Tirico gets Thursday call

Mike Tirico is replacing Al Michaels as the playby-play announcer for Thursday night NFL games this season on NBC.

The league needed to approve the switch because its contract with the network calls for the top broadcast team to do Thursday games. NBC has those games from Nov. 9 through the end of the year after CBS handles the first portion of the schedule. Michaels will still do Sunday night games with

Cris Collinsworth as analyst. Collinsworth will continue double duty on the Thursday and Sunday night matchups.

BASEBALL

Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper has agreed to drop his appeal of a four-game suspension and will have one game shaved from the punishment.

Harper reached the agreement Wednesday with Major League Baseball and was to begin serving the suspension immediately.

The punishment stemmed from a bench-clearing brawl on Monday after Harper was hit by a 98-mph fastball from Giants reliever Hunter Strickland. There’s no word on Strickland, who received a sixgame suspension and also had planned to appeal.

NFL

The Seattle Seahawks added depth at defensive back Wednesday by signing safeties Marcus Cromartie and Jordan Simone. Cromartie, who played for the Wisconsin Badgers, has appeared in 21 career games with one start, all with San Francisco. He also spent time with San Diego, Cleveland and Buffalo.

Vikings sign top pick: The Minnesota Vikings signed their second-round pick, running back Dalvin Cook, to put their entire rookie class under contract one month after the draft.

Cook was the 41st overall selection out of Florida State. He finished his career with the Seminoles as their all-time leading rusher with 4,464 yards and 46 touchdowns over three seasons.

SOCCER

Wolfsburg signed United States defender John

Anthony Brooks for a reported fee of 20 million euros ($22.4 million) from German Bundesliga rival Hertha Berlin on Wednesday, a record transfer for an American player.

The fee eclipses the reported $13 million paid by Premier League club Sunderland for striker Jozy Altidore in 2013 from AZ Alkmaar. Wolfsburg, which escaped relegation through a playoff, said Brooks would get a contract through 2022. Extension for Wenger: Arsenal said Arsene Wenger signed a new two-year contract despite missing out on Champions League qualification. Wenger joined Arsenal in 1996 and has won three English Premier League titles and a record seven FA Cup titles.

TRACK AND FIELD

Six Russian and Ukrainian track athletes were handed doping bans Wednesday after retests found they had doped at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. The IAAF said Russian sprinter Yulia Chermoshanskaya, who won 4x100-meter relay gold in 2008, was banned for two years. Two Ukrainians, javelin silver medalist Oleksandr Pyatnytsya and pole vault bronze medalist Denys Yurchenko, also were banned for two years.

They had already been stripped of their Olympic medals last year by the International Olympic Committee.

The others athletes were non-medalists.