Offtopic/fun » prohibited discussions with fellow players an

ROME -- An Argentina side without Lionel Messi beat Italy 2-1 Wednesday in a friendly match honouring Pope Francis. Gonzalo Higuain put Argentina in front in the 20th minute and substitute Ever Banega doubled its lead four minutes into the second half before Lorenzo Insigne pulled one back with his first goal for Italy in the 76th minute. Higuain, Napolis new signing, was one of several Argentina players currently in Serie A. Pope Francis is an avid football fan, who comes from Argentina. He met the teams in the Apostolic Palace on Tuesday. AC Milan and Italy striker Mario Balotelli missed the match with an injury. Both he and Messi returned to their respective clubs Tuesday night. The last time the teams met was in 2001 -- also a friendly in Rome that Argentina won 2-1. Before that, Diego Maradonas Argentina eliminated host Italy from the 1990 World Cup on penalties in a semifinal in Naples. "We met a team of great quality, one of the best in the world," Italy coach Cesare Prandelli said. "We made mistakes coming out of defence and started badly, but then we did well. "We lacked that grit and finish around the penalty area, but the team did well. Honor to Argentina, it is a very strong side." The match was also used to promote peace and camaraderie in sport and to that end both teams had been staying at the same hotel and had travelled to the Stadio Olimpico together. Italy captain Gianluigi Buffon and his Argentina counterpart Javier Mascherano also planted an olive tree in a temporary pot after the national anthems, as a sign of unity. The tree will be kept in the Vatican gardens. All that had little impact on the teams competitiveness on the pitch, as the match was fast-paced right from kickoff. Italy had a good chance early on as Daniele De Rossi collected the ball in his own penalty area and dribbled downfield before lifting an accurate long ball to release Pablo Osvaldo. However, Argentina goalkeeper Mariano Andujar rushed out to clear the danger. It was Osvaldos first match back since being kicked out of the Confederations Cup squad for insulting his club coach at Roma -- a breach of Prandellis strict code of ethics. The Roma striker was born in Buenos Aires. Argentina went even closer two minutes later as Higuain raced into the area but Giorgio Chiellini got in a perfectly timed tackle to clear the ball for a corner before the former Real Madrid player could unleash a shot. Chiellini, who was celebrating his 29th birthday, also headed the resulting corner out to safety. Argentina took the lead after Italy lost the ball in midfield and Erik Lamela picked out Higuain, who was given too much space in the box by De Rossi and Verratti and he curled a shot into the right hand side of goal. Italy started looking more dangerous, especially down the right flank, and almost took the lead in the 39th minute. Antonio Candreva put in yet another cross from the right, but Claudio Marchisio -- seemingly surprised to find himself completely unmarked -- failed to connect from a meter out. Argentina should have doubled its lead on the stroke of halftime when Rodrigo Palacio slid in, in front of an empty net, but didnt connect properly with Angel Di Marias cross and blazed the ball over the crossbar from close range. Argentina did so shortly after the restart. Higuain rolled the ball across to an unmarked Banega following a swift counter attack, and the halftime substitute drilled a low shot into the bottom left corner. Argentina could have extended its lead in the 56th minute when Palacios ball was parried by Federico Marchetti -- who had come on for Buffon moments earlier -- but only as far as Higuain. However, Marchetti got back up swiftly to palm away his effort and De Rossi cleared the danger. Italy almost grabbed one back but Andujar did well to tip Alessandro Diamantis free kick onto the crossbar. The rebound was eventually bundled into the net by Candreva, but he was clearly offside. The hosts did reduce the deficit in stunning fashion. Osvaldo touched the ball onto Insigne and, with his first touch, the 22-year-old lifted the ball perfectly into the top right corner from 25 yards. It was Inisgnes second game for Italy. "It was a wonderful sensation to score," Insigne said. "I always try those shots and it went well tonight. "It was a wonderful feeling to meet the pope, I got goosebumps because it doesnt happen every day. I still need to fully realize it happened."Yeezy Boost Fake For Sale . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. Yeezy Boost 350 v2 Wholesale .C. at the helm of the top team in the Eastern Conference. His tenure as the GM in Vancouver was all too brief. Though he led the Canucks to what was then a franchise record-shattering campaign in just his second season, Nonis was gone and replaced one year later. http://www.fakeyeezyscheap.com/wholesale-yeezy-boost-700.html . Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Michael Del Zotto and Kevin Klein switch places. The Predators Get: D Michael Del Zotto. Fake Yeezy Wholesale . -- The proud fathers huddled near the Dallas Stars dressing room, smiling, laughing and telling stories while wearing replica green sweaters of their sons team. Fake Air Max 95 For Sale . Tests earlier this week revealed a Grade 2 left hamstring strain for Sabathia, who was hurt in last Fridays start against San Francisco. Its an injury that will require about eight weeks to heal. He finished a disappointing campaign just 14-13 with a career-worst 4.In an unprecedented foray into college sports, the National Labor Relations Board general counsel has declared that Northwestern University must eliminate unlawful rules governing football players and allow them greater freedom to express themselves. The ruling, which referred to players as employees, found that they must be freely allowed to post on social media, discuss issues of their health and safety, and speak with the media.The new rules could apply to the football programs at the 16 other private universities that play in the FBS, including schools such as Notre Dame, Stanford and Baylor -- but not public universities. As the nations top labor agency, the NLRB governs relations between private employers and their employees, so it has no power over public schools. Its findings on Northwestern became public on Friday.The ruling does not have force of law on the private schools, but if anyone raised a complaint, the result would likely be similar to the Northwestern case. Coaches and administrators there are no longer able to ban players from posting on social media -- as some high-profile programs have done -- or even regulate what they say. And whereas Northwestern once barred players from talking to any media not approved by the school, it is no longer allowed to do so.In addition to granting players greater freedoms, the NLRB ruling will offer athletes a clear path to bring their issues before an independent agency outside of the organizations that have historically governed college athletics -- the universities, the conferences and the NCAA.So while this ruling did not address compensation for athletes, someone could now file a charge with the NLRB asserting that failing to pay players constitutes an unfair labor practice. After all, if the NLRB -- which is led by a five-person board and a general counsel, all appointed by the president -- declared that close monitoring of social media is an unfair labor practice, it is an open question how it would view failure to pay players. Until now, the issue has been contested only in antitrust courts.The action against Northwestern came in a highly unusual proceeding. It stemmed from a charge filed in August 2015 against the school by David Rosenfeld, an activist labor lawyer with the firm of Weinberg Roger & Rosenfeld in Alameda, California, and echoed the 2014 attempt by Northwestern players to form a union. Rosenfeld alleged that Northwestern was guilty of unfair labor practices in its treatment of football players.Rosenfeld, who had no previous connection with Northwestern, relied on a provision of American labor law that allows anyone, anywhere, to bring unfair treatment of employees to the attention of the NLRB for remedial action. By the same token, if someone were to challenge the NCAAs compensation rules, it would not need to be a player -- it could be anyone.In response to Rosenfelds charge, the NLRB issued an advice memorandum late last month that described the Northwestern team rules as unlawfully overbroad. The memorandum was made public last week after ESPN.com filed a freedom of information request for the material.The jumping off point for Rosenfelds filing was a decision in 2014 by the NLRB Regional Administrator in Chicago, Peter Ohr, that Northwestern players were employees. Northwestern vigorously disputed the idea at the time and appealed Ohrs decision to the five members of the NLRB.During the course of the appeal, most of the private universities that would be affected joined Northwesterns effort. They succeeded in obtaining a ruling from the NLRB board members that the agency would not enter into the world of college sports. The board said it did not make sense for the NLRB to take jurisdiction over a potential Northwestern players union since it was the only private school in the Big Ten. It would be chaos, the board reasoned, if Northwestern was governed by the NLRB and the other schools were governed by the laws of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska.But even as the NLRB refused to take jurisdiction over the situation, Ohrs decision that the players were employees remained untouched and in effect. In the memorandum made public last week, an associate general counsel of the NLRB stated in a footnote that he assume(d) that Northwesterns scholarship football players are statutory employees.Northwestern, in