Ed Wheeler, a veteran character actor who had roles in ‘Law & Order’ and ‘Blue Bloods,’ has died from complications of pneumonia. He was 88.
The advertising worked.
Despite never having seen an episode of “9-1-1” prior to its Season 8 premiere, the first responder procedural shot to the top of my must-watch list after seeing its “Bee-nado” promo on TV. And online. And even on an unaffiliated streaming service. The three-part event concludes with the episode “Final Approach,” premiering Thursday on ABC.
Kicking off the season in September was the aptly titled “Buzzkill,” which opens with a pilot losing control of his small plane after flying into a massive swarm of bees. It puts him on an imminent collision course with a larger passenger plane.
The episode later reveals that a jackknifed big rig unleashed 22 million killer bees into L.A. when it crashed on the 4th Street Bridge. After arriving on the scene to assist those affected by the traffic incident, including a pair of passengers with bee allergies who are trapped in their bee-swarmed car, one firefighter looks up into the sky and says, “It’s a bee-nado.”
The over-the-top events artfully channel the killer bee hysteria of the 1990s as well as the campy made-for-TV sci-fi disaster movies of yore, making “Bee-nado” both a bit bonkers and strangely comforting.
The storyline gets more delightfully wild — in the most stereotypically L.A. way — as the episode progresses. Without spoiling anything more, “Buzzkill” utilizes Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” as a memorable needle drop.
But reciting the twists and turns of the plot isn’t necessary to explain why the “Bee-nado” event highlights the unique strengths of broadcast network television.
Athena Grant (Angela Bassett) has to figure out what to do after the plane’s pilot (Devin McGee) is injured in a midair crash in an episode of “9-1-1.”
(Eric McCandless / Disney)
Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear, “9-1-1” is an hourlong drama series following the intersecting lives and emergencies of firefighters, police officers and 911 dispatchers. More than 100 episodes of the L.A.-set show have aired since its 2018 premiere, which means the core characters have been fleshed out with years’ worth of storytelling.
But “Buzzkill” is completely newcomer-friendly. Watching a swarm of killer bees cause a plane crash is easy to follow, whether you know a character’s name is Athena Grant or you refer to her as “the cop played by Angela Bassett.” It’s part of the reason the procedural format continues to thrive in an ever-changing television landscape. The success of shows like “Law & Order,” “CSI,” “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS” has birthed major TV franchises. Even “9-1-1” has its own spinoff.
Procedurals endure because the format is familiar, accessible and addictive. More often than not, these shows are episodic — meaning most episodes tell self-contained stories rather than serve as chapters in a single narrative. This makes it easier for casual viewers, who may not catch every episode, to dip in and out of the show. Meanwhile, faithful viewers are rewarded with serialized elements, like character developments and relationships that evolve over the course of seasons.
The second episode of the three-parter, titled “When the Boeing Gets Tough,” involved minimal bees, but the central emergency was just as gripping and outlandish. After a plane’s captain is sucked out of a hole in the cockpit created by a midair collision, the passengers have to tend to each other with some emergency telemedical guidance. One makeshift lifesaving procedure required medication for erectile dysfunction to be delivered via nebulizer.
Shows like “9-1-1” are appealing because they can put characters through increasingly improbable if not quite impossible situations — the kind that might ensnare a new fan eight seasons in — while relying on friendships, romances and other more ordinary storytelling devices to hold one’s interested between disasters.. Plus, over-the-top emergencies like dam breaks, earthquakes, tsunamis and a pirate attack on a cruise ship, at least when told in the procedural’s vernacular, are an escape from the more mundane horrors of daily life.
With streamers and premium cable networks cornering the market on “prestige” dramas that prioritize serialized stories told over a winnowing number of episodes and seasons, broadcast network shows like “9-1-1” are a pleasant reprieve.
Here’s hoping the conclusion of the “Bee-nado” event provides some closure on the fate of the killer bee super-swarm. It’s time for a new disaster next week.
The next episode for Dr. Dre might be set in the courtroom.
The rapper and business mogul faces a $10-million lawsuit from his former divorce counselor, celebrity psychotherapist Dr. Charles Sophy, who claims in a Monday filing in Los Angeles County Superior Court that his ex-client subjected him to a “systematic and malicious campaign of harassment.”
Sophy now “wears a bulletproof vest anytime he steps foot outside, is afraid to leave his home, and is constantly looking over his shoulder” after months of intimidation, according to court documents reviewed by The Times.
A legal representative for Young did not reply immediately Thursday to The Times’ request for comment.
In 2018, Sophy began offering marriage counseling to Dr. Dre, born Andre Young, and his now ex-wife, Nicole Young, who both consented to Sophy mediating the terms of their divorce, the Wednesday filing said. After working “diligently, independently, and fairly to help Young and his ex-wife resolve their disputes,” Sophy ceased contact with the couple in 2021 — when their divorce was finalized.
“Fourteen months later, and suddenly, without warning, Young launched a sustained campaign of abusive messages, late-night reminders that he would not ‘forget’ Dr. Sophy, and homophobic slurs,” the lawsuit said, adding that Young took out his frustration at the outcome of the mediation on Sophy.
Included in the filing are nearly a dozen texts Young sent Sophy from February to August 2023, several of which the Beverly Hills psychiatrist alleges contain “homophobic rhetoric” (e.g., ‘You’re a b—’). In the messages, Young tells Sophy he’s “going to have to pay” and that he’s “f— with the wrong one.”
Sophy said in the filing that once, early on, he attempted to defuse the situation by replying calmly that although he wasn’t sure what Young was referring to, he would gladly schedule a time to discuss the matter. But, according to the court document, the “What’s the Difference” rapper only “doubled down, further threatening [Sophy].”
As the messages kept coming, Sophy grew disturbed, the filing said, knowing that given Young’s “well-documented history of violence and abuse” and high-profile status, he could feasibly follow through on any given threat, “causing physical harm, violence, or death to Dr. Sophy.” (Young previously became mired in controversy when the 2015 N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton” glossed over his prior history of violence against women.)
Once, Young’s threats did materialize, when he allegedly recruited several associates to impersonate FBI agents in order to gain unlawful entry into Sophy’s home within a gated community, the lawsuit said. The former medical director for the Department of Children and Family Services subsequently resorted to “extreme” safety measures — installing home cameras, hiring private security and wearing bulletproof apparel — and has since felt “forced into” litigation, the suit said.
Sophy is suing Young for civil harassment and intentional infliction of emotional distress and has demanded a jury trial. He is seeking $10 million in actual and compensatory damages as well as exemplary and punitive damages to be decided at trial.
A former employee of rapper Kanye West and his Yeezy apparel brand is suing him for labor-code violations and infliction of emotional distress, alleging that Ye threatened to kill him as “he spiraled into conspiracy theories and erratic, reckless and dangerous behavior,” the employee’s attorney said Thursday.
The anonymous employee identified himself as a Michigan resident who was hired by Ye as a deputy campaign director after the rapper’s unsuccessful 2020 presidential bid, according to the civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The employee, a military veteran diagnosed with PTSD, also served as “director of intelligence” for Yeezy, charged with conducting various investigations, including those involving attorneys and parties that filed suit against Yeezy, Ye and related entities, the complaint said.
Representatives for Ye did not immediately respond Friday to The Times’ requests for comment.
John Doe, as the employee is listed in the filing obtained by The Times, said he was hired by Ye in December 2022 and was allegedly tasked with looking into various conspiracy theories and with “brainstorming ideas to keep Ye in the news.” That included a discussion of “getting involved with both national and international headlines, handling investigations and NDAs,” that eventually transitioned into full-time work for the rapper and his company, the complaint said.
Doe also claimed he was a “fixer” and was asked to investigate the family of Ye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian and “supposed various criminal links Ye believed they had with criminal enterprises, including alleged sex trafficking.” The Grammy-winning rapper also had Doe hire private investigators to follow his wife, Bianca Censori, without her knowledge when she visited family in Australia.
The employee alleged that when the “Heartless” rapper began to let go of much of Yeezy’s leadership team in or around May 2024, Ye also got titanium teeth and consumed nitrous oxide, which the employee “speculates led to some of the erratic behavior,” the complaint said.
Shortly after that, and upon learning of alleged child abuse at Ye’s embattled Donda Academy, Doe alleged that Ye called him “to yell, curse and threaten [him] with great bodily injury, including death, if [he] repeated what [he] learned” from a Donda employee. At one point, he told Doe, “You’re f— dead to me!” and played a recording of “scary voices that were threatening to harm” him. The employee claimed in the days and weeks that followed, he received threats from Ye’s associates who were known “enforcers,” exacerbating his PTSD.
“The stress and trauma caused by the threats, hostile work environment, and Plaintiff’s exposure to illegal and unethical activities severely impacted his mental and emotional well-being,” the complaint said. “Plaintiff experienced panic attacks, anxiety, and severe emotional distress, which caused him to seek medical treatment and was placed in a facility to address his declining mental health.”
He alleged that he was fired and retaliated against “through a campaign of threats, intimidation, and harassment” for reporting child-abuse claims, drug use and “his refusal to engage in unethical activities.”
