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Buffalo Bills fire Coach Dick Jauron

BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Dick Jauron has been dismissed as coach of the Buffalo Bills midway through his fourth losing season, team owner Ralph Wilson said Tuesday.

No replacement was named for Jauron.

The Bills are 3-6 this season after a 41-17 thumping by Tennessee this past weekend. The Bills compiled 7-9 seasons back to back to back in Jauron's first three years guiding the NFL team.

"I have tremendous respect for Dick and thank him for all of his efforts during these past four years," Wilson said in a statement. "While this was a very difficult decision, I felt that it is one that needed to be made at this time for the best interest of our team."

Before joining Buffalo, Jauron, 59, spent two seasons with Detroit as defensive coordinator and he produced a 1-4 mark as interim coach of the Lions in 2005.

Jauron also had a losing record as coach of the Chicago Bears, going 35-46 in five seasons from 1999 through 2003. He was the NFL Coach of the Year in 2001 when the Bears went 13-3, his only winning season.

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Royals' Greinke voted AL Cy Young Award

NEW YORK, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke was voted the American League's Cy Young Award emblematic of being the best pitcher in the league.

Greinke, a right-hander, led the major leagues with a 2.16 earned run average, a figure that seemed to impress voters more than the higher win totals for other AL starters. Greinke was 16-8 on the year, three fewer victories than the league leaders.

He is the third Kansas City player to win the Cy Young Award, joining two-time winner Bret Saberhagen (1985, 1989) and 1994 winner David Cone. Cone is the only other AL pitcher to win the award with as few as 16 wins but his season was shortened by a strike.

Greinke opened the season 6-0 with a 0.40 ERA and had a 6-1 record and 1.75 ERA in his final 11 starts.

He was listed first on 25 ballots and was second on the other three to total 134 points. Seattle's Felix Hernandez was second with 80 points and Detroit's Justin Verlander third.

The Cy Young Award is determined by a vote of members of the Baseball Writers Association of America representing each AL city. The National League Cy Young Award winner is to be announced Thursday.

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Soderling replacing Roddick in ATP event

LONDON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Andy Roddick's knee injury has forced him out of next week's ATP World Tour finals and he will be replaced by Robin Soderling.

Roddick, the runner-up in this year's Wimbledon, had qualified for the eight-man tournament in London. But he hasn't played since hurting a knee in Shanghai in October. It would have been his seventh straight year in the tournament.

"I am really disappointed to miss the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals," Roddick said. "I love playing in London and I've heard so many good things about the venue. However, I have not fully recovered from my knee injury and I won't be able to compete. One of my goals in 2010 will be to qualify for this event again."

Soderling, who finished second to Roger Federer in the French Open, is 35-9 on tour since mid-May.

The rest of the field includes Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Nikolay Davydenko and Fernando Verdasco. The draw for the round-robin event will be held Wednesday and play gets started Sunday at the O2 Arena.

Djokovic won last year's event in Shanghai.

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Italian cyclist stripped of Olympic medal

ROME, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Italian cyclist Davide Rebellin, accused of a doping violation, has been stripped of the silver medal he won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Rebellin finished second to Spain's Samuel Sanchez in the Olympic road race, which covered a 152-mile route. Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara was third and Russian Alexander Kolobnev was fourth in the Aug. 9, 2008, race.

In April it was announced the Rebellin was among six Beijing medal winners to have come up positive for performance-enhancing substances during retests of samples taken during the Games.

On Tuesday, the International Olympics Committee informed Italian Olympics officials they were pulling back Rebellin's medal. It was unclear whether Cancellara and Kolobnev would be moved up in the final results.

Rebellin allegedly tested positive for continuous erythropoietin receptor activator -- CERA -- which is a late-generation form of erythropoietin.