Sports

(EUGENE, Ore.) — The celebrated runner, who is the most decorated track star with 11 Olympic medals and 19 world championship medals, ran her last championship race ever on Friday, the first day of the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Felix ran the second leg of the mixed 4x400m relay final, securing a bronze medal for herself and fellow teammates Elija Godwin, Vernon Norwood and Kennedy Simon. Their final time clocked in at 3:10.16, not quite fast enough to keep the lead.

The Dominican Republic and the Netherlands teams overtook the Americans to place first and second respectively.

Felix’s family members, including parents Paul and Marlean Felix, husband Kenneth Ferguson and their 3-year-old daughter Camryn, were in the stands cheering her on at Friday’s championships.

Although this chapter of her life is ending, Felix said she plans on telling her daughter all about her two-decade adventure in running, to inspire her to go after her own goals.

“When she’s old enough to understand, I’m definitely going to be telling her about the journey that I’ve been on and really just how to overcome adversity and how to stand up for what you believe in and not to let anyone put limits on you, and I want her to go after everything she wants to do,” Felix told “GMA3: What You Need to Know” last week, ahead of the championships. “I want her to experience true equality and just to know that sometimes, you’ve got to be a fighter and just never to give up.”

After the race, Felix also took some time to reflect on social media. “It’s been such a joy,” she tweeted.

“What I’ve learned is that you have to keep going. Just don’t quit,” she wrote in the caption of a separate Instagram post. “When you get knocked down, get back up. Ask for help because you’ll never do it alone. Take small steps toward your passion and you’ll end up in your purpose. Be brave with your life because you’ll have an impact on people that you never thought was possible.”

“Don’t be sad it’s over, be happy it happened,” she continued in a follow-up post.

The 36-year-old first began competing in track and field while she was a student at Los Angeles Baptist High School, now the south campus of Heritage Christian School in North Hills, California. She was named High School Athlete of the Year by “Track and Field News” in 2003, the same year she turned pro.

Two years later, in 2005, she became the youngest athlete ever to win a world championship in the 200 meters.

Since that time, she has amassed a pile of wins at the international level, including nearly a dozen Olympic medals, as well as a number of U.S. national titles.

In April, the powerhouse athlete announced the 2022 season would be her last.

“If you see me on the track this year I hope to share a moment, a memory and my appreciation with you. This season I’m running for women. I’m running for a better future for my daughter. I’m running for you,” she wrote on Instagram at the time.

Felix also told “GMA3” that for her next chapter, she plans to shift her focus to her lifestyle brand, Saysh.

“I started a company for women after some of the adversity that I went through not being fully supported through my pregnancy,” Felix said. “It’s built completely for women. We make lifestyle sneakers and so I’m excited for more women to check it out … [I’m] really trying to do something different there.”

Felix will compete in one more final race, presented by her sponsor Athleta, in her hometown of Los Angeles in August before officially retiring.

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(NEW YORK) — Carson Pickett is still riding high after making history in late June for the U.S. women’s national soccer team.

The 28-year-old defender, who was born without a left forearm and hand and has been playing soccer since she was 5, became the first player with a limb difference to start a game for the women’s national team on the international stage, an achievement known as “earning a cap.”

Pickett, who also plays for the North Carolina Courage, helped the U.S. defeat Colombia 2-0 during a friendly match on June 29 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.

“It’s a moment I probably will never be able to fully describe,” Pickett told “Good Morning America” Thursday from WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. “My dad told me the night before, ‘When you go out there, take it all in.’ And I think that’s what I did when I first walked out on the field.”

“I saw the crowd and everyone chanting ‘USA’ and I just knew that my biggest dream just came true. I think it was so cool to see my parents in the stands and just all the little kids screaming your name and things like that. And honestly, it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my entire life,” she said.

It’s not the first time Pickett has been in the spotlight. Back in 2019, a photo of Pickett meeting with a young fan named Joseph Tidd, who also has a limb difference, went viral on social media. She and Tidd shared a fist bump at the edge of the field at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Pickett revealed in an April Instagram post that, in addition to inspiring young soccer fans, she hopes to be an advocate for others with limb differences.

“While I know that I am confident and comfortable with showing my arm, I know there are so many people in the world who aren’t. The feeling of being different and the anxiety of not fitting in is something that I have been through,” she wrote in part.

