sports news update

Petrino detailed affair to boss before firing (Yahoo! Sports) : FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) Bobby Petrino's relationship with his mistress dated back more than a year, with the former Arkansas coach sending her candy, calling her a ''close friend'' and suggesting the affair that cost him his job started with a kiss over lunch last fall, according to documents released Thursday.

Penn State pays Paterno family under his contract (Yahoo! Sports) : HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Penn State has agreed to provide millions in payments and benefits to Joe Paterno's estate and family members under the late football coach's employment contract, although a family lawyer says the Paternos did not sign away their right to sue.

Slive visits new SEC member Texas A&M (Yahoo! Sports) : COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive says next week's meeting of Bowl Championship Series leaders is ''just another step in the process'' toward refining the oft-criticized system.

Slive visits new SEC member Texas A&M (Yahoo! Sports) : COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive says next week's meeting of Bowl Championship Series leaders is ''just another step in the process'' toward refining the oft-criticized system.

Kill to check out position switches at spring game (Yahoo! Sports) : MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Jerry Kill spent his first spring as coach at Minnesota trying to teach his offense and defense to a completely new set of players.

Neb.'s Dennard accused of punching police officer (Yahoo! Sports) : OMAHA, Neb. (AP) Nebraska's outgoing star cornerback Alfonzo Dennard was arrested Saturday on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, possibly hurting his status in next weekend's NFL draft.

O'Brien debuts, Penn St wraps up spring practice (Yahoo! Sports) : STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) Penn State's new coach draped a whistle around his neck, wore a headset and anxiously paced the Beaver Stadium sideline in blue and gray sweats.

Smith, Bryant lead Scarlet to Ohio St spring win (Yahoo! Sports) : COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Urban Meyer opened his first spring game at Ohio State with his players gathered at midfield for a series of one-on-one battles.

Defense beats offense 9-0 in Syracuse spring game (Yahoo! Sports) : SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) Defensive tackle Jay Bromley had a sack for a safety and forced a fumble that was returned 17 yards for a score by Brandon Sharpe as the Syracuse defense shined in a 9-0 win in the Orange's spring game.

Defense beats offense 9-0 in Syracuse spring game (Yahoo! Sports) : SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) Defensive tackle Jay Bromley had a sack for a safety and forced a fumble that was returned 17 yards for a score by Brandon Sharpe as the Syracuse defense shined in a 9-0 win in the Orange's spring game.

Golson throws for 2 TDs in Notre Dame spring game (Yahoo! Sports) : SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) To most fans, the big stars of Notre Dame's Blue-Gold Game were quarterback Everett Golson and running back George Atkinson III.

Smith throws 2 TDs in WVU spring game (Yahoo! Sports) : MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) West Virginia's defense wants to be known as a positive just like its proven offense as the Mountaineers enter their first season in the Big 12.

Wolves preview :: The FA are negligent liars : Morning all, a blog in two parts this morning, starting with: WOLVES In terms of team news there will be changes at the back. Kieran Gibbs groin is feeling the strain of 9 consecutive games and will be replaced by Andre Santos. Laurent Koscielny’s suspension means Johan Djourou comes back into the centre of the defence, while there are some doubts over Bacary Sagna, whose virtues the manager is keen to extol. I suspect he’s preaching to the converted, he’s just a top quality consistent performer. Fingers crossed he’s all right because three changes to a back four which has been pretty solid in recent weeks is probably a bit too much to feel assured. But if that’s what we have to cope with there’s not much we can do other than get on with it. Gervinho remains absent so I suspect Benayoun will keep his place in the attacking trio. We know Wolves are going to fight, they sit bottom of the table and I have to say it’s probably a false positio...

Rulers Show They Know FA About The Game & Wolves Preview : Football is in danger of imploding. The Football Association’s tenure as the organising body of the game in this country has never before been under such serious threat, a position of their own making. Arguably they are only  in situ now because of the universal loathing for the Premier League amongst the corridors of power in the European and world governing bodies. Had David Richards not made such an arse of himself recently in the Middle East, he might have positioned the Premier League to take over the English game entirely. As it is, a blundering fool has let the blundering fools off the hook. If it was not bad enough that QPR still suffer for Ashley Young’s outrageous theatrics, Mario Balotelli remains unchastened by the authorities for his disregard for the well-being of Alex Song. Were the Cameroonean so inclined, I have no doubt he could prove reckless intent behind the Italian’s challenge. Yet that is not ...

