Twenty years since end of the strike

<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> This week marks the 20-year anniversary of the end of perhaps baseball's worst stretch, when the 1994-95 strike canceled a World Series, alienated fans, led to Montreal losing the Expos, prompted Bud Selig and the owners to use replacement players, convinced Michael Jordan to end his baseball career and forced some striking players to take other jobs. Jobs such as stocking shelves at K-Mart, Mike Gallego says.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Really? K-Mart? A major leaguer who competed in three World Series stocked shelves for minimum wage?</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Seriously," said Gallego, now a coach with the Athletics. "That was a tough gig. I couldn't wait for baseball to get started. Baseball was a lot easier than that, I'll tell you that right now. I had to get up at like 3 in the morning and get there and make sure all the things were stocked ... toys, clothing, food, everything.</div> <div class="mod-inline image image-right" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; float: right; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"> <a class="enlarge" credit="John Leyba/Getty Images" href="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0321/mlb_g_hawkins1x_600x400.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #999999; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[+] Enlarge<img alt="LaTroy Hawkins" border="0" height="200" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0321/mlb_g_hawkins1x_300x200.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="300" /></a><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"> <cite style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #ababab; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John Leyba/Getty Images</cite>LaTroy Hawkins, currently the oldest player in the majors at 42, began his career in the big leagues with the Twins after the strike ended in 1995.</div> </div> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "It was like, 'Here's your pallet! Those pallets in the corner are yours, load them up!' It was serious work. My kids can't believe it."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Gallego said he did so because there was no money coming in and because he didn't know how long the strike would last, wanted some walking-around money and needed something to do. "It didn't pay much, but it put things in perspective, that's for sure," he said. "When you've got a family, you've got to do what you gotta do."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> While some players took odd jobs and others simply stayed on strike, the major league teams went ahead with spring training in 1995 by signing borderline players, some of whom had been working Wal-Mart-equivalent jobs as warehouse workers, security guards, firefighters, bartenders, painters, etc. These were the infamous replacement players who took the field in Arizona and Florida that February and March.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The replacement players ranged from former major leaguers trying to restore careers, such as Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, to some future big leaguers, such as Kevin Millar and Brendan Donnelly, to the more numerous players who never came close to the majors.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Pitcher Steve Otto, for instance, hadn't played professionally in four years, had never played beyond Class A and was working for Minnesota-based Ecolab. After having attended a tryout, he came home to find a message on his answering machine from Twins general manager Terry Ryan inviting him to spring training. "Oh, my God," Otto thought. "I'm saving this tape forever."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Otto accepted the invitation and left for Florida, using the two weeks of vacation he had coming to cover part of his spring training expenses. He wasn't trying to upset the players' union. He was just looking for another opportunity to play the game he loved so much.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "My wife said 'You have to go and try it,'" Otto recalled. "We didn't have children, so it wasn't like I was risking a lot. When you have a real job and you have to wear a suit and tie, and then you get to go play baseball, you realize how lucky you are to do that."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The talent of the replacement players wasn't high, though not all understood what their actual level was. One player, as longtime Oakland equipment manager Steve Vucinich recalls, said he was going to live on the other side of the bay so that when the regular major leaguers finally reported, he and Rickey Henderson could commute together. "Like he was going to make the team and be a teammate of Rickey Henderson," Vucinich said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Cubs manager Joe Maddon was in charge of organizing the Angels' spring training for the first time that season. He says the obvious difference was between having average everyday major league players in camp "and a guy who could possibly play once every two or three weeks at the major league level. Or not at all."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The teams may have been signing replacement players, but not everyone in management went along with this strategy.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Detroit manager Sparky Anderson refused to manage replacement players that spring. Baltimore owner Peter Angelos not only refused to sign replacements for spring training, he insisted the Orioles would not play replacement games in the regular season. Angelos was a labor lawyer, so using replacements was anathema to him. Plus, a season with replacement players would have ended Cal Ripken Jr.'s consecutive games playing streak just before he was about to break Lou Gehrig's record.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Not that the managers and coaches who worked with the replacements enjoyed the idea, either. Bruce Bochy was just starting his career as a big league manager with the Padres. "It wasn't a fun time, I'll say that," Bochy said. "Fortunately, [Padres then-general manager] Randy Smith allowed me to back away from it but it's not a time we care to reflect on, to be honest."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Otto had not played beyond Class A, but said being a few years older might have helped make him better that year. He enjoyed spring training -- he even fondly recalls the soggy Blimpie submarine sandwiches the team ate for lunch each day -- but when his two weeks of vacation ran out, his Ecolab employer declined to give him a leave of absence. He was forced to either leave spring training or quit his job. He chose to quit his job and stayed with baseball.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The real players refused to capitulate, as well. They were not going to "cross the line."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "I remember sitting down and having a conversation with my grandfather because he was a union guy," said <a href="http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/3176/latroy-hawkins" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #225fb2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">LaTroy Hawkins</a>, then with Minnesota. "He was a steel mill guy. I didn't know about strikes and he told me about guys crossing the lines and how it was something you can never even consider doing."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Current managers Lloyd McClendon and Bob Melvin were near the end of their playing careers at the time. Without contracts, each was asked by organizations to cross the line, but neither even considered it. "I wasn't going there," Melvin said. "There was no way."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Cubs broadcaster Ron Coomer, who was in the Dodgers organization at the time, said Los Angeles put a lot of pressure on minor leaguers to cross the line and play (which he did not). It was an especially difficult situation for minor leaguers who weren't on the 40-man roster but occasionally were asked to play in the replacement games. They weren't in the union, but they didn't want to go against the union either. Yet they also didn't want to upset the team employing them and dictating their careers.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "It put them in a terrible position," Coomer said. "It was really unfortunate for some of those young guys. ... It was just a terrible situation for everybody. I think ownership handled it poorly. I think the players' union handled it poorly, because everyone was put in a tough spot and some of those young players ended up getting the brunt of all the issues that happened."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Others suffered in different ways. Ron Gardenhire, then the Twins' third base coach, had his Achilles tendon torn by a replacement player who rounded the bag too wide and stepped on his lower calf. He missed three months of the season due to the injury.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <blockquote class="mod-quote-box quote-box-left mod-inline" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-right-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-right-style: solid; border-width: 0px 1px 0px 0px; float: left; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.6200008392334px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; quotes: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 261.890625px;"> <span class="quote-start" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; float: left; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 60px; font-weight: bold; height: 20px; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> I remember sitting down and having a conversation with my grandfather because he was a union guy. He was a steel mill guy. I didn't know about strikes and he told me about guys crossing the lines and how it was something you can never even consider doing.</div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 7px 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span class="quote-end" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #aaaaaa; float: right; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 60px; height: 20px; line-height: 40px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span><cite style="background: transparent; border: 0px; clear: right; display: block; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;">- LaTroy Hawkins</cite></div> </blockquote> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> And then there was Michael Jordan, who also refused to play with the replacements during spring training in the White Sox minor league camp. Instead, he left the Sox and returned to the NBA, announcing in a fax "I'm back!"</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The major leaguers, however, were not back. Just days to go until the scheduled Opening Day, the teams still were preparing to begin the season with replacements. The Giants and Athletics left their spring training sites in Arizona to play the annual Bay Bridge exhibition series in San Francisco and Oakland. Because it was the first time any of the replacements had ever played in a televised game, many asked Vucinich for videotapes of the game.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> As an appeal by the major leaguers went to U.S. district court at the end of March, the replacement players watched ESPN each night for updates.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "I think we knew deep-down that the strike would end," Otto said, "but we just hoped that maybe it would extend a few extra days and give us a chance to play in those parks like Fenway and Yankee Stadium [where the Twins were scheduled to open the season]."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Friday before the scheduled opener, now-Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor ruled in federal district court on behalf of the players, effectively ending the strike. "Some say that Judge Sotomayor saved baseball," President Barack Obama said when he nominated her to the Supreme Court in 2009.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> She did not save the careers of the replacement players, though.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Teams bid a quick goodbye to the replacements, paying each $5,000 for their time. The Twins replacement players ate pizza from cardboard boxes while waiting for the traveling secretary to arrange their flights home. Mariners manager Lou Piniella had not been in favor of replacement players -- at one point, he was angered by how they were overeating the food provided in the clubhouse -- yet felt so bad when he had to break the news to them that he teared up.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> One player went into Tony La Russa's office and slapped a tape recorder on his desk. When La Russa, then the manager of the A's, asked why, the player said, "I always wanted a recording of me being cut by Tony La Russa."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Otto says Ecolab offered him another job after the strike ended, but he was so caught up by the game again that he decided to instead pursue his passion further by working as a baseball instructor. He spent the next decade teaching kids from age 5 to high school how to pitch. He eventually returned to Ecolab, where he now works.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> And yes, he still has the answering machine tape of Ryan inviting him to spring training.</div> <h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Getting back on the field</h3> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Spring training with the real players resumed days after the strike ended, but camps were reduced from the standard six weeks to just three weeks. Because of the shortened spring, clubs opened the season with expanded rosters, which benefited Hawkins.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "I only made the [the Twins' roster] out of spring training because of the expanded roster," Hawkins said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> At least Hawkins, currently the oldest player in the majors at 42, opened the 1995 season in the big leagues. Other players weren't so fortunate -- and we're not talking about the replacements. Many veteran players didn't have contracts because of the strike, so baseball held a free-agent camp in Homestead, Florida. Among those hoping for a contract were Dave Stewart, Andy Van Slyke, Frank Viola and McClendon. When a player signed with a team, the tape with his name on the locker was removed and attached to a pole with other such fortunate players. "You aspired to be one of those guys," Melvin said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> When Opening Day arrived, there still were 20 players left unsigned in the free-agent camp. Exactly one fan watched them that day, along with two reporters; there were no scouts. Responding to a comment that they were like the kids no one picked to play at recess, McClendon replied, "That's a good analogy, but it goes a little deeper than that. They can at least stick those kids in right field."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Adirondack Lumberjacks, an independent minor league team, sent letters to the remaining players, offering opportunities with the team that probably paid less than $1,000 a month. "If you are still without a job by June 1st, you are welcome to come to the Adirondacks where there are plenty of lakes, golfing, fishing and more, in a comfortable small town atmosphere," the letters read.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Well, it probably beat stocking shelves at K-Mart.</div>

