Sports

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) Georgia safety Alec Ogletree has been suspended for at least one game following a misdemeanor theft charge.

Watch the whole video…I don’t know what started the argument, but the kid wouldn’t stop talking sh*t and grandpa went over to set him straight.

What is this world coming to? This isn’t a Raider game, this is the U.S. Freaking Open. Tennis!

PARIS (AP) -- Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hopes his role as organizing committee president for next year's Homeless World Cup in Paris raises awareness of those he fears are being increasingly excluded from society.

PARIS (AP) -- Thirteen years after Roberto Carlos stunned onlookers with his amazing "banana'' free kick that seemed to defy the law of physics, scientists finally have figured out just how he did it.

Brad Keselowski does a bi-weekly diary for SI.com. Heading to Atlanta this weekend, he recounts his infamous "butt" comment at Bristol and tries to explain bad feelings with Kyle Busch. Also in this latest edition: his take on a possible Cup Series date in Montreal, the latest on if he'll be allowed to run for a Nationwide Series championship next year, and why he won't play fantasy football like the rest of Americans these days.

LONDON (AP) -- While World Cup holder Spain was among the traditional powers to open qualifying for the 2012 European Championship with victories Friday, France was further humiliated by a 1-0 home defeat against lowly Belarus.

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) In another surprising twist to a month-long saga, Mississippi quarterback Jeremiah Masoli has been cleared to play football just one day before the start of the season.

ORIHUELA, Spain (AP) -- Alessandro Petacchi of Italy won the seventh stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Friday, while Philippe Gilbert of Belgium maintained the overall lead for the fifth straight day.

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Browns rookie running back Montario Hardesty is out for the season after tearing a left knee ligament during his NFL debut.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) -- Quality Road is the favorite to win the $750,000 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday.

LONDON (AP) -- Two groups of scientists have developed tests for gene doping in what the World Anti-Doping Agency hailed Friday as a major breakthrough in fighting the next frontier in cheating in sports.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Southeastern Conference has agreed to bring the men's basketball tournament to Nashville three more times this decade, making Music City home to four events through 2019.

SPARTA, Ky. (AP) -- Ed Carpenter posted a lap of 217.933 mph to capture the pole for Saturday's Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

NEW YORK (AP) - Kim Clijsters beat Petra Kvitova and Hurricane Earl with a quick victory before rain briefly suspended play at the U.S. Open.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- The NHL has signed off on Ilya Kovalchuk's latest contract with the New Jersey Devils.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) Nebraska fans haven't forgotten that one-point loss to Texas in the Big 12 championship game and they're still celebrating next year's move to the Big Ten.

Merry preseason, everyone. It’s been a long offseason, but football is finally gearing up again and to celebrate I’m rolling out a new series on TSR entitled “2010 NFL Question Marks,” where I discuss one or two of the biggest concerns that teams have heading into the new season. Granted, some teams have more issues than others, but I’ll primarily be focusing on the biggest problem areas. Today I’ll be discussing the woeful Rams and their concerns at receiver and in the defensive backfield.
When a team earns the right to select at the top of the draft, it’s easy to spot its holes.
And the Rams have a lot of holes.
Outside of running back Steven Jackson and a linebacker corps led by second-year player James Laurinaitis, the Rams have issues at nearly every position. The hope is that young players like Sam Bradford, Rodger Saffold, Jason Smith and Chris Long will step up in due time, but it’s going to be a while before guys like Bradford are ready to make major contributions.
The receiver and defensive backfield are currently the team’s two biggest weaknesses heading into the new year. Wideout was already a concern before Donnie Avery went down to a season ending injury and now that they won’t even have him, the Rams have an even bigger hole at the position.
I’ve been very high on Laurent Robinson since he came into the league as a third round pick of the Falcons in 2007. But despite flashing his potential on occasion, he’s been a dud due to injuries. He caught 13 passes for 167 yards and one touchdown in his first four games last year, then suffered an injury that shelved him for the rest of the season. With Avery out, he has the opportunity to be the No. 1 guy but can he stay healthy for 16 games? He hasn’t yet.

Filling in for Avery at the spot opposite Robinson will be Danny Amendola, an undrafted second-year player out of Texas Tech. He did catch 43 passes for 326 yards and one touchdown last year and could be a potential sleeper in 2010, but it remains to be seen if he can be a full-time starter. The same goes for Brandon Gibson and Keenan Burton, two other receivers further down St. Louis’ depth chart.
Perhaps the most intriguing option is rookie Mardy Gilyard, who was a tremendous playmaker at Cincinnati, but someone who has yet to make an immediate impact. He certainly has the talent to be good at this level, but it looks like the Rams will have to bring him along slowly after he failed to impress in camp.
Switching to the defensive side of the ball, Ron Bartell was given a $25 million deal before last offseason and he repaid the Rams by regressing in coverage. He gave up 783 yards and allowed 63.4 percent of passes to be completed on him last year, which included five touchdowns. And he’s supposed to be the team’s best corner.
Bradley Fletcher (knee surgery) was expected to win the starting job opposite Bartell, but he couldn’t beat out Kevin Dockery in camp or preseason. That isn’t good considering Dockery is coming off a miserable year with the Giants and is now expected to start.
The situation appears to be a little better at safety where Craig Dahl and O.J. Atogwe will return, but for as skilled as Atogwe is at forcing turnovers his overall play leaves something to be desired.
All in all, the Rams will struggle again this season. They just don’t have the talent to match up with opponents on week-to-week and both of these positions will hold them back in 2010.

TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) -- The Arizona Cardinals have traded starting guard Reggie Wells to the Philadelphia Eagles for an undisclosed draft pick.

Precious few American players are so beloved and so mightily respected that a club will actually name a stadium lounge in his honor.

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (AP) -- Brian McBride, whose scoring touch and tenacity earned him fans on both sides of the Atlantic, is calling it a career.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Ben Roethlisberger is getting time off for good behavior.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Cubs general manager Jim Hendry says he had lunch with Ryne Sandberg but did not formally interview the Hall of Famer for the manager's job.

Now that college football is back and we no longer have to spend our time over-analyzing off-field issues, let’s turn our attention to over-analyzing what we’ve seen in one night the play on the field.
The first night of games was pretty vanilla — outside of Utah’s overtime win over Pittsburgh, as Anthony pointed out earlier — but it did give us a little bit of insight into a few teams, and what we could possibly expect to see from them down the road.
Let’s take a look at three things we learned on Thursday night:
1. USC’s sanctions have caught up with them quicker than one would have imagined: I figured it would take a year or two before the Trojans really started to feel the weight of the sanctions placed upon them by the NCAA in the offseason. But as it turns out, the non-contact practices new coach Lane Kiffin has had to run because of low numbers have already taken their toll. The USC defense looked awful last night against Hawaii, and you’d be hard pressed to convince me not tackling in practice didn’t have a big role in that. I have a hard time believing it’s the new gameplan, as Monte Kiffin is one of the best in the game when it comes to putting together a defense. And the Trojans have plenty of athletes who are capable of making plays, especially against a team like Hawaii. Sure, USC’s defense looked vulnerable at times last year as well, but this was almost difficult to watch. Granted, the Trojans offense looks legit, as Matt Barkley was brilliant, Ronald Johnson looks like he could be a monster, and Marc Tyler is a bonafide No. 1 back. All this without super-stud freshman Dillon Baxter on the field. Expect some crazy shootouts from the Trojans this season.

2. Dion Lewis isn’t going anywhere unless Tino Sunseri picks his game up: Lewis, a Heisman candidate in many circles, was held to 75 yards on 25 carries last night in Pittsburgh’s overtime loss to Utah. The three yards per carry average is the lowest in his short career at Pitt (his previous low was 3.4 a carry against Navy last year, and he averaged 5.5 a carry for the season). While I don’t want to take away from Utah’s defense, I think this might be a recurring problem for Lewis in big games until Sunseri proves he can stretch the field. The kid can throw the ball down the field, and he has a game-breaking receiver — Jon Baldwin — to throw to, but until he proves that he can stretch out defenses consistently and open the field up for the running game, Lewis is going to have to deal with a lot of defenders in the box. Part of that is Dave Wannstedt and the Pitt coaching staff trusting Sunseri to throw the ball down field and making the play calls to allow for that. Then again, he has to earn that trust.
3. Ohio State and Miami did nothing to temper excitement over next week’s matchup: Sure, they played Florida A&M and Marshall, but both teams were impressively dominant in their wins. It’s often disappointing when a team stumbles the week before a big matchup, taking the luster away from it before we’ve even finished reading the boxscore. But Miami’s Jacory Harris and Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor made sure that didn’t happen, and also gave us a nice little tease for what could be a very exciting quarterback duel in Columbus. Then again, it could end 6-3.
Paul Costanzo is a sports reporter for the Times Herald in Port Huron, Mich.

Kim Clijsters beat Petra Kvitova and Hurricane Earl with a quick victory at the U.S. Open.

Ben Roethlisberger's suspension cut from six to four games by the NFL.

Nationals outfielder Nyjer Morgan has been suspended for eight games for a series of recent incidents, including his role in a benches-clearing brawl Wednesday against the Florida Marlins.

Broncos running back LenDale White tore his Achilles tendon Thursday night and will miss the regular season, a team source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter on Friday.

Adam Schefter is reporting that Hardesty is done for the season:
Further tests revealed what initial tests showed: Browns rookie RB Montario Hardesty has a torn ACL. Out for year.
Bad news for Hardesty is great news for Jerome Harrison owners, who will likely have a solid RB2 for the price of a 7th-9th round pick. Peyton Hillis has played well and was productive in Denver, so he will probably get some touches to keep Harrison fresh. He could also vulture some goal line work.
Still, Harrison is looking like a great value in the middle rounds and is another reason why it’s a solid strategy to grab a couple of premier WRs in the first three rounds and worry about shoring up the RB position later.

The NFL has fined Lions rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh $7,500 for slamming down Browns quarterback Jake Delhomme last week during a preseason game.