Quick Hitters
2014 top offensive player RB DeMarco Murray retires
DeMarco Murray is retiring from the NFL.
The 2014 Offensive Player of the Year made the announcement on ESPN on Friday, four months after being released by the Tennessee Titans.
Murray, 30, lost his job to Derrick Henry last season and was due to make $6.25 million in 2018 when the Titans let him go. He ran for 659 yards and six touchdowns last season, dealt with a knee injury late in the year, and missed the Titans’ final regular-season game and two playoff contests.
He was a dominant force that season for the Cowboys, who went 12-4 to win the NFC East. Murray ran for a league-best 1,845 yards, then signed a five-year, $40 million deal as a free agent with Philadelphia in 2015.
With the Eagles, Murray started eight of 15 games played and ran 193 times for a team-best 702 yards. Once coach Chip Kelly was fired, Murray’s contract was one of those Philadelphia unloaded.
The Titans couldn’t wait to add Murray as a running threat to help protect quarterback Marcus Mariota. Behind a revamped offensive line, Murray proved very durable, playing through a torn plantar plate in his right foot. Murray led the AFC and was third in the NFL with 1,287 yards rushing on 293 carries. It was second-most carries of his career and his second-best rushing season.
Miami commissioners delay vote on Beckham’s team
MIAMI — Miami city commissioners have pushed back a vote following hours of public comment for and against David Beckham’s latest soccer stadium
plan. At the end of Thursday’s meeting, commissioners delayed a decision until Wednesday to put a measure on the November ballot to replace the city-owned Melreese Country Club.
The former Manchester United, Real Madrid and LA Galaxy star and business partner Jorge Mas pitched their current plan Thursday night for their Major League Soccer franchise. The group’s latest proposal calls for a 28,000-seat stadium, hotel rooms, restaurants, shops, a new park and public soccer fields near Miami International Airport.
If commissioners approve, voters would decide on Nov. 6 whether to change the city’s charter and allow what would be a no-bid deal to lease 73 acres (30 hectares) at the Melreese site.
Pacquiao, Matthysse make weight for fight
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Manny Pacquiao weighed in at a trim 146 pounds Saturday for his showdown with World Boxing Association welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse, who also made weight at 146.7 pounds.
The legendary Filipino eight-division champion and the Argentinian known as a knockout specialist were comfortably below the 147-pound limit when they stepped on a scale ahead of Sunday’s bout, dubbed the “fight of champions.”
Pacquiao, who turns 40 in December, returns to the ring a year after his shock-decision loss to Australia’s Jeff Horn.
Pacquiao didn’t speak after the weigh-in but the words on his long sleeve t-shirt made clear his determination to seek a 60th victory: “Fight On.”
He has 38 of his 59 wins by knockout. Matthysse, 35, has 39 wins — 36 by knockout.
Pacquiao is fighting for the first time with new trainer Buboy Fernandez. He replaced Pacquiao’s longtime trainer Freddie Roach, who Pacquiao dropped after 16 years together.