BASEBALL Twenty years since end of the strike

This week marks the 20-year anniversary of the end of perhaps baseball's worst stretch, when the 1994-95 strike canceled a World Series...

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Police: Eloi Vasquez killed by car

<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> LOS ANGELES -- A Cal Golden Bears soccer player who disappeared after a weekend party was killed by a car as he ran across a Los Angeles freeway, police said Monday.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Eloi Vasquez, a 19-year-old freshman, died early Saturday on eastbound Interstate 10 about a mile from USC after he was seen leaving a fraternity party, the California Highway Patrol said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> A woman said a man ran in front of her and she was unable to avoid hitting him, said Officer Edgar Figueroa, a CHP spokesman. The man was struck just east of Vermont Avenue. The investigation is ongoing.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Vasquez was pronounced dead at the scene. He was not carrying identification, which set off a missing persons search until the coroner could identify him.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Coroner's officials worked with the CHP and Los Angeles police, determining that the man struck on the freeway was likely Vasquez because of where he was found and his age, Figueroa said. But fingerprinting of the teenager did not immediately yield any matches to criminal or other databases, coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey said. He was ultimately identified via a fingerprint match with the Department of Motor Vehicles, but only after the spelling of his name was clarified.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Vasquez, who was on spring break in Los Angeles, had left the party to take a walk with no money and no wallet, family and police said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> His mother, Wendy Margolin, said he later called a friend, telling her he was lost and in trouble.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Figueroa did not know whether Vasquez had alcohol or drugs in his system. Toxicology screens to detect substances usually take weeks to complete.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The family had offered a $100,000 reward for information about his whereabouts.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Needless to say, we are heartbroken, we are devastated upon finding out this news," Wesley Mallette, associate athletic director at the Berkeley campus, said at a news conference.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Eloi Vasquez was a wonderful young man, a fantastic student-athlete, dedicated and devoted to everything he did."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Vasquez's soccer teammates at Cal were informed of his death at a meeting that lasted more than an hour.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Vasquez had traveled with other teammates to Southern California for the break and was supposed to return Monday to resume the semester, coach Kevin Grimes said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Eloi was a wonderful teammate. He was very close to all of his players," Grimes said. "Our guys are grieving pretty hard right now."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Vasquez, a freshman midfielder, had hurt his knee during the year and was still recovering from surgery in December. He played in 12 games for Cal last season, recording three assists.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> His coach described him as one of the hardest workers on the team and said he always stayed after practice. His youth soccer coaches would have to change the lock on the equipment shed to ensure he didn't work too hard on his own, Grimes said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "When you combine his talent level with that mentality, it was a safe bet that he was headed to the MLS," Grimes said.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The school's athletic department remembered Vasquez on Twitter:</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img alt="View image on Twitter" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBYjtHCU8AAfTvP.jpg" /></div>

SOCCER Police: Eloi Vasquez killed by car

LOS ANGELES -- A Cal Golden Bears soccer player who disappeared after a weekend party was killed by a car as he ran across a Los Angeles fr...

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Radamel Falcao scores penalty in Colombia's victory; Qatar win again

<figure style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.25s; background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 44px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: margin 0.25s;"><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2015/0330/soc_g_falcao_b1_1296x729.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.25s; border: 0px; transition: width 0.25s; width: 643px;" width="738" /><figcaption style="border-bottom-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: BentonSans; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 18px; padding: 22px 0px 24px;">Radamel Falcao scored his third goal in two games to help Colombia defeat Kuwait.</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Radamel Falcao went within one goal of <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Colombia</span>'s scoring record by netting a penalty on Monday to complete a <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/gamecast/418403/gamecast.html" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">3-1 victory</a> over <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Kuwait</span> in a friendly.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Abel Aguilar opened the scoring with a volley in the 22nd minute, but Mesaed Al Enzi equalised following a corner on the stroke of half-time.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> After the break, Edwin Cardona put Colombia ahead with a 30-yard blast, and Falcao, who also scored twice against Bahrain last week, drew a penalty on the edge of the box before converting the final goal.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Falcao's goal was his 24th goal for his country, one shy of the record held for 24 years by Arnoldo Iguaran.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Some outlets, including Falcao's club Manchester United, earlier reported that Falcao had matched the record, but a senior goal scored by Iguaran in the Copa America -- albeit with an under-23 Colombia squad -- gives him 25 goals.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Qatar</span> won their second friendly in a week, edging <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Slovenia</span> <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/gamecast/statistics/id/418436/statistics.html" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">1-0</a>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Four days after the 2022 World Cup hosts defeated Algeria 1-0, they did the same to Slovenia, who qualified for the 2010 World Cup, thanks to Abdulkarim Fadlalla's goal a minute after half-time.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Australia</span> followed up their draw in Germany last week with another in<span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Macedonia</span>, this one <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/gamecast/416635/gamecast.html" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">ending goalless</a>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Australia controlled the majority of play but could not find a finishing touch in the final third as the hosts sat back.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Cameroon</span> rallied from two goals down to win 3-2 in <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Thailand</span>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> After Prakit Deeporm and and own goal by Aurelien Chedjou had spotted the hosts a two-goal lead, Benjamin Moukandjo cut the deficit in half shortly before the break.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> A penalty from Clinton Njie followed, and Ngweni Ndasi Kadiang scored the winner in the 88th minute.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Algeria</span> scored in the second minute and defeated <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Oman</span> 4-1 on the back of two goals each from Ishak Belffdil and Sofiane Feghouli in a match in Qatar.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Belarus</span> and <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Gabon </span>played to a goalless draw in a European-African matchup.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Aristide Bance and Issoufou Dayo scored for <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Burkina Faso</span> in a 2-1 win in<span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Morocco</span>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Saudi Arabia </span>striker Mohammad Al-Sahlawi scored two late goals, including a penalty in the 96th minute, to rally his side to a 2-1 win over <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Jordan</span>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Bahrain </span>hung on for a 2-1 win over the <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Philippines </span>after first-half goals from set pieces by Faouzi Mubarak and Abdulla Yaser. Manny Ott's fine consolation goal was not enough for the visitors.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Raphael Maitimo and Cristian Gonzales scored in the second half to lift<span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Indonesia</span> to a 2-1 win over <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Myanmar</span>, Htan David netting a late equaliser for the visitors.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Orlando City rookie Cyle Larin scored his first goal for <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Canada</span>, who cruised to a 3-0 win in <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Puerto Rico</span>. Tosaint Ricketts and Randy Edwini-Bonsu also found the net in Canada's first win away from home since 2012.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Jamaica</span> did all their scoring in the first half as they defeated <span style="font-family: BentonSansBold;">Cuba</span> 3-0 with goals from Daniel Gordon, Romeo Parkes and Darren Mattocks.</div>

