Report: Watt has back surgery
Texans’ star defensive end expected to be ready for season opener
A person familiar with J.J. Watt’s condition said the Houston Texans’ star defensive end has had back surgery and will begin training camp on the physically unable to perform list.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday night on condition of anonymity because the team hasn’t confirmed the surgery or Watt’s roster status.
Watt, the NFL sacks leader last season with 17 1 ⁄ 2, will miss the start of training camp, but is expected to be ready for the season opener.
Watt spent most of the offseason recovering after having surgery to repair a groin injury in January.
The surgery was first reported by ESPN.
The Jacksonville Jaguars worked out former Dallas and Carolina defensive end Greg Hardy.
Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez has appeared in court with a new legal team to defend him in the 2012 slayings of two men outside a Boston nightclub. The former tight end already is serving a life sentence in the 2013 killing of semipro football player Odin Lloyd.
Basketball
An attorney for Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green says a misdemeanor assault-and-battery charge from a confrontation near the Michigan State campus could be resolved before the U.S. basketball team competes in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The attorney, James Heos, tells the Lansing State Journal that Green appeared during a closeddoor pretrial conference Thursday in East Lansing District Court via FaceTime.
The U.S. team starts play in Rio on Aug. 6.
Green, a former Michigan State standout, is accused of striking ex-Spartan football player Jermaine Edmondson on July 10 near campus.
Oklahoma State forn ward Tyrek Coger has died after collapsing during a team workout.
The school said Thursday that the 21-year-old junior college transfer was pronounced dead at Stillwater Medical Center.
Coger, from Raleigh, North Carolina, played last season for Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina.
The WNBA has fined n the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever and their players for wearing black warmup shirts in the wake of recent shootings by and against police officers.
All three teams were fined $5,000 and each player was fined $500 as the shirts violated the league’s uniform policy. While the shirts were the Adidas brand — the official outfitter of the league — WNBA rules state that uniforms may not be altered in any way.
George Washington n University says it is bringing in outside counsel as part of an investigation into allegations against men’s basketball coach Mike Lonergan.
The school says in a statement released by a spokesman Thursday night that it is “undertaking a Title IX review” but that “some of the reported allegations go beyond the scope of Title IX.”
The statement comes in response to a story posted earlier Thursday on www. washingtonpost.com that says former GW players — quoted anonymously — complained about Lonergan’s behavior.
The Indiana Pacers n have signed veteran point guard Aaron Brooks to a one-year deal.
Golf
Dustin Johnson made a 10-foot eagle putt on the par-5 18th hole Thursday for a 6-under 66 and a share of the Canadian Open lead with Luke List.
Woody Austin made n four birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine and finished with a 4-under 68 to take the first-round lead in the Senior British Open.
The United States lost n both of its four-ball matches to England on the opening day of the LPGA’s UL International Crown. Lexi Thompson and Cristie Kerr lost 2 and 1 to Holly Clyburn and Jodi Ewart Shadoff, and Stacy Lewis and Gerina Piller fell to Charley Hull and Melissa Reid by the same score.
Boxing
The son of NFL Hall of Fame coach John Madden, is buying Muhammad Ali’s former training camp in Pennsylvania. The camp’s longtime owner, renowned martial arts instructor George Dillman, sold the rustic hilltop camp in Deer Lake to Mike Madden, a real estate developer who lives in Pleasanton.
Mike Madden has no immediate plans for the property beyond making sure its history is preserved, said Sandy Montag, John Madden’s longtime agent.