Sports
How Brock Purdy's Super Bowl journey was forged by his dad's minor-league baseball career
Allegiant Stadium can host up to 72,000 fans for special events like Super Bowl LVIII. If every player in the history of Major League Baseball got a ticket, there would still be almost 50,000 available for Sunday’s game in Las Vegas.
Pat Mahomes, whose son Patrick is the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, would have a seat. Shawn Purdy, whose son Brock is the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, would not. Pat Mahomes pitched 11 seasons in the majors. Shawn Purdy pitched eight in the minors.
One game at the highest level, just one, and you’ve got a halo for the rest of your life. Otherwise you’re just like the rest of us, at least when it comes to service time at the summit of baseball. What’s the word? Irrelevant. The sliver of difference seems cruel.
“I played with guys that got called up, and they didn’t have the baseball IQ, they didn’t have the discipline, they didn’t have the winning attitude, all that stuff,” said Russ Ortiz, who pitched in the majors for 12 seasons. “And I was always like, ‘Man, I played with guys in Double A and Triple A that had all those intangibles but never got the chance.’ I would put Shawn down as one of those guys.”
Ortiz was roommates with Purdy in 1997. They were Phoenix Firebirds, one rung below the majors for the San Francisco Giants. He remembers a contraption Purdy lugged around the Pacific Coast League to strengthen his arm away from the park. The squeaking of the ropes lingers for Ortiz, part of the soundtrack of the minors.
“Yeah, that came from our physiotherapy people with the Angels,” said Eduardo Perez, who roomed with Purdy at an earlier stop. “We all had one; it was a weighted thing with a pulley system on the door. We marked every door in every hotel and every apartment we rented.”
Perez was the Angels’ first-round draft choice in 1991, 17th overall, a Florida State infielder with a star pedigree and a slugger’s build. Purdy was the Angels’ 16th rounder, 428th overall, a starter from the University of Miami with ordinary stuff, a smallish frame — and, as the old scouts would say, a belly full of guts.
The Angels had a habit of finding bright, tough-minded players from Florida; Howie Kendrick, Jeff Mathis, Mike Napoli, Darren O’Day, Orlando Palmeiro, Scot Shields and Perez would all play at least a decade in the majors. Tom Kotchman, the scout who signed Purdy, saw a durable, competitive righty with a sinker, slider and changeup whose confidence belied a low-90s fastball.
“You would have thought he threw 105,” Kotchman said. “And he wasn’t afraid to get on the bus and say something to me. He’d talk some trash, but it was respectful trash.”
That first season, between Miami and the rookie-league Boise Hawks, Purdy threw 218 2/3 innings with 10 complete games. The innings total — unfathomable now — spiked a bit from all the times Purdy fought Kotchman, who also managed Boise, to stay in the game.
The Hawks went 50-26, and Purdy was their ace. Kotchman gave him the ball against Yakima for the Northwest League championship game, even though Yakima had shelled Purdy the start before. He knew he’d made the right call when Purdy said nothing to his manager in the clubhouse. A self-assured nod was all he needed to see.
Purdy went six strong innings for the win. Teammates mobbed the Hawks’ closer, Troy Percival, after the final out. When Kotchman found game footage recently, he eagerly sent it around to his former players. Purdy got the last word on the local news that night.
“I didn’t get to go the whole distance like I dreamed to, but I held ’em down, the guys got some runs, and I got – we all got – our revenge,” Purdy shouted, above the din in the locker room. “And we’re the champs, baby. We’re number 1.”
The 49ers will seek their own revenge on Sunday against the Chiefs, who beat them in the Super Bowl four years ago. Brock Purdy was at Iowa State then, on his way to the NFL as the final pick of the 2022 draft — the infamous Mr. Irrelevant.
The 16th round, where Shawn Purdy was chosen, would now be close to the end of the MLB draft, which lasts only 20 rounds. Teams could keep drafting as long as they wanted in 1991 — that draft lasted for 1,600 selections — but by round 16, most of the top prospects were long gone. Nobody from Purdy’s round reached the majors.