SOCCER Radamel Falcao scores penalty in Colombia's victory; Qatar win again

Radamel Falcao scored his third goal in two games to help Colombia defeat Kuwait. Radamel Falcao went within one goal of  Colombia 's s...

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Wayne Rooney warns Harry Kane against frustration vs. Italy

<div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Wayne Rooney has warned England striker Harry Kane that Italy's defenders will "do anything to try and stop you."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Rooney had a hard time against Giorgio Chiellini during England's 2-1 World Cup defeat to Italy in Manaus last summer and on Tuesday the Juventus defender will be accompanied by Andrea Ranocchia and Leonardo Bonucci.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The <i>Azzurri </i>have conceded just four goals since the World Cup and Rooney feels Kane will face possibly his toughest test yet.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "With Italian defenders, especially the clever defenders, they'll do anything to try and stop you," Rooney said. "I think Italy's a passionate country. They love their football, they are probably the closest in Europe to South American teams.</div> <figure style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.25s; background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 44px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: margin 0.25s;"><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2014/0614/soc_g_rooney11_1296x729.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.25s; border: 0px; transition: width 0.25s; width: 643px;" width="738" /><figcaption style="border-bottom-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: BentonSans; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 18px; padding: 22px 0px 24px;">Wayne Rooney and England lost 2-1 last summer.</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "They're tough to play against, well-organised, they make it as difficult as they can for us. Italy are the best in Europe at doing that.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "You need to be aware of that and not get frustrated. At the minute what Harry is doing he needs to continue doing.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "He's taking the ball, he's a handful for defenders, he's running at the defenders and getting shots off at goal.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "That's all he has to do tomorrow. I'm sure if he does that the way he has been, he'll be fine."</div>

SOCCER Wayne Rooney warns Harry Kane against frustration vs. Italy

Wayne Rooney has warned England striker Harry Kane that Italy's defenders will "do anything to try and stop you." Rooney ha...

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Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge in fitness race to face Arsenal

<div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Liverpool will give Daniel Sturridge a chance to prove he can overcome a thigh injury and play in Saturday's Premier League match at Arsenal.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The club's medical staff have looked at the problem and feel that he could play against Arsenal, sources have told ESPN FC.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> However, he will not be risked if manager Brendan Rodgers feels that there is a danger of aggravating the injury.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Sturridge <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/england/story/2363871/daniel-sturridge-pulls-out-of-england-squad-because-of-injury" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">withdrew from the England squad</a> for matches against Lithuania and Italy after tearing a hip muscle.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The 25-year-old suffered the injury during Liverpool's 2-1 Premier League defeat at home to Manchester United on March 22.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> He reported at England's training camp the following day to be assessed, with scans showing the seriousness of the injury.</div> <figure style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.25s; background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 44px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: margin 0.25s;"><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2015/0316/soc_g_sturridge01jr_B_1296x729.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.25s; border: 0px; transition: width 0.25s; width: 643px;" width="738" /><figcaption style="border-bottom-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: BentonSans; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 18px; padding: 22px 0px 24px;">Daniel Sturridge could feature against Arsenal if there is no risk of further injury.</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Rodgers' side go into the Arsenal game lying fifth in the Premier League, five points behind Manchester United in fourth, and six adrift of the Gunners in third.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Sturridge has been beset by injuries this season, beginning with a thigh problem suffered during an England training session on Sept. 5.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> He was close to a comeback when he then sustained a calf problem during a Liverpool practice session on Oct. 16, and a second thigh injury while training with his club on Nov. 18.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Those three injuries kept Sturridge out of action for almost five months, and he did not return until the Reds' Premier League home match against West Ham on Jan. 31, scoring in a 2-0 win.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Winger Raheem Sterling, meanwhile, will be available for the match against Arsenal despite a toe injury.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Sterling was <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/england/story/2369347/danny-welbeck-will-miss-england-friendly-vs-italy-raheem-sterling-excused-says-roy-hodgson" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">given permission to miss England's friendly</a> against Italy in Turin on Tuesday, having played as Lithuania were beaten 4-0 in a Euro 2016 qualifier at Wembley last Friday.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> But despite the toe injury, which has been troubling him in recent weeks, the 20-year-old is set to train as normal with his club this week.</div>

SOCCER Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge in fitness race to face Arsenal

Liverpool will give Daniel Sturridge a chance to prove he can overcome a thigh injury and play in Saturday's Premier League match at Ar...

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Agent of PSV star Memphis Depay denies contact with Manchester United

<h1 style="-webkit-font-feature-settings: 'kern' 1, 'liga' 1, 'case' 1; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSansBold, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 44px; margin: 30px 0px; transition: color 0.2s;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2015/0302/fc-depay-jd-1296x729.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.25s; border: 0px; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; transition: width 0.25s; width: 643px;" width="738" /></span></h1> <div class="body full" style="color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"> <div class="above-fold"> <figure style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.25s; margin: 44px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: margin 0.25s;"><figcaption style="border-bottom-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: BentonSans; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 18px; padding: 22px 0px 24px;">Recent reports indicate talented winger Memphis Depay will be one of Louis van Gaal's top targets this summer.</figcaption></figure><div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The agent of Dutch international midfielder Memphis Depay has dismissed reports that talks have already taken place ahead of the PSV Eindhoven star making a lucrative move to Manchester United this summer.</div> <div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Depay has been rumoured to be a target for the Old Trafford club since Louis van Gaal arrived as the United manager last summer, with his long-standing admiration for the talented winger cemented as the 21-year-old made a mark in the team he led to a third-place finish in last summer's World Cup finals.</div> <div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Fresh reports emerged on Monday in England's <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/11505411/Manchester-United-transfer-news-Louis-van-Gaal-wants-Holland-and-PSV-star-Memphis-Depay-to-lift-attack.html" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;">Daily Telegraph newspaper suggesting Depay will be a top target for Van Gaal and United</a> in the upcoming transfer window, but his adviser Kees Ploegsma has told Danish publication PLBOLD that no contact has been made with the Premier League club.</div> <div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "No, there has been a lot of rumors, but he still has a contract with PSV, so for now he is in Eindhoven," <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/memphis-depay-no-contact-manchester-5429989" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;">he is reported to have said, in comments appearing in the Daily Mirror</a>. "We have not been in contact with any clubs.</div> <div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "They [Depay and Van Gaal] had good contact during the World Cup, but since then there has been no contact."</div> <div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Ploegsma may have inadvertently helped to fuel suggestions that Depay will be making a move this summer as his comments appear to be lacking a little conviction that his player will stay in Holland, while PSV boss Philip Cocu has already gone public in his belief that his star turn will be leaving the club at the end of this season.</div> <div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph is reporting that Van Gaal is planning another overhaul of his squad next summer as he looks to move the club back into trophy contention, with four new faces tipped to arrive at the club for a campaign that they will be hoping includes a return to the Champions League.</div> <div style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> United get a chance to cement their five point lead over fourth placed Liverpool when they entertain Aston Villa at Old Trafford on Saturday, with Brendan Rodgers Reds facing a tough trip to take on Arsenal on the same day.</div> </div> </div>

SOCCER Agent of PSV star Memphis Depay denies contact with Manchester United

Recent reports indicate talented winger Memphis Depay will be one of Louis van Gaal's top targets this summer. The agent of Dutch i...