The defendants also “intentionally and willfully” failed to provide him with complete and accurate wage statements and withheld all the wages he was owed in his final paycheck — violations of California’s labor code.
Doe is seeking a jury trial and an “excess of seven figures in punitive and compensatory damages, including unpaid wages,” his legal team said in a statement to The Times. He listed retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and numerous labor code violations among his causes of action.
Doe’s lawsuit is the latest in a legal pile-up for the “Famous” rapper.
Last year, Ye was sued for alleged workplace abuses by two former teachers at his Donda Academy, a non-accredited private school in the Los Angeles area that shut down in 2022.
In April, Trevor Phillips, a former employee of Yeezy and Donda Academy, also sued the megastar, his Yeezy apparel brand and the school. Phillips claimed discrimination, a hostile work environment, whistleblower retaliation and unsafe working conditions, among other allegations.
In June, Ye was accused in a separate lawsuit of sexually harassing a personal assistant.
In July, he was sued by former employees of his Yeezy brand who accused him, Yeezy and the rapper’s former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, of fostering a toxic workplace characterized by racial discrimination, forced labor and a failure to pay employees for their work.
“Ye has only himself to blame for his mounting legal woes,” Doe’s attorney, Ron Zambrano, said Thursday in a statement to The Times. “He just can’t continue hiring employees, treating them terribly, then refusing to pay them in violation of numerous employment laws, let alone threaten to kill them as he did in this case.”
Zambrano said that his client “is so fearful of Ye and his erratic, disturbing and unpredictable behavior” that he wishes to remain anonymous for his own safety.
“It’s not only illegal but unconscionable that an employer would threaten any employee with bodily harm or death,” he said.
College baseball recruiting has become unpredictable because of an expected reduction in roster limits from 40 to 34 for the 2026 season, creating one story after another of programs deciding to withdraw offers to previously committed high school players in the past year. Now it’s happened to a JSerra baseball player, and coach Brett Kay is not pleased because of the timing.
Kay, whose team won consecutive Southern Section Division 1 championships in 2022 and 2023, said senior infielder Cole Strane, who has been committed to USC for more than two years, was informed this week the Trojans no longer had a spot for him. Kay responded on X, writing, “I will no longer recommend any player to USC and their staff moving forward.”
Reached by phone on Thursday, Kay said he was upset at the lack of communication from USC.
“We need to stand up as high school coaches and support our players,” he said. “I get the roster changes, but I’m asking the coaches of these program to communicate. Give kids the opportunity to be seen by someone else. The school was his dream school. What is he supposed to do now?”
The dead period for college baseball coaches to watch players begins on Monday and lasts until March. The early signing period is a month away. Other schools let players know they would not have a spot for them months ago. College baseball is changing, with the limit of 11.7 scholarships per team going away and schools allowed to offer as many scholarships as they can afford.
New Long Beach State coach TJ Bruce said he made recruiting decisions months ago, even though the 40-man rosters are the current rule. “We’ve been operating at 34 for the coming years,” he said. “I’d rather go out and find players than cut six guys.”
When asked for a response, USC provided the following statement: “Due to NCAA rules, we cannot comment on prospective student-athletes.”
Jack Nicholson was synonymous with the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers. He sat courtside at their games at the Great Western Forum. He participated in promotional photos. Occasionally, he invited them to parties at his house in Beverly Hills.
One summer night, Nicholson tended bar.
The Lakers had just defeated the Detroit Pistons in an exhausting Game 7 to win the 1988 NBA championship. The postgame party had spilled from the locker room to On The Rox, a private club on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
Lakers forward Mychal Thompson walked to the bar, surprised to see Nicholson, a few months removed from his ninth Academy Awards nomination. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Thompson paused while relaying this memory. “Let me see if I can imitate him,” he said.
“What do you have, Mychal?” Thompson said in Nicholson’s famous drawl, one that’s delivered some of the most iconic lines in cinema.
Thompson laughed.
“That was so cool I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
Today, celebrity super fans are the norm, but perhaps no one has been more associated with a team, or a sport, than Nicholson has with the Lakers and the NBA. On Sunday, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will add Nicholson, as well as actor Billy Crystal, director Spike Lee and businessman and Philadelphia 76ers fan Alan Horwitz, to its James F. Goldstein SuperFan Gallery, the latest honor for a man who long ago integrated Hollywood and hardwood.
For most of his adult life, Nicholson, 87, has been an NBA fixture, part of the fabric at The Forum and Staples Center, which is now Crypto.com Arena. A columnist for The Los Angeles Times once called Nicholson “the best sixth man the NBA has ever seen, the oddest weapon in a very odd league.” During the Lakers’ championship clashes with the Boston Celtics, Nicholson was a main character, as significant as Magic and Kareem, especially the night he stood in Boston Garden and showed Celtics fans his backside. Allegedly.
“He was not a normal person — he was Jack Nicholson,” former Lakers forward Jamaal Wilkes said. “We were all aware of that. We didn’t treat him like any other fan. We treated him with due respect and we appreciated the fact that he was so into us.”
For celebs, attending Lakers games became a form of Hollywood street cred, a place to be seen, but for Nicholson, it was never about publicity. He had grown up in New Jersey playing basketball, and his love for the game remained strong, even as life took him to the West Coast. Rolling Stone magazine once identified Nicholson’s passions as art, movies, skiing, books and basketball. Writer Tim Cahill asked Nicholson for a common denominator.
“There’s poetry in all those things,” the actor said in the 1981 story. “When I look at a painting, I get involved. There is a moment of truth somewhere. And basketball … when you miss a play, it’s a matter of microseconds. Little moments of truth. Skiing is like that. It’s all little moments of truth and extending the limits of control.”
Like he did with art, Nicholson got involved with basketball. In 1982, he agreed to cast the first fan ballot for an upcoming All-Star Game. At a luncheon, Nicholson was given a pen and an oversized ballot and he proudly cast a vote for “E. Johnson,” thinking he had selected Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Instead, Eddie Johnson, a young forward for the Kansas City Kings, had just gotten a vote from the league’s most recognizable fan.
In 1986, photographer Andy Bernstein had an idea to stage the Lakers at The Forum’s concession stand, having them act like fans for the organization’s annual poster. Lon Rosen, who worked in promotions, wanted Nicholson involved. He told Bernstein to find a place for him.
On the day of the shoot, Bernstein positioned the Lakers, dressed in full uniform. He had Magic holding a pushbroom. Coach Pat Riley selling programs. Kurt Rambis removing the garbage. But Jack was not there. So Bernstein began shooting. One frame. Two frames. Three. He felt a tap on his shoulder. Bernstein turned. “So where do you want me?” Nicholson said.
“For a second, I was like Martin Scorsese,” Bernstein said. “Imagine a 20-something-year-old photographer who literally gets to direct Jack Nicholson for that 10 minutes. It was crazy.”
At On The Rox, an establishment owned by Nicholson’s close friend Lou Adler, Nicholson handed Thompson a beer. He poured forward Michael Cooper a tequila. Actress Daryl Hannah, Adler’s sister-in-law, joined Nicholson behind the bar. Magic and others danced. Parties that night erupted all over Los Angeles, but this was intimate. Just the Lakers, the coaching staff, trainer Gary Vitti and the players’ wives.
“And Jack,” former Lakers guard Byron Scott said. “That was our team. We were very tight. Very close-knit. Pat Riley wouldn’t let us have a lot of people in our inner circle. But Jack was in our inner circle.”
Dick Motta has not coached in the NBA in nearly three decades. He lives in Idaho, where he works in a garden that includes beans, garlic, peas and flowers. Motta, 93, gets his work done early. He likes to joke that if he’s still vertical at 4 p.m., then it must have been a good day. On a recent summer afternoon, Motta was having a good day.
He took a phone call from a reporter, who asked about a confrontation Motta had years ago with a well-known basketball fan in Los Angeles. Motta was slow to answer. “The reception here isn’t great,” he said. “Repeat his name again.”
Jack Nicholson.
This time Motta heard just fine.
“You mean the guy that grabbed my leg and I tried to kick him off?” he said.
For most of his years as a Lakers fan, Nicholson has had four season tickets in the front row near the visitors’ bench. A famed record producer, Adler, the On The Rox owner, has almost always sat by his side. In the 1980s, actor Harry Dean Stanton and film and television producer Bert Schneider were frequent Nicholson guests. Dennis Hopper and Michael Douglas were there as well.
Over the years, these seats have become known as the “Nicholson seats,” among the best the house can offer. Former NBA star Ralph Sampson suggested recently that Nicholson should receive royalties because nearly every team in the league profits handsomely from the courtside seats he made so famous. In town for the 2014 Wooden Awards, a couple college players actually posed for photos in the Nicholson seats, like tourists in front of a historical landmark.
But not everyone appreciated the location. Former Lakers public relations director Josh Rosenfeld said former Portland coach Jack Ramsay once asked organizations not to sell the seats close to the visitors’ bench. The reason: Ramsay was convinced Nicholson was relaying Ramsay’s instructions to the Lakers. Others made similar accusations, albeit jokingly. In the 2006 playoffs, Suns star Steve Nash told reporters that Nicholson was practically in the Phoenix huddle, “trying to steal our plays.”
