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What Had Happened Was

What Had Happened Was: 9/5/17

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    Denver Broncos training camp
    Former Denver Broncos strong safety T.J. Ward #43 at Dove Valley August 04, 2017. Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images
    Aaron Dodson By @aardodson

    Game. Blouses

    • Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety T.J. Ward called the way the Denver Broncos handled his recent release “unprofessional.” Just two days after being among Denver’s final roster cuts, Ward didn’t hold back his criticism while discussing his former team on Monday. “I just think they handled it completely unprofessional,” said Ward, who signed with the Bucs after the Broncos let him go last week. Entering the final year of his contract, the three-time Pro Bowler hoped to receive a new deal and eventually retire as a member of the Broncos. Yet the play of two 2016 draft picks led Denver to part ways with the veteran safety a week before the start of the regular season.
    • Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott will continue to practice while awaiting appeal of suspension. On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court judge in Texas will hear a request for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the NFL from making a ruling on the second-year running back’s six-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett confirmed that Elliott will not attend the hearing, but remain with his team as the Cowboys prepare for Week 1 of the NFL season. “We’re just going to prepare for the Giants, and Zeke will practice until someone tells him not to,” Garrett said. If NFL arbitrator Harold Henderson upholds the suspension, Elliott will take the case to court.
    • Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell signed his $12.1 million franchise tender. After a summer-long holdout for a new contract, which both sides could not agree upon, Bell finally got back to work on Monday while preparing to begin the regular season on the one-year contract. As to why Bell decided to sit out for the entirety of training camp, “I wanted to make sure I was prepared and fresh for the season,” he said. “I don’t want to go out there and jeopardize myself getting hurt in camp.” During his time off the field, Bell posted a video on Twitter of him filling out an application for a job at Dairy Queen. The joke, however, has led to the fast-food and ice cream chain to reach out to Bell about endorsement opportunities.

    Top three tweets

    1. ISAIAH, THE KID!

    2. SCIENCE MEETS FOOTBALL

    3. WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME

    ICYMI

    On this day in sports history

    On Sept. 5, 1960, Cassius Clay (four years before he converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali) defeated three-time European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski to win the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the Rome Games. Though he won all four of his Olympic bouts, the then-18-year-old Clay almost didn’t make it to the Summer Games for one reason. “He was afraid of flying,” Joe Martin, a former police officer man in the champ’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, said in an HBO special. “He wanted to take a boat or something … I calmed him down and convinced him if he wanted to be heavyweight champion of the world, then he had to go to Rome and win the Olympics.”

    Picture-perfect

    Aaron Dodson is a sports and culture writer at Andscape. He primarily writes on sneakers/apparel and hosts the platform’s Sneaker Box video series. During Michael Jordan’s two seasons playing for the Washington Wizards in the early 2000s, the “Flint” Air Jordan 9s sparked his passion for kicks.

    This Story Tagged: What Had Happened Was Muhammad Ali Ezekiel Elliott Colin Kaepernick Le'Veon Bell Isaiah Thomas