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Man United boss Louis Van Gaal insists he's 'flexible' and not a dicator

<div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Louis van Gaal is adamant he is no dictator -- as Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney described his manager as a nice guy.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The 63-year-old has a reputation as an autocrat but Van Gaal insists he is flexible in both his footballing and his private life.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> And the former Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager said he will change his methods and his approach if his coaching staff or his players ask him to.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "I am a very flexible man," he <a href="http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Club-News/2015/Mar/louis-van-gaal-documentary-on-mutv-monday-30-march.aspx" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">told MUTV</a>. "[People] are always thinking I am a boss, maybe a dictator. I am not like that. I am a very flexible man. My wife does know that."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Van Gaal has won league titles in three other countries and took Netherlands to the third place in the World Cup but said he is determined to do things differently at Old Trafford.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "You have to evaluate and adapt to the culture of the club," he explained. "The way I work here with Manchester United is different to the way I worked with Bayern Munich or the Dutch national team.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "There are lot of aspects in my philosophy I shall stick to but a lot I shall change and it can only change because of the members of my staff or my players. They can change my thoughts. We have to wait and see how many aspects I have changed after one year."</div> <figure style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.25s; background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 44px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: margin 0.25s;"><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2015/0316/soc_g_vanGaal_d1_1296x729.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.25s; border: 0px; transition: width 0.25s; width: 643px;" width="738" /><figcaption style="border-bottom-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: BentonSans; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 18px; padding: 22px 0px 24px;">Louis van Gaal says there is nothing firm behind his reputation as a 'dictator.'</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Van Gaal said he was persuaded to stay on as AZ Alkmaar manager in 2008 when he wanted to resign, leading to him winning the Dutch title and then getting the Bayern job.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "In my four years [there], were the first year second, the second year second, in the third year 13th and I wanted to go away," he said. "The players came to my house and asked me to stay and then the next year we were champions."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> While Van Gaal has been accused of arrogance, Rooney has found him a pleasant person who is willing to listen.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "He is very approachable," he explained. "He always says to his players you can go and talk to him, whether it is about football or other things.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "He is 100 percent serious when it comes to training but if you are speaking to him about other things, he is a genuinely nice guy. He is someone that as a player, you can trust."</div>

SOCCER Man United boss Louis Van Gaal insists he's 'flexible' and not a dicator

Louis van Gaal is adamant he is no dictator -- as Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney described his manager as a nice guy. The 63-year...

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Luis Suarez says he'd only play for Liverpool in a Premier League return

<div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Luis Suarez graced the Anfield turf again on Sunday and vowed that if he ever returned to England, it would only be to play for Liverpool.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The Uruguayan forward was back on his old ground for the first time since his summer move to Barcelona to <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/liverpool/story/2371478/luis-suarez-returns-to-anfield-for-first-time-for-liverpool-charity-game" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">play a part in the Liverpool FC Foundation All-Star charity</a> match between teams picked by Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> He came on as a half-time substitute alongside another ex-Reds hero Fernando Torres, with the two delaying their entrance before being met with huge cheers from those in attendance.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Suarez had an impact too, winning a penalty off Carragher moments after nutmegging him, and Gerrard netted that spot-kick to go with his earlier 12-yard conversion in a game which finished 2-2.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The 28-year-old led the lap of honour with Liverpool's club captain after the match and told LFCTV that were he to return to the Premier League, Anfield would be his only destination.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "You never know in football what the future holds, but if I ever play in England again I will play for the Liverpool team and not another team," he said.</div> <figure style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.25s; background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 44px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: margin 0.25s;"><img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2015/0329/fc_char_dj_1296x729.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.25s; border: 0px; transition: width 0.25s; width: 643px;" width="738" /><figcaption style="border-bottom-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: BentonSans; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 18px; padding: 22px 0px 24px;">Luis Suarez received a rousing ovation from the Liverpool fans upon his return for a charity match at Anfield.</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> It was no surprise to see Suarez receive such adulation from the Reds faithful after a goal-laden three-and-a-half-year spell with the club. While he is forging his own reputation in Barcelona now, he still fondly remembers his spell in England.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "I've missed the fans," added Suarez, who scored the winner in <i>El Clasico</i>against Real Madrid seven days ago.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "The atmosphere is unbelievable, it's amazing. Everyone who's played for Liverpool knows how important the supporters are. They know they are in my heart."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Torres himself may have been more taken aback by the positive reception he received, though, after initially souring his relationship with Liverpool fans when he left for Chelsea in 2011.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> However, any fears he may have had about supporters still holding a grudge were allayed when his name was read out to cheers before the game and the Spaniard's name was chanted by the Kop in the second half.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "It was very emotional, I didn't know how to react," he added on LiverpoolFC.com.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "I wasn't expecting them to sing the song.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "I still remember the great games we had here at Anfield in the Champions League, in the league and fighting for trophies. I have the song in my head, it was so important for me.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "Those three-and-a-half years changed my entire life and career. I remember the song from the Kop in important games. To hear that once again is something I will never, ever forget."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Carragher's team had gone two goals ahead through Mario Balotelli and Chelsea's Didier Drogba before Gerrard, playing on the same ground where he earned his rapid dismissal against Manchester United a week ago, slotted home the two spot-kicks to ensure a draw</div>

SOCCER Luis Suarez says he'd only play for Liverpool in a Premier League return

Luis Suarez graced the Anfield turf again on Sunday and vowed that if he ever returned to England, it would only be to play for Liverpool. ...

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Neymar not planning on Premier League transfer like Alexis Sanchez

<img src="http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i/?img=/photo/2015/0329/fc_brachi5_dj_1296x729.jpg&w=738&site=espnfc" /><br /> <br /> <figure style="-webkit-transition: margin 0.25s; background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 44px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: margin 0.25s;"><figcaption style="border-bottom-color: rgb(241, 241, 241); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; font-family: BentonSans; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 18px; padding: 22px 0px 24px;">Neymar was in action for Brazil against Chile on Sunday.</figcaption></figure><div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Barcelona forward Neymar has said he has no current plans to follow Alexis Sanchez to the Premier League.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Neymar, 23, signed for Barcelona from Santos in 2013 and has formed an impressive understanding with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez up front.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> The forward was in England at Emirates Stadium on Sunday for <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/international-friendly/match/414250/brazil-chile/report" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Brazil's 1-0 win over Sanchez's Chile</a>, and Neymar was asked about the possibility of a move away from La Liga.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3018071/Barcelona-star-Neymar-enjoys-playing-against-big-friend-Alexis-Sanchez-no-intention-moving-Premier-League.html" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Neymar said</a>: "As for playing in England myself, I'm very happy playing for Barcelona and I still have a long road to walk here."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> In June last year, <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/story/1918704/pele-told-santos-striker-neymar-to-turn-back-on-chelsea" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Neymar revealed</a> in his book, "Neymar: My Story," how Pele helped persuade him to turn down a move to Chelsea and stay with Santos.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> And in 2010, then-Brazil coach <a href="http://www.espnfc.us/story/815276/brazil-boss-tells-neymar-to-turn-down-chelsea-chance" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Mano Menezes cautioned</a> Neymar against joining Chelsea, saying the teenager would benefit from continuing his education with Santos.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Sanchez was teammates with Neymar at Camp Nou until he signed for Arsenal last summer.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "Alexis is a big friend," Neymar added, "and someone who I had the privilege of playing with at Barcelona. We used to get along very well on and off the field, so I'm very happy to see him so well at Arsenal."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Sanchez echoed Neymar's sentiments by expressing his admiration for the Brazil international, who has scored 17 La Liga goals for Barca this season.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "Neymar raised everyone's spirits as he is a very joyful person," Sanchez said. "I hope he never changes.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "His happiness is contagious and that's something I really like. Regarding his quality, I cannot come up with something new. Everybody knows how good he is.</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> "He dares to so some stuff with the ball no one would dare to that. That's the beauty of football."</div> <div style="background-color: white; color: #282a2f; font-family: BentonSans, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px; margin-bottom: 36px; margin-top: 36px;"> Meanwhile, French newspaper Le Parisien <a href="http://as.com/diarioas/2015/03/31/english/1427783146_104818.html" style="color: #1eb848; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">reports</a> that Paris Saint-Germain are considering making an approach for Neymar next summer, with a view to replacing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whose contract expires in 2016.</div>

