Fast Break
NFL
Spagnuolo new Rams head coach
The St. Louis Rams and Steve Spagnuolo agreed Saturday on a four-year contract to make the New York Giants’ defensive coordinator their coach.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch was the first to report the hiring and said Spagnuolo would be paid just less than $12 million. Spagnuolo replaces Jim Haslett. Haslett went 2-10 as interim coach after his promotion from defensive coordinator when Scott Linehan was fired following a 0-4 start.
NCAA
Brand’s prognosis ‘not good’
NCAA president Myles Brand disclosed he has pancreatic cancer with a long-term prognosis that is “not good,” shocking a convention center full of delegates who had spent the week working on more of his reform-minded ideas.
The 66-year-old Brand, who has led the governing body of college sports since 2003, announced his condition during a teleconference with the NCAA executive committee and through a written statement on the last day of the organization’s convention, which he was unable to attend.
“I have pancreatic cancer,” the statement said. “The long-term prognosis is not good. I am currently undergoing chemotherapy, and I am receiving excellent care. I will know in the next several months the success of this treatment.”
Olympics
B.C. considers $450 million loan
Politicians in British Columbia returned to the legislature for an emergency session to debate whether to allow Vancouver to borrow more than $450 million to complete the 2010 Winter Olympics athletes’ village.
The provincial government introduced a bill that would allow the city to borrow the money after the original financing fell through.
The original $615 million loan was financed by New York-based Fortress Investment Inc., Millennium Development and the city, which was supposed to cover the cost of building the 1,100 units of housing.
Fortress stopped payments on the loan in September because, the city said, cost overruns and a crashing real estate market meant Millennium might not be able to pay them back.
The city paid $84.3 million interim financing to keep construction going, but that funding runs out next month.