John Madden -- the NFL coaching and broadcasting legend who's also the namesake of the famed "Madden" video game franchise -- has died, the NFL announced.
He was 85 years old.
The league said he passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday morning.
"Nobody loved football more than Coach," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement Tuesday evening. "He was football. He was an incredible sounding board to me and so many others."
"There will never be another John Madden, and we will forever be indebted to him for all he did to make football and the NFL what it is today."
Madden is one of the most iconic figures in NFL history -- he dominated as a head coach of the Oakland Raiders, winning Super Bowl XI and finishing his career with a 103-32-7 record.
After his time as a head man on the sidelines ended, he went on to become one of the greatest color commentators ever -- famously teaming up with Pat Summerall to break down key NFL games for decades.
He was eventually inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006 -- and his popular terms "Boom!" and "Turducken" are still used around NFL broadcast booths to this day.
"I am not aware of anyone who has made a more meaningful impact on the National Football League than John Madden," Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement Tuesday. "And I know of no one who loved the game more."
Madden, though, is perhaps most known for his association with the insanely popular "Madden" football video game.
Casual fans, NFL players, and even coaches around the league play it religiously ... and the franchise -- which comes out with a new iteration yearly -- is reportedly worth around $4 billion.
Madden also gained fame in his career for his role as a pitchman -- he hawked products like Miller Lite and Tinactin, and appeared in notable commercials regularly.
Madden is survived by his wife Virginia, and his two sons, Joseph and Michael.
Texas’ Nueces County, where Corpus Christi is located, has reported that 85 infants under the age of 1 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, health officials said.
"We currently have 85 babies under the age of one year in Nueces County that have all tested positive for Covid-19," said Annette Rodriguez, director of public health for Corpus Christi Nueces County, according to CNN.
"These babies have not even had their first birthday yet,” Rodriguez added. “Please help us stop the spread of this disease."
Texas has become a new hotspot for coronavirus cases, reporting a record of 15,038 new cases on July 16 alone, according to data from The New York Times.
In the past seven days, Nueces County has had 2,499 new cases and 40 deaths — “the fastest growth in new cases on the seven-day average than any other metropolitan county in the state,” Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni told CNN.
"You can see the trend line is relatively flat until July, and this is where we have had that huge spike in cases, and this is why it's turned into a major problem for Nueces County," Zanoni said.
The news from Rodriguez indicates one of the first announcements of a large number of infant infections in one area. In the past, limited published reports indicated that a “small number of babies” tested positive for the virus shortly after birth. However, children are not at a higher risk than adults and the majority of cases to date are adults, according to the CDC.
Though it is rare, deaths of infants have also been attributed to the virus, including a 6-week-old Connecticut baby who died after testing positive in March.
“We believe this is one of the youngest lives lost anywhere due to complications relating to COVID-19,” Gov. Ned Lamont said at the time.
JUPITER, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man is facing felony charges after police said he let a 12-year-old girl drive his SUV and told her to speed because he wanted to be a “cool father” — even though he is not her dad.
Shaun Michaelsen, 41, told the arresting officer Monday he is friends with the girl’s mother and that the girl and her friend were staying with him for a few days, according to court records.
He said the girl had asked earlier in the day if she could drive his Jeep, so he thought “it would be cool” and that he was trying to be a “cool father,” the police report said. Michaelsen also told officers he had been drinking.
Jupiter Officer Craig Yochum said in his arrest report that he spotted the Jeep make an illegal U-turn and then speed away at about 12:10 a.m. Monday. He followed and the Jeep reached speeds of 85 mph (135 kph) in a 45 mph (70 kph) zone before he was able to pull it over. He said that when he asked the 12-year-old why she was driving so fast, she said Michaelsen told her to.
Michaelsen is charged with child neglect, allowing an unauthorized person to drive and causing a minor to become a delinquent for buying the girls vape pens — he says they requested, according to authorities.
He was being held without bond Tuesday at the Palm Beach County Jail. Court records do not indicate if he has an attorney.
Largo has only been rapping for one year, but it's evident he's got a bright future.
The episode 85 16orBetter winner chops it up with Jack Thriller about his musical influences, repping Philadelphia, the Team FOE (Family Over Everything) movement, pursuing a career in music to take care of his family, his "All They Askin For Is Largo" mixtape and spits a freestyle.
State College, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Joe Paterno, whose tenure as the most successful coach in major college football history ended abruptly in November amid allegations that he failed to respond forcefully enough to a sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant, died Sunday, a family spokesman said. He was 85.