SOCCER Neymar not planning on Premier League transfer like Alexis Sanchez

Neymar was in action for Brazil against Chile on Sunday. Barcelona forward Neymar has said he has no current plans to follow Alexis Sanch...

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Burning questions before the Masters

<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> With Masters week quickly approaching, there are several questions heading into Augusta. Will Tiger return to golf at the Masters? Is Jimmy Walker a contender?</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Our scribes dive into those topics and more in the latest edition of Four-Ball.</div> <h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 1. Should Tiger Woods play the Masters?</h3> <div class="mod-inline image image-right" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; float: right; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 200px;"> <a class="enlarge" credit="Todd Warshaw/Getty Images" href="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0330/tiger_woods_chips_400x600.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #999999; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[+] Enlarge<img alt="Tiger Woods, The Masters, golf" border="0" height="300" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0330/tiger_woods_chips_200x300.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="200" /></a><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 200px;"> <cite style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #ababab; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Todd Warshaw/Getty Images</cite>Aside from Tiger Woods' hurt back, his short game was in disarray in his last appearance in San Diego. Is Augusta the right place for Woods to return to the game?</div> </div> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"SportsCenter" anchor Matt Barrie:</strong> Yes. Yes. And Yes. Also, yes. Tiger Woods should play at the Masters. By the time players drive up Magnolia Lane, it will have been eight weeks since Tiger took his leave of absence to get healthy and improve his game. It's time.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"SportsCenter" anchor Jonathan Coachman:</strong> I am always going to say Tiger should play in the Masters. Finishing in the top five in 2010 with no previous tournaments makes me still a believer. We only have so many Tiger-included Masters left. I don't want 2015 to be minus the world's most famous player. However, if Tiger still has the yips, then I don't think it serves anyone's best interest to have Tiger at Augusta. Here's to hoping his impeccable short game is back.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ESPN.com senior golf analyst Michael Collins:</strong> No way Tiger should play in the Masters this year. It's one thing to be tournament-ready, and he did say he wouldn't come back until he feels that way. It's a whole other thing to be ready to compete at a major championship. While people will say, "but he came back at the Masters once before and finished well." True, but that was with a yip-free short game.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ESPN.com senior golf writer Bob Harig:</strong> Assuming he is healthy, yes. Woods needs to return somewhere, and perhaps Augusta National is the place that spurs some good vibes. He can certainly use them at this point. There is danger, too, in returning at the Masters. The course is far from an easy venue to do so. And if his chipping woes linger, trying to execute shots off the tight lies of Augusta will not help. But there's only so long you can practice at home and play golf with your buddies. Woods might very well have needed such a break, but, if his body is willing, it's time to get back to competing.</div> <h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2. True or false: Jimmy Walker will contend at Augusta National?</h3> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barrie:</strong> Yes. If not for Jimmy Walker's third-round 76 at last year's Masters, he would've been at the top of the leaderboard with Bubba Watson. As it was, Walker tied for eighth. He's started two seasons in a row in impressive fashion. What that does is build confidence in his game. And you need all of the confidence you can get, heading into Augusta National. The problems for Walker are Bubba, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Henrik Stenson -- four players who will be a factor at the Masters for the next decade. Finding a way to fit in will be challenge.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Coachman:</strong> Jimmy Walker has become a legit contender and closer. I am absolutely putting him on my short list of contenders. He hits it straight, makes putts and wants to win. It took Jimmy a long time to start winning. I believe it was for a reason. And now he is making up for lost time. Walker isn't fazed by much. He won't be fazed by contending at Augusta.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Collins:</strong> True. Walker may be the best example ever of a late bloomer, but, boy, has he blossomed. A lot of that can be attributed to the work he has done with Butch Harmon since August of 2012. The 36-year-old is plenty long enough off the tee for Augusta and can work the ball from right to left. The question is if the putter will stay hot enough to win.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div class="mod-container mod-no-footer mod-inline content-box floatright mod-no-header-footer " style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; float: right !important; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.6200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 261.890625px;"> <div class="mod-content" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(194, 194, 194); font-size: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <h4 style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 7px; outline: 0px; padding: 2px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> Follow @ESPNGolf</h4> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Stay up-to-date with the latest news, stories and analysis from around golf.<b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNGolf" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="new">Follow @ESPNGolf on Twitter</a></b></div> <table style="background: transparent; border-spacing: 1px; border: 0px; clear: both; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px 7px 7px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 240px;"></table> </div> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harig:</strong> True. Walker has just a single Masters result to gauge, and it was a good one. In his first appearance at Augusta National last year, he finished tied for eighth, 8 strokes behind winner Bubba Watson. And that was with a third-round 76. He has to be going there now with a ton more confidence. He's added two victories since his first Masters appearance, not to mention a strong showing at the Ryder Cup. And he appears to be peaking at the right time.</div> <h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 3. What took so long for a PGA Tour player to win twice so far this season?</h3> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barrie:</strong> The parity right now in golf has never been better. There are so many world-class players, winning just one tournament has never been harder. It's a scary thought that Rory has yet to win on the PGA Tour this year. Tiger has been out. Phil Mickelson is finding his game. Adam Scott is adjusting with a new putter. If and when those players find their form, winning will be even more difficult. It's a fun time to watch tournaments. You never know who is going to rise to the top.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Coachman:</strong> Parity is a crazy thing. This is not Kentucky or Duke or Michigan State. It is very very hard to win and win a lot. You are trying to beat 143 other players every week. You have to put four good rounds together in a row. Instead, I look at consecutive years with a win. I think that is the new gold standard. And if you look at that list, it is pretty impressive. Look at Phil Mickelson. He hasn't won since July of 2013. He is a Hall of Famer. Winning is hard.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Collins:</strong> Parity. It's amazing for the sport that the level of golf from top to bottom may be the best in the history of the professional game. Granted, that's for the hard-core golf fans. The downside is -- just like when Norman, Faldo, Seve and Nick Price all took turns as world No. 1 -- getting new eyes to focus on the game is a gargantuan task. Golf needs a dominant force to get mainstream sports fans to watch golf.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harig:</strong> You can call it a fluke, perhaps. Before Walker won on Sunday, there were several players who had a chance to win multiple events, including Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson, both of whom have won tournaments and lost in playoffs. And we've had three players this season -- Ryan Moore, Walker and Matt Every -- defend titles from the previous year. But this is really more about the lack of a truly dominant player on the PGA Tour and the enormous depth.</div> <h3 style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 4. The Shell Houston Open ... good tournament to warm up for the year's first major?</h3> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Barrie:</strong> It is what it is: a tournament for players who want swings going into the Masters. I had Bubba Watson on "SportsCenter" last week, and he told me his plan was to "sneak off to Augusta and get in a couple rounds." Most of the top players in the world go this route. But for those who want tournament-type pressure, and a little confidence builder, the Shell Houston Open is a nice tuneup.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Coachman:</strong> I always enjoy the Shell Houston Open. If I were a player, I would not miss this event. I would not worry about fatigue or wearing out. Getting into intense tourney mode prior to getting to Augusta is paramount. They also try to set up the tournament as close to Augusta as possible. That is good enough for me. Game on.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Collins:</strong> 75 percent yes, 25 percent no. Yes, because if you didn't play San Antonio, having an event set up to semi-mimic Augusta conditions is always a good thing, especially when it comes to the short game. Chipping from tight lies in tournament conditions can never hurt. No, because this time of year thunderstorms pop up regularly, so getting into a good rhythm during a round is hard or, even worse, having to play up to 36 holes in a day in wet conditions is not what's needed to prep for the exhaustion major weeks bring.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Harig:</strong> It certainly has become that, and you can just look at the field to see a strong number of players who play in Houston the week prior to the Masters. Nobody will ever confuse the course with Augusta National, but tournament organizers have done their best to mimic conditions by widening the fairways, cutting down the rough and tightly mowing the grass around the greens. For those who like to compete in a tournament the week prior to playing in a major championship -- and that is the main reason here -- Houston has become a very good place to do so.</div>

