Giants bench Manning, will start Smith
Eli Manning is not going to be the starting quarterback for the New York Giants for the first time in more than 13 years.
Tears welled in Manning’s eyes talking to reporters and his chin quivered when asked about how much it hurt.
The Giants announced Tuesday that Geno Smith will start in place of Manning when the Giants face the Raiders in Oakland on Sunday.
Coach Ben McAdoo gave the 36-year-old Manning the option of starting to keep his streak of 210 consecutive starts alive, but the two-time Super Bowl MVP declined.
McAdoo said the organization needed to learn more about Smith and rookie third-round draft pick Davis Webb in the final five weeks of the season.
He refused to say if this was the end of the Manning era with the Giants.
Manning’s streak is the secondlab, longest by a quarterback in NFL history, behind Brett Favre’s 297.
Running back Darren McFadden has announced his retirement two days after his release by the Dallas Cowboys.
McFadden was the fourth overall pick by Oakland in 2008 out of Arkansas. He finished with 5,421 yards rushing and 28 touchdowns.
Oakland receiver Michael Crabtree and Denver cornerback Aqib Talib had their two-game suspensions reduced to one game after appeal hearings.
ETC. Rejuvenated Woods is set for tournament
Tiger Woods says he no longer relies on pain medication to cope with an ailing back and that he’s loving life.
Woods is returning to competition this week at the Hero World Challenge, an 18-man field with no cut in Nassau, Bahamas. It’s his first tournament in nearly 10 months, and his first time playing since fusion surgery on his back in April.
Woods had more trouble on Memorial Day when he was arrested on suspicion of DUI after Florida police found his car parked awkwardly on the side of the road with Woods asleep at the wheel and the engine running.
Toxicology reports revealed he had two painkillers, a sleep drug and the active ingredient for marijuana in his system.
He went through a treatment program to deal with prescription medication.
The 14-time major champion says of his arrest that he was “trying to go away from pain.”
Memphis Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace said the overall product is why the team fired coach David Fizdale, not the decision to bench star center Marc Gasol for an entire quarter of the team’s eighth straight loss.
Florida will pay former coach Jim McElwain a $7.5-million buyout that will be spread across six payments until 2021.
McElwain will get the first installment, a $3.75 million “transition payment,” Friday.
Right-hander Doug Fister finalized a $4-million, one-year deal with the pitching-needy Texas Rangers.
The U.S. women’s national soccer team will play Denmark on Jan. 21 in San Diego in preparation for World Cup qualifying later in the year.
Diary entries from the key whistleblower in the Russian doping scandal recount several meetings with powerful government officials, and are expected to be used as further evidence when the IOC decides Russia’s fate for the upcoming Winter Olympics.
The New York Times obtained entries from the diary kept by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow anti-doping who is living in the United States under federal protection.
Included in the diary were details of discussions and meetings with Vitaly Mutko, who was the country’s sports minister at the time and is now deputy prime minister.
Rodchenkov also wrote about meetings with Yuri Nagornykh, the former deputy sports minister, and Irina Rodionova, the former deputy director of the center of sports preparation of national teams of Russia.
FIFA’s anti-discrimination advisors are warning gay and lesbian soccer fans going to the 2018 World Cup in Russia that displays of affection could be met with an aggressive response from intolerant locals.
Luther Hayes, who won two NCAA triple jump titles in the early 1960s while at USC and played a key role in the Trojans’ 1958 football game against UCLA, died Thursday in Palos Verdes Estates from natural causes. He was 78.