SANTA CLARA — Defensive end Leonard Floyd, a Super Bowl winner two years ago with the Los Angeles Rams, is joining the 49ers’ pursuit of their first Lombardi Trophy in 30 years.
Floyd agreed to a two-year, $20 million deal some five hours into the NFL’s free agency negotiation window Monday, according to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Adding Floyd, an eight-year veteran, was imperative for a 49ers franchise that is hellbent on ending its championship drought and doing so with an elite defensive front. Leading that unit on the other end will be Nick Bosa, the 2022 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, while 2023 prized free agent Javon Hargrave anchors an interior that is expected to lose Arik Armstead.
That unit’s depth could be further depleted in free agency beyond Armstead’s expected release after nine seasons. Hitting the market are defensive ends Clelin Ferrell, Chase Young and Randy Gregory, and defensive tackles Javon Kinlaw, Kevin Givens and Sebastian Joseph-Day, all of whom potentially could be re-signed.
It has been a month since the 49ers’ defense caved in overtime to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVIII. And it’s been an annual ritual for the 49ers to seek a complement to Nick Bosa on the other side of the defensive front. This past October, the 49ers traded for Gregory and then Young, but neither produced at a high clip.
Floyd, 31, is guaranteed $12 million this season, and the deal could max out at $24 million. Such a financial commitment would seem to hinder the 49ers’ ability to make another high-priced move, such as trading with the Los Angeles Chargers for Bosa’s older brother, Joey, who’s set to make $15 million this year.
Flloyd has appeared in 121 games, recorded 58 sacks and 122 quarterback hits with four forced fumble and seven fumble recoveries. In nine playoff games, he has five sacks; none came in the Bills’ divisional-round loss in January to the Chiefs.
Two years ago, Floyd, the former No. 9 overall pick of the Bears in 2016, recorded a third-down sack in the Rams’ Super Bowl triumph over the Cincinnati Bengals. Released by the Bears rather than play under his fifth-year option, he joined the Rams for three years before playing last season for the Buffalo Bills.
Upon joining the Rams in 2020, Floyd played under defensive coordinator Brandon Staley, who left to coach the Los Angeles Chargers and, last month, was hired to the 49ers’ staff. Staley is expected to serve as the assistant head coach and help on defense, although coach Kyle Shanahan has yet to announce any staff changes, including the presumed promotion of Nick Sorensen to defensive coordinator.
Talks with free agents commenced at 9 a.m. Monday, and, within minutes, news broke that backup quarterback Brandon Allen was returning to the 49ers. Five hours later, word broke about Floyd’s deal.
Other defensive ends to reportedly land deals Monday included Jonathan Greenard (Vikings; four years, $76 million), Bryce Huff (Eagles; three years, $51 million), Andrew Van Ginkel (Vikings; two years, $20 million), and Dorance Armstrong (Commanders; three years, $45 million). Top edge rushers available at the time of Floyd’s 49ers deal were Danielle Hunter (Vikings) and Jadaveon Clowney (Ravens).
49ers tender Jennings
Wide receiver Jauan Jennings, the 49ers’ third-down specialist, drew a second-round tender as a restricted free agent, as NBC Sports Bay Area first reported. Jennings’ 2024 salary would be $4.9 million if a long-term deal isn’t reached; the 49ers would receive a second-round pick if they choose not to match an offer sheet from another team.
Jennings was a seventh-round pick, and after his Super Bowl show in which he threw a touchdown pass and also caught one, the 49ers couldn’t risk giving him a lower tender for another team to poach him for next to nothing.
(CNN) — Russell Wilson looks set to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers after his disappointing two-season stay with the Denver Broncos comes to an end this week.
The 35-year-old quarterback posted a video on social media appearing to confirm reports about his signing, tagging the Steelers and including clips of Pittsburgh fans waving their famous ‘Terrible Towels’ – a reference to the tradition of the team’s supporters twirling the iconic yellow symbol above their heads –with the caption: “Year 13. Grateful.”
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Wilson will sign a one-year deal with Pittsburgh once the new league year begins on March 13.
Rapoport reported that the deal will cost the Steelers $1.2 million. Per salary tracking website Spotrac, Wilson will still affect the Broncos’ salary cap in 2024 and 2025 as they owe him $39 million next season, minus whatever the Steelers pay him. The NFL recently announced the salary cap would be increased to $255.4 million per team.
Wilson will likely compete for the starting quarterback job against Kenny Pickett, who has started the past two seasons for Pittsburgh with varying success.
Pickett was the No. 20 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, but has struggled with injuries and fluctuating performances since being drafted out of the University of Pittsburgh.
He has thrown 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while going 14-10 as a starter. At the end of last season, he was benched in favor of Mason Rudolph after recovering from injury. Rudolph was chosen to start the team’s Wild Card playoff defeat against the Buffalo Bills.
Wilson’s move to Pennsylvania comes after two unsuccessful seasons in Colorado; the Broncos announced earlier this month that Wilson was going to be released on March 13 after failing to bring success to the franchise following his trade from the Seattle Seahawks in 2022.
Denver’s decision to trade for Wilson – which came in exchange for a huge haul, including two first-round draft picks, two second-rounders, a fifth-rounder, quarterback Drew Lock, defensive tackle Shelby Harris and tight end Noah Fant – will go down as one of the worst in NFL history given the trade assets, the financial outlay and the lack of success the decision brought.
In his two seasons with the Broncos, he went 11-19, with the team missing the playoffs twice and the nine-time Pro Bowler being benched at the end of the 2023 campaign.
Per the NFL, the Broncos will incur $85 million in dead salary over the next two years by releasing Wilson, which will be the largest dead cap hit in league history.
Wilson, who won Super Bowl XLVIII during his time in Seattle, has 43,653 passing yards, 334 touchdowns and 106 interceptions during his NFL career.
Comes as sanctuary city enacts budget cuts in wake of influx of 40,000 illegals costing taxpayers $180 million.
The Colorado sanctuary city of Denver is asking its residents to house illegal aliens as shelters have become overcrowded with the influx of foreign invaders.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) announced Friday that the city has started to scale back its migrant services, including the shuttering of shelters, to reduce the current budget deficit in the face of 40,000 illegals who’ve come to Denver over the last year which cost the city $180 million.
“I want to thank every resident in the city who has showed up to cook a meal for someone who has arrived, who has welcomed somebody to their home, who has offered them a job, who said, ‘We will help you find your way,’” Johnston said during a recent news conference. “You’ve done your part. The city will do our part. The federal government did not do their part.”
“What is true now is we’re entering into a different stage, which is without any federal support, without any work authorization, without changes to policy, we’re going to have to make changes to what we can do in terms of our city budget,” he added.