“Shawn could have been the last guy drafted, too,” said Joe Maddon, then a roving instructor in the Angels’ farm system. “When they describe Brock, they could be describing Shawn: great makeup, very highly competitive, never quit, tools are a little bit short, but he makes it work.”
Maddon, who managed parts of 19 seasons in the majors, hosts a podcast now with Tom Verducci. They tried to book Shawn Purdy as a guest last winter, when Brock was leading the 49ers to the NFC championship game, but Shawn declined until the season was over.
Likewise, Shawn Purdy did not return messages from The Athletic last week, though he was in contact with old teammates.
“Oh look, Purdy just texted me,” Perez said, chuckling in mid-interview. “I go, ‘Dude, I’m diverting so many calls from media, they want to talk to you and I’m your buffer now. LOL.’ And he goes, ‘Now that’s funny.’”
In 1992, Perez and Shawn Purdy were roommates in Palm Springs, where the Angels had a team in the Single-A California League. A college friend of Perez’s was visiting and mentioned that his father, a sportswear executive, knew some models who would be in town.
Implausible as it seems, Perez said that his roommate was so focused on baseball that he was reluctant to meet the women. But Purdy’s enthusiasm changed in an instant.
“When he saw Carrie, he looked at me and goes, ‘I’m gonna marry this girl,’” Perez said. “I’m like, ‘Right, brother, whatever you say.’ And he married that girl.”
The next summer, Perez was in the majors and Purdy was back in Palm Springs after straining his ulnar collateral ligament in spring training. He split that season and the next between Single A and Double A, where his progress stalled.
Purdy’s sinker was still keeping the ball in the park, but plenty of hits were dropping in: 86 in 68 Double-A innings across the 1993 and 1994 seasons. His earned run average at that level for the Angels was 7.01, but he fearlessly pounded the zone.
“He had a short, fast arm which gave him good deception, and a very good changeup,” said Todd Greene, who caught Purdy at Single-A Lake Elsinore (Calif.) in 1994 and would play 11 seasons in the majors. “Not overpowering, but he knew how to pitch, he knew who he was and he threw a lot of strikes.”
Purdy moved on to the Giants organization in 1995, again in Double A but now in a short-relief role, perhaps better suited for a pitcher rarely beaten by homers or walks. Ron Wotus, Purdy’s manager that season in Shreveport, La., said Purdy had an ideal closer’s makeup: steely, persistent, resilient.
“Felipe Alou used to always say something: ‘Trust the man before the player,’” Wotus said, referring to a Giants manager he served as a bench coach. “It’s not the skill or the talent that they have, it’s who they are as a person: their will and desire, those types of things. Brock obviously has that, and so did Shawn.”
Wotus said he considered Purdy a prospect, but the term covers a lot of distinctions. Purdy was not a phenom but a so-called 4A guy, capable of complementing a major-league roster but unlikely to be a star.
That became clear the next season, his fourth at Double A. Purdy was thriving as a closer but lost his job to Ortiz, a younger pitcher and future 20-game winner who was tearing his way through the farm system. The Giants had high hopes for Ortiz and wanted him to close in Shreveport, so that’s what he did.
“I felt bad because I was like, ‘Shawn’s earned it, he’s done well,’” Ortiz said. “I was still learning, and I watched him pitch and the way he handled himself. He was someone I looked up to because of his mental strength and the way he went about his business.”
For Purdy, that business extended beyond the field. At spring training in 1997, as Ortiz recalls, the Giants let Purdy’s fledgling company — then known as Purdy E-Z Pools & Spas — set up a booth at the ballpark.
Promoted that season to Triple-A Phoenix, Purdy heard rumblings of a call-up in July, but the contending Giants added three veterans in a trade instead. Back in Triple A the next season with the Braves’ affiliate in Richmond, Purdy had a 1.83 ERA through 16 games. Certain he was about to join the Braves — he’d overheard a coach mention the possibility — Purdy felt pain in his elbow while playing catch before a game.
“They flew me to Atlanta, got a needle in the elbow, tried rehabbing for a bit, and it didn’t take,” Purdy said last spring on Maddon’s podcast. “Went in and had surgery, had some bone spurs removed and that was it. My elbow was fine. My business started taking off. I just chose to be a big-league dad.”
