May 3, 2021 3 min read

Titans’ draft pick faces assault charge

Tennessee Titans fourth-round draft pick Rashad Weaver has been charged with simple assault following an incident in Pittsburgh last month.

The complaint against Weaver, who played defensive end at Pitt, was filed Friday, a day before the Titans selected Weaver with the 135th overall pick in the draft.

The charge stems from an alleged altercation between Weaver and a woman in the early hours of Sunday, April 18 in Pittsburgh’s popular South Side entertainment district. At least one witness told police Weaver struck the woman. Another witness said she saw the woman fall but did not see what precipitated it.

Weaver was not at the scene when police arrived.

His attorney, Dennis M. Blackwell, called the allegations against Weaver “completely false and reckless.”

“Without question and without hesitation, we deny Rashad punched anyone, especially a woman,” Blackwell said in a statement. “We intend to conduct a full investigation of these charges, and intend to pursue all legal remedies available to Rashad.”

The 23-year-old Weaver was in South Florida on Saturday when the Titans chose him in the fourth round. Weaver is from Cooper City, a suburb of Miami. He had 7 ½ sacks and 14 ½ tackles for loss in nine games last season for the Panthers.

“We were made aware of this news this morning,” the Titans said Monday in a statement. “We obviously take this seriously and are in the process of gathering details and working with the league.”

Stubhub offering refunds

StubHub is offering some customers cash refunds for tickets to events that were canceled during the pandemic, creating an exception to a no-refunds policy it adopted in March 2020 to the dismay of many customers, the company told the Associated Press.

The ticket service changed its refunds policy just as the COVID-19 pandemic was picking up steam in the U.S., announcing that it would only give customers credit rather than cash when concerts, sports games and other events were canceled.

Customers complained to the press and filed lawsuits. In an interview, StubHub customer experience vice president Daron Fowlks declined to comment on litigation but said that customers who bought tickets to events in the U.S. or Canada on or before March 25, 2020, and were issued credits for cancellations, will now get refunds. Those will be paid out by the end of May.

Customers can choose to keep their credits if they like. StubHub, however, won’t offer refunds to anyone who bought a ticket after March 25 of last year if an event is canceled – only credits. The credits are valid through the end of 2022.

In 14 states including California, Florida, New Jersey and New York, local laws already allowed customers to get cash refunds if they contacted customer service.

In the NBA

Mo Bamba had 22 points and 15 rebounds – both career highs – and the Orlando Magic beat the Detroit Pistons 119-112 on Monday night.

Saddiq Bey led Detroit with 26 points in a game that had little at stake – with the possible exception of lottery positioning.

In the NHL

Michael Houser stopped 34 shots in his NHL debut, Sam Reinhart scored twice in Buffalo’s three-goal third period and the Sabres beat the playoff-bound New York Islanders 4-2 Monday night.

Tage Thompson and Rasmund Asplund also scored for Buffalo, which trailed 2-0 early in the second period.

Nikita Zaitsev scored with 1:13 left in the third period to give the Ottawa Senators a 2-1 win over the struggling Winnipeg Jets.