Some of the cuts include ending in-person vehicle registration renewals, cutting back on landscaping expenses, and cutting hours at recreation centers, which all told will only reduce the budget by one-fortieth of what the influx of illegals will cost the city.
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Shelters are being cleared out and 38,000 illegals will eventually be evicted from Denver’s 10 overcrowded government-run shelters due to the budget cuts.
In response, the city has begun asking residents to take in the “newcomers.”
“We put out a feeler to all the landlords we have connections with,” Denver Human Services Jon Ewing told Fox 31. “Basically said, listen, we’re going to have some newcomers who are going to need housing.”
“The hope and goal is that we are able to connect the vast majority with housing, or at least as many of them as we possibly can,” Ewing said.
Ewing also said landlords couldn’t charge aliens more than $2,000 per month.
“We’ve got kind of a rent cap – $2,000,” he said.
Johnston last month claimed his administration was considering closing Denver to more illegal aliens as resources became overwhelmed, but it appears he found a new “solution”: foist the burden directly onto Denver residents instead.
Democrats in other cities have made similar pleas and initiatives to cope with the massive influx of illegals in recent months brought about by Joe Biden’s open border policy.
A Chicago Councilman in January urged wealthy residents to shelter illegals, and Maine has spent $3.5 million of taxpayer funds building “palace” apartments for migrants to live rent-free for 2 years.
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A Lagos-based civil society organisation, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate an allegation by Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) that the 2024 budget was padded.
Senator Ningi, in an interview with BBC Hausa Service, alleged the existence of two budgets: a N25tn version passed by the National Assembly and a N28.7tn version currently being implemented by the government.
Ningi’s allegation has since been dismissed by the presidency, describing it as “primordial Antics”.
Also, senators from northern states and the FCT, under the aegis of Northern Senators Forum (NSF), on Monday, dismissed Ningi’s claim, saying that it was “his personal opinion, sentiment and unfortunately skewed, incorrect and misleading.”
But reacting to the allegation on Monday, CACOL called on the Presidency to come out clean on the allegation.
The Chairman of the organisation, Mr. Debo Adeniran, expressed worry over the allegation, noting that “There is something fishy”.
Adeniran stated that the Accountant General of the Federation needs to provide some documentary evidence to either support or reject the allegation.
He maintained that if the allegation is true, it negates the principles of transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility.
“There is something fishy when a sitting Senator raised a damning accusation against the Senate and the Executive concerning how the commonwealth of the generality of the people of the country is being spent and till now we don’t have a concrete statement from both the Senate and the Executive concerning this allegation,” Adeniran was quoted as saying in a statement signed by Tola Oresanwo, the anti-corruption organisation’s Director, Administration and Programmes.
“We believe the Accountant General of the Federation should have documentary evidence to either support or reject this allegation or at least come out with verifiable evidence(s) to assure the people that the government of the day is on the right track as far as the national budget is concerned.”
“We at CACOL find it difficult to believe that allegation of budget padding could raise its ugly head again at this crucial point of this administration’s tenure. We would like to affirm that the allegation, if true, represents the pinnacle of gross misconduct and an obvious negation of every modicum of the principles of transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility. In fact, it is a shame that despite being tagged as one of the most corrupt country in the world, the fetor of budget padding is still reeking out from government quarters, that is supposed to champion anti-corruption effort in the country.”
He reminded those in government that power is temporary, adding that it would be dishonourable of them to betray the people’s trust.
“We would like to inform the representatives of the people currently in government that power is transient and that it very dishonourable to betray the trust of the millions of Nigerian citizens by misappropriating the money they are entrusted to manage on behalf of the people,” the CACOL boss said.
““Considering the battered state of the economy today, the worsening devaluation of the naira which has led to reduction in the purchasing power of the people, and the throes of biting hunger that has pervaded the land, it would be wrong for any one in government to add insult to injury being experienced by innocent and hapless Nigerians by mismanaging the revenue of the country and spending it in the most illegal and illegitimate means possible.”
“We would therefore use this opportunity to call on the various anti-graft agencies to look in to this allegation as quickly as possible with a view to bring the perpetrators if any, to book.”
‘Budget Padding’: EFCC, ICPC Asked To Investigate Ningi’s Allegation is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
Could a proposed Missouri law imprison teachers as sex offenders for using transgender students’ preferred gender pronouns?
A March 3 Instagram post claimed, “A new bill introduced in the Missouri Legislature would put teachers on the sex offense registry if they ‘contribute to social transition’ of a trans youth — including pronouns, hair cuts, information, and more.”
That post presents a largely accurate summary of the proposed legislation.
The bill, House Bill 2885, would make providing “support … to a child regarding social transition,” while acting in “his or her official capacity as a teacher or school counselor” a Class E felony under Missouri law. What would constitute “support” is not clearly defined in the bill. Legal experts said it could include the use of gender-affirming pronouns or names.
Class E are the lowest level felonies in Missouri, punishable by up to four years in prison. Other felonies in this category include counterfeiting, incest, involuntary second-degree manslaughter and child abduction.
(Screenshot from Instagram)
If teachers were convicted of “contributing to social transition,” the bill would require them to register as Tier 1 sex offenders, the lowest of three tiers on the state’s sex offender registry. Other offenses that require Tier 1 registration include child pornography possession, sex with an animal and sexual abuse of an adult.
Rep. Jamie Gragg, R-Ozark, introduced the bill Feb. 29, one of more than 30 bills filed in Missouri that target LGBTQ+ communities, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Aaron Schekorra, executive director of an LGBTQ+ center in Springfield Missouri, told KYTV, a local TV station that he doubts this bill will become law. But it drew widespread attention amid contentious political rhetoric focused on schools and LGBTQ+ rights.
The law’s scope could include gender-affirming pronouns
The bill defines “social transition” as “the process by which an individual adopts the name, pronouns, and gender expression, such as clothing or haircuts, that match the individual’s gender identity,” and not the sex assigned at birth.
The bill would prohibit support of a student’s social transition, “regardless of whether the support is material, information, or other resources,” and would impose criminal penalties.
The law’s definition of “social transition” lines up with how the medical community defines it. Social transition is the first step that many transgender youth and adults take in the process of recognizing their gender separate from that assigned to them at birth. It is distinct from a medical transition which begins only after puberty’s onset and can involve medications such as puberty blockers, hormones, and in rare cases in older teenagers, surgery.
What constitutes “support” is not defined, and Gragg did not respond to PolitiFact’s questions about its meaning.
Is support restricted to physical materials such as books or pamphlets? Or does it have a plainer meaning — such as offering encouraging words or complying with a student’s request to use specific pronouns?
