Colorado-CSU rivalry returning to Denver
August 31, 2009
DENVER (AP)—The football rivalry between the University of Colorado andColorado State University has been extended for a decade and will return toDenver starting next year.
The rivalry has gained national prominence since moving to Denver in 1998,although this year’s game, the 81st in the series that began in 1893, is inBoulder on Sunday night.
CSU athletic director Paul Kowalczyk and Mike Bohn, his counterpart at CU,announced the 10-year extension of the series at Invesco Field on Monday.
As part of the agreement, next year’s game will be moved from Fort Collinsto Invesco Field, where both schools can generate more than $1 million inrevenue. The series returns to Fort Collins in 2020.
QB Yates takes control of UNC’s offense
August 31, 2009
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP)—There aren’t many familiar faces around—or in frontof—T.J. Yates these days.
Three starters are gone from the offensive line at No. 21 North Carolina,and so are last year’s top three receivers. But with Yates back for a thirdseason in charge of the Tar Heels’ offense, coach Butch Davis is asking thequarterback to find ways to involve even more of his teammates.
“I would like us to be a lot more balanced offense,” Davis said Monday.“We had three phenomenally talented wide receivers last year, and they deservedall the opportunities to touch the ball. I think it would have made us an evenmore lethal and a better offense, had we been able to incorporate other peoplebesides those three.”
That was a top priority this offseason after the exodus of Hakeem Nicks,Brandon Tate and Brooks Foster.
Those three combined to catch 114 passes last season—or, nearly two-thirdsof the Tar Heels’ total 182 receptions. Finding a way to make up for that lostproduction is critical for a North Carolina team that opens the season Saturdaynight against The Citadel, and starts a year ranked for the first time since1998.
The job of spreading the ball around falls to Yates, who threw for 1,168yards and 11 touchdowns in roughly half a season last year. If he can’t find away to ensure the offense is diversified, the Tar Heels’ stay in the polls couldbe a short one.
“One of the things we worked on this summer (was) getting more of thepassing concepts, more of the balls to the running backs and tight ends,” Yatessaid. “Last year, we had the three guys, and we liked to throw to them a lot.We didn’t get it as much to the backs and (other) receivers as we should’ve.Since we had those guys, we really didn’t have to (diversify). But now, we don’thave them anymore, so we definitely have got to distribute the ball more (to)all the skill players in the offense.”
That probably means more opportunities for running backs Shaun Draughn andRyan Houston and tight end Zack Pianalto. Those three combined for 23 catchesand two touchdowns last season.
“The best offenses that I had in Dallas, and certainly the best offenses inMiami, we had talented tight ends, talented running backs, talented widereceivers and you were spreading the ball around,” Davis said. “There wasn’tjust one particular go-to guy.”
Of course, it’ll help if the Tar Heels can keep Yates protected with anoffensive line that must replace starters Calvin Darity, Garrett Reynolds andAaron Stahl.
North Carolina’s two-deep lists two seniors and four freshmen as eitherstarters or top backups on the line, and they’ll be counted upon to keep uprightthe quarterback who broke an ankle last season and missed five games beforereturning to lead the Tar Heels to an 8-5 record and their first bowl game since2004.
Yates proclaimed he was “very confident” in the new faces along the lineand insisted he’s never felt more comfortable running Davis’ pro-style offense.
“My first season and a little bit of last season, I was still trying tolearn all of the plays and learn the offense,” Yates said. “But just havingthat completely embedded in my memory, it’s more about preparing, watching film,getting ready to learn the defenses that I’m going to be seeing, more thanlearning the offense.”
Bankruptcy judge considers Cubs sale
August 31, 2009
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP)—The judge presiding over Tribune Co.’s Chapter 11bankruptcy case has approved an expedited process for court action surroundingthe company’s sale of the Chicago Cubs baseball team.
The family of billionaire Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, has agreedto buy a 95 percent stake in the team and its Wrigley Field home for $845million.
Judge Kevin Carey on Monday approved a process that calls for any objectionsto the sale to be filed by Sept. 17, followed by a Sept. 24 hearing on courtapproval of the deal.