“I want to be an advocate for others like me, and for the longest time I didn’t use my platform well enough. Let’s all try to love ourselves no matter what we look like and let’s all be kind to each other above all else,” she added.

The rising soccer star said she plans to use social media to fulfill her advocacy mission and won’t shy away from talking about limb differences. It’s a conversation she said is long overdue.

“Before, it wasn’t like that. Growing up, I didn’t want to be different. In college, my freshman year in Florida, I would wear long sleeve shirts and things like that just to make sure people didn’t see that I was any different than them and they wouldn’t stare and now it’s just all changed,” Pickett said.

“Now that social media is so big, I think that it’s a really good platform to be able to reach people,” she added. “I’ve had people reach out from different countries, different states and it’s just so cool to meet people like me … I know sometimes it can be hard and uncomfortable. But I think the more that we talk about it, the better it’ll be for everyone.”

For young people following her journey, Pickett hopes to change the narrative, one that she didn’t always see in mainstream society.

“As time went on, I just realized that it actually is incredible to be different and honestly that everyone out there is different in some kind of way. We all have our own little quirks and things,” she said.

Pickett credits her parents for always supporting her and encouraging her to do anything those with two hands could do — and it’s a part of her message to others now as well.

“My dad always told me, ‘Never let anyone turn your sky into a ceiling’ and … just to follow your dreams. There’s no one out there who should ever tell you that your dreams are too big,” she said. “Continue to be yourself along the way and just enjoy the journey.”

“They also told me never to say the word ‘can’t’ and nothing was impossible for me and to never get discouraged and to continue to try every time,” she added. “You know, [if] I fell off the monkey bars and things like that, [I would] just get back up and try again.”

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(MOSCOW) — WNBA star Brittney Griner appeared in a Russian court on Thursday morning for the third day of her trial, as the Biden administration works to secure her release.

Griner did not testify but several Russian individuals testified as character witnesses about their experiences with the basketball star.

The first witness was Maxim Ryabkov, the director of UMMC — the Russian basketball club in the city of Yekaterinburg for which Griner played in the WNBA offseason. The second witness was team doctor Anatoly Galabin, who said that she never tested positive for doping while playing for the team. And the third witness, Evgenia Belyakova, one of Griner’s Russian teammates, said that Griner was the leader of the team.

Griner pleaded guilty on drug charges in a Russian court last week, saying that the vape cartridges containing hashish oil were in her luggage unintentionally.

Griner, who has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17, said she had no “intention” of breaking Russian law, and was in a rush but did not mean to leave the cartridges in her bag.

The WNBA star’s trial, which is taking place in Khimki — a suburb of Moscow — began on July 1, more than 4 1/2 months after Griner was detained.

Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was visiting Russia to play basketball in the off-season when she was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport after being accused of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in the country.

Her legal team told ABC News in a statement last week that her “guilty” plea was informed by a discussion with her Russian attorneys.

“Brittney sets an example of being brave. She decided to take full responsibility for her actions as she knows that she is a role model for many people,” they said in the statement. “Considering the nature of her case, the insignificant amount of the substance and BG’s personality and history of positive contributions to global and Russian sport, the defense hopes that the plea will be considered by the court as a mitigating factor and there will be no severe sentence.”

Griner’s detention was extended repeatedly, most recently through Dec. 20, which was the expected length of her trial. If convicted, Griner, 31, faces up to 10 years in prison and also has a right to an appeal.

The U.S. government classified Griner’s case on May 3 as “wrongfully detained,” meaning the U.S. will more aggressively work to negotiate her release even as the legal case against her plays out, the State Department has said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week that Griner’s guilty plea will have “no impact” on any of the negotiations to bring her home to the U.S.

Calls to free Griner escalated following the release of U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed last month, who was freed from a Russian prison as part of a prisoner exchange. Former Marine Paul Whelan has also been detained in Russia since 2019.

“We’re going to do everything that we can to bring home Brittney Griner safely, and to also make sure that we bring Paul Whelan back home, as well,” Jean-Pierre said.

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is planning to travel to Russia in the near future for talks aimed at negotiating a deal to free Griner, a source with knowledge of the proposed trip told ABC News.

Richardson, who also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, played a role in achieving Reed’s release.

ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti, Tanya Stukalova, Patrick Reevell and Henderson Hewes contributed to this report.

