Sports
Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame to honor three legendary journalists in the inaugural event

History and heritage will probably be fully exhibited, because three legendary black athletes will probably be honored on April 12 in the inaugural class of Black Sportswriters Hall of Fame in North Carolina A & t.
The inaugural induction ceremony of the Black Sportswriters gallery will happen at Deese Ballroom on Saturday at 18:00, and tickets might be purchased online. Rob Parker, the first black sports columnist in The, developed an idea after conducting a master baseball class in North Carolina A&T in the spring of 2023.
“We have so many great current and former black sports athletes, and I have been working for 39 years and I know many of them, I work with many of them, and we have not received recognition for what we bring to the company,” said Parker. “I wanted to make sure that everyone is appreciated and people who are perfectly recognized.”
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
William C. Rhoden, sports columnist for ESPN and Scape and former columnist; Michael Wilbon, co -hosting ESPN’s interruption and former columnist; A Claire Smith, the first woman who included Major League Baseball for Hartford Count, will probably be three inductes recognized on Saturday.
Thirty -two voters could nominate everyone, and every recipient needed a minimum of 75% of votes to win.
“If you told me before starting to vote, I could choose these three – the first three people who should come in – all three (that) they did it because Bill Rhoden, Claire Smith and Mike Wilbon are the three best who ever did it, so it’s amazing that they enter as the first induction class,” said Parker.

Michael Stewart/Wireimage
The event will happen at North Carolina A&T, because Parker was moved by students and their fascination with the sports journalism industry.
“The reason I chose North Karolina A&T was a few years ago, I made a master baseball class and I was very impressed with students and their questions and their concentration on MasterClass and the program of journalism as a whole,” said Parker. “I thought it would be a great place to present journalism in North Carolina A&T.”
Rhoden revealed his enthusiasm to the award.
“I am honored that I am included in the company of those as great as Claire Smith – which I have known for years – and Michael Wilbon – whom I have known for years – and the fact that this is the inaugural effort of sport, Rob Parker, whom I have known for years. This is simply a wonderful and unique honor,” said Rhoden.
Rhoden is the only recipient with a historically black college and university (HBCU).
“This means that Morgan (Stan) was great for me,” said Rhoden. “It was for me and the place where I was supposed to go. We all choose different paths to achieve our goals, but Morgan was an ideal place for me and my temperament and I met a person who started a journalistic career.”
When Parker sent a notification and voting for Black Sportswriters Gall of Fame, Smith felt humiliated when she realized that so many her peers, mentors and heroes took her into the conversation of the best sports journalistic company.
“When he informed me about the result of voting, I really returned to me, because, as I said, there were countless people at the vote, and even more people I met for 47 years, I think Hall of Famers,” said Smith. “And voting with this honor by my peers – I think my peers are Hall of Famers and voted for the inaugural occupation – they blew me up.”
For Rhoden, mentors like Lacy himself, the sports editor of the African American newspaper, and even Smith influenced his profession and helped to shape him in the sport she is today.
“There are many unknown heroes, such as Lacy himself, whom many people never know, but they really influence you,” said Rhoden. “There are so many people along the way. It is very important that people in your corner who will inform you that you are on the right track.”
Smith recognized Lacy and Larry Whiteside, a well -known baseball author that helped her achieve a distinction in her profession.
“Larry was always with me when I met him,” said Smith. “Larry or, as we called him on the sides,” he was simply someone I could watch and observe how he works on his craft and turned out to be an absolute art when it comes to writing, after which at all times have time to talk to the next generation. “

AP Photo/Rich Schultz
“Original six” pioneering athletes and editors – including Lacy, Whiteside, Wendell Smith, Bryan Burwell, Thom Greer and Ralph Wiley – will probably be posthumously honored in Hall of Fame.
“We want them to be honored as a group and we want the first six we put together,” said Parker. “We want to make sure that we remember the past, but we also want to celebrate people when they live when they can touch students at school, so this is the main goal of this.”
Smith said: “To mention this in the same sentence as Lacy and Wendell Smith is amazing. I remember how a baby seeing the newspaper delivered to the home of my grandparents in Catonsville, Maryland, after which I spotted that there are two differing kinds of newspapers in cities akin to Baltimore: historically black newspapers, after which most traditional newspapers.
“So quickly until 2025 and you see their names already in Hall of Fame and you know that in just a few days Bill and Mike and I, our names will be mentioned next to them – it’s just … humiliating.”
Parker hopes to extend Hall of Fame to the ceremony, special and championship events, in order that students can mix them with mentors.
“I hope that there will be several (events) … More things for students who will be able to learn from the best,” said Parker. “Combining students with mentors is the goal of Galeria Sława Black Sportswriters.”
Sports
Falcons say that Ulbrich’s defense coordinator was responsible for calling for a joke to Shedeur Sanders

