Rams’ Phillips Sentenced to 30 Days in Jail

Humming as he was led away in handcuffs, St. Louis Ram running back Lawrence Phillips was sentenced to 30 days in jail Tuesday for violating probation.

Lancaster County, Neb., Judge Jack Lindner revoked Phillips’ probation and sentenced him on two counts stemming from the 1995 assault of his former girlfriend, Kate McEwen. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Phillips had been on one year of probation for the assault. Hal Anderson, Phillips’ lawyer, said he violated that probation when he was arrested on drunk-driving charges in California in June.

“There is a price tag you pay for the mistakes you make,” Ram Coach Dick Vermeil said at the NFL meetings in Palm Desert. “Once he gets this behind him, he can get on with being a football player. This can’t hurt. It can help.”

Phillips, 21, is the third Nebraska player from the 1994 national championship team to spend time behind bars and the second to be sentenced in the last month.

The other jailed Nebraska players are Tyrone Williams and Christian Peter. Williams, a defensive back now with the Green Bay Packers, was sentenced Feb. 19 to a six-month jail sentence for firing two shots into a car. Peter, a defensive lineman, spent 10 days in a Kearney jail after pleading no contest to disturbing the peace at a bar in March 1996.

Motor Sports

Lawyers for Bobby Unser, accused of violating the federal Wilderness Act, waived a preliminary hearing and are seeking a jury trial in U.S. District Court.

Unser, three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, drove his snowmobile into the Rio Grande National Forest, near the Colorado-New Mexico border, on Dec. 20, when he and a friend became lost in the designated wilderness area.

Unser entered a plea of not guilty, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Durango, Colo.

If convicted, Unser faces up to a $5,000 fine and six months in jail.

His son, Bobby Unser Jr., was arrested outside Albuquerque on Saturday on charges of drunk driving and marijuana possession.

An officer stopped the younger Unser after his car allegedly crossed the center line.

Police said he failed a field sobriety test and refused to take a breath test, and when he was taken to a jail, a marijuana cigarette was found in his pocket.

He was charged with possession of marijuana and aggravated DWI because of his alleged refusal to take a breath test.

He was released Sunday after posting a $1,041 bond.

NHRA funny car driver Al Hofmann, injured in a crash Sunday at the Mac Tools Gatornationals, was upgraded to good condition at a Gainesville, Fla., hospital.

Top fuel driver Marshall Topping remained in serious condition and drag racer Keith Stark remained in fair condition with injuries sustained in separate accidents during the race at Gainesville Raceway.

Pro Football

Chicago Bear defensive end Alonzo Spellman was released on $5,000 bond after being arrested on charges of transporting a loaded gun in his auto and speeding. Spellman was arrested after Illinois State Police stopped him on a Chicago-area tollway.

Miscellany

Tonya Edwards scored 23 points as the Columbus Quest defeated the Richmond Rage, 77-64, and won the inaugural American Basketball League championship in five games in Columbus, Ohio. Columbus had trailed, 2-1, in the best-of-five series. Dawn Staley scored 19 points for Richmond.

Tracy McGrady, a 6-foot-9 high school All-American from Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, N.C., announced that he’ll forego college and make himself available for the NBA draft.

Earl Anthony bowled a 300 game at the start of the second round to take the lead at the PBA Albany Senior Open at Clifton Park, N.Y.

Terry Ewert, a longtime NBC producer, was hired as executive producer at CBS Sports.

Martin Buser fought off a spirited challenge from Doug Swingley to capture his third Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, finishing the 1,100-mile race in nine days, eight hours, 31 minutes--slower than the nine-day, two-hour record set Swingley in 1995. Swingley ran about two hours behind Buser.

Arizona State swimming Coach Ward O’Connell is retiring after 31 years at the school. O’Connell had been men’s and women’s diving coach at Arizona State since 1974, leading the men’s team to first place the last three seasons

Lennox Lewis was ordered by the World Boxing Council to decide by the end of the month when to defend his heavyweight title against Henry Akinwande. If not, the WBC said it will do so.

ESPN and ESPN2 will provide live coverage of 35 Major League Soccer matches in the season that begins March 22.