NFLOpening day in the NFL saw Kansas City cornerback Marcus Peters raise a black-gloved fist during the national anthem, a protest amplified later when four Miami Dolphins kneeled on the sideline with hands on their hearts as The Star Spangled Banner played in Seattle.The protests were inspired by San Francisco backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick , the first NFL player who chose to sit and take a knee during the anthem in preseason games to call attention to what he termed the oppression of blacks and other minorities.Peters gesture was the only one visible throughout the early games as the anthems took on more significance because of the 15th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks.GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Jimmy Garoppolo did just what Tom Brady always seems to do. Lead the New England Patriots to a late score and victory.But the Patriots needed a little help.Arizonas Chandler Catanzaro missed a 47-yard field goal with 41 seconds to play and the severely depleted Patriots escaped with a 23-21 victory Sunday night in the season opener.The miss came after Garoppolo, in his first NFL start, directed the Patriots from their own 19 to the Arizona 15 to set up Stephen Gostkowskis 23-yard field goal for what proved to be the winner with 3:44 to play.Garoppolo completed 24 of 33 passes for 264 yards with no interceptions. He never seemed rattled.TENNISNEW YORK -- Stan Wawrinka is the first to acknowledge he hasnt always been the most consistent player -- or the strongest mentally. Thats why, when he shows his mettle during a match, he likes to point his right index finger to his temple.That signature gesture got a lot of use in the U.S. Open final, when Wawrinka surprisingly managed to wear down Novak Djokovic and beat the defending champion 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 for his first U.S. Open title and third Grand Slam trophy overall.The 31-year-old Wawrinka is the oldest U.S. Open mens champion since Ken Rosewall was 35 in 1970.NEW YORK -- Angelique Kerber won her first U.S. Open title and the second Grand Slam trophy of her breakthrough season, beating Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 on Saturday.The No. 2-seeded Kerber trailed by a break at 3-1 in the third set before taking five of the last six games against a fading Pliskova, who was seeded 10th and hadnt been past the third round at a major until this tournament.The left-handed Kerber already was assured of making her debut at No. 1 in the WTA rankings on Monday, ending Serena Williams record-tying 186-week stay at the top.Never a Grand Slam finalist before 2016, the German beat Williams for the Australian Open title in January, then lost to her in the Wimbledon final in July.COLLEGE FOOTBALLOklahoma State dropped out of The Associated college football poll after a controversial loss, and Georgia and Clemson fell after close calls against lightly regarded opposition.Alabama is still No. 1, receiving 56 out of 61 first-place votes. No. 2 Florida State, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Michigan all moved up one spot. The Seminoles got four first-place votes and Michigan received one.Clemson fell from second to fifth after a four-point win against Troy. No. 16 Georgia dropped seven spots after beating FCS Nicholls by two.BASEBALLTORONTO -- David Ortiz hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Hanley Ramirez also connected, and the Boston Red Sox outslugged Toronto 11-8 to reclaim a two-game lead over the Blue Jays in the AL East.Ortiz put Boston up 10-8 with a drive off Joaquin Benoit. It was his 41st career home run at Rogers Centre, his highest total at any road stadium.With his 535th career homer, Ortiz moved past Jimmie Foxx into sole possession of 18th place on baseballs career list. He also increased his RBI total to 110, the most by a player age 40 or above since Dave Winfield had 108 for Toronto in 1992.Edwin Encarnacion homered twice and Troy Tulowitzki hit his third career grand slam for the Blue Jays, who are tied with Baltimore for the wild-card lead.HOUSTON -- Jorge Soler and Addison Russell homered to lead Chicago to a 9-5 win over the Houston Astros, moving the Cubs closer to clinching the NL Central.Soler hit a solo home run as part of Chicagos four-run third, and Russell hit a two-run shot -- his 20th of the season -- in the fourth as the Cubs built a 9-0 lead.Chicago extended its lead in the NL Central to 16 games over St. Louis.GOLFCARMEL, Ind. -- Powerful off the tee and relentless with the putter, Dustin Johnson didnt give anyone much of a chance by closing with a 5-under 67 to win the BMW Championship by three shots and move to the top of the FedEx Cup.Johnson won for the third time in his last eight tournaments