American Football News

MIAMI (AP) _ Kyle Wright returned from an injury to throw a game-sealing touchdown pass to DajLeon Farr with 2:15 left, and Miami escaped an upset bid by Duke for the second straight year by beating the Blue Devils 24-14 on Saturday. Wright was 19-of-23 for 230 yards and two touchdowns for the Hurricanes (4-1, 1-0), who won their Atlantic Coast Conference opener for the first time in three years. Thad Lewis completed 18 of 27 passes ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ Remember all those great players Ohio State lost from last season's team? They're not missed as much as everyone thought. The Buckeyes routed Northwestern 58-7 Saturday to go to 4-0, successfully opening their defence of the Big Ten title they've won the last two years. ``It's a good start from a defensive standpoint, but there are always things you can get better at,'' linebacker James Laurinaitis said after Ohio State limited the Wildcats to ...

Chris Canales doesn't blame the game. Has every right to, but doesn't. ``I love football,'' he said. ``Getting to meet the pros and watch them play is great fun.'' Canales used to play himself. Was pretty good at it, too, making all conference as a defensive back and receiving three scholarship offers from colleges who wanted him to be a punter. One tackle wiped those dreams away. One tackle nearly took his life away. It came on Nov. 2, ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ If Titans coach Jeff Fisher had a vote, he'd favour trimming some time off the draft. Fisher, co-chair of the NFL's rules committee, won't be part of the NFL owners' talks Tuesday with commissioner Roger Goodell about shortening selection times in the first and second rounds of the league's draft. But he has been part of discussions with Goodell about picking up the pace on draft day. ``I think we could arrive at ...

NEW YORK (AP) _ New York Jets kick returner Justin Miller was arrested early Sunday and charged with third-degree assault after a fight at a New York City nightclub. ``I want to apologize to everyone for this situation, including my family, my teammates, the Jets organization, our fans and the entire NFL,'' the cornerback said in a statement released by the team Sunday night. ``I understand that serving in the NFL is an honour and that I have ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Baltimore Ravens quarterback Steve McNair was charged with driving under the influence Thursday even though police said his brother-in-law was behind the wheel of the pickup registered to the former Tennessee Titan. Although McNair was just a passenger, he was charged with a misdemeanour under a Tennessee law that prohibits a vehicle owner from letting it be driven by someone who is inebriated. Police said officer ...

BATON ROUGE (AP) _ Pallbearers carried the dark wooden casket of longtime Grambling State football coach Eddie Robinson up the granite steps of Louisiana's capitol building as more than 50 of his former players looked on Monday. The ex-players, ranging in age from 30 to 85 and clad in dark suits and white gloves, formed lines on either side as the casket was carried up the steps to the somber ...

PHOENIX (AP) _ NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will meet next Tuesday with two players who have had recent legal problems and hopes to hand down disciplinary measures within 10 days of those meetings. While Goodell's new, stronger player conduct policy has not been formulated, he received input from the teams at the league meetings that concluded Wednesday. Next week, he'll hold hearings for Tennessee cornerback Adam (Pacman) Jones and Cincinnati ...

PHOENIX (AP) _ One day after yet another NFL player was arrested, commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday a stronger player conduct policy will not be completed at these league meetings. By next month, however, Goodell expects to have in place the stricter plan and hopes to make some disciplinary decisions before the April 28-29 draft. ``It's a complicated issue and there are no simple answers,'' Goodell said. He added he ...

Archie Manning stood nervously in the tunnel leading to the field in Indianapolis during the final minutes of a comeback that would put his middle son in the Super Bowl for the first time. He didn't want the television cameras to see him, didn't want to intrude on the spotlight. He could barely bring himself to watch. The head of football's most famous quarterback family had endured countless losing seasons ...

As they expected when they opened training camp, the Carolina Panthers won't be playing this week. Of course, they assumed they would be enjoying a first-round bye and preparing for a home playoff game _ the natural scenario for a Super Bowl favourite. Instead, the Panthers have already packed up and scattered after a disappointing 8-8 season that left one thing for certain: Many of the players who were a ...

The NFL is accusing the operators of two South Beach hotels of reneging on a deal to supply more than 50 rooms during the first week of February for the Super Bowl in Miami, according to court documents. The operators of the South Beach Hotel and the Crest Hotel, however, deny that they signed a contract to reserve 54 rooms between the two hotels for four nights during the week ...

Bill Cowher will wait until the end of the season to decide whether he'll return to coach the Pittsburgh Steelers. ``There will be something at the end of the year,'' Cowher said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters in Charlotte, N.C. ``I'll sit back and put a lot of thought into it and make a decision accordingly. ``Right now, my focus is purely on trying to find a way ...

Dennis Erickson has accepted the head coaching job at Arizona State, Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said Saturday night. Erickson, 59, spent one season at Idaho in his second stint at the school, going 4-8. He led Miami to two NCAA titles, also has been a head coach at Wyoming, Washington State and Oregon State and coached Seattle and San Francisco in the NFL. Erickson has a 149-64-1 record in 18 seasons as a U.S. college coach. At ...

The Miami Hurricanes promoted defensive co-ordinator Randy Shannon to head coach Friday to replace Larry Coker. Shannon helped the Hurricanes win three national championships as a linebacker and has overseen the defence since 2001. Miami fired Coker two weeks ago after the team finished the regular season 6-6, its worst record since 1997. ``Randy has the discipline and heart of a champion,'' university president Donna Shalala said in a statement. ...

