
Jeff Saturday #63 of the Green Bay Packers heads off the field after a play with the AFC team against the National Football Conference team during the 2013 Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium on January 27, 2013 in Honolulu, Hawaii Saturday will retire from the NFL after the Pro Bowl.
(January 26, 2013 – Source: Scott Cunningham/Getty Images North America)
NASHVILLE, Tenn.
The Tennessee Titans have kept one of their pending free agents off the market, signing defensive end Keyunta Dawson to a one-year contract.
The Titans announced the deal with the former Texas Tech standout Thursday. That leaves them with 16 players set to become free agents Tuesday.
Dawson originally signed with Tennessee last year, but the veteran played in the first three games of the season before a hamstring injury put him on injured reserve. But the 6-foot-3 Dawson did have three sacks in the preseason and was used as a pass rusher off the bench before his injury.
He has played in 63 career NFL games with 20 starts mostly in Indianapolis with two in Detroit before joining the Titans. He also has 109 tackles.
INDIANAPOLIS
Indianapolis gave Jeff Saturday a chance to fulfill his NFL dream.
On Thursday, he came back to thank the town and the team that embraced his improbable journey from undrafted free agent to NFL star.
Moments after signing his final contract with the Colts, Indy’s longtime center and a key figure in forging a settlement to the 2011 NFL lockout officially retired with the team that brought him into the league 14 years ago.
“This does not happen for many players, especially many offensive linemen,” Saturday said. “I’m excited to retire as a Colt. I mean, this is my home. This is what we’ve supported for so many years. I was known, no matter what team I was playing for, as a Colt. So it’s good to put that horseshoe on and go out that way.”
ALEXANDRIA, Va.
Washington Redskins general manager Bruce Allen attended his first trademark hearing Thursday. He heard lawyers and judges fuss over dictionaries, surveys and the actions of offended 18-year-olds while using terms such as “hearsay exception” and “Chevron deference,” all in a debate over the team’s nickname.
“There was one reference to a delay of game penalty,” Allen said, “which was the football part that I understood.”
As the 90-minute hearing before three judges on the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board showed, the case against the team is not as simple as declaring that the word “redskins” is a slur and therefore shouldn’t have federal trademark protection. The group of five Native American petitioners has to show that the name “Washington Redskins” was disparaging to a significant population of American Indians back when the team was granted the trademarks from 1967 to 1990.
ATLANTA
Atlanta’s mayor and Falcons owner Arthur Blank have agreed to financing terms for a new $1 billion, retractable-roof stadium to replace the 20-year-old Georgia Dome and keep the team’s home games in the city’s downtown, the two men said Thursday.
Mayor Kasim Reed said the city would provide $200 million of construction costs through bonds backed by the city’s hotel-motel tax. The Falcons franchise, owned by Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank, would provide $800 million and be responsible for construction cost overruns.
The Falcons would pay for up to $50 million in infrastructure costs not included in the construction budget and help retire the last few years of debt on the Georgia Dome, which was publicly financed entirely using the hotel-motel tax.
Compiled from wire reports
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