Remembering Julius Peppers the UNC basketball player before what could be his final NFL game

Before he was spending most of his Sundays every fall tracking down quarterbacks, forcing offensive linemen to stumble and ball-carriers to fumble, Julius Peppers was emptying the breadth of his athletic gifts by making hoopers on the hardwood crumble, too.

Peppers, a transcendent athlete with an array of talents, was a surefire star on the gridiron early on. There was no questioning his dominance as an edge rusher. Out of high school, he had numerous opportunities before staying close to home -- and shining -- for the North Carolina Tar Heels. And shine he did. He became a two-time All-American for the Heels before he left school early and saw the Carolina Panthers make him the No. 2 pick in the 2002 NFL Draft.

But few know he also played a role in basketball for the Tar Heels -- and one larger than you might expect. Peppers played 56 games and started in three at UNC as a hooper, and just as he's done skillfully as an elite NFL edge-rusher over the last 17 seasons, Peppers leveraged his 6-7, 290-pound frame with grace and power. He was a dynamic rebounder and rim-rocker. The same unstoppable force he's channeled to hunt down quarterbacks in the backfield for close to two decades in the NFL, is the same he used at North Carolina to power through alley-oops and putbacks.

There's some who even believe he could have pursued a professional career in basketball -- and succeeded.

"I'll tell you this, I do believe if Pep would've just focused on basketball, he could've played in the NBA," Matt Doherty, a former coach at UNC told ESPN in 2015. "[Julius] had feel. He wasn't just a rebounder or banger. He could pass the ball, make the 15-18 foot shot and had soft hands."

Peppers could be playing in his final NFL game on Sunday, fittingly, with the Carolina Panthers. The same team that drafted him, from which the same state he attended college, and the same state he was born and raised in. He says he has no doubts about which path he ultimately chose -- and if you watch his incredible UNC football highlights, you'd likely agree -- but it's incredible to think what might have been. How many high caliber players could realistically have pursued pro careers in two sports?

As Peppers races onto the turf in New Orleans on Sunday, he can do so knowing he probably made the right choice -- probably being the operative term for absolutely, positively without question. The 38-year-old has played in 265 games, started 240 and put up numbers worthy of a future Hall of Fame enshrinement: 11 interceptions, four touchdowns, 81 pass deflections, 52 forced fumbles, 720 tackles, 172 tackles for loss, and oh, 158.5 sacks for good measure. For perspective: That's more sacks than Jason Taylor (a Hall of Famer enshrined in 2017), more tackles for loss than Michael Strahan (a Hall of Famer enshrined in 2014), and excluding Taylor, more touchdowns than the four defensive linemen enshrined into the Hall ahead of him.

Peppers is a lock to one day have a Gold Jacket custom-tailored for his jumbo body, and you can bet he'll have a carefully crafted bust made and featured in the halls of Canton, Ohio, too. He's earned it all, incredibly, with basketball as no more than a footnote -- a did you know as interesting and entertaining to relive as his legendary cameo in the 'Hot in Here' music video -- to his illustrious career.

How the sports book of the year reached the right result – with a dead heat

Cricket and football matches often end as draws, and individual sporting events sometimes finish in a dead heat. The women's 100m freestyle in the 2016 summer Olympics, for example, awarded two gold medals and no silver as the first and second swimmers finished in identical times.

It has taken 30 years, though, for shared spoils to occur in the William Hill sports book of the year, with the un-splittable 2018 decision between Paul Gibson's The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee, a biography of a troubled Ulster boxer, and A Boy in the Water, Tom Gregory's memoir of swimming the Channel at the age of 11 in 1988, the youngest person to have done so.

The consequence of this judging deadlock is that the winning writers divide the £30,000 prize. And anyone who bet on either book winning will – under dead-heat racing rules – lose half their stake money and have the other half paid as a winner at the starting price. That said, the William Hill prize doesn't really have a betting market. The sponsors don't run one because of fears that they would be accused of pressuring the judges to select short-odds favourites, and other turf accountants would likely be reluctant to promote a rival's trophy.

