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COLUMBUS, Ohio — A chaotic 911 call. A convulsive 11 seconds of violence ending in the death of an Ohio teen. A historic verdict being broadcast in the police cruiser.

A routine day in a quiet Columbus neighborhood was shattered instantly Tuesday when a police officer fired four shots at 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant as she swung a knife at a young woman.

“She was just a kid!” a man shouts within a second of Bryant falling to the ground.

Less than 30 minutes before the man charged with killing George Floyd was pronounced guilty, yet another Black person was dead at the hands of police in the U.S., and a city facing immense pressure to change its law enforcement patterns was once again on the defensive.

While the events leading up to the fateful 911 call that set the shooting in motion remain unclear, hours of official police footage and bystander videos detail how one of the country’s latest deadly police shootings unfolded.

At 4:32 p.m., a male dispatcher receives a call from a female caller. It remains unclear who called 911, but Bryant’s family members told The Associated Press that she herself summoned law enforcement.

“We got these grown girls over here trying to fight us. Trying to stab us. Trying to put their hands on our grandma,” the caller says as the background filled with female voices screaming and arguing. “Get here now!”

Officer Nicholas Reardon, who has been on the force since December 2019, was dispatched three minutes later. Two other officers, Eric Channel and Serge Akpalo, followed shortly behind.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Reardon asks upon exiting his vehicle at 4:44 p.m. In those next 11 seconds, Bryant was seen charging at 20-year-old Shai-Onta Lana Craig-Watkins with a kitchen knife and then moving on to 22-year-old Tionna Bonner before Reardon he yelled, “Get down!” and fired four consecutive shots into her chest.

The teenager’s body collapsed to the ground.

While officers took turns rendering CPR, several neighbors filled the residential street. Others stood in their driveways and doorways, shaking their heads. Some had heard the gunfire from their backyards while others were in the middle of unloading groceries from their car.

But almost every single witness that day stopped to film the aftermath of an incident they are now all too familiar with: the killing of another Black person in America at the hands of law enforcement.

AP

“No! You ain’t shoot my (expletive) baby!” an unidentified Black man screams at the officer. “You shot my (expletive) baby!”

Reardon, who is white, responds, “She had a knife. She just went at her.”

“You have no respect for life,” another Black man, who lives across the street, can be heard yelling. “No, actually, you have no respect for Black life.”

Another neighbor was heard on body camera footage saying, “You ever hear of de-escalating? No, you guys just shoot.”

While Reardon faced recrimination at the scene, his split-second decision to shoot was commended by the national Fraternal Order of Police, who called it “an act of heroism, but one with tragic results.”

Meanwhile, Akpalo, the only Black officer who responded, began to gather and separate the various witnesses and placed them in police vehicles.

Craig-Watkins, the first woman to be attacked by Bryant, was put in the backseat where dashcam footage showed her weeping for several minutes as dozens of officers from a neighboring department arrived on the scene.

An ambulance arrived at 4:52 p.m. — 20 minutes after the initial 911 call — and left seven minutes later.

Around 5:05 p.m., as Craig-Watkins remained in the backseat, waiting to be interviewed by state investigators, audio of a judge speaking interrupts the flow of dispatches from the police radio.

The exact source of the audio wasn’t clear, but a live reading of the guilty verdict in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who killed Floyd, is heard streaming through the cruiser.

“Members of the jury, I am now going to ask you individually if these are your true and correct verdicts,” Judge Peter Cahill is heard saying on the audio. One by one the jurors begin to say yes. “Juror number 19, are these your true and correct verdicts?”

The audio is suddenly interrupted by Akpalo, who comes in to check on the witness.

“You still doing okay?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Craig-Watkins replies wearily as the officer shuts off the audio at 5:07 p.m. — with one police killing aftermath’s end colliding with the beginning of another.

