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"Taping a walkthrough is much different from what I punished them for," the NFL commissioner said Thursday at a meeting of a group representing the Associated Press Sports Editors.

After more than two months of negotiations, lawyers for the league and Walsh, the former New England employee, finally reached agreement Wednesday on terms that will allow him to talk Goodell. They include an agreement by the Patriots not to sue Walsh and to pay his legal expenses and his airfare to New York from Hawaii, where he is now a golf pro.

Walsh's name first surfaced just before the Super Bowl, in which the Patriots were upset by the New York Giants after finishing the regular season 16-0 and winning two playoff games. Among the allegations was that the Patriots illegally taped the Rams' final walkthrough before that title game, when New England, a two-touchdown underdog, upset St. Louis 20-17.

Five months before their loss to the Giants, New England coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team $250,000 for taping the New York Jets' defensive signals during the season opener. The Patriots also lost their first-round pick in this weekend's draft.

Games 3 and 4 will be in Denver on Saturday and Monday night.

Bryant, who was 18-for-27 from the field and finished one point off his career playoff high, scored 20 points in the first quarter to get the Lakers off to a fast start, and 19 over the last seven minutes to keep them safely ahead. He left with 2:02 remaining to a loud ovation and chants of "MVP, MVP" from the capacity crowd of 18,997 at Staples Center.

Bryant was replaced by Coby Karl, the son of Denver coach George Karl. It was the first time in NBA playoff history that a father has coached against his son.

Pau Gasol added 18 points and 10 rebounds and Luke Walton scored 18 points for the Lakers. Lamar Odom, hampered by foul trouble throughout the second half, was held to four points, four rebounds and six assists, but in the end it didn't matter.

Rookie Emmanuel Burriss doubled leading off the 13th and scored the go-ahead run on Fred Lewis' single. The Giants' rally came four innings after Hoffman couldn't hold the lead for what would have been Greg Maddux's 350th career victory.

It was San Diego's first home game since a 2-1 loss in 22 innings to the Colorado Rockies on Thursday night. The Padres have lost seven of eight and dropped into a tie with the Giants for last place in the NL West.

Burriss, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Fresno on Sunday, doubled to right opening the 13th off Glendon Rusch (0-2), who also was the loser in Thursday night's marathon. Lewis singled to short center and Burriss beat Scott Hairston's throw home to give the Giants a 2-1 lead. Aaron Rowand singled in Lewis with two outs.

The Padres loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning against Brian Wilson before rookie Colt Morton hit a sacrifice fly for his first RBI. Khalil Greene flied out to center and Josh Bard walked to load the bases again. Tadahito Iguchi forced Bard to end the game.

Santana (3-2) allowed seven hits, none after the fourth inning, struck out four and walked one. As a batter, he had the second two-hit game of his career.

The Mets improved to 4-0 against the Nationals this season.

New York broke open a 2-all tie in the sixth with only one hit - Carlos Beltran's leadoff single - leaving the infield. After Beltran's hit, Ray King relieved Tim Redding (3-2) and Ryan Church hit a weak grounder to third. Washington's Ryan Zimmerman charged, but his running throw to first was wide. Beltran scored and Church, credited with a single, wound up on third on Zimmerman's throwing error.

Church scored two batters later on an infield single by Angel Pagan. Pagan then stole second and third on consecutive pitches and scored on a groundout by Brian Schneider to give the Mets a 5-2 lead.

Both teams blew ninth-inning leads with their closers, but it was the Rockies who ended up losing their fourth straight game when leading after seven innings.

Theriot's single to right field scored pinch-runner Mike Fontenot from second base as the Cubs joined the Giants as the only franchises in major league history to reach 10,000 wins.

Carlos Marmol pitched a perfect the 10th for his second save in as many chances.

Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run homer off struggling Colorado closer Manny Corpas with one out in the ninth to put the Cubs ahead 6-5, but Ryan Spilborghs tripled home the tying run off Kerry Wood with two outs in the bottom half.

