Bengals’ Burfict suspended for three games in 2016
Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict was suspended by the NFL for the first three games of the 2016 regular season, the league announced Monday.
The punishment was for his hit on Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown during the final minute of an AFC wild-card game Saturday. Brown caught a pass and was facing away from Burfict, who hit him in the head.
The Steelers went on to win 18-16, but Brown is in the league’s concussion protocol, leaving his status in doubt for Pittsburgh’s game at Denver on Sunday.
Burfict is a repeat offender, leading the NFL to come down harshly on him. He was fined nearly $70,000 for his actions when the Bengals and Steelers played in December.
The NFL’s press release noted that Burfict “was penalized for unnecessary roughness for using his shoulder to make forcible contact to the head and neck area of a defenseless receiver.”
The suspension was imposed by NFL Vice President of Football Operations Merton Hanks, who ruled that Burfict’s action placed his opponent at unnecessary risk of injury and should have been avoided.
No drug charges for Ex-NBA star Lamar Odom
A Nevada prosecutor said on Monday she would not bring criminal drug charges against ex-NBA star Lamar Odom, who fell into a coma after using cocaine at a brothel last year.
Nye County District Attorney Angela Bello said while evidence showed Odom had metabolized cocaine in his system after he was found unconscious in October, he did not have any in his possession and could have used the drug elsewhere.
“It is unlikely it could established beyond a reasonable doubt he actually ingested, or was impaired by, the drug during the time he was within the jurisdiction of Nye County,” Bello said in a statement.
The former Los Angeles Lakers player, 36, was moved from a Los Angeles hospital to a private facility last week, according to entertainment news outlet E!. Authorities said he had used cocaine and an herbal sexual-enhancement supplement.
Kansas, Oklahoma remain 1-2 in AP poll
Kansas and Oklahoma remained 1-2 in the Associated Press Top 25 men’s basketball poll released Monday.
The Jayhawks (14-1) beat the Sooners 109-106 in a triple overtime thriller last Monday night.
Kansas, which took over No. 1 last week, received all but two first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel.
Oklahoma (13-1) drew one No. 1 vote. The Sooners are followed by Maryland (15-1) and Michigan State (16-1), which had the other first-place vote.
North Carolina is fifth followed by Villanova, Xavier, Miami, Duke and SMU, which made the top 10 for the first time since February 1985.
Cardinals sign Korean pitcher to bolster bullpen
The St. Louis Cardinals signed all-time Korean saves leader Seung Hwan Oh to a one-year contract with a club option for 2017.
Financial terms were not disclosed for the right-hander, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the total value of the contract, including the option, could reach around $5 million.
Oh, 33, will join a Cardinals bullpen that already consists of closer Trevor Rosenthal, who in 2015 set the franchise’s single-season save record with 48, Jonathan Broxton, Jordan Walden, Seth Maness and Kevin Siegrist.
Oh, who owns 357 career saves between Korean and Japan, pitched for the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) from 2005-13. Oh posted 277 career saves for Samsung, making him the career KBO all-time saves leader.
Griffin III leaves Redskins
Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III did not talk to reporters Monday, but he left a letter in his now-empty locker at team headquarters.
RG3’s tenure in Washington is likely over after the Redskins’ 35-18 NFC wild-card defeat to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Griffin let Dr. Kent M. Keith speak for him via a letter left in his cleaned-out locker. The letter references “The Paradoxical Commandments,” which was written by Keith in 1968 and is based on a poem by Mother Teresa.
Griffin was inactive for 16 of the Redskins’ 17 games this season after losing his starting job in the preseason. The Redskins have until March 9 to release Griffin or pay him the $16.2 million option they picked up for 2016.