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(LAS VEGAS) — The Las Vegas Raiders recently announced Sandra Douglass Morgan as the team’s newest president, making her the first Black female team president in the National Football League’s history.

“It’s really a dream come true,” she told ABC News’ Amy Robach on “GMA3.”

Morgan has previously served as the chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, worked as a city attorney and was a member of the city’s COVID-19 task force. She was born and raised in Las Vegas, and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Nevada, Reno and graduate law degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

She is the third female president and third Black president of an NFL team.

“I’m just really, really lucky to have this opportunity and hopefully open doors for many other women and women of color in leadership roles in sports,” she told ABC News.

The team has faced some challenging moments over the past few years, with a number of top executives resigning or being fired.

Former Raiders president, businessman Dan Ventrelle, held the office for less than a year and left in May. The Raiders organization did not comment on the reason.

In a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Ventrelle claimed he was fired in retaliation because he had raised concerns to the NFL about “a hostile work environment” and “other potential misconduct” from the team’s owner Mark Davis.

The NFL announced it would open an investigation into the claims in May 2022, the Washington Post reported.

David said in a July 2022 statement that “we did an investigation into all those things,” the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. “We listened to the people who work in the organization and I believe we started to make those changes that are necessary to get the culture back to where we feel we can all be positive.”

The New York Times reported that since the Raiders team moved from Oakland, California, to Las Vegas in 2020, “six of the team’s eight top executives quit or were fired with little explanation.”

Former Raiders president Marc Badain resigned in July 2021 after 30 years with the organization.

Davis eventually told reporters that Badain, as well as the organization’s chief financial officer and controller, left because of “accounting irregularities.”

Former Raiders head coach Jon Gruden resigned after reports about inappropriate emails he sent went public, writing on Twitter: ​​“I love the Raiders and do not want to be a distraction,” adding, “I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt anyone.”

“It’s no secret that this organization has faced some recent challenges,” Morgan said in a press conference on Thursday. “I want to be clear, I am not here to sweep anything under the rug or avoid problems or concerns that need to be addressed.”

“I have accepted this role because I believe in the promise of the Raiders, I believe in the future of the Raiders,” she added.

She spoke about the role sports plays in the city’s economy, and her goal of making Las Vegas the “sports capital of the world.” The football team’s home field Allegiant Stadium opened in 2020 and, at a cost of $1.9 billion, it is thought to be the second-most expensive stadium in the world.

During the press conference Thursday Morgan claimed that “the Raiders organization has brought $2.29 billion in economic impact [through] visitors of events in Allegiant Stadium.”

It has already been announced that the 2024 Super Bowl will be held at Allegiant Stadium.

Morgan serves on the board of Allegiant, a low-cost airline headquartered in Las Vegas, as well as Caesar’s Entertainment, the casino and hotel company based in the city.

Both of these organizations are sponsors of the stadium.

“We’ll continue to monitor [those appointments] if there’s an issue,” she said during the press conference, responding to a reporter’s question. “Obviously, those boards know that the Raiders are my first priority.”

“I can’t wait to have this new season and a full stadium at Allegiant Stadium,” Morgan told ABC News. “We’re ready to go and ready to kick it off.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.Michela Moscufo, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — The Washington metropolitan region is home to a number of basketball greats, including NBA star Kevin Durant and the late NCAA legend Len Bias.

Among them is Delonte West, a former college basketball third team All-American who was the 24th overall pick by the Boston Celtics in the 2004 NBA draft.

West played eight seasons in the NBA alongside names like Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki with his final stint at the point guard position for the Dallas Mavericks in 2012.

“Basketball you know, for some it is just something to do. For me, it [was] a lifestyle growing up in the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia region),” West told ABC News in April, in a rare interview.

Though West shined on the court, he suffered in silence. Despite clutch jumpshots and game-winning alley-oops, West was struggling mentally under the pressure to succeed, and any game-time highs were paired with personal lows.

Starting in 2013, West was acquired by the Texas Legends, part of the “minor league” NBA D-League (now known as the G League). He played with the team for the better part of the year before signing a 1-year deal with the Fujian Sturgeons in the Chinese Basketball Association. From there, he bounced around the international scene, heading back to the Texas Legends in 2015, before ultimately being waived in April that year.