Nicholson enjoyed the banter, especially with officials. Former referee Ed Rush actually addressed this with young officials before games at The Forum. “Look,” he recalled telling them. “He’s going to know you. He’s going to call you a rookie. You can handle this any way you want, but, remember, he’s going to want to talk for the whole game, so you have to figure a way to corral this. If you want to say hello or whatever, that’s fine. But at some point, it’s over.”
Former official Joe Crawford said he was in his third or fourth season when Nicholson first greeted him by name. It rattled him. “I’m saying to myself, ‘Jesus Christ, Jack Nicholson knows my name!’” Crawford said. “I’m all excited. Game starts and I don’t even know what freaking town I’m in. I’m missing plays all over the place.”
Former NBA head coach P.J. Carlesimo said it was like a coach had not yet arrived until Nicholson at least had an idea what your name was. It was almost like a rite of passage. Same for players. The first time he met Nicholson, Hall of Fame forward Adrian Dantley told the actor how much he enjoyed “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” a popular Nicholson film, and for the rest of his career, Nicholson always made sure to say hello whenever Dantley played in Los Angeles.
“He wasn’t one of those nasty guys,” said former big man Tree Rollins, who once politely asked Nicholson to put out his cigarette, back when the NBA allowed smoking in arenas. “You had Spike Lee in New York. You had the lawyer (Robin Ficker) in Washington, you had Leon (the Barber) in Detroit. Jack did not harass you. I think he really enjoyed watching you perform, just as you enjoyed watching him perform.”
Motta had a different experience.
In 1980, he was in his fourth and final season as head coach of the Washington Bullets, a team fighting to make the playoffs. In the final minute of the first half, the Bullets grabbed an offensive rebound. Motta rushed toward mid-court with his index finger in the air. “One shot! One shot!” he yelled.
“About halfway down I looked down and some a— had me by the leg,” Motta said. “I looked and it was Jack Nicholson. … I poked him in the shoulder.”
At halftime, a Lakers official suggested Motta owed Nicholson an apology. Motta could not believe his ears. “He owes me an apology!” he said. As both teams warmed up for the second half, Motta sat beside Nicholson. The actor told Motta he had broken the rules, running past the line coaches were not supposed to cross. Motta suggested that Nicholson buy his own team and maybe one day he could come in and coach it.
Looking back, Motta laughed.
“The last thing you would expect … I guess it should’ve been an honor because he’s a famous star and he took time to grab my leg,” he said from Idaho. “I wonder how it felt to him. Because I have a muscular leg. Maybe he was just jealous of my legs.”
In the playoffs, Nicholson was an irresistible storyline. During a 1986 Lakers series against the Dallas Mavericks, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran a daily “Nicholson Watch,” alerting readers of the actor’s whereabouts. In the 1988 Finals between L.A. and the Pistons, a Detroit radio station handed out 10,000 Nicholson masks to fans before Game 3.
Boston took this to a higher level. And Nicholson played right along, the perfect basketball villain, always more comfortable as the Joker than Batman.
In the 1984 finals, Boston fan John Cronin had his high school art teacher make a Nicholson sign. During Game 7 at the Boston Garden, Cronin, stationed behind the Lakers bench, held the sign high for all to see: “Jack Flew East, Jack Flew West, Jack, Fly Back to the Cuckoo’s Nest.” (Forty years later, Cronin has this sign framed and hanging in his house.)
As the Celtics built a lead, the Boston fans taunted Nicholson. Earlier in the series, Nicholson, stationed in a sky box, had wrapped his hands around his neck, implying the Celtics would choke. The fans didn’t forget.
What happened next has become rivalry lore. With the Celtics pulling away, Nicholson stood and dropped his pants, mooning the rowdy Boston fans. Well, maybe.
Per a news report, Boston radio broadcaster Johnny Most said it looked as if Nicholson exposed his backside. A radio engineer in the press box admitted he didn’t see the incident but said a lot of people thought Nicholson had dropped his trousers.
In a 1987 feature story, longtime Nicholson business manager Robert Colbert said the Nicholson mooning never happened and suggested the only reason the rumor persisted was because Nicholson had refused to discuss it. Forty years later, a definite answer is still difficult to find.
Did Jack moon the crowd?
Former Lakers forward Michael Cooper: “Hell, yeah, he did.”
Former Celtics forward M.L. Carr: “I don’t think that would’ve been Jack.”
Former Lakers official Lon Rosen: “That’s true.”
Rosenfeld, the former Lakers public relations director, arranged Nicholson’s security that night. He didn’t see whether Nicholson mooned the crowd but said he saw the actor make another gesture.
“I think the writers all decided that they couldn’t describe what he did so they all agreed to write ‘mooning,’” Rosenfeld said. “But maybe he did moon them as well. He was sitting behind where we were so it’s not like I could see him all the time. But during timeouts you would hear the crowd going nuts and it was usually because of something Jack was doing.”
Nicholson caused another disturbance during this series — and he wasn’t even involved. Before a Boston home game, Carr learned that his brother, John, wanted to attend, along with a friend. In his fifth season with the Celtics, Carr arranged a limousine for transportation.
After the game, as the duo left Boston Garden, fans spotted the limo. “That’s Jack Nicholson!” someone yelled. Fans surrounded the luxury car and started rocking it back and forth. Starting to panic, John Carr rolled down his window. “No, no. I’m M.L Carr’s brother!” he said. The fans apologized and backed off.
“If Jack would’ve been in the limo, he was going upside down,” M.L. Carr said, laughing. “The fans were so upset with him because of the choke sign and all that. My brother said he’d never been so frightened in his life.”
In 1985, the Lakers got revenge, beating the Celtics in six games. In 1987, the rivals clashed again. During a Game 4 Lakers win in the Garden, Nicholson absorbed the crowd’s razzing and motioned for more. Is that all you got?
The next day Nicholson arrived at the Garden to watch Lakers practice. Boston Globe columnist Leigh Montville introduced himself. Nicholson didn’t do many interviews, but he sat and talked with Montville for 15 minutes. Other reporters joined in. Nicholson discussed his respect for the Celtics, and what it was like to be Public Enemy No. 1 in a sea of green.
“They’ve got a lot of ‘Bleep you, Jack,’ signs up,” Nicholson said of the Boston crowd. “I do invite it but I think ultimately it hurts them. … You can’t afford to let one fan take this whole building out of the game.”
At a Lakers home game in the mid-2000s, Brian Baumgartner took his courtside seat and looked across the Staples Center court. As usual, Nicholson was there.
Baumgartner, who played Kevin Malone on the popular sitcom “The Office,” had grown up in Atlanta. He loved theater, basketball and the Lakers. He also was a big Nicholson fan. He felt no one was more authentic or comfortable in his skin.
At halftime, Baumgartner and a friend went to the Chairman’s Room, an area where celebs and others could mingle. At The Forum, the Lakers had a similar room, a place where Nicholson and his buddies could smoke, but it wasn’t much bigger than a broom closet. The Chairman’s Room was nicer. And it had a cigar lounge.
With his friend off to the bathroom, Baumgartner pushed open a swinging door and found Nicholson smoking in the lounge, alone. For the first time, Baumgartner felt star-struck. This wasn’t like saying a quick hello to someone at The Emmys or Oscars. It was just the two of them. Baumgartner lit a cigar.
“Did he even know who I was? I have no idea,” Baumgartner said. “He was incredibly polite. … And I would say within 45 seconds, it was just two guys talking basketball.”
Others have similar stories. Mike Dunleavy Sr., once ran into Nicholson at a steakhouse. He had known Nicholson for a while, first as a player for nine-plus seasons, then as head coach of the Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers. Dunleavy invited Nicholson to join him and the two spent part of the night discussing whether the Lakers would have beaten the Chicago Bulls in the 1991 NBA Finals had James Worthy been 100 percent healthy.
In 1998, Doug Collins worked the NBA Finals for NBC along with Bob Costas, Isiah Thomas and Jim Gray. After watching Michael Jordan bury a jumper in the final seconds of Game 6 to lift the Bulls past the Utah Jazz, Collins dined with Costas and Gray at a downtown restaurant in Salt Lake City. Nicholson and actor Woody Harrelson joined them.
Although Jordan was the biggest story in sports, Nicholson peppered Collins with questions about the Lakers. “Talk to me, Dougie, my boy,” he said. “How do we get back? What do we have to do?”
After dinner, Collins and Nicholson realized they were staying at the same hotel. They walked in, pushed an elevator button and waited. The door opened but the elevator was packed.
“There was not a place to go, so Jack and I walk into the elevator and we just sort of push everybody back,” Collins said. “But we’re facing everybody. The looks on all these people’s faces. Like, ‘Man, that’s Jack Nicholson.’”
The elevator stopped and Nicholson stepped out onto his floor. He spotted a coin and bent over to pick it up. He then turned to Collins and showed him a quarter.
