Odd trades?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The NFL players’ union will continue looking into oddly timed trades involving rookies now that more of the players involved have been cut, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Sunday.
The person, speaking on condition of anonymity because the union has not made the probes public, said the NFL Players Association is still reviewing trades made last week by the Washington Redskins, St. Louis Rams, Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals.
On Saturday, the Rams cut Dennis Morris, who was obtained from the Redskins. Also Saturday, the Cardinals cut Charles Scott, who came from the Eagles.
The union wants to know whether the trades were made to circumvent paying money into a rookie pool.
• On the day 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford found out he’ll be the starting quarterback for the St. Louis Rams, Heisman winners Matt Leinart and Troy Smith found themselves looking for new teams.
It was cut down Saturday in the NFL, with teams required to trim their rosters to 53 players.
Leinart, the 2004 Heisman winner from USC, was released by the Arizona Cardinals, who will open the season on Sept. 12 with Derek Anderson at quarterback against Bradford and the Rams.
Smith, the 2006 Heisman winner from Ohio State, was cut by the Baltimore Ravens after playing in 14 games over three seasons. The Ravens will open the season with two quarterbacks, starter Joe Flacco and Marc Bulger.
Road to Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Southeastern Conference has tapped Nashville to host eight postseason men’s and women’s basketball tournaments through 2019.
The city will host a trio of SEC men’s tournaments in 2015, 2016 and 2019. The Tennessean reports that Atlanta gets the 2011 and 2014 SEC men’s tournaments. New Orleans will host the conference’s 2012 men’s event. The SEC had previously named Nashville as host of its 2013 men’s tournament.
Along with the men’s tournaments, the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament will be held in Nashville in 2011 and 2012.
The NCAA men’s second- and third-round games during the NCAA tournament will be in Nashville in 2012, and the NCAA Women’s Final Four will be set for Nashville in 2014.
The cable guys
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Time Warner Cable Inc. customers will finally get access to the sports website ESPN3.com, even if they are not subscribers of the company’s Internet service, according to a long-term deal with The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday.
In the deal, 12.7 million Time Warner video subscribers and 2.4 million Bright House Networks video subscribers will get access to ESPN3.com without an extra charge. ESPN3.com offers full game videos, and recently it carried live World Cup matches that built huge audiences via computer screens in the workplace. About 7.4 million people tuned in to ESPN3.com at one point during the tournament, on average watching two hours each.
Time Warner Cable and Bright House had long been holdouts on ESPN3.com, which has been around in different forms since 2001. They said Disney’s pattern of tying fees to the number of Internet subscribers was inappropriate, since not all its Internet customers wanted to pay extra to access a single website.
Among the expanded offerings, Time Warner is launching a new college football channel called “ESPN Goal Line’’ that gives fans a live peek at games around the nation on Saturdays, a similar offering to the NFL Network’s “NFL RedZone.’’ The first program starts Saturday for sports tier subscribers. A similar service called “ESPN Buzzer Beater’’ will be offered for the college basketball season in January.
Logo for Olympics
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio organizers have chosen the logo for the 2016 Olympics, but it won’t be unveiled until an official ceremony on New Year’s Eve on Copacabana Beach.
The logo’s design was picked from eight finalists on Thursday and will now be sent to the International Olympic Committee for approval.
Rio 2016 committee president Carlos Arthur Nuzman says “a historic’’ phase of the games has been concluded and that the logo will be successful and “please all.’’
Twelve judges picked by the organizing committee participated in the selection process, including Nuzman.
The Rio Games will be the first time the Olympics will take place in South America.
Ski in comfort
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — Utah’s fastest growing ski area is spending millions of dollars to reconfigure the mountain and add North America’s first heated chair lift with a bubble shield that swings over passengers like a pair of orange goggles.
The changes at The Canyons, one of Park City’s three ski resorts, highlight some of the biggest development projects or plans at Utah ski areas since the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics drove major expansions.
The resorts are moving despite the down economy and saving on construction costs because of it. Ultimately they hope to steal market shares from Colorado, which draws three times as much skier traffic. Utah’s resorts, with advantages like double Colorado’s snowfall and a short drive from Salt Lake City’s airport, aren’t shy about making investments.