Despite the constant back and forth, he said the game kept him going.

“Living a life of mental illness, they call it — I like to say mental superpowers — you know, basketball was always my escape.”

West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2008.

Bipolar disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, is a mental disorder that causes “unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, concentration, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.”

An estimated 2.3 million Americans have bipolar disorder, and it affects people of all races. According to 2018 research available on the National Institutes of Health website, “people of African ancestry with bipolar disorder (either type I or II) have higher rates of misdiagnosis in comparison to people of non‐African ancestry with bipolar disorder.”

“It’s definitely been a spiritual journey you know, dealing with being bipolar,” said West. “A missed shot or lost game, it can turn it into a spiraling snowballing depression type of thing where, you know, to where it takes me hours or it took me hours just to leave the gym.”

West sought counseling and began taking medication but said the struggles between maintaining peace, calming his racing mind, and unleashing fury on the court were too tough to manage.

In 2012, the Mavericks suspended West twice, once for a reported locker room “outburst” and again for what the team’s president of operations, Don Nelson, called “conduct detrimental to the team.”

A series of off-court incidents accelerated his eventual exit from the game. A photo of West seen panhandling in Temple Hills, Maryland, went viral in 2016 leaving fans concerned, though West told the site Media TakeOut he had been helping an unhoused man in his neighborhood at the time, and was not homeless as some thought.

In 2020, photos of West reportedly panhandling made their way across social media. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban later picked him up at a Dallas gas station in an attempt to help get West back on his feet, according to ESPN, which confirmed the story with Cuban himself.

“Mr. Cuban, he’s been a guy in my life since I met him,” said West. “… He wanted me to be the best person I can be.”

“He’s been in my corner,” West added.

Cuban eventually helped reunite West with his mother and helped him financially, so West could focus on his family.

West has two children with wife Caressa Madden, whom he married in 2013.

“[Cuban] said, ‘hey, man, listen, I’m giving you a break away from the game,'” West said. “I’m going to handle your finances, you know, give you some time to raise these two babies.”

In 2020, West also entered a drug rehabilitation clinic with Cuban’s help.

“He said, ‘man the most important thing is that we get you feeling OK with yourself and being OK with life outside of basketball,’ because that’s the father my children need,” he said.

West was still hopeful that he might get back into basketball. In April, he was working out daily to prepare for Ice Cube’s Big3, a league made up of 12 teams of retired basketball players and international athletes, who play 3-on-3 games in an eight-week regular season. The league also hosts a playoff series and championship.

West had punched his ticket to the tournament at the D.C. open tryout, and eventually made it to the second round Las Vegas combine.

He went unselected.

“I was excited to have the opportunity,” West told TMZ Sports at the time. “I’ll be there next season. I’ll be there rooting guys on.”

Not every story has a fairytale ending, but West is still determined to make it meaningful.

Earlier this summer, he secured a freelance gig with ArmorGuard Coatings in Fredericksburg, Virginia, recently landing a flooring job at a Subaru dealership in the city.

“I told him that he can work with me full-time if he wanted but he told me he is still trying to do basketball,” ArmorGuard owner David Drake told ABC News.

So Drake offered West a solution that worked for both of them: When a job is available, and West is available, he can work for the company and still have the time to focus on basketball.

“I told him I’m just trying to help him and help myself,” Drake said. “I need a good worker and he’s a good worker.”

There’s a lot in the air for West right now, and he’s hopeful that things will start to fall into place soon.

His manager, Donovan Fordham, hopes so too.

“We’ve always known that Delonte’s journey back to a normal life, a place of inner peace and even a return to a basketball career would be one of constant challenges,” Fordham said in a statement to ABC News.

