Mar 13, 2020 3 min read

Penguins to pay arena workers

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced a plan to pay full and part-time arena and service employees at PPG Paints Arena, who would otherwise lose income on regular season games because the NHL suspended its season.

The NHL announced Thursday that the season will be suspended because of the coronavirus. The Penguins had six regular season games remaining on the schedule.

Funding to pay those employees will come from the Pittsburgh Penguins players, the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation and the Mario Lemieux Foundation.

“The ushers, ticket takers, concession workers, cleaning staff and other arena workers are the backbone of a Penguins hockey game at PPG Paints Arena, and a big part of the Penguins’ family,” said David Morehouse, the team’s president and CEO, in a release. “Our owners, Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, and our players, led by Sidney Crosby, thought it was essential to help them through this. We have come together to ensure that they will not lose pay because of the pause in our season.”

NCAA tried salvaging March Madness

As it became apparent the NCAA basketball tournaments could not be held during their usual three-week window because of concerns about the coronavirus, organizers scrambled to devise a plan for a 16-team event to salvage the postseason in one long weekend.

NCAA vice president of men’s basketball Dan Gavitt told AP on Friday that he started to consider ways of condensing the tournament Wednesday night after the NBA announced one of its players tested positive for the virus and the league suspended its season.

But the reality set in that even a shortened tournament could not be pulled off without putting people at risk, and the NCAA’s biggest event of the year was canceled Thursday afternoon.

The cancellation of the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments came a day after the NCAA had announced it planned to play the games while restricting fan access.

Big 12 cancels spring

athletic competitions

The Big 12 Conference has canceled all athletic competitions for the rest of the academic year.

The conference also announced Friday that all team activities, organized or voluntary, including team and individual practices, meetings, and other gatherings, have been suspended until March 29 and will be re-evaluated at that time.

That leaves the door open for the Big 12 to hold spring football practice.

Bengals cut Glenn

The Bengals released Cordy Glenn on Friday, severing ties with the left tackle who missed most of last season because of concussion and suspension.

Cincinnati obtained Glenn from Buffalo in a trade before the 2018 season. He started 13 games that year, when the Bengals won six games and Marvin Lewis was fired as head coach.

Glenn suffered a concussion during preseason last year and missed the first six games. He was suspended for the seventh game after a disagreement with coach Zac Taylor’s staff over his status.

The 30-year-old player missed three more games before starting five at left tackle and appearing in the final game of a 2-14 season, which matched the worst in franchise history.