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EDITOR PICKS

  • Watch: Carvajal's header delivers killer blow for Madrid in UCL final

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • Real Madrid beat Dortmund to win 15th European Cup

NFL

Report: Redskins cheer squad had to go topless

Washington Redskins cheerleaders were required to pose topless for a photo shoot in 2013, while spectators invited by the team looked on, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Some of the cheerleaders were then required to attend a nightclub event as escorts for some of the team’s male sponsors, according to the Times.

The cheerleaders said there was no sex involved, but they felt the team was “pimping us out.” The incidents occurred on a weeklong trip to Costa Rica, for which the cheerleaders were not paid.

  • A former Dolphins cheerleader filed a complaint in Florida against the NFL and the team, alleging discrimination against her religion and gender.

“It’s just not right to send cheerleaders out with strange men when some of the girls clearly don’t want to go,” one of the women told the paper. “But unfortunately, I feel like it won’t change until something terrible happens, like a girl is assaulted in some way, or raped. I think teams will start paying attention to this only when it’s too late.”

The Times also described an annual, mandatory boat outing with sponsors. Some of the women characterized the 2012 trip as “a wild gathering, where men shot liquor into the cheerleaders’ mouths with turkey basters. Below the deck, men handed out cash prizes in twerking contests.”

The Redskins responded to the accounts in a statement to the Times.

“The Redskins’ cheerleader program is one of the NFL’s premier teams in participation, professionalism and community service,” the team said. “Each Redskin cheerleader is contractually protected to ensure a safe and constructive environment. The work our cheerleaders do in our community, visiting our troops abroad and supporting our team on the field is something the Redskins organization and our fans take great pride in.”

The NFL has come under increased scrutiny for how it treats cheerleaders. Two women, former New Orleans Saints cheerleader Bailey Davis and former Miami Dolphins cheerleader Kristan Ware, filed discrimination complaints against the league last month.

Among the issues they cited were gender discrimination, sexual harassment, low pay, long and unpaid hours, and discriminatory social media oversight.

The NFL responded to the lawsuits with a statement saying: “Everyone who works in the NFL, including cheerleaders, has the right to work in a positive and respectful environment that is free from any and all forms of harassment and discrimination and fully complies with state and federal laws.”

The league said it would work with teams “in sharing best practices” to support cheerleading squads.

Sara Blackwell, the lawyer representing the former cheerleaders filing suit, said last week that the women would settle all claims for $1 in exchange for a four-hour, good-faith meeting with commissioner Roger Goodell and lawyers for the league. In a letter to an attorney for the NFL, they asked for a response from the league by Friday.

“We want change,” Blackwell said. “We want the opportunity for change.”

Soccer

Poll: Who will win the Champions League final between Real Madrid, Liverpool?

Thanks to its 7-6 aggregate victory over Roma, Liverpool booked its place in the Champions League final – its first appearance in the competition’s finale since 2007. But in order to win Europe’s premier club prize, the Reds will have to defeat fellow heavyweight Real Madrid, who’s looking to cement its third consecutive Champions League trophy.

So, with a total of 17 Champions League and European Cup triumphs between them, who will emerge victorious at NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv, Ukraine on May 26?

NFL

Big Ben: I plan on playing 3 to 5 more years

PITTSBURGH — Ben Roethlisberger might be quarterbacking the Steelers at age 40.

Roethlisberger told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he plans to play three to five more years if he stays healthy and his offensive line is intact.

The Steelers selected Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph with the 76th overall pick in last week’s NFL draft, raising questions about whether the franchise had found an heir apparent to Big Ben.

“If he’s going to be their guy, that’s great; but in my perfect world, it’s not going to be for a while,” Roethlisberger told the newspaper.

“I’ll still take it one year at a time and give it everything I have that one year,” Ben Roethlisberger told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports

Roethlisberger, who turned 36 in March, flirted with retirement after the 2016 season but started to entertain the prospect of future years last season. He publicly committed to 2018 minutes after a playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Center Maurkice Pouncey, his best friend on the team, told ESPN that Roethlisberger had informed him that he wanted to play three more seasons.

Roethlisberger has two years left on his contract, and team president Art Rooney II said this offseason that the team is prepared to discuss a contract extension with the quarterback.

“I went and talked to Art and Coach [Mike Tomlin] and coach Randy [Fichtner] and basically said, listen, I can’t control — barring major injuries, barring things at home, and things out of your control — the way my body feels,” Roethlisberger told the Post-Gazette. “The way our O-line is put together, as good as they are, they kept me healthy as can be the last couple of years. I really feel I can play this game another three to five years.”

Roethlisberger validated that notion with his play late last season. After a slow start to the season’s first half, Roethlisberger averaged nearly 350 passing yards and three touchdowns per game over the final seven outings. His entire starting offensive line is under contract, as are weapons Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell and JuJu Smith-Schuster.

“I’ll still take it one year at a time and give it everything I have that one year, but that’s what I feel comfortable telling [the Steelers],” Roethlisberger said about his time frame.