dating to his first major at the U.S. Open, and this might have been his most complete performance.Paul Casey did just about everything he could, including two early birdies for two-shot swings that erased a four-shot deficit in two holes. Johnson answered with a pair of birdies and he was on his way. Casey made a 25-foot eagle putt on the 15th hole to get within one shot, but that lasted only as long as it took Johnson to make an 18-foot eagle putt on top of him to keep the margin at three shots.Casey was runner-up in his second straight FedEx Cup playoff event, losing to Rory McIlroy a week ago.AUTO RACINGRICHMOND, Va. -- It was yet another Denny Hamlin runaway for Joe Gibbs Racing on Saturday night in what turned out to be an anticlimactic end to NASCARs regular season.The fireworks came off the track at Richmond International Raceway, where Tony Stewart intentionally wrecked Ryan Newman before Newman angrily chided his former boss for the accident that officially ended Newmans chances to make the playoffs.The verbal beat down from Newman came with 37 laps left, before Hamlin finished off his third career Sprint Cup win at his home track while giving JGR its third consecutive victory at the track and ninth in the last 15 races.Newman called Stewart bipolar, said the retiring race car driver had anger issues, and all but outright referenced the 2014 incident in which Stewart fatally struck a sprint car driver.Khari Willis Jersey . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night. Malik Hooker Jersey . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed. http://www.officialindianapoliscoltspro.com/Kenny-moore-colts-jersey/ . Carey Price didnt, but he still came out on top against one of his rivals for the No. 1 job at the Sochi Games. The Anahim Lake, B.C., native was stellar in making 39 saves in his home province and Lars Eller got credit for a bizarre short-handed winner as the Canadiens defeated the Canucks 4-1. Kenny Moore Jersey . The players spoke Jan. 13 during a Major League Baseball Players Association conference call after Rodriguez sued the union and Major League Baseball to overturn an arbitrators decision suspending him for the 2014 season and post-season. Peyton Manning Colts Jersey . According the Toronto Star, a knee injury will keep Sundin out of the lineup, which includes former teammates Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi and Curtis Joseph.The presentation of Olympic medals is one of the more spine-tingling ceremonies in sports. National anthems blare from loudspeakers, flags wave through the crowd and tears fall as medals are draped from athletes necks.But what happens to those medals once the athletes step off the podium?We set out to uncover the path of a handful of Olympic medals, some that are historically significant, others that are obscure. Heres what we found:Gifts from LouganisBy the time Jeanne White-Ginder appeared with retired Olympic diver Greg Louganis at a childrens benefit event in 1995, they had been friends for years.Louganis had befriended her late son, Ryan White, during his well-publicized battle against AIDS in the 1980s, often visiting him in Indiana or inviting him to big diving events. Louganis was so inspired by Whites courage -- he had been bullied and expelled from school after contracting HIV via a blood transfusion -- that he gave the teen four of his medals from events such as the U.S. Championships and Pan American Games.Five years after Ryans 1990 death, White-Ginder presented a sculpture of her son to Louganis at the benefit in California. Then the five-time Olympic medalist shocked her.He reached in his suit pocket and pulled out his gold medal and put it around my neck, White-Ginder said. And he said, I want you to have this. Ryan just meant everything to me and saved my life.The medal was from Louganis victory in the 3-meter springboard at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Before those Games, Louganis had received the diagnosis that he was HIV positive, but he kept it a secret. On one of his preliminary dives, Louganis hit his head on the springboard and came out of the pool with a bleeding gash. He recovered to win but was shaken. Years later, he recalled that his young friend helped him in that moment. What would Ryan do in this situation? he remembered thinking. I knew he would fight and hang in there. He was my strength.White-Ginder kept the medal in a scrapbook for years, but thought it was wasted and needed to be seen. For a while it was on loan to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Today, its at The Childrens Museum in Indianapolis, part of a display of Ryans bedroom in an exhibit called The Power of Children.That gold is one of five Olympic medals Louganis won. He earned a silver at Montreal in 1976, and then won four golds by sweeping the 3-meter springboard and 10-meter platform events in 1984 and 88. Louganis gave the gold from the 1984 platform event to Ron OBrien, his coach.He was overwhelmed, Louganis said. He said he has never heard of an Olympian giving their coach a gold medal.Though White-Ginder has offered to give Louganis back his medal several times, he has said no. He still has three medals and is happy two went to people who treasure them.The medals meant so much to Jeanne and Ron, and I was happy to share them, he said. As far as I am concerned, the records are in the record books, and they mean so much to them, and I can honor them and their support of me.