FOOTBALL
Cowboys' Dixon fined
Rookie Dallas Cowboys safety Ahmad Dixon has been fined $22,050 for a hit on Miami Dolphins receiver Matt Hazel in a preseason game last week. Dixon was penalized for unnecessary roughness for hitting Hazel after the ball had sailed past him near the goal line in the Dolphins' 25-20 victory last Saturday. He was fined for hitting a defenseless player in the head and neck area. After the game, Dixon said he didn't care how many times he was fined but softened those comments this week. While at Baylor last year, Dixon was ejected from a game under the college targeting rule for hitting a receiver with his helmet. Dallas linebacker Anthony Hitchens was fined $8,268 for a facemask penalty in the Miami game.
• Wide receiver and 2010 Pro Bowl return man Marc Mariani said he has been cut by the Tennessee Titans. Mariani said Friday morning he hopes to land with another team soon. He said he is healthy for the first time in three years and is thankful for that. The native of Havre, Mont., and former Montana Grizzly was a seventh-round draft pick by the Titans in 2010 and made the Pro Bowl as a rookie. He missed the 2012 season after suffering a compound fracture of his lower leg during the preseason and missed the 2013 season with a shoulder injury. Mariani completed the 2014 preseason with six catches for 53 yards. He also returned 6 kicks for 152 yards and 1 punt for 3 yards. Titans Coach Ken Whisenhunt said Friday he would announce the names of all released players today, the deadline for teams to cut their rosters to 53.
• San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith has been suspended for nine games by the NFL after a series of off-field legal issues. A statement Friday from the league said Smith had violated the NFL's substance abuse and personal conduct policies. Smith won't be eligible to return until Nov. 10, the day after the 49ers' game against the New Orleans Saints. Smith, 24, one of the NFL's top pass rushers, missed five games last season to undergo treatment at an in-patient facility following his DUI arrest Sept. 20. Just before training camp began last month, Smith was sentenced to serve three years of probation and to spend 11 days with a work crew after he pleaded no contest to drunken driving and weapons charges. He has repeatedly said he has been sober since his DUI arrest last September.
• Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jerome Simpson has been suspended for three games for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy, his second such punishment in three seasons. The league announced the punishment Friday, putting Simpson on the sideline without pay until Sept. 22, when the Vikings begin practice for a Week 4 matchup with Atlanta. He won't count against the 53-man active roster until then, creating an opportunity for Adam Thielen and Rodney Smith, both of whom spent last year on the practice squad as undrafted rookies, to survive the final cuts and make the team for now. Simpson will sit out games against St. Louis, New England and New Orleans. Cordarrelle Patterson and Greg Jennings are the top two wide receivers, with Jarius Wright (Warren, Arkansas Razorbacks) the only other player with NFL experience at the position.
• Newly signed backup quarterback Jordan Palmer and veteran punter Brian Moorman were among 10 players released by the Buffalo Bills. Palmer was among the Bills' cuts announced Friday, a day after he threw three interceptions in a preseason-ending 23-0 loss to Detroit. Buffalo had signed the fifth-year player Tuesday. Moorman is a 14-year veteran who was back in Buffalo for a second stint. The Bills also cut cornerbacks Kamaal McIlwain and Sam Miller, linebacker Xavius Boyd, defensive tackle Landon Cohen, tight end Dominique Jones, fullback Evan Rodriguez, receiver Naaman Roosevelt and center Jared Wheeler. Buffalo also placed three players on reserve/injured: tight end Tony Moeaki and cornerbacks Mario Butler and Bobby Felder. The Bills must cut seven more players to reach the NFL's 53-player roster by this afternoon.
• The Chicago Bears have waived former Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch. A Heisman Trophy finalist for the Huskies last season, Lynch was trying to make the Bears as a running back after being signed as an undrafted free agent. He could wind up on their practice squad if he's not picked up by another team. The Bears also released receiver Armanti Edwards, tight end Jeron Mastrud, offensive tackle Dennis Roland and center/guard Robert Turner on Friday.
