THE OPENER: The busier-than-busy season is starting. While I’m finishing up the newsletter, I’m watching the Team USA women in their Olympics opener. The Super Bowl is Sunday. Spring training starts with pitchers and catchers reporting next Friday. High school section playoffs are starting up. Add that to the brew we’ve been stirring over the winter and there’s a lot of keeping up and moving ahead to do. I hope Sports Take is a good guide to the highlights, and some things you wouldn’t come across otherwise. Gonna get the Timberwolves trade situation and a few other things covered quickly and then we’ll take some deeper dives. — Howard Sinker
NO GIANNIS FOR NOW: ESPN’s NBA reporter Shams Charinia posted this on X just after 11 a.m., marking an end to the chance that the Wolves would swing a major trade deadline deal for Milwaukee superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
PRO AND CON: You could make a good case on either side for such a dramatic shakeup at the current time. The deciding factor for me — on the con side — was that Antetokounmpo will likely be out of action until the end of the month because of a strained calf. So the Wolves would have been shorthanded (with an already depth-impaired roster) and then trying to figure out how to work him into the lineup. I wouldn’t rule out a major deal during the off-season.
QUOTE: “I don’t think Giannis was as available as people assumed,” Grant Liffmann, NBC Sports analyst and former Atlanta Hawks vice president during a Thursday afternoon interview of NBA-TV.
INSTEAD: The Wolves made a savvy move picking up versatile Ayo Dosunmu from the Bulls on returned for Rob Dillingham and four second-round draft picks. Each team also moved a deep reserve — Julian Phillips to the Wolves and Leonard Miller to the Bulls — in the trade. Dosunmu brings skills to Minnesota that resemble those of Donte DiVincenzo in some ways, which means he should be a good fit for the Wolves’ push-the-ball and three-point heavy attack. (Dosunmu is shooting 45% on threes this season.) Also think of him as a replacement for the Nickeil Alexander-Walker role on the roster after he left for Atlanta through free agency.
DILLINGHAM’S DEPARTURE: Via Chris Hine at Star Tribune. VERBATIM: “The unfortunate reality for Dillingham and the Wolves is that to become the player the Wolves think he could be when they drafted him, Dillingham needs to be in a situation where he can play guaranteed minutes without looking over his shoulder at the bench. That is not the Wolves, who have been to two consecutive Western Conference finals. That became more apparent as the season went on, that the mix of player and situation was not aligning.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/trade0205
CAREER STATS: Dosunmu | Phillips | Dillingham | Miller
EARLY WINS: USA mixed doubles curlers Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse of Duluth debuted Thursday with a 6-4 win over a team from Norway and followed that up with a 7-4 win over Switzerland. Next match is at 3 a.m. Friday vs. Canada (Peacock), which is off to a 3-0 start. WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Team USA defeated Czechia 5-1 this morning in their opener, outshooting the losers 42-14. None of the scoring was done by Minnesotans. Next game is against Finland at 9:40 a.m. Saturday (USA Network). STATS: https://fluence-media.co/boxscore0205
LIVED UP TO HYPE: Via WCCO-TV. I mentioned Buffalo’s surprising boys’ basketball team in last week’s Sports Take and noted their next game was against Wayzata (Class 4A’s top team). The game was big time with Wayzata winning 97-96 in overtime. The game was tied at 41 at halftime, 87 after regulation and was decided on a basket by Christian Wiggins with 1.9 seconds left. “We witnessed what might be the most electric atmosphere in Minnesota high school basketball until the playoffs start,” said WCCO’s Ren Clayton. HIGHLIGHTS: https://fluence-media.co/thriller0205
UP NEXT: No. 3 Buffalo plays at Edina and No. 1 Wayzata hosts No. 5 Maple Grove at 7 p.m. Friday. (Maple Grove defeated Wayzata when they played last month. TICKETS: Buffalo-Edina | Wayzata-Maple Grove | Livestreams
ALLEN BACK: Via John Shipley at Pioneer Press. KFAN 9-to-noon host Paul Allen returned to the air after a week off following his misinformation-pandering and ill-advised “paid protesters” quip last week. He’ll also be returning as Canterbury Park’s track announcer and to his work as Vikings play-by-play announcer. Calls to station management about whether the time away was a suspension or paid time off weren’t returned and the story included a line that bears following. VERBATIM: “According to a team source, Allen will keep his job with the Vikings ‘as it relates to Vikings games and coverage.’ “ MORE: https://fluence-media.co/pa0205