Shawn and Carrie have three children; he coached their oldest, Whittney, in softball, and has told Perez that she is the best athlete of them all, with Chubba — the youngest Purdy and the quarterback at Nebraska before recently transferring to Nevada — the second best.
That would put Brock Purdy third, which matches the broad strokes of his story. He is listed at 6-foot-1, an inch taller than Shawn, an inch shorter than Chubba, but his supposed lack of athleticism is probably overplayed.
“He might not be Deion Sanders, I get that, but the guy has touch, he’s got enough speed to keep defenses honest, and he can drop balls on a dime,” said Bill Bavasi, the Angels’ farm director when Shawn Purdy pitched in their system. “The guy gets written up for great makeup and personality traits, but he’s got athleticism, man.”
Whittney, Chubba, Shawn and Brock Purdy (l-r) with Eduardo Perez in 2012. (Photo courtesy of Eduardo Perez)
Yet there has always been something extra with Brock, an aptitude his father recognized early. When the Purdys would host Super Bowl parties, Shawn told Maddon, most kids would be playing outside. But Brock, at five or six years old, would stand on the coffee table and study the action, trying to think along with the quarterbacks.
“It must have been like his second year of Pop Warner, and I remember talking with Shawn about how smart he was.” Ortiz said. “It was like, yeah, of course he can throw a football, but a lot of kids can throw a football. Being accurate and then actually knowing how to play the position is a different story.
“It’s like with our daughter, we put her in piano at six years old and then really quick her piano teacher was like: ‘She gets it. She can just hear all the notes.’ You hear the same thing from Kyle Shanahan with Brock. You know he’s just got it.”
Shawn Purdy’s experience with a UCL injury helped Brock focus on small, daily milestones in his own recovery from a tear in the playoffs last winter. Brock, a former middle infielder, has also said that playing baseball as a boy — he stopped after his sophomore year in high school — has helped him master different angles as a quarterback.
What Brock inherited most clearly from his father is harder to define, but those who know Shawn can see it, unmistakably. Shawn’s career statistics were mediocre: a 3.91 ERA, more than a hit per inning, 5.6 strikeouts per nine. Yet somehow he was 21 games over .500, at 58-37. He was a winner.
Brock Purdy has started 26 NFL games, and his team has won 21. The next game will mean more to a lot more fans than Boise versus Yakima in 1991. But expect the son to handle his title shot the same way his father did.
“Look at Brock and look at Shawn, it’s the same guy,” Maddon said. “Nothing overwhelms you, but he beats you.”
(Top photo: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images and iStock: bmcent1)
Sports
Donovan Mitchell signs massive $273M Cavaliers extension as LeBron James return speculation grows
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Donovan Mitchell got quite a payday from the Cleveland Cavaliers Tuesday, agreeing to a four-year, $273 million maximum extension, which includes a full trade kicker and player option for the 2030-31 season.
While Mitchell could’ve waited one more year to get a potential five-year, $353 million deal, the 29-year-old wasted no time signing an extension on the first day he was eligible to do so this summer.
It’s hard for Cleveland not to want to build its team around Mitchell now and for the foreseeable future. He has been an All-Star seven straight seasons, which includes three with the Utah Jazz before he was traded to Cleveland during the 2022 offseason.
Donovan Mitchell (45) of the Cleveland Cavaliers looks to pass the ball during a game against the Memphis Grizzlies Feb. 2, 2023, at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. (David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images)
He has averaged 26.7 points in four seasons with the Cavaliers, including 27.9 last season, and has made an All-NBA team in three of his four years.
Mitchell also noted having “unfinished business” after the team got swept by the eventual NBA champion New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals.
Mitchell was heading into the 2026-27 season on the last guaranteed season of his previous contract before a 2027 player option kicked in.
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Now, the bigger question for the Cavaliers: Does Mitchell’s contract extension hurt or help their chances of yet another reunion with LeBron James?
The 41-year-old has made it clear he will be playing elsewhere for the 2026-27 NBA season, marking the end of his eight years with the Los Angeles Lakers.
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, hasn’t indicated where he might be heading, but reports have indicated his agent, Rich Paul, is actively looking at specific teams.