“The rich get richer,” he said with a smile.
Over the next couple decades, Nicholson rode the emotional wave of fandom. In a 2003 postseason game against the Spurs, he reacted so strongly to a third foul on Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal, stepping onto the court, that a referee reportedly told Lakers officials to prepare security in case Nicholson had to be ejected. In 2008, with the Lakers crumbling against the Celtics in the finals, Nicholson looked at then-Boston coach Doc Rivers and muttered four words. “We’re dead men walking.”
“Jack got it,” Rivers said. “He really respected our jobs. And he was cheering so hard against you, you could see him like at times, especially during that Celtics series, when he was literally dying.”
Nicholson hasn’t been around as much lately. His last film came out in 2010. He’s kept a low profile, which has fueled speculation about his health. On April 28, 2023, Nicholson returned to Crypto.com Arena for the first time in 18 months to watch the Lakers eliminate the Memphis Grizzlies in the playoffs. His movie highlights — “Hereeee’s Johnny!” — appeared on the video board. The crowd roared.
Just like old times.
“I tell you what: Jack Nicholson lived,” said Cooper, the former defensive ace for the Lakers. “I’m not saying he’s going anywhere anytime soon, but he lived. And I’m glad he lived in our era because he was spectacular, he was beneficial to us and he was entertaining. And most importantly, he was a pain in the ass to opposing teams.”
(Top illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos: Jon SooHoo / NBAE via Getty Images, Noah Graham / NBAE via Getty Images)
Former New York Jets coach Eric Mangini had a prescient read on team owner Woody Johnson before a Week 5 defeat in London precipitated coach Robert Saleh’s firing Tuesday.
The way Mangini saw things, Johnson’s status as a former U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom raised the stakes for what otherwise might have been just another international game against a non-conference opponent.
“This is a absolute must-win,” Mangini said on Fox’s “First Things First”. “All of his buddies are going to be over there, and after eating tea and crumpets, he is going to want to be talking about his team and how successful they are.”
The 23-17 defeat to a Minnesota Vikings team featuring former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold became the tipping point for Johnson, whose firing of Saleh following a 2-3 start is still reverberating.
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The move was a reminder that team owners can make major changes for any reason, especially when frustrated. Mangini, who coached the Jets from 2006 to 2008, knew where the tipping point could be for his former boss.
We frequently hear about coaches on the hot seat, but these are ownership situations as much as they are coaching situations.
Categorizing Johnson’s Jets and nine other notable situations can bring clarity to evaluation.
Johnson’s Jets, Mark Davis’ Las Vegas Raiders, Jimmy and Dee Haslam’s Cleveland Browns, David Tepper’s Carolina Panthers and Shad Khan’s Jacksonville Jaguars fit into the first bucket, as sub-.500 owners navigating tricky situations. Five other owners fit into different categories.
Included for each owner:
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These teams’ owners rank among the NFL’s worst in win rate. They’ve endured tumultuous seasons already and should be watched closely.
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2024- |
TBD |
|
|
2021-24 |
20-36 (.357) |
|
|
2019-20 |
9-23 (.281) |
|
|
2015-18 |
24-40 (.375) |
|
|
2009-14 |
46-50 (.479) |
|
|
2006-08 |
23-25 (.479) |
|
|
2001-05 |
39-41 (.488) |
|
|
2000 |
9-7 (.563) |
Losing to the Darnold-quarterbacked Vikings in London was one part of the equation. The New York Giants upsetting Seattle on the road could have been another part of it.
“I also think Woody’s rivalry with the Giants was a factor,” an exec from another team said. “With the Giants going to Seattle and getting a big win while the Jets struggled again, Woody can’t lose the back page (of the tabloids) to the Giants. Not when you’ve got Aaron Rodgers and they’ve got Daniel Jones.”
No Jets coach has been above .500 for his tenure with the team since Week 9 of 2016, when Todd Bowles was 13-12-1. New interim coach Jeff Ulbrich can change that against Buffalo on Monday night.
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Firing a coach after a 2-3 start to the season is without recent precedent.
“For some of these owners, the team is a toy and you are just a pawn,” another exec said.
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2023- |
7-7 (.500) |
|
|
2022-23 |
9-16 (.360) |
|
|
2021 |
7-5 (.583) |
|
|
2018-21 |
22-31 (.415) |
|
|
2015-17 |
25-23 (.521) |
|
|
2014 |
3-9 (.250) |
|
|
2012-14 |
8-28 (.222) |
Antonio Pierce is the Raiders’ fourth coach in four seasons, counting interim coaches. The team is 2-3 in his first full season on the job, so there should be no panic, but the Raiders have already benched starting quarterback Gardner Minshew, and they are exploring trade destinations for their unhappy No. 1 receiver, Davante Adams.
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It’s tough to find a guiding set of principles for Davis beyond his loyalty to players, current and past. He promoted Pierce from interim status to the full-time role after players lobbied hard for their coach (Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby said he wanted to remain with the team, but “if we go in another direction, there is nothing that is off the table.”) Davis has also solicited hiring advice from long-ago Raiders figures such as Ken Herock, who played for the team in the 1960s and worked in their front office in the 1970s.
Decisions can sometimes seem to be made from emotion or on the advice of whoever happens to have Davis’ ear.
“There’s no question Mark Davis thinks about his team differently than Woody Johnson thinks about his,” an exec said. “Davis grew up around the team and thinks he knows football because of what his dad (the late Raiders founder, Al Davis) taught him. He is so former-player-oriented.”
Davis reportedly regretted not promoting interim coach Rich Bisaccia to the full-time role following Jon Gruden’s firing, which then impacted his decision to promote Pierce from interim status. Hiring the unusually inexperienced Pierce precipitated the decision to hire Tom Telesco as GM, because Telesco had experience in the role.
Has there been a major football-related decision made purely on the merits, as the result of a fundamentally sound process?
Execs question whether there is anyone in the organization who possesses great expertise and feels free to tell Davis what he needs to hear.
“The Raiders have for years been an organization of ‘yes’ men,” one exec said.
What will be the impetus for the next major decision?
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2020- |
38-34 (.528) |
|
|
2019 |
6-10 (.375) |
|
|
2018 |
5-3 (.625) |
|
|
2016-18 |
3-36-1 (.088) |
|
|
2014-15 |
10-22 (.313) |
|
|
2013 |
4-12 (.250) |
A case can be made that the Browns have a good GM in Andrew Berry and a good coach in Kevin Stefanski, a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, but the organizational gymnastics required to stay the course with Deshaun Watson at quarterback could undermine everything.
The Browns are 1-4 this season largely because Watson hasn’t been able to elevate them. His EPA per pass play ranks 618th out of 621 quarterbacks who started the first five games of a season since 2000. It’s not helping that former Cleveland quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Joe Flacco have flourished elsewhere.
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The Haslams’ willingness to give Berry and Stefanski contract extensions before the season suggests ownership led the push to acquire Watson and pay him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract, or that all parties were confident the situation would play out favorably.
Some kind of reckoning would seem to be coming unless the quarterback production improves. But with the Browns proceeding as though everything is going to plan — extending contracts, sticking with Watson — there are no indications anything is amiss.
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2024 |
1-4 (.200) |
|
|
2023 |
1-5 (.167) |
|
|
2023 |
1-10 (.091) |
|
|
2022 |
6-6 (.500) |
|
|
2020-22 |
11-27 (.289) |
|
|
2019 |
0-4 (.000) |
Tepper has changed coaches so frequently since purchasing the team in 2018 that anything seems possible at any time, until there’s greater consistency over an extended period.
The Panthers, like most of the teams in this bucket, have made major decisions that qualified as one-offs.
The Browns gave Watson a contract no other team seemed willing to give him. The Jets indulged Rodgers to a degree others might not have at this stage of the quarterback’s career. The Raiders and Panthers hired head coaches other teams did not consider to be serious candidates (Canales had no other interviews, while Tennessee conducted a virtual interview with Pierce, his only outside interview, before the Raiders promoted him to the full-time role).
If Tepper hired Canales partly to develop Bryce Young, what are the implications of Young lasting only two games in the lineup before Carolina benched him?
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2022- |
19-20 (.487) |
|
|
2021 |
1-3 (.250) |
|
|
2021 |
2-11 (.154) |
|
|
2016-20 |
23-43 (.348) |
|
|
2013-16 |
14-48 (.226) |
|
|
2012 |
2-14 (.125) |
Beating Indianapolis in Week 5 following an 0-4 start eased some of the pressure in Jacksonville, where Khan announced sky-high expectations for the team in August, calling this the best team in franchise history. The slow start following a 1-5 finish to last season dropped coach Doug Pederson’s record with the Jaguars below .500, inviting questions about his future. A poor Week 6 performance against Chicago in London could undo whatever was gained by beating Indy.
Khan generally has not made impulsive decisions, however. He is generally well-regarded in NFL circles for his efforts to keep the Jaguars in a challenging market, punctuated by a $1.4 billion stadium agreement with the city.
