Cowboys’ Aikman Announces His Retirement

Troy Aikman’s NFL career ended with the Dallas Cowboys after all.

The three-time Super Bowl champion announced his retirement at a news conference Monday at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas, where the former UCLA quarterback starred for 12 seasons.

“You watch and you think that your time will never come,” said Aikman, fighting back tears as he announced his plans. “And, my time’s come.”

Aikman suffered four concussions in his last 20 starts, giving him 10 in his career, and has a degenerative back problem.

“I know it’s the right thing,” he said. “I know it’s the right thing for me because of my health, concussions, the back problems I’ve had. It took its toll.”

Aikman, 34, said the competitor in him wanted to continue, but he said his family weighed in his decision.

“I think when all things are considered it was the right thing for me and my family,” he said.

“I just can’t do it anymore. If it was just me, then I think it would be a little easier to try to go on.”

Aikman regained his composure as he talked about the years he played for the Cowboys in a news conference that lasted nearly 90 minutes as he went point by point thanking people.

“It was 12 of the best years of my life, professionally speaking,” he said. “We had some great fun.”

Aikman’s next move could be into the broadcast booth.

He didn’t mention any specific networks, but Fox is expected to be the front-runner to hire him.

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The Washington Redskins signed free-agent wide receiver Kevin Lockett to a two-year, $2-million contract. . . . Tom Benson, 74-year-old owner of the New Orleans Saints, was released from a New Orleans hospital, six days after undergoing bypass surgery because of blockages in his coronary arteries, the team said.

Miscellany

Connecticut men’s basketball Coach Jim Calhoun passed up a lucrative offer from South Carolina, the Journal Inquirer of Manchester (Conn.) reported. Calhoun, who led the Huskies to a national championship in 1999 and is 349-142 in 15 seasons at Connecticut, turned down South Carolina Athletic Director Mike McGee’s latest offer Sunday. . . . Arizona forward Michael Wright, who averaged 15.6 points and 7.8 rebounds last season, is skipping his senior year to make himself available for the NBA draft. . . . High school star Eddy Curry, a 6-foot-11, 290-pound center who had committed to DePaul, said that he will make himself available for the NBA draft. . . . Ron Everhart, who led McNeese State to winning records in five of his seven seasons, was hired as the new coach at Northeastern. . . . Tulsa hired assistant John Phillips to succeed Buzz Peterson as basketball coach.

Rising tennis star Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina has been hit with a three-month suspension from the ATP Tour after testing positive for the banned steroid methyltestosterone, the ATP announced.

Chela, 21, also forfeits his current ranking points and will drop out of the top 500 in the world when the ban ends in July. Chela told the ATP’s three-person Anti-Doping Tribunal that his doctor gave him the substance in pill form and did not know it was a steroid.

Chela, ranked 76th in the Champions Race, was a finalist at the Bogota event this year and took Pete Sampras to five sets at the Australian Open in the third round. He tested positive for the steroid last summer at the Masters Series event in Cincinnati.

Qualifier Albert Montanes of Spain defeated sixth-seeded Michael Chang, 6-1, 6-3, in the opening round of the Estoril Open at Oeiras, Portugal.

Center Andrew Cassels of the Vancouver Canucks will sit out at least two games of the first round of the playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche because of a sprained ankle.

Four track officials face manslaughter charges in the death of one of Australia’s leading drag racers. Todd Wilkes, known to fans as “Judge,” was killed when his car hit a wall and burst into flames at Eastern Creek Raceway in suburban Sydney on Feb. 25. . . . The trial of Leeds United soccer stars Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate, accused of being involved in the severe beating of an Asian student, collapsed with no verdicts in Hull, England. . . . Gennadi Touretski, the Russian swimming coach who trains Olympic champions Alexander Popov and Michael Klim, has been charged with possession of anabolic steroids and suspended by the Australian Institute of Sport.

Australia set a record for the most one-sided international victory in FIFA history, defeating Tonga, 22-0, in an Oceania Group 1 World Cup qualifying soccer match at Coffs Harbour, Australia.

Two-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said that a government investigation of his cycling team has found no evidence of doping in urine samples. At a news conference in Paris, Armstrong criticized the news media for hinting that he took drugs, and said he intended to win his third consecutive Tour de France this year.

About a dozen people picketed to start what the NAACP says will be a week of demonstrations at the PGA Tour’s Worldcom Classic in Hilton Head Island, S.C.

About 84% of the available tickets for next year’s Winter Olympics have been sold.