Marcia McCormick, a Saint Louis University law professor, told PolitiFact in an email that she understands the bill as inclusive of “any support” of a student’s adoption of a name, pronouns, or appearance norms connected with a gender that differs from the student’s sex assigned at birth — meaning using certain pronouns would violate the law.
Chad Flanders, another Saint Louis University law professor, said his reading was less clear. Asked whether the bill applies to teachers who use transgender students’ preferred pronouns, he said, “I certainly don’t think that the language in the statute rules that out.”
Even if a court interprets “support” narrowly to mean information and resources, teachers may be wary, and any speech may be chilled, experts said.
Gragg told KYTV that LGBTQ+ literature and signs would “fall into that same category,” of support, but he did not specifically address using pronouns.
This law is part of a larger, nationwide Republican effort to stop conversations about sexuality and gender identity in schools and classrooms.
“This bill was created and really submitted to help parents and families and to help teachers,” Gragg told KYTV. “I talk to parents every day who are frustrated with things that kids are being taught in school.”
Such legislation is often based on concerns that conversations about sexuality and gender identity are a form of “grooming” or sexual abuse. Grooming, however, refers to a process or behaviors adults use to make it easier to sexually abuse children.
Experts say talking about gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom, or using gender-inclusive reading material and lesson plans, is not considered “grooming,” because it is done without intent to sexually abuse a child.
“Sex crimes are very serious,” said Elizabeth Jeglic, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies sexual violence. “When we conflate issues regarding gender identity with sex crimes, it really diminishes our ability to advocate on behalf of these children and to develop policies and procedures to protect them.”
Law would expand scope of sex offender registries
In Missouri, Tier 1 sex offenders must remain on the registry for 15 years, but can petition for removal after 10 years. Anyone convicted of a sexual offense in Missouri cannot live within 1,000 feet of a school, or be present within 500 feet of a school unless they are the parent of a student there.
Sex offenders registries date back to the 1940s, instituted primarily as an information tool for law enforcement about who may present a risk to the public, said Andrew Harris, a professor of criminology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Federal laws passed in the 1990s now require that states make some of this information public.
Gragg told KYTV that “there have to be some repercussions of discussing things of a personal nature with students that we shouldn’t be teaching or shouldn’t be talking with them about.”
But experts said the categorization of “support” of social transition as a sexual crime was inappropriate.
Our ruling
An Instagram post claimed a Missouri bill “would put teachers on the sex offense registry if they ‘contribute to social transition’ of a trans youth — including pronouns, hair cuts, information, and more.”
It is accurate that the bill would make it a felony for a teacher to “support” a transgender student’s “social transition.” Teachers would have to be charged with and found guilty of the crime before being required to register as a sex offender.
The bill is unclear whether using gender-affirming pronouns for transgender students would constitute “support” of social transition under the law, though legal experts believe it is possible.
Based on the information available at the time of publishing, the statement is accurate but needs clarification. We rate it Mostly True.
Roughly 90 miles west of Chicago, Beyer Stadium’s brick ticket booth stands eight decades later as a physical reminder to the history embodied at the baseball field.
The Rockford Peaches and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League still resonate within baseball and pop culture. Penny Marshall’s 1992 film “A League of Their Own” starring Geena Davis, Lori Petty and Tom Hanks remains the highest-grossing baseball movie after bringing in nearly $133 million worldwide.
Thirty years later, a TV show by co-creators Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson debuted with the same name on Amazon Prime that more deeply delved into the league and women during the 1940s, with the Peaches again serving as a primary backdrop. This iteration, however, centered on race, gender and sexuality within its storytelling.
“Every story — every movie, book, history book or anything — has a level of completeness,” historian Kat Williams told the Tribune. “But every story needs to be mined and what they’ve done is mine what was one of the worst kept secrets of the league and bring it into a 21st century consciousness, and it was absolutely crucial they did that because no one had done that before.
“They went below the surface and they were able to find a lot of truths that people didn’t want out there.”
“A League of Their Own” and its eight-episode season that aired in August 2022 developed a devoted fandom. In the six months since Amazon’s cancellation after initially renewing it for four final episodes last March, fans’ love of the show fueled a tireless effort to get it picked up for a second season by another streaming service.
Those involved with the show sensed they were creating something special, forged out of a unique, magical connection from which weeks of baseball training for the actors helped serve as the foundation. Melanie Field, who played the Peaches’ slugging third baseman Jo De Luca, noted that with most shows, the cast doesn’t meet until the first table read. But with “League,” hours upon hours of tough training on the diamond in the lead-up to production played a huge role in establishing cast chemistry.
“When it came out and that was affirmed to us by the fan base, that was a real cool moment for everybody to realize, OK, this thing that we felt in our hearts every day we went to work, we felt like there’s a reason we’re doing this and this matters,” Field told the Tribune. “I’m hugely motivated as an artist and advocate about increasing representation and the power of representation in the media, particularly for me, as it pertains to fat and plus size actors as well as queer.”
More than 600 women played professionally in the AAGPBL before the league ended in 1954 after 12 seasons. Their legacy of keeping baseball alive during World War II had largely been a footnote until the movie hit theaters and the TV show tapped into the closer reality. As fans have fought to keep the show alive, those within its universe recognize how much it means to so many people.
Inside the fans’ efforts
Rockford Peaches player Greta (D’Arcy Carden) stands at the plate ready to swing in a scene from “A League of Their Own.” (Courtesy of Prime Video)
From the moment Carson Shaw (played by Abbi Jacobson) appears on screen, jumping a fence in a dress with her suitcase and bag of baseball gear, making a mad dash for the train as it pulls out of the station, the future Rockford Peaches catcher is unknowingly running toward a new future.
This frazzled introduction to Shaw kicks off her journey to Chicago for AAGPBL tryouts where she crosses paths with first baseman Greta Gill (D’Arcy Carden), De Luca and pitcher Max Chapman (Chanté Adams), who is not allowed to participate because she is Black.
By the time Carson hopped on the moving train, Kaitlyn Krieg, 35, of Brooklyn, was hooked.
Initially intending to put on the show in the background while working from home in late August 2022, “I turned it off because I was like, oh, no, I have to watch,” Krieg said. “It sucked me in within five minutes and then I just fell down the rabbit hole.”
D’Arcy Carden, left, and fan Kaitlyn Krieg after a performance of Carden’s Broadway show “The Thanksgiving Play” last summer.
Abigail Bruffy, 30, of North Carolina, earned a role as an extra during the first episode, appearing as one of the women vying for a roster spot during the tryout and again among the group that finds out if they made a team.
“Since I was teenager I went into so many things like, oh, I just hope two girls look at each other in a meaningful way,” Bruffy said. “For it to be this beautiful, heartbreaking, wonderful story — I felt like we finally had something.”
The show’s reach extends internationally.