“Of all of them in this group, Shad is the one who is the most reasonable and logical,” an exec said. “I don’t think of Jacksonville as dysfunctional. (Khan) just hasn’t figured out how to win at football. I think it’s more abnormal that he hasn’t figured it out, whereas some of these guys never will.”
Jacksonville’s 61 victories since Khan purchased the team in 2012 are 10 fewer than the total for any other team (the Browns and Jets are next with 71 apiece since then; Kansas City leads with 135.) Much hinges on whether the team’s recent $275 million deal with quarterback Trevor Lawrence pays off.
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These teams’ owners have successful legacies. Their current coaches rank among the NFL’s best in win rate. But dynamics at play make these situations unusual.
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2020- |
45-27 (.625) |
|
|
2010-19 |
85-67 (.559) |
|
|
2007-10 |
34-22 (.607) |
|
|
2003-06 |
34-30 (.531) |
|
|
2000-02 |
15-33 (.313) |
|
|
1998-99 |
18-14 (.563) |
|
|
1994-97 |
40-24 (.625) |
|
|
1989-93 |
44-36 (.550) |
Two consecutive victories helped Dallas recover from a 1-2 start, but coach Mike McCarthy’s status is going to be a leading storyline regardless.
Jones’ willingness to let McCarthy play out his contract after the coach posted the NFL’s fourth-best record (42-25, .625) through his first four seasons is the reason why.
“Jerry has led the charge that teams are firing coaches with dead money when they should be willing to let guys just play it out,” an exec said.
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2021- |
36-19 (.655) |
|
|
2016-20 |
42-37-1 (.531) |
|
|
2015 |
1-0 (1.000) |
|
|
2013-15 |
26-21 (.533) |
|
|
1999-2012 |
130-93-1 (.583) |
|
|
1995-98 |
29-34-1 (.461) |
Philly’s 1-5 finish to last season led the Eagles to overhaul coach Nick Sirianni’s staff, putting pressure on him this season despite his excellent record and 2022 NFC title-winning season. Philly’s 2-2 start to the season, followed by a bye week, hasn’t changed much.
“I don’t think Sirianni is going anywhere unless they really fall off or they think they can get Bill Belichick,” an exec said. “Otherwise, a change makes them look dysfunctional.”
These teams’ coaches are in their third seasons on the job and have shown some proficiency in their areas of expertise, but they have losing records overall. Their owners generally appear patient.
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2022- |
18-21 (.462) |
The Saints rank eighth in defensive EPA per play since Dennis Allen took over and are coming off a 9-8 season, but they’ve lost three straight and now will be without starting quarterback Derek Carr indefinitely.
Benson took over the Saints after Tom Benson, her husband since 2004, died in 2018. She has generally kept a low profile regarding her expectations for the team.
The Saints are five games into a major philosophical shift on offense and now will proceed with rookie fifth-round pick Spencer Rattler behind center.
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| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2022- |
13-26 (.333) |
|
|
2018-21 |
34-31 (.523) |
|
|
2015-17 |
14-34 (.292) |
|
|
2013-14 |
13-19 (.406) |
|
|
2004-12 |
81-63 (.563) |
|
|
1999-2003 |
35-45 (.438) |
|
|
1993-98 |
40-56 (.417) |
The Bears rank third in defensive EPA per play since coach Matt Eberflus took over defensive play calling in Week 3 last season. They are 10-10 since then after going 3-16 under Eberflus previously. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams’ development is now the key variable in Chicago, where Kevin Warren’s opinion has mattered most since he replaced Ted Phillips as team president in January 2023.
Williams’ recent improvement has quieted the public conversation surrounding Eberflus and the Bears.
| Coach | Tenure | Record |
|---|---|---|
|
2022- |
17-21-1 (.449) |
|
|
2020-21 |
10-23 (.303) |
|
|
2018-19 |
9-23 (.281) |
|
|
2017 |
1-3 (.250) |
|
|
2016-17 |
13-15 (.464) |
The Giants’ participation in HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Offseason” made clear Mara’s unhappiness with losing running back Saquon Barkley to the Eagles in free agency. It also revealed that the Giants considered drafting a quarterback before sticking with Daniel Jones as the hopeful long-term starter.
Brian Daboll did not play a prominent role in the HBO series, but this is an important season for him after a rough 2023 featuring staff turmoil and a 6-11 record.
Jones’ improved play of late and solid contributions from the Giants’ rookie draft class helped the team win two of its past three, which maybe wasn’t the best thing for Saleh, all things considered.
Note: Mara took over as owner for his late father in 2005, one year after Tom Coughlin’s hiring. That explains why Coughlin isn’t listed among the coaches Mara hired.
(Photo of Woody Johnson: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
The story of the greatest players in NFL history. In 100 riveting profiles, top football writers justify their selections and uncover the history of the NFL in the process.
The story of the greatest players in NFL history.
In less than 24 hours, three tennis players subjected three umpires to three tirades of different flavors in Shanghai.
Tuesday night in that Chinese city, world No. 17 and U.S. Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe told umpire Jimmy Pinoargote that he “f***ed the match up’ after the umpire called a time violation against him at 5-5 in a deciding tiebreak. Tiafoe had walked to the baseline as the shot clock, which adjudicates time between points, went to zero, and then tossed the ball into the air with no intention of hitting it.
Tiafoe lost his first serve for the violation, his third of the match, and then lost the next two points and the match against Roman Safiullin.
Then on Wednesday, Fergus Murphy called a time violation against world No. 12 Stefanos Tsitsipas, also a two-time Grand Slam finalist. At the change of ends, Tsitsipas laid into Murphy, saying, “You have never played tennis in your life.” Murphy replied, “I’m not as good as you, but I have.”
“No cardio,” Tsitsipas, who eventually lost to Daniil Medvedev, then said. “You probably play every time serve-and-volley.”
The Tsitsipas/Murphy drama from earlier today: pic.twitter.com/qxMobL5Zpd
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) October 9, 2024
In between those two incidents, world No. 3 and two-time Grand Slam finalist Alexander Zverev on Tuesday night told Mohamed Lahyani that umpires are collectively “f***ing up the tournament” after Lahyani correctly adjudged that Zverev had failed to hit the ball before it bounced twice in his eventual win over Tallon Griekspoor.
“Every Grand Slam final I lose because of you guys,” Zverev said. He was beaten by David Goffin the following day, in a match in which he twice escaped a code violation for ball abuse.
The vast majority of tennis matches pass without even minor incident, but this cluster of incidents — two of them centered on a new shot clock rule that has caused consternation across the sport — preceded the news that Wimbledon will abolish line judges in favor of electronic line calling (ELC) from 2025.
The Athletic’s tennis team discuss the themes at the heart of these decisions, and ask how the sport can solve a problem like officiating.
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James Hansen: On the face of it, the two decisions that prompted the Tiafoe and Zverev outbursts couldn’t be more different. Whether or not a ball has bounced twice is a matter of objective fact; what does or doesn’t constitute a service motion is more up for debate. Tiafoe’s tossing of the ball, even with his hitting arm by his side and not at all taking part in a service motion, was designed to buy him discretion from Pinoargote that he did not get.
Is tennis’ scoring system being built on objective facts — whether a ball is in or out, and whether it has bounced twice — part of the reason why players and umpires struggle to see eye to eye when things are more ambiguous, even if they’re pretty clear-cut?
Matt Futterman: I take issue with the idea of the sport mostly being about objective calls. Yes, the Zverev call was a fundamental rule. But like all sports, each tennis match also has a heartbeat and a temperature, which can’t always be taken by hard and fast officiating diktat. There are moments when the pros could learn something from the weekend hacker game down at the park, where indecision over a call is often resolved by a simple, “play a let”.
Alexander Zverev a Mohamed Lahyani: “Cada final de Grand Slam que juego la pierdo por culpa de ustedes” 🙄 pic.twitter.com/5LqFuqgDIf
— Tiempo De Tenis (@Tiempodetenis1) October 8, 2024
Earlier this summer at the Cincinnati Open, when Jack Draper won match point against Felix Auger-Aliassime on at the very least an incredibly debatable non-double bounce call, Draper said he would have replayed the point if a video replay were available. Why make it conditional? After all, who wants to win like that? Down at the park, we would play a do-over. Sometimes a pro does that, and they get huge applause and good karma. Most of the time, with so much on the line, they don’t. I get that, but only sort of.
With Tiafoe, the new system that the ATP started trialing after this year’s French Open automatically starts the shot clock three seconds after the last point. It’s meant to speed up play and take the job of resetting the clock out of the hands of the umpires. I think it’s a terrible development. Tennis is more taxing than ever. Why are we penalizing players for pushing themselves over the edge to win a long rally, or the kinds of points that thrill fans?
Tennis wants to prevent umpires from favoring certain players who might be more deliberate and bounce the ball too many times. I get that. But at that point in a deciding set, I don’t want an umpire to have anything to do with the outcome of a point before the ball is even in play. I want players to decide the outcome of matches, except if someone does something egregious. Was Tiafoe’s fake serve egregious? A bit. But he was trying to work around a flawed rule.
