Winston. He had been a remarkable talent who, if he can only improve his risk management after five turbulent seasons in Tampa Bay, might be molded into a better version of himself — strong-armed but disciplined.That is how Winston looked on Sunday, bypassing riskier throws he might have relished earlier in his career in favor of safer, shorter passes that extended drives. He threw for only 148 yards, with 55 coming on a majestic deep ball to Deonte Harris that revealed the facade of Winston’s training-camp competition with Taysom Hill.But even if Winston didn’t fling the ball downfield much, Saints Coach Sean Payton still showed his trust in him by going for two fourth-down conversions during a second-quarter drive. Winston converted both with throws to Juwan Johnson, including a 1-yard score that extended the Saints’ lead to 17-0.The Packers kicked a field goal as time expired in the first half, then drove 66 yards to the Saints’ 9-yard line before Rodgers morphed into Winston, circa 2019. Chased out of the pocket, Rodgers darted forward and tried whipping a pass to Davante Adams, who was cutting toward the near sideline. The ball zipped behind him and into the arms of the rookie cornerback Paulson Adebo. Rodgers lamented his bad decision — he should have thrown it, he said, to Aaron Jones in the flat.“Obviously,” Rodgers said, “the play of the game.”Rodgers is beyond aware of how the Packers’ last two seasons unfolded and concluded, of their going 13-3 before losing in the N.F.C. championship game, in back-to-back attempts. Their defeat in January at home against the Buccaneers, and how it ended — with Coach Matt LaFleur attempting a close field goal instead of trusting his quarterback to surmount an 8-point deficit — contributed to the urgency facing this team.Whether the Packers believe it or not, they are under pressure to reach the Super Bowl this season. They have a dire salary-cap situation, Adams appears eager to test free agency, and Rodgers, through concessions Green Bay made with his contract, has the power to determine where he plays next season. Rodgers said last week that he was “in a good head space.”“The feel that I get with the energy in the locker room is not pressure — it’s focus,” Rodgers said last week. “I think it’s the right perspective and the right type of focus.”After Sunday’s game, Rodgers suggested he thought the Packers were a bit complacent, believing that they would throttle a team displaced by Hurricane Ida. The Saints bypassed Florida’s other N.F.L. destinations — Tampa Bay and Miami — for Jacksonville because, in part, of its relative inaccessibility and the heat and humidity, which sapped the Packers’ energy.“We felt like the hotter, the better,” Payton said.But, according to The New Orleans Times-Picayune, it also didn’t escape the Saints that Rodgers was 3-4 with a 78.1 passer rating — which would have ranked 32nd in the league last season — in games played in Florida. Rodgers, pulled for Love with about 11 minutes left as the Packers faced a large deficit, is now 3-5 in the Sunshine State.“It’s just one game,” said Rodgers, who completed 15 of 28 passes for 133 yards. “We played bad. I played bad.”The Packers might find comfort from precedent: In Week 9 last season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost by the same score to the Saints, then recovered to win the Super Bowl. There is danger in ascribing too much meaning to the first game, in presuming that Winston will continue playing with discipline and poise and that the Packers are plowing toward disappointment. What happens next with any and all of them is, as Rodgers might say, a beautiful mystery. More

  • in

    Saquon Barkley (and Fans) Returned. But So Did Last Season’s Giants.