TWINS PASS RETURNS, PRICE DROPPED: The Twins are returning their season-ticket “Twins Pass” that provides access to all home games. This year’s pass is available for $229 through the end of the month. Last year’s price was $324 before the start of the season. Officially, it’s a standing-room pass. Realistically, plenty of good seats should be available most of the time. The price goes up to $249 on March 1. DETAILS: https://fluence-media.co/pass0205
LIST OF 100+ OFFICIAL COMMITMENTS: Via Strib Varsity. Starting Wednesday, high school athletes in sports other than football who didn’t make commitments official during the early-signing period in November could do so. Here’s a list of about 100 athletes from around Minnesota and their Division I and Division II choices. LIST: https://fluence-media.co/committed0205
FALVEY’S EXIT: Last Friday was a brutal day for leadership in Minnesota sports with Twins president Derek Falvey’s departure announced in the morning and Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s firing by the Vikings revealed a couple hours later. In Favley’s case, he got out of a near-impossible predicament. Under his watch, the Twins gutted their roster at the 2025 trade deadline and looked to be on the way to a substantial rebuild. Then, in a C-Suite coup, Tom Pohlad took over from his brother Joe as the team’s top executive and vowed the Twins would contend in 2026. Apparently, when expectations didn’t match what Falvey thought were resources necessary to achieve them, the break-up took place. That’s the one-paragraph version of what could be a juicy mini-series.
“MUTUALLY PARTED WAYS”: Via Aaron Gleeman at The Athletic. VERBATIM: “Falvey was a good soldier, which is why ‘mutually parted ways’ is officially how the nine-year relationship ended. But if the breakup happened because Falvey was simply tired of fighting this increasingly unwinnable battle, it’s yet another Pohlad-created mess in search of a new scapegoat to clean up. MORE: https://fluence-media.co/parted02052
ROCK SOLID TAKE: Via Nick Nelson at Twins Daily. Why did it happen? This cuts to the heart of the matter. VERBATIM: “The die was cast for the 2026 season at the deadline when the front office traded three top relievers under team control, as well as Carlos Correa with no expectation of backfilling his salary. If the Twins were going to have a shot at rebounding from those losses, it was going to take higher-scale moves than adding Josh Bell, Victor Caratini and an army of waiver claims or scrap-heap signings. The Twins are projected in Vegas for 72-74 wins, which seems a very fair expectation objectively. Derek Falvey knew it, helping explain his decision to jump ship. He was in line to be a scapegoat this summer, following in the footsteps of Rocco Baldelli, and he got out ahead of it.”
MORE: “As for the motivations of Tom Pohlad and the Twins? Those are harder to reason, both in this instance and at a broader level. Parting ways with Falvey at this peculiar moment feels more like a denial of reality than an inspired shakeup. ‘We're in the business of winning baseball games,’ Pohlad said back in December when he took over the reins. But therein lies the problem: business savvy doesn't win baseball games. It takes visionary baseball leadership and sound big-picture decision-making. The departure of Falvey leaves a huge experiential void in that department, while the Twins navigate aimlessly into a season that is bound to disappoint. FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/falvey0205
HISTORY: The Twins reached the postseason four times in Falvey’s nine seasons with the Twins. He took the job after the 2016 season with the understanding that he wouldn’t replace Paul Molitor as manager right away. The Twins were a wild-card team in 2017, which bought Molitor one more season. His tenure ended when the Twins failed to make the playoffs and finished under .500 in 2018. In other words, Falvey knew the drill.
BIGGEST FAILURE ON REPEAT: Nelson points out that Falvey made repeated missteps at the trade deadline.
SACKED BY THE DRAFTS: Via Matthew Coller at Purple insider. In the aftermath of Kwesi Adofo-Mensah’s firing, we’ve been reading and hearing all kinds of internal intrigue. But you could make a case for the firing based on his series of bad drafts alone. Consider this: The four Adofo-Mensah drafts resulted in only eight players (of 28 taken) who have played more than 600 snaps in the NFL — and four are currently with other teams. Only half of those 28 are still on the Vikings roster. VERBATIM: “For four years of drafting to only yield one high-quality No. 2 receiver, one promising pass rusher, one promising guard and a good kicker is a pretty damning indictment of the front office. But it does not tell the whole story.”