Carey also granted Tribune’s motion for proposed break-up fees ranging from$5 million to $20 million if the deal does not close.
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Steelers RG Stapleton out for season
August 31, 2009
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Pittsburgh Steelers right guard Darnell Stapleton(notes) has beenplaced on the injured reserve list with a knee injury and will miss the season.
Stapleton injured his left knee during the first week of training camp andhad arthroscopic surgery to remove loose cartilage. An undrafted player whostarted in the Super Bowl, he was expected to be ready by the start of theseason.
Coach Mike Tomlin, however, says Stapleton might need more surgery.
Now, Trai Essex(notes) will begin the season at right guard.
The Steelers also cut wide receivers Martin Nance(notes) and Steven Black, safetyDerrick Richardson and center Alex Stepanovich(notes).
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Yates to replace Labonte with Darnell for 7 races
August 31, 2009
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)—Former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte won’t race this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his best track, because of sponsorship issues at Yates Racing.
The team had seven races to sell this season for the No. 96 Ford, and the sponsorship it secured wanted Erik Darnell in the car. The 26-year-old will make his Sprint Cup Series debut at Atlanta, where Labonte has six career victories.
“This is not about Bobby; it’s about making sure we have funding for these races,” Yates co-owner Max Jones said Monday. “If it was about Bobby, I would have just put Erik in the car for the rest of the year. That was hard to convey to Bobby.
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“But we have this opportunity to get Erik some races, and that’s the business part of this sport. It’s challenging.”
Academy Sports & Outdoors will sponsor Darnell for three races, at Atlanta, Talladega and Texas. Northern Tool + Equipment, his current sponsor in the Truck Series, will be on the car at New Hampshire and Kansas.
Sponsorship for the other two races Darnell is slated to run was not announced.
Jones said Labonte did not take the decision well.
“I wouldn’t have either if I was him,” Jones said. “He’s a class act, he’s a professional. I had to explain my side, why I was doing it, and he wasn’t happy about it. But he understood, and I respect that.”
Labonte, the 2000 series champion, left Petty Enterprises last season because he was unsure of its long-term stability. He put together a late deal with Hall of Fame Racing, the team owned by San Diego Padres owner Jeff Moorad and president Tom Garfinkel.
Garfinkel and Moorad were able to land a sponsorship deal with Ask.com, one of the only new companies to enter NASCAR since last fall’s economic collapse, and then partnered with Yates Racing for equipment and technical support. The Ask.com deal is a one-year deal and covered only 29 of the 36 races.
Jones worked hard to fill the car, but ultimately was able to sell the potential in Darnell over the history of Labonte.
Labonte, who is 45, is in the midst of his sixth winless season. He’s 30th in the standings with one top-10 finish this season. Teammate Paul Menard is 32nd in the points with no top-10 finishes. He has full sponsorship from his family’s Midwest-based hardware chain.
The team also fielded a car for Travis Kvapil for four races but stopped when no sponsorship was found.
Labonte will return to the car at Richmond, Dover, Fontana, Charlotte and Martinsville.
“This is a move that will be beneficial to Yates Racing surviving this difficult economic time,” he said in a statement. “Of course, I’m disappointed that the sponsorship environment is so challenging right now, but I intend to make the most out of the remaining races that I’m behind the wheel.”
Yates Racing is the sister team to powerhouse Roush Fenway Racing, and Jones said he doesn’t expect Hall of Fame to be back under the umbrella in 2010. So he’s had to approach future planning with a long-range view, which could include Darnell.
Stuck in the RFR development program because sponsorship issues and lack of available seats have slowed his progression, Jones said Darnell has earned this opportunity. He’s currently ranked fourth in the Truck standings with two career victories, and has five top-10s in 11 career Nationwide Series starts.
Jones worked at Roush Fenway when Darnell won a seat in its development program.
“He deserves this opportunity. He’s a really talented race car driver,” Jones said. “It’s taken a lot of guys a long time to move up because of the funding issues, and the opportunities aren’t there anymore. Five or six or eight years ago, you could jump from Trucks to Cup.
“Then everything came to a screeching halt a few years ago.”
