Tagliabue postpones committee appointment
The search for Paul Tagliabue’s successor may take awhile.
As the NFL meetings started Monday, Tagliabue postponed appointing a committee to begin a search for the next commissioner and was vague on when he might do it.
Nor did the owners seem in a hurry.
“It’s not a race for speed, it’s a race for success,” said Jeffrey Lurie, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles. “This is the CEO of a 32-team operation, so it’s not the speed, it’s the quality.”
One reason for the delay is trying to avoid what happened in 1989, when outgoing commissioner Pete Rozelle appointed a committee of insiders. That alienated outsiders, leading to a seven-month deadlock.
•The Carolina Panthers have given coach John Fox a five-year contract extension as a reward for taking them deep into the playoffs in two of the last three seasons.
Fox, who had two years left on his current contract, received a deal that runs through 2010 and will pay him close to $5 million a season.
•Dancing in the street got Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Dhani Jones arrested.
Jones was charged with the misdemeanor of failure to obey a lawful command after he allegedly refused to stop dancing outside a South Beach club early Sunday, according to Miami Beach police.
The 28-year-old Jones signed an affidavit promising to appear in court for arraignment.
•Dallas Cowboys receiver Terry Glenn signed a five-year, $20 million contract extension that will run through the 2010 season.
College Basketball
Rutgers names coach
Fred Hill Jr. was introduced as the Rutgers men’s basketball coach. . Former head coach Gary Waters brought in Hill before last season as an associate coach for a Scarlet Knights team that finished 19-14 and played in the NIT.
•Albany basketball coach Will Brown was given a five-year contract extension, nine days after his Great Danes nearly upset Connecticut in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
•Southern Illinois star guard Jamaal Tatum was arrested early Saturday by campus police in Carbondale, Ill., and charged with driving under the influence and failing to yield, the school said. He posted $100 bond.
Miscellany
Driver out of hospital
Ed Carpenter, who was involved in the crash that killed rookie Paul Dana at Homestead-Miami Speedway, was released from a Miami hospital.
IRL officials said Carpenter is recovering from a bruised lung and hasn’t been cleared to drive in Sunday’s race at St. Petersburg, Fla.
•James Butler, a boxer who fought under the nickname “The Harlem Hammer,” pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and arson in the 2004 death of a freelance sports writer in Los Angeles. Butler will be sentenced to 29 years, four months in prison.
•The U.S. men’s soccer team will play Angola in a closed scrimmage in Hamburg, Germany, on June 5, a week before the Americans’ opener in the World Cup.
•The six athletes missing from Sierra Leone’s Commonwealth Games team were found by police at a house in a beachside suburb in Sydney, Australia, hours after their permission to stay in Australia had expired.