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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Just before heading into the locker room to prepare for kickoff against Miami on Saturday, North Carolina receiver Tez Walker came to the sideline to give his high school coach a hug.

Josh Harris has been a father figure to Walker for nearly a decade. They still talk every day. As Walker prepared for his first game fully incorporated in the North Carolina offense, Harris peppered him with questions about how it was going and what he thought of the Miami cornerbacks he would face.

“They’re physical,” Walker told him.

“But can they run with you?” Harris asked.

“Nah,” Walker replied.

That became apparent in the first quarter, when he easily scored an 18-yard touchdown as a flummoxed Miami secondary lost track of him. Then he scored another, a 56-yarder on a perfectly placed ball from Drake Maye after Walker blazed past Jaden Davis. By the time he scored his third, the Hurricanes had no answers.

Walker had become the star of the game.

Six catches. 151 yards of total offense. Three touchdowns. Multiple statements made: To the NCAA. To his opponents. To himself.

When Walker transferred from Kent State to North Carolina in December, he envisioned games just like this one. But then the NCAA declared him ineligible this season because he was a two-time transfer. Walker had no idea it would take a seven-month fight with the NCAA — one that included a public pressure campaign, legal intervention and half a football season — to play in a game for the first time.

“I’m glad they changed their mind,” Walker said. “Very blessed and thankful they were able to do that for me.”


WHEN WALKER BEGAN classes at North Carolina on Jan. 9, he expected some challenges from the NCAA in getting his waiver to play in 2023 granted because he was a two-time transfer, but the NCAA had previously granted them in other cases. He and North Carolina believed he qualified for multiple reasons, because mental health was his reason for transferring and because he never played at NC Central, with the pandemic having canceled the season.

Two days later, he got an indication of just how challenging getting a waiver would become. On Jan. 11, the NCAA announced it was cracking down on waivers for two-time transfers and would grant them only if “student-athletes demonstrated and adequately documented a personal need for medical or safety reasons to depart their previous school.”

Walker tried not to panic.

He had lost football before — because of injury and the pandemic — and always found his way back onto the field. His road to North Carolina was not easy.

Coming out of high school, most colleges wanted Walker to play defensive back. He insisted on playing receiver. Few offers came his way. He took one from East Tennessee State in 2019, but a torn ACL derailed those plans.

Walker decided to stay home in Charlotte and took a job working at Bojangles to help pay his rehab bills. One day, three NC Central coaches walked in the door after watching game tape Harris had sent them. Walker stared at them, stunned, not expecting their arrival.

“I tried to play it cool, but it was heartwarming to see a team still take a chance on me when I thought nobody really was,” Walker said.

The clouds lifted, but only temporarily. The pandemic canceled the fall 2020 season and a planned spring 2021 season. Walker entered the portal again in 2021 and went to Kent State. While he was there, he grew homesick and began struggling with his mental health. Walker had served as the primary caregiver for his grandmother, Loretta Black, a role he took on in high school after she had multiple knee operations and could not walk on her own. Walker did whatever she needed — including bathing her, cooking, administering her medicine, cleaning and running errands while his mother worked two jobs to support the family.

While he was gone at Kent State, he constantly worried as she struggled with her physical health. Black reassured him she was doing OK, but, she says, “I couldn’t travel to see him, my feet swell, it’s hard for me to get around, and I can’t do that much walking because my body gets so tired and weak,” she said.

He opted for North Carolina because it was closer to her — Chapel Hill is a 2½-hour drive from his home in Charlotte, whereas it takes more than 7 hours to drive to Kent State in northeastern Ohio. He and North Carolina knew the fight with the NCAA might take some time, but both believed his circumstances would be enough to get that waiver.


THE NORTH CAROLINA administration and compliance staff started to gather all the necessary documentation, believing Walker had a case on three fronts. They believed his time at NC Central should not count against him because the pandemic canceled his football season; his mental health was his reason for transferring to North Carolina; and both NC Central and Kent State supported his immediate eligibility and were willing to file waivers on his behalf.

But the NCAA had recently changed another bylaw and would no longer take into account waivers from previous institutions that wanted to file in support of immediate eligibility.

“Everyone was fully supportive of Tez doing what’s right for Tez,” said Greg Glaus, Kent State executive deputy athletic director with oversight over football. “We wanted to be helpful for whatever that next step for Tez was going to be.”

Glaus said the school “had everything lined up and in the system. I don’t believe there was ever a denial or anything like that. I think it was just more, ‘We see what you’re doing. But that’s just not an option anymore.'”

