MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Even on the Tremendous Bowl, they mourned Kobe Bryant.
San Francisco’s Richard Sherman confirmed up for the Tremendous Bowl in a Bryant jersey, the beginning of quite a few honors devoted to the basketball legend on soccer’s largest day. Amongst them: Gamers from the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers lined up for a second of silence to commemorate all 9 victims of final weekend’s helicopter crash, together with Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna.
The groups stood on their respective 24-yard traces — in tribute to Bryant’s No. 24 jersey. Some followers on the sport wore Lakers jerseys, and some even had Bryant’s Decrease Merion Excessive Faculty jersey.
“Girls and gents, please take part a second of silence because the 49ers, Chiefs, and Nationwide Soccer League lengthen our deepest condolences to the buddies and households of these misplaced this previous week. … They are going to by no means be forgotten,” was the message that blared via Exhausting Rock Stadium.
As that announcement was being made, two of the stadium’s 4 video screens confirmed a picture of Bryant and the names of the opposite eight victims of the crash. The opposite two video screens confirmed a picture of longtime Minnesota Vikings star and Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Chris Doleman, who additionally died final week.
Sherman additionally appeared on Fox’s pregame present to learn a poem referred to as “Pricey Soccer” — adapting most of what he stated from Bryant’s “Pricey Basketball” poem that he penned as a approach of asserting that the 2015-16 season could be his final with the Lakers and within the NBA.
“I performed via the sweat and harm. Not as a result of problem referred to as me. However as a result of YOU referred to as me,” Sherman learn, copying Bryant’s phrases precisely in that individual passage. “I did all the things for YOU. As a result of that’s what you do when somebody makes you are feeling as alive as you’ve made me really feel.”
Throughout warmups on the Tremendous Bowl, loads of gamers wore cleats designed with numerous tributes to Bryant. San Francisco’s Dante Pettis had purple-and-gold ones with the phrases “Mamba Out” — the ultimate two phrases of Bryant’s retirement speech following his 60-point farewell sport in 2016 — emblazoned on the edges. The 49ers’ Emmanuel Sanders wore a pair with the phrases “Relaxation In Peace” and Kansas Metropolis’s Demarcus Robinson had photographs of Bryant and his quantity 24 on his cleats.
Tributes throughout different facets of the sports activities world continued Sunday, precisely one week after the crash. On the Miami-Pittsburgh males’s school basketball sport, Pitt followers tossed purple and gold confetti — Lakers colours — within the air after the Panthers scored their first basket. And earlier than a Serie A soccer match at Olympic Stadium in Rome between Lazio and Spal, Bryant’s picture was displayed on the jumbo video screens.
On the PGA Tour’s Waste Administration Phoenix Open, the tour joined gamers with a 16th-hole tribute to Bryant by utilizing his two Lakers uniform numbers to chop the final-round pin place on the stadium par three.
The pin was positioned 24 yards from the entrance edge and eight yards from the left edge on the rowdy gap that holds greater than 20,000 followers. The yellow flag had a 24 on one aspect and an eight on the opposite, and huge matching numbers have been painted within the grass in entrance of the inexperienced.
On Saturday night time, Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild skated in a 24 jersey — one other approach of paying homage to Bryant.
The NFL additionally introduced that it was auctioning 20 autographed helmets and footballs to profit The Mamba Sports activities Basis. A few of those that autographed objects included NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, Peyton Manning, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, Ciara and Russell Wilson, Stephon Gilmore, Shaquill and Shaquem Griffin, John Harbaugh, Christian McCaffrey, Kyler Murray, Paul Rudd, Deion Sanders, Michael Thomas, and all members of 2020 Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame class.
Sherman ended his poem with “We love you, Kobe. We love you, Gianna. Love all the time, Richard.”