Texans place Watt on IR
HOUSTON — The Houston Texans placed star defensive end J.J. Watt on injured reserve Wednesday, and his return this season is in doubt. Coach Bill O’Brien said Watt had re-injured his back and putting him on IR was the best thing for his long-term health. The team was still exploring the injury; it’s unclear if it will require surgery, but Watt is not expected back before December, if at all. The Texans signed veteran defensive end Antonio Smith to take his spot on the roster. Watt, the NFL Defensive Player of the Year the past two seasons, missed training camp and Houston’s four preseason games after surgery in July to repair a herniated disk in his back. He started each of the team’s three regular-season games and got hurt again during last Thursday’s game against the Patriots.
› CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton said he needs to get rid of the football quicker — and get it to his big wide receiver a little more, too. Newton was sacked eight times this past Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. A byproduct of the Vikings’ constant pressure on Newton was he only threw one pass to favorite wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin, and that was an incompletion in the final minutes. Benjamin had 13 catches for 199 yards and three touchdowns in his first two games this season. A win Sunday would pull the Panthers into a first-place tie with the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South and give them the early head-to-head tiebreaker.
SOCCER
› ATLANTA — Gerardo Martino looked relaxed Wednesday morning, an hour before his unveiling as the first coach of Atlanta United, the Major League Soccer expansion team scheduled to begin play in March. Dressed in a tailored black suit, a European collar on his white shirt, he smiled readily as he discussed tactics, players and plans. The only sign he was about to stand in front of a room of reporters was a cheat sheet on a table nearby bearing a few words of greeting in English — a language Martino, an Argentine, has yet to learn. An hour later, Martino, 53, who is known as Tata, became one of the most qualified coaches in MLS history. In 2010, he led Paraguay to its best World Cup finish; in 2013, he was named coach of the Spanish giant FC Barcelona; and in 2015 and 2016, he directed Argentina to consecutive Copa América finals. None of those experiences, however, offered him what his multiyear contract with Atlanta United did: a chance, he said in Spanish, “to begin a project from zero.” Atlanta’s stadium is still under construction and the team has only seven players at the moment.
BASEBALL
› MIAMI — Somber Miami Marlins players and personnel escorted a hearse carrying the body of star pitcher Jose Fernandez from the team’s ballpark Wednesday as U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio sought a safety probe into the rock jetty where a boat crash claimed the lives of the baseball star and two friends. Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, manager Don Mattingly, hitting coach Barry Bonds and the team’s players wore white T-shirts emblazoned with Fernandez’s image and the letters “RIP” as they slowly walked the hearse away from Marlins Park in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. Many in the crowd of about 1,000 chanted “Jose! Jose!” and some waved Cuban flags in honor of the popular Cuban-American player. A public viewing was scheduled for Wednesday night at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church. A private funeral Mass will be held today with family and Marlins players and personnel.