Tuesday’s Sports in Brief – Washington Times

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

In another step toward redefining the amateur status of college athletes, Northwestern has agreed to drop social media restrictions placed on football players after a complaint about the team handbook was filed with the National Labor Relations Board.

ESPN first reported the complaint was withdrawn in September after Northwestern agreed to modify its rules. The NLRB’s advisory memo states the scholarship football players are assumed to be “statutory employees” and that certain team rules were unlawful. That could affect players at the other 16 private schools that compete in FBS.

A group of former Northwestern players, led by an advocacy group for college athletes, failed last year in its attempt to gain the right to unionize the team from the NLRB, although the door was left open for other changes when the board said the players should be treated as employees. The board has no jurisdiction over public institutions, which include the vast majority of colleges and universities in Division I.

DERRICK ROSE LAWSUIT

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The night after Derrick Rose and two of his friends had sex with his ex-girlfriend, he had a hunch she was going to claim they raped her, the NBA star testified Tuesday.

Rose said he became suspicious of the woman when she texted later the same day of the alleged early morning attack in August 2013 to say how inebriated she had been and to describe burns she claimed she got on her hands from a fire pit outside his Beverly Hills house. Rose said he believed she was sober and never witnessed any burns the night before.

“It looked like a setup,” Rose said. “It turned out to be what I thought.”

Rose testified for a second day in the $21.5 million lawsuit that claims he and his friends had sex without the woman’s consent when she was incapacitated from drinking and, possibly, drugs. The woman claims the three entered her apartment and had sex with her while she was blacked out after drinking tequila at Rose’s rental house earlier and other booze she had before she got there.

PRO HOCKEY

UNDATED (AP) – Tim Tebow comforted a fan who was having a seizure, praying and talking college football with the man after the former NFL quarterback played his first baseball game in the Arizona Fall League.

“I just remember just being very disoriented,” Brandon Berry told The Associated Press by phone. “Then I saw Tim.”

Berry had the seizure following a game in Glendale, Arizona, held at Camelback Ranch, the spring training home for two major league teams. Tebow stayed with Berry for 15 to 20 minutes until paramedics took him from the stadium, praying for Berry while placing a hand on his leg.

The 30-year-old Berry said he was OK at home in nearby Avondale after being released from the hospital.

Berry said he doesn’t remember much after the seizure, except that he told the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner that he cheered for Georgia – an SEC rival of Tebow’s Florida Gators.

OLYMPICS

ROME (AP) – Italy suspended Rome’s bid for the 2024 Olympics, forced to pull the plug because of the staunch opposition of the city’s mayor.

Italian Olympic Committee president Giovanni Malago said that he had written to the IOC announcing the decision to “interrupt the candidacy.”

While the letter left open a small possibility for a revival of the bid if there is a change in city government, Malago didn’t hold out much hope.

The move comes after Rome’s city council voted last month to withdraw support of the bid on the recommendation of Mayor Virginia Raggi.