However, any punter who had studied form could have had a clue to what might happen with this year's prize. One of the judges had previously been part of another panel that refused at the final fence. It was me, having also served on the Man Booker jury that proved unable in 1992 to decide between Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient and Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger.

On that occasion, we were criticised for judicial weakness and accused – ironically, given what has now happened with the William Hill – of applying to literature a scientific inseparability that exists only in sports that are timed by the clock.

Prize-giving panels usually have an uneven number of jurors to prevent this happening. But on the William Hill, one judge was unable to take part in the final meeting, and, on the Booker, a colleague who loved both finalists equally felt unable to make the casting vote, although live TV coverage of the ceremony had already begun.

Even with even-numbered panels, a draw will only happen when half the arbiters are not only passionately committed to their own choice but would be horrified if the other lot's favourite came home.

Ondaatje v Unsworth 26 years ago became a standoff between experimental and traditional storytelling; Gibson v Gregory was a similarly oppositional clash between provocative biography and uplifting autobiography. Although what happens in the jury room mainly should stay there, some judges had, from a shortlist of seven, Gregory as their favourite and Gibson as their least, or vice versa. As in Brexit, which all human actions perhaps now reflect, compromise is only possible if there is some shared ground.

Because I am the only factor common to the Booker '92 and William Hill '18 decisions, some may blame me. Certainly, some of my family have suggested that an alleged stubbornness may have played a part. However, on both occasions, it was me who first asked whether a long standoff could be resolved by sharing the prize.

Twice, the only alternative outcome would have been for both factions to peel off on to a third book, which nobody really liked. I've judged dozens of book prizes, and such results are depressingly common. Twice, in order to prevent another judge's threat to resign, I compromised by voting for books that were far from my favourite, and still regret it.

It's true that literary preference is subjective – whereas athletes and horses can be ranked by fancy watches – but sometimes a dead heat is the right result of a book prize, at least ensuring that the winners have, between them, unanimous backing.

Mexican GP: Lewis Hamilton says fifth F1 title would be his 'proudest'

The Englishman will become world champion for the fifth time in Sunday's Mexican GP, live only on Sky Sports, if he finishes in the top seven - a position he has occupied at every race since July.

Were he to do so, Hamilton would clinch the world title with two rounds to go for the second consecutive year despite a fierce rivalry with Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari.

The Mercedes driver insists when and where the title would be won is not important given the task of becoming champion is not getting any easier, a fact the 33-year-old appreciates more with age.

"Just winning the championship has always been the goal," he said in the Mexican GP paddock.

"I remember when I won my first, one of the ex-champions had said its always harder to get the second, which it felt like it was. The first one felt incredibly hard already but from then on it just got harder and harder to win a championship.

"Even though you're improving, the competition improves, different circumstances arise, but this year particularly has been one of the most enjoyable years with the things that I have been faced with.

"So if I were to win the title, I think it would definitely be one that I would be probably most proud of and be able to appreciate most.

"Just being that I'm older and that's what happens when you get old, I guess."

Hamilton has spoken repeatedly over the last 18 months of the satisfaction he takes from battling with Vettel - although, having gone through nerve-jangling final-race showdowns in the past, the Englishman said he would still much rather wrap up the title as early as he could.

Hamilton recalled how he "did not sleep in Abu Dhabi" when the title went down to the wire against Nico Rosberg in 2014 and 2016.

"In the past sitting back and watching grands prix on TV with bacon toasties in the morning, I would have wanted it to go to the end. But I'm not in that seat," he said.

"When you're in it and living it you just want to get it done. As long as you get it done."

Few are backing against Hamilton closing out the championship in Sunday evening's race to cement his place among F1's legends - but, with a new two-year contract to come at Mercedes from 2019, he has already made clear he is far from finished yet.

"I do feel like I've got quite a lot left to do, so just going to get on with it," he promised.

