Packers to make Aaron Rodgers NFL’s highest-paid player

This ought to give Aaron Rodgers better memories of the NFL draft.

The Green Bay Packers signed their franchise quarterback Friday to a five-year contract extension through the 2019 season, eight years after they stopped his slide down the draft board and took him with the 24th pick in the first round.

The deal, according to a person with knowledge of the contract who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team has not released the details, is worth as much as $110 million, with $40 million guaranteed. The $22 million annual average of the extension is the highest salary in NFL history, slightly trumping the $120.6 million that the Baltimore Ravens gave quarterback Joe Flacco last month over six years.

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The Cincinnati Bengals reached agreement with right tackle Andre Smith on a new contract Friday night, the final step toward bringing back their offense intact from last season.

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Lucas Glover birdied his final hole to take a one-stroke lead over Boo Weekley after the second round of the Zurich Classic at Avondale, La.

Glover, the 2009 U.S. Open winner, shot a five-under 67 to reach 12 under at TPC Louisiana. Weekley had a 68. D.A. Points was 10 under after a 68.

Guan Tianlang, the 14-year-old Chinese amateur playing on a sponsor exemption, followed his opening 72 with a 69 finish at three under and easily make the cut.

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Brad Faxon’s steady putting helped he and teammate Jeff Sluman to 10 birdies and a one-shot lead in the Champions Tour’s Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf at Savannah, Ga.

Faxon had seven birdies as the duo combined for a 10-under-par round in the better-ball team competition at the Club at Savannah Harbor.

Champions Tour points leader Bernhard Langer and teammate Tom Lehman were next and will be paired with Faxon and Sluman in Saturday’s second round of the 54-hole event.

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Caroline Masson bogeyed three of her last four holes for an even-par 71, leaving her with a one-stroke lead after the second round of the inaugural North Texas LPGA Shootout in Irving.

The German player was seven under overall at Las Colinas Country Club. She opened with a bogey-free 64 Thursday. Spain’s Carlota Ciganda was second after a 70.

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Brad Keselowski ducked underneath Kyle Busch to take the lead with 10 laps to go Friday night and won a wild NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond International Raceway in Virginia.

Keselowski had to hold off a final charge from Kevin Harvick, but after Harvick closed within a few car lengths, Keselowski kept him at bay and slightly expanded his margin in the final laps to win the three-way dual among some of NASCAR’s most aggressive and daring drivers.

Harvick, who led four times for a race-high 96 laps, was followed across the finish line by Busch.

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USC tight end Junior Pomee, who faces felony charges of burglary and possession of stolen goods, is to appear for arraignment May 10, a Los Angeles Superior court judge ruled after denying a motion to dismiss during a preliminary hearing.

Pomee, 21, has been suspended from all team activities since his arrest January 29. He had been charged with a count of burglary, grand theft and three counts of receiving stolen property, but the grand theft count was amended Friday to receiving stolen property.

USC’s Aug. 29 opener at Hawaii will kick off at 8 pm. PDT and will be televised by CBS Sports Network , the school announced.

— Gary Klein

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A two-continent, made-for-HBO boxing tripleheader will begin Saturday with a heavyweight matchup between Riverside’s Chris Arreola and Las Vegas’ Bermane Stiverne.

That match, with much at stake in the heavyweight ranks, will begin at 5:30 p.m. and be held at the Ontario Citizen’s Business Bank Arena. The winner is scheduled to gain the right to fight WBC champion Vitali Klitschko of the Ukraine. Arreola is 35-2-0 with 30 knockouts, Stiverne 22-1-1, with 20 KOs. One of Arreola’s defeats was to Klitschko.

The early start is part of a televised format that will also bring HBO viewers the middleweight matchup between Sergio Martinez of Argentina and Martin Murray of England, preceeded by a welterweight fight between Luis Carlos Abregu of Argentina and Antonin Decarie of Canada. Those fights will be televised from a 50,000-seat scocer stadium in Buenos Aries. For TV viewers, the Martinez match will be the third fight and grand finale.

The local fight at Ontario will begin with matches starting at 3 p.m., and will also have fights following the Arreola-Stiverne main event.

— Bill Dwyre

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Seven-time winner Rafael Nadal won back-to-back matches to advance to the semifinals of the Barcelona Open on Friday.

After rain forced several third-round matches to be pushed back, Nadal started the day by beating Benoit Paire of France, 7-6 (2), 6-2. The fifth-ranked Spaniard then defeated Albert Ramos, 6-3, 6-0 after his overmatched opponent had downed Kei Nishikori of Japan, 6-4, 7-6 (4) earlier in the day.

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Top-seeded Maria Sharapova outlasted Ana Ivanovic, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals of the Porsche Grand Prix at Stuttgart, Germany.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands, an American qualifier, beat Sabine Lisicki of Germany, 6-4, 6-2, a day after upsetting fourth-seeded Sara Errani in a match that lasted past 1:30 a.m.

The American next goes against second-seeded Li Na of China, who defeated fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 7-5.

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U.S. Olympic Committee Chief Executive Scott Blackmun said Friday that he is talking to 10 cities about a possible bid for the 2024 Summer Games — including Los Angeles and a joint proposal from San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico.

“That would have its challenges,” Blackmun said of the effort by the border neighbors. The idea of San Diego and Tijuana co-hosting an Olympics Games goes back about 20 years, and the cities made a bid in 2006 for the 2016 Olympics that was eliminated in the first round of competition between American cities.

Of the 10 this time, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Diego-Tijuana were the only cities Blackmun specifically mentioned, saying the other candidates preferred to remain confidential for now. The U.S. hasn’t hosted a Summer Olympics since the 1996 Atlanta Games. The IOC is to select the 2024 host city in 2017.

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Rick Pitino is now inked up.

The Louisville coach followed through Friday on his promise to get a tattoo if the Cardinals won the NCAA championship, adorning his left shoulder blade with the school’s old-English ‘L’ emblem in red. He got it done at Tattoo Salvation, a parlor east of campus, and the emblem is perpendicularly surrounded by the words ‘2013 NCAA champions, 35-5.’