a written statement from vice president for university relations Alan K. Cubbage to ESPN.com, stated that the school disputes the General Counsels assumption that Northwesterns athletes are employees and asserted that they are students, first and foremost.In his charge of unfair treatment of employees, Rosenfeld ciited the Northwestern team handbook that was a critical exhibit in the 2014 hearing.dddddddddddd The handbook includes rules governing the daily lives of the players and makes clear that they would be closely supervised by coaches.I obtained the handbook from the NLRB with a Freedom of Information Act request and located the provisions that were unfair labor practices, Rosenfeld told ESPN.com.The provisions cited by Rosenfeld and found to be unlawful included coaches monitoring of players social media use and bans on discussion of any aspects of the team ... with anyone, discussing individual grievances with fellow team members or third parties, including lawyers and union representatives, and all contacts with the media unless they were arranged by the athletic communications office.During the course of the just concluded NLRB proceedings, Northwestern agreed to modify or to eliminate the rules in question. The universitys changes and its notice to team members of the new policies resulted in the NLRB dismissing the charge without further hearings or actions. The initial filings by Rosenfeld and Northwestern have not yet been made public.Under the rule that the NLRB found to be unlawful, Northwestern coaches and even the university police could regularly monitor social media postings made by football players. Former team captain and quarterback Kain Colter, the leader of the players union effort, testified in the NLRB hearing in Chicago early in 2014 that when he posted a photo of himself in Oakley sunglasses that were a gift at a celebrity golf outing, an assistant coach texted him within 10 minutes of the posting that he must remove it. The coach was concerned that the selfie might be construed as an endorsement of Oakley products.Under the modification offered by Northwestern, the new social media rule provides that postings can be seen by Northwestern personnel and cautions against posting full or partial nudity (of yourself or another) sex, racial or sexual epithets, underage drinking, drugs, weapons or firearms, hazing, harassment, or unlawful activity.A previous handbook rule on communications told players that they must never discuss any aspects of the team with anyone. Emphasizing the confidentiality of players physical conditions and planned team strategies, the rule stated, The team is a family and what takes place on the field, in meetings, or in the locker room stays within this family.The new rule is limited to a ban on discussion of individual medical conditions and allows players to discuss on a no-name basis -- owing to HIPAA, they cannot refer to another player by name -- any vital health and safety issues impacting themselves, their teammates, and fellow collegiate football players.Rules governing Northwesterns student-athlete grievance process -- called the Student-Athlete Rights and Responsibilities (Dispute Resolution Procedure) in the handbook -- were also deemed unlawful and Northwestern has completely eliminated the procedures. The rules had stated that any grievance concerning personal rights and relationships within the team must begin with an appeal to the teams director of football operations (Cody Cejda), further appeals to Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald and the athletic director, and ultimately a review by Northwestern President Morton O. Schapiro.The universitys elimination of its procedures for player grievances was based on the NLRBs finding that the rule prohibited discussions with fellow players and third parties concerning workplace grievances.Another handbook rule told Northwestern players that they should never agree to an interview (with the media) unless the interview has been arranged by the athletic communications office, and that the players must be positive when talking about your teammates, coaches and team. Responding to the NLRBs conclusions that the rule was an infringement on player freedoms, Northwestern abandoned the rule, rewriting it to provide that players may directly speak with members of the media if (they) choose to do so.In its revised handbook, the school suggested to players that, in interviews, they should share credit for your success by talking about the contributions of your teammates and use their names. Players were also admonished to remember that every great running back needs a good offensive line and talking about the great work of others shows you have confidence in your own role and the value of your own contributions, so youre not afraid of letting someone else have their moment of glory, too.Editors note: This story has been updated for clarity.? ' ' '