Report: Brady, Patriots reach deal
FOXBOROUGH, Mass., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots have agreed on a three-year contract extension, Sports Illustrated reported Monday.
Citing an unnamed NFL sources, the magazine said Brady -- who has guided the Patriots to three Super Bowl titles -- has signed a deal worth $27 million, which will keep him with the team until 2017 when he will be 40 years old.
SI reported the extension will pay Brady an immediate $3 million signing bonus as well as salaries of $7 million in 2015, $8 million in 2016 and $9 million in 2017.
If true, the relatively conservative contract will allow the Patriots more room under the NFL's flat salary cap restrictions, including a total of $15 million over the next two seasons, thus enabling them to more easily assemble a talented team around him.
Over his 13-year career, Brady has been named the Super Bowl most valuable player and league MVP twice and has been selected to the Pro Bowl eight times.
In 2012 he led the Patriots to their fourth straight AFC East title and guided an offense that broke the NFL record for most first downs in a season with 444.
The Pats lost to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game.
NCAA probing ex-Hurricanes assistant Hurtt
MIAMI, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Former University of Miami-Florida assistant football coach Clint Hurtt is facing unethical conduct charges by the NCAA, USA Today reported Monday.
The newspaper said documents it obtained through an open records request indicated Hurtt -- now the University of Louisville's defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator -- is accused of several violations, including an unethical conduct charge.
The NCAA alleged Hurtt "knowingly provided improper inducements" to three recruits and is said to have funneled benefits provided by former Hurricanes booster Nevin Shapiro to four recruits and three Miami football players.
The inducements allegedly included meals, entertainment and cash.
The NCAA also is accusing him of misleading its investigators, USA Today said.
Shapiro, who claims he provided banned benefits to hundreds of Hurricanes athletes, is serving a 20-year sentence for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme.
Several former Miami coaches who are also accused of violations are seeking to have them dismissed because of admitted mistakes made by the NCAA during its two-year probe of the Hurricanes.
Sharks' Clowe draws 2-game suspension
NEW YORK, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- San Jose Sharks forward Ryane Clowe has been suspended two games for attacking a Chicago Blackhawks player, the NHL announced Monday.
Clowe was penalized for his actions at the conclusion of Friday's 2-1 San Jose loss, during which he left his team's bench and skated directly over to Blackhawks forward Andrew Shaw -- who was in the process of leaving the ice -- and grappled with him while game officials immediately intervened.
The altercation apparently was precipitated by Shaw's heavy hit into the boards of Clowe's teammate, Joe Pavelski.
Clowe was initially assessed a game misconduct for leaving the bench for illegally leaving the bench, which would have meant an automatic 10-game suspension and $10,000 fine for the 30-year-old.
But NHL discipline chief Brendan Shanahan instead determined Clowe had entered the ice on a legal line change, and so was assessed only a two-game penalty.
The Sharks player -- who twice previously been fined for illegal conduct -- missed Saturday's 3-1 loss in Dallas and now will also be absent for Tuesday's home contest against Colorado.
Ex-women's baseball star Kurys dies at 87
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Pioneering women's professional baseball player Sophie Kurys has died in Arizona, her niece said Monday. She was 87.
Kurys, who played in the 1940s for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, died Feb. 17 in a Scottsdale, Ariz., hospital following complications from surgery, niece Patricia Urchike told the Los Angeles Times.
A native of Flint, Mich., Kurys was nicknamed "the Flint Flash" because of her base-stealing prowess while playing for the Racine, Wis., Belles. She swiped 1,114 bases over eight seasons in the league, which was featured in the 1992 film "A League of Their Own."
The Times said Kurys set a record in 1946 for stealing 201 bases in 203 attempts -- a mark that remains unbroken in professional baseball.
After retiring from baseball in 1950 she spent nearly 30 years in Racine as a secretary at a machine parts company, eventually rising to become its vice president.
Kurys retired to Scottsdale in 1972, the newspaper said.
She is survived by nieces and nephews.
