-healing incision. They post photos of their zipper scars

TAMPA, Fla. -- The stands were mostly empty, but the soggy show went on.Mack Brown ran for 149 yards and a touchdown in heavy rain Wednesday night, leading the Washington Redskins to a 20-13 preseason-closing victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.With Tropical Storm Hermine approaching Floridas Gulf Coast, the game at Raymond James Stadium was moved up 24 hours from Thursday, when the NFLs other 30 teams will conclude the exhibition schedule.Attendance was announced as 42,996, however there only appeared to be about 5,000 or so in the stands at kickoff. Only die-hard fans stayed around for the end.Youve got to love preseason football to be out there on a night like tonight, Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said.Brown, a first-year pro out of Florida, spearheaded a 245-yard rushing attack and scored on a 60-yard burst in the second quarter. He also broke runs of 21 and 22 yards in helping Washington built a 13-0 halftime lead.I played at the University of Florida. We had no indoor stadium, practice facility, so I played in the rain all the time, said Brown, who carried 12 times for 130 yards in the first two quarters.Rookie Nate Sudfeld played the entire game at quarterback for the Redskins, who left Kirk Cousins and the rest of Washingtons projected starters behind in Virginia to attend the teams Welcome Home Luncheon, an annual event that raises money for a charitable foundation.Meanwhile, 21 of 22 players listed as regulars on Tampa Bays depth chart, including quarterback Jameis Winston, did not dress.That left plenty of opportunities for young hopefuls such as Brown, who spent parts of last season on Washingtons practice squad, and Bucs receiver Bernard Reedy to state their case for surviving final cuts Saturday, the deadline to trim rosters to the regular-season limit of 53 players.I really want to be here, Brown said. I think I put some good film out there from camp, preseason. So Im going to keep praying and hopefully Im here.Winstons backup, Mike Glennon, started for Tampa Bay and played into the second quarter. Third-stringer Ryan Griffin, whos also expected to make the team, got the rest of the work at quarterback and threw a touchdown pass to Reedy in the final minute.ROOKIE WATCHRedskins: Sudfeld, a sixth-round draft pick, completed 8 of 18 passes for 72 yards, one TD and no interceptions. With rookie RB Keith Marshall (elbow) landing on injured reserve this week, Brown and Robert Kelley remain in the running to be backups behind Matt Jones and Chris Thompson. Kelley carried 16 times for 99 yards.I was happy to see Mack. He showed up, made the decision tougher, Washington coach Jay Gruden said. Hopefully we can figure out a way to keep all of them. Well get together and figure it out.Buccaneers: After a rough start to the preseason, missing an extra point and two field goals in the first two weeks, second-round draft pick Roberto Aguayo converted all five of his field goal attempts over the last two games, including a 50-yarder Wednesday night.POSITION BATTLESRedskins: Sudfeld is third on the depth chart behind Cousins and Colt McCoy, who dressed but did not play.Buccaneers: Koetter has already said he expects to carry three quarterbacks. In addition to the competition for the fourth running back job, DE William Gholston played much of the first half in a bid to nail down a starting job.INJURY UPDATE:Redskins: Did not announce any injuries during the game.Buccaneers: Rookie CB Ryan Smith left in the second quarter with a hand injury. TE Kivon Cartwright and WR Kenny Bell (concussion) departed in the second half and did not return.QUOTABLE:Redskins: I thought it was a blue collar performance by our offense. We walked up with our lunch pails and just rode down the field as much as we could, Sudfeld said. I understood the game plan, we were really going to try and establish the run. Its just a different type of game when you play in this weather but I had a really fun time.Buccaneers: Cant tell you how much Im looking forward to getting the roster set, getting this behind, Koetter said. Its not a f un way to finish preseason. Its a sour taste after what I think was a productive preseason. Not at all what we had in mind. But Ive got to realize, we werent playing our best guys out there.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFLColorado Avalanche Shirts . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. Colorado Avalanche Gear . -- There were so many positives from the Orlando Magics first victory of the season that it was hard for coach Jacque Vaughn to stop praising his players. https://www.cheapavalanche.com/ . Louis Blues. Shane Hnidy joins Brian Munz for the broadcast on TSN 1290 Radio at 7pm ct. Stitched Avalanche Jerseys . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. Colorado Avalanche Pro Shop .com) - The Montreal Canadiens will try to halt their longest losing streak of the season when they host the struggling New York Islanders in tonights clash at the Bell Centre.It was December 19th, 2015, when Deb Schelebo introduced herself to the group. I was born with a heart murmur, she said. It eventually led to a diagnosis of severe aortic stenosis when I passed out after a series of double-under attempts. My big dilemma now is sitting quietly for the mid-January surgery, and what type of valve to use.Schelebo, 56, a member at CrossFit 380 in McKinney, Texas, couldnt believe the responses she got from her post in the I Heart CrossFit Facebook group. After a warm and rousing welcome, the members offered her advice and input on the pros and cons of mechanical, bovine and pig valves, and assured her that whichever she chose, she could and would not only recover, but also return to CrossFit.The group gave me the confidence I needed to go forward with my surgery, Schelebo says. It was extraordinarily helpful to have these people to talk to. They were total strangers, but they had gone through the same thing I was going through and had their chests cracked open. It was amazing to know they were CrossFitters like me and they were all able to go back to it.The CrossFit community is what separates it from other forms of fitness training. Naysayers call it cultish, but those who within it thrive on the support. The I Heart CrossFit group, started by D.J. Forsyth, a CrossFit Games regional competitor and owner of CrossFit PRx in Spring, Texas, is an online extension of a subset of that community.Forsyth had his faulty aortic valve replaced with a mechanical one in December of 2013. Terrified he would never be able to CrossFit again, he Googled CrossFit and OHS. After sifting through hundreds of search results on how to improve his overhead squat, Forsyth came across a 2012 espnW story on Ingrid Kantola, a fellow regional competitor and owner of CrossFit Jaakaru in nearby Austin. Kantola had open-heart surgery in May of 2010 to repair damage done to her heart by endocarditis, an infection that literally shredded her mitral valve. But because Kantolas zipper scar runs horizontally under her sports bra line, as opposed to the more customary -- and more visible -- vertical scar, Forsyth never knew. He reached out on Facebook, and the two became fast friends.With many pep-talks from Kantola, Forsyth made a speedier-than-most recovery and competed in the CrossFit open in March of 2014, when a story about him appeared on CrossFits official website. He began receiving Facebook messages from CrossFitters across the country who were also dealing with heart problems. He started the group, added the eight CrossFitters who had messaged him to it, and described it as a little group of us that have had or might one day need to have heart surgery.The group is no longer so little. There are now 81 members, stretching from Australia to Austin. Each member has had or is waiting to have open-heart surgery. And each one is a CrossFitter.Young, active people like us are not the typical demographic for heart surgery, Forsyth says. Its so cool to watch our group grow and see people communicate on thhere and help each other.ddddddddddddne of those members is Asha Purohit, 27, of CrossFit Soda City in Columbia, South Carolina. Purohit had always known she had a bicuspid aortic valve, but didnt develop symptoms until the age of 25.?During the summer of 2014, Purohit developed pain in her neck and jaw and began to feel out of breath and faint. She was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm (an enlargement of the aorta) and underwent open-heart surgery in August of 2014.Shortly after, she found the I Heart CrossFit group where she, too, told her story. Purohit became so comfortable with the group that when she had a bout with pericarditis (an inflammation of the tissue around her heart) a few months after surgery, she turned immediately to I Heart CrossFit. The first thing I did when I got the diagnosis was get on the Facebook group, she says. I felt defeated and I didnt know what to do, and I knew they would understand in a way no one else would, because theyve all been there in some way or another.Like most of the CrossFitters in the group, Purohit got conflicting information from doctors as to whether she could or should continue her CrossFit training after her surgery. But Dr. John Ikonomidis, her cardiac surgeon at the Medical University of South Carolina, assured her that they did the surgery so she could live without restrictions and gave her the all-clear three months after the operation.The conservative treatment stance with regard to activity thats voiced by some cardiologists is not entirely inappropriate, but having said this, I honestly think its safe for Asha to continue, Ikonomidis said. The heart itself is undamaged from the operation and the heart muscle still responds the same way to exercise.And so does the mind. The confidence that comes from being able to complete workouts that the open-heart surgery survivors did before surgery is energizing and empowering -- and doubly so when they begin making improvements on their pre-surgery benchmarks. Members of the group proudly share their triumphs, and whenever members have setbacks or questions, the group is always there.They discuss how much weight to lift overhead and how to keep power cleans from irritating a still-healing incision. They post photos of their zipper scars and their squat positions. They float questions to the group. Can I get a tattoo while on blood thinners? (Not advisable; infection is a bigger risk than bleeding). How do I monitor the size of a bruise? (Circle it with a Sharpie so you can see if it gets bigger.) Is it OK to hold your breath on heavy lifts? (Yes, but dont go crazy.) They donate to each others fundraisers and created an I Heart CrossFit t-shirt for the group. And they share videos of their check-up echocardiograms, so the other members can see and hear the beating of their hearts.Were all just saying, Hey! Check out my heart, says Schelebo. Because we are all still alive. ' ' '