LeBron James (6) of the Los Angeles Lakers reacts to a foul call during the second half of a game against Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena Jan. 12, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
Among them is the Cavaliers, as the man from Akron, Ohio, has played a significant role in the franchise’s history, including an NBA title in 2016. If this is James’ final NBA run, why not do it where it all began, where he returned after his successful stint with the Miami Heat and where he can close the book on a one-of-a-kind career?
However, other teams, including the Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors have been rumored and debated about.
Of course, the salary cap and staying within its parameters is a big deal for NBA teams. While a Cavaliers fan could view Mitchell’s max extension as a bad thing for James to land back in Cleveland, it is not believed it will affect their chances at signing him.
As for James’ NBA title chances, the Cavaliers did reach the Eastern Conference finals, and the 41-year-old wouldn’t have to be the center of attention in terms of offensive playmaking. Mitchell and Evan Mobley can lead the way there, while Jarrett Allen protects the rim down low.
The Cavaliers and James Harden, whom they acquired before the trade deadline last season, are reportedly negotiating a team-friendly deal as well to keep their salary cap at bay.
Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers reacts during the fourth quarter against the Detroit Pistons in Game 7 of the second round of the NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena on May 17, 2026 in Detroit. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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Whether the big fish will be landed, bringing “The Chosen One” back to his roots one last time remains to be seen.
Mitchell has left no doubt, though, where his future lies in the NBA, and he will look to get that unfinished business squared away in Cleveland.
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Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland had early-stage chronic traumatic encephalopathy when he died by suicide at age 24 in November, according to test results released by his family Tuesday through the Concussion & CTE Foundation.
“While this diagnosis does not change the tragedy of his passing, it provides important context about some of the struggles he may have been facing,” Kneeland’s family, including girlfriend Catalina Mancera, said in a statement.
CTE is a degenerative brain disease that has been found in people who experience repetitive head trauma and can be diagnosed only after death.
“We share this information to help people understand what NFL and other high contact sport athletes might be struggling with,” the family said. “Raising awareness is important to us. We continue to remember Marshawn with compassion for the person he was, rather than defining him by the final moments of his life. One Love.”
Frisco, Texas, police said Kneeland didn’t stop when state Department of Public Safety troopers tried to pull him over on Nov. 5 for a traffic violation. The 2024 second-round draft pick was pursued by authorities in his vehicle and then on foot before being found “deceased with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Frisco police said in a statement at the time.
Police-dispatch audio from the incident revealed that Kneeland had sent out a group text to say goodbye to his family.
Researchers at the Boston University CTE Center analyzed Kneeland’s brain tissue and determined that the athlete, who started playing tackle football at age 7, was in stage one of four of CTE.
“Unfortunately, I was not surprised to find CTE in the brain of Mr. Kneeland, because we have found this progressive brain disease in nearly half of the athletes we’ve studied who have died before the age of 30,” Dr. Ann McKee, the center’s director, said in a statement.
“Thanks to the generosity of our brain donor families, we now better understand the earliest stages of CTE, and it is bringing us closer than ever to diagnosing it during life. My team and I are fully dedicated to finding effective treatments and a cure for CTE.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional or call 988. The nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Or text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.
Sports
SJSU was told of decades-old allegations against volleyball coach during controversial 2024 season
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During the San Jose State University (SJSU) volleyball team’s scandal-ridden 2024 season, the athletic department received a letter from one of head coach Todd Kress’ former players.
The letter included allegations that Kress attacked her in a hotel room in 1998.
Emails show that SJSU officials acknowledged the receipt of the allegations, thanked the former player for coming forward and apologized for her experiences. Despite this, Kress was never suspended and has continued to serve as the head coach of the women’s volleyball team.
Head coach Todd Kress of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital was given copies of the emails exchanged between SJSU and the former Fairfield player, from an independently verified source. Fox News Digital has independently verified she played at Fairfield under Kress in the 1998 season, but is not disclosing her name.
Fox News Digital submitted a public records request seeking copies of documents with criteria that match the emails exchanged between SJSU and Kress’ former player, but the university formally declined the request, stating “the requested communications implicate substantial privacy interests.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Kress, SJSU officials and the university’s legal counsel that handled the 2024 exchange with a series of questions, but did not receive a response from any of the parties.
