TOKYO — U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher hyperextended her right knee in the Olympic semifinals and will not be available for the bronze medal match against Australia on Thursday.

Naeher also sustained a bone contusion in the first half of the 1-0 U.S. loss to Canada on Monday. An MRI did not show ligament damage.

She was injured when she went up for the ball and came down awkwardly. She was treated for more than five minutes on the field and tried to continue. Naeher was replaced by Adrianna Franch in the 30th minute.

Naeher, who is in the midst of the season with her professional team, the Chicago Red Stars, will be sidelined for several weeks, U.S. Soccer said on Tuesday.

“I’m disappointed I won’t be able to be on the field Thursday with my teammates competing for a medal, but I know this group will bounce back from a tough loss,” Naeher said in a statement.

“I can’t wait to watch them fight for a bronze medal and I will be here to support the team in any way I can to help us get it done.”

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BEIRUT — Senior Lebanese officials knew of the risks posed by the highly explosive material stored for years at Beirut’s port and did nothing to protect the public against it, an international human rights group said Tuesday.

In a report on last year’s massive blast, Human Rights Watch said those same officials are now trying to thwart the investigation. It called for targeted sanctions against implicated officials and an international probe.

The report comes as Lebanon marks one year since the horrific Aug. 4 blast ripped through Beirut, killing at least 214 people, injuring more than 6,000 and destroying or damaging thousands of homes and businesses. The explosion was preceded by a huge fire at a port warehouse after hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrates detonated.

A year later, the investigation has yet to answer questions such as who ordered the shipment of the chemicals and why officials ignored repeated internal warnings of their danger.

In the 650-page report titled “They Killed Us from the Inside,” the New York-based group published scores of documents and exchanges between Lebanese officials about the ammonium nitrates haphazardly stored for nearly six years at the port.

“The actions and omissions of Lebanese authorities created an unreasonable risk of life,” the report said, adding that under international human rights law, a state’s failure to act to prevent foreseeable risks to life is a violation of the right to life.

In addition, Human Rights Watch said evidence strongly suggests some government officials foresaw the possible devastation from the nitrate’s presence and tacitly accepted the risk. “Under domestic law, this could amount to the crime of homicide with probable intent, and/or unintentional homicide,” it added.

The report names senior leaders, including President Michel Aoun, then-Prime Minister Hassan Diab, a former Lebanese army chief, senior security officials and several ministers among others who were informed of risks posed by the nitrates in the middle of a densely populated commercial and residential area but failed to take the necessary actions to protect the public.

Human Rights Watch said a lack of judicial independence, constitution-imposed immunity for high-level officials, and a range of procedural and systemic flaws in the domestic investigation rendered it “incapable of credibly delivering justice.”

Survivors of the blast and families of the victims have been calling for an international investigation, saying they lack faith in the Lebanese judicial system. Human Rights Watchsays the case for an “international investigation has only strengthened.”

Aya Majzoub, a researcher on Lebanon at Human Rights Watch, said “all the individuals named in the report knew of the dangers posed by the material and had a responsibility to act and failed to act under international law.”

“That’s a grave human rights violation. It’s a violation of one of the most basic rights, the right to life,” she told The Associated Press.

The Rhosus, the ship carrying the 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate to Lebanon in 2013, was supposedly sailing from the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi and bound for the Mozambican port of Beira.

It made a stop in Beirut to try to earn extra money by taking on several pieces of heavy machinery. But that additional cargo proved too heavy for the Rhosus and the crew refused to take it on. The Rhosus was soon impounded by the Lebanese authorities for failing to pay port fees, and never left the port again.

Human Rights Watch said questions remain whether the shipment was intended to reach Mozambique or whether “Beirut was the intended destination” all along. It said available evidence also indicates multiple Lebanese authorities were, at minimum, criminally negligent under Lebanese law in their handling of the Rhosus cargo.

