June. The NBA also sold T-shirts for LGBTQ Pride Month, wit

HOUSTON -- The Houston Cougars quite enjoyed playing spoiler on Thursday night with their playoff hopes long since gone.Duke Catalon scored three touchdowns and Houston hurried and harassed Heisman favorite Lamar Jackson all night to propel the Cougars to a stunning 36-10 victory over No. 3 Louisville that dashed the Cardinals playoff chances.I think our guys, they embrace the underdog role, Houston coach Tom Herman said. When were healthy, when were fresh and we have that chip on our shoulder against big time opponents ... we dont change the way we prepare for these kind of games, but I do think our guys have an added motivation.Louisville (9-2) entered the game ranked fifth in the College Football Playoff rankings, but was outdone by a Houston team that saw its own playoff hopes foiled by two losses to unranked teams after a 5-0 start .Showing the world once again that Houston is the greatest school, a great place to be, a great environment, Houston defensive tackle Ed Oliver said. We work hard for everything that we ever had and will have. Were legit. Were go-getters. No matter the task, we always come through the other side.The victory was Houstons second this season over a team ranked third after the Cougars (9-2) knocked off Oklahoma to open the season and it was their fourth straight win over a top-10 team.Things went wrong quickly for the mistake-prone Cardinals when they fumbled awau the opening kickoff. Greg Ward threw his first touchdown pass on the next play to make it 7-0. Brandon Radcliff lost a fumble later in the first and Houston added a field goal on the ensuing drive to make it 10-0.Jackson threw for 211 yards and a touchdown, but it didnt come until the second half.That was a heck of a football team in Louisville and a heck of a player in Lamar Jackson, Herman said. Still in my opinion, nothings changed. Thats the best player in college football, and our defense did a good job of putting pressure on him.Houston then scored touchdowns on three straight possessions in the second quarter to push the lead to 31-0 at halftime. Catalon caught a touchdown pass, ran for another score and Houston got the third score in that span on a 50-yard pass by receiver Linell Bonner after a lateral.Louisville opened the second half with a 12-yard touchdown pass by Jackson, but he fumbled in the red zone on the next possession to ruin a chance to close the gap.The Cougars were in Jacksons face constantly, sacking him a season-high 11 times and keeping him from hurting them with his feet. He ran for a season-low 33 yards after piling up 338 yards rushing combined in the last two games. The 11 sacks were tied for the most allowed in the country this season.Honestly, we try to do this every week, linebacker Steven Taylor said. It just felt good for us to accomplish this and show the world that were capable of coming out and being aggressive and doing good at that.After Jackson was sacked for the 10th time he threw up his hands and two of his lineman looked to be yelling at each other about who was to blame for his latest takedown.It was so loud, you couldnt hear words, Oliver said. But you could see he was yelling at his o-lineman, but you couldnt hear what he was saying. Im guessing he was yelling at them for false starts.But the Cougars werent done getting after him just yet. On the next possession he threw the ball away while under heavy pressure from Tyus Bowser and was flagged for intentional grounding, giving the Cougars a safety.The Cardinals set a season-high with 15 penalties, punted a season-high six times by halftime and the 11 sacks they allowed were more than double their previous season-high. Its the fewest points theyve scored since a loss at North Carolina in 2011.Ward threw for 233 yards and two touchdowns to help the Cougars to the victory that left Cougar fans storming the field to celebrate.---For more college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 Julian Weigl Dortmund Jersey . Paul Pierce couldnt believe he missed at the end. Young scored a season-high 26 points to spark a huge effort from the leagues most productive bench, and Los Angeles beat the Brooklyn Nets 99-94 on Wednesday night after blowing a 27-point lead. Marco Reus Dortmund Jersey . I cant pinpoint a date, but I do remember a player from my youth. Brian Downing was with the Chicago White Sox at a time when I listened to every game I possibly could on the radio. That particular season the late great Harry Caray was calling the White Sox games. http://www.footballdortmundpro.com/Kids-Dan-Axel-Zagadou-Jersey/ .J. Ellis hit two-run homers and the NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 4-0 Saturday night. Shinji Kagawa Jersey . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. Abdou Diallo Dortmund Jersey . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. The NBA announced Thursday evening that the league has opted to move the NBA All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina, in response to ongoing criticism of North Carolinas HB2, a controversial law that most notably requires that people use bathrooms in publicly funded spaces that reflect the gender associated with the biological sex on their birth certificates.The decision has been lauded by LGBTQ advocates as a progressive step by the NBA, especially when organizations such as the NFL and NCAA each had similar opportunities to send messages through moving events, but opted not to.The NBA has exercised strong leadership when it comes to their values of diversity and inclusion, particularly for LGBTQ people, said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Charlotte based LGBTQ advocacy organization Campus Pride, in a phone interview. The NBA gave fair warning that if North Carolina did not repeal the law, they would not bring their business. They gave them time to do it, and the responsibility really lies at the feet of the legislature.HB2 has come under fire specifically due to its aggressive stance towards discriminating toward transgender individuals, something that North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory still refutes.The sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media have for months misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present, McCrory said in a statement.However, his statement demonstrates his lack of fundamental understanding about trans people. The continuing attacks on transgender identity, particularly trans women, are rooted in an irrational fear that men will dress as women to gain access to female spaces in the name of transgender inclusion. Not only is there no documented case of that happening anywhere in the country, but his misunderstanding of transgender identity opens up all gender non-conforming people to discrimination. The NBAs announcement is a direct condemnation of the climate created by this law, and a tacit tip of the cap to the transgender community -- something not unnoticed by trans athletes.A lot of organizations say that they value diversity and inclusion, but the NBA has taken a very impactful stance, Chris Mosier, transgender athlete and executive director of GO! Athletes, said via text message. Other organizations should consider following in the NBAs footsteps to protect their athletes and fans. Most notably, I think the NCAA should take a hard look at the future of championship games and events held in the state.Where the NBA decides to put the 2017 All-Star Game, however, is just as important as the decision to remove it from North Carolina. The requirement for being relatively LGBTQ friendly is messy and clearly hasnt been a historical consideration. The NBA has established a far from simple precedent: what is the threshold for discrimination that bars a city from hosting the All-Star Game?Since 2003, the NBA All-Star Game has been held in nine states and one Canadian province. Eight of these states -- Georgia (2003), Colorado (2005), Texas (2006, 2010, 2013), Nevada (2007), Louisianaa (2008, 2014), Arizona (2009), Florida (2012) and New York (2015) -- did not have statewide protections on the basis of gender identity and expression.dddddddddddd And of the cities that played host, only Los Angeles, Denver and New Orleans had local protections for trans people.As the news of this impending announcement from the NBA has been brewing, reports from ESPN and The Vertical indicate that New Orleans is a frontrunner to receive the game. While North Carolina is certainly unfriendly, Louisiana is not exactly a beacon of LGBTQ equality.Even though anti-sodomy laws -- which criminalized sexual activity between same-sex partners -- were declared unconstitutional in 2003 by the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, Louisiana not only continues to have the statute on the books, but voted overwhelmingly in favor of keeping it there in 2014. Although New Orleans has an LGBTQ anti-discrimination ordinance, Louisiana lacks protections for LGBTQ individuals through statewide legislation. Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards enacted LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections through executive order in April, but those only apply to state contractors.Chicago and New York/Brooklyn have also been named as possibilities, and both Illinois and New York have anti-discrimination statutes that are inclusive of transgender people.The NBA reserves the right to change its mind, and the particular case of the anti-trans aggression within HB2 seemed to be the breaking point of the league. Even with this grandiose move, relocating the All-Star Game still rings a bit hollow when considering the fact that the NBA could do more.Another option for the NBA is to recognize that North Carolina needs help, Windmeyer said. If anything, the NBA could think about how could we help North Carolina get the education and visibility through organizations like Campus Pride and other local and statewide organizations that are living and breathing here?Giving credit where credit is due, the NBA and WNBA are the only two professional leagues to march in a Pride parade as they did in New York in June. The NBA also sold T-shirts for LGBTQ Pride Month, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The WNBA is the only professional sports league, men or women, with a league-wide LGBTQ Pride initiative, which began in 2014.More, however, still needs to be done. The NBA could require LGBTQ education for all of its coaches, clear down to its youth leagues. The league could also encourage stadiums to include gender-inclusive restrooms with arena renovations. Additionally, the league could enact a transgender inclusive policy for its youth leagues, and push for legislation within states that could make passing these discriminatory provisions more difficult.Moving the All-Star Game is a great step, and hopefully its a sign of things to come from the league. They should be applauded for taking a stand, but frankly it was politically expedient for them to do so. When the league moves beyond the symbolism and into the realm of actionable change, that will be a day to truly celebrate. ' ' '