Die Serie » gth of the democracy we have here.July 30, 2016

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- While the New England Patriots?entered Thursday nights game against the Houston Texans with rookie Jacoby Brissett as their starting quarterback, they were boosted by the return of tight end Rob Gronkowski.Brissett became the first rookie quarterback to start for the Patriots since Drew Bledsoe in 1993.Gronkowski initially injured his hamstring on Aug. 15 in a joint practice with the Chicago Bears. He had returned to practice on a limited basis Aug. 24, and has been limited since. On Tuesday, he said he was feeling decent before adding, Obviously you just dont wake up and youre 100 percent, but Im satisfied with the improvements.He noted that his game status would be a coachs decision, a trainers decision and that well all come together.Gronkowski has roster bonuses in his contract that earn him $31,250 per game that he is active. In his absence the first two games, Martellus Bennett played 149 of a possible 151 offensive snaps. The Patriots have planned to pair Gronkowski and Bennett as a one-two combo that they hope creates matchup issues for opponents.Meanwhile, at quarterback, the Patriots dont have Garoppolo?in uniform Thursday.Garoppolo, who sprained the AC joint in his right throwing shoulder on Sunday, was officially listed as inactive for the game.That leaves the club with just Brissett at quarterback on its roster. The third-round draft pick from NC State replaced Garoppolo in Sundays win over the Miami Dolphins and has worked as the starter in the days leading up to Thursdays game.When Bledsoe started in 1993, he was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, the Patriots head coach was Bill Parcells, James Orthwein was the teams owner, and the team played its games at the old Foxboro Stadium. As it turns out, Brissett counts Parcells as one of his mentors as he grew up nearby his residence in Florida.Julian Edelman, who played quarterback at Kent State before the Patriots switched him to receiver in 2009 after drafting him in the seventh round, would likely be the teams top emergency option. Texans coach Bill OBrien said earlier this week that he remembers Edelman working at quarterback at times in practice during OBriens tenure as a Patriots assistant.Patriots linebacker and defensive signal caller?Donta Hightower?was also inactive for the second straight game. Hightower hurt his knee in the teams season opener. Devan Dubnyk Wild Jersey .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. Jonas Brodin Wild Jersey .Y. -- Paul Byron and Matt Stajan scored as the Calgary Flames started a five-game road trip with a 2-1 overtime win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon. http://www.authenticwildpro.com/Jason-zucker-wild-jersey/ . The nimble-footed quarterback got his wish, dashing through the snow and a weary defence all the way into the NCAA record book. Jonas Brodin Jersey .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. Jason Zucker Jersey .ca! Hi Kerry, Its another day and here we are looking at another dubious hit to the head. In this case Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky elbowed Saku Koivu in the head about a second after he dished off the puck to a teammate, knocking him unconscious. Sebnem Kimyacioglu is a member of the Turkish national womens basketball team. Born in the United States, Kimyacioglu has dual citizenship. A shooting guard at Stanford in 2001-05, Kimyacioglu has played internationally for much of the past decade as well as earning her law degree from Santa Clara University.Kimyacioglu and her Turkish teammates open the 2016 Summer Olympics tournament on Saturday against France, the 2012 silver medalists. Kimyacioglu talks about her teams ups and downs related to the recent tragedies in Turkey following its qualification for Rio.***After I graduated from Stanford in 2005, I went overseas to play basketball in the Turkish and European leagues and I played there for three years before I hung up my sneakers and returned to the United States to go to law school. I graduated from Santa Clara School of Law, took the California bar exam and I really didnt think Id be playing basketball competitively again.But my Stanford teammate Kristen Newlin and her husband, who coaches basketball in Turkey, were visiting me and we were playing in a pickup game with my law school teammates and he asked me, Have you thought about playing again?He encouraged me to go to a club tryout in Turkey. Nobody believed I was in basketball shape -- I didnt believe I was in basketball shape -- but I figured I was going to make the most of the opportunity and trained my heart out while simultaneously studying for the bar exam. I made the Galatasaray roster. The previous year, basketball stars Diana Taurasi and Tina Charles were on this team. That year, it was Lindsay Whalen and Sylvia Fowles fresh off of a gold medal at the London Olympics. For me, it was exciting to maybe play on a team that would contend for a Euroleague title, and I didnt expect that I would get a minute of play.I carved out a role as the intangibles player on the team. I would do whatever was needed of me, be that cheering my butt off for 40 minutes or D-ing up the best wing player on the opposing team. My contributions were not going to be on the stat sheet, but I was also prepared to take big shots if that was required of me. That requirement came in the biggest game of my life up to that point, the 2014 Euroleague championship. I subbed into the game and hit a couple of critical 3s to seal the victory. I was dubbed the hero of the game by FIBA. For me, it was what dreams were made of.I played there again in 2015, but honestly, I thought that Id achieved all I could, and I was already researching jobs back in the States in sports law, doing some networking. Id worked for a couple of months at a firm in Santa Barbara in the offseason. It was building toward my career. With all of this going on, I got a job offer to play two months for a team in Northern Cyprus. It intrigued me because Northern Cyprus is a conflict zone. Its split in two -- Cypriot Greeks on one side and Cypriot Turks on the other. I had attended a Sports for Good camp there the previous summer where they brought the two sides together and I thought that was something I would want to be a part of because it dovetailed into the kind of work I wanted to do.Honestly, I had no idea that would lead to my being called up to be a part of the Turkish national team. My coach from my Euroleague championship