    Despite the return of the Pro Bowl running back, a ballyhooed defense and a readmitted home crowd, the Giants looked listless in a loss to the Denver Broncos.Running back Saquon Barkley dodged and bulled his way to a 5-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage in Sunday’s game between the Giants and Denver Broncos. Barkley, the cynosure of the Giants’ offense until a torn knee ligament kept him out of 14 games last season, seemed whole again, and the home fans at a packed MetLife Stadium leapt to their feet in response.Moments later, the Giants third-year quarterback, Daniel Jones, threw a 42-yard pass to his favorite receiver, Darius Slayton, which advanced the Giants into Denver territory. There was more unbridled euphoria in the grandstand.Fans were back for the opening game.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesThe Giants honored the 20th anniversary of 9/11.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesBut then the Giants lost eight yards on the next two plays, squandering any chance of scoring even a field goal. One drive later, the Giants ran three desultory plays without gaining a yard and punted. Soon they were trailing Denver by three points. Then by 10 points, then by 17.A new Giants season suddenly looked no different than last year’s 10-loss disappointment. The fans slumped back into their seats.The opening day of a football season always has an air of rebirth — until it feels like a repeat.As the final seconds of Denver’s thorough 27-13 thumping of the Giants wound down — the home team would score a meaningless touchdown on the game’s final play — the MetLife stands were mostly empty. That had been the case last season, because of pandemic restrictions. The void this time, however, felt different, especially since the remaining soundtrack of the event was the raucous cheering of a few thousand Broncos fans.In the end, Barkley rushed for only 26 yards on 10 carries. Jones, charged with reducing the costly turnovers that have been the scourge of his first two seasons as a starter, lost a fumble deep in Denver territory at a pivotal juncture of the game. The Giants’ much ballyhooed defense repeatedly failed to force the Broncos off the field as Denver converted seven of 15 third-downs — and all three fourth-down tries.It left Joe Judge, the second-year Giants coach, cognizant of why Giants fans scurried for the MetLife Stadium exits by the midpoint of the fourth quarter, if not earlier.“We have to earn their respect,” Judge said of the fans. “We have to give them something to cheer about. There was great energy and a great atmosphere in the stadium but we’ve got to do more as a team to make them want to stay and cheer.”Rather than rebirth, the Giants were on repeat.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesRunning back Saquon Barkley was not enough to reverse last season’s disappointment.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesThe star of the game was the resurgent Denver quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who completed 28 of 36 passes for 264 yards and two touchdown passes. The less-observed constituent who had significant impact on the outcome was the Broncos’ offensive coordinator, Pat Shurmur, the former Giants coach who on Sunday flummoxed his old team’s defense.Jones completed 22 of 37 passes for one touchdown. Neither quarterback had an interception and each was sacked twice, although Bridgewater faced only sporadic pressure from the Giants pass rush.After a 15-play drive that took nearly nine minutes, Denver opened the game’s scoring in the second quarter with a 23-yard field goal by Brandon McManus. On their next possession, the Giants came out aggressively on first down with Jones throwing a 17-yard pass over the middle to receiver Kenny Golladay, one of the team’s foremost off-season free agent acquisitions.Four plays and a defensive pass interference penalty later, the Giants pushed into the Broncos’ end of the field. On a first down, Sterling Shepard, the longest-tenured Giant, ran a lengthy crossing route and caught a precise Jones pass before diving into the end zone for a 37-yard touchdown that gave the home team a 7-3 lead.In roughly two minutes at the end of the first half, led by the poise, elusiveness and accuracy of Bridgewater, Denver had regained the lead. Bridgewater completed six consecutive passes, the last a 2-yard touchdown toss to Tim Patrick that sent the Broncos into the game’s intermission with a 10-7 lead.Denver picked up where it left off after receiving the second-half kickoff. Although the Broncos’ running game was nonexistent, the Giants’ pass defense was still overwhelmed, in part because the feeble Giants offense kept it on the field for so much of the game.Giants fans showed their displeasure with the team’s performance late in the game.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesJones fumbled on his run in the fourth quarter, all but sealing the loss for the Giants.Michelle Farsi for The New York TimesIt took the Broncos 16 plays to traverse 75 yards, as Bridgewater continually used his legs to extend plays. On the final play of the drive, a fourth-and-1 at the Giants 4-yard line, Bridgewater scrambled to his right as he was closely pursued by Giants safety Xavier McKinney, who was grasping at Bridgewater’s headgear and shoulder pads. On the run, Bridgewater flipped the football into the end zone where Albert Okwuegbunam made an acrobatic catch in traffic for the Broncos’ second touchdown, extending their lead to 17-7.On the following possession, the Giants did mount a comeback — of sorts.After the Giants advanced to the Denver 22-yard line, Jones burst through the middle of the Broncos defensive front for a 7-yard run then wrapped two hands around the football in an attempt to prevent a fumble. But Denver linebacker Josey Jewell punched the ball free from Jones’s grasp and Jewell’s teammate Malik Reed fell on the football at the Denver 15-yard line. Once again, a promising Giants possession ended with a Jones turnover that resulted in a 36-yard McManus field goal that increased the Giants deficit to 20-7.The game was, at that point, all but over.Von Miller of the Broncos hugged his mother after the season opening win on the road.Michelle Farsi for The New York Times More