___

Farnoush Amiri is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

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Chicago Bears NFL Draft 2021: 5 players to target in Round 4 trade by Ryan Heckman

The 2021 NFL Draft is less than a week away. Normally that would be the talk of the city in Chicago as fans would speculate on who the Chicago Bears would be selecting with their draft selections.

The 2021 NFL Draft is surrounded by more skepticism for Chicago Bears fans.

That is not the case in 2021 as the approval rating over the current leadership structure of the Bears’ organization has many fans feeling like the 2021 NFL Draft will only be just the latest mistake made by the Ryan Pace-led front office.

It was that lack of trust in Pace that led many fans to believe that the general manager would be fired after the 2020 season. Instead, Bears’ chairman George McCaskey and team President Ted Phillips not only opted to retain Pace but expressed that Pace has full control over the football decisions made by the organization. Both McCaskey and Phillips claimed that they are not involved in football-related decisions.

That claim is about to be put to a test next week during the 2021 NFL Draft. There have been growing rumors that the Bears are plotting a move up in the first round to select one of the five top quarterback prospects that are projected to be selected in the first round.

Brad Briggs of the Chicago Tribune continued those rumors when he quoted a source on Wednesday that suggested that the Bears are desperate:

“I think everybody is trying to trade out,” said a front-office source for a team selecting in the top 10. “We’d trade out in a second. Why wouldn’t you? If someone is moving up for a quarterback, let’s go.
“I look at the Bears, and there could be a desperation move by them. They couldn’t get it done in free agency. They’re trying to get it done in the draft. They need to get a guy to develop. They need to pull the ‘give me some more time’ move.”

Despite all this smoke of the Bears being desperate to move up in the draft, there have been contending arguments that McCaskey and Phillips are not going to allow Pace to make such a deal. The logic behind that argument is that McCaskey and Phillips do not want Pace giving up future assets due to the fact that there is a relatively strong chance that the team could have a new general manager by this time next year.

If that is the case, then the Bears are already set up to fail in regards to the 2021 NFL Draft. If Pace is indeed handcuffed entering the 2021 NFL Draft, the Bears will not be making a blockbuster trade to move up in the draft to select a quarterback like Justin Fields in the event that he falls. Not only would that be a mistake this season but it would already set the next general manager back a year as the 2022 rookie quarterback class is not nearly as talented as the current crop of quarterbacks available in the 2021 NFL Draft.

Related Story: Three trades that land the Chicago Bears Justin Fields

That is the reason why there is no excitement in Chicago for the 2021 NFL Draft. McCaskey and Phillips have already shot the team in the foot with their decision to retain Pace. Now, if they block Pace from trying to find a franchise quarterback like Fields, it will only signal more failure in the years to come for the Chicago Bears.

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2021 NFL Draft: Chicago Bears setup to fail in finding improvement by Jordan Campbell

Many of the hitters in the Chicago Cubs‘ lineup have had a rough start to the 2021 season, but out of everyone, Javier Baez may be struggling the most.

Through the team’s first 19 games, Baez is hitting .222/.263/.500 with six home runs and five steals. Those numbers aren’t terrible, but his overwhelming amount of swings and misses is really where the problem lies.

Through Thursday’s walk-off win against the New York Mets, Baez’s 51.7 percent contact rate was the worst in the majors, nearly five percentage points lower than second-worst Joey Gallo.

It’s no secret to the Chicago Cubs or the team’s fans that Javier Baez swings and misses a lot, but this year, he’s doing it in a unique way.

Not coincidentally, that’s lead to Baez having the worst strikeout and walk rates of his career so far – 46.6 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. If his current 0.03 BB/K ratio were to hold out over the entire season, it would be the worst mark since at least the turn of the century.

At this point, you’re probably saying something like, “Yes, he’s always swung and missed a lot. He’s just in a slump to start the season.” While that’s a fair assumption to make, this year he’s not just chasing that low and outside breaking pitch more than usual, he’s missing extremely hittable pitches right down the middle of the strike zone.