Last month, Lebanon’s lead investigating judge in the case, Tarek Bitar, announced he intends to pursue senior politicians, and former and current security chiefs in the case, and requested permission for their prosecution.

Those named in the probe — including the outgoing prime minister, lawmakers and top generals — have so far not shown up at the prosecutor’s office, citing that they either have immunity as members of parliament or need special permission from the prime minister or the interior minister to appear.

Also Tuesday, the World Food Program said it’s “now supporting one in six people in the country, more than at any time in its history” as Lebanon’s economic meltdown has plunged millions into poverty. WFP said it has scaled up its assistance to reach 1.4 million people in Lebanon with food and cash support.

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JACKSON, Wyo. — A soupy mix of beans, rice and quinoa down the hatch, Erica Robertson prepared to get cozy at one of her favorite places to call home: Curtis Canyon.

The 23-year-old semi-itinerant denizen of Wyoming’s pricey Jackson Hole resort area sleeps in the twin bed built into the back of her Toyota RAV4, which she had parked in a camping area 1,200 feet over the valley floor, with sweeping views of Jackson Hole and the Tetons that have drawn car campers up the rock-strewn, switchbacked road for generations.

As a temporary resident, Robertson sees another perk to holing up for the night at Curtis Canyon.

“I can watch Netflix up here,” she says. “I’ve got unlimited data.”

In her 20s and stringing together odd jobs and living for now off her savings, Robertson has chosen a different sort of homeless life: She’s living out of her car. She’s been doing tht since graduating from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., last year with a degree in molecular and cellular biology. It’s her plan until winter makes car life untenable.

“If I could find housing, I probably would have done that,” Robertson says. “But it’s just so hard I didn’t really even feel the need to try.”

Calling the forest and town of Jackson’s streets home hardly puts her in a unique position in a remote, mountain valley where there’s an acute lack of housing and rent has skyrocketed.

Based on reports Bridger-Teton officials receive of people overstaying five- and 14-day camping limits, an estimated 300 to 500 people are living in the 3.4-million-acre national forest that wraps around three sides of Jackson Hole.

“People staying in one spot all summer is not a problem just in the Jackson area,” Bridger-Teton wilderness and recreation manager Linda Merigliano says. “It’s an issue in many of the other popular corridors, like the Greys River and Green River and drainages on the Big Piney District, too.”

Residency and “nonrecreational camping” are “very clearly” increasing, Bridger-Teton patroller and fire prevention specialist Lesley Williams-Gomez says.

Robertson says she respects the five-day stay limit in Curtis Canyon, which wasn’t enforced with vigor until this summer. The change took her by surprise, but she’s adjusted by staying in friends’ driveways and other in-town haunts instead.

Not everyone is as apt to heed those regulations. Full-time volunteer camping “ambassadors” are now posted for the summer at Curtis Canyon, Shadow Mountain and along the web of forest roads leading into the foothills near Toppings Lake. Their presence has helped limit people living in those areas, which have the most direct Teton range views.

“Unfortunately, the concerns are migrating to a new place,” Williams-Gomez says. “They’re going somewhere else, where there isn’t an ambassador.”

Illegal camping has especially sprung up farther south, in places like Fall Creek and Mosquito Creek roads. Williams-Gomez has heard “heartbreaking” stories that have channeled her frustrations away from the squatters and toward some Jackson Hole businesses that gave their staffs unrealistic expectations about housing when trying to lure them to Jackson Hole, then pushed them toward the national forest when they couldn’t find anything.

“We can’t just use the national forest as the bedroom for employers to house their staff,” Merigliano says.

Staff tied to one luxury Teton Village hotel outfitted a Fall Creek Road-area site with couches in anticipation of settling in for the summer but were hit with a raft of citations for litter, food storage and fire violations after someone tipped off foresters, according to Merigliano.

The environmental consequence of forest residency comes in the form of human feces littering the landscape, vegetation and grasses that are worn away and burnable wood that being depleted when campfires are allowed.

