Packers president backs GM, coach
Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy restated his support for general manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy on Friday in the standoff with Brett Favre.
Murphy attended a meeting of the team’s executive committee. He was not available for comment afterward, but team spokesman Aaron Popkey said Murphy has “full confidence” in how Thompson and McCarthy are handling this matter.
Favre is having second thoughts about football after retiring in March. But the Packers have since committed to moving on without the three-time MVP, causing a public rift between the team and one of its greatest players.
•Jerry Porter had surgery to repair a torn hamstring tendon and the Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver will miss at least the entire preseason.
• The New York Jets signed former Purdue tight end Dustin Keller, the 30th overall pick in the draft, to a multiyear contract.
GOLF
2 share U.S. Bank lead
First-round leader Richard S. Johnson shot 3-under-par 67 and Nick Flanagan had a 7-under 63 to share the second-round lead at 10 under at the U.S. Bank Championship over the 6,579-yard Brown Deer Park Golf Course in Milwaukee.
• Christina Kim made a birdie putt on her last hole that gave her a one-stroke lead over the charging Michelle Wie and three others at the LPGA State Farm Classic in Springfield, Ill.
Kim’s second-round 68 left her at 13 under.
Tracy Hanson (Rathdrum) is at 6 under and Wendy Ward (Edwall, Wash.) is at 5 under.
•Dana Quigley shot a tournament-record 10-under 62 and leads after the first round of the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship at Blaine, Minn.
•John Chin and Jack Newman advanced to the championship with semifinal victories at the 83rd U.S. Amateur Public Links in Denver.
MISCELLANY
Ducks’ Kent gets raise
Men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent and the University of Oregon have agreed to terms on a new contract that will run through the 2012-13 season.
The agreement, which took effect July 1, raises Kent’s annual minimum guaranteed salary from $1 million to $1,060,000. It also will provide more than $347,000 in additional salary and benefits for his staff. It will take the place of Kent’s previous contract, which ran through 2010.
•Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius was left off South Africa’s 1,600-meter relay team, ending his hopes of participating in the Summer Games. He couldn’t hit the 400-meter qualifying time of 45.55 seconds, despite running a personal best 46.25 on Wednesday on his prosthetic blades at a meet in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Pistorius plans to run at the Sept. 6-17 Paralympic Games in Beijing. He holds the Paralympic world record of 46.56 in the 400.
•Jeremy Wariner set the year’s world-best time in the 400 (43.86) at the Gaz de France meet in Saint-Denis, France.