Kaeding a free agent after being released from IR
Kaeding a free agent after being released from IR
SAN DIEGO — Kicker Nate Kaeding became a free agent Tuesday after the San Diego Chargers released him from injured reserve.
Kaeding is due $1.1 million in termination pay.
Normally, Kaeding would have been waived. But waivers for vested veterans, as well as the trade deadline, were pushed back two days to Thursday because of potential complications from superstorm Sandy.
Kaeding was placed on injured reserve on Oct. 22 with a groin injury so that the team could sign wide receiver Danario Alexander. The Chargers said then that they’d release Kaeding when he was healthy.
Kaeding was hurt in practice on Sept. 28, two days before a game at Kansas City. The Chargers signed Nick Novak that day.
Kaeding was drafted in the third round in 2004 with one of the three picks the Chargers obtained along with Philip Rivers from the New York Giants in exchange for Eli Manning.
Manning has led the Giants to two Super Bowl titles.
Jaguars trade WR Thomas
to Lions for draft pick
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A year after giving Mike Thomas a new contract, the Jacksonville Jaguars are giving him a new home.
The Jaguars traded Thomas to the Detroit Lions on Tuesday for an undisclosed draft pick.
The trade makes sense for both sides.
The Lions (3-4) lost receiver Nate Burleson for the season last week, so Thomas gives them depth behind Calvin Johnson, Titus Young and rookie Ryan Broyles.
The Jaguars (1-6), meanwhile, get a draft pick for a player who clearly has fallen out of favor with a new coaching staff. First-round draft pick Justin Blackmon and second-year pro Cecil Shorts III passed Thomas on the depth chart, and the Jaguars recently stripped him of his role as punt returner.
It’s been a swift slide for a player who signed a three-year extension worth $18 million last October. The deal included $9 million guaranteed.
Fisher says Rams
won’t trade running back
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Rams say running back Steven Jackson is not available in a trade.
Coach Jeff Fisher did his best to quash persistent rumors, saying Tuesday that the Rams aren’t shopping Jackson and have not been getting calls about him, either.
“The Steven Jackson rumors are rumors,” Fisher said. “He’s our running back and we’re not calling around, nor are we getting calls for that matter.
“Put that to rest.”
Jackson, who entered the season with a franchise-record seven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, is sharing carries on an extensive basis for the first time in his career.
Jackson is 11th in the NFC with 403 yards on 108 carries with a 3.7-yard average and one touchdown and rookie Daryl Richardson is 12th in the conference with 335 yards and a 5.4-yard average.
Ex-LSU quarterback in jail after his bond revoked
BATON ROUGE, La. — Former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson reported to a Louisiana jail on Tuesday after a judge revoked his bond in a 2011 simple battery case. The judge’s action follows Jefferson’s arrest last week with three other ex-players whom police say they found with marijuana in an apartment.
Jefferson’s simple battery charge stems from a preseason bar fight, accused by authorities of beating a man near the LSU campus in August 2011. He was indicted by an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury in September 2011 and has pleaded innocent.
On Tuesday, Jefferson reported to the jail of East Baton Rouge Parish.
He had been free for more than a year on a $5,000 bond.
Lance Armstrong loses
key to the city of Adelaide
ADELAIDE, Australia — The Australian city of Adelaide has stripped Lance Armstrong of its highest honor — the key to the city — following the removal of his seven Tour de France titles.
Adelaide had a small but important part in Armstrong’s career. The Tour Down Under, based in the city, was the first event he contested when he made a comeback to professional cycling in 2009, and his third appearance in the race in 2011 was also his last on cycling’s ProTour.
Adelaide city councilors voted 6-1 on Tuesday to strip Armstrong of the key to the city, making him the first of 33 recipients to have the honor withdrawn.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency recently reported extensive evidence that Armstrong used performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his tour victories.
Australia’s Sermanni hired
as new US women’s coach
CHICAGO — When Tom Sermanni shook hands with Pia Sundhage after her last game as coach of the U.S. women’s soccer team, he should have asked her for a few tips.
Sermanni was hired Tuesday to replace Sundhage, who led the Americans to back-to-back Olympic gold medals and their first World Cup final in 12 years. Sermanni has spent the last eight years as Australia’s coach, taking the Matildas to the quarterfinals of the last two Women’s World Cups.
Sermanni, a 58-year-old originally from Glasgow, Scotland, has spent much of the last 20 years in Australia, where he is credited with transforming the Matildas into one of the world’s top women’s squads. In addition to their quarterfinal appearances at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups, the young Australians won the 2010 Asian Women’s Cup. Their runner-up finish at the same tournament in 2006 earned Sermanni the Asian Football Confederation coach of the year honors.
Tsonga edges past
Benneteau at Paris Masters
PARIS — Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the third round of the Paris Masters with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2) win over Julien Benneteau on Tuesday.
The 2008 champion was forced into a final-set tiebreaker after failing to serve out the match.
In other second-round matches, fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic beat Andreas Seppi 7-6 (8), 6-2, No. 13 Marin Cilic lost to qualifier Jerzy Janowicz of Poland 7-6 (6), 6-2, No. 15 Kei Nishikori of Japan had a 7-6 (2), 6-2 win over Frenchman Benoit Paire and No. 16 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland defeated Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-3, 6-2.
In first-round matches, Jeremy Chardy cruised past Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-0, 6-3; Paul-Henri Mathieu beat Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-4, 7-5; and Michael Llodra defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 6-3.
In other first-round action, Grigor Dimitrov beat Jurgen Melzer 7-6 (2), 6-2 and Igor Sijsling defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-2, while Sam Querrey of the United States advanced after Fernando Verdasco retired when trailing 6-1, 1-1.
Wozniacki, Vinci win
opening matches in Sofia
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci had easy straight-set victories Tuesday in their first round-robin matches at the season-ending Tournament of Champions.
The top-seeded Wozniacki defeated Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan 6-2, 6-2 in 60 minutes while it took Vinci five minutes longer to rout Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-2.
By wire sources