There are consequences for Jackson Hole’s human inhabitants, too, among them few places for locals to camp when all the spots have been claimed by the record-smashing crush of tourists and people who camp to live.

“Our natural resources are suffering, but it’s also locals who want to go up Curtis Canyon with their family and run around without seeing toilet paper,” Williams-Gomez says.

Living out of a car on the national forest and in other public places is predictably tiring at times.

“It’ exhausting worrying about where you’re going to sleep all the time,” Robertson says. “I’ve had some cold nights. Last Sept. 7, it snowed. It was, like, 10 degrees, and I didn’t have a proper sleeping bag.”

Still, she extols the benefits of being homeless in Jackson Hole.

“I think more people should try living in their cars,” Robertson says. “It’s very liberating.”

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TOKYO — This wasn’t for a medal or any specific score. It wasn’t about trying to prove anyone right — or wrong — or deliver on other people’s sky-high expectations. It wasn’t to please sponsors or NBC or the International Olympic Committee or anybody else.

For the first time in a long while, Simone Biles gave herself permission to do gymnastics for the same reason she started the sport those many years ago: Because she wanted to.

A week after withdrawing from the team competition with a case of “the twisties” that put both her mental and physical health in danger, Biles returned for the last event final, balance beam.

Just as she did four years ago, she left with a bronze medal. This one, however, was so much sweeter and, unlike the one from Rio, won’t ever be overlooked.

“To be cleared for beam meant a lot,” Biles said Tuesday night, her voice thickening with emotion.

Biles still hasn’t processed everything that has happened in the last week. She knows she was, and still is, physically unable to do the twisting skills that are normally second nature to her. It’s the reason she was OK with missing the finals for vault, floor exercise and uneven bars.

Or OK as one can be about missing events you were supposed to do at an Olympic Games.

But why this all happened? She still doesn’t know. One day she was fine and the next she wasn’t, unsure of where she was in the air or whether she would land on her feet or her head or somewhere in between.

The physical danger was terrifying. Even more unnerving was that, as an athlete, she is used to bending her body to her will and now she simply could not.

“I think that was honestly the hardest part,” Biles said. “My problem was why my body and my mind weren’t in sync. That’s what I couldn’t wrap my head around. What happened? Was I overtired? Where did the wires not connect?

“That was really hard. I trained my whole life, I was physically ready, I was fine. And then this happens,” Biles said. “It was something that was so out of my control. But the outcome I had, at the end of the day, my mental and physical health is better than any medal.”

Biles came to Tokyo as the biggest star of these Games, projected to win what would be a record five gold medals. She is leaving with a silver medal from the team competition as well as that bronze on beam, giving her seven Olympic medals in all.

In years past, her performance might have been considered a disappointment, an athlete who couldn’t live up to her hype. But what Biles did in shining a spotlight on mental health, and the overwhelming pressure that elite athletes face, is far bigger, and will have a far greater impact, than any athletic accomplishment at these Olympics.

Athletes have long suppressed their emotions, not wanting anything to get in the way of their goals. And society is happy to let them, wanting only to be entertained and not caring that there’s an actual human behind these superhuman feats.

No one knew, for example, that Biles’ aunt had died suddenly over the weekend, adding one more layer to the stress she was already feeling.

“I’m definitely feeling the love and support, and I didn’t feel like that was going to happen,” Biles said. “I kind of felt embarrassed with myself. Especially when we went to the (Olympic) Village and everybody (was) coming up to me and saying how much I meant and how much I’d done for them.

“I was crying in the Olympic store because I just wasn’t expecting that.”

Her message, that it’s OK not to be OK, even when the world is watching, is a powerful one. And one that is long overdue.

While she appreciates anything that furthers that conversation she is, still, an athlete. Even when she knew she couldn’t, even when doctors wouldn’t allow it, she wanted to compete.

Trying to do the vault, floor or bars finals was never in consideration because it would require her to twist and even watching other gymnasts makes her “want to puke.” But the only skill on beam that requires Biles to do any twisting was her dismount.

