Steelers Sign Ex-Packer Kicker Jacke

The Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday signed free-agent kicker Chris Jacke to replace Norm Johnson, who refused to take a cut in his $650,000 salary and was waived. Terms of Jacke’s deal were not released.

Jacke, 31, has played the last eight years with the Green Bay Packers, who won the Super Bowl last season. But in April, the Packers drafted Penn State kicker Brett Conway and told Jacke they were no longer interested in him.

Jacke scored 820 points for the Packers, three shy of the team record.

Johnson, 37, signed with the Steelers as a free agent in 1995.

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Baltimore Raven defensive tackle Larry Webster is back with the team after being reinstated by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. Webster was suspended for a year for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.

Webster tested positive for the third time during his five-year career last summer and was suspended by the league for a year on Aug. 20.

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The time frame for the Jacksonville Jaguars to work out a new contract with quarterback Mark Brunell has been reduced by six weeks. Brunell told his agent, Frank Bauer, to end contract talks when training camp opens July 20. Bauer had previously indicated that talks would cease when the season opened Aug. 31.

Jurisprudence

Prosecutors plan to use DNA evidence against NBC sportscaster Marv Albert when they try him on charges of forcible sodomy and assault and battery in September.

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Arthur L. Knapp of Arlington, Va., has filed notice with the Arlington County Circuit Court that the results of DNA analysis would be offered as evidence at trial. Albert has provided hair, saliva and blood samples in compliance with a court order on June 5.

Albert, 53, was indicted in May on charges that he repeatedly bit a woman acquaintance and forced her to perform oral sex in his hotel room shortly after midnight on Feb. 13.

Former Washington State linebacker James Darling will spend 35 days in jail under a plea agreement that will allow him to report to the Philadelphia Eagles’ training camp.

The Eagles’ second-round pick in April’s NFL draft was booked into Whitman County Jail in Colfax, Wash., to begin serving three days of the sentence. He is to serve the remaining 32 days in January, after the NFL season.

He could have been sentenced to 20 months in prison if convicted of first-degree felony burglary and three misdemeanors stemming from a dispute during a fraternity house party in May.

Pro Basketball

Bryant “Big Country” Reeves, one of the Vancouver Grizzlies’ big hopes for the future, signed a six-year contract extension for a reported $65 million.

Reeves was the Grizzlies’ first draft pick, chosen sixth overall out of Oklahoma State in 1995. The 7-footer was the team’s second-leading scorer last season, averaging 16.2 points and 8.1 rebounds in 75 games.

The Phoenix Suns signed free agents Rex Chapman and John “Hot Rod” Williams and Horacio Llamas to one-year contracts. . . . The Sacramento Kings signed top draft pick Olivier St. Jean of San Jose State to a three-year deal. . . . Phil Hubbard, a 10-year NBA veteran and most recently a scouting coordinator with the New York Knicks, was hired as an assistant coach by the Atlanta Hawks.

Tennis

Steffi Graf, sidelined for Wimbledon but making a strong recovery from knee surgery June 10, expects to resume playing in the late fall and hopes to compete in an exhibition tournament in Frankfurt in early December.

Marc Rosset of Switzerland upset top-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia, 6-4, 6-3, in the first round of the Swiss Open at Gstaad. . . . Unseeded Marcus Sarstrand of Sweden upset top-seeded countryman Thomas Johansson, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, in the Swedish Open at Bastad.

Hockey

The Phoenix Coyotes signed free agent forward Rick Tocchet to a three-year contract, adding the kind of physical, high-scoring forward sought by General Manager Bobby Smith.

No salary details were released, but the four-time all-star played for $2.18 million last season and decided against an option year with the Washington Capitals for about the same money.

Goalie Glenn Healy, who spent the last four seasons with the New York Rangers, signed as an unrestricted free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Healy, 34, reportedly signed a three-year deal worth $1.3 million a season.

Yachting

Strong winds abated slightly, but six of the 31 boats remaining in the 39th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii were on a pace to break the 20-year-old record.

For the third consecutive day, a boat was dismasted. Bob Hanel’s catamaran Double Bullet II from San Pedro had its mast crumple and fall Monday night, 92 miles after the fleet’s three large multihulls started off Point Fermin. No one was injured.

Names in the News

Cuban hurdler Jose Perez has requested asylum in the United States, 10 days after leaving his team during a meet in Puerto Rico. . . . Justin Rose is the youngest player ever selected for golf’s Walker Cup after being named to the Britain-Ireland team that will face the United States in the year’s biennial amateur match in August in Scarsdale, N.Y. Rose will be 10 days past his 17th birthday when the match is played. . . . Ernie Irvan, who made one of auto racing’s great comebacks after he was nearly killed in a stock car crash three years ago, won’t be driving for car owner Robert Yates after this season. Yates said he is not renewing Irvan’s contract.