| Thursday, April 22, 2021 |
| Pfizer vaccine first and second doses available for MSU students, employees | |
 | Mississippi State University students and employees who received their first Pfizer dose are encouraged to register for their second shot. The second shot should be received 3-6 weeks after the first and is necessary to achieve the maximum level of protection. Second dose appointments can be scheduled at https://covidvaccine.msstate.edu for April 26, 27, 28 and May 3. If you have not received a vaccine and would like to set an appointment, visit https://covidvaccine.msstate.edu to schedule your first dose of Pfizer for April 29 or 30. The second dose will need to be received in 3-6 weeks. These appointments will take place at the Longest Student Health Center. If you have questions about COVID-19 or vaccines, you may contact the COVID-19 Hotline at 662-325-2055. |
| Blackjack construction equipment erupts into flames, Maroon Alert is issued | |
 | Shortly after pictures of flames erupting from a piece of road equipment on Blackjack Road began to circulate social media, students phones began buzzing with a Maroon Alert. "Avoid the area of Blackjack and Hardy. Officials are responding," it simply said. According to Sid Salter, chief communication officer at Mississippi State University, the piece of equipment that exploded was a motor grader on the corner of Blackjack Road and Hardy Boulevard. "The initial fire was pretty substantial and was rolling -- big flames," Salter said. The construction crew became concerned and contacted Brent Crocker, the university's emergency manager, and a Maroon Alert was issued out of an abundance of caution. East Oktibbeha Volunteer Fire Department responded and was able to put out the fire. Roads remained closed for about an hour before another Maroon Alert was issued that they were reopened. |
| MSU students bring public art 'from City Hall to Lee Hall' | |
| Students at Mississippi State University are turning a downtown retaining wall into a work of art. They will be painting a mural titled "From City Hall to Lee Hall: We're all in this together" that will feature a long line of stylized buildings in various colors of the rainbow, progressing from iconic buildings in the city to buildings that characterize the campus of MSU. "I think the whole idea of murals is to beautify the city and connect the physical city with the ideals and the things that people love," said Emily Harms, a junior graphic design major and the MSU student who designed the mural. The mural will be just that: a visual representation of the "town and gown" connection that is integral to both Starkville and MSU. "The town and gown relationship is incredibly important to me and Dr. Keenum, as we have worked together over the last few years to make sure the things we do complement each other and that we are working in tandem to keep the partnership strong and benefit off of each other's strengths," Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said. |
| Starkville mayor addresses rise in juvenile crimes | |
 | Starkville city leaders are concerned about the juvenile crime rate. This comes after recent shootings that involved juveniles. "If you see something, say something," Mayor Lynn Spruill said. "We are in a heightened level of concern and everybody is a part of the solution." One such incident happened on Easter with the death of 17-year-old Clifton Files. Police arrested two teenagers. Police arrested a 16-year-old for a shooting that happened on Saturday, April 17, at the Brookville Garden Apartments. The latest shooting happened Tuesday, April 20 at McKee Park. Police arrested five teenagers from Columbus. "It occurred at a park where we had league games going on, baseball league games going on, and that is just so totally unacceptable," the mayor said. She is worried. "I struggle with why suddenly things are happening. Although I can postulate that suddenly the pandemic is just about over. People are coming out; there's pent-up emotion, frustration, demand, and so all of that mixes in and creates a certain volatility." Police are seeing repeat juvenile offenders; many of whom have been arrested for similar or worse crimes. |
| US jobless claims fall to 547,000, another pandemic low | |
 | The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid fell last week to 547,000, a new low since the pandemic struck and a further encouraging sign that layoffs are slowing on the strength of an improving job market. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications declined 39,000 from a revised 586,000 a week earlier. Weekly jobless claims are down sharply from a peak of 900,000 in early January. At the same time, they're still far above the roughly 250,000 level that prevailed before the viral outbreak ripped through the economy in March of last year. About 17.4 million people were continuing to collect unemployment benefits in the week that ended April 3, the latest period for which data is available, up from 16.9 million in the previous week. The overall job market is making steady gains. Last month, the nation's employers adding 916,000 jobs, the most since August, in a sign that a sustained recovery is taking hold. The unemployment rate fell from 6.2% to 6%, well below the pandemic peak of nearly 15%. |
| Final bills on Governor Reeves' desk to be decided before midnight tonight | |