The longtime Penn State head coach was diagnosed with what his family had called a treatable form of lung cancer shortly after the university's Board of Trustees voted to fire him.
He had been hospitalized in December after breaking his pelvis in a fall at his home and again in January for what his son called minor complications from his cancer treatments.
"It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today," the family statement said. "His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled."
Paterno, who was affectionately known as "JoePa" by generations of his players and football fans alike, was widely admired in football circles for what he called his "Grand Experiment" -- his expectation that big-time college football players could succeed on the field while upholding high academic and moral standards away from the gridiron.
Under his leadership, the Nittany Lions won two national championships, went undefeated five times and finished in the top 25 national rankings 35 times, according to his official Penn State biography.
At the same time, the program never fell under NCAA sanctions for major infractions while producing 13 Academic All-Americans since 2006. In 2009, according to the university, the Nittany Lions posted an 85% graduation rate.
"The acclaim for Joe Paterno has stemmed largely from the contrast between the high academic and moral standards he has tried to exemplify and the shameless conduct that often embarrasses and dishonors the college sport he cherishes," author Michael O'Brien wrote in a 1999 biography of Paterno, "No Ordinary Joe."
Paterno was born in 1926 in Brooklyn to second-generation Italian immigrants, according to O'Brien's book.
He attended Brown University, where he played quarterback and cornerback, according to another Penn State biography.
He coached at Penn State as an assistant from 1950 to 1965 and became head coach in 1966.
Decked out in his soon-to-become trademark thick glasses, white socks and sneakers, Paterno quickly became a memorable fixture on the football field, leading the Nittany Lions to undefeated seasons in 1968, 1969 and again in 1973 and the first national championship of his tenure in 1982.
Named National Coach of the Year five times, Paterno was added to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006, but his induction was delayed until 2007 because of injuries he suffered in a sideline collision.
He became the winningest coach in major college football history in 2011 with 409 victories.
In addition to his exploits on the sidelines, Paterno had a significant impact on the university's academic programs.
Paterno and his wife, Suzanne, donated more than $4 million to the university over the years for faculty endowments, scholarships and building projects, according to the university.
"Penn State has been very good to both Sue and me," he said in 1998, according to his university biography.
Honored with glowing words of praise from players and presidents alike -- President Ronald Reagan said Paterno never forgot that "he is a teacher who's preparing his students not just for the season, but for life," according to a university biography -- he received the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame Distinguished American Award in 1991.
In doing so, he became the first active coach to do so, according to the biography.
"What are coaches?" he said at the dinner celebrating his award, according to his university biography. "Number one, we're teachers and we're educators. We have the same obligation as all teachers at our institutions, expect we probably have more influence over our young people than anyone other than their families," he said.
It was his perceived failure to meet those obligations that led to his downfall as the only coach many Penn State football fans had ever known.
In October, state authorities charged two university officials with misleading investigators and failing to report alleged sexual abuse in 2002, after a Penn State assistant told a grand jury he saw former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky performing what appeared to be anal sex on a boy in a shower at the football complex.
Jerry Sandusky
The assistant reported it to Paterno the next day, who said he passed the report along to then-Athletic Director Tim Curley and another university executive, Gary Schultz.
Curley and Schultz left their positions shortly after the grand jury report was revealed. The next month, the university fired Paterno and Penn State President Graham Spanier.
At the time, he said in a statement released by his son, Scott Paterno, that he was "distraught" over the sex abuse scandal.
In an interview with the Washington Post published January 14, Paterno said that he felt inadequate to deal with the allegations.
"I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was," the Post quoted him as saying. "So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way."
Posted by ChasinDatPaper on September 12, 2010 at 11:30am
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CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Gunmen killed 25 people in a series of drug-gang attacks in Ciudad Juarez, marking the deadliest day in more than two years for the Mexican border city. Farther east on the border, 85 inmates scaled the walls of a prison and escaped Friday in Mexico's biggest jail break in recent memory.
Despite the violence, President Felipe Calderon hotly disputed a statement this week by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying Mexico resembled Colombia two decades ago."These kind of comments like the ones made by Secretary of State Clinton ... so careless, so lacking in seriousness, are very painful for Mexico, because they damage Mexico's image terribly," Calderon told the Spanish-language network Univision.
"I think the main thing we have in common with Colombia is that both of our countries suffer from U.S. drug consumption," Calderon said. "We are both victims of the enormous American consumption of drugs, and now the sales of weapons."
The toll in Thursday's attacks in Ciudad Juarez included 15 people killed when attackers stormed four homes in three hours, said Arturo Sandoval, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office of Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located.