Cowboys spokesman Rich Dalrymple confirmed the teams had an agreement, but no terms had been filed with the NFL office, which already had closed for the day.

The Titans also confirmed the deal, adding that terms had to be finalized. The team had no further comment beyond a two-sentence e-mail.

Dalrymple declined to discuss specifics of the trade.

"What I can confirm is that we have agreed in principle with the Tennessee Titans on a trade that will bring Adam Jones to the Cowboys," Dalrymple said.

On Wednesday, the former fourth-round draft pick became the richest defensive player in the league, and is viewed as one of the missing pieces that could propel the Minnesota Vikings into the NFC's elite.

Allen, the All-Pro defensive end who led the league in sacks last season with 15 1/2, was traded from Kansas City to Minnesota in a blockbuster deal, making the Chiefs one of the major players in this weekend's NFL draft and the Vikings a serious contender in the NFC.

"I have chills right now," Allen said after signing a six-year deal that includes $31 million in guaranteed money and could be worth more than $74 million if he reaches certain incentives. "It's just starting to sink in. As a player it's cool because it shows appreciation for what you have done. But at the same time, personally, I look at it as a new challenge."

Kansas City gets Minnesota's first-round pick, No. 17 overall, and both of the Vikings' third-round selections. The teams also swapped sixth-rounders in the deal announced Wednesday.

The 39-year-old Miller led the Musketeers to a 30-7 record and an NCAA Elite Eight appearance last season. He repeatedly has been a subject of speculation about major coaching vacancies.

Athletic director Mike Bobinski said Wednesday that it's the third extension Miller has received since he was hired in 2004 and the longest given a Xavier head coach. The new deal runs through the 2017-18 season.

Derek Lowe (2-1) pitched just five innings for the victory, allowing a run and three hits with two strikeouts and a walk. The right-hander was removed for precautionary reasons because of tightness in his elbow, but is expected to make his next scheduled start.

Reliever Chan Ho Park allowed a walk and a double by Justin Upton to open the seventh.

Lefty Joe Beimel gave up an RBI single to Chris Snyder, trimming the Dodgers' lead to 6-2. But Jonathan Broxton struck out Chris Young with the bases loaded after walking pinch-hitter Miguel Montero, then retired Eric Byrnes on a popup with the potential tying run at the plate.

Takashi Saito relieved Broxton with two on and two outs in the eighth and gave up an RBI single to Stephen Drew, but managed to get four outs for his second save.

Markakis struck out twice looking early but tied the game with a ground out and then hit a tie-breaking home run in the eighth inning to make Daniel Cabrera a winner in the Baltimore Orioles' 3-2 victory over Seattle on Wednesday night.

Markakis hit the first pitch he saw from left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith (0-1), a high fastball, five rows into the bleachers beyond right field. Mariners manager John McLaren had summoned Rowland-Smith to relieve Sean Green, who had allowed only a walk in 1 1-3 innings, because left-handers were 3-for-17 against him.

Make that 4-for-18.

Cabrera (2-0) allowed five hits and two runs in eight inning while using a slow curve the Mariners continually chased in vain. Cabrera struck out five and retired his final 11 batters. The man who led the AL with 108 walks last season walked none.

Sweeney returned to the starting lineup for the first time in six games and ended a 39-game homerless streak spanning 140 at-bats with a solo shot in the eighth inning, helping Oakland to a 3-0 win over the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night.

Sweeney also had an RBI single and scored Oakland's first run.

His drive into the left-field seats on the first pitch from Matt Guerrier was his first home run since last June 8 for Kansas City against Philadelphia - the longest home run drought of his 14-year career.

Chad Gaudin (2-1) went seven innings and retired 11 straight and 18 of 19 during one stretch on the way to his second straight victory. The right-hander was efficient, too, throwing only 84 pitches. He struck out four and didn't walk a batter for the first time in four starts.

Jorge Posada had four hits, including a career-high three doubles, and drove in two runs. A sore right arm prevented him from starting at catcher for two weeks, but he was behind the plate for the second straight game.

