Vikings bench Jackson, hand reins to Frerotte
Out with the new, in with the old.
With the passing offense sputtering in two losses to open the season, Minnesota coach Brad Childress decided the Vikings can no longer afford to let 25-year-old quarterback Tarvaris Jackson learn on the job.
On Wednesday, Childress turned to 15-year veteran Gus Frerotte to run the offense for the rest of the season.
“I’m just not seeing right now the aggressiveness from Tarvaris that I saw throughout the off-season, training camp, the two preseason games that he played in,” Childress said. “And part of it may be experience. I know Gus will give us that.”
Jackson completed just 51 percent of his passes this season. He threw a game-ending interception at Green Bay that sealed the Packers’ victory and was partly responsible for the offense settling for five field goals and scoring no touchdowns in an 18-15 loss to Indianapolis.
Thigpen gets nod: Tyler Thigpen, the first player from Coastal Carolina selected in the NFL draft, will be the first to start at quarterback.
The 24-year-old Thigpen will be under center on Sunday for Kansas City when the Chiefs go to Atlanta. It will be exactly 11 months after the struggling young Chiefs (0-2) last won a game.
A 23-8 loss to Oakland on Sunday, in which Thigpen came off the bench and finished 14 for 33, was their 11th straight regular-season defeat.
“For what we’re trying to do, I think he can do a good job of it,” coach Herm Edwards said.
Colts lose Sanders : Tony Dungy doesn’t doubt Bob Sanders will be back in the Colts’ lineup this season. He’s just not sure how long Sanders will be out.
The 2007 defensive player of the year could miss up to six weeks after spraining his right ankle last weekend at Minnesota, and team officials are contemplating whether Sanders may need arthroscopic surgery on his knee, too.
Jaguars sign guard: The Jacksonville Jaguars, still trying to tweak their injury-riddled offensive line, re-signed veteran guard Chris Naeole.
Naeole spent the past six seasons in Jacksonville but was released in March, four months after he ruptured his quadriceps tendon and missed the final eight games.
Basketball
Howard insults anthem
The battered reputation of Josh Howard took another hit this week when an online video surfaced showing the Dallas Mavericks forward disrespecting the national anthem.
In a video posted on YouTube, Howard is shown on a football field at a charity flag football game. As the national anthem plays in the background, Howard approaches a camera and says: “ ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ is going on right now. I don’t even celebrate that (expletive). I’m black.”
The incident is the latest off-court problem for Howard, a fifth-year pro from Wake Forest who averaged 19.9 points and seven rebounds last season. He was arrested in July when police said he was drag racing at 94 mph in a 55 zone.
Last season, Howard admitted in a radio interview that he smokes marijuana and angered coach Avery Johnson for throwing a birthday bash for himself after a Game 4 loss to the New Orleans Hornets.
Horse racing
Derby has new qualifier
Churchill Downs has joined with Kempton Park Racecourse in England to create the $150,000 Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes, a 11/8-mile race over Kempton’s synthetic surface that will guarantee the winner a spot in next year’s Derby.
The only foreign-based horse to win the Derby was Canonero II in 1971.
Top horse skips Jug: The big story in this year’s Little Brown Jug is the horse that isn’t there.
Somebeachsomewhere, the season’s top-rated pacer in harness racing, is skipping today’s Little Brown Jug in Delaware, Ohio. It’s the first time that the leading 3-year-old pacer has bypassed the classic.
“He’s got to do what he thinks is best for his horse,” said Joe Seekman, the trainer for new favorite Art Official.
Somebeachsomewhere won 15 of 16 starts and more than $2.3 million in two seasons. The only horse to defeat Somebeachsomewhere is Art Official, who won the first leg of the pacing Triple Crown with the Can Pace on Sept. 1.
Miscellany
Wie in second place
Michelle Wie shot a bogey-free 7-under-par 65 in the second round of an LPGA Tour sectional qualifying tournament in Rancho Mirage, Calif., putting her in second place in a field of 164.
Wie birdied five of her final nine holes on the Palmer Course at Mission Hills Country Club to finish at 9-under 135. The 18-year-old Wie was three shots behind South Korea’s Sun-Ju Ahn halfway through the 72-hole event.
Engine failure led to death: Engine failure at 300 mph triggered a crash that killed top Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta in June at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Trenton, N.J.
The New Jersey State Police said investigators determined that “catastrophic mechanical failure” caused a fuel-fired explosion in Kalitta’s Toyota Solara.
U.S. blanks Ireland: Natasha Kai scored in the 72nd minute and the U.S. women’s soccer team beat Ireland 1-0 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. in the second game of a 10-game post-Olympic tour.