Chargers Hire Chiefs’ Defensive Coordinator

Dave Adolph won’t have to deal anymore with Natrone Means and the rest of the San Diego Chargers’ offense.

Adolph, defensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs the last three seasons, was hired Sunday to do the same job for the AFC West rival Chargers.

He replaces Bill Arnsparger, who retired Wednesday after three seasons with the Chargers and 23 overall in the NFL.

Adolph’s contract with the Chiefs had lapsed, but he said he could have returned. He chose not to, however, mainly because defensive line coach Tom Pratt was fired and defensive backs coach Herman Edwards was reassigned to the scouting staff after the Chiefs lost in the playoffs.

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Former Raider coach Art Shell has been contacted by Ray Rhodes, the new coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, about a job as an assistant.

Shell, fired last week by the Raiders, said he is interested in pursuing all possibilities. “I’m just trying to find a job,” he said.

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UCLA defensive line coach Wayne Nunnely has accepted a job coaching the defensive line with the New Orleans Saints.

Nunnely, 43, spent two seasons on the Bruin staff after two years working with running backs at USC. He had worked with the Saints during their training camp last summer as an intern.

Auto Racing

Paul Newman, 70 years old and taking his race car driving most seriously, helped his Roush Racing teammates finish third overall and win the GTS-1 division of the Rolex 24-Hour sports car endurance race in Daytona Beach, Fla.

During one two-hour stint early Sunday, Newman drove the Ford Cobra from seventh place to fifth before giving up the driver’s seat.

The team of Germans Jurgen Lassig and Marco Werner, Christophe Bouchut of France and Giovanni Lavaggi of Italy won in a Porsche Spyder K-8.

Mike Skinner charged back from a late pit stop and squeezed past Terry Labonte on the final lap to win the inaugural NASCAR SuperTruck Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Tennis

Defending champion Sweden, one of only two countries in the history of the Davis Cup World Group to win a match after being down 0-2, did it again as Stefan Edberg and Jonas Bjorkman led a 3-2 victory over Denmark at Copenhagen.

Thomas Muster overpowered Sergi Bruguera, 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 on a hard court as Austria defeated Spain, 4-1, in a Davis Cup match at Vienna. . . . Italy clinched a victory over the Czech Republic and advanced to a second-round match against the United States when Andrea Gaudenzi defeated Slava Dosedel at Naples. The matches on clay were about the only sports in Italy not canceled. The nation called off virtually everything else after a fan was killed at a soccer game last weekend.

Sailing

Young America rallied during the last leg to defeat Stars & Stripes on the America’s Cup defender course in San Diego, ending a five-race victory streak for Dennis Conner’s boat.

After a strong start in the competition, Young America has struggled lately. Sunday’s victory snapped a three-race losing streak.

On the challenger course, John Bertrand’s oneAustralia retired from its match against Japan’s Nippon Challenge after a spreader bar snapped.

In the most lopsided match so far, NZL-39 defeated the winless Rioja de Espana by 15 minutes and 4 seconds.

Miscellany

Nico Motchebon of Germany broke Sebastian Coe’s 12-year-old European 800-meter indoor record at Stuttgart, Germany. Motchebon’s time of 1 minute, 44.88 seconds broke the mark by three-hundredths of a second. American Darnell Hall ran the year’s fastest time in the 400, 45.82 seconds.

Dave Hart Jr., the East Carolina athletic director since 1987, reportedly will be named athletic director at Florida State today.

Puerto Rico defeated Venezuela, 3-2, and the Dominican Republic defeated Mexico, 9-2, at the Caribbean World Series in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Beginning today, the Dominicans take on Puerto Rico in the six-game, round-robin tournament.

The Costa Rican soccer club Cartagines, on a 70th-minute penalty kick by Marco Tulia Hidalgo, beat Atlante of Mexico, 3-2, in the final of CONCACAF’s Champion of Champions Cup at San Jose.