Joey Harrington's four-year run as the Detroit Lions' starting quarterback -- and their leading punching bag -- appears close to finally ending.
The Lions on Thursday agreed on a two-year contract with Josh McCown, an unrestricted free agent who had spent all four years of his career with the Arizona Cardinals.
With the Lions having signed Jon Kitna, a former Cincinnati Bengals backup, to a four-year deal this week, they now have two new quarterbacks to compete for the starting job next season. And that leaves Harrington, who was the third pick in the 2002 draft, moving toward the exit, with the Lions expected to try to trade him or release him.
In January Harrington sounded unenthusiastic about returning to Detroit, questioning whether he could succeed, even with the support of a new coach, in an atmosphere that last season turned poisonous.
Harrington started 11 games in 2005, was benched in favor of his backup, Jeff Garcia, then was blamed by a teammate when coach Steve Mariucci was fired.
Harrington ended up 18-37 in his four seasons in Detroit, but he is hardly alone in deserving blame for the Lions' misfortunes. The team's president, Matt Millen, took over in January 2001 and is already on his third head coach; Rod Marinelli, a Tampa Bay assistant, was hired in January. And in the three previous drafts, Millen selected a wide receiver in the first round, ostensibly to shore up the offense around Harrington, who is being pushed out before he gets near a US$4 million bonus due in June.
Harrington's backup last season, Garcia, signed a one-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday.
Garcia and Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb should have plenty to talk about in quarterback meetings.
Garcia's was a three-time Pro Bowl selection for San Francisco.
"I don't have a problem with the guy," Garcia said of Owens at a news conference in Philadelphia. "The guy is a tremendous player on the field. Everyone has seen that, and I have been a part of that. It takes a team to succeed on the field, so no way do I ever point at one person as being the reason why we were winning or losing football games. But he certainly is a difference-maker. If I were able to have the opportunity to be a teammate of his again, I would not back down from it."
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
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