Hamilton credits experience

While Vettel's challenge has faltered repeatedly in recent months, Hamilton's has flourished to put him on the brink of an early title coronation for the second time in a row.

Yet despite being on the cusp of a significant piece of F1 history - only two drivers have previously won five titles - Hamilton has appeared calm and relaxed in both Austin last weekend, when he had his first outside shot at the title, and again on his arrival in the Mexican paddock.

"I've been here before," said Hamilton when asked if he could explain his calmness. "It's just the place I'm in my life I guess. Being that I'm just older, I've had the experience and know what I need to do to get myself into shape.

"I'm just really enjoying racing. I'm here to race. I'm here to win. I'm here to deliver this championship for the team. So I choose what I put my focus towards, I don't really allow any negativity in, so I'm just on a positive wave.

"If I was here and there was one point between us, I'm sure things would probably be a bit different. It would be a lot more intense. I've got a decent amount of points ahead so I guess that naturally does help a little bit, but I think it's more the experience."

There is a new set of sports stars on billboards now

There's a new breed of sportspersons on the endorsement circuit, although it may be a while before they give cricketers a run for their money. Gold medallist athlete Hima Das, the newest backer of sportswear giant Adidas, is set to be named as the face of two more brands over the next fortnight.

Table tennis player Manika Batra was signed as the brand ambassador of global nutrition company Herbalife last week and two brands are in talks with her agency. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu is now associated with financial services company Edelweiss. "Emerging sportspersons from outside of cricket have created a new wave of success stories — they are world beaters, consistent, glamorous, humble and controversy-free," said Tuhin Mishra, managing director at sports marketing company Baseline Ventures.

Baseline Ventures represents badminton champions PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth, billiards player Pankaj Advani and racing driver Arjun Maini. Although the new crop of sportspersons earn much less than leading cricketers, managers say they get good recall. "Sustainability is the key. The market value of an athlete depends on her or his performance. It's like the stock market and the market creates their valuation by itself," said Neerav Tomar, managing director of IOS Sports & Entertainment, which represents Das and Batra.

Besides the three-year contract with Adidas, IOS Sports is in talks with four brands in insurance, nutrition, banking and cement for Das. "Corporates help in promoting sports. When brands advertise with sports players, it inspires people to be part of and play sport," Das had said in an interview with ET last week. Last month, Forbes magazine named Sindhu as the world's seventh-highest paid sportswoman, with $8 million of her income from endorsements. At 23, her on-court earnings were $500,000 between June 2017 and June 2018, Forbes says. She has surpassed many cricketers, except blue chip league players Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni.

Batra, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, joins players including Kohli as the face of Herbalife. She also endorses Edelweiss Financial Services and Stag sports equipment. Her management agency, IOS, is talking to two brands in the packaged food and energy drink space. Chanu, who won gold at the Commonwealth Games this year, may be roped in for a textile brand's CSR division and sportswear brand. Saina Nehwal has been endorsing Edelweiss, Herbalife, Huawei Honor and Savlon antiseptic.

Sports courts unveiled at Gathering Place, but park will have more sports amenities to offer

Ambassadors for Tulsa's Gathering Place on Tuesday unveiled five sports courts, revealing only about a third of the park's sports offerings.

Lee Mayberry, a Gathering Place park ambassador, shared the courts Tuesday with Tulsa media outlets. The skate park and BMX tracks were not included in the reveal.

"I was a kid who went to B.C. Franklin Recreation Center; that's where I learned how to play," Mayberry said. "This is like B.C. Franklin on steroids — the awesome slides and swings, and all of these basketball courts, soccer fields — it's nothing like we have ever seen in Tulsa before."

The courts sit near 31st Street, off of Riverside Drive. They are tucked in among tall grass and wildflower landscaping with a multi-use trail meandering by.

As for the skate park and BMX tracks, Gathering Place officials have provided little detail thus far. The park's website indicates little about the skatepark except for a name, "Skate Bowl." As for the BMX tracks, the park will feature three different levels: expert, intermediate and beginner. Both will feature the river as a backdrop, according to park officials.