Kat Tappe, 27, of Berlin, had never heard of the movie and wasn’t a big baseball fan but checked out the show in January 2023 on a friend’s recommendation because they are a big fan of Carden and “The Good Place.” Tappe immediately loved “League” and has continuously rewatched it. Tappe, earning a master’s in American Studies with a focus on cultural diversity, was drawn to how butch queer women were represented in the show, allowing for more people to feel reflected in the characters.
The All-Star Fruits, as the fandom is known by, initially hoped for more than the four-episode final season that had been announced last March 14. Now they are trying to get it back, period, following the cancellation.
Every weekday at 4 p.m., the fandom still holds a Power Hour on Twitter with a different daily theme in which related gifs, quotes and clips are shared with the hashtags #ALeagueOfTheirOwn and #SaveALOTO to get it trending.
While the show received the initial four-episode renewal, fans wanted to convey to Amazon Studios how much “League” meant to them and that it deserved a full season.
Two days after news broke of the abbreviated final season, the fandom hired a plane to fly over Los Angeles with a banner — “Renew A League of Their Own #MoreThanFour” — and captured the attention of the cast and crew.
The All-Star Fruits also collectively bought nearly 100 pies from a queer bakery, each packaged with a letter detailing why the show was so important to them that were delivered on March 29 to Amazon Studios executives. The idea was a riff off a scene when Carson bakes a “conversation” pie to give to Peaches manager Dove Porter (Nick Offerman) in hopes of initiating a chat with him about scheduling more practices to help them improve.
On the one-year anniversary of the show’s debut, fans organized a worldwide viewing party with a schedule to account for all the time zones, live tweeting and a Discord call during episodes. A week later, Amazon canceled the show.
The movie version had been a longtime favorite of Abbey Heller, 34, of Washington, D.C., making her initially wary the show would ruin her beloved film. Those concerns were erased within the first five minutes. Heller credits “League” for embracing that she is queer, something she had been weighing since college. Within a month, she came out to her family and friends and eventually shared it on Facebook to coincide with the one-year mark of watching “League.”
“I had never found a label that felt right,” Heller said. “I had never been comfortable really exploring that and so I sort of defaulted to just like, well, I guess I’m straight. I was very slowly getting to the point where I was ready to admit that might not be the case.
“I think about how important it was that the show leads with joy. The realization for me could have been really scary and isolating and instead it was really joyful and hopeful and actually led me to find this whole community on Twitter.”
Julie Rocheleau, 42, of Reno, Nevada, estimates she has rewatched “League” at least 100 times. Rocheleau described the fandom community as home, giving her a close group of queer friends for the first time in her life. Many All-Star Fruits have turned the online friendship into real-life adventures, meeting up across the country: “We all literally will just stop everything to hear each other and to visit each other.”
Roseann Fakhoury, 35, of New Jersey, stayed up until 5 a.m. binge-watching when she first found “League.” By the third episode, Fakhoury acknowledged to herself she was queer, something they had been aware of but hadn’t truly accepted. It was the day after their 34th birthday.
“A League of their Own” actress Melanie Field (right) poses with fan Roseann Fakhoury. (Roseann Fakhoury)
“Watching Carson come into her own, it made me feel seen for the first time,” Fakhoury said. “I have made some of the best friends I’ve ever had in my entire life from this show.
“It could be very easy for everybody to just fall off and kind of forget about it. But the way the show has impacted so many people, it’s really nice to see that everybody’s still fighting for it. I want to be positive about it, I don’t want it to end, you know?”
Added Krieg: “There’s still people who just discovered the show now. It’s not getting any smaller. It’s still growing. I want to believe it’s getting louder.”
The LGBTQ-inclusive series did not shy away from highlighting both the harsh realities of the 1940s and the value of chosen families and queer friendships.
Roseann Fakhoury’s “A League of Their Own” tattoos. (Roseann Fakhoury)
Field found the show’s queer friendships between Jo and Greta, Carson and Max, and Lupe García (Roberta Colindrez) and Jess McCready (Kelly McCormack) to be extremely relatable to her own lived experiences within the community. Her dynamic chemistry with Carden, something Field described as an instant connection, helped the friendship come to life on screen. Field’s favorite part of playing Jo was the exploration of platonic queer love.
Field, 36, can’t even imagine what it would have meant to see this show and her character on TV when she was younger.
“To see someone in her body would have been enough, to see a queer person in her body would’ve been next level,” Field said. “One of the things I love so much about Jo is we’re putting this on the screen and it’s someone who does not have a complex about it. The storyline isn’t about her trying to lose weight or feeling insecure or feeling less than or hating herself. The storyline is about her being a strong-ass, incredible baseball player, an amazing athlete with confidence and loyalty and all of these incredibly admirable qualities.
“In that sense, I completely understand what the fan base is experiencing because I can put myself in that position.”
Perhaps no episode better delivers an emotional whammy than “Stealing Home,” the sixth in the season, which hits hard on and off the field for the Peaches and Max’s journey.
After the Peaches rally to make the championship series against the South Bend Blue Sox, Carson, Greta and Jo celebrate at an undercover queer bar owned by Vi (Rosie O’Donnell) and their wife. A fun night out ends disastrously when the bar is raided by police. Greta and Carson escape by slipping into the movie theater next door and blending into the crowd watching “The Wizard of Oz.” Jo’s fate is revealed the following morning when police drop off the banged-up limping slugger to the Peaches boarding house. For her and the team’s safety, Jo is traded to South Bend.
The devastating sequence is a harsh reminder of the world’s reality. Williams, a consultant on the show, said it was loosely based on an actual story of an AAGPBL player.
“That may be one of the best hours of television I’ve ever seen in my life and I’m glad it made people squirm,” Williams said. “It’s not all about, yeah, you had to wear makeup and you had to wear a dress and we helped win World War II because we kept baseball alive and all of that stuff. And while that’s important, it’s one tiny little tick on this big, long timeline.”
During the trio’s time at the queer bar, the scene cuts between their night out and Max’s visit to her Uncle Bertie (Lea Robinson). Bertie and their wife are hosting a lively queer house party where Max first crosses paths with the mysterious “Es” (Andia Winslow). Max’s night ends on a high note as they kiss, the moment juxtaposed by the violent bar raid.
Graham, Jacobson and the writers’ decision to focus on Black joy in that moment is not lost on Winslow.
“To see love and happiness and joy and frolicking at the same time, that’s what excited people to say, I can be seen and heard, and I can be loved and I can love and it’s not always pain and deprivation,” Winslow said.