MORE EVIDENCE: VERBATIM: “Since 2022, the Vikings have eight selections in the top 100 picks and The Athletic’s draft analyst Dane Brugler pointed out this week that they have not taken a single player between picks 25 and 100 over the last three drafts. How does that compare to other franchises? Just within the Vikings’ division, the Chicago Bears have taken 14 top-100 players since 2022, the Packers have taken 12 and the Lions have picked 15. . . . It’s hard to win the lottery when you never play.” FULL REPORT: https://fluence-media.co/kwesi0205
KNIVES OUT: Since the firing, we’ve heard about all sorts of ugliness in the Vikings front office. Disagreements over J.J. McCarthy’s abilities. Resentment between those with a background in football vs. a background in analytics. Controversy over Adofo-Mensah taking a paternity leave even though he worked remotely. Were Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell putting on a united public front — especially about McCarthy — while battling behind the scenes?
QUESTIONS AND SKEPTICISM: I emailed veteran Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder sportswriter Charles Hallman for his view. VERBATIM: “Was he a good talent evaluator? How much blame goes to ownership in spending money wisely — such as Sam Darnold not offered enough to stay? How much blame on the Vikings coaches on developing McCarthy as a NFL QB? . . . My skeptical self openly questions how hiring Adofo-Mensah four years ago was an unconventional hire but four years later it was a mistake. If he was qualified then what makes him not qualified now? Will the team look again to hire a Black man or woman in a leadership role since historically all Blacks are painted with the same 'not qualified' brush but others are seen as more qualified, whether or not they have a football background, experience, etc. And please no more about Adofo-Mensah taking paternity leave. If he wasn't fired, when would we have known about it?”
ONE MORE THOUGHT: Via Arif Hasan at Wide Left. With so much coverage of the Vikings, why wasn’t there a media build-up to the firing based on things that have been written in the last week? VERBATIM: “At least one staffer thought that Adofo-Mensah had a strong understanding of analytical principles, but didn’t have the spine to enforce them in his approach. Whether it was a lack of conviction, leadership, or some other factor that prevented him from implementing these guidelines, it was ultimately a failure by someone meant to be a general manager. Is it unfair that all of this is coming out after he had been let go? Certainly. Some of this is the nature of reporting; it seems unnecessary for journalists to dump on a general manager who might just have poor interpersonal skills while he still has a job. It would be a story without a point. Some people don’t like him, so what? But, with the added context of his dismissal, there’s more teeth to the story. Interpersonal conflicts, individual quirks, perception and political capital — all of that matters more when we know the end result.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/intrigue0205
PERICH GOT HOW MUCH? Via Marshall H. Tanick at Minneapolis Times. P.J. Fleck was part of a U of M entourage that met with school boosters and other Minnesotans in Naples, Fla., recently. Among other things, Fleck claimed that he knew last year that star safety Koi Perich would be leaving at the end of the season and claimed that he received “a $2 million package” to play at Oregon for what’s expected to be his final season of college football. CONTEXT: The $2 million figure has not been reported elsewhere and is well-above market value for players at his position, according to reporting elsewhere. The Athletic reported last month that packages for safeties are typically in the $250,000 to $900,000 range. A formula devised by the college website On3 places Perich’s estimated package at more than $1.4 million combining NIL and payment from the school. On3 explains how it determines “NIL valuation” here.