  • in

    Mick Tingelhoff, Vikings Hall of Fame Center, Dies at 81

    He started in 240 consecutive games and played in four Super Bowls, providing pass protection for quarterback Fran Tarkenton.Mick Tingelhoff, the Hall of Fame center who started in 240 consecutive games in his 17 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings and who played in four Super Bowls, died on Saturday at an assisted living facility in Lakeville, Minn. He was 81.The cause was Parkinson’s disease with dementia, his wife, Phyllis, said.Tingelhoff, who played at center and linebacker for three seasons at the University of Nebraska, wasn’t selected in the N.F.L.’s 1962 draft. But the Vikings signed him, envisioning him as a linebacker.They shifted him to center in their second preseason game, and he became an anchor of their offensive line. He was selected for the Pro Bowl in six consecutive seasons and named a first-team All-Pro five times in the 1960s. Listed at 6 feet 2 inches and 237 pounds, he was quick on his feet and tough enough to block burly defensive linemen.When Tingelhoff retired after the 1978 season, he ranked No. 2 in N.F.L. history for starting in consecutive games, behind his teammate Jim Marshall’s 270 straight starts at defensive end. The current record is held by quarterback Brett Favre, who started in 297 consecutive games. Tingelhoff and quarterback Philip Rivers, who retired after the 2020 season, are tied for No. 3.“Mick and Jim were our two leaders,” Bud Grant, who coached the Vikings of Tingelhoff’s time, told The Star Tribune of Minneapolis when Tingelhoff was selected for the Hall in 2015 in the senior category, for players who had been retired for many years.“It’s hard for me to talk about Mick without Marshall, and Marshall without Mick. Mick was an introvert. Jim was an extrovert. They were different personalities, but really respected and our best players. If I said, ‘Jump,’ they would be the first ones to jump and everybody else would have to jump with them.”Tingelhoff (53) protecting quarterback Fran Tarkenton (10) during Super Bowl IX in New Orleans in 1975.Harry Hall/Associated PressTingelhoff played on an offensive line that helped the Vikings claim 10 divisional titles from 1968 to 1978. He provided pass protection for Fran Tarkenton, the scrambling quarterback, and he opened holes for running back Chuck Foreman, who had three consecutive 1,000-yard rushing seasons (1975-1977). He took on opponents’ middle linebackers, most notably Joe Schmidt of the Detroit Lions, Ray Nitschke of the Green Bay Packers and Dick Butkus of the Chicago Bears.He played on teams that lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the January 1970 Super Bowl, the Miami Dolphins in 1974, the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1975 and the Oakland Raiders in 1977.Tarkenton, a Hall of Famer, spoke on Tingelhoff’s behalf at his 2015 Hall of Fame induction in light of his cognitive problems. “Mick’s a man of little words but a lot of action,” said Tarkenton, who choked up and shed tears. The emotional ceremony was attended by many of Tingelhoff’s former teammates, his wife and other family members and friends.While it’s not clear why Tingelhoff had to endure a lengthy wait to gain entrance to the Hall, in Canton, Ohio, the center position is not a glamour spot and he never won a Super Bowl championship ring.Henry Michael Tingelhoff was born on May 22, 1940, in Lexington, Neb., the youngest of six children of Henry and Clara (Ortmeier) Tingelhoff. He grew up on a family farm and played at center and linebacker for Lexington High School, but his parents never attended his games.“Dad thought football was a waste of time,” Tingelhoff recalled in 2015. “They weren’t real happy that I got a scholarship to Nebraska. They wanted me to stay on the farm.”In addition to his wife, Phyllis (Kent) Tingelhoff, he is survived by their sons Michael and Patrick, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.After leaving pro football, Tingelhoff worked in commercial real estate.Bud Grant called him “one of the greatest Vikings of all time.” More

  • in

    Why Are the Saints and Packers Playing in Jacksonville?

