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Sports Tag

Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez, 27, hanged himself in his prison cell early Wednesday morning while serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder charge at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, MA. He committed suicide on the day his former team will visit the White House to commemorate their Super Bowl victory over the Atlanta Falcons in February.

What's the fastest way to ruin anything? Inject politics into it. This well-known, but unwritten rule of the Universe seems to have escaped ESPN, who's now doubling down on their political banter. The once great sports broadcasting network recently revised their discussion rules so as to accommodate for increased political commentary germane to the sporting event being covered.

Germany's biggest sports body, German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), has cancelled its cooperation with Palestinian Football Association (PFA), the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung (TAZ) reported. The German decision came after concerns raised by Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Center following an exposé released by the media watchdog Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). In an exposé release early February, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) had highlighted the role of Palestinian Football Association’s President, Jibril Rajoub, in promoting Jihad and martyrdom against unarmed Israeli citizens.

Authorities found two Super Bowl jerseys worn by New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The lost jerseys were found with a credentialed member of the international media. From KPRC:
Houston police Chief Art Acevedo said that a tip from someone in Houston led investigators to a location in Mexico, where the jerseys were found. "You don't come to Texas and steal when the eyes of the world are upon our state," Acevedo said.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started a trend last year when he decided to kneel for national anthem for social justice. Athletes in other sports decided to follow, with leagues supporting their decisions and not really taking a stance either way. But now the U.S. Soccer Federation has passed a bylaw that states everyone must stand for the national anthem.

Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old junior, began the transition from girl to boy two years ago; the transition includes supplements and shots of testosterone that some feel gave Beggs an advantage.  Beggs competed for and won a Texas state girls' wrestling title. The Washington Post reports:

Booed and bloody, Mack Beggs dropped to his knees to celebrate. He was, after four wins and two days and all the rest, a state champion.

Former Major League baseball player Jose Canseco won't be welcoming our new robotic overlords anytime soon. Monday, Canseco published a flurry of tweets warning about the mechanization of jobs once held by humans. Don't worry, robots "won't attack and kill us like in the movies," they'll just steal all of our jerbs.

Here is a story that has gone underreported in the media, but deserves so much more attention. Last September, the Indianapolis Star reported that females have accused now former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. By November the number reached 50 women. Some of these women have spoken out about the alleged abuse, including Jessica Howard, the U.S. National champion from 1999 to 2001 in rhythmic gymnastics. Nassar veiled the alleged sexual abuse as medical treatment for her.

Every year, President Obama filled out a NCAA bracket on ESPN. President Trump will not continue his predecessor's tradition.

As Mary blogged, six Superbowl winning Patriots players won't be joining the rest of the team during their White House visit. Some have indicated their abstention is due to policy differences with President Trump. Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady says his choice to visit the White House over the years has not been a political one and refused to publicly litigate the decisions of his teammates. "Everybody has their own choice.There’s certain years, like a couple years ago, I wanted to go and didn’t get the opportunity based on the schedule — we didn’t get told until I think like 10 days before we were going, and at that point I had something I’d been planning for months and couldn’t get there," said Brady:

Houston, TX, just hosted another Super Bowl to rave reviews, but it may be the last one for the Lone Star State if the state passes its own bathroom bill. From The Houston Chronicle:
"If a proposal that is discriminatory or inconsistent with our values were to become law (in Texas), that would certainly be a factor considered when thinking about awarding future events," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an email response to a Chronicle question about the bill.