Rams’ Phillips Arrested for Disorderly Conduct in Omaha

St. Louis Ram running back Lawrence Phillips, who was placed on probation in December for drunken driving, was arrested and ticketed for disorderly conduct early Sunday morning after a disturbance at a hotel in Omaha.

Police were called to the Red Lion hotel about 2:15 a.m. CST and found Phillips with five other men and several women having a party, Sgt. William Muldoon said.

“He started getting belligerent with the officers, cursing and yelling, and it got to the point where we had to arrest him,” Muldoon said.

Muldoon would not say if there was alcohol in the room. He said a couple of the women had filed harassment charges against some of the men, but would not say which ones.

Although disorderly conduct is a misdemeanor, Phillips was arrested, instead of merely ticketed, because he no longer lives in the area, Muldoon said.

Phillips was released on a $50 bond.

New Ram Coach Dick Vermeil, calling Phillips’ latest problem a disappointment, said, “It’s a repeated behavioral pattern. He’s going to end up depriving himself of the opportunity to play in the National Football League, not by me but by the league.”

Phillips, who played football at Baldwin Park High, was also on probation for an assault on former Nebraska girlfriend Katherine McEwen when he pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge in December in Rio Hondo Municipal Court in El Monte. That charge stemmed from an arrest June 15 on the Pomona Freeway.

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Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones lopped nearly $5 million off his team’s payroll by buying back deferred money from several players at present-day value, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Among the players, according to the newspaper, were quarterback Troy Aikman, receiver Michael Irvin and defensive linemen Tony Tolbert and Charles Haley.

The Cowboys went from $3.7 million over the salary cap to $1.09 million under within three days before Friday’s deadline.

When deferred money is guaranteed, it is treated as a signing bonus, meaning it counts against the salary cap for the length of the deal. When a team buys back deferred money, it lowers the cap figure.

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Bill Parcells decided to quit and New England Patriot owner Bob Kraft considered firing him after a draft-day blowup in 1996, the Boston Globe reported.

The story, written by Will McDonough, who also works for NBC, said the incident did irreparable damage to their relationship and led to Parcells’ departure.

McDonough says their dispute centers around Kraft taking away player selection duties from Parcells and giving them to player personnel director Terry Grier.

Parcells and McDonough share the same agent, Robert Fraley.

After the 1995 season, Parcells agreed to an amended contract, apparently without a lawyer, and he evidently did not understand what he had agreed to.

He thought it would make him a free agent at the end of the 1996 season, but it actually said that if Parcells wanted to remain coaching, he would have to do so with the Patriots. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue upheld that interpretation this month and New England got four draft choices from the New York Jets, with whom Parcells signed.

College Football

All-America running back Byron Hanspard and lineman Casey Jones completed last fall’s semester at Texas Tech University without passing a course, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Hanspard, a junior who rushed for 2,084 yards and won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back, finished the semester with a grade-point average of 0.00 and announced he would make himself eligible for the NFL draft.

Jones, a senior offensive lineman who had gone to court to block the school’s efforts to rule him ineligible before the season, also had a 0.00.

When asked if the GPAs of Hanspard and Jones concerned him or whether Texas Tech should be doing more to ensure that student athletes are really students, Coach Spike Dykes said eligibility under NCAA rules was his only concern.

Tennis

Martina Hingis, 16, of Switzerland won her fourth consecutive tournament when she defeated Anke Huber, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, in the Paris Women’s Open final to remain unbeaten for the year.

It was almost the greatest upset of Greg Rusedski’s career. The lanky left-hander had No. 1-ranked Pete Sampras on the defensive, besting him 6-3 in the first set of the Sybase Open final at San Jose.

But the wrist pain which had dogged Rusedski all week finally caught up with him, and Sampras jumped ahead 5-0 in the second set. Rusedski, ranked 39th, was forced to withdraw after falling behind, 0-30, in the sixth game.

Second-seeded Thomas Muster of Austria beat Goran Ivanisevic, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), to win his first $1-million Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates.

Thomas Enqvist of Sweden won the Marseille Open in France when Marcelo Rios of Chile quit in the second set because of a strained left thigh muscle. Enqvist was leading, 6-4, 1-0.

Winter Sports

Gunda Niemann of Germany won the all-around World Speedskating Championship at Nagano, Japan, with the best score ever recorded.

With gold medals in three races and a silver in a fourth, Niemann had 165.708 points, better than her 1994 record of 167.282.

Ids Postma of the Netherlands won the men’s title.

Track and Field

Irina Privalova of Russia won the women’s 60 meters in 7.02 seconds and the 200 in 22.52, both season bests, at an indoor meet at Lievin, France.

Michael Green of Jamaica won the men’s 60 in 6.49.

Michelle Freeman of Jamaica won the women’s 60-meter hurdles with a time of 7.77, and Ivan Pedroso of Cuba won the long jump at 28 feet 2 3/4 inches.

Olympic 110-meter hurdles gold medalist Allen Johnson edged world record-holder Colin Jackson of Britain in the men’s 60 hurdles. Both were timed in 7.53 seconds.

Long Beach Wilson set two national high school girls’ indoor records at the Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho. The first was in the 800 relay, where a team of Regine Caruthers, Latrice Borders, Joni Smith and Kinshash Davis ran 1:36.55 to break the old mark of 1:37.89, set by Skyline of Oakland in 1993.

With Sharon Egwuonwu replacing Borders in the 1,600 relay, the Bruins ran 3:44.33 to break their own mark of 3:44.83 set last year.