“But we both believe that, with the support of family, friends, former teammates and fans, he will overcome them and become the father, son, friend and teammate that we know he can be.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

INTERLEAGUE
Seattle 6, Washington 4
Minnesota 4, Milwaukee 1
Seattle 2, Washington 1
Toronto 8, Philadelphia 2
NY Yankees 7, Cincinnati 6
Baltimore 7, Chi Cubs 1

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Kansas City 5, Detroit 2
Tampa Bay 4, Boston 1
Chi White Sox 2, Cleveland 1
Texas 5, Oakland 2
LA Angels 7, Houston 1

NATIONAL LEAGUE
NY Mets 7, Atlanta 3
San Francisco 4, Arizona 3
Miami 5, Pittsburgh 4
LA Dodgers 7, St. Louis 6
Colorado 10, San Diego 6

WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Connecticut 89 Indiana 81

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Atlanta 2, Real Salt Lake 1
Chicago 2, Toronto FC 0
Vancouver 2, Cincinnati 2 (Tie)
Columbus 2, D.C. United 2 (Tie)
Philadelphia 2, Miami 1
Sporting Kansas City 1 Minnesota 1 (Tie)
Nashville 1 Seattle 0
Orlando City 1 Colorado 1 (Tie)
New York City FC 1, FC Dallas 0
San Jose 3, LA Galaxy 2

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

INTERLEAGUE
Toronto 4, Philadelphia 3
Cincinnati 4, NY Yankees 3
Milwaukee 6, Minnesota 3
Baltimore 4, Chi Cubs 2
Seattle at Washington (Postponed)

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Cleveland 4, Chi White Sox 1
Chi White Sox 7, Cleveland 0
Tampa Bay 3, Boston 2
Detroit 7, Kansas City 5
Oakland 14, Texas 7
Houston 6, LA Angels 5

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh 3, Miami 2
Final Atlanta 4, N.Y. Mets 1
St. Louis 7, LA Dodgers 6
Colorado 5, San Diego 3
San Francisco 13, Arizona 0

WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Seattle 83, Dallas 74
Las Vegas 107, New York 101
Chicago 90, Atlanta 75
Minnesota 118, Phoenix 107 (2OT)
Washington 94, Los Angeles 81

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Austin FC 3, Houston 1

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(DALLAS) — Former NFL player Marion Barber III died from a heat stroke in his suburban Dallas apartment amid a record-setting heat wave sweeping across Texas, according to the Collin County medical examiner’s office.

The 38-year-old’s death was ruled an accident, the medical examiner said Monday.

Barber, a former running back for the Dallas Cowboys, was found dead in his Frisco, Texas, apartment on June 1 after police were requested to conduct a welfare check on him, according to the Frisco Police Department.

The former Pro Bowl player’s death came at the start of a heat wave in the Dallas area and across Texas that has seen temperatures soar into triple digits, taxing the state’s electrical grid and prompting the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to issue a statewide appeal on Monday for people to conserve energy.

Records from the National Weather Service show that during the week Barber’s body was discovered, daily high temperatures in Frisco ranged from the high 80s to the low 90s.

A full autopsy report on Barber obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram shows that when police officers arrived at Barber’s rented apartment to check on him, the thermostat was set to 91 degrees with the heat set to “on.”

“Mr. Barber was known to exercise in sauna-like conditions,” the medical examiner wrote in the report, according to the Star-Telegram.

Frisco police said Barber’s family members had not heard from him for six days before the day his body was discovered.

Barber’s father, Marion Barber II, also a former NFL player, told the Star-Telegram his son’s body was badly decomposed when officers found him.

A police incident report, obtained by ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas, said police were contacted by an employee at Barber’s apartment complex on June 1, who expressed concern for Barber’s well-being.

The employee told police a neighbor submitted a service request on May 11 due to water leaking into their apartment from Barber’s unit, according to the incident report. The employee said he was unable to contact Barber on either May 12 or 13, and added that numerous phone calls and emails to Barber were not answered for two weeks. Police officers found an unopened letter the employee left on Barber’s door when they arrived at the apartment on June 1, according to the incident report.

Officers found Barber’s body in a bathroom shower with the water not running, according to the incident report.

Heat stroke occurs when the body can no longer control its temperature, causing a person’s body temperature to rise rapidly and its sweating mechanism to fail, making the body unable to cool down, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During a heat stroke, a person’s body temperature can rise to 106 degrees in 10 to 15 minutes, according to the CDC.

Besides an extremely high body temperature, warning signs of heat stroke include a rapid pulse, throbbing headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion and red, hot and dry skin, according to the CDC.

Barber, a standout three-sport athlete at the University of Minnesota, was picked by the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL draft and played for the team for six seasons, earning a Pro-Bowl selection in 2007. Barber signed with the Chicago Bears in 2011 and played one season for the team before retiring in 2012.