 | Since adjourning, the Mississippi Legislature sent their remaining bills in the 2021 session to Governor Tate Reeves for his consideration. He has until tonight, April 22, at midnight to sign or veto what is left, otherwise, they will automatically go into law. Reeves indicated on Wednesday we could see some partial vetoes on those remaining bills prior to the deadline. One of the most talked about bills still on his desk is SB 2795, the Mississippi Earned Parole Eligibility Act, a key component in the Legislature's criminal justice reform movement. The bill would allow some non-violent offenders eligibility for parole after a certain period of their sentence has been met. A few of the state department budgets remain unofficial as well. The Department of Transportation, Institutions of Higher Learning, and Mississippi Development Authority are all still waiting for their budgets to be approved. Another appropriations bill for various spending is also still on the docket. |
| Mississippi started investigating its largest Medicaid contractor 2 years ago | |
 | Mississippi's investigation of Medicaid contractor Centene began at least two years ago, when State Auditor Shad White hired a specialist law firm to scrutinize whether the mega corporation was overcharging taxpayers for pharmacy benefits. The Daily Journal previously reported on a contract from September showing the attorney general's office had retained Ridgeland firm Liston & Deas to probe financial losses suffered by the state Division of Medicaid. But a newly-obtained letter reveals the investigation was already well underway by then. White hired the same firm in April 2019 to analyze pharmacy benefit data involving Centene. The letter mentions the possibility of an eventual lawsuit in order for the state to recoup pharmacy benefit overcharges. State officials say their investigation -- expected to conclude later this year -- is similar to one in Ohio where a lawsuit alleges Centene bilked taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars to pad its profits. That lawsuit, recently unsealed, reveals a rough outline of what Mississippi authorities suspect the Fortune 50 company may be doing here. |
| Mississippi Senate killed 19 House bills to restore voting rights | |
| Jackson resident Omar Travis was released from prison about four years ago after being convicted of receiving stolen property. Before that, in 1991, he was convicted on a burglary charge. This legislative session, Travis was among the 21 former people convicted of felonies who House leaders decided should have their voting rights restored. The only way to have voting rights restored in Mississippi is through legislative action or gubernatorial pardon, which is why Travis was relieved when the House passed his suffrage bill. But Senate leaders killed his bill along with 18 others, ultimately deciding to pass just two of the House's proposed suffrage bills. Travis, who now works as a mental health technician counseling troubled youth in a clinic setting, was obviously disappointed by the outcome. Mississippi is in the minority of states -- less than 10 -- where voting rights are not automatically restored for people convicted of felonies either after they complete their sentence or at some point after completing parole or probation. |
| Yazoo Backwater Project: Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith highlights Mississippi Delta need during hearing | |
| This week, Mississippi's U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith identified the uncompleted Yazoo Backwater Area pumps as "one of the most egregious environmental injustices" as she sought continued Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cooperation on the project under the Biden administration. Hyde-Smith broached the issue at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing titled, "The American Jobs Plan: Infrastructure, Climate Change, and Investing in Our Nation's Future." The committee conducted the hearing to gain perspectives on President Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal. Hyde-Smith stressed that the lack of a pumping station for the Yazoo Backwater Area has resulted in millions of taxpayer dollars spent to fund a "giant bathtub" that harms the lives of Mississippians living in six Delta counties that are among the most rural and underserved in the nation. The Yazoo Backwater Area consists of a population that is almost 65 percent minority, 33 percent live in poverty, far above the national average. The median household income is $31,393, far below the national average. Since 2010, the area population has declined by more than 10,000. |
| Senate Republicans Shun Earmarks, Embracing Spending Restraint Anew | |
 | Senate Republicans are trying to reclaim the mantle of fiscal conservatism, adopting multiple symbolic resolutions aimed at curbing federal spending that could lead to clashes with Democrats over President Biden's infrastructure plan, the government's ability to continue borrowing money and the dozen annual spending bills. Under President Donald J. Trump, Republicans largely abandoned their zeal for austerity and endorsed a series of spending increases, including approving more than $3 trillion in 2020 alone to address the economic and health toll of the coronavirus pandemic. But in an internal party vote on Wednesday, they said goodbye to all of that, affirming a series of rules that underscored how, with a Democrat in the White House, Republicans planned to revive demands for big funding cuts. In a private gathering, they agreed that limitations on the government's ability to borrow should be paired with either spending cuts or reductions of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. In 2019, lawmakers agreed to suspend the statutory debt ceiling for two years without either caveat, with support from the Trump administration. The Senate Republican Conference also affirmed an existing, decade-old ban on earmarks, even as the House is poised to revived the practice of allowing individual lawmakers to direct spending to specific projects for their districts and states in legislation. |