Although Labonte has not been ruled out for a Yates ride in 2010, Jones said Darnell is in the mix, as is current Roush driver Jamie McMurray.
McMurray is in the final year of his contract with RFR, which must cut down from five to four cars at the end of this season. The organization would like to keep McMurray by moving him to the Yates side of the team but lacks the funding to offer him a contract.
“We still have that opportunity out there to keep Jamie, but we have to find something and right now he’s exploring his options,” Jones said. “We’d love him to be here. We’d love to be a three- or four-car team, but you have to find someone to pay for it.”
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Chiefs’ Haley fires coordinator Gailey
August 31, 2009
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—Rookie coach Todd Haley fired Chan Gailey as KansasCity’s offensive coordinator on Monday and assumed the role himself, 13 daysahead of the season opener at Baltimore.
Haley refused to comment on the status of quarterback Matt Cassel(notes), whosustained an apparent knee injury on Saturday night and could be out for a time,raising even more concerns for the offense. Cassel was sacked on the firstpassing play against Seattle and limped away.
“I’m only going to talk about the players who are on the field,” Haleysaid.
Haley also said that making himself offensive coordinator while stillfinding his way as a head coach was the most difficult decision he’s faced. Hewas offensive coordinator the past two years at Arizona.
“I think the world of Chan as a coach, have the greatest amount of respectfor him as a coach, as a person,” said Haley. “But ultimately, the fate ofthis team, the accountability, falls to me.”
The Chiefs are 0-3 in the preseason and have scored only two offensivetouchdowns. The injury to Cassel on Saturday raises even more questions abouthow ready the Chiefs—who were 2-14 last year—will be for their seasonopener.
“After going through three preseason games and a lot of OTAs and a lot ofpractices in training camp, it became more apparent to me that I had to be moreinvolved,” Haley said.
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Steelers DE Keisel signs 5-year contract
August 31, 2009
PITTSBURGH (AP)—Defensive end Brett Keisel(notes) has signed a five-year contract,becoming the eighth player to reach a new deal with the Pittsburgh Steelerssince they won the Super Bowl in February.
Because the Steelers have a policy of not negotiating during the regularseason, Keisel is expected to be the final player signed before the Sept. 10opener against Tennessee. Keisel signed his new contract on Monday.
The Steelers likely will play the season with six key players unsigned past2009: running back Willie Parker(notes), nose tackle Casey Hampton(notes), right tackle WillieColon(notes), safety Ryan Clark(notes), center Justin Hartwig(notes) and kicker Jeff Reed(notes).
The Steelers previously signed linebacker James Harrison(notes), guard ChrisKemoeatu(notes), left tackle Max Starks(notes), right guard Trai Essex(notes), tight end HeathMiller(notes), wide receiver Hines Ward(notes) and linebacker Keyaron Fox(notes).
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Jayson Williams: Overturn convictions
August 31, 2009
SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP)—Retired NBA star Jayson Williams was the victim ofracial bias and prosecutorial misconduct in the aftermath of a fatal shooting athis New Jersey mansion nearly eight years ago, his attorneys argued in courtMonday.
The defense team is seeking to have Williams’ four cover-up convictionsoverturned, partly because a high-ranking investigator involved in the case useda racial slur in 2002 to describe the former NBA All-Star.
The investigator played a major role in the inquiry into driver CostasChristofi’s death and in pretrial preparation, defense attorneys claim. The slurand a subsequent investigation into it weren’t disclosed to the defense untilthe fall of 2007, more than three years after the trial.
Williams was convicted in 2004 of evidence tampering and three other countsof trying to cover up the shotgun shooting, but was acquitted of aggravatedmanslaughter and aggravated assault. He faces a retrial on a recklessmanslaughter charge that produced a hung jury at the first trial.
On Monday, defense attorney Christopher Adams told state Superior CourtJudge Edward Coleman the defense had “its hands tied behind its back” becauseit did not know about the investigator’s slur. Fellow attorney Joseph Haydensaid Williams’ defense would have fundamentally changed had his lawyers knownabout it.