While Rodriguez missed his second game because of a strained quadriceps and the birth of his second daughter, the Yankees matched a season high with their third straight win and Mussina earned his 252nd victory on his third try. That gave him sole possession of 42nd place on baseball's wins list and put the Yankees in position for a three-game sweep of the AL Central leaders.

They'll need Phil Hughes to get on track after four rough starts, which is what Mussina (2-3) did after losing two straight to Boston. The 39-year-old allowed two runs and four hits while striking out three and walking one in his longest outing this season, and his ERA dropped from 5.75 to 4.94.

After getting a go-ahead grand slam by Bobby Abreu in the seventh and a three-run shot by Johnny Damon in the eighth during Tuesday's 9-5 win, the Yankees went with the same lineup in consecutive games for the first time this season and knocked out Javier Vazquez (3-2) during a three-run sixth.

Hamm planned on competing in four of six events in the qualifier for next month's national championships, but dropped out after only two - before he had accumulated enough points to guarantee himself one of the 14 spots up for grabs.

"I was on the floor, just gasping for air, trying to get some oxygen," he said, his voice still hoarse nearly an hour after he pulled out of the meet.

Hamm, in his first true competition since tearing his pectoral muscle last fall, said he felt his throat tightening after warm-ups and was having trouble breathing and starting to cramp. His coach, Miles Avery, pulled him from the meet and got him to the doctor at the Olympic Training Center, who gave him medicine.

"I saw him suffering out there," Avery said. "I was just yelling, 'Be smart, be smart.' We didn't want him to force anything and make things worse."

Wallace scored 11 of his 16 points in the first quarter and Detroit went on to beat Philadelphia 105-88 in Game 2 on Wednesday night to even the first-round series.

The Pistons had four scorers in double figures as it took a 17-point halftime lead, while the 76ers had only Andre Miller, who scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half.

In their 90-86 Game 1 loss, the Pistons blew a 15-point they built midway through the third quarter.

Detroit refused to let the young Sixers rally again.

Paul Pierce returned from a first-quarter knockdown to score 14 points, and Kendrick Perkins added eight points and nine rebounds for the Celtics.

Josh Smith, who helped take Pierce down and appeared to land on him and roll over his head, had 13 points and eight rebounds for Atlanta. But it was Bibby, who called the locals fair-weather fans during the week, who drew the ire of the sold-out Boston Garden crowd.

Bibby was booed at every touch from the opening introductions. As he sat on the bench in the fourth quarter and the game out of reach, the fans chanted "Where is Bibby?" and "Rondo's better." In the first two games of the series combined, Bibby is 4-for-17 from the field with two assists.

Fair-weather or not, the Celtics earned the right to play in front of their home fans with the NBA's best record in the regular season.

The Oakland Athletics agreed to terms Thursday with designated hitter Frank Thomas, who was released Sunday by the Toronto Blue Jays to become a free agent after getting frustrated with his lack of playing time.

Thomas was in the lineup for the A's in their series finale against the Minnesota Twins, batting cleanup as the DH. He will be the team's new regular designated hitter just as he was while a catalyst in Oakland's 2006 playoff run and AL West championship that year.

Thomas, with his larger-than-life personality and 6-foot-5, 257-pound frame, was back in the green and gold and wearing No. 35 as he began his second stint in Oakland sporting that big grin that's such a part of him.

"It feels nice to be in the batter's box," Thomas said. "It's great to be back. It's been crazy with the travel and five hours' sleep. I'm ready to go. This is where I want to be."

The bid from Kevin Meehan, the owner of Imperialcars.com in Mendon, Mass., was the highest of 282 for the battered No. 34 David Ortiz jersey.

"I actually thought it was going to sell for more money," said Meehan, who bid only in the final moments of the weeklong eBay auction that ended at 12:30 p.m. "I have three young boys that I take to the games and they would have killed me if I didn't buy the shirt."

