INSIDE: CLASSIFIEDS, MARKET RECAP & WEATHER
B
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN " SUNday, FEBr Ua r y 7, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
NFL
Herbert offensive
rookie of year
LOS ANGELES — Be-
fore the season began, no
one was sure if Justin Her-
bert would play in 2020.
By the time it was over,
no one was sure if Herbert
could have played any
better.
The Chargers QB
capped his impressive ar-
rival Saturday by winning
the NFL’s offensive rookie
of the year award during
the NFL Honors awards.
“Being a rookie quar-
terback is probably the
hardest situation to be in
in the NFL,” teammate Jus-
tin Jackson said. “And he
made it look easy, man.
That’s how you know he’s
going to be a great player.
He already is a great
player, if we’re going to be
honest.”
Herbert, drafted No. 6
overall in April, opened
the season as the backup
to veteran Tyrod Taylor.
But Taylor was unable
to start the Chargers’
Week 2 game against
Kansas City after a locker
room medical accident
minutes before kickoff re-
sulted in him suffering a
punctured lung.
Herbert was forced into
action and led the offense
on an eight-play, 79-yard
touchdown drive to open
the game, scoring himself
on a four-yard keeper. He
never did relinquish the
starting job, even after
Taylor returned to health.
“The kid’s absolutely
incredible on the football
field,” linebacker Drue
Tranquill said. “And I think
he’s even a better person.”
Herbert completed
66.6% of his passes for
4,336 yards and 31 touch-
downs with 10 intercep-
tions.
He set numerous fran-
chise and league rookie
records, produced eight
300-yard passing games
and threw for at least
three touchdowns six
times. He also ran for five
scores.
Also on Saturday night,
Green Bay Packers quar-
terback Aaron Rodgers
edged out Kansas City
Chiefs QB Patrick Ma-
homes for the most valu-
able player award, Rodg-
ers’ third; Tennessee Titans
RB Derrick Henry was
named offensive player
of the year; L.A. Rams
tackle Aaron Donald is the
defensive player of the
year; Washington’s Chase
Young is the defensive
rookie of the year; Young’s
teammate Alex Smith is
the comeback player of
the year; Cleveland’s Kevin
Stefanski is the coach of
the year.
The NFL also an-
nounced the 2021 Hall
of Fame class: Peyton
Manning, Charles Wood-
son, Calvin Johnson, Alan
Faneca, John Lynch, Drew
Pearson, and former Raid-
ers and Seahawks coach
Tom Flores.
Leading the way outside
Former champion
Leon Spinks dies
LAS VEGAS — Former
heavyweight champion
Leon Spinks Jr. has died
after battling prostate
and other cancers. He
was 67.
Spinks died Friday
night, according to a
release from a public
relations firm. His wife,
Brenda Glur Spinks, and
a few close friends and
other family members
were by his side when he
passed away.
Spinks won gold at
the 1976 Montreal Olym-
pics. But he rose in prom-
inence when he beat
Muhammad Ali for the
heavyweight title in 1978.
— Associated Press
Storylines
galore as
Mahomes,
Brady clash
BY BARRY WILNER
AP Pro Football Writer
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Mike Rougeux was named the new executive director of the Bend Endurance Academy, which offers development programs for youth and
juniors in rock climbing, cycling, and nordic skiing.
New executive director of Bend Endurance Academy guides the nonprofit through the pandemic
BY MARK MORICAL
The Bulletin
M
ike Rougeux
stepped in as the
interim executive
director of the Bend Endurance
Academy the first week of March
last year.
“Little did I know what the next
week was going to bring,” Rougeux
said this week.
“Some of those indoor programs, like dance or gymnastics, or
basketball, have definitely been more impacted. But people are still
hungry to get their kids that social interaction. So outdoor programs are
more able to operate and parents are more comfortable with it.”
— Mike Rougeux, executive director of the Bend Endurance Academy
Rougeux has led the Bend Endurance
Academy — a local nonprofit founded in
2009 that offers development programs
for youth and juniors in rock climbing,
mountain biking, and nordic skiing —
throughout the COVID-19 pandemic
and was recently announced as the offi-
cial new executive director by the organi-
zation’s governing board.
The longtime climbing director of the
Bend Endurance Academy, Rougeux
took over for former executive director
Sandy Visnak.
Operating youth outdoor sports pro-
grams has certainly been a challenge
during the pandemic, but more and
more youth are turning to outdoor pur-
suits as indoor sports have been mostly
shut down over the past year.
See Outdoors / B3
Someone will make his-
tory Sunday in a Super Bowl
so filled with storylines it
would fill a season of TV
programming.
Tom Brady, already the
true Game of Thrones king,
going for a seventh ring.
Patrick Mahomes, the ap-
parent heir to the quarter-
backing summit, seeking a
second in a row with Kansas
City — something no team
has done
INSIDE
since Brady
• Nickelodeon led New
England to
to have sig-
nificant pres- the double
ence in CBS’s in the 2003
coverage
and ’04 sea-
of the Big
sons.