North Carolina wanted to file two waivers. It believed Walker had a strong argument with the COVID-19 year and pointed out that if a school announced it was not playing sports that year, all student-athletes could immediately apply for an exception that would allow a transfer without penalty.

UNC also pointed to the toll that being away from home and his grandmother took on Walker’s mental health. Sources indicated the NCAA would not allow North Carolina to file these independently — they had to be rolled into one waiver, and the COVID exception would be looked at only as a mitigating circumstance. The NCAA repeatedly told North Carolina it could not retroactively apply that relief exception — that Walker should have done it in 2021 when he left NC Central.

For months, the NCAA and North Carolina went back and forth on the facts of Walker’s case. Sources indicated the NCAA was skeptical about the reason for Walker’s entrance into the portal because it was so close to when his head coach left Kent State. Sources told ESPN on Dec. 5, the same day the transfer portal opened, that Sean Lewis would leave the head-coaching job at Kent State to become Colorado’s offensive coordinator; Walker went into the portal Dec. 9 and committed to North Carolina on Dec. 21. To Walker, that skepticism made him feel as though the NCAA was dismissive of his mental health and the pages of documentation North Carolina provided. In addition to seeking help at Kent State, he immediately sought care when he enrolled at North Carolina, and the school provided that documentation as well.

“I feel like you read my story and just come out and say it had nothing to do with mental health was the most unfair,” Walker said. “I really struggled. I started to feel like it had nothing to do with me. I just felt like the NCAA probably had something against Carolina.”

The process felt like one big merry-go-round. North Carolina filed its initial waiver in the spring. It was denied. North Carolina appealed. It went to a committee made up of NCAA Division I representatives, and they upheld the initial decision. North Carolina got more documentation and asked for reconsideration. It was denied again. North Carolina appealed to the committee. It was denied again. North Carolina then asked for a second reconsideration of its initial waiver, which was denied and went to the full committee again.

At that point, it was Sept. 1, the day before the season opener against South Carolina in Charlotte, with no decision on Walker’s final attempt at eligibility. North Carolina coach Mack Brown laid into the NCAA in a statement, saying, “They say they’re about helping kids, but all they’ve done is add to the very mental health issues Tez has been dealing with that made him want to get closer to home to begin with. You can’t say you’re about helping kids and then show a total disregard for the kids you’re supposed to be helping.”

Walker had to sit out the game in his hometown and missed the opportunity to play in front of 30 of his friends and family members who had tickets (his family insisted on coming anyway). Though Black uses a walker and cane, and tires easily from walking, she pushed herself into the stadium and to her seat.

She said Walker came up into the stands before the game to see them. “When people found out who we were, they were so supportive, so we got through it with so many people being appreciative and supportive.”

A week later, on Sept. 7, Walker got what he believed was his final no from the NCAA. Again, Brown blasted the decision, saying the NCAA had failed Walker and his family. “It makes no sense and it never will,” Brown said.

Walker said his mental health worsened as a result. “That’s when it became hard to get out of bed, nights where I had thoughts that weren’t good thoughts. I was really struggling, but nobody knew that because I came in every day with a smile.”

Asked to elaborate on those thoughts, Walker said he was not suicidal but had thoughts about quitting and dropping out of school. “I didn’t want to do anything anymore. I felt if I didn’t have this game, I had nothing,” Walker said.

Walking around campus made it harder. Students often came up to him and said, “I’m sorry.” Walker said that he put on a fake smile but that he did not like being known as the guy on campus people felt sorry for. Though he said it wasn’t a “big thought,” he said declaring for the NFL draft was in the back of his mind. “I didn’t know what decision I was going to make. So it was 50-50.”

Ultimately, Walker pushed himself forward, went to practice and voluntarily asked to play on the scout team so he could help the first-team defense get better. He went to class because he did not want to fail. Receivers coach and passing game coordinator Lonnie Galloway made sure to check on him every day. So did his teammates. Walker credited the support of Brown, the staff, teammates and the administration for helping him. “It goes to show under the right coach, under the right staff, what they’ll do for you,” Walker said.

Walker also tried one more avenue at trying to play this season. Raleigh-based attorney Elliot Abrams and four other attorneys took on Walker’s case.

“Every other student gets to go to the place they think is going to maximize their future opportunities, and because he’s a football player, he has to sit in timeout for a year for making a choice that’s best for him. It’s absurd to me, and the human cost of that is completely ignored by the NCAA,” Abrams said.