Let’s take a look at where he’s swinging and missing the most this year compared to his MVP-runner-up 2018 campaign:

Baez Whiff Chart

Just look at all that red right in the middle and upper parts of the strike zone this year. Baez is swinging and missing at pitches right down the middle of the plate almost as often as he’s swinging and missing at pitches out of the strike zone! That is actually incredible, just not in a good way.

It may be a little unfair to compare his struggles this year to his almost-MVP season, but his whiff chart from other years is pretty similar to the one from 2018.

A slump may be enough to explain the rough start, but seeing a star player absolutely befuddled by very hittable pitches isn’t encouraging. It may still be April, but it doesn’t seem too early to be concerned about this trend.

To end things on a positive note – when Baez is making contact with the baseball, he’s hitting it very hard. In fact, according to Statcast, Baez’s hard-hit rate this year is the highest of his career.

Next: 3 Cubs who could be gone by the All-Star break

Even with the whiff problem, prior to Friday’s offensive explosion against the Brewers, Baez had a 92 wRC+, meaning he’d produced runs at a rate just eight percent worse than a league-average hitter. Spinning things in a positive direction, the fact that he’s been able to stay close to league-average despite his struggles making contact signal that if he does figure things out, he could be in store for an incredible run at the plate.

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Upon further review, sports dearly misses the human-error element to officiating — especially those biggest blunders, worn like noble scars by teams and fans and passed down through generations.

Do you ever wonder what the umpires are saying to one another as they huddle up — the crew chief having donned a clunky, ill-fitting headset — and wait for the no-goodniks at baseball’s Replay Command Center in New York to render their latest time-sucking, momentum-killing, inevitably anticlimactic decision?

I suspect it goes something like this:

“Are you sure you got a good look at that play, Tom?”

“I don’t know, Frank. These games have gotten so long, I’m not sure I could tell you what day it is.”

“How about you, Russ?”

“Huh?”

“Did you get a good look at that play, Russ?”

“What play, Frank?”

The truth is, I don’t even want to know. It’s nothing against the umps, mind you. My beef is with instant replay — in all sports, and in all applications. What’s a mature, reasoned way to put it? I can’t flippin’ stand it.

If mistakes made by umpires, referees and all other game officials are wrong, I don’t want those maddeningly imperfect sons of guns to be right.

Players and coaches make mistakes all the time, don’t they? It used to make sick, twisted sense when the stripes made mistakes, too. And most of us could handle it. On some level, most of us probably appreciated it. Officiating mistakes could make you very happy or, more likely, mad enough to curse at your great-aunt Dotty, but either way they made you feel something. And feeling something is the key to coming back to watch again and again.

It’s not worth the painstaking evaluation for every call to be right, and not only because games never stop seeming to suffer more interruptions that make them drag on longer. Human error is a great — yes, great — part of sports. It ignites passion. The biggest mistakes are worn like noble scars by teams and fans and passed down through generations. This is true — as true as a ball through Bill Buckner’s legs — when it comes to officiating blunders, too.

If umpire Don Denkinger hadn’t preposterously ruled the Royals’ Jorge Orta safe at first base in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series — essentially costing the Cardinals a championship — there wouldn’t be a wonderful baseball rivalry in Missouri. There’d be cardboard pizza, barbecue sauce, Sen. Josh Hawley and did I mention the cardboard pizza?

Think of Colorado’s “Fifth Down” college football win at Missouri in 1990, still almost impossible to believe. In the ultimate clown act, the refs forgot to count a down — enabling the Buffs to score on fifth-and-goal, win a game and go on to share the national championship. Who doesn’t love a good clown act?

Think of fan Jeffrey Maier reaching way over the outfield fence in the 1996 American League Championship Series to royally screw over the Orioles and help turn Yankees rookie Derek Jeter — a home run!? — into a blockbuster superstar. Or Brett Hull’s skate in the crease on his Stanley Cup-clinching goal for Dallas against Buffalo in 1999. Or the perfect game stolen from Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga in 2010 on an egregiously wrong call by ump Jim Joyce.

