Patriots Shocked to Discover Draftee’s Record

Claiming they failed to do their homework, the New England Patriots on Wednesday released the draft rights to Christian Peter, a Nebraska lineman with a criminal record.

In May 1994, Peter pleaded guilty to third-degree assault of a former Miss Nebraska. He served 18 months’ probation, which expired in early January.

“Unfortunately, we did not have information regarding Christian Peter’s record at the time we made our draft selection,” said Bobby Grier, the Patriots’ player personnel director.

The Patriots took the defensive tackle in the fifth round. They said his behavior is not “acceptable conduct.”

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Baltimore, which just moved from Cleveland, plays host to Oakland, which moves all the time, in one of 13 games on Sept. 1, opening day of the NFL season. The season will run 17 weeks, through the weekend of Dec. 21-23. The Jerry Jones-Jimmy Johnson showdown will be Oct. 27 in Miami, when the Dallas Cowboys visit the Dolphins.

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The Kansas City Chiefs re-signed running back Marcus Allen, 36, for three years. . . . The New York Jets said veteran tight end Johnny Mitchell is free to make a free-agent deal for himself. . . . Burnell Roques, a 5-11, 170-pound receiver from Claremont-Mudd, signed a free-agent contract with the Atlanta Falcons.

Tennis

Thomas Muster won his 31st consecutive clay-court match and opened defense of his Monte Carlo Open championship with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Tomas Carbonell.

Jim Courier and Michael Chang were among eight seeded players eliminated in second-round losses.

Chang, seeded third, lost a 6-7 (8-10), 6-2, 6-4 decision to Carlos Costa, and Courier, seeded eighth, was a 6-3, 6-3 loser to Javier Sanchez.

Muster has won three clay-court tournaments this year, six in a row, and has not lost a match on the surface since August.

Spain’s top women’s players, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Conchita Martinez, have decided not to compete in a Fed Cup first-round match against South Africa, because they wanted more than the $55,000 they were offered.

Jennifer Capriati should have a chance to defend her 1992 Olympic gold medal, Billie Jean King said. Capriati does not have a high enough ranking to win selection for the Atlanta Games under Olympic rules.

Jurisprudence

A prosecutor in Frankfurt, Germany, disagreed with a report that Steffi Graf knew what happened to her earnings, allegedly funneled out of Germany for years by her father to avoid paying taxes.

The report says that Graf family tax advisor, Joachim Eckardt, who is in jail and charged in the case, said Graf knew the details of what was happening to her money.

Former UCLA and Arizona Cardinal player Luis Sharpe, saying he’d been a drug addict for most of his 13-year NFL career, pleaded guilty to possessing drug paraphernalia and no contest to aggravated assault in Phoenix.

Olympics

Dagmar Thorpe, granddaughter of late Olympic star Jim Thorpe, said she wants the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games to invite her mother, Grace, if not all six of his children, to the Games.

World 400-meter record-holder Kieren Perkins finished third in the event in the Australian Olympic trials, failing to make the team. He also holds the 800- and 1,500-meter world records and swims the 1,500 trial Saturday.

Miscellany

Canadians Mark MacKay and Benoit Doucet scored for their adopted country, Germany, which defeated Canada, 5-1, in the World Ice Hockey Championships in Vienna.

Bosnia, emerging from 4 1/2 years of civil war, played a scoreless soccer tie against Albania in Zenica, about 30 miles northwest of Sarajevo. It was Bosnia’s first home international game. Before the war, Bosnian players were part of Yugoslavia’s national team.

Basketball

The NBA Board of Governors voted to postpone consideration of the Clippers’ application to play an unspecified number of games at the Pond of Anaheim next season, a league source said. Spokesmen for the Clippers and the NBA declined comment. . . . The Board of Governors officially approved the sale of the Philadelphia 76ers by Harold Katz to Comcast Corp.

The NCAA has reduced the number of timeouts allowed per team from three to two during televised games. The number of 20-second timeouts was increased from two to three.

Southland Report

UCLA’s spring football scrimmage is today at Spalding Field, beginning with practice at 3:45 and then the scrimmage from 4:30-5:30. It is free to the public and players will be available after the game for half an hour for autographs and photos.

The 49th Newport Beach-to-Ensenada Sailboat Race begins Friday at noon at the entrance to Newport Harbor.