‘People should be able to be who they are’
(L-R) Megan Cavanagh, Will Graham, Maybelle Blair, Abbi Jacobson, Desta Tedros Reff, Chanté Adams, and D’Arcy Carden participate in a panel discussion during Prime Video’s “A League Of Their Own” special screening on July 2, 2022. (Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images)
In July, Maybelle Blair visited Wrigley Field to throw a ceremonial first pitch before the Cubs game in conjunction with a celebration of the 80th anniversary of the AAGPBL. While in town, Blair remembered walking down a hotel hallway when a young employee ran up and stopped her. He thanked Blair and told her how much the TV series had helped his parents accept him. Blair also possesses a similarly deep appreciation of the show.
While on a panel following a screening at the Tribeca Festival in June 2022 ahead of the show’s launch, Blair came out publicly for the first time.
“I could not believe that I would ever do that because in my day during the league, we wouldn’t dare ever even mention such a word,” Blair said. “It was such a relief. You have no idea, it felt like all the blood from my head went clear down to my toes and I was a new person. I feel so free now to be able to say the word gay.
“Being in the closet for 95 years, maybe it was a great thing that I wasn’t able to say anything because now it is opening so many people’s eyes to, hey, we are human beings. People should be able to be who they are because that’s what life’s all about.”
Winslow is a professional voice actor who had never worked on camera before landing her role in “League.” But baseball always has been a part of her life on and off the field, including her involvement with the Jackie Robinson Foundation. So when she landed the role as Esther Warner, the star pitcher on Red Wright’s All-Star team, the character from Winslow’s perspective felt like a composition of second baseman Toni Stone and pitcher Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, both of whom played in the Negro Leagues.
Rockford Peaches at Beyer Stadium in Rockford. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)
“That was very special to me because it felt like research, it felt like I’m adhering to my operating principle, which is curiosity,” Winslow said. “And so I liked the fact that it was a historical context brought to fiction and the fact that we could teach and not just entertain.
“For me, it’s an embarrassment of riches. People’s lives were changing and will be forever changed, and now this show is part of the canon of great sports films and great series about sexuality and inclusion. We talk about Jim Crow in a time when books are being banned and the history of African American countries being negated and erased.”
For Field and Winslow, support from fans has been unlike anything they have experienced.
“It’s really overwhelming, quite frankly, and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all,” Field said. “I hoped there would be a fan base. But in terms of the diehard nature of it, I love it. It’s frickin’ wild.”
That support has carried over to the actors’ other projects too. In the 19 months since the show debuted, Field has run into supporters, often in New York, both in public and at various events. When she saw Carden’s Broadway show “A Thanksgiving Play” last summer, a gaggle of “League” fans who attended the performance gave Field friendship bracelets, homemade adult coloring books and even showed off their Peaches-related tattoos, including one-liners and De Luca’s No. 18.
“We all want to make things that matter, but to actually have the human beings in front of you who are choking back tears telling you that you, your representation on screen, your character, saved their life, changed their life, I mean, that’s the dream for me as an actor,” Field said. “ ‘League’ has been a gift to the fans, sure, but it’s definitely been a gift to me as an artist and as an actor and as an advocate.”
TV show’s legacy
Women dressed as Rockford Peaches from the movie “A League of Their Own,” dance in the bleachers at Wrigley Field on June 30, 2023 (Charles Rex Arbogast/AP photo)
Graham and Jacobson have largely been silent about the fate of the show, though pushed back at Amazon blaming the writers’ and actors’ strikes for the cancellation.
Graham vowed on social media to try to find a new home for it, however, they haven’t provided any further updates. If one season is ultimately all fans get, the show’s legacy is firmly cemented through its revealing storylines about self-love and acceptance and complex characters who better reflect the lived experiences of the AAGPBL players, queer people and Black joy at a complicated time.
“This is not a rewriting of history, but this is an uncovering of history that’s been forgotten and/or subverted,” Winslow said. “We can all take pride in that. The hashtag of the show was #FindYourTeam and we definitely found our team. I’m really glad people could see themselves in the center of a storyline and not on the periphery.”
Field’s interactions with fans still stick with her. The times she has been told by someone they came out because of the show or how they felt seen for the first time on television. The online friendships in the fandom have carried over into the real world. Those moments transcend any wistfulness at what could have been.
“If that’s the legacy of the show, I will be completely happy,” Field said. “To me, that’s what matters. Yeah, I’m devastated as many of us were that it didn’t continue. It was sad for us, and it was sad for the fans. But I know it has left its mark.
“If one person can walk away and be like, gosh, I feel so relieved to know that society at large acknowledges my existence in this character on television, that’s huge.”
Count Blair among those hoping the show somehow gets picked up.
“They need to renew the TV series and let people realize what actually went on and what happened and tell the real story,” Blair said. “There’s so much more that they can tell and people would enjoy.”
As fans wait to hear from Graham or Jacobson about whether the show is officially dead, All-Star Fruits try to maintain optimism as queer shows continuously take the brunt of network’s cancellations. Ultimately, fans such as Krieg and Heller are grateful for the representation and how relevant these queer stories from the 1940s are still relevant today.
“I just refuse to accept defeat because the world is so sad right now, I would like to at least have hope about my gay baseball show,” Krieg said. “Even if we only get these eight episodes, the show changed so many people’s lives and we’ll always have that.”
As Heller put it: “My life is so fundamentally different from what it was at the beginning of August 2022 before I watched that show. And it’s not just different, it’s better. I’m happier. I’m more authentic. I’m more honest with myself and the world about who I am and I’m more confident. And what’s awesome is that I know that my story is so far from unique.”
Baseball’s role in opening doors for generations of women is not lost on Williams. It’s embodied within the show’s DNA.
“This need, this desire, this fact that girls and women have always been part of sports and in this case baseball was brought to the surface and in a 21st century way, I don’t think people are going to forget that for a long time,” Williams said. “Their use of intersectionality and the ways in which gender, race, sexuality, class, all of those things came together to create who those characters were and they just did a beautiful job of it.”
What’s next for women in baseball?
The clickety-clack of her spikes against the cement as she walked from the Peoria Redwings locker room to the field before an AAGPBL game still reverberates in Blair’s mind.
“When I walked into the dressing room and I put on that dress I thought, ‘Oh babe, you’re about the cutest thing God ever made,’” Blair said. “I had become a professional baseball player. You always would have liked to have been one, but there wasn’t anything like that for girls in my day and so I was so thrilled.”
Blair’s one season as a pitcher in the AAGPBL in 1948 can be traced back to growing up in California, where she would sit in front of the radio listening to baseball games during the 1920s and ’30s. By age 6, Blair kept score for her brother while he was outside practicing baseball. After every inning, Blair, who was a huge Chicago Cubs fan, would tell him the score and fill in what happened. Even now, Blair, who turned 97 in January, can still rattle off her favorite Cubs players of that era, from Stan Hack and Billy Herman to Gabby Hartnett and Hack Wilson.
