Court Won’t Rehear Clarett Case

A federal appeals court in New York has rejected running back Maurice Clarett’s longshot bid to get the court to reconsider his lawsuit challenging the NFL’s eligibility rule for the draft.

Lawyers on both sides were told this week that the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals had rejected a request for a rare rehearing by all 11 judges.

The former Ohio State standout now must decide whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In May, a three-judge appeals panel said federal labor policy allows NFL teams to set rules for when players can enter the league, stopping Clarett from being eligible for the NFL draft.

A lower court judge in February ruled Clarett eligible for the draft, saying the NFL violated federal antitrust laws with its rule barring eligibility until a player was three years out of high school.

Clarett was only two years out of high school at the time. He will be eligible for the draft in April no matter what happens in court.

Clarett rushed for 1,237 yards and 16 touchdowns as a freshman in 2002, helping lead the Buckeyes to the national championship.

He was suspended before the 2003 season for accepting money from a family friend and lying about it to NCAA and Ohio State investigators.

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Receiver Randy Moss tested his strained right hamstring on Friday, but his status for Minnesota’s game against Tennessee on Sunday remained uncertain.

Moss ran on a treadmill and sat out his third consecutive practice. Coach Mike Tice said Moss looked “pretty good” and would do more work today. Tice said he expected to decide Sunday morning whether to play Moss against the Titans.

“Certainly we know he’s not 100%,” Tice said. “We’ll just weigh the options and see how it goes.”

Tice said Moss, listed as questionable for the game, felt no soreness in the hamstring.

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Cornerback Andre Woolfolk was added to the Titans’ injury report after back spasms forced him to leave practice early.

Woolfolk, who began having difficulties when he landed awkwardly jumping for a ball, is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Vikings.

The condition was not considered serious, and no X-rays were planned.

Starting right guard Benji Olson, whose team-high streak of 85 consecutive starts ended last weekend because of a groin strain, practiced for the first time since he was injured Oct. 11 at Green Bay.

He is listed as questionable.

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Newly acquired receiver Keenan McCardell will make his season debut on Sunday and might even start for San Diego in its road game against Carolina.

The Chargers obtained McCardell from Tampa Bay for two draft picks on Tuesday, just before the NFL trading deadline.

McCardell was the league’s last holdout, skipping the first six games with Tampa Bay because he was unhappy his contract wasn’t renegotiated.

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Keenan starts,” Coach Marty Schottenheimer said.

If McCardell starts, it will be opposite Eric Parker. Reche Caldwell, San Diego’s leading receiver, sustained a season-ending knee injury in Sunday’s loss at Atlanta.

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Oakland defensive line coach Sam Clancy was released from a hospital, a day after he was taken from the team’s practice facility in an ambulance because of chest pains and shortness of breath he experienced during practice.

Doctors told Clancy, 46, he could coach Sunday in the Raiders’ home game against New Orleans, Coach Norv Turner said.

“He’s doing fine. They’ve done a lot of tests on him,” Turner said. “He did not have a heart attack. He had an arrhythmia.”

An arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat.

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Chicago gave scarce flu vaccines to two players who have asthmatic conditions that placed them at high risk of developing influenza, team officials said.

Healthy players who asked whether they should receive the vaccinations were told no.

The team returned its unused flu vaccine to the distributor, a club spokesman said.