Charlie Eccleshare: Matt makes a great point about the power of the let and having the humility to accept sometimes that, as an umpire, you just don’t know. Tennis has so benefited from Hawk-Eye technology, compared to, say, football’s relationship with VAR (Video Assistant Referee) since its widespread introduction five years ago, because the calls it adjudicates are objective.
Subjective calls are more tricky for officials too, because they have to straddle the very delicate balance between that taking the temperature of a match and enforcing what they are expected to enforce. Sometimes in the search for clear-cut answers, they don’t really exist.
On Matt’s point about umpires influencing outcomes, Pierluigi Collina, probably football’s best ever referee, said one of the biggest myths around officiating is that a good referee is one you don’t notice. Nonsense, he said. If there are a number of big decisions to be made, you make them!
Was the Tiafoe call a big one to make? No. The umpire could easily have let that one lie and no one would have been talking about it. But it was his third time violation and the nature of it clearly piqued the umpire, who said outright to Tiafoe, “I’m not buying it.” The bigger issue, like you suggest James, is that I get that tennis wants to quicken matches up, and I’m all for possible solutions to a sport whose match times have gotten out of control, but this feels like chipping away at the edges when far more drastic steps are needed.
Zverev’s reaction after a correct decision was nonsensical, but these outbursts over the last few days remind us that these players are all physically and mentally exhausted. Solving those issues requires much bigger reforms than marginally reducing match times by shortening the gaps between points, and those issues cause greater damage to the sport as a product than people taking too long on serve once in a while.
Matt: I like Charlie’s point about Collina. I also think in a lot of cases the calls that officials don’t make are as important, and maybe more so, as the ones they do. My guess is Collina would group all of them as “decisions” but we all know there are tennis officials who are more inclined to insert themselves into the action. And at the risk of making a broad generalization, I can’t think of one female official I would put in that category.
James: It seems like the shot clock is intrinsically flawed. The old version is too susceptible to being governed by subjectivity; the new version makes no concession to the contours of a match. It also doesn’t seem like the benefits outweigh the number of players complaining, or the difficult situations it’s creating for umpires.
Charlie: Umpires are constantly put in difficult situations, and we ask a huge amount of them. In the Tiafoe incident, the umpire risks getting a slap on the wrist from his bosses for not enforcing the shot clock, and maybe even accusations of favoritism towards the more famous player of the two. Or he will receive criticism for being too heavy-handed and not having a feel for the situation. We expect umpires to almost act as psychologists sometimes, understanding why a player is behaving in a certain way and expecting that to then inform their judgments.
James: Discipline — or a lack of it — is a big problem here. Players would not feel emboldened to swear at, insult, or in the case of Zverev in Acapulco in 2022, physically attack where umpires are sitting if the ATP Tour imposed stronger correctives. The German wasn’t even banned for that incident, and there is no question that the latitude given in these situations is making the problem worse. Players may feel like they are suffering more, because they lose a point or a match, and therefore money and ranking points, on what they perceive to be a bad call, but the lack of respect for umpires’ authority seems more pervasive than isolated extreme cases.
Charlie: Another issue is that in some cases, like with Draper, and then with Zverev, the officials and the players are the only people who cannot see the clearest view of the incident that they are disagreeing on. Everyone in the crowd, or watching at home, can just look at replays on their phone or TV. That’s clearly not right. Use of things like video review (VR) and electronic line calling (ELC) is still so fragmented that there are too many built-in disparities that umpires and players are expected to navigate.
Matt: On this, tennis is stupid. There are seven different governing bodies, all of which have rights to set up events as they please. And within the two tours, the ATP and the WTA, not all the tournaments have to comply with a singular technological system.
Why? Money. Tournaments large and small would be on the hook to pay for the cameras and computer technology to allow for video review and electronic line calling on all the courts.
Then there are the traditionalists. The French Open, for instance, likes the idea of umpires climbing down and inspecting ball marks on the clay. At this year’s tournament, a particularly egregious missed call derailed Zheng Qinwen, who had no grounds to challenge it. In 2023, Amarissa Toth erased a contested ball mark in a match against Zhang Shuai, who then retired because of the misfortune and pressure of a situation that players should not find themselves in.
For a while, the rationale for this was that the computer system was less foolproof because of the raised tape lines on a clay court. This problem has been fixed. Wimbledon also insisted on line judges and the Hawk-Eye challenge system until this week, even though cameras can check all the calls and often show missed calls that go unchallenged. Everyone has the proper information — except those who need it most.
Charlie: I’m told by well-placed sources that the ATP Tour is exploring the possibility of using VR technology at its higher category events from 2025, taking in the Masters 1000 and some 500-level events. It will be in place at the ATP Finals in Turin next month and the Next Gen Finals in Jeddah in December. Generally with technology, once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s hard to put back in, and so you’d expect VR technology will only become more widespread in the next few years.
In its one significant use at this year’s U.S. Open, between Anna Kalinskaya and Beatriz Haddad Maia, umpire Miriam Bley appeared to reach the wrong conclusion despite replays, so these systems are not yet perfect — but the option was there. As Matt said earlier, why make that option conditional?
Wimbledon’s decision to make the change with line judges after 147 years is significant, as it reflects the growing acceptance that there is just no compelling argument against the use of ELC. “Because we’ve always done it like this” is not a compelling argument for players, umpires, or fans.
To expand on something else Matt said about Hawk-Eye showing missed calls that players didn’t challenge, the fact that, without ELC, players are asked to essentially officiate the accuracy of their own shots has always been absurd to me. They have enough to worry about without also having to concern themselves with making calls and challenging officiating mistakes.
At the recent Olympics, Coco Gauff said that she always had to advocate for herself after an umpire went against her. And even with ELC in place in Cincinnati (also in August), when the system missed a call on a ball hit by Brandon Nakashima that was out, umpire Greg Allensworth told Taylor Fritz that he had to be the one to stop the point for it to be corrected. Fritz understandably went off on the idea that he had to adjudicate the match as well as play in it.
Matt: The players suffer plenty from the bad calls but line judges and umpires are the ones who look like idiots through little fault of their own. They are the ones who need the information more than anyone, and they are just about the only ones who don’t have it. Tennis leaders need to do right by them, instead of leaving them at the mercy of the fallibility of their own eyes as balls travel at 80mph (128kmh) and up. Players are not blameless either, and not only because they curse out umpires on occasion, which should be heavily penalized to reduce the frequency with which it happens.
James: And in those situations, the chair umpire becomes the face of the system and all its problems, and then has to receive all the umbrage that the player feels even if they — or the ELC system — came to the correct conclusion. Tennis officials should think about how the rules and technologies can be best applied to avoid these kinds of situations, but the split leadership makes that harder than perhaps it needs to be.
Charlie: Fundamentally, tennis needs to think: how can the rules best serve the game and create the best spectacle? And, how can the systems that enforce them be designed and implemented to ensure that players and umpires aren’t having to deal with additional stress in what is already a really stressful sport? At the moment, systems like the new shot clock and the fragmented protocols don’t seem to be serving that purpose as well as they could.
(Top photo: Andy Wong / Associated Press)
When Jermaine Jones joined Central Valley Fuego FC as its coach last November, the pairing carried clear upside for the former U.S. men’s national team midfielder and the club. He had longed, sometimes publicly, for a chance to be a head coach, and Fuego needed a splash to gain fans and to reasonably compete in the third-division USL League One.
Yet nearly a year later, fractures between Jones and the club’s players have led to discipline for the coach that before now has not been publicized, and an investigation that revealed clear mistrust within the league’s ranks.
According to documentation reviewed by The Athletic, Jones was suspended through the end of the 2024 season following an independent investigation. The summary of that investigation said it had “substantiated” repeated instances of harassment, retaliation and hostility from Jones toward members of the team.
The United Soccer League Players Association (USLPA), which spurred the league to commission the investigation, also filed a separate labor complaint against the club in April, accusing the team of interrogating players about union activities and threatening to retaliate against them if they supported the union. The complaint with the National Labor Relations Board is being investigated, Kayla Blado, a spokeswoman for the agency, said Thursday.
Jones has not coached the team in a match since Aug. 30. Despite his absence, neither the club nor the league announced Jones’ suspension publicly. Given that the USL is not a single-entity league, its standard is for clubs to determine themselves whether to announce suspensions or fines.
The USL suspended Jones on Sept. 27, and notified him, the club and other involved parties. The investigation is closed and its findings and the punishment are final, the league said.
But in separate statements on Wednesday, the club and a lawyer for Jones sought to cast doubt on the findings. They said they were seeking for the coach to be reinstated, based on an audit of the investigation that was commissioned by the club.
Soroosh Abdi, Jones’ lawyer, said the audit found “both substantial and procedural shortcomings” that negated the investigation’s findings. “Jermaine Jones was subject to bias and unfair treatment by the USLPA,” Abdi said.
“We are hopeful he will rejoin the team before the season ends,” the club said.
The players union, like the league, said it considers the cycle “fully complete.” And it dismissed Abdi’s assertion that Jones was treated unfairly.