In the worst of those attacks, gunmen burst into a house and killed two young men — then killed four others for being witnesses.
Sandoval said it was the highest single-day murder toll in the city across from El Paso, Texas, since March 2008. He did not give more details of how many died back then, or say what day.
Two graffiti message appeared in Ciudad Juarez threatening Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the fugitive head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
"You are killing our sons. You already did, and now we are going to kill your families," one sign read.
In the border city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, 85 inmates — 66 of whom were convicted or on trial for federal charges like weapons possession or drugs — scaled the Reynosa prison's 20-foot (6-meter) walls using ladders, said the Tamaulipas state public safety secretary, Jose Garza Garcia.Garza Garcia said 44 prison guards and employees were under investigation. Two were missing.
"The guards evidently helped in the escape," he said. So far this year a total of 201 inmates have escaped from prisons in Tamaulipas.
Friday's escape was the largest single mass prison breakout in recent years. In 2009, armed assailants believed to be working for the Zetas drug gang broke 53 inmates out of a prison in the northern state of Zacatecas while guards stood by and did nothing to stop them.
Ciudad Juarez, with a population of 1.3 million, has become one of the world's most dangerous cities amid a turf war between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.
Violence has continued unabated despite the deployment of thousands of soldiers to the city this year. Federal police, including a special investigative unit, later took over security in the city as part of a new strategy announced by President Felipe Calderon.
More than 2,100 people have been killed this year in Ciudad Juarez, putting the city on pace to surpass its previous high of 2,700, set last year.
Daily homicide tolls routinely reach double digits in Juarez; 24 people were killed Aug. 15.
Also Friday, Sandoval confirmed that a U.S. resident kidnapped in Ciudad Juarez last month was found dead.
Saul de la Rosa, 27, was abducted along with two other people when he crossed into Ciudad Juarez on Aug. 28. All three bodies were found Sept. 2, and Sandoval said documents found on De la Rosa indicated he was a U.S. resident.
Elsewhere in Mexico, at least five people were killed in the southern Pacific coast state of Guerrero, where various cartels are also fighting for territory, state police reported. One body was found floating in the ocean in a beach town just north of the resort city of Acapulco, his hands and feet bound.
In central Morelos state, a prison riot left one inmate dead and eight wounded. Guerrero and Morelos state have both been battlegrounds for control the Beltran Leyva cartel since its leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a December shootout with Marines.
One of the alleged kingpins fighting for control of Morelos, U.S.-born Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal, was captured Aug. 30 by federal police, but different accounts of how he was caught have since emerged.
The Mexican government has said the arrest was the result of a 1 1/2-year investigation and a carefully planned raid involving agents specially trained abroad.
But a copy of the booking report obtained by The Associated Press and other media outlets Thursday indicates the officers who arrested him did not initially know who they had caught. The officers' report says they detained Valdez after chasing him in a suspicious three-vehicle convoy for several miles.
On Friday, Valdez's U.S. lawyer, Kent Schaffer, told The Associated Press that Mexican authorities lured Valdez to a business 10 miles from his ranch by having a detained associate call and ask to meet him. He said Valdez drove to the place, got out of the car and found himself surrounded.
Schaffer said Valdez told him the associate was forced to make the call at gunpoint.
"He wasn't pulled over for traffic. He wasn't chased at all," Schaffer said. "From what I understand, an associate of Mr. Valdez was ordered at gunpoint to send him a message telling him to come meet."
A federal police spokesman, who was not authorized by department rules to be quoted by name, said an associate of Valdez's apparently did call Valdez just before he was caught, but said that happened while police were tailing the associate's car in Mexico City.
When the associate noticed the police, he opened fire and was killed in the ensuing gunbattle near a major shopping center, the spokesman said.
Also Friday, Mexico's attorney general said video tapes distributed by authorities showing Valdez giving a rambling account of his drug dealings are considered "interviews," and could not be formally submitted as evidence because his lawyer was not present. Attorney General Arturo Chavez said that in formal statements with his lawyer present, Valdez did not admit to the activities he acknowledged on the tapes.
Schaffer also said he filed an official request with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City asking that the U.S. government request Valdez be deported to face trial in the United States, where he faces charges in three states for allegedly trucking in tons of cocaine.
A Mexican judge last week ordered Valdez held for 40 days while prosecutors here decide whether to formally file organized crime and other charges. Mexican authorities have said deportation is a possibility but have made no decision.
Associated Press writers Alexandra Olson and E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report.
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