Mayberry, who is an assistant women's basketball coach at Oral Roberts University, said the location will draw Tulsa together in a tighter community. Gathering Place, he said, will bring together the city's north, west, east and south sides, and midtown, at a convenient focal point on the Arkansas River.

“The excitement is going to be there," Mayberry said. "I think it has everything to offer."

Each sports court is marked in white lines for volleyball, basketball, hockey and soccer. Park officials said equipment rentals will be available. The volleyball net can be taken down and put back up. It was not clear Tuesday whether park visitors would be able to do that themselves.

About five people took the opportunity to shoot hoops, and occasionally challenge each other to one-on-one, at the new courts. Greg Jones Jr., also known as Tulsa Hype Man, eagerly dropped what he was doing to burn some calories on the two-tone blue court.

"There's nothing like this in Tulsa," he said.

For the time being, those five courts will be first come, first serve. At night, the courts get lit for quick pickup games or organized, long-standing rivalries.

Gathering Place officials have already scheduled programing during the next three months as part of the 100-day celebration of the park, including 3-on-3 games, exhibitions and fitness classes.

The park will open Sept. 8. Officials broke ground on the $465 million Gathering Place in September 2014. The sports courts bear the name of $5 million donor SemGroup, a global energy services company, to recognize their contribution to the park.

Peter Bevacqua Named President of NBC Sports

NBC Sports named Pete Bevacqua, the former CEO of the Professional Golf Association, as the new president of the NBCUniversal unit – the first time it has had an executive in that role since the unit was reorganized in 2011 in the wake of Comcast taking control of NBCU  in 2011.

Bevacqua is expected to oversee programming, marketing, digital, NBC's regional sports networks and business related to golf. He will report to Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBC Broadcasting and Sports, and will start at the company in September.

Bevacqua steps aboard after NBC Sports has expanded into several new areas. The unit now operates NBC Sports Gold, a subscription video service, and SportsEngine, an online community centered on youth and amateur sports leagues. In a sign of the amount of sports inventory within NBC's reach, NBC Sports so far this year has televised not only the Winter Olympics, but also the most recent Super Bowl and Spanish-language broadcasts of the World Cup tournament. Meanwhile, NBC Sports' top executive, Mark Lazarus, has also taken on responsibility for NBCUniversal's owned and operated stations.

NBC Sports has not had a president since Ken Schanzer, a veteran who supervised many of the company's negotiations for sports rights, left in the wake of legendary former NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol stepping down from his post after Comcast bought a majority stake in NBCU.

“With the expansion of NBC Sports Group over the last seven years, and our continuing investments in new and existing businesses, adding Pete to our already strong management team will help us organize for future growth,” said Lazarus, in a prepared statement. “We are thrilled to have someone with his experience and reputation join our organization.”

Bevacqua had served as CEO of the PGA,which supervises the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup and serves more than 29,000 members,, since 2012. Prior to his PGA role, Bevacqua served as the global head of golf at Creative Artists Agency.

F1 France: Three-way blame game after Gasly, Ocon's wild first lap crash

THREE French drivers started Sunday's revived French Grand Prix full of dreams — but they soon turned to nightmares as they accused each other of a self-inflicted first lap crash.

Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso blamed compatriot Esteban Ocon of Force India for their collision.

Ocon disagreed and, instead, blamed Romain Grosjean of Haas. The first two were forced to retire by the incident at Turn Three of the opening lap, but Grosjean — the instigator of the carnage, according to the race stewards — escaped lightly and went on to finish the race.

Alas, for him, he came home 11th and extended his unwanted record as the only driver in the paddock not to have scored a point in 2018.

He was also given a five seconds penalty for his first lap misdemeanour. Worse still, perhaps, for all of them, Monegasque Charles Leclerc took a point again for the unfancied Sauber team by finishing 10th.

Ocon declared himself to be "very disappointed" by it all.