THE WAY THINGS WORK: Fleck told his Florida audience how things work in contemporary college football — and that he doesn’t like it. His words also felt like an appeal for a moneyed audience to help the team more through its Dinkytown Athletes NIL collective and donations to the U. VERBATIM: “The lack of any protocols compared to the very ‘structured’ National Football League (NFL) different makes college football like the ‘wild, wild West,’ Fleck observed. With ‘no policing’ and money being a dominant factor for recruitment of incoming players, college football today is ‘like a soap opera.’ Fleck said that ‘every player on the team’ has a contract, renewable or terminable each year, and most of them have agents as well. This fluidity is unlike the past when most recruited players were guaranteed four- or five-year scholarships, but now can be dismissed or voluntarily leave after a single year.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/perich0205
DINKYTOWN ATHLETES WEB SITE: https://fluence-media.co/dinkytown0205
COMING AND GOING: Via Randy Johnson at Star Tribune. College athletes aren’t the only ones committing and decommitting within weeks. VERBATIM: “Bobby April III, who joined the Gophers football program as rush ends coach in early January, is leaving Minnesota to become outside linebackers coach for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. . . . The Gophers hired April after moving C.J. Robbins from rush ends coach to defensive line coach. Robbins replaced Dennis Dottin-Carter, who was let go after the 2025 regular season.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/april0205
STANDOUT COACH DIES: Jerry Wohler, who coached Bird island-Lake Lillian to Class A boys’ basketball titles in 1980 and 1981, died last week at age 89. Wohler’s son, Barry, was the standout on that team and is currently the coach at Orono, one of the state’s best in Class 3A. Bird Island won its titles in the two-class era and both of its state title games were won in double overtime over Lake of the Woods (1980) and Winona Cotter (1981). Wohler retired from teaching and head coaching after the 1981 season and became a loan officer at the bank in Bird Island. He was named to the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018. On a long-ago trip to Bird island, I watched a presidential debate with Jerry. Won’t share his politics. Will share that he was a source of wisdom for my writing more than once. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Bird Island. OBITUARY: https://fluence-media.co/wohler0205
SPORTS DEPARTMENT ELIMINATED: Via Sean Keeley and Ben Axelrod at Awful Announcing. The Washington Post announced Wednesday that it will be laying off about one-third of its staff and shutting down a sports department that was been home to legendary writers for decades. Some sports reporters will move to the features department and a few will remain to do sports in the print version of the Post. The New York Times shut down its sports department in 2023 but, at the same time, bought The Athletic to provide web sports coverage. VERBATIM: “The Washington Post sports desk was, for much of the last 100 years, the apex of the business. Once the sportswriting home of Shirley Povich, George Solomon, Thomas Boswell, Jane Leavy, Sally Jenkins, John Feinstein, Tony Kornheiser, and Michael Wilbon, it had remained one of the pinnacles of the American sportswriter’s dream until recently, when prominent names accepted buyouts, editorial standards dipped, and the quality of local coverage began to suffer.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/post02065
LOSING STREAK ENDS: It’s far from a turnaround, but the Gophers men’s hockey team ended its eight game winless streak (seven losses and a tie) by sweeping Wisconsin last weekend at Mariucci Arena, knocking the Badgers from eighth to 13th in the latest poll. The Border Battle drew capacity crowds both nights — 10,113 on Friday and 10,652 on Saturday. Wisconsin has now lost six in a row. The Gophers host Ohio State this weekend (7 p.m. Friday, Fox9 and 8 p.m. Saturday, BIG). The Gophers and Buckeyes are fifth and sixth in seven-team Big Ten. STANDINGS | TICKETS
THIS ONE DOES, TOO: Via Andrew Krammer at Star Tribune. This looks backwards, right? The Gophers men’s basketball team is 11-12 overall, 4-8 in the Big Ten — and 3-3 against nationally ranked teams after shocking No. 10 Michigan State 76-73 on Wednesday at The Barn. It also ended a seven-game losing streak that was marked by blown leads and painfully close defeats. The upsets make the kind of statement at Coach Niko Medved can use when he tries to retain current members of the team and pitch higher-end players in the transfer portal on coming to Minnesota. VERBATIM: “It creates belief. I hope for us, this year, that we’re creating belief with those guys and we’re creating belief in our program that: ‘Hey, we’re on the right track. We’re doing the right things. Our culture is good, and this is the way if we keep staying with it and keep going, we can win this way.’” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/gophers0205
AND, YES, THEY STORMED THE COURT: Watch HERE and HERE
BASKETBALL BRACKETOLOGY: It’s that time of year for NCAA basketball tournament speculation. Expert picks will career from week to week, but right now both ESPN and CBS Sports — my top-two go-tos — have Minnesota making the women’s field with interesting matchups. CBS Sports has the Gophers as a No., 7 seed playing No., 10 in the first round, with the winner advancing to likely face No. 2 seed LSU. ESPN has them as a No. 8 seed playing Mississippi State with the winner meeting No. 1-seed UConn. ST. THOMAS MEN, ANYONE? Both ESPN and CBS have North Dakota state as the Summit League representative, which will go to the winner of the conference tournament. The Bison are undefeated in conference play. The Tommies are second after losses to the Bison and North Dakota in their last four games. ESPN: Men | Women. CBS: Men | Women
