EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings are willing to wait until game time to determine whether running back Adrian Peterson plays in the season opener against Jacksonville.
Vikings list Peterson
as questionable
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings are willing to wait until game time to determine whether running back Adrian Peterson plays in the season opener against Jacksonville.
Coach Leslie Frazier said after Friday’s practice there is no reason to decide before the active list must be declared 90 minutes ahead of kickoff on Sunday. This was a back track from Thursday, when Frazier said the Vikings would figure out Peterson’s status on Friday night or Saturday morning.
Kubiak: Foster, Reed ‘game-time’ decisions
HOUSTON — Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak says running back Arian Foster and linebacker Brooks Reed sat out Friday’s practice and will be “game-time” decisions for the season opener against Miami.
Foster, the NFL’s leading rusher in 2010, has a sore knee and Reed has a sore hip. Foster, who sat out last year’s opener with a left hamstring injury, says his knee just needed rest. He wouldn’t specify which knee was hurt.
“I expect to play on Sunday,” Foster said.
Reed, a second-round pick in last year’s draft, did not speak to the media on Friday. Kubiak is “optimistic” that both players will be ready, but he’ll work out both of them before Sunday’s game.
Steelers LB Harrison misses practice again
PITTSBURGH — Pro Bowl outside linebacker James Harrison did not practice for the second consecutive day Friday, making it unlikely he will play for the Steelers in the season opener at Denver Sunday.
Harrison was not removed from the physically unable to perform list until last week and made it through practices Monday and Wednesday in a limited capacity. Traditionally under coach Mike Tomlin, players who do not practice Friday do not play Sunday.
Harrison, however, was listed as questionable on the team’s official injury report, and the four-time All Pro termed himself as a “game-time decision.” But he acknowledged that the knee, which underwent minor surgery last month, was experiencing pain and discomfort and that some soft tissue had yet to heal.
Big 12 reaches
$2.6 billion deal with ESPN, Fox Sports
FORT WORTH, Texas — The Big 12 announced a new 13-year deal with ESPN and Fox Sports on Friday that is reportedly worth $2.6 billion and should provide long-term stability for a conference that once seemed on the brink of collapse.
The deal to televise football and men’s basketball through 2024-25 includes a so-called “grant of rights” by each of the league’s 10 schools. That allows the Big 12 to retain the media rights and accompanying revenue of any school that leaves the conference. Few would be expected to ever take such an expensive step.
Terms weren’t released, but ESPN cited anonymous sources in reporting the contract was worth an average of about $20 million per school each year.
Merritt sets world record in 110 hurdles
BRUSSELS — Aries Merritt already had the Olympic gold, so there was only one way to make this season even more special.
And in his last — near-perfect — 110-meter hurdles race of the year, the American put in a world record-breaking performance that had him shaking his head in disbelief.
Merritt finished in 12.80 seconds Friday at the Van Damme Memorial, slicing a full 0.07 seconds off the 4-year-old world record set by Cuba’s Dayron Robles.
In an event where records are usually broken by one or two hundredths at a time, Merritt was as stunned as the crowd when his time came up.
It was by far the marquee moment of the final Diamond League meet of the season, totally upstaging Usain Bolt’s routine 100 victory in 9.86.
Timberlake joins
bid to buy Grizzlies
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Award-winning singer and actor Justin Timberlake has agreed to be part of the ownership group assembled by billionaire Robert Pera in his attempt to buy the Memphis Grizzlies, said a person familiar with the situation.
The person said Friday that Pera “has assembled a strong ownership group that includes Justin Timberlake, other community leaders from Memphis, and highly strategic national partners.”
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the NBA has yet to approve the final purchase of the team.
Pera agreed in June to buy the Grizzlies from Michael Heisley for reportedly about $350 million.
Lawsuit: Duke
player purchased $100,000 in jewelry
DALLAS — A starter on Duke’s 2010 national champion basketball team purchased nearly $100,000 in custom jewelry during that season from a New York firm that caters to professional athletes and is now being sued for failing to pay the balance of what he owes.
A lawsuit filed in Austin, Texas, by the jeweler says Lance Thomas purchased five pieces of diamond jewelry at a cost of $97,800 on Dec. 21, 2009, in the middle of his senior season.
The document indicates he made a $30,000 down payment and received $67,800 in credit, which remains unpaid.
Labor talks resume between NHL, NHLPA
NEW YORK — Some representatives from the NHL and the players’ association held informal negotiations on Friday at the league offices.
With the expiration date on the current collective bargaining agreement — Sept. 15 — drawing near, NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, and his top assistant and brother, Steve Fehr, sat down with Commissioner Gary Bettman and his deputy, Bill Daly, for a status check after a week of little to no communication. The two sides last held formal discussions last Friday, but those ended with Donald Fehr telling reporters the talks were in a “recess.”
By wire sources