"I was alongside Romain for half of the straight and already I was on the edge of the track, one wheel outside the white line," he explained. "He had nobody on his side on the right and, suddenly, he turned into me.

"It was a massive hit, which launched me on the kerb and damaged by side. I kept going, but then, in Turn Three, Pierre finished the job.

"And it has been so long for me that I have wanted to race here. To finish, after three corners, it's just silly." Gasly said Ocon was the culprit.

"I was behind Esteban and I saw he had damage on the car.

"Then in Turn Three, I went on the inside and I thought he had seen me and would leave me space, but he just took the corner like there was nobody there -- it was impossible to avoid the contact.

"I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose, but it's a very difficult moment now. To have a collision between two French drivers at the comeback of the French GP..." The stewards launched an investigation, which was resolved during the race. Grosjean was blamed and handed a five seconds penalty.

"For what?" he said. "It's a joke." For the French fans, there was something to cheer -- the two Renault cars, driven by a Spaniard and a German, finished in the points.

Opinion: 'Stick To Sports Lads'

What is your expectation of sport? Entertainment? Distraction? A pastime? A sanctuary?

There is no other vehicle capable of transcending age, nationality, religion, or class like sport. Even the most cynical figure can be inspired and delighted in its presence.

For many, the process of even engaging in it, of engulfing oneself in an afternoon's viewing or partaking in the pilgrimage to an arena and watching stars do battle on hallowed turf functions as a means to profess an “Open Sesame” to an alternative universe. A world capable of anything, where we expect the dogs of corruption and injustice to wait at the door. Sport is capable of transferring us to our individual happy place, and it is a place worth preserving.

That is the expectation for many a sports fan. And like so many other expectations, it is liable to fall short of reality.

To truly exist in a functioning, multi-fractious, and diverse society is a curious condition. Sport does not function as an alternative, it co-exists alongside the rest of the world's mystifying and extraordinary features. A life where sport becomes an alternative to reality is categorically a limited one.

Modern existence is liable to do just about anything, particularly yield a moment that exists as the intersection between sports and politics. Make no mistake, despite the wails of 'stick to sports lads' that intersection exists. It is undeniable.

This week the NFL elected to implement a policy that would see any player who protests during the national anthem punished. For the past two years, certain players have chosen to kneel or raise their fists during the anthem as a means of protesting police brutality. A select group of extraordinarily rich white men has now made a rule change for an organisation that is 70% black. They will have to pay tribute to the military, war and stay silent on the denial of basic civil rights to a much-maligned and marginalised class.

A move portrayed as apolitical is very much political in its nature. This is nothing new. Sport has always been this way.

Those that cry “keep politics out of sports” are generally motivated to do so when it concerns a view they do not agree with. NFL owners did not have an issue with Tom Brady displaying Trump memorabilia within Gillete Stadium, or Rex Ryan's public endorsements of him as a candidate, or Richie Incognito's policy praise. Rich, white men support a system designed to keep it that way. Water will stay wet, the sky remains blue.

Within America, the practice of white men using sport to generate political goodwill dates back to the American revolution. It only truly became a problem when black men threatened to utilise the same vehicle.

Thomas Jefferson generated support by sponsoring shooting contests, horses named after Andrew Jackson raced in Virginia, Republican Congressman Joshua Giddings protested slavery by playing in a baseball game that included African-Americans.

In response to the anti-war movement that saw over 3 million Americans taking to the street in protest, Richard Nixon became the first sitting president to attend a regular-season NFL game. He requested a red, white and blue half-time theme that saw 'God Bless America' played repeatedly. It was a move that a White House memo labeled “pro-administration propaganda.”

It became increasingly more problematic when Muhammad Ali refused a draft to the Vietnam War, Tommie Smith and John Carlos made the 'black salute' on the podium at the Olympics or Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf refused to stand for the national anthem. Then the 'keep politics out of sport brigade' pipped up. Ali was stripped of his title and arrested. Black track athletes Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett were barred from the following Olympics for a similar protest to Smith and Carlos and the NBA suspended Abdul-Rauf.

