Monday's Sports in Brief
SOCCER
PARIS (AP) England coach Roy Hodgson and captain Wayne Rooney have appealed to supporters to behave after the team was threatened with being kicked out of the European Championship because of fan violence.
Video messages were published one day after UEFA warned the English and Russian soccer federations that the teams risk being disqualified for a repeat of days of disorder which blighted their opening match in Marseille on Saturday.
''I am obviously very concerned about the threat which is now hanging over us,'' Hodgson said in a 30-second message.
England was responding to UEFA's request to make a public declaration. On Sunday, the Russian federation called on supporters to ''respect the opponents and their fans.''
Russia next plays Slovakia on Wednesday in Lille, 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Lens, where England plays Wales on Thursday.
MUHAMMAD ALI
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Boxing great Cassius Clay's hometown newspaper refused to call him Muhammad Ali for years after he adopted the Muslim faith and changed his name.
The Courier-Journal, Louisville's daily paper, has apologized 50 years later for continuing to refer to him as Cassius Clay for years after he converted in 1964. It did not consistently refer to him as Muhammad Ali until 1970.
Ali died June 3 and an estimated 100,000 people lined the streets of Louisville to say goodbye to the city's favorite son during his funeral Friday.
Executive Editor Neil Budde wrote the editorial that chronicled how the paper for years either ignored Ali's preferred name or outright mocked it. He apologized that the newspaper's ''oddly hostile'' unwillingness to use Ali's name ''did little to help race relations in a turbulent time.''
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
BURLINGTON, Ky. (AP) - The Boone County Sheriff's Department says Kentucky senior forward Derek Willis was found lying in the street and stated that he had ''a lot'' to drink when he was arrested for public intoxication.
The arrest citation obtained by The Associated Press says that a deputy observed Willis lying outside the open driver's side door of a car and had to awaken him Saturday morning in Union, Kentucky. The citation adds that the deputy noticed a ''strong odor'' of alcohol coming from Willis and the car and said he had extremely slurred speech.
Willis was arrested for a first and second offense and later released after paying a $50 bond. A Kentucky athletics spokeswoman said the school is aware of the situation and gathering information and won't comment.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A former Vanderbilt football player encouraged his teammates to have sex with an unconscious woman he had been dating, a prosecutor told jurors.
During opening statements in the retrial of Brandon Vandenburg, the prosecutor said the former player even passed out the condoms to three teammates before she was raped. He said the attack came after the football player plied the female student with alcohol.
Vandenburg, a 22-year-old former tight end from Indio, California, is not accused of having sex with the victim in the dorm on the Nashville campus in June 2013. But prosecutors maintain that he should be held responsible for what other players did to the woman because he encouraged it and was part of the crime.
AKRON, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio jury has found a 28-year-old man guilty of trying to extort money from former Ohio State star and NFL player Christopher ''Beanie'' Wells in a botched drug deal.
Cleveland.com (http://bit.ly/1tsXLc2 ) reports jurors in Akron convicted Franklin Conley, who had denied prosecutors' claims that he tried to extort $65,000 from the former Arizona Cardinals running back.
Wells testified during the trial, denying Conley's allegations that he was tied up in drug dealing.
Federal prosecutors say Conley threatened violence toward Wells and his family if he didn't pay between $65,000 and $175,000. They say Conley and a co-defendant went after Wells after Wells' brother set up a drug deal where they lost money.
Wells was released by the Cardinals in 2013, and now hosts a radio show in Columbus.
PRO FOOTBALL
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Standout defensive tackle Fletcher Cox agreed to a six-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles that could earn him nine figures.
The first-round draft pick in 2012 has been a starter since midway in his rookie season. One of the NFL's most versatile defensive linemen, he has 308 tackles and 22 sacks in his four pro seasons.
Cox, 25, did not attend the team's organized offseason activities, but returned to the teams last week.
He comes off his best NFL season with 104 tackles (80 solo) and 9 1-2 sacks. He had three sacks against New Orleans in Week 5, a career high.
BASEBALL
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Police say a man accused of throwing a beer bottle near Phillies player Ryan Howard during a game earlier this month has been cited for disorderly conduct.
Police spokeswoman Tanya Little says 21-year-old Sidney Smith, from Wilmington, Delaware, turned himself in on Friday over the June 4 incident.
The aluminum bottle was thrown onto the field as Howard walked to the dugout at the end of the game. It landed near him, but didn't hit him.
Ballpark security alerted police.
Smith was issued a summary citation for disorderly conduct and released. Little says he'll appear before a judge Tuesday and could face a fine.
The slumping Howard has been struggling all season. He was baseball's most valuable player in 2006 and helped the Phillies win a World Series in 2008.
AUTO RACING
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Conservationists are asking the White House Council on Environmental Quality to put the brakes on plans to allow a popular off-road, desert race from near Las Vegas to Reno to run through a newly established national monument in southern Nevada.
The critics say the U.S. Bureau of Land Management jumped the gun by at least tacitly approving a ''massive off-road race course running directly through'' the Basin and Range National Monument about 150 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
The move violates the National Environmental Policy Pact and threatens to circumvent President Obama's designation of the 1,100-square monument last June, Ruch said in a letter Friday to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who oversees BLM, and Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House CEQ.
Ruch also accused the BLM of ''engaging in bad faith, if not downright deceptive, public outreach'' by failing to provide proper notice or properly review the potential ecological effects of the 20th running of the two-day race scheduled Aug. 19-20.