The Rockford Peaches costume uniform worn by Geena Davis as Dottie Hinson, and a South Bend Blue Sox costume uniform from the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own” and other movie items seen here displayed with other items from the film at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on July 15, 2014. (Jose M. Osorio/ Chicago Tribune)
Blair is thrilled by the advances made: “It’s absolutely amazing how the doors have opened.”
Women who grew up before Title IX was signed into law in 1972 did not have a pathway to playing organized sports. The AAGPBL’s impact on those players’ lives extend beyond what happened on the field.
“Many of those young women, it wasn’t just that they got to play professional baseball, it wasn’t just that they got paid to play baseball, but it opened whole worlds to them,” Williams said. “They traveled, they witnessed and experienced other cultures. Then, playing it out further, they became coaches and they became advocates for women’s sports because of what that league did for them. They kept that going, and they continue to keep it going.
“It gave them an opportunity to grow in confidence, to earn their own money, to travel, to do all of the things that of course sports have been doing for boys and men for eons.”
Justine Siegal founded Baseball for All in 2010, a nonprofit providing opportunities for girls to play, coach and lead in baseball, because she was tired of waiting for opportunities. Siegal is a trailblazer in the sport, most notably becoming the first female coach of a professional men’s baseball team in 2009 and to be employed by a Major League Baseball team when the Oakland A’s hired her in 2015 to coach in their instructional league. Between MLB now supporting girls baseball programming and involvement at the international level, including a Women’s World Cup, the growth for girls and women in baseball has been phenomenal, Siegal said.
“Anytime we can see girls and women shining on the screen, especially in sports, we know we have something special,” said Siegal, who coached the “League” actors and consulted with the writers in her role as baseball coordinator. “Too often we’re inundated with the male image of succeeding and for girls to grow up and see that women have the same success and can have the same successes changes the narrative.”
The International Women’s Baseball Center, located in Rockford, is set to launch a capital funding campaign to build a multimillion-dollar facility across from Beyer Stadium that will be a museum, Hall of Fame, educational center and activity center geared toward providing a home for girls and women in baseball internationally. The IWBC also is renovating and upgrading the field.
After “League” came out, Beyer Stadium experienced a notable increase in visitors, said Williams, an IWBC founder and current CEO. As women’s baseball continues to grow internationally, Williams hopes organizations such as the IWBC and Baseball For All keep laying the groundwork for more support.
“It is a cliche, but if you can’t see it, you can’t be it,” Williams said. “That’s what both the movie and the TV show did and that’s what the IWBC wants to preserve as come and see, look at it. You have a long history. You stand on the shoulders of greatness.”
(CNN) — For over 50 years, “Sesame Street” has been broaching complex topics with kids: Divorce, death and disability, for three, if the letter of the day was D.
But at some point, between in-show parodies like “Colambo” and “Upside Downton Abbey” and Elmo and Cookie Monster using social media to weigh in on mental health andinflation, the beloved cast of “Sesame Street” started talking directly to adults.
Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it’s the trust they’ve built with us since we were small, or maybe it’s just the innocence of a blue googly-eyed cookie fiend earnestly giving his opinion on rising grocery store prices, but when the furry residents of “Sesame Street” talk, adults tend to take them seriously.
That’s because so many of us who stopped watching still trust our furry friends on TV and the lessons they’ve imparted, said Abby Whitaker, a Ph.D. candidate at Temple University whose dissertation examines “Sesame Street’s” wider cultural and political impact.
“We still believe in the vision of Sesame Street,” Whitaker said. “We want to live in a sunnier world where people get along, where everyone has equal opportunities, where there is no discrimination and no hate. Sesame Street created and has preserved a vision for the world that we crave.”
‘Sesame Street’ has built half a century of trust with viewers
With 54 seasons and counting, “Sesame Street” is the longest-running children’s series on TV. Like the similarly historic “The Simpsons” or “Saturday Night Live,” it’s built a fervent fan base that spans generations.
The difference between those shows and “Sesame,” though, is that Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Elmo were introduced to us as living entities with whom we can interact and rely on. Cast members on “SNL” come and go; Bart Simpson isn’t interacting with fans on X, because he doesn’t exist beyond Springfield. “Sesame Street” is a world inside our own; Larry David can meet Elmo on “Today” and suddenly sock him just as the canonically 6-year-old Big Bird can ask his X followers for help when he unexpectedly shrinks to the size of a house spider. (He has since recovered his 8’2” stature.)
“As kids, we believed that they were our friends,” said Krystine Batcho, a psychologist and La Moyne College professor who studies nostalgia. “We believed that they understood us and that we could trust them. Then, we could temporarily suspend reality in order to share the fanciful world where they lived.”
Once they established their trustworthiness, the “Sesame” Muppets became reliable sources who could break down dense or thorny subjects with candor, poignance and humor. Elmo appeared in a CNN town hall in 2020 about Covid-19, and another about racism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the nationwide protests that followed. Big Bird received his Covid-19 vaccine as soon as he was eligible — again, he is forever 6. In both of those specials, serious journalists like Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Erica Hill spoke to the Muppets like they would any other interviewee.
Earlier this year, when Elmo innocuously asked his followers (in the third-person, naturally) how they were doing, the responses were overwhelmingly bleak. “Elmo each day the abyss we stare into grows a unique horror.” “Elmo I’m depressed and broke.” “I’m at my lowest, thanks for asking.” Even President Joe Biden chimed in, reminding Elmo fans that they’re not alone.
Users were breaking down before a three-and-a-half-year-old monster on a public forum. Shortly after his replies were flooded with laments from adult followers, the red Muppet posted: “Elmo is glad he asked!”
Cookie Monster, meanwhile, posted about “shrinkflation” from his unique perspective: “Me cookies are getting smaller. Guess me going to have to eat double da cookies!” Countless X users concurred and appreciated the googly eyed monster for putting a complex economic phenomenon into terms anyone can understand — that of cookies.
We feel comfortable sharing our fears with or affirming the opinion of “Sesame Street” Muppets online because of the relationship they’ve carefully developed with so many of us since we were children, Batcho said.
“As adults we know the Muppets are not real and never were, but we still need who we once thought they were,” Batcho said.
We seek out childhood nostalgia like ‘Sesame’
Though the creative team behind “Sesame Street” are adept at bringing the show into the present and keeping material topical, its environment maintains the same sense of wonder and possibility, with an emphasis on kindness, as it did in 1969.
“Its neighborhood feels like a real place that you can return to,” Whitaker said. “It might not look quite the same. But it feels the same. That kind of nostalgia is powerful.”
It’s comforting to return to the apartment where Ernie innocently ribs roommate Bert, and Bert can hardly muffle his annoyance. Elmo and Big Bird are still naive, and they still ask probing questions about what it means to be a good person (or monster, or bird). Cookie Monster is eating more veggies these days, but he’s never far from his most cherished dessert. And though they learn something new in nearly every episode, they’re still, at their foam cores, the same as when they arrived on 123 Sesame Street.
