Jul 7, 2022 4 min read

NHL player, Marchment, dies

Former NHL defenseman Bryan Marchment died Wednesday in Montreal, his agent said. He was 53.

Longtime agent Rick Curran confirmed Marchment’s death to the Associated Press. Marchment was attending the NHL draft in Montreal as a scout for the San Jose Sharks.

A cause of death was not immediately available.

“It’s a sad day for for me personally, a very sad day for our organization,” said Mike Grier, who was named Sharks general manager Tuesday. “He meant a lot to a lot of people in our organization, our players, our staff -anyone who knew Brian, the type of man he was. He was just an honest, a down-to-earth, loving person who just cared about everyone. He had time for everyone in the building. Anyone he came across, he had time for. “

Marchment played parts of 17 NHL seasons from 1989-2006 with Winnipeg, Chicago, Hartford, Edmonton, Tampa Bay, San Jose, Colorado, Toronto and Calgary..

Flag football boosted by NFL

Flag football will be played at an international, multi-sport event for the first time next week during the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama.

The NFL may be the sport’s biggest cheerleader.

“When we talk about the future of the game of football, it is, no question, flag,” NFL executive Troy Vincent told The Associated Press. “When I’ve been asked over the last 24 months, in particular, what does the next 100 years look like when you look at football, not professional football, it’s flag. It’s the inclusion and the true motto of ‘football for all.’ There is a place in flag football for all.”

Vincent points to the growing number of men and women playing flag football globally. He’s encouraged that six states – Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and New York – have sanctioned flag football as a varsity sport in high school with 20 more states interested or in the process of piloting to get it sanctioned.

Multiple NFL clubs support high schools in their respective states with helping fund the initiative. The Atlanta Falcons unveiled a girls flag wall in their stadium in May. The league says 450 schools, and more than 10,000 girls participate in flag football across the country.

Gobert changes addresses

Rudy Gobert reads Twitter comments, so he’s aware that Minnesota fans didn’t like him very much during his first nine NBA seasons. And he also heard Timberwolves coach Chris Finch complain regularly about the way he sets screens.

Those perspectives are probably going to change.

“Now we’re on the same side, so I’m excited,” Gobert said.

So is Minnesota, with good reason. The Timberwolves announced the acquisition of Gobert at a news conference in Minneapolis, where the trade that they agreed to make with the Utah Jazz last week could finally become official. It took four players, five first-round picks – including one made last month – and the option of swapping another pick to get the French center to Minnesota, and the Timberwolves still feel like they got the better of the deal.

“We think that he fits perfectly inside of what we already do,” Finch said.

Player dies in accident

Brexten Green, a wide receiver on the Emporia State football team, died over the weekend in a cliff-diving accident at Grand Lake in Oklahoma, the university announced Tuesday.

The Grand River Dam Authority received an emergency around 6:30 p.m. Saturday about a man who jumped into Grand Lake around Dripping Springs and didn’t resurface, KFOR-TV reported. Rescue crews found his body in 31 feet of water.