-- Doug WilliamsSmiths famous medal under lock and keyFor now, anyone who wants to see Tommie Smiths Olympic gold medal will have to be satisfied with gawking at the replica on his larger-than-life statue at San Jose State University.The real one is in a vault somewhere in Texas.The reason its there is because thats where I was born, and thats where I want the medal to be, said Smith, who lives in Georgia. Its under lock and key. ... The medal is still alive and kicking.The medal means a lot to Smith, 72, who earned it by winning the 200 meters at the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968. He says it represents the years of hard work. But he knows his medal carries a little more cultural (and financial) value than most. Its a piece of 20th century history. Thats why its locked away.Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos -- his teammate at San Jose State -- famously bowed their heads and raised their black-gloved fists on the medal stand during the national anthem, hoping to call attention to racial inequality. In turn, they stepped into a political firestorm in a turbulent time.I wanted to make my feelings known about the racist tendencies not only in America, Smith said, but the inhuman rights of the rest of the planet. ... The attitude of those who always view others less than themselves.In the years after 1968, he kept the medal with family in California, while he played wide receiver with the Cincinnati Bengals and taught and coached at Oberlin College. Eventually, he secured it in Texas.Over the years, he has taken it out to show friends and family, and hell visit it sometimes on homecomings.In 2010, he put it up for auction, along with the spikes he wore, to raise money for his program that uses track to help inner-city kids succeed in school. But when bids didnt meet his expectations, he kept the items.I couldnt do it for the price they wanted to give me for the medal, because it did represent something, he said.The glove he wore is long lost. It was part of a pair that he brought home from the Olympics and wore that fall and winter.It was cold in San Jose, he said, laughing. I left them in my car; Im pretty sure about that. I had a 6-month-old son, and he probably chewed them up.-- Doug WilliamsHousecleaning uncovers 1904 golf medalsJohn Ours figured hed just spend a day this past fall helping his stepfather clean out the house of his mother, who had died at age 101, three years earlier. After other relatives had taken what they wanted from her suburban Cleveland home, all that appeared left were a trove of books, old bills and rustic furniture.Little did Ours know he would stumble across one of the biggest stashes of golf memorabilia in the sports history, most notably a gold and silver medal from the 1904 Games, the last time golf was an Olympic event before Rio. The medals were won by H. Chandler Egan and eventually passed down to his only child, Eleanor Egan Everett, who had lived in the Chagrin Faalls, Ohio, home for more than seven decades until her death in June 2012.ddddddddddddIt was a black metallic box stuffed in the bottom of a book-filled cabinet, blocked by an old rocking chair in a cramped den, that caught Ours eye. He pulled out the box and could tell by its weight that something interesting was inside.He sat down with his stepfather, Morris Everett Jr., at the kitchen table, and they popped the lid. On top were various medals Egan, Everetts grandfather, had won in collegiate and amateur events. When he reached the bottom of the box, Everett pulled out a shiny silver medal.It was the medal Egan had won as runner-up at the 1904 Olympic golf tournament in St. Louis, and it was in surprisingly pristine shape. Along with that memento was the gold Egan won in the team competition.We knew the history here, that there were medals, but over the years nobody knew what happened to them, Ours said. We didnt even have a thought that these things would have been in the house.Today, those medals are on display at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida, after making their rounds earlier this year at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, New Jersey, and the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh.Everett said hed like to find a permanent site to display the medals.I have a responsibility to my family members, but I cant imagine putting them away for another 50 years, he said.