Mora Leaves Broadcasting To Coach Colts
The Indianapolis Colts named Jim Mora their new coach, another move in their front-office shakeup.
Mora replaces Lindy Infante, who was fired Dec. 22 after the team posted an NFL-worst 3-13 record this season.
“I’m ready to go,” said Mora, who has been working as an NFL commentator for NBC Sports since leaving his job as New Orleans Saints coach in the middle of the 1996 season. “I can’t say exactly what has happened to recharge me, but I’m ready to go again.”
Mora’s hiring is the first move by new team president Bill Polian, the former Carolina Panthers general manager, who joined the Colts last month.
“Jim Mora comes to our organization with a proven track record of success,” Polian said. “Jim took a franchise in New Orleans that never had a winning season, and he helped produce a decade of excellence. I’m confident he’ll do the same for the Colts.”
CBS outbids NBC for AFC games
Left to watch from the sideline for the last four seasons, CBS is returning to televising NFL games, striking a deal for the rights to AFC games that sources say will cost the network $500 million a season.
Meanwhile, Fox, which outbid CBS for the NFC package in 1994, retained the rights to that package for $550 million a season.
Still to be determined is which network will televise the Monday Night Football package. That has incumbent ABC battling NBC, which lost AFC rights it held for more than three decades.
No deal has been reached for the Sunday night games, currently shared by TNT and ESPN.
Hollis re-signs with Jags
The Jacksonville Jaguars re-signed restricted free-agent kicker Mike Hollis, who was selected to his first Pro Bowl this season.
The 25-year-old Hollis, a Central Valley High School and University of Idaho alum, made 31 of 36 field goals and all 41 of his extra points in 1997.
Terms of the contract weren’t disclosed.
Bills interested in Flutie
Doug Flutie and the Buffalo Bills are planning to talk this week about giving the 1984 Heisman Trophy winner another chance at playing in the NFL.
A team source told The Associated Press that Bills general manager John Butler was planning to meet with Flutie’s agent, Jack Mula, in the next few days to discuss signing the former Boston College quarterback. But no deal was imminent.
Butler told the Boston Globe that the Bills were interested in signing Flutie, 35, who led the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts to Grey Cup titles the last two years.
Morris gets jail time
With tears in his eyes, Baltimore Ravens running back Bam Morris was taken from a courtroom in Rockwall, Texas, in handcuffs to begin a 120-day jail sentence for violating his probation on a 1996 marijuana possession conviction.
Morris admitted to missing seven meetings with his probation officer since June 1996.
State District Judge Sue Pirtle told Morris if he makes another mistake he’ll have to serve the remainder of the sentence in prison with no chance for appeal.