    No, it’s not a misprint. Yes, the end zones at TIAA Bank Stadium, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, really do say “SAINTS.”The New Orleans Saints, displaced by the destruction of Hurricane Ida, will begin the season Sunday against the Green Bay Packers in the teal-tinged wilderness of Jacksonville, Fla., instead of the Superdome’s black-and-gold cacophony. The stadium was available because the Jaguars open on the road, but the site was hardly chosen at random.After evacuating New Orleans on Aug. 28, the Saints settled in North Texas, practicing first at AT&T Stadium in Arlington before shifting to Texas Christian University, in Fort Worth. With AT&T unavailable Sunday because of a conflict, the Saints picked Jacksonville from among Florida’s three N.F.L. locales, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, because of its “relative inaccessibility and unattractiveness as a destination location.”Loving the #Saints support in Jacksonville! #SaintsGameday pic.twitter.com/R1nSdbGwm4— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) September 12, 2021
    The Saints went so far as to research flights to Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville, and discovered that Jacksonville was the hardest — and most expensive — option for Packers fans.“We’re conscious of everything, I think, when it comes to preparing for an opponent,” Saints general manager Mickey Loomis told reporters last week. “The main thing is, hey, we’ve got to have an NFL-ready stadium. Look, there’s just so many variables. I don’t want to get into all the variables that exist, but the main thing is to have a suitable place to play that both teams have access to.”This is expected to be the only home game the Saints play away from New Orleans. Mayor LaToya Cantrell said that the Superdome, which didn’t suffer any major damage, should be ready to host the team’s Week 4 game against the Giants. More

  • in

    NFL Week 1: Here Are the Notable Injuries for Each Team

    Coming into Week 1, most teams’ optimism hinges on the health of their rosters. A few star players whose status had been murky this week, including Giants running back Saquon Barkley, Chargers running back Austin Ekeler, and Colts guard Quenton Nelson, are good to go.Elsewhere, the absence of injured players will temper their teams’ game plans.Notable injuries in the 1 p.m. Eastern games:Jets at Carolina PanthersJets receiver Jamison Crowder (reserve/Covid-19) will miss Sunday’s season opener, while receiver Keelan Cole (knee) will be a game-time decision. And the Panthers will be without receiver Shi Smith, who missed practice this week with a shoulder injury.Los Angeles Chargers at Washington Football TeamThe Washington Football Team placed receiver Curtis Samuel on the injured reserve list earlier this week, so he will miss at least three weeks to nurse a groin injury.Arizona Cardinals at Tennessee TitansThe Titans will be without kicker Sam Ficken, who is on the injured reserve list with a groin injury.Seattle Seahawks at Indianapolis ColtsThe Colts’ veteran cornerback Xavier Rhodes (calf) will miss Sunday’s opener, along with receiver T.Y. Hilton, who re-aggravated a lingering neck injury during a practice last month. Hilton, the Colts’ top receiver, is expected to miss the start of the regular season.Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston TexansTexans quarterback Deshaun Watson is out for their season opener against the Jaguars. Watson, who has 22 civil suits alleging sexual misconduct filed against him, isn’t expected to suit up for Houston this season. (He has denied the accusations.) Tyrod Taylor will start in his place. Houston will also miss kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn (leg), as well as defensive back Lonnie Johnson Jr. (thigh).The Jaguars will be without cornerback Tre Herndon, who’s out with a knee injury.Pittsburgh Steelers at Buffalo BillsBills running back Zack Moss was not on the team’s injury report leading up to Sunday’s game against the Steelers, but he will miss the team’s opener.Notable injuries in the 4:25 p.m. Eastern games:Cleveland Browns at Kansas City ChiefsBrowns receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last season, will not play against the Chiefs. Beckham had been a game-time decision but was scratched about an hour before kickoff after taking the field for warm-ups. Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu will also miss the game despite being activated from the team’s injured reserve/Covid-19 list on Saturday.Miami Dolphins at New England PatriotsDolphins receiver Preston Williams, who’s been nursing a foot injury, is reportedly not expected to play against the Patriots.Green Bay Packers at New Orleans SaintsThe New Orleans Saints will be without receiver Michael Thomas for the start of the season after he underwent ankle surgery in June. They’ll also miss receiver Tre’Quan Smith (hamstring).Denver Broncos at New York GiantsGiants tight end Evan Engram (calf) is out. More