Hunterdon County Assistant Prosecutor William McGovern conceded Monday thatWilliams’ team “was entitled to the information—it should have been handedover,” but argued that it played no role in the jury’s findings. The cover-upconvictions relied solely on the testimony of witnesses who were in the roomwith Williams at the time of the shooting, McGovern said.
Defense attorneys also leveled charges of misconduct at former FirstAssistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Steven Lember, who prosecuted the case buthas since resigned.
They said Lember handed over testimony from one firearms expert the nightbefore the expert was scheduled to take the stand; the testimony contradictedother expert evidence offered by the state. At the time, Coleman termed theerror unintentional but “negligent” and took the unusual step of allowing thedefense to reopen its case to re-question the experts.
McGovern echoed Coleman’s original assessment and also noted that Lemberchose not to prosecute Williams for a separate incident in which he allegedlyshot a pet dog over a bet and pointed the shotgun at a friend.
“That is sound exercise of prosecutorial restraint,” McGovern said.
Williams’ attorneys also renewed their motion to have the pending recklessmanslaughter count thrown out under double jeopardy since, as they argued,Williams was acquitted of more serious charges at the first trial and the sameevidence would be used at a retrial.
McGovern pointed out that the more serious counts require a jury to find adefendant acted knowingly or with indifference, while a reckless manslaughtercount does not.
At retrial, Williams could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if convictedof the reckless manslaughter count. The four cover-up convictions carry amaximum combined sentence of 13 years, but he would likely face probation tofive years if sentenced.
Williams played nine seasons in the NBA with the Nets and the Philadelphia76ers before retiring in 2000.
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Golf-Nicklaus to join Palmer as honorary starter at the Masters (Reuters)
August 31, 2009
ATLANTA, Georgia, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Six-times champion JackNicklaus will join four-times winner Arnold Palmer as anhonorary starter for next year’s U.S. Masters, organisers saidon Monday.
Palmer, 79, has performed the ceremonial role on his ownsince 2007 at the opening major of the season at AugustaNational.
“We are delighted and fortunate to have such a greatambassador and icon of our sport take part in this tradition,”Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said in a statement.
“He has inspired generations of golfers and having Jack joinArnold on the first tee next April will be a special thrill forhis many loyal fans around the world.”
The 2010 Masters will take place from April 8 to 11.
Nicklaus, who made his 45th and final competitive start atAugusta National in 2005, agreed to join Palmer in hitting theceremonial first shot after receiving the support of hislong-time friend.
“I have always had great respect for Arnold and his legacyat the Masters and I did not, in any way, want to infringe onthe opportunity for Arnold to have and enjoy this Masterstradition for himself,” Nicklaus, 69, said.
“He is so deserving of this honour, and thus I felt it washis time, not mine.”
Nicklaus added that, because Palmer had “enthusiasticallysupported the invitation, it became an easy decision for me”.
The first honorary starters at Augusta National were JockHutchinson and Fred McLeod in 1963, and they continued in therole until 1973 and 1976 respectively.
There was then a four-year break without a starter untilGene Sarazen and Byron Nelson took over in 1981. Three-timeschampion Sam Snead joined the duo in 1984.
Sarazen served as an honorary starter until 1999, Nelsonuntil 2001 and Snead until 2002.
After another four-year break without a starter, Palmerstruck the ceremonial tee shot for the first time in 2007. (Writing by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing bySonia Oxley; To query or comment on this story emailsportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
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Final 2 players selected for US Walker Cup team
August 31, 2009
FAR HILLS, N.J. (AP)—U.S. Amateur quarterfinalist Peter Uihlein and CameronTringale are the final two amateur players selected to the U.S. Walker Cup team.
Uihlein is the third Oklahoma State player chosen for this year’s team. Thesophomore from Orlando, Fla., joins teammates Rickie Fowler and Morgan Hoffmann.
Tringale, of Laguna Niguel, Calif., reached the third round of match play atthe Amateur at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
Fifty-year-old Tim Jackson, the medalist at the Amateur, and Ben Martin, ofGreenwood, S.C., are the alternates.
The biennial Walker Cup matches, pitting an American team against a teamrepresenting Great Britain and Ireland, will take place Sept. 12-13 at MerionGolf Club in Ardmore, Pa.
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