team, who became the national team coach in May of that year, asked me what I thought about being on the Olympic hopeful roster.I just felt like the stars were aligning for me to keep playing for a little while longer. At that point, Id been in and out of the game for more than 10 years, Id left basketball twice, but I had this chance to be on the Turkish national team and I couldnt say no. And then we qualified for the Olympics on June 17 in France with a top-five finish, the second time Turkey has competed in the Olympics in womens basketball. The whole thing is unbelievable because if you had asked me how my life would pan out in this stretch 10 years ago, I could never have thought this up.June 28, 2016We were about to reconvene for our month-long pre-Olympic camp when the terrorist bombing took place at the airport in Istanbul. It deeply affected me. It felt very personal because that is someplace that I fly into and out of all the time.I never would consider it a place to avoid. These days you think about the attacks in popular places and think, Maybe I wont go there. Ill go someplace else instead. But an airport, you cant really avoid going there. And that made it really personal for me.I flew into Istanbul two days after the attack. The remnants of the attack were there as soon as I got off the plane. The ceiling tiles were gone in the terminal and crews were out doing repairs to the floors and the ceilings. As I was exiting the international baggage claim area, there were large areas tarped off where they were working.It was a very strange feeling to think about the fact that just two days before that, people were running for their lives in that same area.Our team has handled all of thiss pretty well.dddddddddddd Our manager and staff are pretty sensitive to that. We enter the airport through VIP areas as we travel. I know the hope is that we can just focus on basketball and the Olympic tournament. We appreciate these efforts, and I believe they have helped us. We are proud of having the hopes of a nation attached to us, but at the very least, we also want to make proud those whose efforts helped us get to this point.I was born in the United States, but I spent every summer in Turkey growing up. My parents live in Turkey. Im fluent in the language. Since I graduated from college, Ive lived in Turkey for a total of six years. I love it, and Im hopeful for it.July 15, 2016Wed been in training camp for the Olympics in Slovenia for the past 10 days, and we had only a couple of days left before we were going to return to Istanbul.I was on FaceTime with some family members in the hotel when I heard people running back and forth in the hallway. I went out into the hall and asked one of my teammates what was happening and she said, I dont know.I started to hear that people thought a military coup was happening in Turkey. I walked over to our treatment room, which is the place where players always convene. Its a big room, with four or five treatment tables and everyone was in there, sitting on the tables and on the floor with their iPads turned on, streaming live TV.At that point, all we could see was that people werent sure what was going on. The bridge in Istanbul was blocked. People were questioning whether this was a terrorist attack or something else. It was all just developing, and it was hard to figure out exactly what was happening. Our staff got a projection of live TV in our meeting room, and we all moved in there to watch as things unfolded.The room was eerily silent. People were quietly digesting, thinking about the things and the people that were important to them and what this could mean. I didnt want to freak out my family and friends, so I was texting them to let them know I was fine.My dad is in Turkey. My mother is in the States because my sister just had a baby.I was on the phone with my father and he was trying to comfort me, telling me everything was going to be fine. And I just kept thinking, I dont know about that.At one point, some of my teammates got up and went to the nearest ATMs to get some cash, because once we thought it might be a coup. We were afraid everything was going to shut down. We would find out later that a neighbor of one of my teammates was killed making his way home from work that night.From our hotel, we saw on state television, one woman was held hostage at the television station and read a note the coup was successful. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.It was scary. We didnt know whether we were going to be able to go back to Turkey at that point, whether any of our future plans were going to be a reality, including the Olympics.July 16, 2016It was past midnight when we left the team meeting room in the hotel in Slovenia and went to bed. It was becoming clear that the coup wasnt going to be successful. There have been previous coups in Turkey and there had always been a contingent of citizens supporting the military and that wasnt the case here. All of Turkey stood up for democracy. People from opposing parties, with different ideologies, all rejected the attempt to intervene with Turkeys democratically elected government. It was an important moment in history for the nation.When we returned to Istanbul two days later, the city was back to its usual, bustling self. We saw people celebrating in the streets every night that democracy won out. We saw it in front of the airport, people waving flags. I think its a sign of how far Turkey has come and the strength of the democracy we have here.July 30, 2016We are about to leave for the Olympics. Despite the excitement I feel, it has been a trying time. I think we all feel a heightened sense of responsibility to show that we are representing Turkey, that we are still on our feet, still standing tall. Our success as a team will not only be a sign that Turkey is a democratic nation where people of many races, nationalities and religions live together, but I believe it will be a glimmer of hope for the people of Turkey.We are proud of our country. There are a lot of Turkish people who have been living through some dark days and losses recently. Turkish people have a lot of pride, and we want to make them proud of us.I believe the story of whats happening in Turkey is worth telling. I dont want this moment or the feeling I have in my gut to pass without speaking about it. After the Olympics, the moment will have passed. In the meantime, hopefully, we will bring smiles to the faces of the people who see us walking in the opening ceremonies and representing them in the pinnacle of competition for sport. ' ' '