  • in

    The Black National Anthem Will Play in N.F.L. Pre-Game Ceremonies

    In Thursday night’s season opener, players stood on the field at Raymond James Stadium with their arms intertwined as Alicia Keys and the Florida A&M choir performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before the game’s start.The N.F.L. began airing the song, also known as the Black national anthem, as part of its TV broadcasts before games following the worldwide racial justice protests held after the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. It also included a performance of the song before the draft in April.The league will continue to include the song’s performance in its pregame ceremonies as part of its continued social justice efforts.“Lift Every Voice and Sing,” written over 120 years ago by N.A.A.C.P. leader James Weldon Johnson, captures in its lyrics the solemn hope for the liberty of African Americans, which read in part:“Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us.Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,Let us march on ’til victory is won.”Along with playing the song before its games, the N.F.L. will also allow players to wear helmet decals with one of six approved social justice messages. The league will again display the slogans “It Takes All of Us” and “End Racism” on end zones in solidarity with social justice movements against racism and police brutality. More

  • in

    When Stuyvestant High Finished Its Football Season After 9/11

    Stuyvesant High, blocks from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, finished its football season in 2001 under dour circumstances. Was the attempt at normalcy worth it?Follow our live coverage of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.The football season began with a victory for the Peglegs of Stuyvesant High School. A team laden with seniors and playoff expectations downed a tough rival from Staten Island in the season’s first game, played on the warm afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 8, 2001.Three days later came the terrifying tragedy that changed the world and left an indelible emotional mark on the students at Stuyvesant and their football team.Stuyvesant sits just a scant few blocks from the World Trade Center. So close that the 10-story school building shook as the hijacked jets sliced into the twin towers. So close that some students feared they would be crushed if the buildings fell.“I remember so many of the moments from that terrible day and our struggle afterward to put together a season,” said Paul Chin, a wide receiver on that team. “I remember it feeling by feeling, image by image. They are shards of memories, and they do not go away.”Everyone on that team carries them, added Chin, now 37 and an associate professor at the Relay Graduate School of Education.“It’s been 20 years?” he said. “How can that be?”Think for a moment about Sept. 11 and sports. How the stories told most are those of the professionals or the collegiate athletes, big names on the big stage, and their defiant, resolute return to action. The Yankees and their run to the World Series. Mike Piazza’s homer for the Mets in the team’s first home game after the attacks. One of the first big college football games: Nebraska hosting Rice in a stadium dripping with American flags and unfettered displays of patriotism.High school football, just getting underway that summer, played an important but less-heralded role in helping an unmoored nation heal from its wounds. All across America — north to south, west to east — football seasons played by little-known teens provided comfort in a more personal way than the World Series or Michigan vs. Ohio State.Few high school teams were more affected by Sept. 11 than the Stuyvesant Peglegs, who remain unusually close even now. They attend one another’s weddings, celebrate one another’s newborn babies, maintain group chats and fantasy leagues. Many of them showed up this summer for the funeral of Matt Hahn, a beloved assistant coach who died in July at age 67. Paralyzed from the waist down, Hahn mentored the team from a wheelchair.A silly photo of the 2001 Stuyvesant varsity football team.