Atlanta Falcons said on Sunday that Jeff Ulbrich’s defensive coordinator was responsible for a joke with NFL Draft Cick Shedeur Sanders.
Falcons has published a statement that 21-year-old Jax Ulbrich “unintentional came across a contact telephone design for Shedeur Sanders from an open iPad during a visit to his parent’s house and wrote the number to later conduct a joke.”
Although Jax Ulbrich delivered a number, he sat next to an unidentified friend who actually called Sanders.
Falcons said that Jeff Ulbrich was not aware of the exposure to data or jokes up to the actual fact. In their statement, they presented “sincere apology of Shedeur Sanders and his family”, and Jax Ulbrich also published a public apology in social media.
Sanders, an impressive playmaker from Colorado, is the son of coach Buffaloes and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders, who began his NFL profession in Falcons.
Shedeur Sanders perhaps The biggest history of the draft When he had to wait until the fifth round on Saturday before he was appointed by Cleveland Browns. He received a joke on Friday evening, on the second day of the project, waiting.
In the conversation, Jax’s friend Ulbrich identified himself as the final director of New Orleans Mickey Loomis and told Sanders that he was made by the saints before he finished the conversation.
“It didn’t really affect me, because it was just ok. I don’t feed negativeness or I don’t feed myself,” Sanders said on Saturday after his calling. “… that’s what it is. Of course it is childish, of course I feel that it was a childish act, but everyone does children’s things here and there.”
Jax Ulbrich apologized to Sanders on Sunday for what he called “a huge mistake.”
“Shedeur, what I did was completely unforgivable, embarrassing and shameful,” he wrote in social media. “I’m so sorry that I took your moment, it was selfish and childish. I never imagine preparing to celebrate one of the greatest moments of your life and made a terrible mistake and made this moment. Thank you for taking my phone before, I hope you find in your heart to forgive me.”
Falcons also apologized to Sanders and his family, saying that “they do not accept this behavior.”
“We thoroughly review all protocols and update if necessary to prevent such an incident from re -occurring,” said Falcons.
Falcons said they’d contact with the NFL “and will continue to cooperate with all questions that we can receive from the NFL league office.”
Jeff Ulbrich celebrated Falcons’ Defense pressure In the NFL project. Falcons selected two edges, Jalon Walker from Georgia and James Pearce Jr. from Tennessee in the primary round. Their first 4 sorts of draft are defensive players.
Ulbrich was 3-9 as a temporary New York Jets coach last season, before he was employed to return to Atlanta, where he previously worked as an assistant.
___
Noah Trister in Washington, AP sports author, contributed to this report.

(tagstotranslatter) Shedeur Sanders (T) NFL and racism
Sports
NFL Sanders Sanders Sanders: Media Buzz, conspiracy theories and waiting for his name to be named

Draft NFL is an undoubted science, yearly perspectives slide down due to gossip, rating, interviews and team matching, sometimes a mixture of all the above. The topic of the conversation in 2025 NFL Draft turned across the playmaker in Colorado Sanders as evaluators of the chair and talking sports heads who are attempting to discover why he has slipped thus far.
As according to the incontrovertible fact that Sanders was not taken in the primary round It wasn’t a surprise For 10 coaches and high -ranking NFL managers they survey, which is a mirrored image that, according to their rankings, Colorado’s perspective just isn’t a talent of the primary round.
According to their reporting, the front offices across the league are privately questioned by Sanders to rise into a frontrunner, but these fears are secondary to his mediocre tape, corresponding to the team’s evaluators spoke consistently within the project process that Sanders just isn’t perceived because the elite perspective of the playmaker, even during a yr with the sign of the player.
This, together with the playmaker, that’s, truthfully depressed, in actual fact there are only three teams for the signaling caller, signifies that potential teams aren’t any longer sold, it’s value a media circus that may accompany his alternative, is not going to be chosen in early rounds.
However, this didn’t stop people from saying that the league is trying to “curse” Sanders because he’s confident or argues that NFL is involved in a certain collusion with Sanders; These people include former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III, Stephen A. Smith and former US representative Jamal Bowman for each with an online connection.
However, others say Sanders has hurt his own inventory project together with the approach to the trial before the draft. He refused to participate within the Sanctuary and NFL Combine, and after a yr with the poor class of the playmaker, the sport tape he relied on to present his value, didn’t impress the teams.
Another factor is a major remark about Deion Sanders and his public comments about where his sons can play, in addition to the player Travis Hunter. With all this in mind, some summary teams may be careful about additional control, which may bring the alternative of Shedeur Sanders. Meanwhile, Sanders stays patient when he’s waiting for his name.
On the project at Canton, Texas, Sanders expressed the knowledge that he would be elected on the second day of the project, but this didn’t materialize, and joins the long list of perspectives that they’d to wait to hear their name, including the playmaker playmaker San Francisco 49ers.
“Of course, we didn’t expect it, but it seems to me that everything is possible with God, everything is possible,” said Shedeur in a movie recorded on his team on April 24. “Tomorrow’s day. We will be happy regardless of this. Legendary.”
Nick Saban, legendary former football coach College, who became an ESPN analyst, provided the crucial context in his transmission project Around the sublime expectations for Sanders, which were created by the media, including a few of his own network.
“You know, I hate this … We mustn’t take any player and wait for him. It’s not about where you might be going; it’s about if you will be chosen, will you are taking the chance to offer you the perfect possibilities, what do you’ve gotten? I feel that Shedeur Sanders will do it. Saban.
(Tagstranslat) pick
Sports
Shedeur Sanders must wait a little longer at NFL Draft