“When you grow up, and the characters are still around and still relevant, it’s like seeing an old friend or your old, favorite stuffed animal,” Whitaker said.
Engaging with the “Sesame” gang whisks us back to our childhoods — a “special time in life” where dreams are limitless, promises are kept and imagination runs free, Batcho said.
“Communicating with characters we loved as children offers a temporary escape from our problems, stress, and the things that make us sad,” she said. “Nostalgia motivates us to relive the childhood interactions with them and lets us reconnect with the time in life we felt safe and happy.”
The “Sesame Street” worldview is still that of a child, but that’s part of why we’re still so drawn to it years after we stopped watching, said Anissa Graham, a senior lecturer in English at the University of North Alabama who has co-edited two books of Muppet scholarship.
“‘Sesame Street’ Muppets see the world as a place of potential, and that can be very reassuring to a grown-up inundated with news focused on endings,” she said.
The show has always tried to engage adults
“Sesame Street” was built for kids, but since its very first season, it’s strived to engage adults in the audience.
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind the show — originally called the Children’s Television Workshop — found in its research that children gleaned more from the series if their parents watched alongside them and reinforced what they’d learned, Whitaker said. The series held parents’ gaze by parodying zeitgeist-y pieces of pop culture and hosting celebrity guests.
“‘Sesame Street’ puts in the effort to remain culturally connected,” Graham said.
Early examples include “Letter B,” a parody of the Beatles’ “Let It Be,” or the 1978 disco album “Sesame Street Fever,” which borrows heavily from the similarly titled John Travolta film.
Graham’s personal favorite aired in 2015, at the height of “Game of Thrones”-mania: A Grover-starring parody called “Game of Chairs.” The short featured Muppet lookalikes of the HBO series’ human cast members competing in musical chairs to decide who will rule “Jesteros.” (Grover ends up the accidental king.)
The average kindergartener likely wasn’t tuning into the ultra-violent fantasy drama, but their parents might have been. Hearing puppet Tyrion and Ned Stark quip about the coming of winter and rolling heads is a delight reserved for caregivers in the audience, Graham said.
“‘Sesame Street’ doesn’t just get kids,” Graham said. “It gets adults, too.”
That the Muppets are now posting on X, where their youngest active fans are unlikely to find them, is in keeping with its mission of speaking to adults — and now, former “Sesame” viewers don’t need to have a child to stay in touch with Elmo and his neighbors.
“Young adults who have not yet had children can indulge their nostalgia by interacting with their imaginary friends on social media,” Batcho said.
Imaginary, perhaps, but no less fundamental to the growth of countless viewers who are just as fond of their former “Sesame Street” neighbors now as they were in their youth. For so many grown-ups, they’re less characters than lifelong companions who still have wisdom to share and solace to offer.
Young lady hospitalized with serious injuries in Missouri
A video going viral online shows the moment a group of teenage girls got into a fight near Hazelwood East High School in Spanish Lake, St Louis, leaving one of the high schoolers in critical condition at a local hospital.
The fight started with a white girl and a black girl fighting each other one-on-one before bystanders tried to jump in and the melee turned into a full-on brawl.
Next, the two girls who started fighting ended up on the ground and the white girl had the back of her head repeatedly slammed into the pavement.
WARNING GRAPHIC
White female student in critical condition after suffering significant traumatic brain injury during a fight with a black female student at Hazelwood East High School in Missouri. pic.twitter.com/fwKR5HIP1p
The teen suffered a serious head injury and is now in critical condition at a hospital.
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According to the St Louis County Police Department, a 15-year-old girl was arrested on assault charges Saturday in connection with the incident.
The Hazelwood School District released the following statement:
“It is a tragedy anytime children are hurt. Bullying and fighting in the community is an issue for which we all need to take ownership and work towards a resolution for the sake of our children. The Hazelwood School District offers our sincerest condolences to everyone involved, and will offer additional emotional support from our support and crisis team to those in need. We look forward to continuing to partner with our community for the sake of our children. Please be kind and respectful of the families involved during this difficult time and pledge to help work toward the betterment of our entire community.”
Popular X account Libs of TikTok pointed out that the high school “won a DEI award” two years ago and poorly educates its students, according to public data showing students’ reading and math proficiency.
In Hazelwood East High School, the district who won a DEI award in 2022 and the school where students beat a girl who’s now in critical condition, just 5% of students are proficient in Math and just 21% in reading.
The x account continued, showing the school district previously removed resource officers from campus after officers refused to take DEI training.
HOLY SHLIT! @HazelwoodSD demanded school resource officers take a DEI training. The police sent a scorching letter refusing to participate in the DEI garbage.
Hazelwood School District responded by PULLING ALL School Resource Officers!
The video is sending shockwaves across America as parents increasingly fear sending their children to the government-run indoctrination camps we call public schools.
The Enugu Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned one Ugwu A. Chekwube, for allegedly luring a company, Zod International Developers, into parting with N85m for a promised contract not delivered.
According to EFCC, Chekwube had allegedly promised to secure a contract for the construction of six district hospitals in Ebonyi State, but failed to keep to his promise.
EFCC said after collecting the said amount, the defendant neither secured the contract nor refunded the money to the petitioner.
He was then arraigned before Justice Mohammed G. Umar of the Federal High Court sitting in Independence Layout, Enugu State on a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy and obtaining by false pretence.
One of the four-count charges reads: “That you, Ugwu Alexander Chekwube and one Ugo Sunday Onuaguluchi (At large) from 2nd November 2022, to 6th December 2022 in Enugu, Enugu State within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria with intent to defraud induced one Zod International Developers to deliver to you the sum of N85,000,000.00 (Eighty-five million naira), under the pretence that you will help him secure a contract for the construction of six District Hospitals in Ebonyi State which pretence you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”
The defendant pleaded “not guilty” after hearing the charges read to him.
The EFCC Counsel, Nuradeen S. Ingawa, prayed the court for a trial date and also asked that the court remand the defendant at the Enugu State Correctional Centre.
However, the defence counsel, M. C. Onwuzuruoha, told the court about a pending bail application before it.
Justice Umar thereafter adjourned the matter till 17th April 2024, for hearing on the bail application.
He also ordered that the defendant be remanded at Enugu State Correctional facility.
EFCC Arraigns Man For Alleged Fake N85m Contract In Enugu is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
Evangelical minister Eddie Hyatt believes in the healing power of prayer but “also the medical approach.” So on a February evening a week before scheduled prostate surgery, he had his sore throat checked out at an emergency room near his home in Grapevine, Texas.