“We are heartbroken by the tragic death of Marion Barber III. Marion was an old-school, hard-nosed football player who ran with the will to win every down,” the Cowboys said in the statement when Barber’s death was first announced. “He had a passion for the game and love for his coaches and teammates.”

A funeral for Barber was held on June 22 at the Huntington Bank Stadium on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

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(NEW YORK) — Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic won Wimbledon on Sunday, beating Australian player Nick Kyrgios in the final in what will likely be Djokovic’s final Grand Slam appearance this year.

For a second consecutive year, Djokovic won’t be able to play in the U.S. Open in August due to his COVID-19 vaccination status.

“The only good news I can have is them removing the mandated green vaccine card…to enter the United States,” Djokovic said during a press conference on Sunday. “Or exemption.”

Djokovic, 35, is not vaccinated. He told the BBC in February that “based on all the information that I got, I decided not to take the vaccine.” At the post-match press conference on Sunday he reiterated that “I’m not planning to get vaccinated.”

The U.K., where Wimbledon takes place, allows travelers into the country without requiring proof of vaccination. France relaxed its entrance requirements in time to allow Djokovic to play in the French Open in May.

Djokovic was deported from Australia in January after his visa was revoked at the Melbourne airport, restored and then canceled a second time because he is unvaccinated.

His visa was ultimately revoked “on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so,” according to Australian authorities.

Although the U.S. Open and New York City, where the tournament will take place, allow visitors without proof of vaccination, Djokovic will not be able to play because of COVID requirements for international travelers set by the U.S. government. The U.S. does not allow people to visit without proof of COVID-19 vaccination.

American tennis player Tennys Sandgren, despite being unvaccinated, will be able to play in the U.S. Open because of this policy.

“Pretty shameful that the USTA won’t fight for an exemption for Novak,” he wrote in a tweet last month. “I can play but he can’t? Ridiculous.”

During the press interview on Sunday Djokovic stated that an exemption to play in the U.S. Open didn’t seem “realistically possible.”

“Though the U.S. Open does not have a vaccination mandate in place for players, we respect the U.S. government’s position regarding travel into the country for non-U.S. citizens,” a spokesperson for the U.S. Open told ABC News.

Mark Conrad, a professor of law and ethics at Fordham University who specializes in sports law and business, told ABC News he would be “very, very surprised if there were a change in policy, especially with the latest variants.”

“I don’t really think there’ll be a lot of sympathy,” he said. “If there’s an exemption for him, there will be a lot of people saying why should he get that exemption?”

“Does the government really care so much to go and stick his neck out for one tennis player, no matter how good he is?”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has opened a probe against the PGA Tour to see if the tour violated any antitrust laws in relation to their face-off with LIV Golf — a Saudi-backed golf league — a PGA Tour spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.

The PGA Tour says the probe was not unexpected, and they are confident they’ll be vindicated. They didn’t say what specifically the Justice Department was looking into.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the probe, and the Justice Department is not commenting on the probe.

Financed by the government of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the LIV Golf league burst onto the scene last year as a potential rival to the PGA Tour, reportedly offering large sums of money to some of the PGA Tour’s top players while promising to shake up the world of golf with a new format and larger prize money for tournament winners.

The commissioner of the LIV Golf league is two-time major champion Greg Norman. The retired golfer has been outspoken about the PGA Tour format.

The PGA Tour has banned and fined golfers like Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau who joined the upstart golf league and are some of the biggest and most winningest players in the sport.

The probe is just the latest in the back-and-forth between the league backed by the Saudi government and the PGA Tour.

“We welcome good, healthy competition,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters in late June when asked about the league. “The LIV Saudi Golf League is not that. It’s an irrational threat, one not concerned with the return on investment or true growth of the game.”

In a February letter to Monahan, Norman, who has won two major championships, chided the commissioner saying PGA Tour lawyers must be “holding their breathe.”

“But when you try to bluff and intimidate players by bullying and threatening them, you are guilty of going too far, being unfair, and you are likely in violation of the law,” Norman wrote.

LIV Golf has not responded to requests for comment by ABC News.

This week, the Open Championship, one of the four major golf championships, gets underway at St. Andrew’s in Scotland.

In 1994, the Federal Trade Commission looked into “unfair methods of competition,” that the PGA Tour was allegedly carrying out, but they were found to have not violated any federal laws.

ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.

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