If she and her coaches tweaked that, and doctors would clear her, she could leave these Olympics on her terms.

Biles looked nervous as she and the other beam finalists were introduced, taking several deep breaths. As she waited on the podium for the score of Tang Xijing, the gymnast who’d gone before her, coach Cecile Landi stood close by, offering last words of encouragement.

After a final hug, Landi walked down the steps, and it was just Biles and a beam that is 4-inches wide and 4 feet off the floor.

“I said, ‘Just go out there, have fun. And whatever happens, happens. One step at a time, go slow, take your time on the beam and make sure you open up on that dismount,'” Landi recalled.

The stands behind the balance beam were filled, making this feel as close to a normal event as there’s been this Olympics. Even International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach was on hand. But if the focus on her was unnerving, Biles didn’t show it.

With the click of camera shutters punctuating her every move, she flipped and turned with confidence, looking as steady as if she was performing on a railroad tie. She took a small hop backward on her dismount, now a double pike, but pumped her fists and beamed as she trotted off the podium.

“I was excited to compete at the Olympic Games because that’s what I planned on coming in, and to have everything just change and be a whirlwind was crazy,” Biles said.

When she saw her score, a 14.0, she nodded. With five gymnasts still to go, she had no idea whether that would hold up for a medal.

Nor did she really care. She had wanted to compete and she did, and that was all she needed.

“There’s a lot of relief. Obviously there’s — I don’t know. I don’t really know how I’m feeling,” Biles said. “Right now, I just feel I have to go home and work on myself and be OK with what’s happened.”

So much of it was out of Biles’ control. For one night, at least, she was able to do what she wanted and do it for herself.

And that might be the greatest victory of all.

Read more at usatoday.com

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Daily Cubs Minors Recap: Mora, Mena and Caissie homer, while Alcantara is making a nice first impression in Mesa; Ramirez hits first pro homer

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By Michael Ernst,
today at 11:02 am

AZL

Cubs 16, Brewers 13

Top Performers

• Juan Mora: 2-4, 3B, HR (1), R, 5 RBI, BB (.423)
• Ismael Mena: 2-4, HR (2), 2 R, 2 RBI, BB, SF, SB (4) (.203)
• Owen Caissie: 2-4, HR (5), R, 2 RBI, BB (.382)
• Kevin Alcantara: 2-5, 2B, 3 R, 3 RBI, SB (1) (.375)
• Andy Weber: 1-3, 3 R, RBI, 2 BB, SB (1) (.200)
• Bryce Windham: 1-3, 2 R, RBI, BB, SB (1) (.400)
• Reggie Preciado: 2-6, 3B, 2 R (.359)
• Rony Baez: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, K (3.18)
• Johzan Oquendo: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K (S, 2, 0.64)

Injuries, Updates, and Trends

Andy Weber and Bryce Windham are still working their way back into game shape after joining the Mesa club for rehab on Saturday. They were both lifted before the game completed, but each managed to impact the game at the plate. They both reached multiple times and stole a base. The Smokies could use Weber’s defensive capabilities and left-handed bat in their lineup during the 2nd half. Windham is a darkhorse catcher prospect, as a good athlete converting to the position, but is still in the process of getting stronger. South Bend is currently deploying three org catchers, so there is playing time available for Windham once he returns.

Make it 5 home runs (plus 2 doubles) over the last 12 games for Owen Caissie (.382/.547/.709). I don’t know how much more the Cubs need to see out of him in Mesa. He’s reaching base nearly 55% of the time (Caissie already has four 3-walk games), he’s slugging, he’s hitting for average. I know the Myrtle Beach outfield is already a bit crowded, but…

After reaching twice in his first ACL action on Saturday, trade deadline acquisition Kevin Alcantara (.364/.447/.515 in 10 games between FCL/ACL) reached three more times on Monday. He also swiped his first bag (2nd overall). A highly projectable 6’6″ outfielder, the 19-year old Alcantara is expected to develop into a right handed power bat. His a bit like an outfield version of Reggie Preciado. Like Preciado, he currently mans an up-the-middle defensive position (CF) but as he fills out his lanky frame it is expected he eventually moves off to a corner. That makes it important for the power to eventually show up in game action, and just like Preciado it is reported Alcantara still has some work to do with pitch recognition and strike zone judgements. They are both high ceiling athletes however, and it cannot be ruled out that one or both could retain enough range to continue manning their current positions. If either one can, it greatly increases their odds of becoming an impact star.

