Florida State football head coach Mike Norvell just made a generous move, as he looks to continue mentoring the Seminoles. The 43-year-old Norvell has reportedly restructured his contract with Florida State and part of the process is an agreement that he would contribute $4.5 million to the “Vision of Excellence,” according to the school’s website.
“I presented this to our administration in an effort to boost the support of our student-athletes while recognizing that the results and expectations need to be upheld to the highest level,” Norvell shared in a statement.
“I wanted to be proactive in my financial assistance through this time of transition as we all push forward to get back to the standard of Florida State football. Great days are ahead, and I’m grateful to coach these players and lead this staff. We have been hard at work to uphold the tradition here at Florida State, and I believe this step will help accelerate the process to where I know we are going,” Norvell added.
The Vision of Excellence is a campaign “that seeks to immediately raise Florida State athletics to new heights,” per a statement from the Seminoles. This move is part of the House vs. NCAA settlement that allows schools to share at least $20.5 million with the players, beginning in July of 2025, according to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.
Norvell is being paid handsomely to run the Florida State football program, as he is sixth overall in the nation with a total yearly pay of $10 million. The $4.5 million that he would share with the Vision of Excellent nearly halves that pay for Norvell, who also comes with an expensive school buyout worth $63.77 million, per USA TODAY. His contract with the Seminoles runs until the 2031 campaign.
Norvell was hired to become head coach of Florida State football in 2019, succeeding Willie Taggart. and Odell Haggins (interim). Since he took over the Seminoles, though, Florida State has never made the College Football Playoff. That’s not to mention the embarrassing 2024 college football season in which Florida Football mustered just two wins overall against 10 losses.
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Archie Wilson came all the way from Australia to play football at Nebraska, and the freshman punter is admittedly feeling a bit homesick. Wilson recently enrolled at Nebraska after growing up in Victoria, Australia, and playing a different brand of football. The 18-year-old spoke with the media for the first time on Tuesday, and he was asked about his family back home. Wilson became overwhelmed with emotion. "I love them a lot. I've got two little brothers and my mom and dad ... yeah, that's the tough part about being here," Wilson said. "I love them a lot, but they know this is what's best for me, and it's good I can still talk to them plenty over the phone, and they're coming here to see the first few games, so I'm looking forward to that." Wilson is a rugby-style punter who trained at Prokick Australia, which is a program that trains Australian athletes to become punters and kickers in American football. Several current NFL players and Division I student-athletes came from Australia and trained with Prokick. Nebraska will have a new starting punter this season after three-year starter Brian Buschini graduated, and Wilson is competing for the job.
A Minnesota Vikings wide receiver's season is already over. The Minnesota Vikings announced on Tuesday that wide receiver Rondale Moore is being placed on season-ending injured reserve due to a leg injury that he suffered in the team's first preseason game against the Houston Texans this past weekend. It is a devastating blow for Moore, who is now being sidelined for an entire season, before it even begins, for the second year in a row. Moore signed a one-year, $2 million contract in free agency with the Vikings this offseason in the hopes he could return from a different injury that cost him the entirety of the 2024 season. Moore was a member of the Atlanta Falcons in 2024 after being acquired in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals for backup quarterback Desmond Ridder. This is now two different teams that Moore has been a part of, but will never play a game for them due to injuries. Moore was injured while returning a punt. He began his career with the Arizona Cardinals, catching 135 passes for 1,201 yards over three seasons before being traded. He was never going to be counted on to be a key contributor for the Vikings offense this season, especially given the superstars they already have at wide receiver in Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, but he still had a chance to be an interesting depth player. Now it is fair to wonder what the rest of his career might even look like. Missing two full seasons due to two different leg injuries is going to be a brutal thing to try to come back from. Missing two seasons for any reason is difficult, but when you add the leg injuries to the equation, it makes the obstacle even steeper.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani has been named in a lawsuit that was filed in Hawaii on Friday. Ohtani and his agent, Nez Balelo, are being sued by a real estate investor and a broker in Hawaii who have accused Ohtani and Balelo of sabotaging a $240M real estate deal for a development on the Big Island. According to court documents that were obtained by Jimmy Golen of The Associated Press, real estate developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr. and real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto say Ohtani and Balelo deliberately had them removed from the project “for no reason other than their own financial self-interest.” The lawsuit claims Ohtani was brought into the deal for his promotional value and that he and his agent pushed the founders of the project out using “threats and baseless legal claims.” “Defendants must be held accountable for their actions, not shielded by fame or behind-the-scenes agents acting with impunity,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiffs bring this suit to expose Defendants’ misconduct and to ensure that the rules of contract, fair dealing, and accountability apply equally to all — celebrity or not.” Hayes and Matsumoto have also accused Ohtani and Balelo of trying to push them out of a similar neighboring development project. The $240M Big Island development is located along Hapuna Beach, which is rated one of the top beaches in the world. Matsumoto was supposed to be the listing agent for the properties, which average more than $17.3M each. A brochure for the project stated that Ohtani, who was called “Japan’s Babe Ruth” has committed to buying one of the 14 properties and acting as a “celebrity spokesperson” for the development. Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700M contract with the Dodgers prior to the 2024 season. The two-way star is having another monster year with a .284 average, 42 home runs, 78 RBI and a 1.013 OPS entering Tuesday. Ohtani has also returned to pitching this season and has a 2.37 ERA across 19 innings. Ohtani was also connected to a massive gambling scandal last year, though Major League Baseball determined that the 31-year-old was not guilty of any wrongdoing.
Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell thinks he set his team up for failure last season with the messages he sent. The Lions won the NFC North and the top overall seed in the NFC Playoffs by going 15-2, but lost in their first playoff game to the Washington Commanders. In a new interview with WXYZ in Detroit, Campbell confessed that he thinks his messaging led the Lions to get too complacent after achieving the goal of securing the No. 1 seed. “There was a little part of me last year, I’m like, Man, did I put such an emphasis on the one-seed, playing at home, all these things that it was almost like — the set of circumstances, we had a bunch of injuries — that it was like, [sigh]. We took a deep breath,” Campbell said. “And then it was like, ‘Oh man, we reached one of those goals,’ but the ultimate goal is the Super Bowl.” “So I just, in my own head, did I set us up for failure by the way that I spoke about it? I think about little things like that. Whereas, you know what? We didn’t lose on the road last year. What if we had gone on the road?” Campbell is quick to take responsibility when his team loses, but last year’s playoff exit was particularly shocking. The Minnesota Vikings pushed them all the way to Week 18, giving them no real opportunity to exhale. Their playoff bye may have given them an opportunity to do that when they shouldn’t have. Of course, Campbell was plenty confident in his team heading into the playoffs. Still, the messaging will clearly be different in Detroit this season.
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