| President Biden Urges Climate Action at World Leaders Summit | |
 | President Biden made his case to world leaders that the U.S. is committed to sharply cutting its greenhouse-gas emissions in the next decade and challenged other nations to take ambitious steps to tackle climate change. "No nation can solve this crisis on our own," Mr. Biden said at the start of a two-day virtual climate summit at the White House. "All of us, and particularly those of us that represent the world's largest economies, we have to step up." The climate summit is aimed at jump-starting negotiations for a global deal to curb emissions world-wide. The event features 40 heads of state, with allies and rivals such as Russia and China among them. Mr. Biden used the summit to unveil a new target that calls for U.S. emissions to be 50% to 52% lower in 2030 than levels in 2005, a common baseline for such climate targets. |
| The workshop that almost was: Sam Haskell's visit to UM cancelled after student objections | |
 | After students brought concerns to the theater department regarding a workshop with a controversial alumnus, faculty was quick to cancel the event altogether and create a committee that handles donors and guests. Despite being grateful for the cancellation, some students who were invited are still asking why it was scheduled in the first place. What was the reason that administrators planned for a group of majority female students to meet with an alumnus who had been exposed for sharing emails with misogynistic language? Some say money, and evidently, the alumnus himself was told a false reason for the event cancellation. In February, one student reached out to The Daily Mississippian with concerns about why Sam Haskell was invited to speak and said others close to the situation felt the same way. The Daily Mississippian filed a public records request to obtain emails from faculty members regarding how the decision was made. Evident in the records, concerns about Haskell's reputation were brought up early in discussions about the workshop, in the form of jokes and serious discussion, but it wasn't until a student brought up his or her own problems with meeting Haskell that faculty members involved in planning the workshop became more concerned. |
| To repeat, or not to repeat -- that's the question for next school year | |
 | David Scruggs Jr. has spent most of the pandemic at his second-grade son's side, helping him with virtual learning as their Nashville, Tenn., home became a schoolhouse as well as his office. In the next room, Scruggs' wife, Dorothy, sat beside their first-grade daughter, a mirror image on the other side of the wall, doing the same while holding down her own job. For a year, the Scruggs worked to keep their kids from falling behind as the pandemic forced children to stay home and America's education system struggled to adjust. The family installed a whiteboard and baby pink desk next to their TV. The coffee table became a receptacle for homework, folders and laminated multiplication tables. Now, the Scruggs and thousands of families like them in Tennessee and more than a dozen other states face a reckoning with how well they succeeded in their new role as substitute teachers. In the coming months, under a new, stricter state policy, if their son doesn't do well enough on a standardized reading test next year, he could be forced to repeat a grade. Last year, at the height of the pandemic, some states -- including Mississippi, one of the early pioneers of the third-grade reading law -- canceled standardized tests and suspended retention policies. |
| U. of Alabama ending COVID-related leaves and staggered work schedules May 15 | |
 | Staggered schedules, leave and other pandemic-related benefits and accommodations the University of Alabama created as temporary measures for the crisis will expire mid-May, according to an emailed message sent to faculty and staff this week. The message credited recent low COVID infection numbers, expanded campus vaccinations for employees and students, and updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the change. It read, in part, "With no COVID positives reported among faculty and staff in the last two weeks, we are pleased with these significant indicators and look forward to continued progress." The UA message noted that though the temporary measures will be expiring, employees will continue to retain and accrue regular sick and annual leave, and can apply for other accommodations under the benefits and programs that existed pre-pandemic. The message also said: "We appreciate the dedication, flexibility and resolve shown by UA employees over the last year." |
| Auburn University will have 'full in-person, on-campus' fall semester | |
