Florida State QB JAMEIS WINSTON announced he will forgo his final two years of eligibility to enter the NFL Draft, and he has hired The Legacy Agency for representation in both on- and off-field work. TLA President of Baseball & Exec Dir GREG GENSKE and agent KENNY FELDER will represent Winston. Genske and Felder are both MLB player agents who were certified by the NFLPA last year to represent NFL players in contract work. Winston, the '13 Heisman Trophy winner, currently is projected as a top 10 pick (Liz Mullen, Staff Writer).
RING SHOPPING: Of the roughly $11M raised to fund phase one of Boston's bid to host the '24 Summer Olympics, it took $6.7M in cash "to pull together the proposal." Sources said that the "largest slice of that sum came from several executives at Bain Capital: $650,000," or nearly 10%. Celtics co-Owner & Managing General Partner STEPHEN PAGLIUCA, who also serves as Bain Capital Managing Dir, "is one of the donors." He also "co-chairs the fund-raising and finance committee of the Boston 2024 bid organization." MassMutual Financial Group Chair, President & CEO ROGER CRANDALL is also a donor and "co-chair of the fund-raising committee." Boston-based donors include private equity firm Advent Int'l Managing Partner & Exec Committee co-Chair DAVID MUSSAFER and Putnam Investments President & CEO ROBERT REYNOLDS. Boston Olympic Committee Chair and Suffolk Construction Co. Chair & CEO JOHN FISH also donated, while the rest of the $11M "was in-kind donations" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/8).
NAMES: The L.A. Sports Council named Angels CF MIKE TROUT and Dodgers P CLAYTON KERSHAW its '14 Sportsmen of the Year. The two players will be honored at the 10th Annual L.A. Sports Awards on March 15 at The Beverly Hilton Hotel (LASC)....BARBARA NICKLAUS, the wife of Golf HOFer JACK NICKLAUS, is the recipient of the USGA's ’15 Bob Jones Award (USGA)....Boston-based publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt yesterday announced that “PEDRO,” a memoir written by the Boston Herald’s MICHAEL SILVERMAN on newly elected Baseball HOFer PEDRO MARTINEZ, will be released May 5 (AP, 1/7)....Cavaliers coach DAVID BLATT has joined a buyers group to purchase two apartments in the Acro Real Estate Tel Aviv Alpa tower for an estimated US$1.36M (GLOBES.co.il, 1/7).