GOLF Burning questions before the Masters

With Masters week quickly approaching, there are several questions heading into Augusta. Will Tiger return to golf at the Masters? Is Jimmy...

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Shane Ray's way out

<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SO HERE COMES</b> the son of a Missouri football legend, in size 52 husky pants. You cannot take your eyes off of him, not because of his speed or agility but because he can't keep those damn pants up over his rear end. He doesn't run so much as he waddles. He is awkward, unsure of himself -- abandonment issues, his mother says -- and, if there are 22 boys on this football field, he'd probably be picked 21st.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But it is the fall of 2006, the year before her son starts high school, and Sebrina Johnson is desperate. She knows this has to work. Her only child's idol is an older cousin who has taken up with the wrong crowd, and, in a few months, will be murdered in a botched robbery attempt. Sebrina will be the one who identifies the body of that cousin, Justen Johnson, and will make the funeral arrangements.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Football might not look as if it will weigh too prominently in Shane Ray's future at this particular moment -- he'd already quit the sport once, in fifth grade -- but it's the best lifeline Sebrina can come up with. She can feel him slipping away, closer to the streets. She takes the doughy eighth-grader to a park where the 39th Street Giants are playing. The area is known for being sketchy, but it feels safe. She is greeted by a man named Tom Shortell, dentist by day, football coach by night.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> In a moment that would change Shane Ray's life, Shortell sizes up the kid and asks him, "Son, do you want to play football?"</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Yeah, I guess," Shane says.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></b></div> <div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <br /> <div class="mod-inline image full" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; orphans: auto; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 1px 6px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 1; width: 582px; word-spacing: 0px;"> <img alt="Sane Ray " border="0" height="324" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0327/espn_a_shaneray_mem_576x324.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="576" /><cite style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #ababab; display: block; font-size: 10px !important; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thom McCallum</cite>"I know if there wasn't football ... I could be dead," Shane says.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">MOST FOOTBALL FANS</b> would say that Shane Ray's life-changing moment hasn't happened yet. It will come late next month, when the consensus All-America defensive end from Missouri is selected in the NFL draft, possibly as one of the first 10 names called on the Auditorium Theatre stage in downtown Chicago.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> After sleeping on floors and living in a ZIP code known as Kansas City's murder factory, Shane will not want for a comfortable bed in a safe neighborhood. He will make millions of dollars from an NFL team salivating for his first-step explosiveness, his strength and his versatility.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sebrina will weep when his name is called. Shane will hold up an NFL jersey and be whisked to a new city and life. But it will not be his defining moment. He has had too many of those already.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Everybody's like, 'Will he go first?'" Sebrina says. "That's great, but who that guy is and what kind of a man he is ... that's the biggest win ever. He's going to make somebody a good husband. He's going to impact so many lives beyond this platform.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div class="mod-container mod-no-footer mod-inline content-box floatright mod-no-header-footer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; float: right !important; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.6200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 261.890625px;"> <div class="mod-content" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(194, 194, 194); font-size: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <h4 style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 7px; outline: 0px; padding: 2px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> More From SC Featured</h4> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Prospect:</b> <a href="http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12556547" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How Shane Ray beat all the odds</a></div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Her Voice:</b> <a href="http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12561555" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Imani McGee-Stafford's slam poetry</a></div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Pope's Team:</b> <a href="http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12525872" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A cricket match 500 years in the making</a></div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "That's my biggest accomplishment."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> For at least half of her life, Sebrina says, she didn't know a good man. She knew smooth-talking men with beautiful faces and large muscles. She knew the kind of men whose lives were preordained for trouble.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But a good man? She wasn't even sure one existed.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> She'd first encountered Shane's father, Wendell Ray, at a Bally's gym in Kansas City. He was the biggest man she'd met in her life. She'd never seen anyone so handsome. It wasn't until after they started going out that she learned who Wendell once was, star defensive lineman at the University of Missouri, drafted by the <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/min/minnesota-vikings" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #225fb2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Minnesota Vikings</a>in 1981 before injuries derailed his career.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Everything with Sebrina and Wendell moved fast. About seven months after they met, she was pregnant. Right around the time she was due, in the spring of 1993, she knew that their relationship was over and that Shane would be her responsibility alone.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He weighed 10 pounds at birth. He arrived several weeks late, tangled in the umbilical cord, and had to be removed by cesarean section. Wracked with pain and hopped up on morphine, she didn't see him until a day or two after the delivery. When she held him, the baby stared at her.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sebrina promised him the best life ever.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> She insisted on giving him a name that was nonspecific racially: Shane Michael Ray. Sebrina's mother, Louise, balked about it, convinced her grandson was going to get beat up regularly because it sounded like a white boy's name.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sebrina told her mom that was OK. "When he puts his name on an application," she said, "he'll get an interview."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Being an African-American male, Sebrina says, is difficult. Especially without a father. So she did proactive things to make sure he had an opportunity. He was not allowed to use slang. "Hell, no," she says.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sebrina lugged the kid around while she pursued her college degree, exposing him to books and deep thoughts and expanded vocabularies. But no matter what she did, Shane still yearned for his father.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sebrina eventually married a man named Emanuel McCrainey when Ray was around 6. McCrainey and Sebrina opened a Cajun restaurant called The Red Vine in Kansas City's jazz district. Sebrina made sweet-potato cheesecake; McCrainey coached Shane's youth football team. They were a family.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But then the marriage collapsed, the restaurant closed, and Sebrina and Shane, who was about 10 at the time, were on their own again. Sebrina had an information technology job before she got into the restaurant business, but that was gone, and she scrambled to find work.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> They were thrown back into the inner city, back to the murder factory. Their street was constantly in the news. A small sampling of what Shane saw: a woman busting open a man's head with a baseball bat; a dead body lying in the street.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> As times got tougher, Shane's outer shell became harder. One of the most important males in his life at the time was his cousin Justen, who was eight years older and had survived another shooting years before his eventual death in 2007. Shane always wanted to tag along with Justen. And the longer he was around that life, the more it seemed palatable. Sebrina knew she was losing him.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "Sometimes even parents out here lose hope," Shane says, looking back. "You have no outlet. You're stuck in this, and that's what they continue to feel. They're stuck in it forever. What's the point? Everyone else is on the corner selling drugs; everyone else is toting guns.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "When I think about my situation, I just always remember, whenever I would stick my head in the pond, someone was pulling me out."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div class="mod-inline image full" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 1px 6px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 582px;"> <img alt="Shane Ray" border="0" height="324" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0327/espn_a_shaneray_576x324.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="576" /><cite style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #ababab; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">AP Photo/Brynn Anderson</cite>Shane evolved into one of the best defensive ends in the Kansas City area, which earned him a scholarship to Mizzou.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">THE CONCORD FORTRESS OF HOPE CHURCH</b> is one of the many places Sebrina would pray for her son. J.J. Smith, a former running back for the <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/kc/kansas-city-chiefs" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #225fb2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Kansas City Chiefs</a>, also attended the church, and he became someone Sebrina could turn to for advice. Smith urged her to see Tom Shortell, the coach of the 39th Street Giants.