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Sports

September 1, 2008

Brady says he's ready to play in Patriots' opener

Tom Brady is ready to play in the New England Patriots' opener but stopped short of saying he would.

"If it's up to me, there's no question" Brady said. "I've been getting progressively better over the past couple of weeks. I'm excited. I'm excited to start the year."

Brady, who has a right foot injury, didn't play in any of four exhibition games although he said he could have. New England lost all four exhibition games.

"I felt like I could play all of them and I practiced the entire preseason, pretty much," he said. "The decision was made that, OK, Tom, you're not going to play, and I was fine with it."

The Patriots start the regular season Sunday at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. ... The New England Patriots signed two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Deltha O'Neal, two days after they released exhibition-season starter Fernando Bryant.

O'Neal spent the last four seasons with Cincinnati after playing his first four with Denver. He had 31 interceptions for three touchdowns in 116 games, including 75 starts. He also scored one touchdown on a kickoff return and two on punt returns.

Pro football: NFL players to wear patch in honor of Upshaw

NFL players will wear a uniform patch this season to honor NFL Players' Association leader Gene Upshaw, who died Aug. 20.

The league announced that the patch will have the initials GU and the number 63, which he wore while playing for the Oakland Raiders.

Upshaw died of pancreatic cancer just three days after he was diagnosed.

Minor league baseball: Koby Clemens, 2 other players arrested

Police say the son of Roger Clemens and two other minor league teammates were arrested and briefly jailed after a disturbance at a restaurant in Salem, Virginia. In a news release, police said Koby Clemens, Mark Ori and Jimmy Goethals were arrested after police were called to the parking lot of a restaurant in this western Virginia city. Clemens and Ori were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Goethals was arrested and charged with assault and battery.

All three were held in the Roanoke County-Salem jail before being released on bond.

College football: Wells held out of OSU practice

Ohio State tailback Chris "Beanie" Wells did not practice with the second-ranked Buckeyes.

Wells, who injured his right foot in Saturday's 43-0 victory over Youngstown State, continued to wear a protective boot on his right foot.

He fell to the turf on a carry at the Penguins 2-yard line in the third quarter. X-rays after the game did not show any broken bones.

Golf: Singh wins for the second straight week

Vijay Singh made three long birdie putts and closed with an 8-under 63 at the Deutsche Bank Championship for his second straight victory to build a huge lead in the FedEx Cup playoffs. Singh, who won The Barclays last week in a three-man playoff, was one shot behind Mike Weir going to the back nine of the TPC Boston when he started making just about everything from everywhere. He made consecutive putts of 35 feet and 60 feet to build a three-shot lead, then rolled in another putt from 35 feet on the 17th.

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