Lawrence Gets Franchise Tag Plus All Star Game Tonight In Today’s Sports

Congratulations to North Lamar senior Reagan Richardson. Richardson was voted Class 4A first-team all-state pitcher by the Texas Sports Writers Association. Reagan finishes her high school softball career making the all-state team each of her four years in high school.

Thanks in part to nine home runs in 47 seconds in the Final round, the Nationals’ own Bryce Harper took home the hardware with a miraculous comeback over Kyle Schwarber of the Chicago Cubs in last night’s home run derby. Harper becomes only the third player in MLB history to win the derby on their home field

Tonight in Washington is the MLB All-Star game. The AL and NL have both won 43 games and have tied two. Shin-Soo Choo will be representing the Rangers in the Mid-Summer Classic.

There was no last-minute drama between the Dallas Cowboys and DeMarcus Lawrence on Monday. Lawrence will make $17.143 million on the franchise tag, the benefit of his breakout 14.5-sack season in 2017. In his first four years, he made about $5.3 million as the Cowboys’ second-round pick in 2014. So he will more than triple his career earnings in 2018 under the tag.

The Pittsburgh Steelers and running back Le’Veon Bell failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension before Monday’s 4;00 pm franchise tag deadline and his agent says that means it is likely Bell’s last season with the team. “His intention was to retire as a Steeler.” Bell will play on the franchise tag for the second consecutive year barring an unforeseen development.

The NFL distributed more than $8 billion in national revenue, mostly from its television deals, in 2017. Each team pulled in $255 million, according to financials revealed on Monday by the Green Bay Packers, a team that is a public company because it sells shares from time to time to raise money, even though its shares are technically worthless. The bump is an increase of 4.9 percent in national revenues, attributed to an escalator in the league’s TV deals and the league’s Thursday Night Football package becoming more valuable.

LSU Coach Ed Orgeron said Monday in Atlanta, that he erred in hiring Matt Canada as offensive coordinator following the 2016 season, saying that current coordinator Steve Ensminger was the right choice all along. Canada spent only the 2017 season at LSU before mutually parting ways with the school. Orgeron promoted Ensminger, the team’s tight ends coach, to coordinator as Canada’s replacement.

In last night’s Homerun Derby, he was on the verge of an anticlimactic ending, but, Bryce Harper began a furious comeback with a nod and some family karma. Down 18-9 to Kyle Schwarber in the final round, Bryce went deep nine times in a span of 10 swings to tie it at the end of regulation. Then he drove the second pitch of bonus time over the fence in center field to win the thing, and all sorts of raw emotions came flooding to the surface.