Each of them was cruel, cringeworthy, heinous and horrible. Thank goodness and God bless America.

Once in a while, replay serves a higher purpose by taking millions of viewers a full step beyond apoplectic. Remember Tom Brady’s “Tuck Rule” fumble being overturned in the 2001 playoffs, leading the Patriots past Oakland en route to their first Super Bowl win? Or the Lions losing a game at Soldier Field in 2010 after Calvin Johnson caught a ball in the end zone, got a foot down, then the other foot, then his butt, a knee, a hand — no one had ever been more down and in possession of a ball. But of course! Overturned. Or the Packers losing to the Seahawks on a Monday night in 2012 on a last-ditch play — upheld, pathetically — dubbed the “Fail Mary”?

Indeed, those refs’ colossal flubs were pretty awesome, too. I wouldn’t remember any of those games without them.

Mostly, though, replay is just lame. We saw it all season in college basketball, when close game after close game devolved into an annoying, interminable string of late stoppages to review possession, time on the clock, hard fouls, “Ted Lasso” — you name it. We see it in the NBA, too.

We saw it Thursday night at Wrigley Field, when Kris Bryant, as the potential winning run, attempted to steal second in the ninth inning and beat the throw to the bag by a mile. Only after an extensive review and a consultation with NASA and the NSA was it determined that Bryant was out — for coming off the bag so slightly, almost imperceptibly, while being tagged that every umpire in the history of the game before the age of replay would’ve gotten the call wrong.

And they would’ve been dead right.

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Police fired gunshots after confronting Santiago Leon about 7 a.m. Thursday in the 3700 block of West Bloomingdale Avenue.

A man is facing several felony charges after he was arrested Thursday near the western end of the 606 Trail in Logan Square during a confrontation in which police fired gunshots.

Santiago Leon, 28, is charged with attempted murder, aggravated vehicular hijacking, aggravated assault of a peace officer, unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, armed robbery and aggravated discharge of a firearm, according to Chicago police.

Police said Leon participated in these incidents Thursday in Humboldt Park:

• Attempted carjacking and shots fired in the 3700 block of West Hirsch Street;
• Attempted armed carjacking in the 1500 block of North Avers Avenue;
• Armed robbery in the 3800 block of West North Avenue; and
• Carjacking and shots fired in the 1500 block of North Hamlin Avenue.

Officers confronted Leon about 7 a.m. that day in the 3700 block of West Bloomingdale Avenue after allegedly identifying him as a suspect in the crimes, police said.

After finding him on the trail, a “confrontation ensued and resulted in shots fired by police with no hits,” police said in a statement. Leon was arrested and a weapon was recovered. No one was hurt.

The officer or officers who fired the shots will be placed on routine administrative duty for 30 days while the shooting is investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, police said.

Leon was expected to appear in court Saturday.

Contributing: David Struett

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If you think you know who teams are selecting, there’s money to be made on prop bets in Vegas

LAS VEGAS — One year ago, the NFL Draft represented an oasis to bettors thirsty for something other than Belarussian table tennis or Nicaraguan soccer for action.

More than a month into a pandemic that nearly halted all sports on the planet and would shutter the city’s hotels and casinos for 11 weeks, unprecedented attention engulfed that virtual draft.

The physical draft, and the thousands of visitors and millions of dollars it generates annually to fortunate hosts, had been scheduled for Vegas, where the Raiders’ landing in a shiny new dome was to be feted in grand fashion.

All of that being canceled, however, socked the city with another gut punch.

“It was definitely a double whammy,” said Circa Sports operations manager Jeffrey Benson. “A lot of books were closed, and people were trying to get money in and bet these props. It was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Benson and his Circa colleagues provided curbside convenience for customers eager to register for the company’s mobile app and/or to fund those accounts, to wager on the 2020 draft from their couches.

