ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR BENNETT
HOUSTON» Authorities issued a warrant Friday for the arrest of threetime Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett, who is accused of injuring a paraplegic woman as he tried get onto the field at last year’s Super Bowl to celebrate with his brother.
The Harris County district attorney’s office said a grand jury indicted 32-year-old Bennett, a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, on a felony count of injury to the elderly.
Bennett was a spectator at the game at NRG Stadium in Houston in February 2017 when he tried to get onto the field immediately afterward to see his brother, Martellus Bennett, a tight end for the Patriots at the time. Prosecutors allege he pushed through security personnel, including a 66-year-old woman in a wheelchair who was a stadium employee and who had told him to use a different entrance to access the field. Bennett is also accused of pushing two other people, including another woman, and ignoring a request by a police officer to stop as he made his way onto the field.
• Brock Osweiler signed a one-year contract Friday with the Dolphins to provide veteran insurance behind Ryan Tannehill, who is coming back from two knee operations. Coach Adam Gase was an assistant with the Broncos when Osweiler was a young reserve for them in 2012-14. Osweiler went 0-4 as the Broncos’ starter last season and has 25 career starts in six NFL seasons.
• NFL owners will be presented 10 rules proposals at their meetings next week beginning Monday in Orlando, Fla., including changes to the catch rule and to the length of defensive pass interference penalties, and allowing personal fouls to be reviewed by instant replay.
Other suggestions include making permanent spotting the ball at the 25-yard line after a touchback on a kickoff; adding fouls for roughing the passer and penalties against players in a defenseless posture as reviewable in instant replay; designating a member of the officiating staff at New York headquarters to instruct on-field game officials to eject a player for a flagrant non-football act that drew a flag; and limiting the allowable time for a coach to throw a challenge flag.
• Los Angeles Chargers defensive lineman Corey Liuget will be suspended without pay for the first four games of the upcoming season for a violation of the NFL’s doping policy.
• The Cleveland Browns signed free-agent cornerback E.J. Gaines, who spent last season with Buffalo.
• The Panthers have signed safety Da’Norris Searcy, cornerback Ross Cockrell and guard Jeremiah Sirles to free-agent contracts.
Giants’ Bumgarner breaks hand.
ARIZ.» Giants left-hander SCOTTSDALE,
Madison Bumgarner is hurt for the second straight year, breaking a bone in his pitching hand when hit by a line drive off the bat of Kansas City’s Whit Merrifield during a spring training game.
The Giants said X-rays showed the 28-year-old fractured the fifth metacarpal on the outside of his left hand.
Bumgarner said the timeline for recovery is four to six weeks and he will have a pin inserted into his pinkie Saturday.
• Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano will not be suspended by Major League Baseball after being accused of assault.
• Boston Red Sox pitcher Steven Wright has accepted a 15-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy following his arrest on Dec. 8.
Footnotes.
Novak Djokovic’s 16match Key Biscayne winning streak ended, and his struggle to come back from an elbow injury continued. Djokovic lasted barely an hour at a tournament he has won six times, losing his opening match in the Miami Open to Benoit Paire, 6-3, 6-4. … … Olympic bronze medalist Caetlyn Osmond of Canada won the figure skating world title in Assago, Italy. Japan’s Wakaba Higuchi finished second and teammate Satoko Miyahara was third. — The Associated Press