Game, B3
Brady,
43, is in his
10th NFL title game, but
with a new outfit, the Buc-
caneers — who happen
to call Tampa home. Yes,
Tampa, Florida, where the
Super Bowl is being played
this year. Pirates of the Ca-
ribbean make port: No host
team has ever played in the
big one in its home stadium.
“There’s a lot that comes
along with the Super Bowl,”
says Rob Gronkowski, the
three-time champion tight
end who came out of retire-
ment to reunite with Brady.
“There’s a lot that comes
along with this week. I’ve
been there before. I’ve ex-
perienced it all before. But
just having it at home, cut-
ting out the travel, knowing
where you can stay, where
your friends can stay, where
you family can stay, it just
makes it a lot easier to have
it at your home stadium,
big time.”
See Super Bowl / B3
TENNIS | AUSTRALIAN OPEN PREVIEW
MOTORSPORTS | NASCAR SEASON PREVIEW
New teams, new tracks, new energy
BY JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
Andy Brownbill/AP file
Serena Williams reacts after losing a point to Karolina Pliskova during
the 2019 Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia.
— Los Angeles Times
BOXING
NFL | SUPER BOWL LV
Outdoors
As Serena, Nadal eye
records, virus looms
BY HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
Easy as it is to assemble a
list of significant Australian
Open story lines — from Ra-
fael Nadal’s bid for a men’s-re-
cord 21st Grand Slam singles
trophy to Serena Williams’
try for her 24th, from Novak
Djokovic’s attempt to win a
third consecutive title at Mel-
bourne Park to Sofia Kenin’s
defense of her first major
championship, and so on —
nothing hangs over the up-
coming two weeks quite like
questions involving the coro-
navirus.
There is, after all, still a pan-
demic in progress.
“During the tough months
of quarantine in Spain,” said
Nadal, who equaled Roger
Federer at 20 majors, three
ahead of Djokovic, by winning
the French Open in October,
“(there) have been too many
problems to think about ten-
nis, no?”
And no matter how much
better Australia has contained
its COVID-19 outbreak than
countries such as the United
States, a reminder of the pre-
carious nature of a large, in-
ternational sports event came
just a handful of days before
the scheduled beginning of the
year’s first Grand Slam tennis
tournament on Monday (Sun-
day PST):
See Tennis / B2
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Mi-
chael Jordan took his own ad-
vice and just did it: Air Jordan
formed his own NASCAR
team and expects the founda-
tion will be in place to build
a stock car Dream Team cen-
tered around Bubba Wallace.
Jordan has some company
on the celebrity starting grid:
Pitbull bought his own piece
of a NASCAR team and “Mr.
Worldwide” could have fans
— up to 30,000 of them at
the Daytona 500 — shouting
“Dale!” at next week’s season
opener.
“There’s no better time to
be involved in NASCAR,” said
Pitbull, who was attracted to
the sport by the 1990 movie
“Days of Thunder” and is
now partnered with new team
Trackhouse Racing, which
along with Mexican driver
Daniel Suarez provides a plat-
form to reach a broader au-
dience.
“In the same way that mu-
sic is a universal language, I
also see NASCAR as a univer-
sal language,” Pitbull added.
“Everybody loves a fast car
and a great story.”
The fan favorites extend
well beyond the owner’s box.
Chase Elliott, NASCAR’s most
popular driver, is the reign-
ing champion and three-time
Daytona 500 winner. Denny
Hamlin — who helped usher
MJ into the sport — has kids
Ralph Freso/AP file
Chase Elliott holds up the NASCAR Cup Series season championship
trophy as he celebrates with his race crew in victory lane after win-
ning at Phoenix Raceway in November in Avondale, Arizona.
asking about his PJs in a na-
tional commercial tagline he
can’t shake.
The schedule underwent
an overdue overhaul and now
has a whopping seven road
courses and five new venues.
NASCAR is even set for an
off-road detour through the
dirt at fan-favorite Bristol Mo-
tor Speedway.
Perhaps in any other sea-
son, NASCAR could raise a
glass to what its broadcast
partner is billing as “The Best
Season Ever.” But promis-
ing “best” anything in a pan-
demic seems as outlandish as
a 62-year-old driver — 1990
winner Derrike Cope — in
the Daytona 500.
Yet here we are.
While NASCAR can hope
the racial reckoning from last
season that led to its Con-
federate flag ban have eased,
concerns that it can reach the
season finale without inter-
ruptions to the schedule and
drivers falling ill still linger.
NASCAR last year navi-
gated the pandemic by first
filling the free time with na-
tionally televised iRacing and
found a way to become one
of the first major sports to re-
sume competition in May.
It was the first sport to
complete its full schedule
but got to November only
by moving races, running
without spectators or limited
spectators, and trusting par-
ticipants to monitor their own
health.
See NASCAR / B3