Dolphins’ Mitchell Leaves Game at 25

Johnny Mitchell was ecstatic when he joined the Miami Dolphins two weeks ago. Now the tight end says he no longer wants to play football and retired Monday at age 25.

He has been bothered since last season by a bad back and as recently as last week was suffering from chronic back pain. However, a club spokesman said that was not the reason for the decision.

Neither Mitchell nor coach Jimmy Johnson was immediately available for comment. Mitchell, who played his first four seasons with the Jets, becomes the third tight end to leave the Dolphins since Johnson became coach.

Jurisprudence

Former Los Angeles Ram player Darryl Henley lost an effort to disqualify all federal judges in the Los Angeles area from presiding in his drug and murder-for-hire case. In denying Henley’s motion, U.S. District Judge James Ideman said the judicial district is so big that he has little contact with the Santa Ana judge whom Henley wanted to kill.

Henley, 29, is accused in a 13-count indictment of allegedly plotting the killings of Judge Gary Taylor and of former Ram cheerleader Terry Donaho, who testified against Henley in a 1995 drug trial at which Taylor was the judge.

*

Former WBC heavyweight champion Oliver McCall was arrested on charges of crack cocaine and marijuana possession, his second drug arrest in four months.

Police said they stopped McCall while he was driving his car illegally down a lakefront bike path in Chicago. Officers discovered a clear plastic bag on the seat containing less than a gram of suspected crack cocaine, authorities said. An additional search turned up about 3.5 grams of marijuana.

*

A California man who changed his identity to play football last season for the University of Texas after his eligibility expired avoided prison time or a fine. Ron Weaver, 30, of Salinas, will have a felony criminal record after appearing before U.S. District Judge William J. Rea. He pleaded guilty in May to misusing a social security number.

*

In a decision that dismissed a rape case involving two Virginia Tech football players, a judge ruled that Congress exceeded its authority by enacting a law that lets women sue their attackers in federal court.

Christy Brzonkala, the first woman to sue under the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, claimed the two players raped her in their dormitory suite in 1994. She sought $10 million from reserve linebacker Antonio Morrison and unspecified damages against defensive back James Crawford.

U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser said gender discrimination is not like racial bias, so the 1994 law patterned after the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional.

Names in the News

Reginaldo Tavares da Silva Jr., an 18-year-old amateur boxer, died of internal injuries after an exhibition bout Sunday morning in Sao Goncalo, Brazil. . . . Dale Earnhardt, who fractured his left collar bone and sternum in a crash during Sunday’s DieHard 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, said he will attempt to qualify his Goodwrench Chevrolet on Thursday. Then he plans to at least start Saturday in the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. . . . IndyCar driver Emerson Fittipaldi was to undergo back surgery in Miami to repair a fractured vertebra sustained in an opening-lap crash during Sunday’s Marlboro 500 in Detroit. . . . Greg Norman, Nick Price and Steve Elkington advanced and Ernie Els was eliminated in the first round of the International section of the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf in Kohler, Wis. . . . English soccer star Alan Shearer was sold by Blackburn to Newcastle for $23.25 million, believed to be the largest transfer fee in soccer history. . . . Dave Yanai was hired as head basketball coach at Cal State Los Angeles after heading Cal State Dominguez Hills’ program for the past 19 years.