Marchibroda Hired as Coach of Modell’s Transplanted Team

Ted Marchibroda signed a three-year contract Thursday as the coach of Art Modell’s NFL team in Baltimore, the former Cleveland Browns.

Marchibroda was coach of the Baltimore Colts from 1975 to 1979, the final glory days of a team that left town in 1984. He led Indianapolis to a 9-7 record and the AFC championship game last season, but left the organization after the Colts had offered him a one-year contract without a raise in pay.

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Lindy Infante, Marchibroda’s former offensive coordinator, was hired to succeed him as coach at Indianapolis.

The Colts also ensured the return of quarterback Jim Harbaugh by designating him their franchise player. Franchise players can’t switch teams if they are offered the average salary of the five highest-paid players at their position--currently about $4.1 million a year for quarterbacks.

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The Atlanta Falcons made quarterback Jeff George a transition player, which gives the team an opportunity to match any competing offer as long as the Falcons pay an average of the top 10 salaries at the position or give George a 20% raise, whichever is greater.

The Falcons also signed left tackle Bob Whitfield to a five-year, $15.5-million deal, making him the NFL’s highest-paid offensive lineman.

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The Dallas Cowboys made Darren Woodson the highest-paid safety in NFL history by signing him to a six-year deal worth $18 million, with a $5.4-million signing bonus. . . . Defensive tackle Ray Childress, an 11-year veteran of the Houston Oilers, was released to gain room under the salary cap. The team also released, among others, wide receiver Haywood Jeffires. . . . The San Diego Chargers signed defensive tackle Shawn Lee to a four-year deal worth about $8.5 million and added a year to linebacker Junior Seau’s contract as part of a restructuring. . . . The Arizona Cardinals made defensive tackle Eric Swann their first franchise player. . . . The Buffalo Bills made left tackle John Fina their franchise player and agreed to a reported five-year, $800,000 deal with kicker Steve Christie. . . . The New York Giants signed cornerback Phillippi Sparks and designated Rodney Hampton, the team’s all-time leader rushing, as their transition player.

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A federal judge in Minneapolis issued a temporary restraining order that set the NFL salary cap for 1996 at $40.8 million, about $2.1 million higher than the owners wanted.

Jurisprudence

A scratched, bruised and tearful Felicia Moon told a detective last summer that her husband, Minnesota Viking quarterback Warren Moon, had attacked her during an argument at their suburban Houston home.

Outside the presence of jurors in the courtroom at Richmond, Texas, where Moon is on trial for spousal abuse, Mary Mann, a Missouri City police detective who went to the Moons’ house on July 18, 1995, testified that Mrs. Moon named her husband as her assailant.

“She was walking toward me very fast and arms outstretched and said: ‘He beat the . . . out of me, Mary,’ ” said the detective, who considered herself once a friend of the Moons, having worked security for their parties.

Mann’s statement, however, was rejected by Fort Bend County Court-At-Law Judge Larry Wagenbach after Moon’s attorneys argued it was hearsay and that the conversation that afternoon in the garage of the Moon house had occurred too long after the incident to be admissible as evidence.

Mann was among the first three officers at the Moon house following a 911 plea for help from the couple’s youngest son Jeffrey.

Moon, who played for Houston before moving to the Minnesota Vikings, is facing up to a year in jail and a fine of $4,000 if convicted of the misdemeanor assault charge.

A Nevada Las Vegas football player pleaded guilty to a false imprisonment charge in an incident involving a female student in a dorm room.

Arthur Turner Jr. faces up to a year in prison when sentenced April 3 after entering the plea as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

A Virginia judge dismissed charges that Virginia Tech linebacker Tony Morrison went on a drunken rampage at a bar in December. Morrison returned money he took from a tip jar and paid to have a door fixed at the bar and agreed to enter an alcohol education program.

Tennis

Sandon Stolle of Australia rallied to beat Andrei Cherkasov of Russia, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, at the Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates.

Fourth-seeded Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia beat Karel Novacek of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5, and advanced to a match against defending champion Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, who beat Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (7-4), 6-4.

Second-seeded Sergi Bruguera of Spain advanced to the quarterfinals of the $514,000 Marseille Open in France with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Britain’s Tim Henman.

Top-seeded Iva Majoli and third-seeded Magdalena Maleeva each made it into the quarterfinals of the Paris Open, Majoli without playing a match.

Majoli, of Croatia, had a first-round bye in the 28-player field. Then her opponent in the second round, Sandrine Testud of France, had to withdraw because of a strained groin muscle, putting Majoli in the final eight against Nathalie Dechy of France. Maleeva defeated Yelena Likhovtseva of Russia, 6-0, 6-3.

Miscellany

Oklahoma State rallied past USC in the final round Wednesday to win by four strokes the Collegiate Invitational golf tournament at Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii.

George Jefferson, UCLA’s first Olympic medal winner in track and field, died of heart problems, the school announced. Jefferson won a bronze in the pole vault in the 1932 games in Los Angeles.

The British Boxing Board refused heavyweight Joe Bugner, 45, a license to fight in Britain. Bugner had planned on fighting British champion Scott Welsh in London.