The legal team, in conjunction with UNC, went through the case file again. “We looked at a case as one of these situations where the unjustness of the decision, the incorrectness of the decision and the illegality of the decision were all relatively apparent. We really believed that the NCAA would have to see that he met the criteria,” Abrams said.

Walker said his legal team began preparing the necessary court filings to sue the NCAA, in all likelihood by Friday, Oct. 6. State attorney general Josh Stein also threatened legal action against the NCAA in a letter he sent to the NCAA on Sept. 26, saying its decision likely violated federal and state antitrust laws.

“I just wanted fair treatment,” Walker said. “If they were not going to let me play, then we were going to just sue them. So it was just trying to figure out ways where we can go throughout that process and I could still play without punishment.”

On Thursday, Oct. 5, Brown called Walker up to his office. Walker walked in and saw Galloway standing there, too. “You’re eligible,” Brown told him. “You’re eligible, big dog!” Galloway said as he clapped. Brown came over and gave Walker a hug.

“I was in a state of shock,” Walker said. “I was glad it was over. Now I can focus on football.”

In its statement, the NCAA cited “new information” and blamed North Carolina for not providing it earlier, but UNC chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said that info was “immediately gathered and submitted.” Meanwhile, Walker said, “It was the same information we’ve been trying to give them and tell them that they’ve been reading for the last 10 months, so there was no new information.” (The NCAA declined further comment for this story, citing federal privacy laws and pointing to its previous statements on the case.)

Abrams declined to elaborate on what was presented, but he and Walker expressed their gratitude to the NCAA for taking another look.


WALKER MADE CALLS to Harris, Black and Ivey Cody, Walker’s mother. Black screamed so loud Walker had to pull the phone away from his ear. Harris simply told Walker he had to go because he was about to cry. “I found a corner in the gymnasium. I cried a little bit. I got myself together. Then throughout the day, I cried about three times just thinking about it,” Harris said.

Galloway and Walker immediately started working to get him into the game plan. Because he had been playing on scout team, and the game against Syracuse was just 48 hours away, Walker would have a limited role in his first game.

“We tried to cram as much as we could in, we knew we weren’t going to get everything,” Walker said. “I knew I had to go to my past notes and relearn the offense and the playbook as much as possible and then be locked in on Saturday when my number was called.”

With his grandmother, mother, uncle, sisters, high school coach and other family members in the stands, Walker was chosen to run onto the field carrying the North Carolina state flag. Black described the moment as “overwhelming.”

Walker got into the game in the first quarter, and his first catch was a short completion. He ended with six catches for 43 yards, and Walker said he played more than he expected. But he was also jittery because everything happened so fast.

Preparing for Miami would be completely different. Walker immersed himself in the game plan. He called on Maye and the receivers to watch extra tape. This would be his breakout moment, months and months in the making.

After it was over — North Carolina defeated Miami 41-31 to remain unbeaten — Walker ran to midfield to soak it all in. He did a television interview, while Galloway screamed, “Free Tez!” in the background. Then the two embraced, Galloway telling him how proud he was to be his coach.

An hour later, Walker’s mom, his uncle, his sister and Harris waited outside the football facility. Black was unable to make the trip this week, but she plans to make the next one. They all spoke about their excitement and joy, their relief and happiness that Walker was finally allowed to play.

They all had on their Walker gear. As they chatted, a man walked past and screamed, “The man scored more points than NC State did!” — a reference to the Wolfpack’s 24-3 loss to Duke earlier that night up Tobacco Road.

Walker finally emerged and walked over to his family, smiling the smile they all missed while he sat out. His mom, hoarse from cheering, called the entire night “magical.”

“It was beautiful, like a dream come true,” Cody said. “We had to fight for everything, and I showed him the example that if you want anything, don’t stop. Since the day he told me he wanted to play football, I said, ‘Go get it, son.'”

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB’s hottest trend

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What are torpedo bats? Are they legal? What to know about MLB's hottest trend

The opening weekend of the 2025 MLB season was taken over by a surprise star — torpedo bats.

The bowling pin-shaped bats became the talk of the sport after the Yankees’ home run onslaught on the first Saturday of the season put it in the spotlight and the buzz hasn’t slowed since.

What exactly is a torpedo bat? How does it help hitters? And how is it legal? Let’s dig in.

Read: An MIT-educated professor, the Yankees and the bat that could be changing baseball


What is a torpedo bat and why is it different from a traditional MLB bat?

