Packers Seek to Dismiss Sharpe’s Suit

The Green Bay Packers said Tuesday they will seek immediate dismissal of a $9.6-million lawsuit filed by former star receiver Sterling Sharpe, saying they will pursue a resolution through the NFL’s grievance system.

In a suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla., where Sharpe played his last game, he named the Packers, the NFL Management Council and the NFL Players Assn., claiming the grievance system denied him due process.

He was released Feb. 28 when he refused to take a pay cut from $3.2 million to $200,000 after suffering a spinal injury late in the 1994 season and undergoing surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his neck.

Grady Irvin, who is representing Sharpe, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he would ask for Sharpe’s $3.2-million salary for 1995, plus punitive damages, court costs and attorney fees of more than $6 million.

Linebacker Carlton Bailey, released by the New York Giants on April 15 after losing his starting spot last season, has reportedly agreed to a two-year contract worth $1.1 million with the Carolina Panthers. . . . Coach Bobby Ross and General Manager Bobby Beathard of the San Diego Chargers received contract extensions through the 1999 season. The Chargers also reportedly have reached agreement on a three-year deal with tackle Stan Brock, a 15-year veteran.

Soccer

Claudio Caniggia, of Argentina, suffered two deep gashes to the head when he was attacked by teen-age fans after having been ejected from a league match in Lisbon. Caniggia, star striker for Lisbon club Benfica and the Argentine national squad, was hit in the face with a rock and a cocktail glass Sunday by a group that surrounded his car on a narrow street.

Mugade Chimaga, a 28-year-old player from Zaire who collapsed during a Sunday game in Athens, died after an accumulation of fluid in the lungs, a coroner said.

Tennis

Boris Becker and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, seeded first and second in the BMW Open in Munich, were upset in the first round by unseeded players. Becker lost to fellow German Hendrik Dreekmann, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. Kafelnikov, of Russia, ranked fifth in the world, was beaten by Martin Sinner, a German wild-card entry, 6-4, 6-3.

Ann Grossman and Anke Huber won at the Citizen Cup in Hamburg, Germany, and will play each other in a second-round match. Grossman defeated Elena Makarova, 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, and Huber beat Katerina Maleeva, 6-1, 6-0.

Miscellany

Tax breaks designed to lure thoroughbred racing’s Breeder’s Cup and college basketball tournaments to Florida cleared the state Senate in Tallahassee.

Atlanta residents grabbed 894,000 brochures containing the 1996 Olympic schedule and ticket order forms on the first day the packages were available. Figures for outside the city were not available.

Auto racing

Driver Fabrizzio Barbazza of Italy remained unconscious, in critical but stable condition, more than 48 hours after his car was virtually sheared in half during Sunday’s Grand Prix of Road Atlanta, an International Motor Sports Assn. sports car race. Barbazza’s car was hit by one driven by Canada’s Jeremy Dale, who also remained in intensive care after surgery for multiple fractures of his lower legs. Steve Millen of Newport Beach, injured in another accident in the same race, was upgraded from critical to serious condition with a broken vertebra in his neck and a skull fracture.

Hideki Otawa, 54, of Japan, died when his Mitsubishi crashed into a concrete barrier during Russian Rally-95 competition in Russia’s Far East.

Basketball

Larry Abney, a 6-foot-7 1/2 forward from Nyack High in New York, became the fourth player to sign a letter of intent with Fresno State’s basketball program, Coach Jerry Tarkanian said.

Las Vegas has guaranteed the Western Athletic Conference $1 million a year and has been awarded a two-year contract with an additional option year to play host to the WAC men’s and women’s basketball tournaments beginning in 1997.

Hockey

Andreas Dackell had two goals and two assists in leading Sweden to a 7-0 rout of Italy, and Finland beat France, 5-0, in the quarterfinals of the World Hockey Championships in Stockholm.

John Van Boxmeer, who played 11 seasons in the NHL, was named coach and general manager of the Ice Dogs, the International Hockey League team that will move from San Diego to play at the Sports Arena next season. Van Boxmeer, 42, coached Rochester of the American Hockey League for nine seasons and was an associate coach of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.