Murray hangs up his cleats
DeMarco Murray is retiring from the NFL. The league’s 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 as the starting running back to former Alabama standout and 2015 Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry last season. He ran for 659 yards and six touchdowns last season, dealt with a knee injury late in the schedule and missed the Titans’ final regular-season game and two playoff contests. “I think you just wake up,” Murray said. “I’ve always heard the saying, ‘When you know, you know,’ and ‘One day that day will come,’ and for me it was the last year or two. … I’ve been constantly thinking about this. Working out still, in great shape, feel great and it’s time. I just woke up a couple weeks ago and it started to burn and burn and trigger and it got deeper, so this morning I decided to call it a career.” The Titans acquired Murray in a March 2016 trade with the Philadelphia Eagles, with whom Murray spent one year after playing four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. Murray was playing for Dallas in 2014, when he won the NFL rushing title with 1,845 yards, then signed a five-year, $40 million deal as a free agent with Philadelphia in 2015. He was due to make $6.25 million this season.
› IRVING, Texas — The College Football Playoff agreements for the Cotton Bowl Classic, Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl have been extended six years, through 2026. Bill Hancock, the CFP’s executive director, made the announcement Friday. The three bowl games will host a CFP game every year during the six-year period: the semifinals twice and other nonplayoff games assigned by the CFP selection committee four times. The Orange, Rose and Sugar Bowls were previously announced as semifinals hosts on a rotating basis through 2026.
› ATLANTA — Auburn and North Carolina will meet in a Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta two years from now. The teams will meet Sept. 12, 2020, one of multiple early matchups in Atlanta that season. West Virginia and Florida State will play on Saturday, Sept. 5, and Georgia will meet Virginia two days later on Labor Day. The Auburn-North Carolina game will be the first time the Tigers and Tar Heels meet in football since the 2001 Peach Bowl. It will be Auburn’s fourth appearance in a Chick-fil-A Kickoff. The Tigers, who lost to Clemson in 2012 and beat Louisville in 2015, will play Washington in this season’s game on Sept. 1. This will be North Carolina’s third appearance in a Chick-fil-A Kickoff after losses to LSU in 2010 and Georgia in 2016.
BASKETBALL
› NEW YORK — Jeremy Lin’s injury-plagued stint in Brooklyn is over. The Nets have agreed to trade Lin to Atlanta, the Hawks announced Friday. The move helps clear up the Nets’ logjam at point guard but sends Lin to another team that is also pretty crowded at the position. The Hawks announced they also acquired a 2025 second-round pick and the right to swap second-round picks in 2023 with the Nets, who acquired the draft rights to shooting guard Isaia Cordinier and a protected 2020 second-round pick. Cordinier was a second-round pick by Atlanta in 2016. The 21-year-old is currently playing in France. Lin has a year and $12.5 million left on the contract he signed two summers ago. He appeared in only 37 games with the Nets, including just one last season — he ruptured the patella tendon in his right knee during a season-opening loss at Indiana.Point guard Dennis Schroder was the leading scorer last season for the Hawks, who acquired the rights to high-scoring former Oklahoma star Trae Young in the draft last month.