ONE MORE DARNOLD STORY: Via Judy Battista at NFL.com. From punchline to Super Bowl quarterback, we know that Seattle’s Sam Darnold has traveled a rough and tough road to get to Sunday’s game, including his season with the Vikings. It’s also a fact that he’s the first quarterback from the talented group drafted in 2018’s first round — along with Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen and Lamar Jackson — to reach the Super Bowl. His resiliency, playing for five teams in eight seasons, was a product of his upbringing. VERBATIM: “He remains as chill now as he was as a California kid throwing a football in the surf, unaffected and unpretentious enough to still wear the same Vans sneakers he always has, to show up to his first Seattle press conference in a flannel shirt. He chalks every twist and turn to learning experiences that helped him become the player he is now. That was not a coping mechanism he developed in the NFL; he got to the league that way. ‘I think a lot of it stems from my family. My dad was a plumber, my mom was a P.E. teacher. No matter what kind of days they had, they were always in the best mood for me and my sister growing up. No matter what happened at work, my dad was always out there playing catch with me after work. I feel like I naturally learned to be resilient and take it one day at a time.’ ” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/darnold0205
SPRING TRAINING ON TV: 22 Twins spring training games will be on TV, including nine of FOX9 and FOX9+. Outstate markets served by Gray Media through stations in Rochester, Mankato and Duluth will have 15 games on over-the-air TV. The full schedule can be seen without charge by creating an account on MLB.TV and by cable/satellite subscribers whose packages include the Twins designated channel. The broadcasts will be a combination of simulcasts with radio, opposing team broadcasts and three done specifically for Twins TV. As the Twins try to recapture interest, it will be worth noting how many regular-season games will be shown on :free” TV. SCHEDULE: https://fluence-media.co/twinstv0205
WINTER TOURNAMENT SEASON: Section tournaments in girls’ hockey started this week and the state Alpine and Nordic ski meets run Tuesday through Thursday in Biwabik. TOURNAMENT SECHEDULE AND BRACKETS: https://fluence-media.co/state0205
GIRLS’ HOCKEY FAVORITES: Via Cassidy Hettesheimer at Strib Varsity. You want the 16 teams that will go to state for the tournament, which opens Feb. 18 at Grand Casino Arena, and the paths they’ll take to get there? Which team has the best shot at stopping Edina from making its 12th straight trip to state in Class 2A? And will the Class 1A title game be a battle between metro-area private schools? Those choices and many more are here. PICKS: https://fluence-media.co/picks0205
BETTER FOR THE EFFORT: Last week, we noted that Liberty Classical Academy of White Bear Lake was the only ranked metro team in the 1A boys’ and girls’ basketball polls. The Lions, then 18-0, stepped up in competition last weekend to play Rushford-Peterson, a team getting votes in the 2A poll. Liberty lost 95-59 before rebounding to win two games this week. POLLS: https://fluence-media.co/hoops0205
GUIDE TO THE OLYMPICS: I am looking forward to waking up for the next 2 1/2 weeks and getting an Olympic fix to start the day. I may even do a middle-of-the-night wakeup to watch Jessie Diggins go for another gold medal, Lindsey Vonn battle through her torn ACL in the downhill or the USA curling squads if they’re in medal contention. The hardest part is (1) Keeping track of the Minnesota Olympic connections and (2) Keeping track of anything else. Here are some links to help out, and a few stories about state-connected Olympians.
LOCAL COVERAGE: KARE-TV morning anchor Alicia Lewis will be reporting from Italy, mostly features and behind-the-scenes stories as opposed to event coverage. Lynx radio and BIG volleyball broadcaster Sloane Martin will be calling curling remotely from NBC headquarters in Connecticut. Neither the Star Tribune nor Pioneer Press are sending staff to Italy. Both news platforms will rely heavily on Associated Press content. The Strib plans a live blog with updates during the day. Pioneer Press sports editor John Shipley pointed out that the seven-hour time difference between here and Italy will allow coverage to be in the newspaper as well as on the web.
WELCOME TO THE LINK FARM:
OLYMPIC SCHEDULE GRID | RESULTS AND STANDINGS
TV AND STREAMING LISTINGS | STAR TRIBUNE LIVE BLOG
NBC OLYMPICS COVERAGE | MEDAL COUNT
MINNESOTA’S OLYMPIANS. Via Star Tribune. There are 37 from Minnesota or with Minnesota ties. That includes 15 hockey players and 11 curlers. Here are short biographies and when each is scheduled to compete. LIST: https://fluence-media.co/minnesota0205
22 MORE TO KNOW: Via Star Tribune. These are athletes with Minnesota ties competing for seven other countries, including five members of the Wild and four members of the Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey team. LIST: https://fluence-media.co/international0205
AROUND THE GLOBE: Via The Athletic. Here are 26 international athletes to watch. LIST: https://fluence-media.co/olympians0205
FIVE MOUNTAINS AND THAT HILL IN BURNSVILLE: Via Jake Steinberg and Ellie Lin at Star Tribune. As Lindsey Vonn prepares for her fifth Olympics at age 41, this is a look at the six venues that have shaped her career from Buck Hill along I-35 to Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy, where she had eight World Cup wins before trying to retire six years ago. The story’s graphics take you down each of the runs. STORY: https://fluence-media.co/vonn0205
CASPER’S CURLING COMEBACK: Via Macklin Stern at NBC Sports. Dethroning Iron Ranger John Shuster as the skip of Team USA’s men’s curling team was a big part, but hardly the biggest challenge faced by Danny Casper, who grew up in New York and now lives in Richfield. The biggest challenge came in 2024 when he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks its nerves and can result in paralysis. It took three months for doctors to figure out what was wrong and most of a year before Casper, 24, could return to competition. Fast forward to a slow recovery, defeating Shuster’s rink and then qualifying for the Olympics — and you have an incredible comeback story that has yet to be wisely shared outside of the curling world.