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The original letter was written by a woman that played for Kress at Fairfield University in the late ’90s, and sent to SJSU on Oct. 24, 2024.
That first email she sent to SJSU contained the letter with the written allegations against Kress, that was originally sent to Fairfield University. The alleged incident occurred in a hotel after Fairfield’s loss to Clemson in the first round of the 1998 NCAA Tournament in December of that year. She wrote that a teammate asked her to bring her a shirt to Kress’ room.
“I told her I wanted no part of his insanity. I was distraught about the loss and wasn’t interested in his drunken insanity, which was commonplace on trips.”
The former player added that her teammate “promised Todd would not throw water at me or do something juvenile so I reluctantly agreed to bring her the shirt.”
“I knocked on the door and Todd answered. He immediately took caramel from a plastic container and smeared it all over my face and hair. He then forcibly threw me on the bed and held me down. I was in shock. He let go of me and then pulled his pants down and put his back side in my face.
“Astonished… that is the only word I can think of to describe how I felt in that moment… Todd was drunk. I got up and went for the door.
“Todd again grabbed me, picked me up, and threw me into the bathtub where he held me down and threatened to turn on the shower with me laying there to ‘clean the caramel off of my face.’ At this point I was fighting back to get away from him.
“Todd let me get out of the tub, laughing, and then he stood in front of the door blocking my exit. Todd told me he would only let me leave if I took a shot of liquor, which I did only to get him to move away from the door. Once he did, I ran for it. He chased me. I got into my room and although he seemed to be in a rage, he turned and calmly walked out,” the letter alleges.
The former player goes on to allege her teammates “had been drinking with Todd underage.” She also claimed she did not report the incident at the time because she “was scared of losing my scholarship and being the reason my teammates lost theirs.”
Then she revealed why she was coming forward more than two decades later.
“But what is happening now at SJSU is egregious and he only continues to get more bold with each new school, and the complete improper balance of power seems to drive him. He knows very well that young impressionable female athletes are not in a balanced position,” she wrote.
The “egregious” conduct she referred to was regarding Kress’ handling of the trans athlete on SJSU’s volleyball team.
When that letter was sent to SJSU, Kress was in the middle of leading a Spartans team that was near the top of the Mountain West Conference standings. They got there through a few wins and a lot of forfeits from other teams, as SJSU was at the center of a national media controversy over a transgender player. A female teammate had joined a lawsuit claiming she hadn’t been told of that player’s birth sex before joining the team and living together.
Later that day on Oct. 24, 2024, SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya responded to the former Fairfield player in an email.
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“I want to acknowledge that I am in receipt of your correspondence and will share it with the proper authorities on the SJSU campus for additional review,” Konya wrote.
More than a week later, on Nov. 4, former SJSU interim Title IX and Gender Equity Officer Peter Lim reached out to set up a meeting with the former player and her attorney.
“Thank you for sharing your concerns about Coach Todd Kress. I am sorry to hear about your experiences. I have reviewed your letter and would like to meet with you to better understand your experiences with Coach Kress. The purpose of the meeting would be to help me assess potential next steps, which may or may not include an investigation into the reported conduct,” Lim wrote.
Three days after that, on Nov. 7, Lim sent another email to the former Fairfield player, thanking her and her attorney for meeting with them.
“I am so sorry about your prior experiences with Todd Kress at Fairfield University. I appreciate the time you took to describe those experiences, the impact those experiences continue to have on you, and the safety threat that you believe he presents to SJSU’s volleyball team,” Lim wrote.
“We are evaluating the information you provided and determining appropriate next steps. If it is okay with the two of you, I would appreciate staying in touch.”
There was no further correspondence between the two parties after that exchange, Fox News Digital has learned.
A split image of San Jose Spartans’ Blaire Fleming and Todd Kress. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images and Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
Kress continued to coach and travel with SJSU’s volleyball team, all the way to the final game of the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas that year, where their season ended to Colorado State.
Kress coached the team again in 2025. They fell short of the conference tournament with a losing record in 2025.
