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03 Nov 2009 10:37
Updated: November 3, 2009, 11:15 AM ESTAccorsi could be brought into bigger role with Browns
Ernie Accorsi has been in touch with Browns owner Randy Lerner in the past week or two. Accorsi has been offering advice and help as Lerner tries to right his organization after a brutally bad first half of the season. It's very possible and likely that Lerner would ask Accorsi -- formerly a general manager of the New York Giants and Browns -- to become more involved with the team on a full-time basis. It's not known if Accorsi would take a full-time job, or if he would act as a consultant. But Accorsi and former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar have a relationship dating to Kosar's playing days.-- Akron Beacon Journal
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seeks Congressional amendment to avoid future Williams suits
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell wants Congress to amend the Labor Management Relations Act to protect the league's collective bargaining agreement from state-law challenges such as those Vikings defensive tackles Kevin and Pat Williams are using to fight their suspensions. Goodell plans to testify to a House subcommittee today that changes are necessary so players cannot use state law to circumvent the sport's drug-testing policies and gain unfair advantage over their fellow competitors. "A narrow and targeted amendment would preserve the rights of sports leagues and their player associations to negotiate and administer effective anti-drug and steroid programs," Goodell said in an opening statement for the subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection. -- Pioneer Press
David Ortiz: I want to finish my career with Red Sox
David Ortiz is entering the final year of a four-year, $52 million deal that will pay him $12.5 million for 2010. The club holds a $12.5 million option for 2011, but it's a safe bet the Red Sox won't exercise it if he repeats last year's performance. "Everybody is used to seeing me hitting 40 homers with 140 RBI," Ortiz said. "But I tell you, anybody will take 30 and 100. If I hit two more homers and get one more RBI next year than I did this year, what are people going to say? "The numbers are always going to be there. And if you don't sign with somebody, someone else will sign you. That's how it goes." That said, Ortiz made it clear he hopes to remain with the Red Sox next year and beyond. "I want to finish my career here," he said. "I think I still have another three or four good years in me. It's not like I'm going to play until I'm 50, but I know I can still swing the bat. All I know is last year I had the worst two months of my career and still almost ended up at 30 and 100."
Jamie McCourt seeks to remove Dodgers from divorce hearing
Jamie McCourt argued in a motion Monday that the Dodgers should not be a party in a divorce hearing, asking the court to throw out papers filed in the team's name that "unnecessarily and gratuitously attack" her. The motion is expected to be considered Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court as part of a hearing to determine the validity of McCourt's demand for immediate reinstatement as the Dodgers' chief executive. Frank McCourt, her estranged husband, fired her two weeks ago. After she filed for divorce last week, he responded in a filing that her reinstatement would be "akin to throwing a bomb into a crowded room." -- LA Times
Jazz CEO: Carlos Boozer could get new contract
Jazz CEO Greg Miller even was asked about possibility of a new contract for Carlos Boozer next offseason -- something seemingly unfathomable last summer. "I wouldn't rule it out," he said, "and it's ... (because) we always want to be as competitive as we can be. "There's no personal hard feelings against Carlos," Miller added, "and if we could come to terms economically, and Carlos wanted to be here, and we felt that Carlos was still in a point in his career where he could help us win, we would absolutely entertain an opportunity to bring him back." -- Deseret News
Mavericks forward Drew Gooden allegedly yelled homophobic slur
Heckling by Los Angeles Clippers fans may have led to the Mavericks' Drew Gooden saying some allegedly insensitive comments during the Mavericks' game at Staples Center on Saturday. Gooden did not play and was dressed in street clothes behind the bench. According to the Web site Outsports.com, Gooden yelled a homophobic slur at a pair of fans seated near the Mavericks bench. The Web site said Gooden yelled the slur at actor Chris Wylde, who is married and is not gay and was attending the game with a friend. Owner Mark Cuban would not comment, but e-mailed Wylde, according to the Web site, and said the team would deal with Gooden internally. -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Kyle Busch plans to cut back schedule next year
