Bama bans 3 for Orange
Won’t face Oklahoma Saturday
Alabama has suspended starting left guard Deonte Brown and two other players from the Orange Bowl for violating unspecified team rules. Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said in a statement that Brown, tight end Kedrick James and offensive lineman Elliot Baker didn’t make the trip to Miami on Monday.
Top-ranked Alabama faces Oklahoma Saturday night in the College Football Playoff semifinal game.
Saban didn’t indicate the duration of the suspensions or whether they might extend to the national championship game if Alabama wins. Brown replaced Lester
Cotton as the starter in midseason.
Brown has been dealing with a turf toe injury.
RUSSIAN DOPER RETIRES
Anton Shipulin, a world biathlon champion at the heart of Russia’s doping scandal, announced his retirement on Tuesday.
Shipulin, 31, told a news conference in Moscow that he decided to retire after he was barred from the Winter Olympics earlier this year. He is one of scores of Russian athletes banned from competing for being part of Russia’s state-sponsored doping program at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Shipulin won a gold medal in Sochi’s biathlon relay race.
Shipulin, like many other Russian athletes, has vehemently denied the accusations.
He said on Tuesday it’s “better to leave now than win spots far from the pedestal” and blamed “the political climate” for his poor results. Shipulin’s last race will be in Germany later this week.
The Russian national team was barred from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in February. The International Olympic Committee issued invitations for 168 Russians who competed under the Olympic flag as “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”
Austrian police, meanwhile, said earlier this month they’re investigating 10 members of Russia’s biathlon team for doping and fraud offenses allegedly committed around the 2017 world championships in Austria. Prosecutors said those accused have been formally notified that they are under investigation but did not name the suspects.