Auto Racing
NBC’s new NASCAR booth will feature Allen, Burton
LAS VEGAS – NBC Sports Group named Rick Allen lead race announcer for its NASCAR coverage.
Allen will join driver Jeff Burton in the booth for coverage that begins in 2015. The third member of the broadcast team has yet to be announced.
Allen currently is Fox Sports’ race announcer for NASCAR’s Truck Series and the ARCA Racing Series. Allen also does a wide range of voice-over work for companies including Goodyear, Sears, Alltel and Toyota.
Allen competed in the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials as a decathlete and began his broadcasting career in 1994 as the public address announcer at Memorial Stadium during University of Nebraska football games.
Burton was NBC Sports Group’s first hire for the broadcast booth when the network decided the respected driver was a must-have analyst. Burton’s career as a full-time driver is ending in 2014 at 46.
NBCUniversal has the exclusive rights to the final 20 Sprint Cup Series races and the final 19 Nationwide Series events beginning in 2015.
NFL
NFL fines Steelers’ Tomlin $100K for turkey two-step
PITTSBURGH – Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin’s ill-timed two-step cost him $100,000 and could cost his team a pick in next year’s draft.
The league fined Tomlin $100,000 on Wednesday for interfering with a play against the Baltimore Ravens on Thanksgiving.
The NFL also said it would consider docking Pittsburgh a draft pick “because the conduct affected a play on the field.”
Tomlin was not penalized on the play, though the NFL said Tomlin should have been flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct for nearly colliding with Baltimore’s Jacoby Jones during a kickoff return midway through the third quarter of a 22-20 Ravens victory.
The seventh-year head coach called the play “embarrassing, inexcusable, illegal and a blunder” but stressed it was not intentional.
College Football
Mettenberger’s LSU career ends with a knee injury
BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU announced Zach Mettenberger’s playing career with the Tigers officially is over.
Mettenberger injured his left knee while unloading a 32-yard completion in the fourth quarter of No. 14 LSU’s 31-27 victory over Arkansas last Friday.
Mettenberger will require surgery, confirmed Wednesday by LSU head coach Les Miles, and his rehabilitation will take place when he would have been preparing for next spring’s NFL draft, where he widely is projected as an early round draft choice.
Soccer
MLS hopes to place teams in Atlanta and Miami
NEW YORK – Major League Soccer hopes to place expansion teams in Atlanta and Miami, and MLS Commissioner Don Garber said progress is being made, but deals are not yet close.
Former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham is leading the Miami effort and Falcons’ owner Arthur Blank the Atlanta venture.
They would give the league 23 teams, one short of the league’s goal to reach by 2020. Garber said Tuesday that Minneapolis, San Antonio, St. Louis and Austin, Texas, are among the possibilities for a 24th team.
‘Brazuca’ ball unveiled for the 2014 World Cup
RIO DE JANEIRO – The new ball for next year’s World Cup – called the “Brazuca,” in honor of Brazil, of course – was unveiled at a ceremony Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro.
“Brazuca” has a double meaning, used as a term for Brazilians living abroad but also as slang to describe national pride.
The ball will make its debut June 12 in the opening game in Sao Paulo, and the tour will end July 13 at the Rio de Janeiro final.
Associated Press