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The park was chaotic the day Sebrina and Shane arrived, with adolescents running around and paperwork flying about. Sebrina asked Shortell whether he needed some help. Of course he did. She grabbed a clipboard and became the team mom, driving kids around, handling details.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> People around the program at the time of Shane's debut with the Giants paint a similar and rather unflattering picture of the future SEC Defensive Player of the Year. Shortell says he was shaped like a toad.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> About the only place Shane moved quickly, apparently, was in front of a refrigerator. His cousin Ronnie Johnson says Shane would often go to a relative's house and polish off leftovers meant for a family of four. Maybe the food comforted him, Sebrina says.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But when Shane was on the field, he tried so hard. He'd go against anybody, get his butt kicked and come back for more.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Playing for the Giants did something else for Shane. He was surrounded by positive male figures. Shortell, who is white, has four boys, two of whom played with Shane for the Giants.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> They immediately became like his brothers. He'd spend weekends at the Shortells' home, and the boys would wrestle and roughhouse. Shane was so polite that Shortell got to calling the kid the "New Eddie Haskell," a knockoff of the brown-nosing character from the old TV show "Leave It to Beaver."</div> <div class="mod-inline image image-right" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-left-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-left-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; float: right; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"> <a class="enlarge" credit="Thom McCallum" href="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0327/espn_shaneray3_600x400.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #999999; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[+] Enlarge<img alt="Shane Ray in and around his hometown" border="0" height="200" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0327/espn_shaneray3_300x200.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 4px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="300" /></a><div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"> <cite style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #ababab; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thom McCallum</cite>Playing for the 39th Street Giants allowed Shane to be surrounded by positive male role models.</div> </div> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> They ate hamburgers and hot dogs together, and Shane's weekends with the Irish-Catholic sports-crazed family flew by. Shortell says he didn't make a point of trying to help Shane. It just seemed natural. So when it was time for high school for Shane, Shortell suggested that Sebrina send him to Bishop Miege, a private Catholic school just over the state line in Roeland Park, Kansas. There, he told her, Shane would have structure. He'd follow a dress code and get hounded about his grades, and he'd play for Tim Grunhard, a former Kansas City Chiefs lineman.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> There was only one problem. Bishop Miege cost nearly $10,000 a year. Sebrina worked and made sacrifices to send him there. But freshman year, Shane rebelled against the school's strict rules. He was constantly in detention, late for football practice and challenging the school's dress code.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shane was going through a lot at the time. Not only had he lost Justen, but his aunt Carmelita had died of colon cancer a few months later.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Carmelita was one of Shane's biggest supporters. She collected his football jerseys. To get an idea of how close-knit the Johnson family is, everything revolves around Louise Johnson's house. She's the matriarch, mother of Sebrina and Carmelita, grandma to Shane. The cousins would play football in a patchy lot beside her house; the adults would always lean on Louise. Carmelita spent her final days in Louise's house, ultimately dying in her bed. For years, Louise refused to replace the bed.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shane was a concern for much of the family, but nobody thought he was a bad kid. He was acting out, Shortell says, because he needed help.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div class="mod-container mod-no-footer mod-inline content-box floatright mod-no-header-footer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; float: right !important; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.6200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 261.890625px;"> <div class="mod-content" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(194, 194, 194); font-size: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <h4 style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 7px; outline: 0px; padding: 2px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2015 NFL DRAFT</h4> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img alt="NFL Draft" class="floatright" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2009/0823/nfl_e_draft_65.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: right !important; margin: 0px 0px 4px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Round 1:</b> April 30, 8 p.m. ET<br /><b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rds. 2-3:</b> May 1, 7 p.m. ET<br /><b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rds. 4-7:</b> May 2, noon ET<br /><b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Where:</b> Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, Chicago<br /><br /><b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/draft" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">NFL draft home page</a></b></div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> • <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/165130/2015-nfl-draft-order-2" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">2015 NFL draft order</a><br />• <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/mock/?season=2015&version=3&source=Mel-Kiper-Mock-Draft" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mel Kiper Jr.: Mock 3.0</a> <img align="absmiddle" src="http://a.espncdn.com/icons/in.gif" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />• <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/mock/?season=2015&version=4&source=Todd-McShay-Mock-Draft" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Todd McShay: Mock 4.0</a> <img align="absmiddle" src="http://a.espncdn.com/icons/in.gif" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />• <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/mock/?season=2015&version=14&source=Todd-McShay-Top-32" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Todd McShay's Top 32</a> <img align="absmiddle" src="http://a.espncdn.com/icons/in.gif" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />• <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/mock/?season=2015&version=16&sourceId=2" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mel Kiper Jr.'s Big Board</a> <img align="absmiddle" src="http://a.espncdn.com/icons/in.gif" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />• <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft2015/story/_/id/12331333/mel-kiper-top-10-ranking-prospects-every-position-nfl-draft-2015" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Top 10 prospects by position</a> <img align="absmiddle" src="http://a.espncdn.com/icons/in.gif" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /><br />• <a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft/rankings?year=2015" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">NFL draft player rankings</a> <img align="absmiddle" src="http://a.espncdn.com/icons/in.gif" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> After all the troubles his freshman year, Shane wanted out of Miege. Sebrina was on the verge of pulling him when Grunhard encouraged her to give it another year to see whether he could work things out. His sophomore season, Shane was injured during a game, hit in the head/neck area. As he lay on the turf, he couldn't move, and he had to be carried off on a stretcher. It turned out to be a bad stinger, but Grunhard could see the look of fear in his eyes. For about 30 minutes, Shane thought everything might be over for him.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "He was given a second chance to kind of wake up and do it the right way," Grunhard says. "I think at that point he decided to make a change in his lifestyle."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> By that time, Shane was starting to look the part of a serious football player. He had spent the summer before his sophomore year visiting relatives in New Orleans and mowed lawns from morning until night in the Louisiana heat. By the time he got back to Kansas City, he was hardly recognizable. He was no longer chubby, and he had experienced a significant growth spurt.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shane committed himself to football, and slowly evolved into one of the best defensive ends in the Kansas City area. He led Bishop Miege to the state championship his junior season.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The University of Missouri, his father's old school, offered him a scholarship. When Grunhard found out that coach Gary Pinkel was going to extend the offer, he called Sebrina. He knew how important this was to her.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Grunhard had her hide in the hallway outside his office while Shane took the call from Pinkel. When the coach delivered the news, Shane's face lit up. Grunhard could tell he wanted to call his mom when he hung up. Then Sebrina walked into the room. Mother and son cried and hugged. In their minds, they had made it.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "She's very tough," Grunhard says. "She had to be the dad. She had to be the disciplinarian. But the biggest compliment I can give her is this: She was one hell of a mother."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shane went to Missouri, endured more growing pains and attitude adjustments, and after redshirting in 2011, he backed up <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/16773/kony-ealy" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #225fb2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Kony Ealy</a> and Michael Sam before becoming a starter as a junior. Before games, Sebrina would send him the same text. "Be great," the texts would say. "Be as great as God intended you to be."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> His junior year, he recorded 14.5 sacks, breaking the Mizzou single-season record held by Sam and <a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/13988/aldon-smith" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #225fb2; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Aldon Smith</a>.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sebrina was a regular in the stands at Missouri. And so was Shane's father.