Injured Harris leaves school early, turns pro
BASEBALL: The White Sox agreed to a one-year, $4.75 million contract with RHP Miguel Gonzalez, bringing him back after trading him to the Rangers late last season. ... The Cardinals avoided arbitration with OF Randal Grichuk, who agreed to a one-year, $2.6 million contract. Other players avoiding arbitration with one-year deals included Yankees RHP Tommy Kahnle, Angels RHP Blake Parker, Astros OF Jake Marisnick, Indians RHP Zach McAllister and Tigers C James McCann. ... The Braves released 3B Adonis Garcia so he can play overseas. The team said Garcia has a “desire to play in South Korea for the 2018 season.”
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: All-America S Minkah Fitzpatrick, a potential top 10 pick, was among five players from national champion Alabama to declare for the NFL draft. The Crimson Tide also will lose S Ronnie Harrison, RB Bo Scarbrough, DT Da’Ron Payne and WR Calvin Ridley.
GOLF: Chris Kirk shot 7-under 63 for a one-shot lead among the early finishers in the first round at the Sony Open in Honolulu. Jordan Spieth had a quadruplebogey 8 on his 17th hole of the round to finish at 69, six shots back.
NFL: Patriots QB Tom Brady said his focus remains solely on football as his team prepares to host the Titans in their divisional-round matchup in the aftermath of recent reports suggesting discord between himself, coach Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft. “We do what we always do. We show up to work and try to do the best we can do,” Brady said. “It doesn’t really matter what happened outside of this facility.” ... The NFL is heading to a new destination in London, and the first match-up at the future home of English Premier League club Tottenham will be the Raiders against the Seahawks in October if the 60,000-plus capacity stadium is completed in time for Week 6. While Tottenham is sure that building work is on schedule, the league has contingency plans to move the Oct. 14 game to Wembley Stadium . ... The league said it will investigate whether the Raiders violated the “Rooney Rule” when they hired Jon Gruden as coach. The Fritz Pollard Alliance called for the investigation out of concern that Raiders owner Mark Davis came to an agreement with Gruden before the team interviewed any minority candidates as required by the NFL since 2003.
TENNIS: Roger Federer landed in the same half of the draw as six-time champion Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open. On the women’s side, Venus Williams has a tough opener against Belinda Bencic — who combined with Federer to win the Hopman Cup for Switzerland last week — and is also in the same quarter as U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens.
ALSO: The Michigan attorney general’s office asked a judge to sentence former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, 54, to 40 to 125 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting seven girls . ... Christian Pulisic, 19, became the youngest to win the U.S. soccer player of the year award . ... Austrian skier Roland Leitinger will miss the Pyeongchang Olympics next month after tearing the ACL in his right knee during free skiing.
GAINESVILLE — Marcell Harris, the Florida safety who tore his right Achilles tendon in late July and missed all of last season, is forgoing his final year of eligibility and entering the NFL draft.
Harris announced the decision Thursday on Instagram, saying he “became strong mentally and gained different perspectives of the game that I may have never seen” while sitting out.
A fifth-year senior from nearby Orlando, Harris played in all 13 games in 2016. He had a team-high 73 tackles to go along with two interceptions and a sack. He appeared in 37 games in three seasons at Florida.
He could have petitioned the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility, but chose to pursue an NFL career.