A 16th round pick out of Puerto Rico back in 2019, Johzan Oquendo was given the max $125K bonus as a projectable 6’2″ 180 pound righty who was already hitting the low-90s. He was also working on a slider at the time. I’d be surprised if he hasn’t added some additional velo and another secondary, but he’s someone I have found no progress reports on from the ACL. Oquendo has put up good number thus far though as a 20-year old. In his first 7 career games (1 start) he has held the opposition to 1 earned run on 8 hits and 6 walks over 14 IP, while striking out 15.

DSL

Ranger1 2, Cubs Blue 1

Rangers2 13, Cubs Red 10

Seventeen year old Pedro Ramirez (.357/.419/.411) continues to put up encouraging numbers in his pro debut. The switch-hitting shortstop jacked his first professional homer as part of a big day at the plate: 3-5, HR, 4 R, 4 RBI, SB (2)

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  Michael, you stated promotions generally take place at the end and beginning he month. It would seem this year player…
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NEW YORK — New York City will soon require proof of COVID-19 vaccinations for anyone who wants to dine indoors at a restaurant, see a performance or go to the gym, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday, making it the first big city in the U.S. to impose such restrictions.

The new requirement, which will be phased in over several weeks in August and September, is the most aggressive step the city has taken yet to curb a surge in cases caused by the Delta variant. People will have to show proof that they have had at least one dose of a vaccine.

“The only way to patronize these establishments indoors will be if you’re vaccinated,” de Blasio said. “The goal here is to convince everyone that this is the time. If we’re going to stop the Delta variant, the time is now. And that means getting vaccinated right now.”

The Democrat said some details of how the program will work still need to be worked out. The policy will go into effect on Aug. 16 but inspections and enforcement won’t begin until Sept. 13, the week that the city’s public schools reopen for the fall.

Vaccination cards will be accepted as proof of inoculation, along with state and city apps.

De Blasio has focused on getting as many New Yorkers vaccinated as possible while resisting calls to mandate masks indoors, as several cities and counties in California have done.

De Blasio said Monday he was making “a strong recommendation” that everyone wear a mask in public indoor settings but stressed that the city’s “overwhelming strategic thrust” remained getting more people vaccinated.

The mayor announced last week that city employees would be required to get vaccinated by mid-September or to face weekly testing, and he has offered a $100 incentive for city residents who get inoculated.

About 66% of adults in New York City are fully vaccinated, according to official data.

On Monday, the U.S. reached President Joe Biden’s goal of getting at least one COVID-19 shot into 70% of American adult s — a month late and amid a surge by the delta variant that is overwhelming hospitals and prompting renewed pandemic regulations around the country.

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PepsiCo will sell Tropicana and other juices to a private equity firm in a $3.3 billion deal.

The New York drink and snack company will keep a 39% non-controlling stake in a newly formed joint venture in the deal with PAI Partners.

The sale reflects the industry’s uncertainty about demand for fruit juice as consumers look for healthier options with less sugar, said Howard Telford, head of soft drinks at Euromonitor International, a market research firm.

“This deal reflects the desire of the industry to focus and innovate around a smaller core of categories and brands, including water, energy drinks, coffee and the staple carbonated soft drinks,” Telford said.

U.S. juice sales volumes actually rose last year as more people enjoyed breakfast at home during the pandemic and sought the immunity benefits of vitamin C, Telford said. But that was a blip in a longer-term decline. Overall juice sales fell 3% between 2015 and 2020, the data firm said.

