Newsmakers

Died Former University of Washington and Spokane Shock football player Johnie Kirton has died. The fullback with the San Jose SaberCats of the Arena Football League was 26. SaberCats owner and head coach Darren Arbet called Kirton player a “great team guy and hard-nosed player.” The team said Kirton died Monday in Santa Clara, Calif. A cause of death was not released. Kirton also played for the Chicago Rush and the Arizona Rattlers.

Released Six-time Pro Bowl receiver Terrell Owens has been released by the Allen Wranglers of Allen, Texas, and lost his ownership stake in the Indoor Football League team. The team said Owens didn’t plan to play in two upcoming road games with possible playoff implications. He was also was a no-show for a scheduled appearance at a local children’s hospital with other players and coaches. Wranglers owner Jon Frankel said in a statement Tuesday that the team couldn’t keep a player like Owens when fans were noticing and commenting about a “lack of effort both on and off the field.”

Injured Buffalo Bills receiver Stevie Johnson is expected to miss most – if not all – of the team’s offseason minicamp practices to give him time to recover from groin surgery. Johnson has led Bills receivers in each of the past two seasons.

Declared Boxer Paul Williams was driving his modified sport motorcycle too fast for conditions when he crashed into an embankment, police said. Williams was paralyzed and has no movement from the waist down after Sunday’s crash in Marietta, Ga., northwest of Atlanta. The 30-year-old athlete severed his spinal cord after falling on his back and head when he was thrown from his motorcycle.

Awarded Almost two years later, Andy Schleck has his yellow jersey for winning the 2010 Tour de France. The Luxembourg rider finished second in the race, but Alberto Contador was stripped of the title for failing a doping test. The jersey was handed over to Schleck on in a ceremony attended by Tour de France organizers. It came on the eve of the Tour de Luxembourg, a tuneup for the Tour de France, which starts June 30.

Burned Michigan football recruit Logan Tuley-Tillman insisted he didn’t think it was a big deal when he posted a picture on his Twitter account of him burning an envelope from Ohio State. The Michigan football recruit found out otherwise. “It’s been kind of crazy,” Tuley-Tillman said. The highly-touted offensive tackle from Peoria, Ill., has committed to the Wolverines’ 2013 recruiting class, and posted the photo Saturday. “I don’t like the state of Ohio or that school. I can’t wait to play them,” he said.