In Boston, Ben Volin noted a lawsuit filed by more than 1,500 former NFLers alleging that teams and medical staffs "intentionally misled them about the health risks of powerful painkillers, will move forward into the discovery process after a federal judge in the Northern District of California denied the NFL’s motion to dismiss last week." This is one lawsuit the NFL "wants to quash as quickly as possible" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/10).
SCHEDULE TRADE OFF: In N.Y., Larry Brooks noted with a five-day All-Star break, the five-day “bye week” per team the NHLPA negotiated for itself in exchange for agreeing to change the NHL All-Star format to 3-on-3 and the three-day Christmas break negotiated into the CBA, teams "will play 82 games in 167 days this season." That likely will lead to "more fatigue, more bad games and more injuries to more players." Sources said that teams "were not consulted on the agreement regarding the bye week before the league stamped its approval on the All-Star trade-off" (N.Y. POST, 7/10).
PEOPLE'S CHOICE: SI.com's Jon Wertheim noted the ATP "held player council elections the weekend before" Wimbledon, and Kevin Anderson, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Gilles Simon were elected (SI.com, 7/10).