Soccer

Inferiority complex haunts Bayern in latest Bernabeu breakdown

A different year, a different manager, and a different group of players, but the same old story for Bayern Munich. Just like in 2017, it came to the Bernabeu in the Champions League semi-finals needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the home leg. Just like in 2017, Bayern outplayed its host but ultimately came up just short.

It was Bayern’s honorary president, Franz Beckenbauer, who confessed before kick-off that “I fear we have a complex with Madrid.” Such a claim might have been laughed off if it had come from the mouth of a fan or journalist. From a man who helped the team to three European Cups as a player, those words carry a little more weight.

This was the 26th time that Bayern had faced Real Madrid in UEFA competition – a record that no other pair of clubs could match. An enduring rivalry between two of the continent’s elite and also, historically speaking, a very balanced one. Before Tuesday, Madrid had won 12 times and Munich 11, with the remaining two ending as draws.

The Spaniards, though, had won the past six. Jupp Heynckes had made light of that truth in his pregame press conference, reminding us of all the ways that things had changed just in the last 12 months. His starting lineup included just five of the 11 players who were on the pitch at kick-off for last year’s semi-final, back when Carlo Ancelotti was still in charge. (Several, admittedly, were absent due to injury.)

Related: By the numbers – Kimmich stars despite Bayern’s elimination to Madrid

And yet, this game felt all-too familiar. Bayern was better than Madrid, as it had been in the first leg of the tie. At the same time, Bayern was also infuriatingly wasteful.

“Bayern’s DNA is that we always score goals,” Heynckes had insisted before kickoff. They did not disprove him here, finding the net twice, yet it felt telling that neither strike came from the players who the team would typically look to.

Only Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more times than Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller in the knockout stages of the Champions League in the past five years. That he has more than both of them put together is indicative of his otherworldly talent, yet these are still two elite players in their own right. So why do neither seem capable of demonstrating their quality against these specific opponents?

Muller has never scored against Madrid, and despite a robust work rate, never came closer to breaking that duck here than a weak shot on the turn just after the half-hour mark, easily smothered by Keylor Navas in the Madrid goal. Lewandowski should have done better with a near-post drive just moments later, and otherwise flattered to deceive despite plenty of service from his teammates.

More is needed from the Polish striker in particular, on nights such as this. Lewandowski racked up more than 40 goals in each of the past two seasons, and only needs one more to break that threshold again this time around. Yet he has failed to score in any of his last five Champions League outings.

The man who fired Borussia Dortmund through to the final of this competition in 2013 was supposed to be the missing link for a team seeking to validate its domestic dominance with success on the continental stage. Instead, ironically, Bayern has not lifted the big-eared trophy since facing off against Lewandowski and his former club at Wembley five years ago.

What will make this latest defeat all the more painful for Bayern is the knowledge of how much else it got right. The Germans dominated Madrid in midfield, taking full advantage of the extra midfielder that Heynckes’ 4-5-1 had granted them against opponents lining up in an all-too-predictable 4-4-2.

Related: Frequent fall guy Navas silences doubters with prodigious performance

With Thiago Alcantara dictating the tempo from his deep-lying role, Corentin Tolisso and James Rodriguez could take turns to range forward and support the attack. A goal was the least that the former Madrid man deserved for his excellent performances across the two legs.

Similar might be said for Joshua Kimmich, who opened the scoring after just three minutes, having already grabbed Bayern’s only goal in Munich. Here, undeniably, is a player with that Bayern DNA referenced by Heynckes. The 23-year-old has contributed six goals and 14 assists this season, playing at full-back.

His performances over the two legs might provide some crumb of comfort to Bayern, a reminder that despite this disappointment they remain a club rich with talent – even at a position where they might have been expected to feel a void following the retirement of Philipp Lahm. Kimmich, at least, showed no sign of an inferiority complex against Madrid.

Yet it takes a team effort to get through on a night such as this one. In general, it also requires not doing needlessly self-destructive things. Tolisso’s decision to play a blind ball back to his goalkeeper at the start of the second half was reckless, and Sven Ulreich’s subsequent slip, calamitous. Karim Benzema, having already cancelled out Kimmich’s early strike, was only too happy to accept this gift they had given him.

You could call that a manifestation of what Beckenbauer was talking about: an inability to hold nerve and do the simple things right when the pressure is highest. Or you could call it a moment of madness. In either case, the outcome is the same: Bayern exiting the Champions League in the semi-finals, with a grim sense of history repeating.

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Soccer

  • Watch: Carvajal's header delivers killer blow for Madrid in UCL final

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • An introduction to Top Soccer News on theScore ??

  • Real Madrid beat Dortmund to win 15th European Cup

  • Police arrest dozens of ticket-less fans at Wembley final

  • Dortmund boss Terzic lauds 'brilliant' Sancho after UCL defeat

  • Modric, Kroos among Madrid stars to make history with latest UCL triumph

  • Madrid's inevitability is a superpower no rival can match

  • Transfer window preview: 50 players who could move this summer

  • Vinicius Jr. named Champions League Player of the Season

“If you think about it, I've never held a job in my life. I went from being an NFL player to a coach to a broadcaster. I haven't worked a day in my life.”
-John Madden


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