4 Alabama football players arrested
TUSCALOOSA, Ala., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Four members of Alabama's national championship football team allegedly assaulted and robbed two university students on campus, police statements say.
Depositions filed by campus police obtained by the Tuscaloosa News state defensive lineman D.J. Pettway, linebacker Tyler Hayes and cornerback Eddie Williams were booked on second-degree robbery charges. Police charge the four players assaulted the two students, and took a backpack containing a laptop computer from one and a wallet from the other.
Williams and reserve running back Brent Calloway are charged with fraudulent use of a credit card.
Crimson Tide Coach Nick Saban said the four players have been suspended from the team.
"The young men charged are indefinitely suspended as we continue to gather information and talk to the appropriate people," Saban said in a statement. "This behavior is unacceptable for any student-athlete at the University of Alabama and not representative of our football program."
All were freshmen non-starters on the Alabama team that won its second straight national title last month with a 42-14 victory over Notre Dame in the BCS Championship Game in Miami.
Pettway had eight tackles and 2.5 sacks while appearing in 13 games as a redshirt freshman last season. Hayes had 14 tackles in 13 contests as a true freshman. Calloway, also a redshirt freshman, had 10 carries totaling 63 yards over 13 games. Williams was redshirted for the season.
Wrestling could be dropped from Olympics
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Olympics officials released their "core" sports for the 2020 Summer Games, relegating wrestling to a list of events not guaranteed a spot in the lineup.
The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee Tuesday published its list of 25 so-called core sports of the 2020 Games. A surprise omission was wrestling, which has been contested in every Olympics, except 1900, since the modern Games were established in 1896.
There were medals awarded in 14 classes of freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2012 Games in London.
Wrestling was placed on a list of sports trying to get onto the 2020 Olympics schedule. In addition to wrestling, that list includes baseball/softball, karate, roller sports, sport climbing, squash, wakeboarding and wushu.
Representatives of those sports are to make presentations to the executive board at a May meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. The board is to make a recommendation to the IOC ahead of its September meeting in Buenos Aires, where the committee is also to choose from among Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo as the host city for the 2020 Games.
The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, the body that oversees international wrestling, issued a statement saying the recommendation was "learned with great amazement."
The federation will "take all the necessary measures to convince the Executive Committee and the IOC members of the senselessness of this decision to one of the founding sports of the ancient and modern Olympics," the release said.
The group plans to use a meeting next week in Thailand to "discuss this issue to the representation of the fight before the Executive Board of the IOC in May."
Weightlifter ordered to return 2004 medal
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- A Russian weightlifter has had his 2004 Olympic bronze medal rescinded for violations of anti-doping rules, the International Olympic committee said Tuesday.
Oleg Perepetchenov, who finished third in at the Athens Games in the 77kg weightlifting event, was determined to have "a prohibited substance of its metabolites or marker" in specimens collected at the Games eight years ago.
Olympics officials retain samples for eight years to utilize possible improvements in anti-doping technology. Several athletes have had results voided years after the competition because of the IOC's practice.
A release from the IOC Tuesday said the Russian Olympic Committee was ordered to return the bronze medal and certificate presented to Perepetchenov. It also stated that the case was referred to the International Weightlifting Federation for "any further action within its own competence."
Taner Sagir of Turkey won the 77kg weightlifting gold medal in 2004 with a total lift of 375 kg. Sergey Filimonov of Kazakhstan was second at 372.5 kg and Perepetchenov was credited with a total lift of 365 kg. Turkey's Reyhan Arabacioglu was fourth. The IOC release didn't state whether Arabacioglu would be given the bronze medal.
Diehl fitted with SCRAM bracelet
NEW YORK, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- New York Giants left tackle David Diehl was fitted with an alcohol-detecting bracelet after pleading to a 2012 drunken driving charge.
The lineman was arrested in June in Astoria for driving while intoxicated after his BMW crashed into multiple parked cars.
Queens Criminal Judge Suzanne Melendez ruled Monday Diehl must wear the Secure Continuous Remove Alcohol Monitor bracelet for 90 days, pay $1,200 in restitution to the owners of the damaged cars, complete two drunken-driving programs, and may not drive or apply for a driver's license in New Jersey where he lives. Diehl will also be formally sentenced to a 90-day conditional discharge, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Police said the 32-year-old Giants star registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.18, more than twice the legal limit, when he was arrested.
"Sir, please don't drink and drive. Look what happened here. You could have been seriously hurt," Melendez said at Monday's hearing.
