In St. Louis, Jim Thomas reports Rams coach Jeff Fisher withdrew his "membership on the NFL’s competition committee," as he is pre-occupied with the team's move to L.A. Fisher said, "Two weeks ago I had a conversation with the commissioner (Roger Goodell), and I stepped off the committee for obvious reasons. I spoke to most of the committee members, and just the time that’s gonna be required of me as far as this move is concerned makes it really difficult to commit to that 100 percent. So I look at it as hopefully a leave of absence, but I’m not participating with the committee right now" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 2/25).
ASKING FOR ADVICE: Pirates Owner Bob Nutting yesterday said that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred "has asked owners for input" as the league works on a new CBA. Nutting said Manfred has "done a really good job ... giving us an opportunity to express concerns, directions, ideas." He added the negotiating team Manfred has "put together will be able to pull those pieces together to ensure competitive balance and access to (amateur) talent ... and build those into a larger package of proposals” (TRIBLIVE.com, 2/24).
SEPARATION OF POWERS: Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) Dir of Integrity Nigel Willerton yesterday told a British parliamentary committee that he "would recommend that tennis’s anticorruption program have greater independence from the sport’s governing bodies in the future." Willerton also said there had been a "huge leap" since '14 in the number of betting alerts, which are reports of suspicious activity forwarded to the integrity unit by betting companies (N.Y. TIMES, 2/25). ATP Exec Chair & President Chris Kermode also addressed the committee, saying that "more money needs to be given to the agency working to combat corruption" (AP, 2/24).
