Cox Is Released by Bears After a Tempestuous Stay

Bryan Cox, the outspoken linebacker who was a disappointment in Chicago, was released Tuesday by the Bears.

Cox, who signed a four-year, $13.5-million contract in 1996, had 232 tackles and eight sacks in 25 games for the Bears after getting 34 1/2 sacks in five years with the Miami Dolphins.

The Bears were unhappy with Cox, 30, on and off the field. He incurred $102,500 in fines for making an obscene gesture at a game official in 1996 and for throwing his helmet in last year’s season opener at Green Bay.

The defending Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders reportedly are interested in Cox, who was voted to the Pro Bowl three times with the Dolphins.

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As expected, Vinny Testaverde was waived by the Baltimore Ravens and Jim Harbaugh stepped in as the team’s quarterback. . . . Lawrence Phillips, Miami’s oft-troubled running back given one more shot at the NFL, will miss the rest of the Dolphins’ mini-camp after breaking the big toe on his right foot. . . . The St. Louis Rams released Robert Jones, their starting middle linebacker last season.

Soccer

Romario, whose scoring skills led Brazil to the 1994 World Cup title, won’t be doing it again this year. Once the star for the world’s dominant soccer nation, the striker has an injured calf and was cut from the team.

Michel Platini, co-president of the World Cup organizing committee, condemned the Air France pilots’ strike as harming the image of France, while the walkout disrupted the national team’s World Cup training.

In its second day, the strike at the World Cup’s official airline caused scheduling nightmares for teams preparing for the soccer championship, which begins June 10.

The U.S. Soccer Federation said it has rented buses in France in case domestic flights are affected by the walkout.

As expected, former Frenchman David Regis was formally added to the U.S. World Cup roster when it was submitted to FIFA just before Tuesday’s deadline. Regis, 29, became a U.S. citizen May 20 and made his international debut four days later against Kuwait.

Jurisprudence

Washington Redskin receiver Leslie Shepherd was acquitted of assaulting a man outside a northwest Washington nightclub, even though the judge in the case said he was “probably guilty.”

D.C. Superior Court Judge Ronald Wertheim said Shepherd was acquitted because the government failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Shepherd caused multiple contusions to a northern Virginia man.

Boxing

Still smarting from their breakup, Emanuel Steward, training Henry Akinwande for his attempt on Saturday to win Evander Holyfield’s World Boxing Assn., and International Boxing Federation titles, called Holyfield a liar.

Steward helped guide Holyfield to a second world title when Holyfield upset Riddick Bowe in 1993, but Holyfield fired Steward when he asked for a percentage of his take for his next fight against Michael Moorer.

“He’s a liar,” Steward said in New York. “I never asked for a percentage. I told him I had to drop everything for him and I would need to make $500,000.

Steward also said Holyfield paid him only $175,000 for the Bowe fight instead of the $250,000 he was owed.

Holyfield had left the news conference before Steward’s claims.

Former World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion John Tate was high on cocaine when he slammed his pickup truck into a utility pole in April and died, the Knox County (Tenn.) medical examiner said.

Sandra Elkins, however, said that does not change her initial finding that Tate, 43, died of a stroke caused by a tumor at the base of his skull.

Miscellany

The NCAA publicly reprimanded former University of North Carolina basketball player Makhtar Ndiaye for falsely accusing Utah’s Britton Johnsen of uttering a racial slur at him during a Final Four game in March.

Fresno State and Hawaii say they will remain with the Western Athletic Conference in the wake of defections of eight schools that plan to form their own conference. In addition, WAC Commissioner Karl Benson, who had discussions with the dissident schools about heading their new league, said he will stay.

The Los Angeles Sparks trimmed three players from their training camp roster. Released were Danielle Scott, Judy Mosely-McAfee and Curtycine Jones. The team must trim down to its final 11 players by June 10, the day before its WNBA season opener at Utah.

Randy Harvey is on assignment.