No one should be more familiar with the impossibility to separate sport and politics than the Irish. After all, our national game was one forged with the explicit intention of rekindling Irish nationality. Two of the seven men in attendance at the GAA's founding were known IRB members. GAA secretary Luke O'Toole spoke on stage when the Dublin Irish Volunteers were formally established and President James Nowlan told every member to join the volunteers and “learn to shoot straight.”

At Frongoch internment camp in north Wales, they played Gaelic football daily, with teams named after the Rising's leaders. Eventually, inter-county contests developed and the main pitch in Frongoch was renamed Croke Park.

To this day, clubs are named after prominent Republicans: Liam Mellows, Austin Stack, Patrick Pearse.

The GAA is in a fundamental tenant of the state's soul. Sport itself is part of our national identity. Its finger is on the pulse of the nation and inevitably it will become involved in current affairs.

Recently Peter O'Mahony, Brian O'Driscoll, Mickey Harte, Eamon McGee, AnneMarie McDonagh and many more prominent, Irish athletes have voiced their political opinion - capitalising on the power of sport to have their say. At times it seems incomprehensible, but players are people too and are deeply affected by the same real-world concerns as us all. Every aspect of modern existence is in some way political, to deny this fact is a critical delusion.

That is not to say said delusion isn't monumentally more attractive. In silence there is refuge, to speak out brings scrutiny. These figures have made a bold move.

You are of course free to engage with their view. Criticise the opinion, offering a stinging rebuttal, demonstrate flaws in their argument. Stripe it off rhetorical nicety and expose it for the strawman, prejudiced sentiment you believe it to be.

But to implement a restriction on their contribution based on sporting commitments is to try and restrict their right to speak. Denying them a political opinion is an intensely political move.

Alternatively, we could collectively elect to stick to sports and prepare to enjoy a World Cup in Putin's Russia, a Giro D'Italia that launched from Israel occupied Jerusalem and an NFL season that ensures misbehaving black men are kept out of sight. You know, the non-political stuff.

Introducing the Mount Rushmore of Maryland sports

When The Baltimore Sun and Babe Ruth Museum teamed up to create the Mount Rushmore of Maryland sports, the goal was to identify the state's four most enduring athletic icons.

As it turns out, that's not as easy as it sounds. After a group of local sports experts and online voting helped winnow a group of about 250 contenders to 10 finalists, the Mount Rushmore committee could not settle on just four athletes. So it went with six: Ray Lewis, Michael Phelps, Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Babe Ruth and Johnny Unitas.

The Babe Ruth Museum exhibit honoring the selections opens to the public at 10 a.m. Saturday and will run through March. The cost of admission to the museum is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and military members and $5 for children ages 5 to 16. Group rates are also available. The museum is open daily through September from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (and 7 p.m. for Orioles home night games).

"We think that every community has a Mount Rushmore of local sports," said Mike Gibbons, the museum's former executive director and its current director emeritus and historian. "That is a discussion that goes on casually in bars and man caves and stuff like that on a constant basis: 'If you could pick your top guys, who would they be?' And that's a pretty intriguing discussion typically. But we think here in Maryland that we have a tremendous and unique sports tradition, sports heritage, as is represented by the six athletes who we are honoring as our Mount Rushmore of local sports."

During his 17 years with the Ravens, Lewis was honored as NFL Defensive Player of the Year twice, selected to the Pro Bowl 13 times and voted a first-team All-Pro linebacker seven times. He will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August.

Phelps, a Baltimore native, is the most successful Olympian of all time, with 28 overall swimming medals and 23 golds, including eight at his historic 2008 Summer Games. Of his 23 gold medals, 13 came in individual events.

Ripken, a Harford County native, won a World Series and two Most Valuable Player awards in his 21 seasons with the Orioles. The Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop also played in 2,632 consecutive games, setting a record that might prove unbreakable.

