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Dak: 'Talented' Dez will be missed by Dallas

DALLAS — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has exchanged text messages with Dez Bryant since the wide receiver’s release from the franchise on Friday.

“It’s sad news. That’s a brother to me,” Prescott said from a women’s clinic he was hosting at Episcopal Parish School in Dallas. “Put the football stuff behind you, and what he meant to me as a person, what he meant to me as a brother, it’s tough to see him go. It shows you it’s a business. All it does is motivate me and puts all this in perspective. Just got to go to work.”

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Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones met with Bryant for roughly 20 minutes on Friday, as Jones made the move without offering Bryant a pay cut. The Cowboys saved $8.5 million against the salary cap by cutting Bryant, the franchise’s all-time leader in touchdown receptions.

Prescott was at The Star working out with teammates when the news came that Bryant had been released.

“Dez is going to be a hard guy to replace,” Prescott said. “He’s a talented guy, so he’ll be missed.”

In an interview with NFL Network, Bryant insinuated that coaches played a part in his release as well as players he labeled as “Garrett guys” and captains.

Prescott was one of the captains last season, along with Jason Witten, Sean Lee, Tyrone Crawford, Dan Bailey and Orlando Scandrick, who was released earlier in the offseason.

“I mean, I’m sure he’s hearing stuff, and I’m sure he’s getting it from a lot of different ways, so I mean, I’m not going to finger-point at anybody,” Prescott said. “I’m not going to get upset for who he’s pointing at or who he thinks did this. So I mean, as I said, it’s a business, and it’s part of it.”

Prescott said he heard the speculation that Bryant could be released throughout the offseason, but “I can’t say that I actually thought that it would fully happen.”

The Cowboys made a serious run at signing Sammy Watkins at the opening of free agency, which would have ended Bryant’s tenure with the team in mid-March. Eventually, they signed Allen Hurns and Deonte Thompson. They have visited with and worked out almost all of the top receivers in the draft, including Calvin Ridley, D.J. Moore, Courtland Sutton and James Washington.

Bryant’s production decreased since he signed a five-year, $70 million contract in 2015. He battled through foot and knee injuries and was hurt by ineffective quarterback play in 2015 after Tony Romo was hurt. Prescott and Bryant finished strong to close the 2016 season (six of Bryant’s eight touchdowns came in the second half of the season), but they never got on the same page in 2017.

Bryant finished with 69 catches for 839 yards and six scores but did not have a 100-yard game for the first time since 2011.

“He was a great player,” Prescott said. “He did a lot of great things for us, obviously. I mean, he was a guy in man-to-man [coverage] you go to. So I mean, at this point we’ve got to figure that out with the guys we got, and I’m sure we’re going to go after guys in the draft and free agency, who knows? All I can do is continue to get better at my job and just do the best I can.”

Soccer

Sergio Ramos avoids suspension for Champions League semi-final

Sergio Ramos will play in Real Madrid’s next Champions League match after all.

After fears he could be suspended for the semi-finals for appearing to violate a touchline ban Wednesday against Juventus, UEFA informed Real Madrid the centre-back will, in fact, be eligible to play in the team’s first leg against Bayern Munich on April 25, director Emilio Butragueno told ESPN FC’s Dermot Corrigan.

“UEFA have told us there is no risk of a ban as there is not reason for one,” Butragueno said.

Ramos had to watch Madrid’s 3-1 defeat to Juventus from the stands due to yellow-card accumulation, having received his third booking of the competition in the opening leg in Turin. He was handed an immediate touchline ban for the second leg, but was reportedly seen in the tunnel having a discussion with Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri, instigating concerns he could be handed another one-match suspension.

Bayern will host Madrid in the first leg, with the reverse fixture to be played May 1 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

NFL

Amendola: Patriots' offer wasn't close to others

BOSTON — Wide receiver Danny Amendola detailed the factors that led him to leave the New England Patriots for the Miami Dolphins as a free agent this offseason, saying that after three years of taking a pay cut the team’s offer fell significantly short compared to others he had received.

“I came in with an open mind. I understand Bill [Belichick] runs a tight ship, and he hasn’t been known to pay his players, really. I understood that I gave money back to him so I could play for him and play for my teammates and fulfill my side of the contract, and at the end of the day, I had faith that he was going to give me an opportunity to stay,” Amendola told ESPN.

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“When free agency broke, I came to the realization that he wasn’t going to really come close to any of the other offers I had,” he said. “I had to make a decision for my family and go down to Miami and continue my career there.”

Amendola, who signed a two-year, $12 million deal with the Dolphins that included $8.25 million in bonuses and guarantees, was in New England on Friday as the featured guest at the American Cancer Society’s “Relay for Life” event at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, and ESPN rode with him to the event.

Speaking to the crowd at the event, Amendola praised Belichick as the “best coach to ever coach the game.” In his interview with ESPN, Amendola also discussed how it was challenging to play for Belichick at times.

“It’s not easy, that’s for sure. He’s an a–h— sometimes. There were a lot of things I didn’t like about playing for him, but I must say, the things I didn’t like were all in regards to getting the team better, and I respected him,” he said. “I didn’t like practicing in the snow, I didn’t like practicing in the rain, but that was going to make us a better football team and that was going to make me a better football player. It wasn’t easy, and he’d be the first to admit, at the [Super Bowl] ring ceremony, that it wasn’t easy playing for him. The silver lining was that we were at the ring ceremony.”

Part of the Patriots’ success under Belichick in the salary-cap era has been maintaining financial discipline and building a strong middle class on the roster, and that business side of the game is something Amendola said he learned early in his career when he was cut by two different teams before playing in his first career game.

Meanwhile, Amendola said the Patriots’ loss to the Eagles in Super Bowl LII still stings, and it hurt to see cornerback Malcolm Butler benched on defense for the game.

