Pats owner has heart surgery
BOSTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Pats owner has heart surgery
BOSTON, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft underwent coronary bypass surgery Wednesday at
Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston.
Kraft, 61, went in for a routine checkup when an angiogram revealed a heart condition that required immediate surgery.
He is now is now resting comfortably and his doctors expect him to make a complete recovery.
Kraft, who purchased the Patriots in 1994, is expected to make a full recovery, the team said in a statement.
The Patriots open defense of their surprise Super Bowl title Sept. 9 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tennessee loses star DE for season
KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- University of Tennessee defensive end Constantin Ritzmann, a rising senior and projected starter this fall, has been diagnosed with a torn ACL in his left knee.
The injury to the Berlin, Germany, native will cause him to miss the 2002 season.
"Of course, I'm disappointed," Ritzmann said. "I figured it would have been a great year. I'm just going to take a redshirt, work as hard as I can, and come back next year. It felt funny when it happened. It didn't hurt, it still doesn't hurt. I wasn't sure if it was going to be an all-year thing, just two or three games. I'm disappointed, a little frustrated, but I've got to move on."
Ritzmann tied for third on the team in sacks last season with four and had four additional tackles for loss. The 6-4, 260-pounder started three games in place of All-SEC defensive end Will Overstreet during the middle of the campaign, and that experience was something the Volunteers were counting on heading into 2002.
"When you lose a good player, then somebody else has to step up," said Coach Phillip Fulmer. "I would expect somebody and our team as a whole will step up to replace a quality player like Constantin. It's unfortunate, but it's part of football. It's a physical game but, in his particular case, there was hardly any contact. It just looked like he stepped wrong and went down."
Team trainer Keith Clements said Ritzmann would undergo surgery sometime in the next few weeks.
"Maybe for him it's a blessing in disguise," Fulmer said. "He has a year to get bigger and stronger, and with the great rehab and the miracles of surgery today he should be back even better than he was."
Fulmer said the Vols have begun preparing for their season opener against Wyoming. That contest will be played in Nashville on Aug. 31.
Vikings release DB Tate
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The Minnesota Vikings have released veteran cornerback Robert Tate, a former starter, who battled a shoulder injury last season and lost his job to rookie Eric Kelly.
The 5-10, 193-pound Tate, 28, played 14 games and registered 44 tackles.
The 1997 sixth-round draft pick enjoyed his best season in 2000, when he played all 16 games and had two interceptions to go with 72 tackles.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that Tate was released by the Vikings at his request.
"It was evident that he was not going to crack the top eight or nine [defensive backs]," Coach Mike Tice told the paper. "So it was only fair to a guy that's given us a lot of football, to release him and get a change of pace and a change of scenery somewhere else."
The sixth-round draft choice in 1997 began his pro career as a wide receiver, but made the transition to defensive backfield in 1999 and made 22 starts through 2001.
His agent, Del Luca, says Tate has drawn interest from a number of teams, including the Baltimore Ravens, whom he visited Wednesday. Baltimore's head coach, Brian Billick, is the Vikings' former offensive coordinator.
Tate's release means the entire Minnesota secondary which started the 2001 opener is gone.
N.C. State loses two key performers
RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The ailing football team at North Carolina State has gone about pregame preparations for its season-opening contest Saturday afternoon without two players felled by injuries.
It has been determined that one of them, freshman cornerback A.J. Davis, is done for the year after suffering a broken leg during a scrimmage last Wednesday.
The former Parade All-American in high school from nearby Durham suffered a broken left fibula. After an MRI revealed the break, he underwent surgery, where screws and a plate were inserted in the leg to aid the healing process.
Davis tried to be philosophical about the situation.
"You can't say it's a disappointment because it's football and things like this are going to happen," Davis told the Durham Herald-Sun. "I could see if it was my senior year, then it would be a disappointment. It's my freshman year so I'm still learning."
He will redshirt this year and have a full four years of eligibility remaining.
The other, sophomore wide receiver Dovonte Edwards, one of the team's leading pass-catchers from last season, also underwent an MRI and his news was not good either.
His knee injury has been described as an "internal derangement." The extent of the damage has yet to be determined, but medical personnel do know that he will be at least six weeks.
For now, his injury has been described as a sprain. He, too, has a redshirt year.
Coach Chuck Amato has yet to make an official determination about his status.
Davis, a 6-0, 174-pound native from nearby Chapel Hill, was hurt while running a reverse. He snared 11 passes for 164 yards and one touchdown last fall.
The Wolfpack opens its campaign Saturday against New Mexico at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh in the annual Black Coaches Association Game. Current Wake County (N.C.) Sheriff John Baker, a former standout at North Carolina Central University in Durham, will be honored.
