Sports Briefs October 12, 2010
Football
Eastern Washington linebacker J.C. Sherritt has been named the Big Sky Conference offensive player of the week.
The senior from Pullman, Wash., had 16 tackles, an interception, a sack and a quarterback hurry in EWU's 21-14 win over Northern Arizona.
Montana quarterback Justin Roper received offensive player honors.
Roper, a senior from Buford, Ga., passed for a career high 319 yards and two touchdowns in Montana's 47-28 win over Idaho State. Roper also rushed eight times for a career high 61 yards and caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Chase Reynolds.
And Idaho State's Tavoy Moore earned the special teams honor. The junior from Long Beach, Calif., returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and a punt 84 yards for another score against Montana, breaking his school record for all-purpose yards with 323. It was the second time this season Moore had returned both a punt and a kickoff for touchdowns in the same game.
• Coach Tom Cable said Bruce Gradkowski will remain starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders if his right shoulder is healthy.
Gradkowski left Sunday's win over San Diego in the first quarter after being hit hard on the shoulder by Shaun Phillips. Cable, a former Idaho coach, said Gradkowski has a sprained shoulder and underwent an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of it.
Former starter Jason Campbell relieved Gradkowski and helped lead the Raiders to the 35-27 victory. Campbell engineered two long touchdown drives in the second half to help the Raiders (2-3) snap a 13-game losing streak to the Chargers. Campbell had been benched after the first half of the second game of the season.
• Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith said starting receiver Michael Jenkins has been medically cleared to play Sunday in Philadelphia.
Jenkins returned to practice two weeks ago but missed all of preseason and the first five games after injury his shoulder in an Aug. 6 team scrimmage.
In 92 career games, Jenkins has 3,007 yards receiving and 18 touchdowns. Of his 235 catches, 64 percent have converted first downs.
• NFL team owners are meeting in Chicago to discuss how to proceed in negotiations with the players' union on a new collective bargaining agreement.
The meetings are the last regularly scheduled before the CBA expires in March. It's possible the owners will call for another get-together before then, as they did in Miami before the Super Bowl in February.
NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith insists he expects the owners to lock out the players. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the sooner serious negotiations take place, the sooner a new agreement might be reached.
The owners opted out of the CBA in 2008, saying the agreement reached in 2006 was too costly for them.
Basketball
The Portland Trail Blazers have signed 7-foot center Steven Hill, who has played for parts of the last two seasons in the NBA's development league.
Hill was signed by the Blazers to shore up the Blazers at center after Jeff Pendergraph sustained a season-ending knee injury.
Pendergraph was expected to back up Marcus Camby at center while Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla rehab from knee surgeries.
• The Phoenix Suns lowered their preseason roster to 16 players by waiving guard Chucky Atkins.
Atkins, an 11-year NBA veteran, signed with Phoenix on Sept. 27 after playing last season with the Detroit Pistons. He played in three preseason games for the Suns and averaged one point and 1.7 assists.
- The Associated Press