“I have my thoughts about it because I was out there putting my blood, sweat and tears out on the field that night, and one of our best players wasn’t on the field,” he said. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know why. I did ask, but I didn’t get any answers. I can’t make decisions like that, so I don’t necessarily worry about it, but I know Malcolm is a great player and he could have helped us win. For whatever reason, he wasn’t out there. He’s going to play more football in his career, and he’s going to be a great player for a long time.”

Asked if he sensed the Butler decision hurt his Patriots teammates, Amendola said, “Yeah, I did, honestly. Nobody really got an explanation for it. He’s a brother of ours. He was a brother of ours that year. And I hate to see a guy who worked so hard throughout the season not get a chance to play in the biggest game of the year and really get no explanation for it. With that said, I don’t know how the business aspect went into that decision. I don’t know how the personal aspect went into that decision between him and Bill. But as a friend, I would have loved to see him on the field that day.”

Saying he will always call Boston home, Amendola briefly seemed to get choked up when speaking of his friendship with Patriots receiver Julian Edelman while thanking him for raising his level of play.

Amendola, who referred to Patriots owner Robert Kraft as “a friend,” also spoke with excitement about joining the Dolphins, saying he has spent time at the team’s facility in advance of the voluntary offseason program so he can get to know some of his new teammates better. Amendola has already caught passes from quarterbacks Ryan Tannehill and Brock Osweiler, along with many of the team’s skill-position players, at a different location.

Dolphins coach Adam Gase has talked about changing the culture in Miami, and signing the 32-year-old Amendola — who said he envisions the window is closing on his career in the next three or four years — has been part of that approach.

“I’m not the oldest guy on the team, but I’ve been around for a while, and I know what it takes to win a championship, I know what it takes to have a successful atmosphere,” Amendola said. “I’m really excited just to share my knowledge in that respect, be a good teammate, whatever they ask me to do, and trying to catch as many balls as possible. … It’s a great opportunity to make new friendships and explore other football avenues. I’m really excited to continue to play.”

Soccer

Why Liverpool would be wise not to underestimate Roma

Liverpool fans can be forgiven for thinking Friday’s Champions League semi-final draw is a straightforward one.

Jurgen Klopp’s charges managed to avoid record 12-time winner Real Madrid and Bavarian heavyweight Bayern Munich, instead, drawing a Roma side that stands out as an outlier among European giants with rich continental pedigree.

Real, Bayern, and Liverpool are three of the European Cup’s most decorated sides with a combined 22 titles paired with 10 more unsuccessful finals appearances. Roma hasn’t reached a continental semi-final since 1984, and for I Giallorossi, Friday’s draw will provide an undesired reminder of how that campaign ended with a loss to the Merseyside lot in the European Cup finale in the Eternal City.

But before Liverpool supporters make travel plans for the May 26 final in Kyiv, there are a few reasons to fear Eusebio Di Francesco’s giant killers.

Punching up

Tasked with a challenging group that featured Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, it would have been easy to write off Roma. Instead, the Italians finished top of the quartet to book a last-16 date with a very good Shakhtar Donetsk side that took the first leg 2-1 thanks to Fred’s stunning match-winner. Cengiz Under’s away goal would prove to be the difference as Roma advanced following a 1-0 second-leg victory.

Roma’s continental campaign was supposed to end there. Ernesto Valverde’s Catalan giants were firing on all cylinders on the backs of an unbeaten La Liga season. The first leg at the Camp Nou certainly reflected as much. Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas chipped in with own goals to go with Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez’s second-half tallies as Barcelona took a 4-1 advantage to the Stadio Olimpico. And then, arguably the performance of the tournament happened to the surprise of pundits and supporters alike, as Roma stunned Barcelona with a 3-0 result to send the pre-tournament favourite packing.

Alisson

Roma netminder Alisson has been heavily linked with a Merseyside move, and after Wojciech Szczesny headed north in the summer to deputise for Gigi Buffon at Juventus, the Brazilian has snatched first-choice duties to great results. A slick melange of sweeper and ‘keeper in the mold of a tidy Manuel Neuer with hints of Ederson, Alisson has been instrumental to Roma’s success this season.

Often the point of origin of many a Roma attack, Alisson is also an outstanding shot-stopper, but it’s his proficiency with the ball at his feet that might be his greatest asset. Considering Liverpool often generates goals courtesy of Klopp’s high press, Alisson’s ball-playing skills are the perfect tool for countering pressure. 81 percent pass completion doesn’t hurt either, nor does an astounding rate of 3.38 saves per goal. Decent numbers.

Tough tactics

Liverpool is at its best when high-flying front-three Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Roberto Firmino attack on the counter. Roma will know this and happily concede possession while throwing men behind the ball. And no ordinary men at that, as Di Francesco’s squad boasts a robust set of midfielders in Radja Nainggolan, Kevin Strootman, and suddenly in-form De Rossi. Behind them are a selection of centre-halves the ilk of Federico Fazio, Kostas Manolas, and Juan Jesus, who all fancy a tough tackle. And after the trio played an influential role against Barcelona, confidence won’t be a problem.

When it comes to potential formations, it’s ultimately up to Di Francesco, who switched to a 3-4-1-2 in the second leg against Barcelona. That set-up both surprised and stifled Lionel Messi and Co., and it’s likely Roma will again line up with a plan to inhibit Salah. Di Francesco has most commonly opted for a 4-3-3 formation this season. “It only has one problem,” the former Sassuolo gaffer told the Guardian’s Paolo Bandini. “You struggle to mark your opponent’s playmaker.” Roma shouldn’t have that problem against the Reds, who instead of tailoring the attack to a traditional playmaking puppet master, thrive on the organic front-three and a fluid understanding of positions.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

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