Green Bay, Wis. – Colorado Buffalo Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter entered on Thursday evening with expectations as the primary pair of teammates in Colorado developed in the primary round of the NFL Draft since 2011 since 2011.
Hunter, the prevailing winner of Heisman, was elected number 2 within the draft by Jacksonville Jaguars. But Sanders, hoping to proceed the family heritage of his Hall of Fame, Deion Sanders’s father as a number of a draft in the primary round, ended on Thursday evening, not hearing his name, and now he faces uncertainty on the day of the second day of NFL.
Sanders spent the last two seasons of his collegiate profession in Colorado after moving from the state of Jackson. Last season he threw at 4134 yards and 37 sticks, making 74% of his passes, leading the nation.
Sanders’ omitting this 12 months ends with a two -year series of at least two black playmakers in the primary round of NFL Draft. No. 1 General Cam Ward was the one black playmaker chosen in the primary round of this 12 months’s draft. New York Giants, a threatened team with reported connections with Sanders, went in a different direction and returned to the primary round to decide on Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart at the twenty fifth place in the final classification.
On the second day, Cleveland Browns are on the clock. After satisfying the defensive needs in the primary round, return to No. 5 to decide on the defensive equipment of Michigan Mason Graham, the playmaker is one other need for Browns. The playmakers began last season Deshaun Watson stuck the Achilles tendon Week 7 And he’ll probably miss a significant time within the 2025 season, because the organization announced failure in its regeneration After re -interrogating Achilles in January.
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images for Onit
Current coach Jackson State TC Taylorwho worked on coaching staff in the primary two seasons of Sanders, believes that Sanders’s trust is the creator of differences.
“Every time you have a playmaker who has such confidence, which makes the rest of the band know that we will be fine and we have the right guy,” said Taylor. “That’s what Shedeur did. His time here (in Jackson State) and Colorado said that he is a very confident child, but he goes there and he plays well. Many people do not realize how hard he is (I), how competent is as a quarterback. This is one of his strengths.”
News concerning the Sanders accident from the primary round were a shock to Hunter. The two-way player stopped at a press conference-the relevance that he would hear the name of Sanders-when the primary round of New Orleans Saints was to be announced. When the saints went in ninth place, Hunter said he could be excited concerning the phone, which Sanders gave later at night, when his name was called, but they might each need to wait longer.
Despite the incontrovertible fact that he could be chosen as a part of the most effective 5 elections, Hunter was unsure where he would land. IN Trade hitJaguars received number 2, number of the fourth round (No. 104) and number of the sixth round (No. 200), but gave up the proper to pick No. 5, number of the second round (No. 36), number of the fourth round (No. 126) and 2026 Pick-Wysoka Hunter price.
Hunter admitted that Jaguars didn’t check with him an excessive amount of through the initial process, but he couldn’t wait to return to Florida after birth and upbringing in West Palm Beach, 300 miles south of Jacksonville.
“I think that I just match the culture in Florida. I am from Florida, so I think my place is that I match culture. I was very excited,” said Hunter. “I always believed that I would be in Jacksonville, but I didn’t know so far, so I was definitely excited and surprised.”

Michael Reaves/Getty Images
According to Hunter, there isn’t a guarantee whether he plays only in attack, defense or each. In his last student season, Hunter reached 96 admissions out of 1258 yards and 15 adhesions, adding 35 total attacks, 11 defense and 4 defects in defense.
Hunter’s versatility immediately fills two glaring needs for Jacksonville. A season ago, the defense of Jaguars allowed 389.9 yards per match, Second the very best within the league. In the attack, Jaguars took twenty fourth place by way of transitional yards for the match (204.5), and Brian Thomas Jr. He took third place within the NFL in receiving the yards.
Will Hunter have the chance to play each within the attack and defense, some think he should?
“You can say that he will be one of the wonderful,” said Taylor. “An excellent young man (i) a tremendous athlete. Everyone talked about all of the snaps who plays as a footballer, but he’s at all times ready. He is one of the in the form of players’ competences.
“It’s crazy not to give him such an opportunity. He did both at the highest level. You talk about a young man who is probably No. 1 and recipient No. 1 in the project. He did not have these grades for no reason.”
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