Robinson won 16 Gold Glove Awards during his 23 seasons with the Orioles, the most ever by a position player. The third baseman, an 18-time All-Star and Hall of Fame selection, was the first Oriole named the American League's Most Valuable Player, and also earned MVP honors in the 1970 World Series.

Ruth is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. The pitcher-turned-outfielder from Baltimore hit 60 home runs for the New York Yankees in 1927, then the single-season record, and finished with 714 overall in his Hall of Fame career.

Unitas, also a Pro Football Hall of Fame selection, set 22 NFL records, passed for more than 40,000 yards and for 290 touchdowns, led the Baltimore Colts to championships in 1958 and 1959, and completed at least one touchdown pass in 47 straight games.

"I would put our list up against anybody's, and I think that these are supremely talented and celebrated athletes, and they're ours," Gibbons said. "And we thought it was time to honor them collectively, bring them together and let fans enjoy looking at these top six guys."

To Boost Sports Performance (and Annoy Your Opponents), Grunt

Emitting a high-decibel grunt or squeal while striking a backhand or uncorking a swirling roundhouse kick could substantially increase the power of that movement and sneakily bedevil your opponent.

A revelatory new study finds that yelling during sports could have greater benefits for performance than many of us might expect, even if it might cause spectators to look aghast and cover their ears.

Grunting during physical activities that demand sudden short, sharp bursts of power, such as weight training, is common and probably has been used since our prehistoric ancestors hefted stones or heaved projectiles.

Tennis players are particularly famous for grunting. Their shouts with each serve and stroke can be so loud that some players, including Martina Navratilova, have declared that the noise is a form of cheating, meant to confound the other player and not to increase the power of a stroke.

But there has been limited past scientific scrutiny of the impacts of grunting. A 2014 study of college tennis players determined that grunting could indeed increase the power of players' groundstrokes and serves. And a study from 2010 found that such sounds can be distracting for others. In that study, participants watched videos of a tennis player striking the ball while a loud, grunt-like yell played or did not. The viewers pressed keys to indicate their snap judgments about which side of the court, right or left, the ball was heading toward. When the stroke coincided with the noise, the viewers were noticeably slower and more inaccurate in their picks.

But those studies could not determine whether the usefulness of grunting was confined only to tennis or how the ballistic squawks were affecting onlookers and opponents. Were the screams masking the sound of the racket striking the ball, making it difficult for people to judge the right trajectories? Or were the sounds more directly distracting people, drawing their attention away from the onrushing ball and befuddling their reactions?

To learn more, some of the same scientists decided, for the new experiment, which was published last month in PLOS One, to look closely at mixed martial arts and grunting.

They chose that sport for several reasons, the first being that, like tennis, it demands sudden, explosive movements, meaning punches and kicks, to which grunting conceivably could add power.

Perhaps even more important, martial arts moves do not involve inherent noise, unlike the ping of a tennis racket meeting a ball. So if an onlooker proved to be worse at judging a fast-approaching kick when someone grunted, it would be because the yell had directly confused the watcher, not because it had masked some other noise.

The researchers began by recruiting 20 local recreational martial arts practitioners, both male and female, and having them kick a specially prepared heavy bag. The bag contained a device that measured force.

In separate sessions, the athletes kicked the bag multiple times while producing a mighty, oomphing yell or remaining silent.

The researchers also videotaped some of the kicks in close-up.

Then they gathered 22 undergraduate students and had them watch the videos, which showed the athletes' feet advancing toward the viewers at intimidating speed. The students had to rapidly decide whether the kick would land high or low and press a corresponding computer key.

During about half of the kicks, a sound like a grunt (standardized to avoid changes in volume or pitch) accompanied the motion. Otherwise the videos were quiet.

The researchers then checked all of the data.

They found that grunting while kicking had definitely improved the martial artists' power. They had generated about 10 percent more force with each kick while yelling.

The noise also had affected viewers, although not favorably. They had proven to be much slower in responding and more prone to errors in judging direction when the kick had come with a grunt.

