The Gophers don’t play Iowa until Week 4 of the college football season, but some fans will already be needling one of their biggest rivals come the season opener Aug. 29.

Dinkytown Athletes — the Gophers’ name, image and likeness (NIL) collective — released shirts Monday with a picture and text of the Floyd of Rosedale rivalry trophy on the front, and verbatim NCAA rule interpretations on invalid signals on the back.

It’s technically a gold T-shirt with maroon screen printing to match the “Gold Out” the Gophers athletics department have planned for Week 1 against North Carolina at Huntington Bank Stadium. The proceeds go to support the football team’s NIL fund, but it also pokes at the Hawkeyes’ still-festering scab going into their trip to Minnesota on Sept. 21.

Need a shirt for the GOLD OUT vs North Carolina on 8/29??

100% of the proceeds go to #Gophers football NIL support

Order herehttps://t.co/pUqHVp0nZp pic.twitter.com/NT8saC5eAz

— DinkytownAthletes (@DTAthletes) August 5, 2024

An always-simmering border rivalry started boiling last October when Hawkeyes punt returner Cooper DeJean’s go-ahead touchdown was called back for an invalid fair catch signal toward the end of the Gophers’ 12-10 win in Iowa City.

DeJean waved with his left hand as he ran toward a bouncing ball; at least one Gophers player was seen letting up in his coverage path. The penalty wasn’t flagged on the field as DeJean tight-roped down the sideline, cut back across field and scored. But upon video review, it was determined an invalid signal was used when DeJean, per the rule interpretation, “alerts his teammates to stay away from the ball by a ‘get away’ signal.”

Among the 207 words printed on the back of the Dinkytown Athletes’ shirt, the phrase “get away” is highlighted. It might come in handy if Gophers fans get into a verbal spat with Hawkeyes supporters and want to cite source material.

The Gophers’ win a year ago ended an eight-game losing streak in the series since 2014 and 10-game drought at Kinnick Stadium since 1999.

Now, members of the Dinkytown Athletes collective can have some pork and twist the knife, too.

Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz has had a hard time getting over the call, bringing it up as Iowa won the West Division and headed to the Big Ten championship game in November. Some Hawkeyes fans are hung up on it, too, and they have their own shirts available online, many with the saying: “It wasn’t a fair catch.”

Gophers coach P.J. Fleck reiterated at Big Ten Media Days in late July what he initially said in October.

“What was controversial about that game?” Fleck asked a reporter.

“The punt return,” the reporter responded.

“The illegal fair catch signal, right?” Fleck said. “I have to, it’s our fans. That’s what makes (the rivalry) beautiful, right?”

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Second-year Vikings receiver Jordan Addison has been formally charged with a pair of misdemeanors — driving under the influence of alcohol and and driving with blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent or higher — stemming from his arrest in Los Angeles last month.

There is a court date set for Oct. 7 in Los Angeles, per multiple reports, during which Addison will be arraigned with the option to agree to a plea deal.

He was arrested last month after police found him asleep behind the wheel of a Rolls Royce with the vehicle blocking lanes of traffic near Los Angeles International Airport. He was taken into custody on suspicion of driving under the influence and released after a couple of hours.

In accordance with the NFL’s policy and program on substances of abuse, Addison, 22, could be suspended for three games without pay for his first offense relating to the use of alcohol. The discipline can also be increased based on a number of factors.

Talking to reporters at TCO Performance Center last month, Addison took accountability for his actions, vowing to learn from his mistake. He added that he was in a very dark place following his arrest, thanking his teammates for supporting him once he returned to the Twin Cities for training camp.

“That’s just me being hard on myself knowing that I’ve got to do better,” Addison said at the time. “I feel like ain’t nobody more disappointed in me than myself.”

Though head coach Kevin O’Connell expressed his disappointment in Addison at the time, the Vikings did not discipline him publicly, instead choosing to allow the NFL to handle things once the legal proceedings played out.

This isn’t the first time Addison has been in trouble for making poor decisions behind the wheel. He was pulled over on July 20, 2023 in St. Paul and cited for speed and reckless driving after traveling 140 mph in a 55-mph zone. He agreed to plead guilty to speeding and paid $686 in fines and fees.

