Terrell Owens agrees to contract with Bengals

Wide receiver Terrell Owens agreed to a contract with the Cincinnati Bengals on Tuesday and will report to training camp in a couple of days, a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press.

The Bengals were his first choice, giving him a chance to team with close friend Chad Ochocinco, who has already dubbed the pair Batman and Robin. The Bengals made an offer on Monday, and Owens accepted a day later.

Players are required to report for the start of training camp on Wednesday in Georgetown, Ky. Owens is expected to show up when workouts begin on Thursday, said the person speaking on condition of anonymity because the team had made no announcement.

On his Twitter account, all Owens would say was, “Hoping 2 b a Bengal w/in the 24hrs!!” He’s expected to sign his deal when he arrives in Georgetown.

Already, it’s like something out of a reality show.

Ochocinco gushed about the matchup on his Twitter feed, welcoming Owens and joking that “all of our games have been moved to pay-per-view, you got to pay to see this.”

Owens caught 55 passes for 829 yards and five touchdowns with the Buffalo Bills last season, his least-productive full season since early in his career with San Francisco. The Bengals are trying to upgrade a passing game that was one of the NFL’s worst last season, ranking 26th.

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The NFL will distribute a new poster to teams that warns of the dangers from concussions in much harsher language than the league had used before.

Traumatic brain injury “may lead to problems with memory and communication, personality changes, as well as depression and the early onset of dementia,” the document reads. “Concussions and conditions resulting from repeated brain injury can change your life and your family’s life forever.”

The acknowledgment of such risks is a significant change from a pamphlet previously distributed to players, starting in 2007.

That pamphlet said: “Current research with professional athletes has not shown that having more than one or two concussions leads to permanent problems if each injury is managed properly.”

Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, co-chairman of the NFL committee that studies concussions, said that recent research — even reports that have come out in just the last few months — influenced the changes in wording.

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The New England Patriots say they have placed wide receiver Wes Welker on the active/physically unable to perform list.

Welker, who has made a strong recovery from knee surgery in February, could come off the list at any time, the Patriots said. New England begins training camp on Thursday.

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Baltimore Ravens second-round draft pick Terrence Cody failed his conditioning test Tuesday and was not permitted to participate in the team’s first training camp practice. The 360-pound defensive tackle out of Alabama signed a three-year contract Monday. After flunking his physical, he was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform list.

ETC.

Diego Maradona was removed as Argentina’s soccer coach, his stay ending after nearly two years on the job and a humiliating exit in the World Cup quarterfinals. The Argentine Football Assn. said it would not renew his contract. The federation had offered Maradona a four-year contract through the 2014 World Cup, but Maradona said he would do so only if his entire staff remained.

That was unacceptable to Argentine Football Assn. President Julio Grondona. He had asked for several assistants to be replaced. One of them was Maradona’s close friend Alejandro Mancuso.

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Santa Anita closed its track to training on Sunday and has begun a maintenance program that will try to improve issues involving drainage of its Pro-Ride surface when it rains at the Arcadia track. Significant rain resulted in the track being unusable times.

“For the most part, this is regularly scheduled maintenance,” Santa Anita President George Haines said. “Beyond that, however, we are working toward mitigating our drainage issues with the main track. The Pro-Ride surface was very safe and it performed beautifully this past meet, except for the fact that we continue to have drainage issues through the [home] stretch and in particular, in the area near the finish line.

“We’re in the process of repairing this area now. We’ve gone down to the base and we’re going to try and address the drainage problem as best we can.”

Santa Anita is scheduled to host the Oak Tree meeting from Sept. 29 to Oct. 31.

— Eric Sondheimer

Organizers say former Olympic champion Justin Gatlin will make his comeback from a four-year doping ban at the Bigbank Kuldliiga meet in Estonia on Aug. 3. Spokesman Taavi Esperk says the American sprinter will run in the 100 meters. Gatlin won gold in the 100 at the 2004 Athens Olympics and in the 100 and 200 at the 2005 world championships.

He was one of the fastest men on the planet then, tying the 100 world record of 9.77 seconds. That run came weeks after a positive test in April 2006 for excessive testosterone and has since been erased.

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Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Jonny Flynn might miss the start of the regular season after surgery on his left hip.

The Timberwolves say Flynn underwent successful surgery Tuesday in Colorado. The team says typical recovery time is three to four months.

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Free-agent forward Shavlik Randolph signed with the Miami Heat.

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A spokesman for the West Virginia basketball team says further testing has revealed that Coach Bob Huggins broke seven ribs — not four — in a hotel room fall. Bryan Messerly said Huggins remains in a Las Vegas hospital and should be released soon, but he does not know exactly when.

Huggins injured himself in a fall in his Las Vegas hotel room Friday. He was in Nevada on a recruiting trip.