Baker had a 12-year NFL career with three teams, and his 24 years as Wake's sheriff is the longest active tenure in North Carolina.
Star Maryland RB doubtful for Notre Dame
COLLEGE PARK, Md., Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Running back Bruce Perry, who already was less than 100 percent because of a lingering stomach ailment, now has a "serious" groin injury that likely will cause him to be sidelined when the University of Maryland begins its football season next weekend against Notre Dame and even longer.
Perry, the reigning ACC Player of the Year and an All-America candidate this season and Maryland's No. 1 tailback, apparently was stepped on by a lineman during a goal-line drill earlier this week and was unable to practice because he was in so much pain. He was injured in pregame warmups just before an intrasquad scrimmage on Tuesday.
He has been slow to recover fully from abdominal surgery in May, which caused him to miss spring practice, but was close to coming around when the latest injury developed.
Thursday's headline in the Baltimore Sun indicated Perry would miss the entire campaign.
"Any time you lose the player of the year in the conference, it's not going to help you," Coach Ralph Friedgen told the Sun. "Would I rather have Bruce? Yeah, I'd like to have Bruce. But if I don't have Bruce, I've gotta fly."
The 5-9, 196-pound junior from Philadelphia underwent an MRI on the groin Wednesday. The results are expected to be ready Thursday.
"He's got a pretty significant tear," said Friedgen. "You can put your hand in there and feel the hole. Is the muscle completely torn? Is it partly torn? Is the ligament off the bone? We've got to find out all that and, when that happens, how long it is going to take to rehab."
The Washington Post reported Thursday that team trainer Sandy Worth indicated that Perry could be out as long as 6-8 weeks in a worst-case scenario.
His replacements are redshirt freshman Mario Merrills, sophomore Jason Crawford, senior Chris Downs and promising freshman Josh Allen. Merrills is the likely starter at tailback.
Perry, who is a fourth-year junior, led the Terrapins to a surprising ACC title last season when he rushed for 1,242 yards on 219 carries, and is their best receiver coming out of the backfield. He added 40 receptions for 359 yards, and scored 12 touchdowns overall.
He suffered the stomach injury just before Maryland's loss to Florida in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2. He was a redshirt as a sophomore in 2000.
The Terps meet the Fighting Irish Aug. 31 in the Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Priestley continues to recover
INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- Veteran actor-producer Jason Priestley, a member of the Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series, has been was moved from the Intensive Care Unit at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis to a private room as he continues to recover from a series of internal injuries.
Priestley, 32, from Vancouver, suffered multiple injuries in an Infiniti Pro Series practice accident Aug. 11 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, when his car spun out of control at about 180 miles an hour. He suffered a moderate concussion as well as a fracture of his ninth thoracic vertebra, or broken back, a contusion around his left eye, lacerations on the bridge of his nose and left cheek, neck lacerations and fractures in both feet.
His condition has been listed as stable, according to Dr. Scott Bjerke, Medical Director of Trauma Services for Methodist.
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Kevin Scheid earlier had performed the operation on Priestley's feet, and fellow orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Terry Trammell, operated on his back. The operations, which took place on Aug. 14, lasted six hours overall.
Doctors have said all along that Priestley, also a hockey enthusiast, will make a full recovery.
He underwent successful surgery Aug. 19 at Methodist to repair fractures in his nose and the orbital bones of his face. He was injured during a practice lap practice Aug. 11 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and had to be airlifted to University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Priestley and his family now are beginning to make plans for his rehabilitation, which could start as early as late this week.
A few days after Priestley's accident, a tire-changer for the Kelly Racing Team also was seriously injured, which led the team to eliminate its operations. It is unclear if it will ever start up again.
Ottawa re-signs Jody Hull
OTTAWA, Alberta, Aug. 22 (UPI) -- The Ottawa Senators have re-signed unrestricted free agent right wing Jody Hull to a one-year contract.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Hull, 33, signed as a free agent in January, netted two goals and four points in 24 games in his second stint with the Senators last season. He added a goal and an assist in 12 postseason contests.
The 18th player chosen overall by the Hartford Whalers in the 1987 draft has posted 121 goals and 250 points in 760 career games, adding 142 penalty minutes. After playing his first two seasons with Hartford, Hull also has spent time with the New York Rangers, Florida, Tampa Bay and Philadelphia.
The Petrolia, Ontario native was a member of the Senators in 1992-93, their inaugural season. He posted career highs with the Panthers in 1995-96, netting 20 goals and 37 points in 78 games.