The idea of the torpedo bat is to take a size format — say, 34 inches and 32 ounces — and distribute the wood in a different geometric shape than the traditional form to ensure the fattest part of the bat is located where the player makes the most contact. Standard bats taper toward an end cap that is as thick diametrically as the sweet spot of the barrel. The torpedo bat moves some of the mass on the end of the bat about 6 to 7 inches lower, giving it a bowling-pin shape, with a much thinner end.


How does it help hitters?

The benefits for those who like swinging with it — and not everyone who has swung it likes it — are two-fold. Both are rooted in logic and physics. The first is that distributing more mass to the area of most frequent contact aligns with players’ swing patterns and provides greater impact when bat strikes ball. Players are perpetually seeking ways to barrel more balls, and while swings that connect on the end of the bat and toward the handle probably will have worse performance than with a traditional bat, that’s a tradeoff they’re willing to make for the additional slug. And as hitters know, slug is what pays.

The second benefit, in theory, is increased bat speed. Imagine a sledgehammer and a broomstick that both weigh 32 ounces. The sledgehammer’s weight is almost all at the end, whereas the broomstick’s is distributed evenly. Which is easier to swing fast? The broomstick, of course, because shape of the sledgehammer takes more strength and effort to move. By shedding some of the weight off the end of the torpedo bat and moving it toward the middle, hitters have found it swings very similarly to a traditional model but with slightly faster bat velocity.


Why did it become such a big story so early in the 2025 MLB season?

Because the New York Yankees hit nine home runs in a game Saturday and Michael Kay, their play-by-play announcer, pointed out that some of them came from hitters using a new bat shape. The fascination was immediate. While baseball, as an industry, has implemented forward-thinking rules in recent seasons, the modification to something so fundamental and known as the shape of a bat registered as bizarre. The initial response from many who saw it: How is this legal?


OK. How is this legal?

Major League Baseball’s bat regulations are relatively permissive. Currently, the rules allow for a maximum barrel diameter of 2.61 inches, a maximum length of 42 inches and a smooth and round shape. The lack of restrictions allows MLB’s authorized bat manufacturers to toy with bat geometry and for the results to still fall within the regulations.


Who came up with the idea of using them?

The notion of a bowling-pin-style bat has kicked around baseball for years. Some bat manufacturers made smaller versions as training tools. But the version that’s now infiltrating baseball goes back two years when a then-Yankees coach named Aaron Leanhardt started asking hitters how they should counteract the giant leaps in recent years made by pitchers.

When Yankees players responded that bigger barrels would help, Leanhardt — an MIT-educated former Michigan physics professor who left academia to work in the sports industry — recognized that as long as bats stayed within MLB parameters, he could change their geometry to make them a reality. Leanhardt, who left the Yankees to serve as major league field coordinator for the Miami Marlins over the winter, worked with bat manufacturers throughout the 2023 and 2024 seasons to make that a reality.


When did it first appear in MLB games?

It’s unclear specifically when. But Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton used a torpedo bat last year and went on a home run-hitting rampage in October that helped send the Yankees to the World Series. New York Mets star Francisco Lindor also used a torpedo-style bat last year and went on to finish second in National League MVP voting.


Who are some of the other notable early users of torpedo bats?

In addition to Stanton and Lindor, Yankees hitters Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt have used torpedoes to great success. Others who have used them in games include Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers and Toronto’s Davis Schneider. And that’s just the beginning. Hundreds more players are expected to test out torpedoes — and perhaps use them in games — in the coming weeks.


How is this different from a corked bat?

Corking bats involves drilling a hole at the end of the bat, filling it in and capping it. The use of altered bats allows players to swing faster because the material with which they replace the wood — whether it’s cork, superballs or another material — is lighter. Any sort of bat adulteration is illegal and, if found, results in suspension.


Could a rule be changed to ban them?

Could it happen? Sure. Leagues and governing bodies have put restrictions on equipment they believe fundamentally altered fairness. Stick curvature is limited in hockey. Full-body swimsuits made of polyurethane and neoprene are banned by World Aquatics. But officials at MLB have acknowledged that the game’s pendulum has swung significantly toward pitching in recent years, and if an offensive revolution comes about because of torpedo bats — and that is far from a guarantee — it could bring about more balance to the game. If that pendulum swings too far, MLB could alter its bat regulations, something it has done multiple times already this century.


So the torpedo bat is here to stay?

Absolutely. Bat manufacturers are cranking them out and shipping them to interested players with great urgency. Just how widely the torpedo bat is adopted is the question that will play out over the rest of the season. But it has piqued the curiosity of nearly every hitter in the big leagues, and just as pitchers toy with new pitches to see if they can marginally improve themselves, hitters will do the same with bats.

