Spurrier Is Ready for First Game

More than 6,000 miles from the Florida swamps, Steve Spurrier will call his first plays in an NFL game.

Amid more hype than exhibition games are usually worth, the Fun ‘N Gun coach with the $25-million contract debuts with the Washington Redskins against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday (tonight 7 PDT) in the American Bowl at Osaka, Japan.

“It will be interesting to see what he can do at the NFL level,” 49er quarterback Jeff Garcia said. “I don’t think he’ll hold anything back.”

Spurrier didn’t have exhibition games at Florida, so he has been all over the place describing his feelings and his game plan.

Overall, however, he has downplayed the game’s significance, preferring to save his real competitive juices for the season opener Sept. 8.

“It’s kind of like a bowl game,” Spurrier said Friday after practice at the Osaka Dome. “Sometimes those bowl games don’t mean a heck of a lot in college. You keep score. There’s going to be a winner and loser.”

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San Diego Charger running back LaDainian Tomlinson, already slowed in training camp by a blister, sprained his left ankle and was driven off the field on a cart.

Tomlinson, who was to be examined by a doctor, was hurt during a team drill in which he was to hit the hole between the right guard and tackle during the morning practice. He thinks another player fell on his ankle from the inside.

“I don’t think it is too bad; hopefully it will just be a day-to-day thing but we’ve just got to be careful with it,” Tomlinson said.

“It’s not something that is going to keep me out for a while.”

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Federal prosecutors have charged troubled former NFL lineman Alonzo Spellman with terrorizing fellow passengers on a flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.

The 31-year-old Spellman was charged with interfering with a flight crew after the disturbance on a July 23 flight from Cincinnati to Philadelphia, according to a federal complaint unsealed Friday.

Spellman also was arrested later that day for allegedly ransacking his brother’s home in Mount Holly, N.J. There, he was charged with making threats, criminal mischief and hindering apprehension.

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The Atlanta Falcons finally signed first-round draft pick T.J. Duckett, who they hope will be their No. 1 running back this season.

Earlier this week, the team said it had broken off talks with Duckett, chosen 18th overall in last April’s draft. And before that, they postponed negotiations for physical examinations of the player, who was injured in a fight after a concert in Michigan.

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Defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy, who sat out last season, announced his retirement from football.

Kennedy, who played 11 seasons in Seattle, was the NFL’s defensive player of the year in 1992 and was named to the all-decade team of the ‘90s. He was the third overall pick in the 1990 draft.

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Linebacker Brandon Spoon is out indefinitely after tearing his right biceps tendon in practice. Spoon was hurt while attempting to make a tackle. Bill Coach Gregg Williams said Spoon will have surgery Monday, after which the team will evaluate whether to put him on the injured reserve list.... The Baltimore Ravens signed free-agent lineman Ethan Brooks to a one-year, $525,000 contract, a move that could ultimately end the team’s experiment of using guard Edwin Mulitalo at right tackle.... Running back William Green, Cleveland’s top draft pick, hurt his right shoulder in practice and is listed as day to day. Brown Coach Butch Davis said X-rays were negative, but wouldn’t say if Green would take part in today’s scrimmage against Buffalo.... Green Bay Packer center Mike Flanagan, anchor of an offensive line considered among the best in the NFL, broke his right thumb in practice. The injury probably will keep him out of the exhibition season and possibly the regular-season opener Sept. 8 against Atlanta too.