The Yankees jackhammered the jersey out from under two feet of concrete earlier this month, then donated it to the Jimmy Fund, the Red Sox's official charity that is affiliated with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Mike Andrews, The Jimmy Fund chairman and former Red Sox second baseman, said the charity was "absolutely thrilled."

"It's three saves in a week. It's four out of eight," manager Clint Hurdle said Thursday. "I've watched a volume of work. Take it from there. It's apparent to me that we need to shuffle the deck."

Hurdle talked to Corpas and Fuentes before Thursday's game against the Chicago Cubs. Hurdle said Corpas has lost velocity.

"We are seeing the inconsistencies. You need to find a way to help him," Hurdle said.

Corpas, 0-1 with a 7.50 ERA, has struggled after going 3-for-4 in save opportunities to start the season. Against Philadelphia on Tuesday, he allowed a go-ahead, three-run double to Pat Burrell in the ninth inning. The following day, he gave up a two-run, ninth-inning homer to Aramis Ramirez during a game that the Chicago Cubs won in 10 innings.

Aaron's 499

Where: Talladega, Ala.

When: Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 11:30 a.m.); Sunday, race (Fox-56, 2 p.m.)

Track: Talladega Superspeedway (tri-oval, 2.66 miles, 33 degrees banking in turns)

Among the favorites to reach the Games is Karen O'Connor of The Plains, Va. A three-time Olympian and two-time medalist, O'Connor comes to the Kentucky Horse Park with the smallest horse in the competition and likely the largest.

Theodore O'Connor, whom Karen rode to Pan American Games individual and team gold medals last summer, is slightly built at 14.1 hands. Also known as Ted, Teddy, Super T and Theadorable, he is officially designated as a pony.

Hugh Knows is Karen's other mount, at about 17.2 hands.

Why even try a pony, something that has never been done at this level of competition?

Yet all the weight lifting, all the running and all the throwing didn’t prepare the former Louisville quarterback for what it felt like to stand in front of a room full of grown men wearing a nervous smile.

The scale during the weigh-in at the combine in Indianapolis in February didn’t hold any mystery. Brohm played at around 230 pounds most of his college career.

What happened next though, was perhaps the surest sign that the whole NFL evaluation process goes far beyond the Wonderlic test and the 40-yard dash.

A few minutes after stepping off the scale, Brohm received a message from his agent. An NFL general manager had just called to let the agent know how much the GM liked Brohm’s body.

Mason County star Darius Miller was guaranteed a spot on the roster as Mr. Basketball.

Four Lexington players were selected: Shelvin Mack of Bryan Station, Victor Moses of Henry Clay, Michael Sparks of Tates Creek and Taylor Stewart of Lexington Catholic.

Aaron Morris of Madison Central was another 11th Region player who made the cut.

Also making the team: Tyler Brown of Apollo, Arrez Henderson of Holmes, Scotty Hopson of University Heights, Desmond Johnson of Cumberland, Corey Sorrell of Covington Holy Cross and Landon Slone of Paintsville.

The very next inning, the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Dominguez found himself in the batter's box with the bases loaded and two outs. But there was no need to break out the power stroke this time. Dominguez, who has the look of an NFL linebacker, simply sliced a walk-off single up the middle to give the Cards a 6-5 win Tuesday night in front of the largest crowd ever to see a regular-season game at Jim Patterson Stadium at 3,652.

Dominguez's game-winner came off side-arm reliever Brock Baber.

"I was just trying to make contact," Dominguez said. "I saw the middle of the field open so I figured, even if I got jammed, that it would go through."

The loss was the first in 22 non-conference games for the Wildcats (30-10), and it helped U of L avenge a 7-6 loss two weeks ago, when Keenan Wiley hit a walk-off homer in the 12th.

The West Virginia Power completed a two-game sweep Wednesday night, drubbing the Legends 12-2 in a matchup of last-place teams.

The Power (7-13) have their first three-game winning streak of the year -- all against the Legends (6-14).

Lexington is 1-9 at home.

West Virginia outhit the Legends 22-7, with three Lexington hits coming in the ninth inning. One of those, Jonathan Fixler's two-run double, averted a shutout.