Comfort is paramount with a bat, so hitters will test them during batting practice and in cage sessions before unleashing them during the game. As time goes on, players will find specific shapes that are most comfortable to them and best suit their swing during bat-fitting sessions — similar to how golfers seek custom clubs. But make no mistake: This is an almost-overnight alteration of the game, and “traditional or torpedo” is a question every big leaguer going forward will ask himself.

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St. Pete to spend $22.5M to fix Tropicana Field

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St. Pete to spend .5M to fix Tropicana Field

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The once and possibly future home of the Tampa Bay Rays will get a new roof to replace the one shredded by Hurricane Milton with the goal of having the ballpark ready for the 2026 season, city officials decided in a vote Thursday.

The St. Petersburg City Council voted 7-1 to approve $22.5 million to begin the repairs at Tropicana Field, which will start with a membrane roof that must be in place before other work can continue. Although the Rays pulled out of a planned $1.3 billion new stadium deal, the city is still contractually obligated to fix the Trop.

“We are legally bound by an agreement. The agreement requires us to fix the stadium,” said council member Lissett Hanewicz, who is an attorney. “We need to go forward with the roof repair so we can do the other repairs.”

The hurricane damage forced the Rays to play home games this season at Steinbrenner Field across the bay in Tampa, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. The Rays went 4-2 on their first homestand ever at an open-air ballpark, which seats around 11,000 fans.

Under the current agreement with the city, the Rays owe three more seasons at the Trop once it’s ready again for baseball, through 2028. It’s unclear if the Rays will maintain a long-term commitment to the city or look to Tampa or someplace else for a new stadium. Major League Baseball has said keeping the team in the Tampa Bay region is a priority. The Rays have played at the Trop since their inception in 1998.

The team said it would have a statement on the vote later Thursday.

The overall cost of Tropicana Field repairs is estimated at $56 million, said city architect Raul Quintana. After the roof, the work includes fixing the playing surface, ensuring audio and visual electronics are working, installing flooring and drywall, getting concession stands running and other issues.

“This is a very complex project. We feel like we’re in a good place,” Quintana said at the council meeting Thursday.

Under the proposed timeline, the roof installation will take about 10 months. The unique membrane system is fabricated in Germany and assembled in China, Quintana said, adding that officials are examining how President Donald Trump’s new tariffs might affect the cost.

The new roof, he added, will be able to withstand hurricane winds as high as 165 mph. Hurricane Milton, one of the strongest hurricanes ever in the Atlantic basin at one point, blasted ashore Oct. 9 south of Tampa Bay with Category 3 winds of about 125 mph.

Citing mounting costs, the Rays last month pulled out of a deal with the city and Pinellas County for a new $1.3 billion ballpark to be built near the Trop site. That was part of a broader $6.5 billion project known as the Historic Gas Plant district to bring housing, retail and restaurants, arts and a Black history museum to a once-thriving Black neighborhood razed for the original stadium.

The city council plans to vote on additional Trop repair costs over the next few months.

“This is our contractual obligation. I don’t like it more than anybody else. I’d much rather be spending that money on hurricane recovery and helping residents in the most affected neighborhoods,” council member Brandi Gabbard said. “These are the cards that we’re dealt.”

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Tulane suspends Finley after transfer QB’s arrest

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Tulane suspends Finley after transfer QB's arrest

Tulane quarterback TJ Finley has been suspended following his arrest Wednesday in New Orleans on a charge of illegal possession of stolen things worth more than $25,000.

Finley, 23, whose name is Tyler Jamal, was booked and released. Tulane said in a statement that the length of the suspension will depend on the outcome of his case. The school cited privacy laws in declining to comment further.

University police responded Wednesday to an address where a truck was blocking a driveway. After looking up the license plate, police saw it registered to a vehicle stolen in Atlanta. Finley arrived to move the car and informed the officer that he had bought the truck recently. He’s scheduled to appear in court June 1.

Finley transferred to Tulane in December after spending the 2024 season with Western Kentucky. He had been competing for the team’s starting quarterback job in spring practice alongside fellow transfers Kadin Semonza and Donovan Leary.

Finley, a native of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, started his college career at LSU before transferring to Auburn for two seasons and then Texas State in 2023. He started five games for both LSU and Auburn but had his most success with Texas State, passing for 3,439 yards and 24 touchdowns.

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