“The USLPA has not seen any findings by any process to substantiate this claim. The USLPA acted as we always do when individuals bring serious claims of misconduct to the organization: We take those concerns to the USL per the league’s safeguarding policies,” the organization’s executive director, Connor Tobin, said in a statement. “And then to the extent individuals request that we participate in an observational manner during investigative interviews to help safeguard against retaliation, we do so.”
The league, which has its headquarters in Tampa, Fla., declined comment as its employees braced for Hurricane Milton.
The audit concluded Monday. The club, the league and Jones’ agent all declined to provide its results to The Athletic. The union said it has not seen anything yielded from the audit.
“We have complete confidence in the integrity of this process,” the league said in a statement. “When matters are resolved, we focus on promoting accountability and personal growth, ensuring that all individuals involved have the opportunity to learn and improve.”
Three active players and an employee of Fuego FC, speaking with The Athletic on condition of anonymity to protect their jobs, painted a stark picture of the club under Jones’ leadership. They described experiences of tension, fear and mental anguish since he joined the club, consistent with the summary findings of the league’s investigation, which were reviewed by The Athletic.
“It’s been nothing short of a complete catastrophe, and it’s so toxic,” the club employee said. “It doesn’t need to be like that.”
The league investigation was carried out by an outside law firm, Foley & Lardner, LLP. It determined that Jones had broken the league’s policies to safeguard players in six different ways. The breaches were described in the summary document in broad categories: national origin harassment, emotional misconduct, power imbalance, harassment, hostile environment and retaliation.
The investigation found repeat instances of each of the breaches, but the summary did not detail each allegation and did not include comments from anyone involved, including Jones. The investigation produced a deeper document separate from the findings summary, which includes testimony from the players who came forward with allegations. However, the club, the league, the players union and Jones’ agent declined to provide that document to The Athletic when asked for it.
Jones was suspended through the end of 2024, with Fuego’s final game scheduled for Oct. 26, and put on probation for the 2025 season.
In a statement, the players union said it feared the suspension was not severe enough.
“The violations by Jermaine Jones which have been substantiated by the third-party investigation show an extremely troubling pattern of behavior,” the union said. “We are concerned that the USL’s imposed discipline may not be effective in protecting players moving forward. It is our belief that the sheer number and severity of violations found by the investigators should be disqualifying and that players should not face the very real possibility of having to endure similar circumstances next season with Jones as head coach. The priority moving forward must be protecting player welfare and upholding dignity in the workplace.”
When a recently retired player wants to enter professional coaching, the lower leagues are a natural launching point. Coaching in a lower division isn’t a walk in the park — any coach will tell you that their job is never so simple — but it provides nascent coaches a chance to organically grow a culture and refine their tactical identities further from the public eye than at the game’s higher levels.
There are obvious benefits for the clubs, too. Experience as a player can bring an instant credibility that makes a first-time coach look like less of a gamble. Some ex-players bring a celebrity status that can feel outsized at a lower level. Heading into 2024, Central Valley Fuego hoped that hiring Jones could provide it with a major boost.
Throughout his career, Jones played with a point to prove. After his boyhood club Eintracht Frankfurt repeatedly signed veterans instead of giving him a chance as a starter, Jones moved to Schalke 04 to prove his ability. When years of youth call-ups from Germany failed to build into an extended senior international career, he pivoted to playing for the United States, earning 69 caps for the USMNT from 2010-2017 under Bob Bradley and Jurgen Klinsmann.
By the time his career ended following stints with three MLS clubs, Jones had built a singular reputation: a determined midfielder who played with steely fixation.
“If you look at me as a player, you will look at the games and say, man, this guy is a savage, he hates losing,” Jones told Forty-One Magazine in 2023. “He would do everything to win a game.”
He added: “For me, it was important as a player. Now, going into coaching, it’s not about me.”
Central Valley Fuego FC was founded in August 2020 in Fresno, Calif., filling a void left by a previous team. Less than a year earlier, the locally beloved Fresno FC had left town after just two seasons in the second-division USL Championship. Fresno FC was competitive, but relocated about 150 miles west to Monterey, Calif., when it had issues securing land and garnering public financial support for a stadium.
The USL launched Fuego in Fresno as a third-division club. It was named in homage to a longtime local non-professional team, with local businesspersons Juan and Alicia Ruelas as the owners. Their son, Juan Jr., is also involved as managing partner.
Unfortunately, Fuego FC has struggled at the box office. League match reports put its average attendance at 674 fans per regular season game in 2024, with a limiting 1,000-person capacity at the Fresno State Soccer Stadium. For scale, every other team in the league averages at least 1,300 fans per contest.
The team’s performance hasn’t helped; it finished eighth out of 10 teams in its first season in 2022 and dead last out of 12 teams in 2023. With only a few games remaining this year, Fuego is again at the bottom of the League One standings.
Despite this, players have stuck with the club for a few key reasons. First, the checks always cleared, with the interviewed players saying they have never seen their pay delayed. Second, this level of the U.S. pyramid is notorious for roster churn, and finding stable footing at any club is a luxury. Third, some players expressed strong connections with the ownership group.
“We know it’s not always perfect,” one player said of club operations at the third-division level. “We used to always let it go, let it go. Jermaine took it to the next level.”
Only a few players headed into the long offseason after 2023 with a guarantee for this season, which is reasonably normal in the lower leagues. The players were surprised, however, when the club asked them to return for a scrimmage to impress the team’s newly appointed coach. The memo did not name the coach, and Jones was later introduced – he had clinched his first head coaching role.
But players pushed back on being called back to action early. Under the league’s collective bargaining agreement, players can’t be called back early unless their contracts are already guaranteed for the next season or unless they have revenue-generating game obligations. The scrimmage did not meet that bar and was canceled.
Before leading his new team in its first game under his guidance, Jones used a media engagement to question the loyalty of returning players.
In a February episode of the podcast “Kickin’ It,” Jones spoke with host Kate Scott and three of his former USMNT teammates: Clint Dempsey, Maurice Edu and Charlie Davies. Edu asked Jones if it’s possible, as a coach, to build unique and meaningful relationships with an entire team of players. Jones said it was possible, before quickly pivoting and saying he had cut “the whole team” besides four players when he started as coach at Fuego FC.
“Let’s make a plan. Get rid of all the guys, we don’t need them,” he said.
“I cut the whole team”
Jermaine Jones was not messing around when he joined Central Valley Fuego FC 😮
Kickin’ It is streaming NOW on Paramount Plus! pic.twitter.com/sMIYS7DMpA
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) February 28, 2024
Jones also said that he suspected the returning players “had the other coach fired, so they would get me fired, too. I don’t need that.”
The host and Jones’ ex-teammates laughed at the candidness of his reply.
The joking tone belied the seriousness of the career implications for the athletes.
When asked why he kept any players at all, his answer was simple: “They were under contract.”
Players arrived for the preseason following the podcast’s release. Some entered with excitement about playing for an esteemed ex-player. They soon felt uncomfortable by the culture established by a famously competitive figure.
The Athletic’s interviews with Fuego personnel echoed some of the themes of the league’s investigation, including the substantiated categories of emotional misconduct, power imbalance, harassment, and a hostile environment.
The conversations made clear that players feared retribution for speaking too candidly about their experiences.
All three players interviewed claimed that, early in the season, Jones told players not to interact with the USLPA. Jones told them any issues should be handled with the team directly, they said. The interactions formed the basis of the labor complaint.
“He said we can’t talk to the players’ union, but that is our right,” said one player. “He can do just about whatever he wants to do to you. He can pretty much bully you, harass you — you will say nothing to nobody. You have to be quiet and take the harassment. If you do the right things as a club, you don’t care about getting involved with the players’ union.”
Players also said Jones repeatedly used his status as a notable ex-player to persuade players to side with him.
“He comes in here, saying he played for the U.S. national team, he’s powerful. He has friends in the federation and all over the place. He tells us that if he wants to destroy someone, he can destroy their careers,” one of the players said.
Jones also appeared to weaponize League One’s standing to assert superiority over his players.
“You know the funny thing? He said this is a s—– league,” one player said. “That’s what makes me mad. He said this is a s—– league, that we’re at the bottom of the pyramid. He said that he doesn’t even want to be here.”
Another player independently echoed that line. “This really hit me: he said if you’re 28 and still playing League One, basically you ain’t s—. You’re done. Coming from a man who’d never coached anywhere in his life.”
In the summer, Jones asked a player on the team to retire and to instead coach to open up an international slot for a prospective signee, according to the three players as well as the employee. When the player declined the coaching contract, he was frozen out of the first team, they said. That moment, along with others throughout the season, left many players struggling.
“They don’t even care about mental health,” one player said, adding: “Thank God there’s just one month left (of the season). It’s just too much.”
“Guys are afraid (to speak up), because this season is still on,” another player said. “People want a job. This man has threatened them that coaches have a union, they call each other. If any coach calls him about you, ‘imma tell them straight up you ain’t s—.’ To be honest, the experience has been horrible and traumatic.”
The situation seemed to take a turn as September came around, with Jones removed from the sideline once the USL commissioned the independent investigation and the law firm began conducting interviews.