| Auburn students, faculty and staff can expect a complete return to campus for the fall 2021 semester after the University aimed to offer 70% of classes in person during spring 2021. The University announced in a campus-wide email on Wednesday morning that it is planning a "full in-person, on-campus academic and student life experience" for the fall. The fall 2021 semester will begin Aug. 16, and the University said classes and course delivery will be carried out largely as they are in normal semesters. Other facets of campus life such as housing, dining, events, transportation and travel will see typical pre-pandemic operations. "The decision was made in consultation with state and local health officials and with input from shared governance groups representing students, faculty and staff," the University said. According to the email, students, faculty and staff will be asked to follow some health and safety precautions, but the University did not specify what these will be, stating that it will share more details in the summer. The University said it does not plan at this time on requiring students, faculty and staff to receive COVID-19 vaccinations to return to campus in the fall. |
| Jay Dardenne, Jim Henderson among 8 semifinalists in LSU president search; see full list | |
 | An LSU special committee Wednesday picked eight candidates to interview next week for the university's top job, including Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne, who runs the day-to-day operations of state government, and University of Louisiana system President Jim Henderson, who heads the state's largest public university system. Also to be interviewed are: Laurence Alexander, professor and chancellor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff; Army Maj. Gen. Ronald Clark, chief of staff of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii; Kelvin Droegemeier, former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Rustin M. Moore, professor and dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University; Mary Ann Rankin, professor and former senior vice president and provost of the University of Maryland, College Park; and Retired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Talley, president and CEO of The P3i Group. Twenty-three candidates submitted their applications for the post of president of a system with about 45,000 students that includes colleges, medical schools, a law school and research institutions across the state, coupled with being chancellor of Louisiana's flagship university in Baton Rouge. |
| Protestors occupy U. of Florida's Reitz Union with food service contract demands | |
 | University of Florida students and protestors announced Wednesday afternoon that they would occupy the J. Wayne Reitz Union until their demands for a more equitable university food service contract are met. Ava Kaplan, a UF sophomore studying political science who is one of the event organizers, said they had a plan and were prepared to deal with conflict and police if necessary but would not specify details to help protect the group. "The point of an occupation is to disrupt enough that they will actually listen to us," she said. "We're not leaving." About 21 people filled the hallway outside of and below UF's Business Services division inside the Reitz Union when the announcement was made at 4 p.m. Ten of them, all with the local activist coalition the Food Justice League, planned to spend at least the night and following two days there, Kaplan said. The news came directly after a group protest through the union, where loud chants of "boycott the Reitz" and "get up, get down, fair food has come to town" could be heard echoing through the building. It was the next big thing the coalition could think of to get UF's attention and be taken seriously after finding little to no success with previous methods, like requesting open meetings with university officials, she said. |
| Missouri College of Arts and Science dean leaving to become president at Florida college | |
 | Patricia Okker, dean of the University of Missouri College of Arts and Science since 2017, will be the next president of New College of Florida, the Sarasota college announced Wednesday. The college's Board of Trustees chose Okker as the next leader Tuesday. She will succeed Donal O'Shea, who has led the college since 2012. "Dr. Pat Okker is a proven leader who undertakes complexity and achieves excellence with a sense of inclusion and shared purpose," said Mary Ruiz, chairwoman of the New College Board of Trustees, in a news release. "She will lead New College to even greater contributions in higher education and our community." As dean of the MU College of Arts and Science, Okker oversees 450 full-time faculty, 135 staff and 6,500 students in 26 departments and schools, with an annual operating budget of $120 million. She has increased graduation and retention rates during her time as dean. She began at MU in 1990 as an assistant English professor and was promoted to full professor in 2004. From 2005 to 2011, Okker chaired the English department. In the Provost's Office, she developed an academic program review of 280 degree programs. |
| Community colleges keeping more classes online | |
 | It was a trickle that became a deluge, as four-year colleges of all sorts began to announce their fall 2021 plans. Many took great pains to advertise a large share of in-person classes and activities, pushing as much as they could for a "return to normal." Now that plan -- a return to majority in-person classes -- has become the norm among four-year institutions. But many community colleges have been planning for something different. Some have announced that classes will be largely remote this fall, rejecting some of the optimism of their peers. "As long as I have to adhere to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and [California Division of Occupational Safety and Health] guidelines, that's not going to happen," said Frank Chong, president of Santa Rosa Junior College, referring to opening up full-time in person. While it's too early to tell, it appears that demand for in-person classes among community college students differs from the demand among peers at four-year institutions. While students at four-year colleges and universities have been clamoring to return to campus, it appears that some community college students have enjoyed the flexibility that remote classes have offered. Students who live far from campus, take care of children or work while going to school may prefer remote or asynchronous styles. |
