Sports Briefs: Duke parts ways with QB Asack for rule violation

Zack Asack, a veteran football player at Duke, was dismissed from the team yesterday by Coach David Cutcliffe.

Cutcliffe cited a violation of team policy as the reason. School officials provided no other information in a prepared release.

Asack would have been a redshirt senior in the fall. He is still at Duke attending summer school, and a school spokesman said he did not know if Asack plans to return for the fall semester.

Asack started his Duke career as a quarterback and was the starter the last half of his freshman season. He was suspended for his sophomore year because of plagiarism, and he missed the 2006 season.

He had been a reserve since returning in 2007 and then moved to safety this year in spring practice. At quarterback, he completed 123 of 250 passes for 1,168 yards, seven touchdowns and 14 interceptions.

-- Bill Cole

More football

■ A federal judge in Minneapolis yesterday denied a request by the NFL Players Association to put the suspensions of five players on hold while the case over the use of a banned substance is appealed. However, Jeffrey Kessler, an NFLPA attorney, said it doesn't necessary mean the players will miss any games at the start of the 2009 season because there could be action at the appellate court level before the season starts.

Kessler also said that U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson has sent some issues surrounding the suspensions of Kevin Williams and Pat Williams of the Minnesota Vikings back to state courts. Peter Ginsberg, an attorney for both Vikings, said that the ruling would not affect his clients because they have a stay on their suspensions from a state court. The Williamses and three New Orleans Saints tested positive for a banned diuretic last year. All were given four-game suspensions for violating the NFL's doping policy.

■ The Washington Redskins yesterday cut Jon Jansen, a fixture on their offensive line for much of the past decade before injuries took their toll. Jansen and his wife were flown in owner Dan Snyder's plane from their Michigan offseason home to Redskins Park, where he was offered the chance to retire as a Redskins player.

When Jansen said he wanted to keep playing, the Redskins granted him his release, saying goodbye rather than keeping him as an expensive backup. Jansen started 122 games for the Redskins and missed only one snap in his first five seasons. But a ruptured Achilles' tendon in 2004, two broken thumbs in 2005, a torn calf muscle in 2006, a broken ankle in 2007 and a sprained knee in 2008 kept him off the field and hindered his skills.

■ Coach Joe Paterno of Penn State is a millionaire.

Records released yesterday by the university show that Paterno, an 82-year-old Hall of Famer, is Penn State's highest-paid employee, making more than $1.03 million last year.

That includes his base salary plus any bonuses, but does not include compensation from outside the university that top coaches typically collect. Paterno's compensation from other sources is not a public record.

The records were released in compliance with a Pennsylvania Right-to-Know law that took effect in January.

Paterno's salary was once one of college football's most closely guarded secrets until his base salary of roughly $500,000 was made public two years ago as part of an open records request of state retirement data initiated by the Patriot News of Harrisburg.

Paterno signed a three-year contract extension in December. He'll start his record 44th year as head coach this fall.

Tennis

■ Ten players from North Carolina schools, including NCAA singles champion Mallory Cecil of Duke, were named All-Americas yesterday by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Ellah Nze and Reka Zsilinszka of Duke joined Mallory as women's singles selections, Sanaz Marand of UNC made the team in singles and doubles, and Sophie Grabinski of UNC was a doubles selection. Among the men, Cory Parr of Wake Forest was an All-America in singles and doubles, Jay Weinacker of N.C. State was a singles selection, and Clay Donato and Taylor Fogleman of UNC and Steven Foreman of Wake Forest were doubles picks.

■ The Tarheel Qualifier junior tennis tournament will start today and continue through Sunday in Forsyth County on the first of its two weekends. Winston-Salem Tennis Inc. is the host.

The tournament will have its headquarters at Hanes Park and will use more than 20 satellite courts around the county. The field is made up of the top 64 players in the state, ages 10 to 18, in each of 20 divisions and features play in boys and girls singles and doubles.

The second weekend will be June 6-8 as players try to qualify for the Southern Closed championship.

Miscellaneous

■ Lance Armstrong fell midway through the 19th stage of the Giro d'Italia yesterday, when he touched the wheel of a rider in front of him as the peloton went around a hairpin curve, but appears to have escaped injury. He hit the pavement on his left side -- the opposite side from a March crash that left him with a broken collarbone -- but got back up, changed his rear wheel because of broken spokes and rejoined the race.

Armstrong finished 16th -- 1 minute, 42 seconds behind stage winner Carlos Sastre, and stayed 12th overall. Russia's Denis Menchov kept the lead, 18 seconds ahead of Italy's Danilo Di Luca. American Levi Leipheimer is sixth, 4:55 back.

■ The United States won the Nations Cup at the Rome horse show yesterday after Richard Spooner rode Cristallo in a flawless round to avoid a jump-off with France. The show was the second leg of the 2009 FEI Nations Cup competition.

■ The newest franchise in Major League Soccer, the Philadelphia Union, has picked national-team assistant Peter Nowak as its first coach. Union will start play next season. Nowak, a former Polish national team captain, was the top assistant to Coach Bob Bradley on the senior-national team and led the Under-23 national team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.