These results indicate that "the advantage that a grunter gains" in terms of impacts on an opponent "are due to distraction" and not to other, useful sounds being drowned out, says Scott Sinnett, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who led this study and one of the earlier experiments with tennis players.

The findings also show that grunting is beneficial for upping power, he says, which undercuts the argument that it is a kind of cheating. If it only bothered opponents, he says, it might be considered unfair.

But making a noise does amplify force and is not banned by sports governing bodies, so can be considered a useful and sporting competitive tool.

Of course, this experiment was conducted in a laboratory, not a real-world competition, and with martial-arts athletes. The results do not show whether grunting loudly in other situations and sports would produce the same results.

It is unlikely, for instance, that grunting would be beneficial in long-distance running or walking, which require little explosive force, Dr. Sinnett says (although yelling at random moments would be likely to surprise and worry your training partners).

This study also cannot tell us whether consciously deciding to scream during sports would be beneficial, if noise is not natural to you. You might wind up distracting yourself with your grunts and playing worse, Dr. Sinnett says.

Peninah Kabenge’s life of sports

Kampala, Uganda | AGNES NANTABA | Peninah Kabenge is smiley most times. Perhaps it is the reason she doesn't dwell on regrets even when she has been portrayed in negative light. She loves to keep on the positive side of life and being a sports woman, she cheers up often.

She says, "Life is full of challenges but it still doesn't help to dwell on them because we have to move on".

Kabenge is the head of sports and recreation department at Makerere University, a position she has held for the longest time. She is also the Principal sports tutor at the institution. But aside from that, she also holds other titles; including the General Secretary of Federation of Africa University Sports (FASU), Executive Board member of International university sports and the president of National University Sports Federation of Uganda. She is also the serving president of International Wood Ball Federation.

But even with all these roles, some of which are continental and global, Kabenge mostly prides in her role at Makerere University.

"All the other roles stem from Makerere University; so I am proud to be part of the oldest and best institution in the country," she says.

Sports has always been part of her life stemming from the early days of primary school when sports was part of life's menu. The eighth born of the 11 children of Mr and Mrs. Aligaweesa, having a sports field at home meant being an active sports person. Back home in Luwero were both parents were head teachers, Kabenge had the privilege to participate in different games some of which were male dominated such as football, netball as well as track and field athletics.

Kabenge schooled at Kiyenje Home School which started as a home school and eventually grew as it became open to the neighbors and the village community. And schooling from such an environment meant adjusting to be tolerant, competitive, and survive in all backgrounds without discrimination.

"At home, we have a big football pitch where the community comes to participate in different outdoor games so we had no choice but to engage in the games," says Kabenge.

"We however took on mainly male dominated sports where the competition was big," she says.

Upon completion of primary education, Kabenge joined Bugema Adventist from where she built on her sports career. The war would soon break out forcing the family to relocate to Eastern Uganda as fate landed her into Namasagali College where she completed advanced level. And while she had previously participated in sports, it was a notch higher at Namasagali where participation meant extra marks. Participation earned her the title of netball team captain and sports prefect.

A year later, Kabenge was among the lucky few to be admitted to Makerere, the only university at the time. Months after admission, Kabenge took part in the inter-hall competitions for the first time playing basketball something that earned her trip to the East Africa University Games in Morogoro. She later qualified to represent Uganda at World University Games playing Track and Field athletics and sports minister representing Mary Stuart hall.

With such active participation, Kabenge caught the eye of then University sports leaders who invited her to start working with the department in 1988 as a graduate fellow. The new role pushed her to enroll for training in sports.

She says, "I did a post graduate diploma in education with physical education and whenever opportunity came up, I did more coaching and sports administrative courses".

In 1999, she took over as head of department, sports and recreation a post she holds to date. For sports in Uganda, Kabenge points to growth in terms of numbers and professionalism. And at the university level, she prides in Makerere producing some of the best swimmers and athletics for the country.

Kabenge now looks at a humble retirement as she completes her PhD also related to sports. In her almost 25 year marriage tenure, Kabenge was blessed with two children.