The draft starts Thursday in Cleveland, and Las Vegas is on deck for next year. Last year’s fervor definitely has carried over to 2021. The NFL Draft is now much more than a novelty to Vegas sportsbooks.

“Even though that draft was virtual, we were able to place a huge emphasis on it because it was really the only sport or event outside of Russian Ping-Pong or Cactus Tour golf,” Benson said.

“Last year, our draft menu was more expansive than on a normal year. And I’d say, this year, we’ve taken it one step further. It’s probably the deepest menu of draft props that’s maybe ever been seen.”

A TACKLE WITH ATTITUDE

Circa’s draft proposition booklet is three pages, both sides covered with options. Many are player props, a draft spot where particular youngsters might be drafted, with corresponding Over and Under prices.

Florida tight end Kyle Pitts is 5½, an Over price of +140 (risk $100 to win $140), Under at -175. He will be of further interest to us.

Will the Bears’ first pick be an offensive lineman? Yes is +150, No -190. Who will draft Gators quarterback Kyle Trask? At +650, the Bears and Patriots are the favorites.

The two Circa options that had moved the most, Benson told me Tuesday, were Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond (draft position of 170½ to 91½) and Stanford quarterback Davis Mills (140½ to 68½).

“The player props on draft position are what we’ve written the most amount of tickets on,” Benson said. “Most of the moves we’ve taken early have been on Unders, with quarterbacks, and some wide receivers and offensive linemen.”

At No. 1, it’s a given that new Jaguars coach Urban Meyer will nab Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Of the insiders and former scouts with whom Long Island handicapper Tom Barton has spoken, many believe Lawrence possesses more talent, at this stage, than John Elway, Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck.

With the Bears, Barton is in an odd position. He gathers information, which he dispenses on his syndicated SportsGarten radio show and bets accordingly, with profit the sole aim for his clients and him. Yet, the native New Yorker also is a lifelong Bears fan, since Jim McMahon, Sweetness and the Fridge.

“I hope they pick an offensive lineman, a tackle with attitude” in the first round, Barton said. “It’s a deep wide receiver draft and I think they can wait on one of them. I want the offensive lineman.”

Barton bet Over ½ on running backs taken in the first round, so anyone who thinks one will be selected should follow suit. He’s confident both Najee Harris of Alabama and Travis Etienne of Clemson will be among the first 32 picks.

For first-round quarterbacks, William Hill has set 5½ as the number, Over at +350, Under -430. There’s Lawrence first, then — in no order, Barton said — Trey Lance (North Dakota State), Justin Fields (Ohio State), Mac Jones (Alabama) and Zach Wilson (BYU).

Barton is on Over, for another favored wager, as he predicts either Mills or Trask going in the first round.

CONNECTING DOTS

The intriguing figure of the draft might be the Gators’ 6-6, 240-pound Pitts, whom Conner Streeter, the alias of a professional offshore bettor and former collegiate football player, calls “a freak athlete.”

In pondering why the 49ers moved up nine spots, to No. 3 overall, Streeter said this draft is not comprised of three generational quarterbacks. To guarantee getting one might justify dealing two future first-round picks and a third-rounder.

“That’s insane,” Streeter said, “unless you think you have identified a once-in-a-lifetime talent.”

Perhaps 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan does seek the draft’s third-best quarterback. But Streeter said maybe that generational figure is Pitts, who would pair with standout tight end George Kittle.

That could mirror the Patriots’ effective Rob Gronkowski-Aaron Hernandez scheme from 2010-12. Those Patriots won 39 of 48 regular-season games, but losing their lone Super Bowl.

With receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, Streeter envisions a dynamic double-team-proof receiving corps. Several outlets have Pitts going fourth to Atlanta, so Under 5½ on him presents another keen wager.

“Ridiculous talent,” Streeter said. “Maybe the Niners have positioned themselves to do something nobody would expect. Which, when you connect the dots, would be Pitts.”

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Tanaka became the Fire’s head athletic trainer last fall.

