NEW YORK (AP) -- The NFL will open the regular season next week with replacement officials and said it was prepared to use them ''as much ... as necessary'' afterward.
Replacements will be on the field beginning Wednesday night when the Dallas Cowboys visit the New York Giants in the season opener, league executive Ray Anderson told the 32 teams in a memo. Negotiations are at a standstill between the NFL and the officials' union.
The NFL Referees Association was locked out in early June and talks on a new collective bargaining agreement have gone nowhere. Replacements have been used throughout the preseason,.
NEW YORK (AP) - Brett Favre's lawyers say he shouldn't have to respond to some embarrassing claims about his personal life that two massage therapists are making in a lawsuit.
The massage therapists say the New York Jets blacklisted them after they objected to suggestive messages the legendary quarterback allegedly sent to another woman. Among other things, they asked him to admit or deny he solicited women for sex trysts and sent explicit photos to a former Jets game hostess. The request was part of a procedural step in their 2011 lawsuit.
Favre's attorneys filed papers this week asking a court to say he doesn't have to answer.
TENNIS
NEW YORK (AP) - Kim Clijsters is heading into retirement after losing 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) to 18-year-old Laura Robson of Britain in the second round of the U.S. Open.
The loss ended Clijsters' 22-match winning streak in New York, encompassing titles in 2005, 2009 and 2010, plus Monday's first-round victory. She is still playing doubles at the Open.
Clijsters was the only woman of real significance who lost on Day 3, when the winners included No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, four-time major champion Maria Sharapova, defending champion Sam Stosur, 2011 Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and 2011 French Open champion Li Na.
Joining Robson with a surprise victory was American wild-card Mallory Burdette, the NCAA runner-up who reached the third round in her Grand Slam debut by eliminating 69th-ranked Lucie Hradecka 6-2, 6-4.
Earlier on Ashe, the highest-ranked American man, John Isner got past an argumentative Xavier Malisse 6-3, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 7-6 (9) in the first round. Other men advancing included No. 4 seed David Ferrer and No. 7 Juan Martin del Potro.
BASEBALL
HOUSTON (AP) - Roger Clemens plans to make a second start for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League on Sept. 7.
His agent, Randy Hendricks, said in an email that it's his ''understanding'' that Clemens will pitch again for the Skeeters against the Long Island Ducks. The news was first reported by Houston television station KRIV and the Houston Chronicle.
DENVER (AP) - Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp is out of the lineup a day after he collided with the center field wall but tests showed no structural damage to his left knee and jaw.
Kemp was not in the starting lineup for the Dodgers' game against the Colorado Rockies and he was listed as day to day with a bone bruise around the left knee and intense body soreness overall.
PITTSBURGH (AP) - St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina has no issue with the way Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Josh Harrison bowled him over during a violent home plate collision on Tuesday night that left the four-time All Star with neck, back and shoulder soreness as well as one big headache.
Molina said he thought the play was ''clean'' and insisted he'll be fine, though the Cardinals held him out of the lineup for the series finale with the Pirates as a precaution.
CYCLING
MONTREAL (AP) - Lance Armstrong introduced himself as a seven-time Tour de France champion at a cancer conference.
''My name is Lance Armstrong. I am a cancer survivor,'' he said to open his speech to the World Cancer Congress. ''I'm a father of five. And yes, I won the Tour de France seven times.''
Armstrong announced last week he would no longer challenge the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's drug charges against him. USADA threw out his competitive victories dating to 1998, which include all seven Tour wins.
PONTEVEDRA, Spain (AP) - Joaquin Rodriguez held a slim overall lead on Alberto Contador after finishing seventh in a time trial at the Spanish Vuelta.
Fredrik Kessiakoff won the 24.5-mile, 11th stage by 17 seconds over Contador. Rodriguez finished 1:16 behind Kessiakoff to retain a one-second overall lead on Contador, the 2008 champion.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The FBI kept a thick file on Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, but it mostly involves threatening letters sent to him and his staff years ago, and there's no mention of his former assistant Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted this year of molesting boys.
Paterno's 868-page file shows he received a series of threatening letters sent in the late 1970s and early '80s from someone who signed them A Bitter Father. The author blames Paterno for family problems that apparently surfaced after his son left the university's heralded football program prematurely.
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Hurricane Isaac forced Oregon State and Nicholls State to postpone their season opener that was set for Saturday at Reser Stadium in Corvallis.
Oregon State officials said that the game will be rescheduled.
The Nicholls State campus in Thibodaux, La., is closed because of Isaac, and classes Friday already have been canceled. The team was scheduled to take a charter flight to Oregon on Friday morning.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) - Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick took exception to comments made by former Irish running back and current radio analyst Allen Pinkett, who said a team needs to have some bad guys because it provides an edge.
In a radio interview with Chicago's WSCR-AM, Pinkett said: ''I've always felt like, to have a successful team, you have to have a few bad citizens on the team.''
In a statement before the team left for Dublin for Saturday's season opener against Navy, Swarbrick called Pinkett's comments ''nonsense.''
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - LSU coach Les Miles rode out Hurricane Isaac at the Tigers' football operations building, where he and his staff continued planning for Saturday night's scheduled home opener against North Texas.
Players for the third-ranked Tigers were given the option of staying in their apartments, at the football operations building or in Tiger Stadium.
SOCCER
MADRID (AP) - Real Madrid took advantage of quick goals to beat 10-man Barcelona 2-1 to win the Spanish Super Cup on away goals after the two-legged tie ended 4-4.
Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo put Madrid in control with goals inside 23 minutes at Santiago Bernabeu stadium to take advantage of Barcelona's poor start.
Adriano was red-carded for tripping Ronaldo as he was set to race clear on goalkeeper Victor Valdes in the 28th.
Lionel Messi curled home an exquisite free kick before halftime of another thrilling match between the Spanish giants with the league champions hanging on to beat the cup holders for the title.
PRO HOCKEY
NEW YORK (AP) - The NHL and NHLPA remained at an impasse in the latest round of collective bargaining talks as the deadline for a lockout looms.
The players' association took issue with the latest NHL proposal that commissioner Gary Bettman called ''meaningful'' and ''significant.''
Donald Fehr, the NHLPA's executive director, and his assistants have broken down Bettman's latest offering. Fehr is expected to make a counterproposal as early as Thursday.
TRACK AND FIELD
ZURICH (AP) - Usain Bolt wants to defend his three Olympic titles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, though he's undecided about plans for next season.
He's not sure which events he'll compete in during the 2013 world championship season.
Bolt has revived his flirtation with adding the long jump to his usual program of 100 and 200 meters and 4x100 relay at the 2013 world championships in Moscow or beyond.
