Rison Reportedly to Be Richest Receiver

Andre Rison has agreed to a five-year, $17-million contract with the Cleveland Browns that makes him the highest-paid receiver in NFL history.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Thursday that Rison agreed to a contract that included a signing bonus of $5 million.

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The Seattle Seahawks, who lost Ray Donaldson via free agency to Dallas, signed 11-year veteran center Jim Sweeney from the New York Jets. . . . The San Francisco 49ers will play the Denver Broncos in a exhibition at the Tokyo Dome on Aug. 6. . . . Former Wisconsin running back Brent Moss has entered a drug treatment program.

Basketball

Michael Jordan’s return to the Chicago Bulls last Sunday was the most-watched regular-season game in NBA history with 35 million viewers. . . . Nelson Catalina was fired as coach at Arkansas State and was replaced by Dickey Nutt, an assistant.

Tennis

U.S. Captain Billie Jean King has named Martina Navratilova, who retired from singles competition last year, Lindsay Davenport, Mary Joe Fernandez and Gigi Fernandez to the U.S. Fed Cup tennis team for the first round April 22-23 against Austria in Aventura, Fla.

King said she talked to Monica Seles before naming the team. “She doesn’t know if she’ll ever play tennis again,” she said.

Seles’ assailant, Guenter Parche, was trying to stab her a second time before he was overwhelmed by guards, witnesses testified in Hamburg, Germany, where Parche is being retried.

The judge questioned the witnesses’ credibility, saying all four had given different statements to police after the April 30, 1993, attack at a tennis tournament.

Miscellany

AJ Kitt won the men’s downhill at the U.S. Alpine skiing championships at Snowbasin, Utah, his time of 1 minute 32.17 seconds edging Craig Thrasher by 0.12 seconds. Megan Gerety edged Shana Sweitzer by 0.52 in winning the women’s downhill.

Tom Dolan of Michigan broke the American record in the 500-yard freestyle by more than two seconds on the opening day of the NCAA men’s swimming championships at Indianapolis. Dolan won in 4 minutes 8.75 seconds, breaking the mark of 4:11.59 set by Chad Carvin of Arizona.

The NCAA is looking at correspondence-course credits given athletes at Texas, Houston and Texas Tech, the Houston Chronicle reported. The credits were from Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God, a Florida college involved in a basketball scandal at Baylor.

Heavy wind and high seas forced postponement of semifinal races in the America’s Cup. . . . Angelo Peykoff’s Santa Cruz 52 Two Dog Gone from the South Shore Yacht Club was last across the finish line but first in corrected time and won the the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet’s Class-A title in Newport Harbor YC’s race to Cabo San Lucas.

Names in the News

Eric Cantona, 28, a French forward playing for Manchester United in the English Premier League, was sentenced to two weeks in jail for kicking a soccer fan, but spent only three hours behind bars before his release on bail, pending an appeal hearing. . . . Marc Buoniconti, son of pro football great Nick Buoniconti; former Phoenix Sun center Neal Walk, two-time national pentathlon champion Ashley Bethel, wheelchair racer Matt Parry and former Arizona State baseball coach, the late Jim Brock, have been named the 1995 Gene Autry Courage Award recipients.