After spending 12 years with one Chicago sports team, Jeff Tanaka is adjusting to working with another.

Let go by the Bulls in May 2020 after the team hired executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley to revamp the franchise, Tanaka became the Fire’s head athletic trainer last fall. When the Bulls moved on from him, the Sun-Times reported that Tanaka wasn’t being ‘‘scapegoated’’ for injuries but that the new brass wanted to bring in someone it chose.

‘‘It was disappointing, obviously,’’ Tanaka told the Sun-Times this week. ‘‘I had been there for 12 years, but you understand that that’s part of the business sometimes. New people come in and have the right to make decisions from a personnel standpoint.’’

The move to the Fire represents a shift for Tanaka, who was hired by the Bulls as an assistant trainer in 2008 after eight years with the 49ers. He was promoted to head trainer in 2014 and was a fixture in the Bulls’ organization during the Derrick Rose/Tom Thibodeau era, as well as during the team’s decline under John Paxson and Gar Forman that led to Karnisovas’ arrival.

Tanaka has experience he’s eager to apply to the Fire. At the same time, however, he’s leaning somewhat on the rest of their medical and performance staffs to learn some of the nuances about top-level soccer and soccer players.

One of the aspects Tanaka is adjusting to is the mindset of a soccer player compared to that of an NBA or NFL player.

‘‘I’m continuing to learn,’’ Tanaka said. ‘‘That’s one of the exciting things is to kind of branch out into another area that is newer and exciting for me.’’

While starting a new job can be tough at any time, Tanaka began a new one during an especially trying period.

Though vaccines are becoming more available and things are beginning to open up, the COVID-19 pandemic still is going and causes obstacles for Tanaka and his colleagues. That means managing COVID-19 protocols and handling issues that weren’t a part of the job description before last season.

Given all the challenges, Tanaka said he is ‘‘pretty happy’’ with how his new job is going as he spends more time with the Fire, builds relationships and gets into more of the soccer specifics. He said he has felt really supported since starting with the Fire and credited sporting director Georg Heitz, technical director Sebastian Pelzer, coach Raphael Wicky and the rest of the team for being ‘‘open-minded enough’’ to bring him on board.

‘‘They could have very easily stayed with a ‘soccer’ person,’’ Tanaka said. ‘‘That shows they’re kind of thinking out of the box, too. I’m appreciative of that. It’s still early on, but they’re on a good path with the staff, the coaches, as well as the players.’’

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Sky coach Wade sees versatile forward playing significant role on defense

Natasha Mack was sitting with her family in Lufkin, Texas, on draft night. Her dream of making it to the WNBA that she had since she first picked up a basketball was about to come true.

Then, 12 picks went by, the first round ended and her name wasn’t called.

“My spirit went down,” Mack said. “At that point, I reminded myself what really mattered was getting drafted to a great team and making a difference once I got there.”

Mack has been reminding herself of the bigger picture her entire basketball career.

In high school, she was a four-star recruit on an average team that never made it to state. To her, that didn’t matter. Mack’s mentality was to let her work do all the talking. She knew that would take her to the next level.

Mack was heavily recruited and ended up choosing the University of Houston. She never played a game for the Cougars. Instead, she ended up returning to Lufkin before enrolling.

After falling out of love with the game, Mack said she took a job at a local chicken plant, Pilgrim’s Pride, on the west side of Lufkin.

“There are three things you can do in Lufkin,” Mack said. “You either have a rap career, play a sport or you’re up to no good.”

Mack spent almost a year at the plant before being recruited by Angelina College, a local community college. She parlayed a scholarship to Angelina into an eventual scholarship to Oklahoma State and the national spotlight.

In two seasons with Oklahoma State, Mack started in all 55 games she played, averaging 18.7 points, 12.4 rebounds and 3.7 blocks per game. In her senior year, she led the country with 112 blocks and broke her own single-season school record. She was named the 2021 WBCA Defensive Player of the Year, Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and was a unanimous Big 12 All-Defensive Team selection.

