UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State head football coach James Franklin has announced the hiring of Deion Barnes as defensive line coach for the Nittany Lions. Barnes spent the last three years on the staff as a research assistant working with the Line of Defense.
“I’m thrilled and honored to be my alma mater’s defensive line coach,” said Barnes. “I am very grateful to Coach Franklin for giving me this opportunity to lead a room of great young men who have worked so hard every day. I am very proud and passionate about Penn State University and look forward to working with this coaching staff, this team, my Letterman brothers and college football’s finest fans.”
After a professional playing career in the NFL and AAF, Barnes joined the Penn State coaching staff in 2020 as a defensive assistant.
During his three seasons working with defensive line coach John Scott Jr., Barnes helped coach 11 All-Big-Ten defensemen, including three first-team draft teams and one second-team All-American.
In his freshman season, Barnes teamed with Odafe Oweh and Shaka Toney, who became Penn State’s first defensive end duo to receive All-Big Ten First Team Honors since Courtney Brown and Brad Scioli in 1998.
Oweh was selected in the first round (31st overall) by the Baltimore Ravens in the 2021 NFL Draft, making him Penn State’s first defensive end since 2009 (Aaron Maybin) to be selected in the first round.
Toney was selected by the Washington Football Team in the seventh round (246th overall) as he and Oweh became the first defensive end duo to be drafted for Penn State in the same year since 1975 (Mike Hartenstine and Greg Murphy).
Barnes was a three-year defensive end letter winner for Penn State (2012-14) and was named 2012 Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
He spent two years in the NFL with the New York Jets (2015) and the Kansas City Chiefs (2016), and another season in the AAF with the San Antonio Commanders in 2019.
` source: Steelers agree deal with Patrick Peterson
The Pittsburgh Steelers have agreed eight-time Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson to a two-year deal, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity as the deal cannot be announced until Wednesday. Peterson replaces Cam Sutton, who is moving to the Detroit Lions. The Steelers eliminated William Jackson on Friday and benched Ahkello Witherspoon last season.
The 33-year-old Peterson, a three-time All-Pro, spent his first 10 seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and the last two in Minnesota. He had five interceptions for the Vikings last season.
Peterson made the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons and was an All-Pro in three of his first five.
The Lions and Sutton agreed to a three-year, $33 million deal with a $22.5 million guarantee, his agent David Canter told The Associated Press on Monday.
Detroit also agreed to a three-year, $18.75 million deal with linebacker Alex Anzalone, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the move had not been announced.
Sutton started in 31 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers over the past two years, making five interceptions and 95 tackles. He broke 15 passes last season, ranking sixth among NFL leaders in that category.
Pittsburgh drafted the former Tennessee star in the third round six years ago and he has eight career interceptions and 168 tackles.
Yankees flamboyant all-star Joe Pepitone dead at 82
NEW YORK (`) — Joe Pepitone, a 1960s New York Yankees All-Star and Gold Glove first baseman who became known for his flamboyant personality, hairpieces and penchant for nightlife, has died at the age of 82 .
Pepitone was living with his daughter, Cara Pepitone, at their home in Kansas City, Missouri, and was found dead Monday morning, according to BJ Pepitone, a son of the former player. The cause of death was not immediately clear, but BJ Pepitone said a heart attack was suspected.
The Yankees said in a statement that Pepitone’s “playful and charismatic personality and contributions on the field have made him a favorite of generations of Yankees fans, even beyond his years with the team in the 1960s.”
Born in Brooklyn, Pepitone attended Manual Training High School, signed with the Yankees in 1958 and made his big league debut in 1962. He helped the Yankees to their second straight World Series title, a team led by Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Elston Howard.
He came to the Yankees at a high point in the team’s history. After winning the 1962 title, New York won American League pennants for the following two years but lost in the series, and Pepitone was an All-Star for three consecutive years beginning in 1963.
He stayed with the Yankees through their decline and was traded to Houston for Curt Blefary after the 1969 season.
Pepitone played for the Chicago Cubs from 1970 to 1973 and ended his career in 1973 with Atlanta and the Yakult Atoms in Japan’s Central League. He hit .258 with 219 homers and 721 RBIs.
Fosbury Flop high jumper Dick Fosbury has died aged 76
Dick Fosbury, the lanky jumper who revolutionized the technical discipline of the high jump and won an Olympic gold medal with his “Fosbury Flop,” has died. He was 76.
According to his publicist Ray Schulte, Fosbury died on Sunday after a recurrence of lymphoma.
Prior to Fosbury, many high jumpers conquered their height by running parallel to the pole and then straddling the pole before landing with their faces down. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Fosbury took off at an angle, jumped backwards, bent into a “J” shape to catapult his 6-foot-4 frame over the bar, and then fell headfirst into the landing pit .
It was a move that defied convention, and before the eyes of the world, Fosbury overcame 2.24 meters (7 feet, 4 1/4 inches) to win gold and set an Olympic record. At the next Olympics, 28 of the 40 jumpers used Fosbury’s technique. The 1976 Montreal Games were the last Olympics to be won by a high jumper using a technique other than the Fosbury flop.
Fosbury began tinkering with a new technique as a teenager at Medford High School in Oregon in the early ’60s. Among his discoveries was the need to move his starting point farther back for higher jumps, so he could change the apex of his jump’s parabolic shape to clear the bar. Most traditional jumpers of the time would put one foot down and take off from the same spot regardless of the height they were attempting.
“I knew I had to change my posture, and that started the revolution first, and the evolution over the next two years,” Fosbury said in a 2014 interview with the Corvallis Gazette-Times. “Throughout my junior year I continued with this new technique, and at each meeting I continued to develop or change, but I improved. My results got better.”
The technology caused scorn and ridicule in some corners. The term Fosbury Flop is credited to the Medford Mail-Tribune, which headlined “Fosbury Flops Over the Bar” after one of his high school reunions. The reporter wrote that Fosbury looked like a fish swimming in a boat.
Fosbury liked “Fosbury Flop”.
“It’s poetic. It’s alliterative. It’s a conflict,” he once said.
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