Whether Kyle Busch wins the Nationwide Series title this year, he won't be around to defend it in 2010. He plans to cut back his schedule next year. In addition to his regular Sprint Cup schedule, he plans to drive in 24 Nationwide races and 14 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He says the reduced time in the other series can help him attain his ultimate goal: a Sprint Cup title. "Taking a little out of the schedule should help because I won't have to do as much traveling back and forth," he said. "Maybe the biggest thing that's hindered my performance is spending time away from the [Sprint Cup] team and crew chief. We need to do what we can do to make it better." -- Dallas Morning News
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: restrictor-plate racing like lottery
Some fans are just discovering what drivers have said for years: Restrictor-plate racing is not true racing. In its effort to put on a show, NASCAR has created reality programming, but with no basis in reality. Safety measures keep cars artificially close and render the idea of the fastest car winning absurd at this track. "I feel like racing here with the (Car of Tomorrow) and the plate is a lottery," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "We show up to bust our (rear) and work hard to get our cars to handle and drive right and do right everywhere else, but when you come here, you just sit in the bus and wait for the (darn) race to start and see what you're number is at the end of the deal. It's a lottery." -- Virginian-Pilot
CBS sportscaster Nantz ordered to pay $1M in alimony, child support
CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz will have to pay his estranged wife nearly $1 million a year in alimony and child support, a Superior Court judge ruled Monday. While Judge Howard Owens states in a nine-page decision that a large part of testimony before him by Nantz and his wife, Lorrie, related to faults for the breakdown of their 26-year-old marriage, he ruled the conduct of either party was far from "egregious." "While there was some testimony of the husband's interest in another woman in the few short months preceding the filing of this dissolution action, the breakdown occurred years before this relationship developed and the court finds this remote event in no way contributed to the breakdown of the marriage," the judge stated. "The court finds neither party at fault for the breakdown of the marriage," he added. Owens ordered Nantz to pay his now-former wife $72,000 monthly in alimony until either his death or she remarries. He will pay her $1,000 a week in child support for their 15-year-old daughter, Caroline, for the next two years. He will also be solely responsible for paying her college expenses until she turns 23. -- Connecticut Post
Laker Lamar Odom's wife regrets getting a "tramp stamp"
Khloe Kardashian says most of her tattoos are "meaningful." She has the words "I Love You," in her late father's handwriting on her wrist and she recently got the initials of her new husband Lamar Odom on her hand. But there is one area she wishes she hadn't gotten inked. "On my lower back, I don't like the location... I got a trendy location. It's called a "tramp stamp," she said on Ryan Seacrest's KIIS-FM radio show Monday. (The tattoo is a cross and angel wings with "Daddy" written above it - in honor of late father, Robert.) -- Us Magazine
LSU title could leave league out of BCS party
The Southeastern Conference is the best college football league in the country this season but that does not mean the SEC is a lock to have a team play for the national championship. LSU is very much alive in the SEC race. If the Tigers win the title, it's likely - as things stand right now - that the SEC would be left out of the national title game for the first time since 2005. LSU fans can blame Pete Carroll and the University of Southern California. Oregon's 47-20 thrashing of Southern Cal on Saturday put the Ducks in position to win the Pac 10 title and go to the Rose Bowl. The victory also had the side effect of greatly enhancing Boise State's 19-8 victory over Oregon on Sept. 3, making it possible for the SEC - only with LSU as its champion - to be left out of the BCS national championship party. -- Monroe News-Star
Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews to address his coaching future
Longtime Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews told reporters here on Monday that today he would address whether he plans to coach beyond this season. Andrews, whose defenses were the cornerstones of the Seminoles' dynasty years, has coached at FSU since 1984 but he has indicated that this would be his final season. He said before the season began that he came close to retiring in each of the past two offseasons and that he was anticipating the days when he'd be able to spend more time with his wife, Diane, and their grandchildren. "I said one year last year," Andrews said in August. "This is the one year. I've got some things that I've got to get done with my family that I haven't been able to do while coaching. When I get out of coaching, it won't be because I can't coach or don't want to coach but I've got to do things that I owe my wife and our daughter and grandkids. "That could very well be after this." FSU Coach Bobby Bowden said Sunday that he hoped Andrews would return for one more season. Asked about that on Monday, Andrews said, "There probably will be something on that tomorrow." -- Orlando Sentinel
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