Sports shorts
Football Steelers hire strength coach
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Garrett Giemont was hired Wednesday as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ strength and conditioning coach, replacing Chet Fuhrman.
Fuhrman, the last remaining member of former Steelers coach Bill Cowher’s first staff in 1992, was not retained by new coach Mike Tomlin.
Giemont was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ strength and conditioning coordinator from 2003-05, when Tomlin was the Bucs’ secondary coach. Giemont also worked eight seasons with the Oakland Raiders.
Polamalu changes name
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers star defensive back Troy Polamalu went to court Wednesday to legally change his name, but fans won’t notice the difference.
Polamalu’s legal name was actually Troy Benjamin Aumua, but he has gone by Polamalu, his mother’s maiden name, for about 15 years.
The All-Pro safety’s parents divorced shortly after he was born in 1981.
Foley sues police
SAN DIEGO (AP) – Chargers linebacker Steve Foley sued the city of Coronado and the off-duty police officer who shot him three times outside his home, his attorney said Wednesday.
The civil suit accuses Officer Aaron Mansker of negligence and excessive force, and seeks unspecified damages from the officer and the city.
Foley was shot early Sept. 3 near his home in suburban Poway by Mansker, a 23-year-old rookie Coronado police officer who was off-duty at the time and suspected the linebacker of drunken driving.
Mansker told investigators that he shot Foley after the player reached for his waistband. Investigators said Foley was unarmed.
Auto racing
Qualifying change
CONCORD, N.C. (AP) – NASCAR changed its Nextel Cup past champions provisional Wednesday to limit it to only six uses per season.
There had previously been no limit to how many times a past Cup champion could use the provisional to ensure a spot in the field each week. The provisional was set aside for the 43rd spot in the race to the most recent former champion who did not qualify based on speed.
Now, a driver can only use the spot six times in a year, and the limit also applies to the entire team so that a car owner can’t use multiple past champions in the course of one season.
NASCAR highway accident
SIERRA BLANCA, Texas (AP) – A Roush Racing car hauler crashed into a motor home, setting off a chain-reaction accident involving other vehicles on a far West Texas highway Wednesday.
The hauler, carrying two Nextel Cup race cars, crashed into a motor home, causing it to hit a tractor trailer, which then hit a second big rig.
Boxing
Spadafora to fight March 7
PITSTBRUGH (AP) – Former IBW lightweight champion Paul Spadafora will fight for the first time this year March 7 at the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Spadafora’s opponent for the junior welterweight fight will be announced later.
Spadafora (39-0-1) ended a 21/2-year absence from the ring with a fifth-round technical knockout over Jesus Francisco Zepeda on Nov. 22 in Erie. He had been out of boxing while serving jail time for the October 2003 shooting of his girlfriend outside a gas station in McKees Rocks, near Pittsburgh.
Until that fight, Spadafora had not fought since April 2004.