-- Dan ArrittDiver takes gold to RioThe absolute best and most fortunate athletes will take home gold, silver and bronze medals from these Olympics, but U.S. diver David Boudia actually brought the gold medal he won at the 2012 London Games with him to Rio.Boudia did so because the U.S. divers had a very recent pre-Olympic camp in Atlanta, where he knew they would be visiting a childrens hospital. He wanted to brighten up the patients day by not only showing them his gold medal and letting them touch it, but by placing it around their necks -- as if they were Olympic champions on the podium.I know these kids are going through so much, and their parents are also going through so much, that if we can lighten up their day a little bit, at the end of the day, we should do that, Boudia said. I think they were dumbfounded at how awesome this is, that this is an actual gold medal.Because he didnt return home before flying to Rio, Boudia brought the medal with him. Not that he is revealing where hes keeping it. Its in the athletes village somewhere, he said with a smile. Its a secret.When Boudia is at home, he keeps the medal in a safe, though he often takes it out for public appearances. And while he keeps the medal in a safe, that doesnt mean he worries too much about it getting stolen.If it does get stolen, then its a medal. We can maybe find a replacement, he said. If I lost it, it would not be that great. But I would still have my daughter and my wife.Or, he could always win another one.-- Jim CapleBirds cool propsAfter basketball star Sue Bird won her first gold at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, she was flying back to Seattle to resume the WNBA season when a flight attendant recognized her and asked to see her medal.And before I knew it, that medal was in the cockpit and then in the back of the plane and everyone had seen and touched it, Bird said. Thats when I truly understood what the medal meant. You know what it means, you see it, you experience it, but it wasnt until something like that happened when I truly realized, OK, this is pretty big.That medal was just the first of three golds Bird has won in the Olympics, and she could add a fourth in Rio. Among other places, she has kept them in her underwear drawer -- probably stupid -- and hidden them inside many things in her mothers house, but she now keeps them in a safety deposit box at a bank.Bird says that as important as the medals are, they are in some way just cool props for other people -- such as the friend who visited her home and wore all three golds while washing the dishes and vacuuming the floor. But it is winning in the Olympics that means much more than the medals you receive as a reward for doing so.The medal represents the Olympics, Bird said, but the whole experience is what resonates, not the actual medal itself.-- Jim CapleBasketball medals on the blockCashing in on Olympic gold has so far proved to be a volatile proposition for several ex-NBA players.In the past four years, Walter Davis, Jerry Lucas and Vin Baker have dusted off their gold medals -- each won over a decade apart with USA mens basketball -- and placed them up for auction with varying degrees of success.Davis, a six-time All-Star who remains the all-time leading scorer for the Phoenix Suns, decided to put his 1976 gold medal on the auction block in September 2012. After he set a minimum price of $10,000, it sold for $108,000.A year later, Lucas asked the same auction house to list his 1960 gold medal, only the former seven-time All-Star had a different idea of what his gold was worth. Lucas, the only NBA champion and Basketball Hall of Fame member among the three, asked for a reserve price of $250,000, but that number was never offered and the medal went unsold.Baker was a four-time All-Star before his career and personal life took a tumble. Financial woes two years ago led to him auction off his medal from the 2000 Games, the first gold sold that was won by a player in the Dream Team era. He kept his reserve price at $35,000, and it fetched $67,643.That wasnt the first Dream Team medal to end up on the auction block, however.Carmelo Anthony parted ways with the bronze he won at the 2004 Games. Anthony was reportedly displeased with his teams performance in Athens and gave the medal to a family member, who auctioned it for $14,080 in July 2014.Anthony eventually brought home the type of medal he was seeking, winning golds in 2008 and 12.-- Dan Arritt ' ' '