“He was so important to the kids at that time. His example meant everything to that team,” said David Velkas, the team’s now retired coach, who was then in his first year leading the squad. “Matty let nothing stop him from what he was doing and living his life. And with that in mind, we would not let Sept. 11 stop us.”None of his players lost close family members in the attacks, Velkas said, but nearly all saw the devastation up close. They scrambled with their fellow students to evacuate from school. They headed north, sometimes sprinting, fearful of being hit by falling buildings or flying concrete.They made their way home — or in the case of players like Chin, who lived in Battery Park City, which were uninhabitable because of the attacks — to the homes of friends and family members.They wondered what was next. What would become of their school year, their beloved team, their season of high hopes?Stuyvesant, for over 100 years one of New York City’s most elite public schools, closed for nearly a month. Its building became a triage center.“For a while, nobody knew if we were going to have a season,” Velkas told me during one of nearly a dozen recent phone interviews with members of the team. “We were in limbo. Other schools were playing in the city and across the country, but we were not. But we also knew that giving the teenagers on that team something to hold on to — that was key.”The entire school temporarily moved for weeks to Brooklyn Technical High School, where the Peglegs practiced football in the morning and went to classes in the afternoon. There were no showers so they changed in a shop room.In their first game back in late September, they stood alongside their Long Island City High opponents for the national anthem. That had never happened before. Velkas — whose wife’s firefighter cousin died in the attacks — passed out American flag decals for players to affix to their helmets. The Peglegs lost, 42-14.By the middle of October, Stuyvesant’s roughly 3,000 students had returned to their campus. An awful, acrid smell still hung in the air. The streets around the school had filled with checkpoints, barricades and police officers carrying high-powered weaponry.Football traditionally got short shrift at Stuyvesant, which is known for its competitive academics. But the school went all out in 2001 to support the team, recalled Eddie Seo, a tight end that year who now volunteers as an assistant coach.Seo said that officials arranged buses to freight students from all over the five boroughs to that year’s homecoming game at John F. Kennedy High in the Bronx. The Peglegs lost again, but what Seo recalled most vividly was how the stands were filled with what felt like a thousand fans instead of the usual few dozen.“I came off the field, and I could hear my friends in the stands saying, ‘Great catch, great play!’” Seo said. “I had not heard that before. That was as good a way as any to heal from what we had been through.”On the hard season went. Key players sustained season-ending injuries. A few quit.The 2001 varsity captains Nick Oxenhorn (21) and David Olesh (89) with the varsity coaches, from bottom left: Kevin Gault, Alfred Burnett, David Velkas and Peter Bologna. Courtesy David VelkasEven before Sept. 11, the Peglegs did not have a field of their own. They practiced in weedy public parks across Manhattan. In the aftermath of the attacks, all the parks had shuttered or were unreachable but one, on 10th Street and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. To get there, the team received permission to bus through a restricted area near ground zero. That meant passing a massive pile of smoldering rubble: the remnants of the fallen towers.On each trip, the bus would stop, and workers in hazmat suits would hose it down with water. “Passing by the pile,” remembered Velkas, “sometimes we would hear a horn blow. The workers had found the remains of someone. We would be still, and I would tell everyone to be quiet.”Some players prayed, he said. Others sat stone faced with grief.A question must be asked, all these years later, and given the benefit of hindsight.With our generation’s increased understanding of trauma and post-traumatic stress — and our knowledge of how the nation rushed into a disastrous war — was it the right choice for Stuyvesant High, or any youth sports team, to return to play so soon?“Does it make sense to have a team full of high school football players driving through the wreckage of 9/11 for practice?” wondered Lance Fraenkel, who captained Stuyvesant’s junior varsity team in 2001. “Maybe we should have been inconvenienced and gone around. And maybe we should have paused the whole season. But I think it is hard to make those decisions in the moment, and looking back I am glad we played.”The season, he said, gave the players an emotional lift in a time of great need.When it ended, Stuyvesant’s record was 2-5. But after Sept. 11, winning was not the point. Just playing was victory enough. More

