Sports Blog

According to league sources, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has determined that the New England Patriots violated league rules when it videotaped defensive signals by New York Jets coaches during the Patriots’ 38-14 win Sunday. There will be a hearing with the Patriots — mostly likely by phone by the end of the week — and then a ruling by the commissioner that could cost New England draft picks.

Well, whatever the decision will be. It is still the Patriots who are supposed to win this season.

No matter the sport, no matter the level, there’s been a constant throughout Miami quarterback Kyle Wright’s athletic career.

After leading Miami on its lone TD drive against Oklahoma, Kyle Wright will get the starting nod at QB against Florida International on Saturday.

Until this season, he’d never been a backup. “I’ve never had to deal with that in any sport since I was 6 years old, sitting on the sidelines and watching,” Wright said. “Definitely a different feeling.”

That feeling is gone. After being the second-stringer for Miami’s first two games, Wright is again the Hurricanes’ starting quarterback, passing Kirby Freeman on the depth chart for Saturday’s game between Miami (1-1) and Florida International (0-2) at the Orange Bowl.

If Miami coach Randy Shannon gets his way, this will end what he calls a “round-robin deal” at the position

Nathalie Dechy and Dinara Safina won the U.S. Open women’s doubles title in their first tournament together, beating Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan 6-4, 6-2 in Sunday’s final.

Dechy also won last year’s doubles championship at Flushing Meadows, but with Vera Zvonareva as her partner — and Safina was the runner-up, pairing with Katarina Srebotnik.

They have not yet talked about playing together in the future but Safina said she hoped they would play together again in the future.

Oakland Raiders reached a contact agreement in principle on Monday night with JaMarcus Russell, the former LSU quarterback who was the first overall selection in the 2007 draft.

The two sides met in person Monday for the third time in four days and were hashing out final details of the contract, according to a person familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity. The final contract needs to be approved by the NFL.

Justine Henin of Belgium wins second US Open title by defeating Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-3

 Henin also earned the distinction of becoming the only player to have beaten both Venus and Serena Williams in the same Grand Slam event and gone on to win the title. 

It was her second big win of the year after the French Open in June and the seventh Grand Slam title of her career. She now ranks second among active women with seven careers Grand Slam

It seems that Michigan is entering to their worst football season ever. The upset they suffered a week ago is insurmountable in terms of recovering. The confidence of the players are too low.

Lloyd Carr must have imagined last week was the nightmare of his coaching career. Losing to a I-AA team made Michigan the nation’s laughingstock and opened them up to intense criticism.

But there was an undercurrent that Michigan was close, losing by only two points, and that Appalachian State was much better than the general public imagined.

There were no such allusions on Saturday as Murphy’s Law dropped an anvil on the Wolverines in the 39-7 loss to Oregon at Michigan Stadium. It started when quarterback Chad Henne threw an end-zone interception into multiple coverage to end the first drive.

And it probably will never end.

Justine Henin beat Venus Williams yesterday 7-6 (2), 6-4 at the U.S. Open.

She eliminated Serena in the quarterfinals and only other player who defeated both Venus and Serena at a single major tournament was Martina Hingis at the 2001 Australian Open.

On Saturday night, Henin will try for her seventh Slam title when she takes on No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova.

As it is expected, Phil Jackson, may favorite coach of all time  was inducteed to the Hall of Fame.

Phil Jackson learned to coach from Red Holzman, and he practiced the craft on superstars like Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

“Who could have been more fortunate than I am, to have stumbled into this success?” Jackson said Friday night in his induction speech at the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Jackson won nine NBA championships as a coach — tying Red Auerbach for the record — and one more as a player. But it was with the New York Knicks in their championship season of 1969-70, when Jackson was recovering from spinal fusion surgery, that he found his future calling.

Soaking up knowledge from his Hall of Fame mentor, Jackson developed the approach that allowed him to integrate lesser talents into a team with stars like Jordan and O’Neal.

Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi of Belarus won the U.S. Open mixed doubles championship. They beat Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States and Leander Paes of India 6-4, 7-6 (6). 

Paes and Shaughnessy held five set points in the second set but Mirnyi and Azarenka wins the tiebreak 8-6.  

It’s the first Grand Slam title won together by Azarenka and Mirnyi. They are going to split $150,000 for the win.

Simon Aspelin of Sweden and Julian Knowle of Austria captured their first Grand Slam title Friday, beating Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner at the US Open.

It is the first time either player has won a Grand Slam title. They won $400,000 for taking the title.