Wolves v Arsenal – live blog! : Join us for live blogging of Wolves v Arsenal in the Premier League. Kick off is 7.45pm, team news posted as soon as we have it. Live blog is 100% free to follow on your computer or mobile device and gives you real time text commentary from the match. Arseblog has teamed up with Paddy Power to provide you with great bets and up to a £50 free bet : Click here to register with Paddy Power Click to launch Wolves v Arsenal live blog If you want to take part in live blog chat, you need to register an Arseblog account here and signing up. Once logged in you’ll see an option to upgrade to a season ticket premium account. 12 months access costs £10 – which works out at a whopping 0.83p per month! The subscription allows us to provide a decent place for Arsenal fans to chat during the games, without the craziness you find elsewhere. There’s already a nice community building so come on in! The season ticket will also give you upgraded access to the arses, a...

Benny sets the bit-part benchmark : Wolves 0-3 Arsenal A fine win, but one I followed only via the Opta messages on the notification screen of my phone. I like to experience new matchday experiences, you see. It was a bit underwhelming if I’m honest. Unlike the game itself, which from an Arsenal perspective at least was entirely whelming. Losing a man for most of the game was the last thing Wolves needed but it did us a favour. I’ve always thought a red card and a penalty is a bit harsh, double-punishing the offending side as it does. So that was 1-0 and once Theo lashed in the second moments later, it was an Everest-sized mountain to climb for Wolves. Benny’s resurgence is interesting though, isn’t it? Perhaps cocking an eye at the marvellous form of Tomas Rosicky, he’s rolled his sleeves up and his high-energy approach is just what we need. It helps that the team is playing well and it helps that he’s getting minutes on the pitch (two starts in a row), but if we need a bit-par...

The sooner the red card penalty rule goes, the better. Though we’d have won anyway. : WOLVES 0 ARSENAL 3 WE highly likely would have won this game anyway, but the early red card for Wolves on top of a penalty for us near enough guaranteed the win. I’ve long argued that such a punishment is absurdly excessive and the recent news that FIFA are planning to rescind the rule is welcome. That they are going to keep it for offences outside the area makes no sense to me because it fails to recognise that the award of a free-kick or penalty is completely different to that of a red card. By this I mean that a free-kick or penalty is positional compensation whereas the whole point of a red card should be to punish deliberately unacceptable behaviour on the pitch. Keeping the red card for a foul outside the area does not provide sufficient positional compensation (FIFA are themselves admitting as much by giving an additional sanction other than a simple free-kick) and nor does it provide appr...

Wolves 0-3 Arsenal : an easy ride : Match Report – Video - It was a game that potentially could have been a banana skin. In the end we took the skin off the banana, ate the banana, then put the skin under Wolves who seemed unaware of the danger of a banana skin, thinking that oranges were the only fruit. It was over as a contest in the first 11 minutes. Firstly, on loan Sp*rs defender Sebastian Bassong was sent off for hauling down Walcott when Robin van Persie’s chip put him clean through. In the light of current events it does highlight how harsh the punishment is for one small, single foul – penalty, red card, one game ban – when others get away with so much worse , but those, stupid as they are, are the laws right now. Robin van Persie stepped up and despite being without a goal in four games put away the penalty in some style. He waited for Hennessey to move then dinked a little sand wedge down the middle to make it 1-0. A couple of minutes later and it was game over. Again ...