Juice consumption in the U.S. peaked in 2003 at 4.2 billion gallons, but by 2017, that had fallen to 3 billion gallons, wrote Brian Sudano, the managing partner of Beverage Marketing Corp. The group does not see that trend changing.

Pepsi rival Coca-Cola Co. has also been shedding slow-selling brands, including Odwalla and Zico juices, over the last year so it can focus on stronger performers. But Coke is holding on to its Minute Maid and Simply juice brands for now.

The juice business delivered about $3 billion in revenue for PepsiCo last year, but at operating profit margins that were below the company’s overall margins, it said. In its annual report, Pepsi said falling juice sales offset gains for other products in North America, including water, sports drinks like Gatorade and energy drinks like Propel.

PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a prepared statement Tuesday that the deal “will free us to concentrate on our current portfolio of diverse offerings, including growing our portfolio of healthier snacks, zero-calorie beverages, and products like SodaStream.”

PepsiCo bought Tropicana in 1998 and the Naked juice brand, also part of the sale Tuesday, about 10 years later. It was heading in another direction by 2018 when it bought SodaStream, the carbonated drink machine company, for more than $3 billion.

PepsiCo Inc., based in New York, has the option to sell certain juice businesses in Europe.

The deal is expected to close late this year or early next year.

Pepsi shares were flat in early trading Tuesday.

___

AP Business Writer Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this report.

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Chicago Bears: No, Nick Foles isn’t being traded to the Colts by Ryan Heckman

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(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The Chicago Cubs were one of the best teams in Major League Baseball for a few years there. They had a core filled with players like Anthony Rizzo, Jon Lester, Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, and Willson Contreras that led to a lot of wins. Unfortunately, they have started to dismantle that core as they try to rebuild their team for the future. They ended a World Series drought that lasted 108 years but now it is time to move on.

Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez are the three biggest pieces from that group that was moved during the week of the 2021 MLB Trade Deadline. The Cubs were not a very good baseball team before that and now it is even worse. They haven’t been World Series contenders since 2017, despite being pretty good in 2018 and 2020.

All of those guys are going to be remembered in Chicago for a very long time. They were all elite for their entire tenures but it was time for a change. That was proven when they all hit home runs in their first games with their new teams.

They will be fan favorites for a long time but they will also be playing with their news teams for the rest of this season and we will see what happens beyond that. Some people are hopeful that they return after the season is over but that is incredibly unlikely.

It is up to Jed Hoyer to get the Chicago Cubs rebuilt and back in a winning direction.

There are a lot of reasons to wonder what happened. Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, and the entire management did a very good job early on but some big mistakes have led to the dismantling that you saw last week. These are the three biggest mistakes that the team made that led to it:

Next: One horrible trade

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Sebastian Cheeks freely acknowledges becoming one of the best prep football players in Illinois wasn’t a solo effort.

On Wednesday, Cheeks was in steamy, non-air-conditioned Beardsley Gym at Evanston to announce his commitment to North Carolina. The four-star rising senior thanked many who helped him along the way, from family to coaches to friends.

But maybe the biggest boost came from two people,

“I have two older brothers [Gabriel and Logan] that have just pushed me my whole life,” Cheeks said. “And that improves everything. They’ve made me competitive.

“I remember being in the front yard, playing basketball, 2 a.m. in the morning, just going at it. I was always the youngest brother and I love to compete. I had a little bit of bang with my oldest two.”

Now, Cheeks is a 6-3, 210-pound linebacker rated fourth in Illinois, 15th nationally at his position and 131st overall in the 247Sports.com composite rankings.

His 27 Power Five offers include Notre Dame, nine from the Big Ten (Illinois, Northwestern, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota and Wisconsin) and six from the SEC (Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt).

In the end, College Football Hall of Famer Mack Brown, who won a national championship at Texas in 2005, won out.

The Tar Heels entered the chase earlier this year and immediately made a good impression on Cheeks.