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Wendell, who was cited for nonpayment of child support, insists he's always had a relationship with his son. That's why he made the 125-mile trips from his home in St. Louis to Columbia to watch his son's games. When he sees Shane play, it reminds him of himself.</div> <div class="mod-container mod-no-footer mod-inline content-box floatright mod-no-header-footer" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; clear: both; float: right !important; font-family: verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.6200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 261.890625px;"> <div class="mod-content" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(194, 194, 194); font-size: 11px; margin: 0px 0px 6px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <h4 style="background: transparent; border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 7px; outline: 0px; padding: 2px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"> More from ESPN.com</h4> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img border="0" class="floatright" src="http://a.espncdn.com/i/columnists/chadiha_jeff_m.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: right !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Shane Ray drew interest from the Steelers and other teams with his speed and dexterity at Missouri's pro day, writes Jeffri Chadiha.<b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/164691/pass-rusher-shane-ray-shows-off-speed-moves-at-mizzou-pro-day" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Story</a></b></div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <center style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <hr style="background: rgb(221, 221, 221); border: 0px; clear: both; color: #dddddd; float: none; height: 0.1em; margin: 0px 0px 1.45em; width: 127.9375px;" /> </center> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <img border="0" class="floatright" src="http://a.espncdn.com/i/columnists/mcshay_todd_m.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: right !important; margin: 0px 0px 10px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" />Todd McShay updates his rankings of the top players at every position ahead of the 2015 NFL draft. <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/draft2015/story/_/id/12551725/ranking-top-prospects-every-position-2015-nfl-draft" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Story</a></b><img alt="Insider" border="0" height="11" src="http://assets.espn.go.com/icons/in.gif" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="11" /></div> <div style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 17px; margin: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <center style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <hr style="background: rgb(221, 221, 221); border: 0px; clear: both; color: #dddddd; float: none; height: 0.1em; margin: 0px 0px 1.45em; width: 127.9375px;" /> </center> <ul class="bulletlinks" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; clear: both; font-size: 10px; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 6px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <li style="background: url(http://a1.espncdn.com/prod/assets/bullet-retina.png) 0px 5px / 5px 6px no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #555555; line-height: 13px; list-style-image: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px 9px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://espn.go.com/nfl/draft" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Complete coverage: 2015 NFL draft</a></b></li> <li style="background: url(http://a1.espncdn.com/prod/assets/bullet-retina.png) 0px 5px / 5px 6px no-repeat; border: 0px; color: #555555; line-height: 13px; list-style-image: none; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px 9px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/tag/_/name/2015-pro-day-workouts" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: rgb(96, 143, 214) !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">NFL Nation: Analysis of pro day workouts</a></b></li> </ul> </div> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> At Shane's pro day recently, Wendell wore a T-shirt that said "The Original Shane Ray." When Sebrina and her mother, Louise, saw the shirt, they became upset. They asked him to take the shirt off or cover it up because they believed it was taking away from Shane's day. Wendell eventually put on his jacket.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He scoffs at the notion that he wore the shirt to draw attention to himself. He says he was an "icon" at Missouri and wore the shirt because he's proud to be Shane's dad.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "I don't want to sound arrogant," Wendell says, "but when Shane was born, here I am, 6-foot-5, 240 pounds, with my physical build and everything ... I expected him to be an athlete. "Sebrina has males on her side of the family. None of them are athletic at all. None of them played hopscotch. He got that athleticism from the Ray family. Right here from this family."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> When Wendell's football career ended, it launched him into a depression. He couldn't even watch the game on TV for a couple of years.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But he loves watching Shane. Last year, after an early-season game, Wendell found Shortell near the locker room and extended his hand. He thanked the coach for spending time with his son and helping him out.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shortell understands why, despite feeling abandoned for two decades, Shane would want to get to know his father. Life is too short, he says, and the bitterness would only eat Shane up inside.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Wendell says that he tried to be in his son's life when he was younger but that it's complicated. He says Sebrina didn't want him around their son. He relays a story about waiting in a Kansas City hotel to pick up Shane, but nobody in the house answered the phone. At the drop of a hat, Sebrina can rattle off the times Wendell wasn't there, and how it devastated their son. His signing day for Missouri. His high school games. The times when Shane was spiraling out of control.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Wendell grew up in north St. Louis, a rough area he says is nicknamed "The Belly of the Beast." He says it would make Shane's old neighborhood look nice. Although he concedes that Sebrina did a good job bringing up Shane, he insists he would've been there more if Sebrina had let him.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "He can't say I kept him from him," Sebrina says, "because that was never the case."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Wendell says he isn't interested in Shane's money or fame. He just wants to see him and enjoy him.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div class="mod-inline image full" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 194, 194); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 1px 6px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 582px;"> <img alt="Shane Ray" border="0" height="324" src="http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2015/0327/espn_g_shaneray_mizzou_576x324.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="576" /><cite style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #ababab; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jamie Squire/Getty Images</cite>Today Shane wants to be sure the other boys in his family get the same support he had in high school and at Mizzou.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">IT'S A COLD TUESDAY</b> in Missouri, and Shane Ray is at his mom's house in Raytown, getting a haircut. Ray is debating the nutritional virtues of Chipotle vs. McDonald's with his cousin Ronnie, who has taken a liking to a vegan diet.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ronnie is four years older than Shane, who lived with Ronnie's family during some of the tough times, when Sebrina was just divorced and looking for work. Ronnie, like Shane, battled weight problems as a kid. But there was an advantage to that; they were about the same size. They shared a pair of Sean John jeans one school year. Ronnie would wear them one week, Shane the next.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ronnie, who's going to the University of Missouri-Kansas City, plans to live with his cousin once Shane gets drafted. He's ready to transfer to another school and finish his degree in communications, ready to try something new. He also wants to look out for his cousin as he navigates his rookie season in the NFL.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Whenever Shane's in town, Ronnie wants to go out, but Sebrina usually nixes their plans. One night recently, they hung out, and Sebrina woke up in the middle of the night and didn't see Shane's car in the driveway. She called Ronnie, Ronnie's dad and Shane. Turns out, Shane was home. She just didn't see his car.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "I will tell you this," Ronnie says. "His mother has always been very protective. I'm like, 'Auntie, you can't live like that. Anything can happen to anybody.'"</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Sebrina knows this. She just doesn't want it happening to her son. When he's home, near the murder factory, near the place her nephew died, it's instinct that makes her pull him in tighter, even though he's a grown man.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Before Justen was shot, he had a son. Shane saw the path his cousin's life was taking, and, although he wasn't even a teenager yet, he made big Justen a promise: If anything happened to him, Shane would take care of little Justen.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> A few months ago, Shane was in town when he found out little Justen, 8, had gotten himself in trouble. He found out Justen had stolen some candy from a dollar store. He took the boy into a bedroom at Shane's grandmother's house.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shane told Justen he wasn't going to tolerate stealing. He said he'd be checking on him weekly and would call his teachers if he had to. When Shane left, the little boy was crying. He said he wasn't going to get in any more trouble.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Shane wants to make sure that someone's always there pushing little Justen to be better, even though his dad is gone.</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> "I know if there wasn't football ... I could be dead," Shane says. "I could be in jail; I could be in the streets. I could have nothing."</div> <div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ronnie Johnson was there for the toughest times, but he isn't sure that's true. There's no way Shane could've fallen. He had too many people waiting to catch him.</div>

NFL Shane Ray's way out

SO HERE COMES  the son of a Missouri football legend, in size 52 husky pants. You cannot take your eyes off of him, not because of his spee...

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