A U.S. Army Air Corps veteran, Mr. Ulinski played football for University of Kentucky Coach Bear Bryant and was one of "Bear's Boys." Before graduating in 1950, the center/linebacker was named All-SEC and honorable mention All-America. He was a senior co-captain of the 1950 Orange Bowl team, which lost to Santa Clara, 21-13. Mr. Ulinski played professionally with the Washington Redskins and the Ottawa Rough Riders.

Mr. Ulinski was inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005.

He retired as a salesman from Hubbell Metals and National Steel Corp.

Visitation will be 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Foreman Funeral Home, 10600 Taylorsville Road, Jeffersontown. A memorial service will be 2 p.m. Saturday at the First Unitarian Church, 809 South Fourth Street, Louisville.

"It was fantastic," the thoroughbred trainer said Tuesday, smiling. "Everything a 17-year-old had been dreaming about."

Actually, Harty was on his way to Kentucky, where he would work on a pair of famous horse farms, then out to California, then on to Dubai, then back to California, and now back to Kentucky.

"It's the land of opportunity," Harty said Monday.

For eight years, Harty was Bob Baffert's assistant trainer.

Caracter announced his intention to enter the draft following Louisville's loss to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament last month, but has since approached Pitino about staying in school.

Pitino told Caracter, who averaged 8.3 points and 4.5 rebounds this season, his game wasn't NBA ready.

"I think he's been looking in the mirror and conning himself for a long, long time," Pitino said. "Now he's got to go and find out what the real world is like."

Caracter is enrolled at Louisville and has yet to hire an agent, leaving open the possibility of his return in the fall. Pitino however, doesn't think Caracter will be back in the fall.

Sometimes they lack the maturity, control and mental toughness of their high school counterparts.

Knowing this and knowing that she was going to start eighth-grader Sarah Mathis, Henry Clay Coach Tricia Crowe wanted to make sure the Devils did everything they could to make Mathis feel at home on the mound.

So Crowe asked her players to focus on getting on base and knocking in runs early to ease some of the pressure.

They did just that and led 6-0 after two innings before topping host Bryan Station 10-1 in the Lexington Fastpitch Showcase on Wednesday night.

All-staters and Division I signees Natalie Novosel of Lexington Catholic and Gwen Rucker of Henry Clay did not complete the tryout process and are not a part of the 12-player roster.

Novosel, a Notre Dame signee, decided to sit out because of a nagging knee injury, said Jeff Hans, her Lexington Catholic coach.

Rucker, who has signed with Louisville, only attended one day of the two-day tryout because of a prior commitment to a volleyball tournament.

Several of Rucker's future teammates at Louisville are on the roster, including Monique Reid of Fern Creek and Owensboro's Janae Howard.

The Defenders had lost 12 in a row, scoring a combined 12 runs in those losses.

"It's been very rough," eighth-grader Suzanne Hall said.

Station harnessed those bad feelings and took them out on Tates Creek 16-2 Tuesday night at Paul Dunbar in the Lexington Fastpitch Showcase.

The Defenders scored more runs in this game (16) than they had in their last 12 games when they were outscored 111-12.

Trailing 5-2 after four innings, Bryan Station rallied with a run in the fifth and three in the sixth to win its fourth game in a row.

Brandon Boling, a junior right-hander, came on in relief to start the sixth. He gave up a two-out triple to Jake Turner in the bottom of the seventh, but got a game-ending ground-out to earn the win.

"I'm proud of the way we scrapped back, but I'm not proud of the way we played," Bryan Station Coach Larry Poynter said. "We gave Scott County a lot of opportunities, and we didn't capitalize on a lot of the opportunities they gave us.

"But it's big for us to come in here and sneak away with a win."

The game will feature a matchup of two of the top high school pitchers in the nation -- left-handers Nick Maronde of Lexington Catholic and Robbie Ross of Lexington Christian Academy.

Maronde has signed with the University of Florida, and Ross with the University of Kentucky, but both could go pro after the June draft.