SPORTS
| James Armstrong Signs Contract Extension | |
| Mississippi State Athletics announced Wednesday that head soccer coach James Armstrong has signed a contract extension through 2024. "We are excited about the leadership and direction of Mississippi State soccer under Coach Armstrong," MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen said. "He and his staff have built a strong culture and foundation during their short time in Starkville. We look forward to seeing the program continue to grow with him at the helm." "It is a privilege to work for Mississippi State, this athletic department, and to be part of the Starkville community," said Armstrong. "I would like to thank John Cohen for giving me the opportunity to continue this exciting project for the next four years. I love working with this wonderful group of players and amazing staff. We are very excited about the continued growth of this program and recognize that the future is bright. Hail State!" Armstrong has created a blue-collar program with a culture that values grit, integrity, discipline, family, leadership, and a team-first mentality. He has guided the Bulldogs to numerous program firsts during his opening two seasons. In 2019, Mississippi State ended a 15-year SEC Tournament drought, as Armstrong became just the second active SEC head coach to reach the tournament in his first year leading any program. The Bulldogs qualified with the third-highest SEC winning percentage in program history and its most points in the standings (12) since 2004 (16). MSU picked up points from 60 percent of their league matches, an all-time high. |
| Southern Miss women's basketball coach Joye Lee-McNelis in fight for her life | |
 | Backing down from a challenge has never been in Joye Lee-McNelis' DNA. She cherishes a fight. Tell her she can't do something and then step back and watch her do all in her power to prove you've misjudged her. The Southern Miss women's basketball coach and former University of Memphis coach – the last to take Memphis to the NCAA Tournament – finds herself in another fight, perhaps the most difficult of her life. Cancer, which she defeated several years ago, has returned, attempting to disrupt the non-stop schedule of a college coach, mother and grandmother. "Only God knows when I'm going to leave this world," Lee-McNelis said. "The medication I'm on is going to determine what the next step is going to be, how it's going to treat the cancer. It's just an unknown." A scrappy guard in college at Southern Miss and one of the program's first 1,000-point scorers, Lee-McNelis was a fast-rising assistant coach at Southwest Texas State in the mid-1980s and, in short order, an accomplished head coach at Memphis. She spent 13 years at the U of M after serving as an assistant at her alma mater from 1986 to '91. |
| SWAC to hold football championship in Jackson, Mississippi | |
| The Southwestern Athletic Conference is moving its championship game to a neutral site. The league announced Wednesday that the May 1 game between Alabama A&M and Arkansas Pine-Bluff will be played at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Mississippi. It was initially scheduled to be played on the campus of the highest ranked team. SWAC Commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland said the league made the move because of COVID-19 cancellations that had directly affected both teams. He said the canceled games would have helped the SWAC determine a host school using its tiebreaker policy. "Without having the ability to thoroughly evaluate both teams using that policy we felt the only fair and equitable decision that could be made was to move the game to a neutral site location," McClelland said. |
| College football camps to see changes in attempt to reduce concussions | |
| Change is coming to college football, and this time, the modifications are on the field. While the last several weeks have been spent on transfer legislation and athlete compensation changes, college sports leaders are poised to make an adjustment between the lines: Preseason camp is getting a facelift. In response to results from a five-year concussion study released earlier this spring, an NCAA legislative committee is deeply exploring ways to make the annual August camp a safer place, officials told Sports Illustrated in interviews this week. The Football Oversight Committee (FOC), college football's highest policy-making group, plans to present recommendations soon that will significantly change one of football's most grueling traditions. Committee members are considering a reduction of full-padded camp practices (from 21 to eight), the complete abolishment of collision exercises (such as the "Oklahoma" drill) and limiting a team to two scrimmages per camp (lowered from three and a half). The changes stem from a study published in February that was funded by the NCAA and Department of Defense. The study tracked head exposures in six Division I college football teams from 2015 to '19, finding that 72% of concussions occurred during practice and nearly 50% happened in preseason practice, despite it representing just one-fifth of the football season. Total head impacts in the preseason occurred at twice the rate of the regular season. More than 650 players from Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Wisconsin, UCLA, Air Force and Army were involved in the study. |
| Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey weighs possible economic ramifications over restricting transgender rights | |
 | The NCAA could pull out of hosting college basketball tournaments in Birmingham if Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signs legislation regulating the medical and sports decision of transgender youth, LGBTQ advocates say. They also claim the World Games, set for 2022 in Birmingham, could be in jeopardy. Conservative supporters of both policies anticipate the Republican governor in deep red Alabama will sign the matters into law despite any economic threats that may come. For Ivey, a major decision is approaching over how to proceed with legislation that critics call discriminatory toward transgender youths, and a violation of the NCAA's policy of hosting events in environments "safe, healthy and free of discrimination." Ivey's decision could also shine a light on whether the governor has future political ambitions in 2022, as a re-election decision approaches. The decisions awaiting Ivey, and the possible ramifications, were atop the minds of representatives who spoke Tuesday during a Zoom news conference hosted by the Human Rights Campaign of Alabama. The LBGQ advocacy group warned of the potential for Alabama to lose physicians and sporting events if HB391, and one of the two medical bills -- HB1 or SB10 -- are signed into law. |
| Florida's transgender sports ban headed for defeat in GOP-controlled state Senate | |
| The Republican-controlled Florida Senate appears to be abandoning a controversial transgender sports ban, a development that would hand LGBTQ activists and Democrats a huge victory. The bill, which specifies that K-12 and college sports teams must be designated based on "biological" sex while charging state agencies with crafting policies to hash out gender disputes, was condemned by the LGBTQ community and lawmakers who viewed the measure as discriminatory toward transgender students. "Ding dong the witch is dead," tweeted state Sen. Janet Cruz (D-Tampa), a critic of the bill. "Rip Transgender bill." The issue was magnified last week when the NCAA put states like Florida on notice just before the Florida House voted for the measure, warning that locations that don't treat all student athletes with "dignity and respect" could be ineligible to host future championship games. A top Senate panel on Tuesday put off considering the ban, a move that signals the upper chamber is reluctant to move forward with the bill. The proposal's sponsor, powerful Senate budget chief Kelli Stargel, said her attention will be on finishing the state budget with less than two weeks left in session. |
| Autographs. Endorsements. Social media posts. UGA turns to firm to usher in NIL for athletes | |
 | A bill passed by the Georgia legislature last month that would allow athletes in the state including those at UGA to be paid for the use of their name, image or likeness awaits Gov. Brian Kemp's signature. Georgia athletic officials are already preparing for a new world for their athletes when it comes to them being able to profit from the change as early as July 1 under an arrangement it's made with Altius Sports Partners. The firm, headed by a former vice president of business and legal affairs for the NFL Players Association, is already preparing UGA athletes to understand NIL policies and to monetize their intellectual property. They are doing that through workshops over the next year on personal branding and business formation and opportunities with social media posts, autographs, personal appearances, camps, clinics and such merchandise as T-shirts and bobbleheads. "We're really focused on educating and empowering the athletes no matter where the rules land," said Casey Schwab, CEO and founding partner of Altius Sports Partners. "We don't know exactly what the fall's going to look like in terms of the regulatory landscape. We don't even know what July is going to look like in a little over two months...Things could change rapidly with the Supreme Court issuing its decision in Alston to the federal government passing something in Washington." |
| Brett Favre says it's 'hard to believe' Derek Chauvin meant to kill George Floyd | |
 | One day after Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts in the murder of George Floyd, Pro Football Hall of Famer Brett Favre said he did not think the former Minneapolis police officer meant to kill Floyd. "I find it hard to believe, and I'm not defending Derek Chauvin in any way, I find it hard to believe, first of all, that he intentionally meant to kill George Floyd," Favre said. "That being said, his actions were uncalled for. I don't care what color the person is on the street. I don't know what led to that video that we saw where his knee is on his neck, but the man had thrown in the towel." The comments came from the 20-year NFL veteran's "Bolling with Favre" podcast alongside TV personality Eric Bolling. Favre said last week he wanted politics out of sports because he believed it was hurting games, and agreed with people deciding not to watch sports anymore. Favre said he was aware of the backlash his comments received but stands by his comments. Numerous athletes, coaches and sports leagues voiced support of Chauvin's conviction Tuesday evening, including the NFL. |
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