admin @ Tue, 2005-10-11 11:13
Texas-El Paso football coach Mike Price felt vindicated after a settlement was reached with Time Inc. over a Sports Illustrated article recounting a night of drinking at a topless bar in Florida.
"I'm one happy man right now," Price said Monday. "I can't tell you how much I appreciated my wife, Joyce, and my family's loyalty and love. Without their strength, encouragement and support I don't know if I would have made it."
Price sued the magazine for $20 million, claiming he was defamed and slandered by a story detailing his actions the night he visited a topless bar in Pensacola, Fla., in April 2003 while still head coach at Alabama.
He acknowledged being heavily intoxicated, but denied allegations of sex at his hotel that the magazine reported. Alabama fired Price a few days before the article was published.
When asked about that night at the strip club, he paused Monday and said, "I definitely would have made a different decision that one night, no question. That was a bad night."
Price, who made his comments during UTEP's regularly scheduled weekly news conference, said he couldn't discuss any details of the settlement reached late Friday. In a statement, the publisher did not disclose terms but said suit was "amicably resolved."
"Mr. Price asserts that certain events were falsely reported in the story. Sports Illustrated continues to stand behind its story," the Time Inc. statement said. Time Inc. owns Sports Illustrated.
Rick McCabe, a spokesman for Time Inc., said the settlement also resolved Price's claims against reporter Don Yaeger, who wrote the Sports Illustrated article and still works for the magazine.
The lawsuit was closely watched in part because it developed into a fight over the magazine's right to protect confidential sources it said were used in the report.
Virginia offensive lineman Brad Butler was suspended for one game by the school for throwing a chop-block in Saturday's loss to Boston College.
The play came after the whistle in the third quarter of the Eagles' 28-17 win over Virginia on Saturday. Boston College's Mathias Kiwanuka, who was the Big East defensive player of the year last season, already was hurting from a sore ankle when Butler hit him in the back of the knees.
BC defensive lineman Al Washington retaliated and was ejected; BC linebacker Brian Toal hit Butler one play later and drew a personal foul. Kiwanuka was ejected later in the third quarter for trying to exact revenge.
Amare Stoudemire will undergo diagnostic surgery on his left knee today to determine what is causing soreness that has bothered the Phoenix Suns All-Star in recent months.
Stoudemire, who signed a five-year, $73 million contract extension a week ago, sat out the final two days of training camp in Tucson because of the injury to the knee's articulate cartilage. He received opinions from three specialists before deciding to have the surgery.
If no serious damage is detected, Stoudemire probably will be out three to four weeks, coach Mike D'Antoni told the Associated Press. Then, it will be only a matter of getting back in shape.
Stoudemire will miss the entire preseason, which begins at Seattle on Friday night. The Suns open their regular season Nov. 1 at home against Dallas.
The USOC is campaigning for softball to be reinstated for the 2012 Games, chairman Peter Ueberroth said Monday. Softball and baseball were dropped from the Olympic program after 2008 in July.
"The USOC is dedicated to see to it that women's softball does not miss its turn in 2012," Ueberroth said at the 2006 U.S. Olympic team media summit in Colorado Springs, Colo. "We're hopeful and, in a humble way, hope to try and influence people to reconsider a decision that was a bad."
All 28 existing sports were put to a simple "in or out" vote at the International Olympic Committee meeting in July. Softball needed a majority of 53 votes to stay on the Olympic program, and the final vote was 52 in favor and 52 against, with one abstention.
After the vote, IOC president Jacques Rogge said softball needed to increase its global appeal. The United States has won all three gold medals since softball became an Olympic sport in 1996.
This is cache, read story here