When she heard her name called by the Sky with the No. 16 overall pick, she was relieved but surprised. Mack had no conversations with the Sky ahead of the draft. She spoke with the Seattle Storm, New York Liberty and Atlanta Dream.

When Wade called her after making the selection, Mack said he told her he didn’t know until about 30 minutes before that he would be taking her with the second-round pick. Wade’s expectations for Mack start with defense. He told her that’s where he needs her to make a significant impact.

Mack’s length, athleticism and ability to protect the rim are all qualities Wade loves about the versatile 6-4 forward. Still, she’s competing for a rookie contract, and Wade’s 20-player training-camp roster is the most competitive he has had since he was hired ahead of the 2019 season.

“There’s always a place for players like that in the league,” Wade said.

Mack arrived in Chicago for the first time a week before training camp and understood why it’s called the Windy City. Before her first week in the city was up, she already had tried deep dish pizza.

Training camp officially begins Sunday, and Mack is coming in with the same mentality that has carried her to this life-changing moment.

“I don’t talk much,” Mack said. “I show my game through my actions.”

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Pandemic threw a wrench  in her plans last season, but she is finally getting an opportunity in ’21

Goalkeeper Cassie Miller’s National Women’s Soccer League debut came in 2020, but her experience with the Red Stars goes all the way back to her high school days.

In fact, Julie Ertz was a teammate when she was growing up in Arizona playing for the Sereno Soccer Club.

When the opportunity came to sign with the Red Stars and begin her NWSL career, it was a no-brainer.

“I committed to Florida State after my sophomore year of high school,” Miller said. “So I started training with the Red Stars every summer starting then.”

Miller said she realized she had a future in the game when she was 12 and began playing club soccer in Arizona, but her soccer goals have shifted several times.

When she graduated from Florida State, she decided not to pursue opportunities in the NWSL, opting to begin her professional career overseas.

It was important to experience the game internationally, so she signed her first professional contract with PSV in the Netherlands. After a year and a half, she signed with Apollon Ladies FC in Cyprus for a chance to compete in the prestigious Champions League.

Overseas, Miller says it’s a more technical game than in the NWSL which showcases speed and power.

In anticipation of the Tokyo Olympics, originally planned for 2020, Miller signed with the Red Stars, knowing there would be an opportunity in goal with Alyssa Naeher competing for gold in Japan.

When the pandemic forced a postponement of the Olympics, Miller went from competing to be Naeher’s replacement to spending an entire season learning from her.

It wasn’t a bad gig when your goals include becoming a No. 1 keeper in the league someday.

“I’ve always shown up and given 100% at training,” Miller said. “Watching her professionalism, how she takes care of her body, starts early and always kicks after training has taught me a lot. I really need to give that every single day if I want to get to that level.”

Miller’s plan to defend the goal in place of Naeher is being realized a year later than expected, and it hasn’t taken place without a healthy dose of competition.

Emily Boyd has been the Red Stars’ No. 2 goalkeeper for three years. When Miller arrived in 2020, Boyd was thrilled to have someone to compete with. When she tore ligaments in her knee playing for the Danish football club HB Køge after the 2020 Challenge Cup, that competition was halted.

Miller remembers hearing the news and immediately texting Boyd and offering her support. When Boyd came out of surgery, Miller was there to help her around her apartment.

When the 2021 Challenge Cup kicked off, Miller was in goal. She had a shutout in the Red Stars’ opening game against the Houston Dash and gave up a goal to the Portland Thorns’ Morgan Weaver in the second game.

Naeher returned to the Red Stars this week for the first time in 2021 but will leave in June for the Tournament of Nations and again in July for the Olympics.

By then, Boyd will have returned from injury and will be ready to compete to be Naeher’s understudy.

“She just keeps saying, ‘I’ll be back soon,’ ” Miller said. “It’s always been a healthy competition.”

Whoever plays, the Red Stars will be in good hands. Both keepers have learned from the best and continue to push each other.