  • in

    Olympics Power Broker Convicted in Forgery Case

    Sheikh Ahmad al-Sabah of Kuwait faces possible jail time, pending an appeal.GENEVA — Ahmad al-Sabah, a Kuwaiti sheikh who for years has been one of the most influential power brokers in global sports, faces more than a year in prison after being convicted in a forgery case in Switzerland.Sheikh Ahmad was found guilty along with four others in a case in which prosecutors successfully argued that he was the mastermind of a complex plot to implicate another member of the Kuwaiti royal family in a scheme to overthrow the country’s ruler.Sheikh Ahmad was in the wood-paneled court as the sentence was read out by the presiding judge. He said he would appeal the ruling and declared his innocence as he prepared to leave the court. The judgment not only threatens his liberty but also his future role in sports, where his influence has stretched from the upper echelons of the International Olympic Committee to the top of world soccer and beyond.“I know I didn’t do anything; I will wait for the appeal,” Sheikh Ahmad told reporters at the court. “I will never stop, because I believe I am innocent.”The case is not the only legal issue that has blighted Sheikh Ahmad in recent years. He is also an indicted co-conspirator in a United States Department of Justice corruption case that led to the conviction of a senior soccer official in 2017. Sheikh Ahmad subsequently resigned from FIFA’s ruling council and pledged to withdraw from soccer while the case was being litigated.Since November 2018 he has been declared “self suspended” by the International Olympic Committee after the charges that led to Friday’s court ruling. Until then he had been a key lieutenant to the I.O.C.’s president Thomas Bach, whose election victory in 2013 he helped to mastermind by securing key votes. He is also credited with winning support for Tokyo’s bid to stage the recently completed 2020 Olympics.Much of Sheikh Ahmad’s power stems from his control of the Olympic Council of Asia, a body set up by his father 40 years ago. Despite relinquishing all his other official roles in sports as the allegations and accusations mounted, Ahmad continued to lead that organization until Friday, when the group said that he would “step aside temporarily.”Prosecutors in Geneva successfully argued that Sheikh Ahmad, his English former lawyer, a Kuwaiti aide and two more Swiss-based lawyers orchestrated a sham arbitration case in order to frame other royals in a coup plot.“It’s very strange, I’ve been a long time as a criminal lawyer in Geneva; it’s the first time I’ve seen a sham arbitration,” said Pascal Maurer, the lawyer for Nasser al Mohammed al Sabah, a former prime minister of Kuwait who was one of the figures Sheikh Ahmad tried to frame.“It was very sophisticated in the way they planned it, but it was not very sophisticated in the way they realized it because they made many mistakes in their organization and in the way they forged documents.”For the I.O.C., the case is another embarrassing episode involving one of its most senior figures. The organization said it would not take action against Sheikh Ahmad because he had decided to suspend himself. Sheikh Ahmad’s only character witness was scheduled to be Francois Carrard, the I.O.C.’s longtime former director general who continues to serve as its legal adviser. Mr. Carrard did not show up in court last Thursday, with the court citing an unspecified medical issue.Despite his legal troubles, Sheikh Ahmad has continued to play an influential role in sports behind the scenes.A candidate for a seat on FIFA’s governing council claimed that she was told she did not stand a chance of winning because Sheikh Ahmad had already decided that a rival candidate from Bangladesh should retain the seat.In April, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, also based in Switzerland, sided with the woman, Mariyam Mohamed, a soccer official from the Maldives, and agreed that Sheikh Ahmad had actively interfered in the elections held in 2019 by the Asian Football Confederation to achieve his desired outcome.Mohamed told the court that she was told to drop her candidacy and that in return Ahmad would use his influence in international soccer circles to obtain any other position of her choosing at the A.F.C. or FIFA.Sheikh Ahmad’s influence has also stretched beyond the sports world. As a senior Kuwaiti royal he has been a government minister, and he was also Secretary General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the influential cartel for oil producing nations.At the height of his power, the sheikh, known for his burly security entourage, was a magnet for sports officials looking to secure highly sought after committee roles and other sinecures. He spent decades building his portfolio, which started from running the Asian Olympic body after the murder of his father during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. His roles multiplied rapidly and at one point numbered almost a dozen. More