College Football
MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota football team’s boycott started with a bold demand for apologies and a threat to skip a bowl game if 10 teammates suspended after a sexual assault investigation weren’t reinstated.
It ended less than 36 hours later, the university leadership never blinking, and the players backing down amid pressure from many who read details of the allegations.
The Golden Gophers players announced Saturday morning that they planned to play in the Holiday Bowl, rescinding their boycott after two exhausting days of meetings with attorneys, school President Eric Kaler and athletic director Mark Coyle.
NFL
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Matt Moore’s first game as Ryan Tannehill’s replacement was the best of his career.
The nine-year veteran stepped in Saturday night by throwing for four touchdowns in keeping the Miami Dolphins’ playoff hopes very much alive with a 34-13 rout of the New York Jets.
In his first start since Jan. 1, 2012 – a Dolphins victory over the Jets, with current New York coach Todd Bowles serving as interim Miami coach – Moore picked apart the mistake-prone hosts.
He hit Dion Sims for a pair of 1-yard TDs and Kenny Stills for 52 and Jarvis Landry for 61 in Miami’s eighth win in its last night games. The Dolphins (9-5) clinched their first winning season since 2008, the last time they won the AFC East.
Skiing
VAL GARDENA, Italy – Max Franz stunned the field to win a World Cup downhill Saturday, ending Austria’s 13-race drought in skiing’s signature event with his first career victory.
Starting with the No. 26 bib after all of the favorites had already come down the Saslong course, Franz finished a slim 0.04 seconds ahead of Norwegian standout Aksel Lund Svindal and 0.41 in front of Val Gardena specialist Steven Nyman of the United States.
The previous Austrian man to win a downhill was Hannes Reichelt in Kvitfjell, Norway, in March last year.
VAL D’ISERE, France – Ilka Stuhec continued her outstanding form by winning a World Cup downhill race on Saturday for her fourth victory so far in a remarkable season.
The 26-year-old Slovenian finished .28 seconds ahead of Austrian Cornelia Huetter and .32 clear of Italian Soffia Goggia — who is also enjoying a breakthrough season.
Stuhec had never finished higher than fourth in a race prior to this year, but this was her third success in downhill and her second straight win after clinching Friday’s Alpine combined.
MONTAFON, Austria – Olympic champions Jean Frederic Chapuis of France and Marielle Thompson of Canada both won World Cup races Saturday to extend their leads in this season’s ski cross standings.
Chapuis, who won the ski cross title the last two seasons, earned his 12th career World Cup win as he led Jonas Devouassoux in the final for a French 1-2 finish.
Marc Bischofberger of Switzerland and Kevin Drury of Canada came third and fourth, respectively.
Thompson took the women’s competition for her third win in four races this season. A two-time World Cup champion, the Canadian defeated Marielle Berger Sabbatel of France and German pair Heidi Zacher and Daniela Maier in the final.
Associated Press
