MEDIA

Press Herald sports department earns honors

The Portland Press Herald sports department earned national honors in the 2017 Associated Press Sports Editors contest.

The Press Herald placed in the Top 10 for its daily sports section among newspapers with circulation between 30,000 and 75,000.

Other daily newspapers in the Top 10 include the Detroit News, the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin, the San Antonio Express-News, the Tulsa World in Oklahoma and the Eugene-Register Guard in Oregon.

FOOTBALL

NFL: Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones plans to appeal the NFL’s decision to charge him for reimbursement fees in excess of $2 million connected to his opposition of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract extension and the league’s battle with running Ezekiel Elliott in federal court.

A hearing has not yet been scheduled and, according to Judy Battista of the NFL Network, Jones would be making his appeal to Goodell himself.

• The NFL’s competition committee, acting on instructions by Goodell to rewrite the sport’s cumbersome and often-confounding catch rule, is considering scrapping the going-to-the-ground portion of the rule that led to the controversial non-catches over the years by Calvin Johnson, Dez Bryant and Jesse James.

Committee members are meeting this week at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. Any rule-change proposals would be made to the owners late next month at the annual NFL meeting in Orlando, Florida. A proposal would have to be ratified by at least 24 of the 32 owners to be enacted.

• Eagles punter Donnie Jones has retired after 14 seasons in the NFL.

• The Bears hired former Vikings coach Brad Childress as an offensive consultant.

• The 49ers signed offensive lineman Garry Gilliam to a two-year contract extension.

• Faced with the possibility of losing their best pass rusher in free agency, the Lions used the franchise tag to keep Ziggy Ansah off the open market.

• Papa John’s is ending its recently stormy role as an official sponsor of the NFL.
Officials at the pizza chain said the two sides agreed to end the relationship, which became strained last year when its founder John Schnatter criticized NFL leadership over national anthem protests by players.

TENNIS

DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Tunisian wild-card entry Malek Jaziri earned the biggest victory of his career by stunning top-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the opening round.

U.S. OPEN: The United States Tennis Association will honor Althea Gibson with a statue at the U.S. Open.

The first African-American to win the U.S. Nationals singles title in 1957 will be commemorated at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

SOCCER

FA CUP: Swansea Coach Carlos Carvalhal got the better of former club Sheffield Wednesday in a 2-0 win on that sent the Welsh club into the quarterfinals for the first time in 54 years.

NASL: The North American Soccer League canceled its 2018 season after a federal court appeals court denied its attempt to maintain second-tier status.

DOPING: Former France international Samir Nasri was banned from football for six months following an investigation into an intravenous drip treatment he received in 2016.

A Los Angeles clinic, Drip Doctors, posted a photo of Nasri on its Facebook and Twitter accounts in December 2016, saying it provided the midfielder with a drip “to help keep him hydrated and in top health during his busy soccer season.” The clinic described the drip as an infusion to boost the immune system.

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