Davis Testifies That NFL Uses ‘Extortion’

Oakland Raider owner Al Davis, who won $49 million in an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL, testified Wednesday that the league’s decision to charge the Rams a relocation fee amounted to extortion.

The St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission is suing the NFL for $130 million, saying the league tried to stop the Rams from moving.

Davis, who moved the Raiders to Los Angeles from Oakland, won his case shortly after relocating in 1982 by challenging the league’s right to block franchise movement without guidelines governing such action.

Davis was not in court Wednesday, so a lawyer read his responses from a July deposition.

At one point Davis testified that “not until St. Louis came up with more money was the [Rams’] deal to St. Louis approved [by the league].”

What is that, he was asked?

“Extortion,” Davis said in the deposition.

Tennis

The WTA Tour Player Review Committee approved a $5,000 fine for Irina Spirlea of Romania for remarks she made after her semifinal loss to Venus Williams at the U.S. Open.

Spirlea lost the match, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), to the 17-year-old American. The players bumped each other hard during a changeover in the second set and Spirlea later used an expletive to describe Williams.

Boris Becker, playing perhaps his final big tournament at home, was knocked out of the Eurocard Open in Stuttgart, Germany, along with second-ranked Michael Chang and four other seeded players.

Becker, the defending champion, lost, 7-6 (12-10), 6-4, to Richard Krajicek. Chang’s 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 ouster by Cedric Pioline followed the exits of No. 4 Goran Ivanisevic, No. 6 Carlos Moya and No. 8 Sergi Bruguera. In the last match, No. 5 Greg Rusedski was upset by Nicolas Kiefer.

Golf

John Adams and Billy Glasson shot nine-under-par 63s in the opening round of the $1.8-million Las Vegas Invitational. Billy Andrade, Kelly Gibson and Brad Fabel were a shot back.

David Duval, trying to become the first golfer in four years to win three consecutive PGA Tour events, pulled out at the last minute, saying he was too tired. Also withdrawing was John Daly, who gave no reason.

College Basketball

Fired Michigan coach Steve Fisher said he has turned down an offer to become coach at South Alabama, although the school said it never made him a formal offer.

Fresno State now has lost three players to suspensions. Starting power forward Daymond Forney was suspended indefinitely Tuesday for unspecified violations. Forward Terrance Roberson was suspended earlier for failing to meet the program’s requirements, but he is expected to become eligible within two weeks. Incoming point guard Rafer Alston has been suspended and faces a misdemeanor criminal battery charge of punching and choking an ex-girlfriend outside the campus weight room Sept. 11.

A booster allowed University of Cincinnati player Ruben Patterson to stay at a condominium and co-signed a car loan for him, according to a television report. . . . Henry “J.R.” Camel, Montana’s leading returning scorer, was suspended from the team and made his initial court appearance Wednesday, a day after being charged with drunk driving.

Jurisprudence

Dallas Cowboy offensive lineman Nate Newton, who was cleared by a Dallas County grand jury, has been sued by a former mistress who accused him previously of rape. Tina Hill, 31, of Grand Prairie, filed the lawsuit in Denton County, where Newton lives. She alleges Newton raped her in her mobile home June 15. On Sept. 2, a grand jury in neighboring Dallas County voted not to indict Newton on a sexual assault charge.

Miscellany

The International Weightlifting Federation will not verify the world records set by Chinese lifters at the National Games in Shanghai, citing a lack of internationally recognized doping controls. The decision cast doubt over the remarkable performances in Shanghai, where Chinese women set world records in weightlifting, swimming and track.

Without facing the issue head on, the University of Mississippi may have banned use of the Confederate flag during sporting events by banning sticks and other pointed objects from athletic events.

The new policy, effective Nov. 1, comes on the heels of a resolution by Ole Miss student government leaders urging students to keep the racially charged flags away from athletic events.

A former Oregon State softball coach, Vickie Dugan, says in a suit she was paid less than her male counterparts and eventually was replaced by a male coach after she complained to federal civil rights investigators and fought a move to eliminate the women’s softball program. Oregon State contends she was simply not up to the job.