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A St. Paul police officer was cited for DWI Monday after law enforcement says he collided his vehicle into a building while off-duty last week.

Officers were called to the Dayton’s Bluff area early Thursday. The driver crashed into a vacant building at Third and Maple streets and the Dodge Durango, which police say was the officer’s personal vehicle, started on fire. The blaze spread to the building and firefighters extinguished it.

A vehicle crashed into a vacant building on Aug. 1, 2024, in the 700 block of East Third Street. (Courtesy of the St. Paul Fire Department)

Bryan James McKinnon, 30, of St. Paul, was the only person in the vehicle and told law enforcement he was driving, according to the citation. The Minnesota State Patrol said they noted signs of impairment while speaking with McKinnon and gave him field sobriety tests. He declined a portable breath test, the citation said.

At the hospital, the State Patrol said they obtained a fluid sample for testing and results are pending, according to the citation.

The St. Paul City Attorney’s Office cited McKinnon for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and fourth-degree driving while impaired, which are both misdemeanors.

No attorney was listed for McKinnon in his court file as of Monday afternoon and McKinnon couldn’t be reached for comment.

McKinnon has been a St. Paul officer since 2022 and works in the Eastern District as a patrol officer. He will be working a desk job as the investigation is ongoing, according to the police department.

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s opposition leaders are calling on the country’s armed forces to abandon their support of President Nicolás Maduro and stop repressing demonstrators who have come out in force to dispute the leader’s claim he prevailed in last Sunday’s election.

The armed forces are traditionally the arbiter of political disputes in Venezuela and have been key to Maduro’s grip on power ever since he took over the so-called Bolivarian revolution in 2013 from his mentor, the late Hugo Chávez.

So far, they’ve shown no signs of ditching Maduro even in the face of credible evidence presented by the opposition that it trounced the self-proclaimed socialist at the polls by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

In a message posted Monday on social media, Edmundo González — who the U.S. and a half dozen countries have recognized as the victor — and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado called on rank and file members of the security forces to rethink their loyalty.

“We appeal to the conscience of the military and police to put themselves on the side of the people and their families,” the two wrote in a long message.

“We won this election without any doubt. It was an electoral avalanche,” the two continued. “Now it’s up to all of us to respect the voice of the people.”

Authorities have declared Maduro the victor in last Sunday’s election but have yet to produce voting tallies to prove he won. The opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide showing it won.

Maduro announced Saturday that the government has arrested 2,000 opponents and at a rally in Caracas he pledged to detain more people and send them to prison. The post-electoral uprising has also claimed at least 11 deaths, according to Foro Penal, a Caracas-based human rights group.

González and Machado in their missive called on Venezuelans with family members serving in the security forces to urge their loved ones not to attack protesters and obey illegal orders. It said it would offer “guarantees” to soldiers who follow the constitution even while promising there would be no impunity for those behind abuses and following illegal orders.

Both González, a former diplomat, and Machado — who was barred by the government from running — have gone into hiding, saying they fear they will be arrested or killed. Maduro and his cadres have threatened to lock them both up.

As Venezuelans fight Maduro on the streets, pressure is also building internationally for the Venezuelan government to publish the full breakdown of the electoral results.

But so far, Maduro has instead asked the country’s supreme court — which like all institutions in Venezuela is packed with loyalists — to review any claims of irregularities.

“Respect for popular sovereignty is what moves us to defend the transparency of the (election) results,” Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Monday in a press conference alongside fellow leftist President Gabriel Boric of Chile.

Boric, who cast doubt on Maduro’s victory claim in an unexpectedly strong statement within hours of Venezuela’s July 28 election, told reporters that he and Lula discussed the situation in Venezuela on Monday, without elaborating. The leaders did not take questions and their carefully worded statements signaled how leftist leaders in the region are gingerly trying to show respect for Venezuela’s sovereignty while voicing doubts about the official results.

A few of Maduro’s staunch allies — including Russia, China and Cuba — have applauded his victory. On Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian held a telephone call with Maduro and reiterated his congratulations and “condemned any foreign interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs,” Pezeshkian’s office said.

—

AP Writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.