“Honestly, they kept it authentic,” he said. “And I knew once I took my official [visit], it was pretty much a wrap.”

Cheeks said he found an immediate connection with Brown, assistant Jay Bateman and the rest of the coaching staff. And he met his deadline of making a college choice before his senior season, which starts with practice beginning Aug. 9 and the season opener on Aug. 27.

“Anytime you commit, I think it’s a little bit of weight off your shoulders,” Cheeks said. “It’s a good feeling, I’m blessed to be in this position.”

Speaking of positions, Cheeks got his first offer as a running back. He was one of two Division I prospects in the Wildkits backfield with Quadre Nicholson, who made his college debut during the abbreviated spring season with Miami (Ohio).

But Cheeks always knew where his future lay.

“I knew that I wanted to be on the defensive side of the ball,” he said. “I knew I just wanted to hit.”

Maine East’s rising star

Yaser Alawadi didn’t play his first football game till he was a freshman at Maine East. He only had one more that year, a full sophomore season and then a few games during this spring’s pandemic campaign.

But with that small body of work, Alawadi is a three-star prospect at offensive tackle and one of the state’s best in the class of 2022. He’s No. 23 among Illinois’ rising seniors and in the top 150 nationally at his position according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

His size — 6-8, 300 pounds — has a lot to do with it.

“Coaches like that,” Alawadi said. “That’s the one thing you can’t teach.”

Even with recruiting being shut down for months during the pandemic, Alawadi has snagged Power Five offers from Michigan State, Purdue, Iowa State, Kansas and West Virginia.

That’s even with some schools waiting to see some film on him this fall to gauge his progression.

“I’m pretty raw,” Alawadi said. “I’m a little bit behind my class, you could say.”

Maine East coaches encouraged Alawadi, who also is a thrower for the track team, to try football and he eventually came out late in his freshman season. “They had to put me on the JV level,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

But after an offseason of working on his technique, Alawadi played on the varsity as a sophomore and college coaches started to take notice.

The future looks bright, given how much upside he can work on.

“Keeping my shoulder pads down, learning more about football,” he said. “It’s not just going out there and hitting people.”

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The union that tried — and failed — to organize Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama may get a do-over.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union on Monday said that a hearing officer for the National Labor Relations Board has recommended that the vote by workers in April to overwhelmingly reject the union be set aside and that another vote be held in its place. The hearing officer determined that Amazon violated labor law, according to the union.

Amazon countered in a statement that “our employees had a chance to be heard during a noisy time when all types of voices were weighing into the national debate, and at the end of the day, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of a direct connection with their managers and the company. Their voice should be heard above all else, and we plan to appeal to ensure that happens.”

The NLRB, which could not be reached for comment, has not yet issued a final decision, which would typically come two or three weeks after the initial recommendation.

The RWDSU said Monday it supports the initial recommendation by the hearing officer.

“Workers endured an intensive anti-union campaign designed by Amazon to intimidate and interfere with their choice on whether or not to form a union,” it said in a statement.

The union said in a filing in April that Amazon threatened workers with layoffs and even the closing of the warehouse if they unionized. It also said Amazon fired a pro-union employee, but declined to name the person.

Many of the other allegations by the union revolve around a mailbox that Amazon installed in the parking lot of the Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse. It said the mailbox created the false appearance that Amazon was conducting the election, intimidating workers into voting against the union. Security cameras in the parking lot could have recorded workers going to the mailbox, giving the impression that workers were being watched by the company and that their votes weren’t private, according to the retail union.

Workers overwhelmingly voted against forming a union, with 1,798 rejecting it and 738 voting in favor of it. A total of 3,117 votes were cast, about 53% of the nearly 6,000 workers at the warehouse.

The union push was the biggest in Amazon’s history and only the second time that an organizing effort from within the company had come to a vote. But Bessemer was always viewed as a long shot since it pitted the country’s second-largest employer against warehouse workers in a state with laws that don’t favor unions.

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