Professional Performance Gives Arsenal Three Points : Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 – 3 Arsenal 0 – 1 van Persie (8 pen) 0 – 2 Walcott (11) 0 – 3 Benayoun (69) The win that was needed to solidify Arsenal’s grip on third place was delivered with the minimum of fuss at Molineux last night. Two up inside ten minutes with Wolves down to ten men might well have ended the spectacle for the non-partisan onlooker but I do not care of their views; all that mattered was Arsenal taking three points. Pre-weekend jitters have been put into a box and consigned to the dustbin, the nuclear scenario that brought about panic attacks looks more of a problem for Chelsea, seven points adrift in sixth place, than for Arsenal, five points clear of fourth placed Tottenham. Nothing is settled but the rays of sunlight this morning dissecting the cloud reflect on an improved situation. Arsenal’s good form in the Premier League – nine wins out of the last ten – was continued in the West Midlands. From the ki...

Wolves 0 – 3 Arsenal: Theo dances past Wolves : Arsenal 3 – 0 Wolves Match Report | Highlights | Arsene’s reaction This was a perfectly satisfactory night for Arsenal… Three goals, a clean sheet, and no injuries.  The game was won inside 12 minutes, and we were able to coast for the remainder.  I had the ill-fortune of listening to one Tony Gale on commentary, as he insisted the ‘professional’ thing to do was to attack a ten-man Wolves side and look to score five or six.  I disagree: the professional thing to do was keep the ball, conserve our energy, and focus on greater challenges ahead. Theo Walcott was electric early on… Wolves made a strange decision to play a high-line, and Walcott punished them, twice flying beyond the defence.  The first time he was brought down, culminating in a penalty and a red card, and the second he finished superbly.  Afterwards he faded, and may have been a little thrown by the boos he received from the Wolves crowd. ...

Video’d kill the referee tsar : It’s been a week to get the pulses racing. If the deserved late win against Mercenary City was a night out at a strip club with John Bonham and Shane McGowan, Wednesday’s win against Wolves had the air of soothing satisfaction of a night in with a bottle of Blue Nun, pizza, ice cream and a rom-com. These twin delights have been seasoned with occasional peppering of outrage. The Football Association can always be relied upon the tickle the taste buds of righteous indignation. Elsewhere, heads are served up on silver platters. The hostile brand of self righteousness practised by some Liverpool fans, coupled with the mischief making of the media sees a reasonable question (that almost nobody has even deigned to answer) become front page fodder. The little vein in my forehead has spent a good deal of the last seven days dancing the watusi. I tell you, my John Terry voodoo doll has taken a real hammering . I’ll begin with the lighter, fluffier side of life...

One Of Us Speaks – Making It Last : There’s this idea I’ve been entertaining for a while. It’s about young players and how they develop. I bet you’re asking why you should care what it is. Well smarty-pants, you will care after I reveal the pinpoint prognostications I made about our youngsters a few years ago: When I first saw David Bentley play for the first team, everything in the background slipped out of focus. I had eyes only for the guy with the spiky rattail thing on his head. He was so brash, so stylish! Yeah he had lines shaved into his eyebrows, but what of it?! He could lob goalkeepers from 30 yards and play those snazzy “I murked you by looking the other way, bruv!” passes. I smoothed the goosebumps on my forearm and dared to wonder whether I was watching the promised one – the long-awaited English champion of the new Arsenal way. I didn’t want to burden him with expectation, but I was pretty sure he’d take over from Bergkamp in a couple of years. Later there was the...

More on refs and vids + Arsecast 237 : So, an Arse free weekend looms as we have to wait until Monday night before we take on Wigan. Under normal circumstances, it’s frustrating, but because the two Merseyside club are set to kick lumps out of each other due to the fact Martin Atkinson is refereeing their FA Cup semi-final, we’ve got something to entertain us while we rest those slightly weary legs. I’m expecting smashed femurs, busted knee-caps, roundhouse kicks to the face like a common Patrick Swayze, karate chops to the neck and a flurry of kidney punches, only for a red card to be shown to the man who gets a second yellow for kicking the ball away. Hey, I’m just adapting to what I’ve seen from Atkinson and other officials this week. Lightly brush Ashley Young with your fingertips, BAM – Penalty! Red card! Suspension! Smash somebody in the knee with your studs, BAM – er, nothing. And Arsene Wenger is still confused, saying: I still don’t understand. If you look at the case of B...

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