Football Players

Former USC football player Armond Armstead filed a lawsuit against the school and other defendants Thursday, claiming he received improperly administered painkilling injections that caused him to suffer a heart attack and hurt his chances for an NFL career. The University Park Health Center and James Tibone, the Trojans' team physician, and an unnamed pharmaceutical company also are named as defendants in a 38-page lawsuit that was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The suit also claims that USC representatives concealed the injections from other physicians and also hindered Armstead's attempt to transfer to another school for his senior season and to be drafted by an NFL team.

DENVER -- Matt Kemp was back in the Dodgers clubhouse Wednesday morning, still sore from his head-on crash with the center-field wall at Coors Field the previous night. “Now I know how football players feel, when the wide receivers come up the middle and get hit and not know,” he said. Kemp was relieved by the results of the tests he underwent Tuesday night. A CAT scan on his jaw came back negative and an MRI exam on his left knee showed nothing more than a bruise. “It could have been way worse so I'm definitely lucky,” Kemp said.

UCLA nose guard Brandon Willis spoke for so many Bruins' football players, past and present. When asked whether he is sorry to see the old artificial turf at UCLA's Spaulding Field be replaced, Willis said, "No, not really. It was time for that to go. " The Bruins tested out the facilities' new turf field Saturday, and the reviews were raves. Of course, anything would have been seen as better. It's not just that the Bruins have new turf, which cost about $800,000, it's that they are playing on an even surface for the first time in years.

Taking a break from its training camp in San Bernardino, UCLA's football team decided to head to the bowling alley Tuesday night for a bonding and bowling session. The word spreading is that quarterback Richard Brehaut was the player with the best bowling skills, but he received plenty of competition from assistant coach Marques Tuiasosopo, a former quarterback. Of course, the Bruins hope to go bowling this season, as in a Rose Bowl. And some of their players are getting skills in being media commentators, as indicated by the video above.

New York City has Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York. " Los Angeles has Randy Newman's “I Love L.A.” Las Vegas has Elvis Presley's “Viva Las Vegas,” unless you prefer the Dead Kennedys version. San Bernardino, where UCLA is holding its training camp, is not left out. In fact, there are two songs. Christie, a 1960s group, titled “San Bernadino,” and Frank Zappa's “San Ber'dino. " Bruins football players can pick their preferred version. Is it the city's official song , sung by Christie?

More than 30 Penn State football players said they're staying in State College despite NCAA sanctions that will keep the Nittany Lions out of a bowl game for the rest of their careers. Flanked by more than two dozen teammates, seniors Michael Mauti and Michael Zordich vowed to restore Penn State to greatness after an unprecedented child sex abuse scandal that shattered the program's image as a place where "success with honor" was the rule. "We want to let the nation know that we're proud of who we are," Zordich said Wednesday.

UCLA basketball players are off to China, where they will see the Great Wall. UCLA football players are off to San Bernardino, where no one will see "over the wall. " "I would love to be in China," senior running back Johnathan Franklin said during the Pac-12 media day. "Anywhere but San Bernardino. " Franklin, laughing, said, "I hear it's going to be 105 degrees out there every day. " First-year Coach Jim Mora can only hope. If the UCLA football team has been known for anything recently, it's for being soft.

The three-day search for the man charged with a triple homicide near Auburn University ended peacefully Tuesday night when the suspect walked up the steps of an Alabama courthouse and surrendered to a U.S. Marshal inside. Desmonte Leonard, 22, was charged with three counts of capital murder and booked into a jail in Montgomery County.  He will make a preliminary court appearance Wednesday or Thursday. Leonard had been in hiding since Saturday, when authorities say he opened fire at a pool party in an off-campus apartment complex.

A hunt was underway Sunday for the man police say shot six young men, killing three and leaving a fourth clinging to life, at an off-campus party near Auburn University in Alabama late Saturday. The incident reportedly began with a dispute over a woman. Former Auburn football players Edward Christian and Ladarious Phillips were pronounced dead along with Damario Pitts. All were 20. Although no longer on the team, Christian and Phillips had remained students at the university in Auburn.