MOTOR SPORTS
Rosberg disciplined
Nico Rosberg was disciplined by Mercedes on Friday after accepting responsibility for a collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton at last weekend's Belgian Grand Prix that deepened the rift between the two rivals for the drivers' title. The tension between the Mercedes drivers ratcheted up Sunday when Hamilton claimed Rosberg had admitted to deliberately driving into him on the second lap of the race at Spa. The crash effectively ended Hamilton's hopes of victory -- he sustained a puncture to his tire and had to later retire -- and Rosberg placed second to increase his championship lead over Hamilton to 29 points. The drivers attended a meeting at the team's headquarters in Brackley, England, on Friday along with executive director Toto Wolff and technical chief Paddy Lowe, where Mercedes said Rosberg "acknowledged his responsibility for the contact" and "apologized for this error of judgment." "Suitable disciplinary measures have been taken for the incident," the team said in a statement, without disclosing the exact punishment for Rosberg. Rosberg tops the drivers' standings on 220 points, with Hamilton in second place on 191. Hamilton was incensed by Rosberg's risky overtaking move that saw him clip and puncture the Briton's left tire. "He said he did it on purpose," Hamilton said after the race. "He said he could have avoided it. He said, 'I did it to prove a point.' "
• The Grand Prix of Houston has been dropped from the IndyCar schedule for 2015. IndyCar ran a doubleheader race at the NRG Park track the past two years, but IndyCar President Mark Miles said Friday that scheduling conflicts prompted the change. Houston's departure from the schedule likely opens a June date for an IndyCar race in Toronto. The Grand Prix of Houston also was on the IndyCar schedule from 1998-01 and 2006-07. Mi-Jack Promotions President Michael T. Lanigan was disappointed to lose the event but didn't want to run another race in the heat of a Texas summer after disappointing attendance this year. "As we learned this year, the weather in June is not ideal for our fans, so we discussed many options for 2015," Lanigan said. "Ultimately, we were unable to find a date that was agreeable." Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, a former Formula 1 track located 50 miles northeast of Toronto, is hoping to land an IndyCar race next season. IndyCar can't run its usual Toronto street circuit race at Exhibition Place next year due to the Pan American Games in the city.
NBA
Shelly Sterling: Deal started with 2 numbers
LOS ANGELES — When asked how much money she wanted to sell the Los Angeles Clippers, the wife of disgraced team owner Donald Sterling handed a piece of paper to her lawyer with two numbers: $1.5 to $2.
What wasn’t written was understood. She meant billions, shocking figures for a franchise that until recently was a perpetual loser. But Shelly Sterling soon brokered a deal to part with the team for a record $2 billion, selling it to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a buyer whose name she did not know at first.
In an exclusive interview Thursday with The Associated Press, she offered details about negotiating one of the richest deals in sports after her husband’s racist rant to a girlfriend prompted the NBA to ban him for life and force him to give up the team.
Shelly Sterling hired well-known attorney Pierce O’Donnell, and prospective buyers started lining up. David Geffen made an offer of $1.65 billion, and an Egyptian princess also entered the bidding war, she said.
Ballmer called her at 7 a.m. on a Saturday.
“He was really enthusiastic,” she recalled. “He said I want to come see you immediately.”
She put him off until the next day and quickly called a girlfriend to find out who he was.
Shelly Sterling said when they met, Ballmer was a like “a little child.”
“He was so excited, so happy,” she recalled. “We sort of connected. I felt he would be good for the team.”
Shelly Sterling said he asked her how much the other bidders had offered and then put forward his own figure of $1.9 billion. That was far more than most observers believed the team was worth, but Shelly Sterling wasn’t satisfied.
“I told him: ‘You won’t have to build an arena or a practice field.’ So he was getting a bargain,” she said. “I told him, ‘We have great players, a great coach, and you’ll never have the chance to buy a team in Los Angeles again.’ ”
Sports on 08/30/2014