A doctor confirmed that Hyatt had COVID-19 and sent him to CVS with a prescription for the antiviral drug Paxlovid, the generally recommended medicine to fight COVID. Hyatt handed the pharmacist the script, but then, he said, “She kept avoiding me.”
She finally looked up from her computer and said, “It’s $1,600.”
The generally healthy 76-year-old went out to the car to consult his wife about their credit card limits. “I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $20 on a prescription,” the astonished Hyatt recalled.
That kind of sticker shock has stunned thousands of sick Americans since late December, as Pfizer shifted to commercial sales of Paxlovid. Before then, the federal government covered the cost of the drug.
The price is one reason Paxlovid is not reaching those who need it most. And patients who qualify for free doses, which Pfizer offers under an agreement with the federal government, often don’t realize it or know how to get them.
“If you want to create a barrier to people getting a treatment, making it cost a lot is the way to do it,” said William Schaffner, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and spokesperson for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.
Public and medical awareness of Paxlovid’s benefits is low, and putting people through an application process to get the drug when they’re sick is a nonstarter, Schaffner said. Pfizer says it takes only five minutes online.
It’s not an easy drug to use. Doctors are wary about prescribing it because of dangerous interactions with common drugs that treat cholesterol, blood clots and other conditions. It must be taken within five days of the first symptoms. It leaves a foul taste in the mouth. In one study, 1 in 5 patients reported “rebound” COVID symptoms a few days after finishing the medicine — though rebound can also occur without Paxlovid.
A recent JAMA Network study found that sick people 85 and older were less likely than younger Medicare patients to get COVID therapies like Paxlovid. The drug might have prevented up to 27,000 deaths in 2022 if it had been allocated based on which patients were at highest risk from COVID. Nursing home patients, who account for around 1 in 6 U.S. COVID deaths, were about two-thirds as likely as other older adults to get the drug.
Shrunken confidence in government health programs is one reason the drug isn’t reaching those who need it. In senior living facilities, “a lack of clear information and misinformation” are “causing residents and their families to be reluctant to take the necessary steps to reduce COVID risks,” said David Gifford, chief medical officer for an association representing 14,000 health care providers, many in senior care.
The anti-vaxxers spreading falsehoods about vaccines have targeted Paxlovid as well. Some call themselves anti-paxxers.
“Proactive and health-literate people get the drug. Those who are receiving information more passively have no idea whether it’s important or harmful,” said Michael Barnett, a primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard, who led the JAMA Network study.
In fact, the drug is still free for those who are uninsured or enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, or other federal health programs, including those for veterans.
That’s what rescued Hyatt, whose Department of Veterans Affairs health plan doesn’t normally cover outpatient drugs. While he searched on his phone for a solution, the pharmacist’s assistant suddenly appeared from the store. “It won’t cost you anything!” she said.
As Hyatt’s case suggests, it helps to know to ask for free Paxlovid, although federal officials say they’ve educated clinicians and pharmacists — like the one who helped Hyatt — about the program.
“There is still a heaven!” Hyatt replied. After he had been on Paxlovid for a few days his symptoms were gone and his surgery was rescheduled.
About That $1,390 List Price
Pfizer sold the U.S. government 23.7 million five-day courses of Paxlovid, produced under an FDA emergency authorization, in 2021 and 2022, at a price of around $530 each.
Under the new agreement, Pfizer commits to provide the drug for the beneficiaries of the government insurance programs. Meanwhile, Pfizer bills insurers for some portion of the $1,390 list price. Some patients say pharmacies have quoted them prices of $1,600 or more.
How exactly Pfizer arrived at that price isn’t clear. Pfizer won’t say. A Harvard study last year estimated the cost of producing generic Paxlovid at about $15 per treatment course, including manufacturing expenses, a 10% profit markup, and 27% in taxes.
Pfizer reported $12.5 billion in Paxlovid and COVID vaccine sales in 2023, after a $57 billion peak in 2022. The company’s 2024 Super Bowl ad, which cost an estimated $14 million to place, focused on Pfizer’s cancer drug pipeline, newly reinforced with its $43 billion purchase of biotech company Seagen. Unlike some other recent oft-aired Pfizer ads (“If it’s COVID, Paxlovid”), it didn’t mention COVID products.
Connecting With Patients
The other problem is getting the drug where it is needed. “We negotiated really hard with Pfizer to make sure that Paxlovid would be available to Americans the way they were accustomed to,” Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters in February. “If you have private insurance, it should not cost you much money, certainly not more than $100.”
Yet in nursing homes, getting Paxlovid is particularly cumbersome, said Chad Worz, CEO of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, specialists who provide medicines to care homes.
If someone in long-term care tests positive for COVID, the nurse tells the physician, who orders the drug from a pharmacist, who may report back that the patient is on several drugs that interact with Paxlovid, Worz said. Figuring out which drugs to stop temporarily requires further consultations while the time for efficacious use of Paxlovid dwindles, he said.
His group tried to get the FDA to approve a shortcut similar to the standing orders that enable pharmacists to deliver anti-influenza medications when there are flu outbreaks in nursing homes, Worz said. “We were close,” he said, but “it just never came to fruition.” “The FDA is unable to comment,” spokesperson Chanapa Tantibanchachai said.
Los Angeles County requires nursing homes to offer any COVID-positive patient an antiviral, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees nursing homes nationwide, has not issued similar guidance. “And this is a mistake,” said Karl Steinberg, chief medical officer for two nursing home chains with facilities in San Diego County, which also has no such mandate. A requirement would ensure the patient “isn’t going to fall through the cracks,” he said.
While it hasn’t ordered doctors to prescribe Paxlovid, CMS on Jan. 4 issued detailed instructions to health insurers urging swift approval of Paxlovid prescriptions, given the five-day window for the drug’s efficacy. It also “encourages” plans to make sure pharmacists know about the free Paxlovid arrangement.
Current COVID strains appear less virulent than those that circulated earlier in the pandemic, and years of vaccination and COVID infection have left fewer people at risk of grave outcomes. But risk remains, particularly among older seniors, who account for most COVID deaths, which number more than 13,500 so far this year in the U.S.
Steinberg, who sees patients in 15 residences, said he orders Paxlovid even for COVID-positive patients without symptoms. None of the 30 to 40 patients whom he prescribed the drug in the past year needed hospitalization, he said; two stopped taking it because of nausea or the foul taste, a pertinent concern in older people whose appetites already have ebbed.
Steinberg said he knew of two patients who died of COVID in his companies’ facilities this year. Neither was on Paxlovid. He can’t be sure the drug would have made a difference, but he’s not taking any chances. The benefits, he said, outweigh the risks.
KFF Health News reporter Colleen DeGuzman contributed to this report.