If it’s Miller, she said there’s no pressure.

“It’s taking all the tools that I have from club level, college level, overseas experience, and when that whistle blows, knowing that I’m OK and I’ve gained that trust,” Miller said.

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His improbable tackle last fall has become a template for desire and determination.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The most memorable tackle of Notre Dame’s 2020 football season, non-Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah division, belonged to Jay Bramblett.

Yes, the punter.

You may recall Bramblett, who doubles as the team’s holder on place kicks, standing his ground near midfield as Clemson’s Travis Etienne came roaring up the left sideline. This was last Nov. 7, on the final play of the first half of what became a 47-40 Irish upset win in double overtime.

Etienne, the leading rusher in Atlantic Coast Conference history, had just corralled a long field-goal attempt eight yards deep in the Tigers’ end zone. With Clemson trailing by 10, Etienne — halfway to a momentum-snatching kick six — was at full throttle as he took his 205 pounds and 4.4 speed into the clear.

“Look out!” play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico bellowed on NBC’s telecast. “Etienne might go!”

Incredibly, the 193-pound punter prevailed. Bramblett didn’t just trip up the hurdling Etienne — he practically form-tackled him.

A flurry of gold helmets swallowed up the rising junior from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, who had already shown his added value with a first-down run on a fake punt against Duke.

“I really pride myself on being somebody the team is going to lean on when a big play is needed,” Bramblett said this spring. “Obviously it’s not shiny and all great being a punter. You know you’re not the quarterback anymore, that’s for sure.”

Bramblett, who threw for 18 touchdowns and completed nearly 70 percent of his passes as a high school senior, may yet get the chance to use his arm from punt formation.

“With the importance of some of those plays, just being called upon is a pretty big deal to me,” Bramblett said. “I take that really seriously.”

In the stands that night at Notre Dame Stadium, Mike Bramblett couldn’t stop shaking his head. Defensive coordinator at Tuscaloosa Hillcrest during his youngest son’s standout career, the elder Bramblett laughed this week when asked how many tackles Jay made in high school.

“He’s made one in his lifetime, and you’re talking about it right now,” Mike Bramblett, now the head coach at Brookwood (Alabama) High School, said in a phone interview. “That gave me great information to bring back to our kids here. I told our kids, ‘He’s never worked tackling a day in his life, but it’s all about want-to and desire.’ If you want to make a tackle, you’ll make a tackle.”

The elder Bramblett, a high school punter in Pelham, Alabama, whose long snapper was future Clemson coach Dabo Swinney, still beams whenever someone brings up The Tackle.

“It certainly wasn’t the most graceful thing in the world, but he got it done in a big situation,” said Bramblett, who played baseball at Alabama-Birmingham. “I really feel like that’s his goal with everything that he does: ‘Just tell me what you want me to do, and I’ll do my best.’ ”

A baseball standout who could have been a two-sport athlete at a non-Power 5 school, Jay Bramblett chose Notre Dame after getting passed over by Clemson and hometown Alabama. The younger Bramblett, who counts NFL punters Ty Long (Chargers), AJ Cole III (Raiders) and Johnny Hekker (Rams) among his mentors, is among the nation’s best at killing punts deep in opponents’ territory. But it’s that takedown of Etienne, a potential first-rounder in next week’s NFL Draft, that has become the bullet point on his résumé.

Brian Polian, Notre Dame’s special teams coordinator, praises Bramblett for having the “mentality of a starting pitcher [or] a quarterback.” Bramblett’s job description may focus on relinquishing possession, but he wants the ball regardless.

“There’s a mental toughness there,” Polian said. “He’s not a sensitive guy. He takes coaching. It’s been a joy to work with Jay.”

As Mike Bramblett said of his son’s famous tackle: “He could have not gone full speed, could have taken the easy way out and fallen down and let him jump over you and keep running. But there was some determination to get it done. I’m so very, very proud of him for that.”

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