However, Jones does not appear to have been entirely hands off as the investigation was conducted.
The players said Jones made decisions about the team even after he went on leave, as the investigation was happening. “In the first game after his leave, against Spokane (on Sept. 7), he was on the phone with one of the assistants,” one of the players said. “They took one player out, and the coaches confirmed it was Jermaine’s decision. So yeah, he’s still involved.”
The club and the league did not respond to a specific question about that assertion, which appeared to go against the outlines of Jones’ leave during the investigation.
After serving his suspension, Jones will be able to continue as the team’s coach for the 2025 season, pending a conversation with the league’s director of player welfare and safeguarding.
That said, Jones appears to be alerting other clubs to his availability, telling German outlet Sport1 in late September that he would be “a good addition” to Schalke’s coaching staff and offering his services.
No matter how Jones’ situation plays out, it’s an open question how many players from this season’s squad will be back.
“I don’t know how things are going to be, but I’m not happy here,” one of the players said, adding that he did not want to stick around in bad circumstances just to play. “I don’t know what next year is gonna be, and I don’t want to repeat the same mistake. It’s better to have a different environment than to try staying here.”
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic. Photo: Leon Bennett / GA / The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
PRAGUE — The NHL opened its regular season in Prague last week with two Global Series games between the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils. Czech hockey legends were prominently featured. Jaromir Jagr dropped the ceremonial first puck ahead of the game on Friday. Patrik Eliáš, the Devils’ all-time leading scorer, was around the team all week and dropped the puck for the second game of the series.
But one Czech hockey great was notably absent. Dominik Hašek, the Hall of Fame goalie who helped lead the Czechs to an Olympic gold medal in 1998 and one of the greatest players in Sabres franchise history, did not attend the games or participate in any promotional materials in the lead-up to the games. Last Thursday, Hašek released a statement on his X account condemning the NHL for allowing Russian players to play in the league while Vladimir Putin continues Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Friday afternoon, hours before Jagr dropped that ceremonial first puck, Hašek met with The Athletic to discuss his ongoing issue with the NHL.
Dear citizens, dear hockey fans,
The new season of the NHL will start tomorrow in Prague.
Which, as a person for whom human lives are the first place on the imaginary scale of values, I cannot remain indifferent. Unfortunately, I have to state that this will be the third…
— Dominik Hasek (@hasek_dominik) October 3, 2024
“My motivation is huge,” Hašek said. “I consider everything I do on this topic to be vitally important. What is happening now in Russia, that is, the Russian imperialist war in Ukraine and other crimes connected with it, is very similar to what Hitler did in the 1930s. And we all know how that turned out. This must not happen again. And that is why I am trying to publicly explain to people all over the world what is important and how to act so that the Russian war of aggression does not spread and ends as soon as possible. And of course, the main motivation is saving human lives. For me, human life always comes first.”
Russia escalated the war between the two nations in February 2022 when it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That month, the NHL released a statement condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and announcing it had suspended relationships with partners in Russia. Hašek has made his feelings clear since the day Russia invaded. He wrote an email to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and said he got only a brief response. In the years since, Hašek said the league has made no effort to have a dialogue with him. The NHL declined to comment for this story.
During that time, Hašek has called for the NHL to pay billions of dollars to Ukraine as compensation and was outspoken about Russian athletes being allowed to participate in the Olympics. Russians participating in the NHL serves as an advertisement for what the country is doing and improves morale in Russia, he says.
Hašek also ran for senator in Czechia this year. In September, Hašek failed to advance past the first round of voting. He’s taking the downtime to determine his next step, but he wants to stay involved in politics.
It wasn’t until 1989, when Hašek was 24, that the Czech Republic became separate from the Soviet Union. Hašek is intimately familiar with life under authoritarian rule. He doesn’t want his children to know what that’s like. Hašek has a soon-to-be 3-year-old son, Honza, with his current partner, and two adult children, Michael and Dominika, with his ex-wife. Hašek returned to the Czech Republic after retiring from the Detroit Red Wings to raise his children in his home country.
Hašek also played the final year of his career in the KHL back in 2010-11. Putin has been either the prime minister or president of Russia since 1999, making him the longest-serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin.
But while Hašek majored in history in college, he didn’t become interested in politics until after his playing career ended. He has since become more outspoken on certain issues, including this one.
Many in Czechia share Hašek’s fears and views, and for hockey fans, it extends beyond the NHL. In 2023, Rytíři Kladno, the Czech Extraliga team owned by Jaromir Jagr, signed goalie Julius Hudacek, who was born in Slovakia but had spent the previous season playing for a Kazakhstan-based team in the KHL. Fans threatened to protest games, and Kladno released Hudacek days later.
This is the second time the NHL has come to Prague since Russia invaded Ukraine. The San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators played here in 2022, and each team had a Russian player on its roster. While neither the Devils nor the Sabres brought a Russian to the Global Series, Hašek still didn’t want to be part of it. He thinks the NHL needs to speak publicly on the issue and not “bury its head in the sand.”
The NHL’s initial statement after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 said, “We also remain concerned about the well-being of the players from Russia, who play in the NHL on behalf of their NHL Clubs, and not on behalf of Russia. We understand they and their families are being placed in an extremely difficult position.”
The fact the NHL has not changed its position since that statement is disappointing to Hašek.
Russia’s war in Ukraine will likely become a more prominent NHL storyline as Alex Ovechkin chases Wayne Gretzky’s goal record. Ovechkin still has a photo with Putin as his Instagram profile picture and has not made any strong statements against the war. He hasn’t spoken about the war since 2022.
“I’m Russian, right?” Ovechkin said in 2022. “Something I can’t control. It’s not in my hands. I hope (the war)’s going to end soon. I hope it’s going to be peace in both countries. I don’t control this one.”
Hašek said he believes only Russians who condemn the war should be allowed to play in the NHL. However, he understands the difficult position Russian players are in. Hašek lives in a free country and is not an employee of the NHL, which he says gives him the freedom to speak his mind. It is more difficult for those who fear for their safety or their family’s safety, Hašek added. Or even those who could face job loss or other economic repercussions based on their words.
Hašek does not place the blame on the individual Russian players for not speaking out.
“Rules need to be set so that Russian players have an incentive to come out publicly,” Hašek said. “Some players could make the best peace ambassadors. Unfortunately, the NHL does not help the Russian hockey players one bit.”
The New York Rangers’ Russian star Artemi Panarin has been outspoken against Putin in the past. Hašek also cited Boston Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov, a Russian who spoke out against the war when he was a member of the Calgary Flames in 2023. He posted “No War” on his Instagram account with the caption “Stop it!!!” He also did a two-hour interview with Russian journalist Yury Dud on YouTube in which he explained his opposition to the war. Hašek felt the NHL didn’t offer him enough support.
“It must be said that this is a topic that people are very afraid to talk about publicly,” Hašek said. “In the Czech Republic, there is great fear of Russia, which our parliament has designated as a terrorist state. With Russia, we have experience in this direction and, unfortunately, also victims. People don’t know how the situation will develop and if Ukraine falls, we are one of the other possible victims.”
Hašek said he would like to hear more ex-players speak out on the topic, because they are no longer dependent on the NHL for work. He knows these aren’t easy situations to navigate. He admitted to what he now views as a mistake of his own last year.
Last season, Hašek came to Buffalo as part of an annual visit to do charity work with his foundation, Hašek’s Heroes. While in town, he went to a Sabres game and participated in the start of the game by banging the drum to excite the crowd. He still loves Buffalo and considers it one of the best hockey towns in the United States. But he realized that even participating in that way went against what he had spoken about. Days later, he apologized on X.
Statement on my participation in the event 01/18/2024 and to the public and the media inquiries: On my annual visit (business, charity) to Buffalo USA, I accepted an invitation from my friends to the @NHL game (1/18/2024). At the same time, (continue)
— Dominik Hasek (@hasek_dominik) January 23, 2024
“I consider my participation in the match and its opening as my huge mistake,” Hašek wrote. “Hereby, I want to apologize to all Ukrainian soldiers and all Ukrainian people who are heroically defending not only their homeland, but also the whole of Europe against the imperialist enemy. And further to the fans who supported me and continue to support me and to everyone whom I disappointed with my act. I find this personal failure of mine very difficult to excuse. I will try even harder to fix it. At this moment, I can promise you that a similar situation will not happen again. And that I will fight to the maximum and help defend everything that the Russian state-controlled terrorist regime attacks. And criticize all those who support it with their actions.”
Last week, Hašek did meet with Sabres coach Lindy Ruff and a few others he knows from his time in Buffalo. He also met with the video team for the Sabres’ website to help them with a project they are doing on his upbringing.
“I have no interest in breaking ties,” Hašek said. “I am interested in helping the NHL as much as possible with my behavior, and nothing is changing about that. Otherwise, of course, I will not participate in any of the two matches, nor anything related to the start of this year’s NHL. The reason is clear. I don’t want to be part of an event that is an advertisement for the Russian war.”
(Photo: Petr David Josek / AP Photo)
