May 16, 2002 3 min read

Football Steelers’ Burress charged

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Plaxico Burress and his brother were charged following a fight with police.

Plaxico Burress was charged with public intoxication, a misdemeanor, after the fight early Saturday. Carlos Martinez Burress, of Virginia Beach, was charged with assault and battery of a police officer, a felony. He was freed on bail.

Police spokeswoman Janine Hall said an officer suffered minor injuries to the mouth while attempting to arrest Plaxico Burress.

Plaxico Burress, a Virginia Beach native, pleaded no contest in January to carrying an open alcoholic beverage container while walking on a downtown Cleveland street. The second-year NFL player paid a $50 fine and $100 in court costs.

Nehlen joins Vulcans’ staff

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Former West Virginia football coach Don Nehlen has agreed to become a part-time assistant at Division II California, Pa.

Nehlen is friends with John Luckhardt, who was named California’s coach on May 7.

Luckhardt described Nehlen, who retired as West Virginia’s winningest coach after the 2000 season, as “an offensive consultant.”

“His presence will be felt immediately by our players and by our staff,” Luckhardt said. “He’s not going to be here every day. He’s got other things going on. Theoretically, he’s retired, but he does a lot of speaking engagements and he donates a lot of his time to charity.”

Hockey

Penguins deal Parsons

PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Penguins traded minor league left wing Steve Parsons to the Nashville Predators for future considerations on Wednesday.

Parsons, 27, played with the Penguins’ AHL affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after being signed as a free agent in July.

He had a goal and an assist in 52 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and was second on the team in penalty minutes with 366.

Pens’ tickets to stay same

PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Penguins, trying to avoid the big drop in season sales the Pirates experienced after hiking prices, won’t raise season ticket prices for the 2002-03 season.

Team Lemieux president Tom Rooney said some individual game ticket prices would increase, but youth, family and student ticket prices also will not change.

The amount of the increase on individual ticket prices will be announced later. Individual game tickets were $25 to $135 this season.

“Although price increases from year to year have become the norm in professional sports, we’ve decided to hold the line on our season ticket prices and our family and student prices,” Rooney said. “We appreciate the support of our fans, especially following a season when we didn’t make the playoffs.”

The Penguins finished the season 28-41-8-5 and went winless in their final 10 games, missing the playoffs for the first time since 1990.

About 40 percent of Pirates season ticket holders canceled their seats after the team hiked prices an average of $1 to $2 per seat following a 100-loss season in 2001.

Owner Kevin McClatchy later said raising prices was a mistake and promised not to raise season ticket prices in 2003.