Bill Cowher is not interested in coaching alma mater North Carolina State, even though the Super Bowl-winning Pittsburgh Steelers coach has only one season left on his contract. Cowher, a former NC State linebacker, has seen his name mentioned prominently in speculation since Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato was fired last weekend. Asked if he had any interest in going back to his former school, Cowher said: ``No.'' ``I've been getting ...

It's not as if the Baltimore Ravens are ignored. But they're not exactly high profile despite a five-game winning streak that will allow them to clinch the AFC North title if they win in Cincinnati Thursday night. That's another of those NFL Network games that a lot of people will miss because the NFL and some major cable systems continue to argue over programming tiers and the arcanities of the ...

Alabama has fired coach Mike Shula less than a year after the Crimson Tide finished a 10-2 season, according to Athletic director Mal Moore. The Crimson Tide went 6-6 this season, finishing with three straight losses. Shula, a former Alabama quarterback, was winless in four tries against Auburn, his team's biggest rival. The Tigers beat the Crimson Tide 22-15 on Nov. 18, leaving Shula to answer questions about his job ...

Michigan State has hired Cincinnati's Mark Dantonio as the Spartans head football coach. Dantonio, a former Spartans assistant, succeeds the fired John L. Smith. Dantonio was in his third year as Cincinnati's head coach. He had an 18-17 record, including a 7-5 mark this season. The Spartans finished 4-8 overall and 1-7 in the Big Ten, losing eight of their last nine games. Smith had a 22-26 record in four ...

Jack Ferrante, a wide receiver on two Philadelphia Eagles championship teams in the 1940s, has died at 90. Ferrante died Thursday at a nursing home in Yardley, Pa., the team announced Friday. Nicknamed ``Blackjack,'' Ferrante had 169 receptions for 2,884 yards and 31 touchdowns in a nine-year career with the Eagles. He played for Philadelphia in 1941 and from 1944-50, and was a member of the Eagles' title-winning teams in ...

Larry Coker won nearly 80 per cent of his games at Miami, got players to graduate, was revered for his classy manner and led the Hurricanes to a national championship. Despite all that, even he acknowledged Miami needed to make a change. Coker's tumultuous and disappointing season got its predictable ending Friday, when he was fired after six years leading the Hurricanes. The move came one day after Miami finished ...

A Confederate heritage group plans to challenge the NCAA's ban on championship events in South Carolina as long as the Confederate flag flies on the grounds of the state capitol. The NCAA in 2001 barred any of its post-season tournaments from South Carolina. The organization is considering a request from the Black Coaches Association to extend the ban to sports where teams earn a chance to host playoff games, like ...

At a practice this week, Miami coach Larry Coker asked if anyone was emotionally drained and didn't want to continue playing this season. He said it would be understandable. He also said anyone feeling that way should step aside. When no one left, the Hurricanes started prepping for Thursday night's game against No. 18 Boston College. The scenario couldn't be simpler for Miami: Win and go to a bowl; lose ...

If you're eyeballing an obscure receiver such as Patrick Crayton or Terrance Copper as a possible free agent this week, do yourself a favour and don't think about it. Just pick them up, even this late in the season and even if they seem like unlikely fantasy football stars. As New Orleans rookie Marques Colston proves, the key to success in free agency is just throwing a bunch of names ...

Bo Schembechler, the winningest coach in Michigan football history, died Friday after collapsing during the taping of a television show, according to three Detroit TV stations. He was 77. Schembechler's death was reported by WXYZ, WDIV and WJBK, which did not cite sources. He died a day before the second-ranked Wolverines were scheduled to meet No. 1 Ohio State in the latest instalment of the century-old rivalry. Schembechler became ill ...

Some Arizona Cardinals fans are wearing paper bags over their heads in embarrassment, and players are running out of things to say. All coach Dennis Green can say is ``you have to keep taking your cuts.'' ``That's what it comes down to,'' Green said on Monday. ``You can't get out of a slump as a baseball player by watching the ball go by. You've got to get out there and ...

Hall of Fame football coach Bill Walsh, who built an NFL dynasty with the San Francisco 49ers and revolutionized the sport with his West Coast offence, disclosed Friday that he has leukemia. ``I'm positive, but not evangelistic,'' the 74-year-old Walsh told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and The Sports Xchange Web sites. ``I'm pragmatically doing everything my physicians recommend, and I'm working my way through it.'' Walsh said the cancer ...

The San Francisco 49ers ended negotiations with the city about building a new stadium and plan to move to either Santa Clara or somewhere else in California, The Associated Press learned Wednesday night. Owner John York notified Mayor Gavin Newsom of the team's decision earlier Wednesday, a city official close to the negotiations told the AP on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made. Team spokesman Aaron Salkin ...

Former Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler said he believed he might be on the verge of death when he felt ill while taping a television show and was taken to the hospital. The 77-year-old Schembechler was released from a hospital Oct. 24, one day after a device to help regulate his heartbeat was implanted in his chest. On Friday, he was back in Southfield to tape the latest edition of the show that previews Michigan and Michigan State ...

As usual, Tiki Barber's retirement announcement got all the attention in North America's largest media market. As usual, low-profile Curtis Martin flew under the radar when he declared himself done for the season _ and maybe for his career. The status of the two marquee New York running backs illustrates one of the facts of life in the NFL: Most players have to be dragged off the field because they ...