Cardinals Lower the Boom, Release Esiason

Quarterback Boomer Esiason, who walked out on the Arizona Cardinals last season in a dispute over whether he should start, was released Monday.

Esiason, 36 next month, played in 10 games in his only season with the Cardinals. He started eight games before he was replaced by Kent Graham, triggering the walkout.

Esiason began the season as the starter before he was replaced by Graham, 28. Esiason had made it clear he would not accept a backup role with the club in 1997.

The Cardinals had been trying to trade Esiason since Coach Vince Tobin announced at the end of the season that Graham was his starter.

Esiason last year completed 190 of 339 passes for 2,293 yards and 11 touchdowns and threw 14 interceptions.

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A judge in McKinney, Texas, has sealed the divorce record of Dallas Cowboy wide receiver-cornerback Deion Sanders. Last September, Deion and Carolyn Sanders sued each other for divorce. Days later, they announced that they had reconciled. Earlier this month, Mrs. Sanders revived her petition, accusing her husband of adultery.

State District Judge Curt Henderson sealed the case Monday.

Attorneys for both sides said privacy was the main issue in sealing the record.

On Monday, Sanders filed a cross-petition for divorce, asking that he and his wife be given joint custody of their children, Deiondra, 6, and Deion Jr., 3.

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Elvis Grbac, longtime backup for San Francisco 49er quarterback Steve Young, signed a five-year contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. . . . The St. Louis Rams signed free-agent linebacker Michael Jones, the Oakland Raiders’ leading tackler the last two seasons, to a four-year contract. . . . The Atlanta Falcons re-signed defensive end Todd Kelly, an unrestricted free agent, to a one-year contract.

Cornerback Corey Harris agreed to a three-year deal with Miami, becoming the first unrestricted free agent signed by the Dolphins this season. Harris, who will play safety, will receive $4.5 million over three years, including a $1.8-million signing bonus. . . . The New York Jets signed unrestricted free-agent cornerback Jerome Henderson, who had been with the New England Patriots, and re-signed quarterback John Paci.

Tennis

Boris Becker arrived in Miami trailed by German media reports that he had left his country for good to live in Florida.

Becker, who is scheduled to play at the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne later this week, refused to speak to reporters waiting for him at the airport. The three-time Wimbledon champion was escorted out of the arrival area by security guards.

Becker’s wife Barbara, 31, and son Noah, 3, arrived in Florida last weekend.

Becker is reportedly disenchanted with Germany’s tax officials in his country and is planning to make his new home on exclusive Fisher Island just off Miami Beach. Becker’s lawyer was not immediately available to comment on whether the move was permanent.

Jurisprudence

A Virginia Tech track athlete testified in Christiansburg, Va., that he was chased and beaten by several football players and suffered a broken collarbone when a wide receiver hit him with a cane.

But in the first trial of one of the football players in the case, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs dismissed the attempted malicious wounding charge against receiver Angelo Harrison.

Three football players testified that Harrison was not involved in the beating of sprinter Hilliard Sumner. And three prosecution witnesses said it was too dark to identify who took part in the Aug. 31 attack on the Virginia Tech campus.

Former Ferrari driver Michele Alboreto said in court in Imola, Italy, that a mechanical failure caused Ayrton Senna’s fatal crash during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Alboreto, the second driver to testify in the trial of six top Formula One officials charged with manslaughter in the death of the three-time series champion, made his statement after studying footage of the accident in court.

The prosecution contends that a badly modified steering column cracked in Senna’s Williams-Renault, causing the crash.

Senna died of massive head injuries after failing to make a turn and crashing into a concrete wall.

Steven Franklin Williams, a professional wrestler known to fans as Dr. Death, was arrested after airport inspectors in Laredo, Texas, found him in possession of undeclared pharmaceutical drugs.

Inspectors found the undeclared pharmaceutical drugs inside luggage belonging to Williams and two companions and charged the three with possession of a controlled substance, a felony.

Boxing

Carlos Gonzalez of Xochimilco, Mexico, beat Palmdale’s Hector Lopez by a unanimous decision in a junior welterweight main event at the Forum.

Names in the News

Mark Weber, offensive line coach at Nevada Las Vegas the last three years, has been hired as offensive line coach at UCLA.

Australian sprinter Dean Capobianco was banned for four years for using steroids. The International Amateur Athletic Federation, track and field’s governing body, overturned a ruling last year by an Australian tribunal that had cleared Capobianco of drug charges. After a two-day hearing, the IAAF panel ruled that Capobianco had tested positive for Stanozolol--the same drug that got Ben Johnson thrown out of the 1988 Olympics--at a meet in Hengelo, Netherlands, last May 27.

NASCAR Truck series driver John Nemechek remained in extremely critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida after suffering severe head injuries during a wreck in Sunday’s NASCAR Truck series race. Jay Sauter, another driver hospitalized after a crash, was listed in good condition.

Dragster driver Keith Stark was released from a hospital in Gainesville, Fla., eight days after he was injured in a crash.