2012 February at LinesMaker

Venus Receives Key Biscayne Wild Card

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. — Venus Williams has received a wild card to playher first tour­na­ment since August at the Sony Eric­s­son Open next month. Williams hasn’t played sin­gles since with­draw­ing after the open­ing round ofthe U.S. Open because of an autoim­mune dis­ease. She returned to com­pet­i­tiveten­nis ear­lier this month when she teamed with Liezel Huber for a dou­blesvic­tory that capped a Fed Cup shutout for the United States against Belarus. Williams won the Key Bis­cayne title in 1998, 1999 and 2001. She was afinal­ist in 2010 and missed the tour­na­ment... 

Brees Has ‘No Doubt’ He’ll Get Longterm Deal Done With Saints

No one doubts quar­ter­back Drew Brees will be back with the New Orleans Saints next sea­son, but the clock is tick­ing for the sides to get a deal done. The NFL’s franchise-tag dead­line is March 5 with free agency set to begin a week after that. Brees isn’t sur­prised at the pace of the nego­ti­a­tions and said Thurs­day he’s “still very opti­mistic” a long-term deal will be agreed to in the near future, accord­ing to The Times-Picayune. He added “this is def­i­nitely when things heat up.” “There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll get a deal done,” Brees said. Brees... 

Rams Willing to Trade Down

Rams will­ing to trade down Posted by Mike Flo­rio on Feb­ru­ary 23, 2012, 11:12 PM EST It’s widely believed that the Colts will pick a quar­ter­back with the first selec­tion in the 2012 draft. It’s also widely believed that the Rams will then auc­tion the abil­ity to take the next quar­ter­back with the sec­ond selec­tion in the 2012 draft to the high­est bidder. Adam Schefter of ESPN reported ear­lier today that mul­ti­ple teams already have had pre­lim­i­nary dis­cus­sions with the Rams, that the Rams are will­ing to trade the pick, and that the Rams likely will... 

FSU Replaces West Va. With Savannah St.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State has replaced peren­nial col­lege foot­ball power West Vir­ginia on its 2012 sched­ule with lit­tle Savan­nah State. The Semi­noles will host The Tigers, from the Foot­ball Cham­pi­onship Sub­di­vi­sion, on Sept. 8 as a replace­ment oppo­nent for the Moun­taineers. West Vir­ginia broke the front end of a home-and-home con­tract with the Semi­noles to osten­si­bly accom­mo­date their move from the Big East Con­fer­ence to the Big 12. Ath­letic Direc­tor Randy Spet­man and his top asso­ciate, Monk Bona­sorte, said Wednes­day they... 

Braun Wins Appeal, Avoids Suspension

Updated Feb 23, 2012 11:46 PM ET NEW YORK National League MVP Ryan Braun’s 50-game sus­pen­sion was over­turned Thurs­day by base­ball arbi­tra­tor Shyam Das, the first time a base­ball player suc­cess­fully chal­lenged a drug-related penalty in a grievance. The deci­sion was announced Thurs­day by the Major League Base­ball Play­ers Asso­ci­a­tion, one day before the 28-year-old out­fielder was due to report to spring train­ing with the Mil­wau­kee Brewers. Braun’s urine tested pos­i­tive in Octo­ber for ele­vated testos­terone, and ESPN revealed the pos­i­tive... 

Roy Nelson’s Excellent Adventure Includes Sleeping in a Capsule And, Um, Feasting on Blowfish Testicles

If you need a reminder of how Ryan Bader can knock peo­ple out, here he is, doing just that. http://t.co/Zr8d2o9mOur sports betting news features unique sports betting articles as well as current sports news compiled from leading wire services. This arti­cle was dis­trib­uted by Syn­di­cated Sports news wire and aggre­ga­tion ser­vice, For more UFC news see: Roy Nelson’s excel­lent adven­ture includes sleep­ing in a cap­sule and, um, feast­ing on blow­fish tes­ti­cles.  

Howson: Jackets May Make More Moves

Colum­bus gen­eral man­ager Scott How­son is not done remak­ing his team after Thurs­day night’s block­buster that net­ted him defense­man Jack John­son and a first-round pick. That means he would like to make a few more deals before Monday’s Trade Dead­line arrives at 3 p.m. ET “I’ve been pretty clear about what I’m say­ing,” How­son said min­utes after announc­ing Thurs­day that he had traded cen­ter Jeff Carter to the Los Ange­les Kings. “We’re look­ing at every and all oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve this hockey team; but I’m not going to com­ment on any... 

Luck Remains Undecided on Throwing During Combine Workouts

The pop­u­lar line of think­ing has been that pro­jected No. 1 pick Andrew Luck won’t be doing any throw­ing this week at the NFL Scout­ing Combine. But com­ments made Thurs­day by the for­mer Stan­ford star keep the intrigue alive. “I haven’t decided what I’m going to do com­pletely yet at this point so it could be all of it, maybe none of it, we’ll see,” Luck said on “NFL Total Access”. “I’m sure I’ll sit down in the next cou­ple of days, talk to my dad and my agent and for­mu­late the plan.” The Indi­anapo­lis Star reported on Feb. 12 that Luck was open... 

Texas Planning Statue of Ricky Williams

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas will honor for­mer Heis­man Tro­phy win­ner Ricky Williams with a statue at the foot­ball sta­dium that be unveiled at the Long­horns’ annual spring game on April 1. The 8-foot, 1,000-pound bronze fig­ure will stand next to a statue of Earl Camp­bell, another for­mer Texas Heis­man winner. Williams won the Heis­man in 1998 and fin­ished his Long­horns career as the NCAA career rush­ing leader. He recently retired from the NFL. Texas retired William’s No. 34 jer­sey in 2000. Cleve­land artist David Dem­ming, who taught at Texas for 26 years, was com­mis­sioned... 

Clayton Kershaw on Tap for Friday Bullpen Session

Clay­ton Ker­shaw on tap for Fri­day bullpen session Drew Silva Feb 23, 2012, 8:18 PM EST Leave a comment Dodgers left-hander Clay­ton Ker­shaw skipped a sched­uled bullpen ses­sion Wednes­day after feel­ing stiff­ness in his back fol­low­ing his first spring workout. As expected, the stiff­ness is no big deal. Dylan Her­nan­dez of the Los Ange­les Times reports that Ker­shaw will throw that bullpen ses­sion on Fri­day and is expected to have no restric­tions going for­ward related to the mild back ailment. The 23-year-old left-hander has already been named the Dodgers’...