Kress continues to be the head coach of the women’s volleyball team at SJSU.
A U.S. Department of Education (ED) Title IX investigation into SJSU over the transgender scandal determined that the university allegedly made the decision to not suspend or relieve its head volleyball coach during the team’s 2024 transgender scandal, despite Title IX-related complaints against the coach. The investigation’s findings made no mention of the former Fairfield player and her letter.
However, the investigation did not disclose what those complaints were, and SJSU and the California State University System (CSU) are suing the department to challenge those findings.
ED’s findings, which were provided by SJSU to Fox News Digital in response to a public records request, suggest the school allegedly considered potential media attention that would arise from taking any action against the coach, and the affect it would have on the team.
The findings do not mention the coach by name, but Fox News Digital reasonably believes the figure titled “Coach 2” in the findings to be current SJSU volleyball head coach Todd Kress. The findings specify Coach 2 as the current head coach of the SJSU volleyball team who began his tenure in the 2023, which was the year Kress took over his current position.
“Additional notes indicate the decision to not suspend Coach 2 also included the improper consideration: ‘If we relieve him… [w]e could also spark more media attention…. ‘ University records indicate University officials, including the President of the University, agreed to not suspend Coach 2 because they felt his suspension would unduly disrupt the team,” the findings state.
Kress continues to be the coach at SJSU. He is one of the more accomplished volleyball coaches in NCAA history, currently ranking 21st all-time in NCAA history in wins with 550. But he has only led one winning season for SJSU since arriving in 2023, that being the controversial 2024 campaign with a trans player.
SJSU has faced federal sanctions for an unrelated Title IX violations since 2021. That year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) found that the university ignored more than a decade of sexual assault and harassment complaints made by female student-athletes against a former director of sports medicine/head athletic trainer.
Beginning in 2009, an athletic trainer subjected female student-athletes to repeated, unwelcome sexual touching under the guise of medical treatment.
The DOJ found that SJSU repeatedly mishandled, downplayed or failed to properly investigate these reports, which ultimately exposed additional student-athletes to harm.
To remedy these violations, SJSU agreed to pay a $1.6 million financial settlement to the affected victims and implement sweeping corrective measures.
SJSU has withheld relevant records and not responded to request for comment
On June 9, 2026, Fox News Digital submitted a formal public records request to San Jose State University seeking copies of the Oct. 24, 2024, complaint letter sent to Athletic Director Konya, the Nov. 1 follow-up email, and the subsequent Nov. 7 correspondence from the university’s Title IX office.
On June 22, 2026, SJSU’s public records office formally denied the request. In a response issued by university legal counsel J. Leah Castella, the school acknowledged the existence of the records but determined they were not disclosable under the California Public Records Act.
“The requested communications implicate substantial privacy interests,” the university’s response stated.
“Disclosure of these records would therefore constitute an invasion of privacy that outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Specifically, these records are being withheld subject to the following exemptions: Personnel Records/Privacy… General Privacy Rights… [and the] Balancing Test. Here, the public interest served by disclosure is minimal and is outweighed by the public interest served against disclosure in protecting substantial and significant privacy rights.”
Following the records denial, Fox News Digital sent a detailed press inquiry to Kress, Konya, Lim and Castella. The inquiry summarized the exact dates, timestamps and contents of the internal records obtained independently by Fox News Digital, and posed a series of explicit questions to the parties, including requests for Kress’ response to the 1998 allegations, details on what specific next steps the Title IX office took following their November 2024 meetings, and whether athletic department officials interviewed current volleyball players regarding their safety.
The inquiry also questioned university legal counsel regarding the decision to classify the public interest in these safety warnings as “minimal” while the university is actively engaged in a federal lawsuit defending its Title IX compliance within the volleyball program. Fox News Digital has not sought judicial relief on SJSU’s claim.
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Head coach Todd Kress of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the second set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on Oct. 19, 2024, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)
As of publication time, neither Kress, Konya, nor any legal or communications representatives for San Jose State University have responded to the requests for comment.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Fairfield University for request for a response to the former player’s letter, but a spokesperson responded, writing, “The university does not comment on former or current personnel matters.”
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