The Miami Dolphins, looking for an experienced...

The Miami Dolphins, looking for an experienced backup quarterback, might be close to a deal with Bernie Kosar of the Dallas Cowboys. . . . Unsigned quarterback Brett Favre practiced with the Green Bay Packers at their first Arizona mini-camp in Mesa but tight end Jackie Harris and cornerback Terrell Buckley failed to show. . . . Rod Rust, former coach of the New England Patriots, has become linebacker coach at Lehigh. . . . Former Minnesota Viking Keith Henderson pleaded not guilty to a charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in an alleged assault on a 17-year-old girl. . . . Wide receiver Alvin Harper says he is set to leave the Dallas Cowboys for Pittsburgh if the Steelers raise their offer “a little.” Harper is said to have been offered in the range of $1.4 million over three years.

Basketball

Rick Sund, who helped build the Dallas Mavericks into a model franchise in the 1980s before the team nose-dived in the ‘90s, was fired as vice president of the club.

Louisiana Tech’s men’s basketball program was put on one-year probation by the NCAA for various infractions, including the payment of a potential player’s junior college tuition by former assistant coach Kyle Keller.

Clemson basketball player Devin Gray was released from a Greenville, S.C., hospital, a week after suffering a heart attack. He said he planned to continue his education at Clemson but might not play basketball again.

Miscellany

The sale of all-sports radio station KMPC to Capital Cities, owner of ABC, for $17.5 million has been finalized, according to sources. Cap Cities is expected to take control sometime in May and instill a new non-sports talk format, although the Angels will remain on the new KMPC.

Cassie Clark, 15, has become the first female to be put on the men’s U.S. junior weightlifting squad by the U.S. Weightlifting Federation. She met the qualifying standards for the men’s squad while competing in the women’s division in the 50-kilo class (110 pounds) at the U.S. junior nationals last month.

Tennis

Third-seeded Brad Gilbert was one of four players who won opening-round matches in the Salem Open in Hong Kong before rain ended the day’s play. Gilbert beat Guillaume Raoux, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Stefan Edberg and Jim Courier led five seeded players through the opening round of the Nice Open in France. Top-seeded Edberg beat Davide Sanguinetti, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, and second-seeded Courier defeated Evgeni Kafelnikov, 6-3, 6-2.

Steffi Graf has pulled out of the Italian Open, angering organizers who said she made demands they were unable to meet.

Soccer

Several of Russia’s top soccer players were dropped from the preliminary World Cup roster after saying they wouldn’t play for Coach Pavel Sadyrin.

Among those dropped were Andrei Kanchelskis, Sergei Kiryakov, Igor Shalimov, Igor Dobrovolsky, Igor Kolyvanov, Valery Karpin and Vasily Kulkov.

Salvatore Schillaci, a hero for Italy in the 1990 World Cup, has become the first Italian player to join Japan’s two-year-old J-League.