April 28 in sports history: The word on '88 Birds? #$@%*!

NFL DRAFT: QBS AT THE TOP

LSU's Joe Burrow was selected with the No. 1 overall pick by the Bengals in the 2020 draft, joining 14 other signal-callers this century taken with the top selection. 

On this date in 2011, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton was picked No. 1 overall by the Panthers. Newton was the most polarizing player in the draft. He dealt with questions about his character after incidents involving possession of a stolen laptop and allegations of academic fraud while he was at Florida, which he attended in 2007-08. (He transferred from there to Blinn Junior College.)

“There were a lot of stories that you heard that when you went and checked them out, you came away feeling very good about Cam Newton as a person,” Panthers GM Marty Hurney said. “All the people that you talked to, especially the people at Blinn, the people at Auburn, everybody had positive things to say about him." 

Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorensen was jacked about the pick. The previous season, the Panthers stunk. Worse, the 2-14 team was boring.  

"You’d go to a game and work to find a reason not to leave," he wrote about the 2010 season. "When you watched the Panthers on TV you’d make the beer run during commercials and when they had the ball."

Five years after Newton went No. 1 overall, the Los Angeles Rams — making their first pick after two decades in St. Louis — went all in on Cal QB Jared Goff.

The Rams' move up to No. 1 was expensive. Los Angeles sent its first-round pick, two second-round picks (2016), a third-round pick (2016) and first- and  third-rounders in 2017 to the Titans for the No. 1 overall pick, a fourth-round pick and a sixth-rounder.

"We didn't want to just come home," Rams GM Les Snead told the Los Angeles Times, "we wanted to come home and contend — and contend consistently." Added owner Stan Kroenke: "To get a player who we believe can be a big difference-maker in this town, at this time, is unbelievable."

Under head coach Jeff Fisher, "Coach .500," Goff flubbed as a rookie, losing all seven of his starts. FIsher was canned that December, and, not coincidentally, Goff enjoyed greater success under new coach Sean McVay.

NO-NO FOR AN OLDTIMER

1961: In 1-0 win over San Francisco, 40-year-old Milwaukee Braves left-hander Warren Spahn became the oldest big-league pitcher to throw a no-hitter. It was his second gem in six starts — he threw another at the tail end of the 1960 season.  "It's just a crazy, wonderful game," Spahn told reporters after his 290th career win and 52nd shutout of his career.

ALSO

1966: In Game 7 of the NBA Finals in Boston, the Celtics beat the Lakers for their ninth championship and last under Red Auerbach, who retired as coach. "I don't think Los Angeles is capital of the basketball world yet," the jubilant Auerbach told reporters afterward. "This is it, baby. Right here."

1967: By refusing induction into the U.S. Army, then fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam, heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali was stripped of his title by the World Boxing Association. Ali — commonly referred in the U.S. media at the time by his birth name, Cassius Clay — said he could not remain true to the tenets of his Muslim faith if he served in the military. He risked criminal prosecution and a fine. "In the end I am confident justice will come my way," he said, "for the truth must eventually prevail."

In 2013, New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote that he was inspired by Ali's principled stance: 

"Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"

1985: Again? Really?

George Steinbrenner vowed Yogi Berra would complete the season as manager, but the Yankees owner couldn't help himself. With New York 6-10, Steinbrenner fired Berra and hired Billy Martin as manager for the fourth time.

"I'm in a very good mood," Berra told The New York Times after he was canned. "This is still a very good ball club, and they're getting a good manager in Billy Martin. I don't think my players laid down on me." 

Martin became the 12th managerial change made by Steinbrenner since he had purchased the Yankees from CBS in 1973. The move wasn't universally popular.

Wrote New York Daily News columnist Phil Pepe: 

This is one of the world's great love-hate relationships, Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner. ... Once it was great fun, good copy. Martin was exciting, daring, brilliant on the bench. The fans loved him and his players were charged up by him. He brought the Yankees headlines and their first pennant in a dozen years, but that was nine years ago and now he has become a tired, old act, worn out and beaten. He no longer motivates, no longer inspires. Now he breeds fear and tension and contempt.

The Yankees finished the season 97-64, second in the AL East. After the season, Steinbrenner fired Martin again, but he returned as Yankees manager again in 1988.

Yawn.

Happy birthday ...

• Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Ryan Saunders, who served as an assistant coach and interim head coach before being named to the top job in 2019. (34) 
• Golfer John Daly, 1991 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and winner of the 1991 PGA Championship and the 1995 British Open. Daly was suspended from the Tour in 1994 for walking off the course during a tournament and again in 2009 for off-course incidents. (54) 

R.I.P.

1993: Inspirational North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano, who led the Wolfpack to the 1983 NCAA championship and is remembered for the iconic scene of him running around the court looking for anyone to hug. Valvano formed the V Foundation for Cancer Research, which he announced during a heartfelt and emotional speech at the 1993 ESPYs. He died less than two months later. He was 47. 

"Jim was a dreamer, motivator and a fighter," Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski said at the time. "He did all those things to the last day."

2014: Basketball Hall of Famer Jack Ramsay, who coached Portland to the 1977 NBA title, died of cancer. He was 89.

April 27: Imagine "Showtime" Lakers in ... Minneapolis?