Aikman Expected to Free Cap Money

It looks as if Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones will be asking quarterback Troy Aikman to renegotiate his contract once again to free some money under the salary cap to sign other players.

Two-time Pro Bowl safety Darren Woodson is believed to be the main signing target.

Aikman, who reworked his deal last season to help sign Deion Sanders, is scheduled to count $6.75 million toward the 1996 salary cap. He cost $2.49 million in 1995.

Woodson is among seven Dallas defensive starters who will become free agents on Feb. 16.

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NFL owners meet this week, but negotiations between league officials and Cleveland have failed to produce an agreement on the Cleveland Browns.

Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White says that until there is an agreement, the city is preparing for its Feb. 12 trial seeking to hold the Browns to their stadium lease through 1998.

NFL owners are expected to get a set of options this week in Chicago before they vote on Art Modell’s application to move the Browns to Baltimore.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler guard Terry Long, once suspended by the NFL for steroid use, faces charges of aggravated assault and resisting arrest after a traffic stop in Pittsburgh. Long was apparently stopped for driving without a license plate.

Tennis

Tennis star Steffi Graf admitted that mistakes had been made in the management of her fortune but refused to blame her father, Peter, jailed by investigators as part of a tax evasion probe into her finances.

In her first extensive interview about the charges, a defiant Graf told a newspaper in Bonn, Germany: “I am certainly not going to write off my father or say he is guilty or anything like that. Absolutely not. I will also do everything to make sure he is always as near me as possible and I’ll help him whenever I can.”

Seventh-seeded Iva Majoli of Croatia defeated Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to win the $926,250 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

Cheered on by the home crowd, top-seeded Goran Ivanisevic won the first Croatian Indoors tournament by downing Cedric Pioline of France, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, at Zagreb, ending a 1 1/2-year drought as a tournament champion.

Winter Sports

German Katja Seizinger won her third consecutive race--and third consecutive super-G--in 1 minute, 6.64 seconds in Val d’Isere, France with another dominating performance that will make her make her a heavy favorite in the world championships next week at Sierra Nevada, Spain.

Gunda Niemann of Germany rebounded after a loss to American Becky Sundstroem in Inzell, Germany, to win her fifth all-round World Speedskating Championship in six years. Niemann bounced back from her loss to Sundstroem, who won the 500 in 41.31 seconds, to win the 1,500-meter race in 2:06.13, and the 3,000 in 4:22.59.

Norway’s Knut Tore Apeland, the World Cup leader, overtook Sylvain Guillaume of France in the final kilometer at Seefeld, Austria, to win the World Cup nordic combined competition by 10.2 seconds. Teenager Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo., the world junior combined champion, was third.

Miscellany

Goals by Miles Joseph and A.J. Wood gave the U.S. men’s Olympic soccer team a 2-1 victory over Norway at Jacksonville, Fla. A later game between the United States women’s national team and world champion Norway, was won, 2-1, by the Norwegians, both their goals coming from Hege Riise.

Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia set his second world indoor record in eight days, clocking a time of seven minutes, 30.72 seconds over 3,000 meters in Stuttgart, Germany. Gebreselassie set the indoor 5,000-meter record last week.

The Basketball Hall of Fame latest inductees will be announced today. Among those nominated are Jerry Tarkanian, Gail Goodrich, Jamaal Wilkes, George Gervin, David Thompson, Jo Jo White, Artis Gilmore and Dick Barnett.

Roberto Alomar and Bernie Williams delivered big hits early, and Puerto Rico defeated Mexico, 9-2, to move into first place in the Caribbean Series at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The host “dream team” lost two games, 7-6 to Mexico and 4-3 to Venezuela when Luis Polonia grounded into a game-ending double play.