MORE: Casper is a rowdy figure in a typically low-key sport. Shuster acknowledged that getting into a trash-talking battle with him — on the ice or elsewhere — is a losing proposition. VERBATIM: “Wherever he is, Danny brings the energy. He’s a social butterfly, the life of the ‘sheet,’ perpetually hyping up teammates and chirping at opposing players. In a gentleman’s sport where trash-talking is far from the norm, Casper pushes the envelope. ‘My barber is always like, ‘You’re such a kind guy,’ and I’m like, ‘You know, when I’m curling, I’m kind of an asshole.’ “ FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/casper0205
ST. PAUL’S SPEEDSKATER: Via Anya Armentrout at Mac Weekly. Conor McDermott-Mostowy, a 2024 graduate of Macalester College, will be racing in the men’s 1,000-meter event on Wednesday. McDermott-Mostowy, a neuroscience major who plans to attend medical school after he’s done speedskating, has competed for the United States four times — including three whole he was in college. VERBATIM: McDermott-Mostowy’s training schedule was intense, often causing him to miss classes to travel and compete, but he found the administration and individual professors to be wholeheartedly supportive. ‘My last semester at Mac, I was leaving every single weekend for the first month of the semester, so I missed every single Friday. I would schedule my classes so that I wouldn’t have classes on Thursday, and then I could leave on Thursday, compete at World Cups Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then fly back Sunday night.’ ”
ONE MORE DISTINCTION: McDermott-Mostowy said he’s the only openly gay man on Team USA. VERBATIM: “I look at it almost as an obligation, especially right now, to be out. And I think that it’s important [for younger athletes] to know that queer people are in sports, and also that you can be in sports if you are a queer person.” FULL STORY: https://fluence-media.co/skater0205
ATHLETES SPEAK OUT: Via Doha Madani at NBC News: Several Minnesota Olympians, as well as other Team USA members, have spoken out about the government’s immigration surge in Minnesota. There’s a history of political expression at the Olympics that dates back to 1906 when Irish track athlete Peter O’Connor finished second in the long jump and scaled a flagpole to replace the British flag with an Irish nationalist banner to protest having to compete for Britain before Ireland gained independence. VERBATIM: “Figure skater Alysa Liu, who is from California, has been sharing posts to her Instagram Stories this week about the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. She also shared a post on Thursday urging people to call their representatives in Congress to oppose the current funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees immigration enforcement.” MORE: https://fluence-media.co/protest0205
JESSIE DIGGINS POSTS: Via Instagram. VERBATIM: “I want to make sure you know who I’m racing for when I get to the start line at the Olympics. I’m racing for an American people who stand for love, for acceptance, for compassion, honesty and respect for others. I do not stand for hate or violence or discrimination. I get to decide who I’m racing for every single day, and how I want to live up to my values. For everyone out there caring for others, protecting their neighbors and meeting people with love — every single step is for you. YOU are the ones who make me proud to carry the flag, and I hope I can bring you joy over these next few weeks.” POST: https://fluence-media.co/jessie0205
AND FINALLY: Take 71 seconds and watch Anthony Edwards be Anthony Edwards. (Parental advisory: Charming child alert.) https://fluence-media.co/ant0205
THANKS FOR READING AND WRITING: Back with more next week.
EMAIL HOWARD: sportstake100@gmail.com
ON THE WEB:
Bluesky: @howardsinker.bsky.social
Instagram: @howardsinkermn
ESPN’s comprehensive TV and streaming service listings: https://fluence-media.co/watch