BRISTOL, Conn. — ESPN pulled announcer Ron Franklin from its radio coverage of Saturday’s Fiesta Bowl after he reportedly berated a female colleague.
Sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards wrote in an e-mail to USA Today in response to Internet reports that Franklin called her “sweet baby” in a condescending tone Friday.
When she objected, he used a derogatory term. Edwards said a colleague reported the incident to ESPN officials.
Franklin said in a statement released by the network: “I said some things I shouldn’t have and am sorry. I deserved to be taken off the Fiesta Bowl.”
• Missouri junior quarterback Blaine Gabbert, a two-year starter, elected to make himself available for the NFL draft, where various early draft predictions have rated him as a first-round pick and the second-best at his position behind Andrew Luck of Stanford.
Freshman James Franklin, Gabbert’s backup this season, is the likely frontrunner to replace him next season. Gabbert’s younger brother, redshirt freshman Tyler Gabbert, also is on the roster.
Also declaring for the NFL draft were Utah junior cornerback Brandon Burton, UCLA linebacker Akeem Ayers and Indiana receiver Tandon Doss.
• LSU running back Stevan Ridley has been cleared of an unspecified academic violation and will play Friday against Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.
• Iowa running back Adam Robinson has been dismissed from the team one week after he was arrested for marijuana possession.
• Fred Meier, a center on Nebraska’s 1940 team that played in the Rose Bowl, died Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif. He was 90.
Footnotes.
In the aftermath of a nationally televised brawl between Mississippi State basketball players Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey in the stands of a tournament in Honolulu on Dec. 23, Bailey has “asked to be released from the team in order to transfer.”
• Minnesota guard Devoe Joseph has been suspended for the second time this season and will not play against Indiana tonight.
• Charlotte Bobcats center DeSagana Diop is out for the season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon.
• New York Knicks forward Danilo Gallinari is expected to miss two to three weeks with a sprained left knee.
• The Texas Rangers signed 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner Brandon Webb to a $3 million, one-year deal and completed a $3.9 million, one-year contract with 41-year-old reliever Arthur Rhodes.
• Baltimore Orioles reliever Alfredo Simon surrendered to police to face an involuntary manslaughter charge in a fatal shooting New Year’s Eve. A judge ruled Simon could be held for up to a year pending trial in the death of his 25-year- old cousin Michel Castillo Almonte in Luperon, Dominican Republic.
• WNBA star Diana Taurasi‘s backup doping sample came back positive and she faces a possible two-year ban.
• Former Wyoming assistant football coach Sheahon Zenger was named athletic director at the University of Kansas.
Denver Post wire services
