Hill back after talk with Goodell
NFL: Leroy Hill has returned to practice with the Seattle Seahawks for the first time this offseason after a recent meeting with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to discuss the starting linebacker’s legal troubles.
Hill (pictured above) and coach Pete Carroll said Tuesday that Hill’s meeting a couple of weeks ago with Goodell was constructive. Hill is facing a potential trial next month in Seattle on a domestic-violence charge.
He also could have his probation revoked in Georgia. He got that in an April plea deal on a marijuana charge.
Carroll said the league gave the Seahawks reason to be “comfortable” with allowing Hill to return. The coach says he does not know if Hill will be suspended for any part of the 2010 season.
Associated Press
AFL to get its Soul back
Arena Football: The Philadelphia Soul are set for an encore.
This time, they’ll be back without their headline act.
The former league champions are returning to the Arena Football League for the 2011 season without their famous former co-owner, Jon Bon Jovi.
Former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski and businessman Craig Spencer are the new majority owners.
The Soul shut down after beating the San Jose SaberCats 59-56 to win the ArenaBowl championship in 2008.
The AFL canceled its season in 2009 after a 22-year run and returned this year with 15 teams – including the Spokane Shock – under new leadership and economic model.
Jaworski was team president in the Soul’s first incarnation. Pete Ciarrocchi, owner of the Philadelphia sports bar Chickie’s and Pete’s, and Cosmo DeNicola are also part of the new ownership group.
Spencer said he hopes to have a coach soon, possibly by the end of the month.
The Soul will play their home games at the Wachovia Center.
Associated Press
GNAC adds tournaments
Colleges: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference will add postseason tournaments for men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s soccer, conference commissioner Richard Hannan announced.
The first basketball tournaments will be held this season.
The first soccer events will not be held until the fall of 2011 because of conflicts with previously scheduled contests.
The GNAC has been just one of two NCAA Division II conferences (along with the PacWest Conference) that has not held a basketball postseason tournament to determine its automatic qualifiers for the NCAA tournament.
The conference includes Central Washington and Western Washington.