8B
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY HAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2007
NFL
Chiefs trade Hall for fifth-round pick
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dante Hall will suit up for the St. Louis Rams next season after being traded from Kansas City on Wednesday. The 28-year-old Hall filled the Rains' need for a strong kick returner. He has returned 11 kickoffs and punts for touchdowns in his seven-year NFA career.
BY JIM SALTER ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Rams' long search for a return man ended Wednesday when the team picked up one of the best in NFL history, acquiring Dante Hall from Kansas City in exchange for a fifth-round pick in this weekend's draft.
"We have filled a need with one of the top players in football at his specialty, returning punts and kicks," Rams coach Scott Linehan said. "Dante will fit nicely on our special teams and can be utilized as a receiver in certain situations."
The trade could have draft-day implications for St. Louis. The Rams had expressed strong interest in Ohio State's Ted Ginn Jr., as much for his return ability as for his resume as a receiver. St. Louis also has several needs on defense.
Hall, 28, has returned 11 kickoffs and punts for touchdowns in his seven-year career, including four (two kickoffs, two punts) in 2003. Brian Mitchell holds the record with 14 kick-return touchdowns, followed by Eric Metcalf with 12.
Hall also needs one more kickoff return for a touchdown to break the record of six he now shares with Ollie Matson, Gale Sayers, Travis Williams and Mel Gray.
Hall was the NFI's top returner from 2002-2004. His production declined the last two season, though he had one punt return for a touchdown last season, on Oct. 1 against San Francisco.
In 2003, he averaged 25.9 yards per kickoff return and 16.3 yards per punt return.
Last season, Hall averaged 22.8 yards on 53 kickoff returns and 8.9 yards on 27 punt returns. He also caught 26 passes, two for touchdowns.
For his career, all of it with Kansas
City, Hall has averaged 24 yards per kickoff return and 10 yards per punt return.
Meanwhile, the Rams have struggled for years on kick returns. Last season, St. Louis averaged 7.8 yards
A Chiefs spokesman confirmed the trade and said the team would comment later.
per punt return. Only five teams were worse. The Rams were 26th in kickoff returns, averaging 21.3 yards.
》 2008 BEIJING OLYMPICS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — Chance of showers during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 50 percent. But Chinese meteorologists have a plan to bring sunshine.
The meteorologists say they can force rain in the days before the Olympics, through a process known as cloud-seeding, to
clean the air and ensure clear skies. China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, but whether it works is a matter of debate among scientists.
Weather
rally clean the air."
In 2003, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences questioned the science behind cloud-seeding as "too weak." But China frequently uses artificial rainmaking in the drought-plagued north.
Last May, Beijing boasted having generated rainfall to clear the air and streets following the worst dust storm in a decade.
Technicians with the Beijing
"When conditions permit, we will artificially create rainfall. Rainfall is a way to naturally clean the air."
WANG JIANJIE Beijing Meteorological Bureau
"When conditions permit, we will artificially increase rainfall," she said. "Rainfall is a way to natu-
The forced rain could also help clean Beijing's polluted air, said Wang Jianjie, another meteorologist with the bureau.
patterns for the past 30 years indicate there is a 50 percent chance of rain for both the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, 2008 and the closing ceremony two weeks later, said Wang Yubin, an engineer with the Beijing Meteorological Bureau.
Weather Modification Office said they fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city's skies. They claimed it provoked a
NBA
chemical reaction in clouds that forced four-tenths of an inch of rain.
Beijing's air pollution is among Asia's worst. Officials have shuttered several chemical and steel plants on the city's edge, and many polluters will shut down — or cut back — during the Olympics. But the city also has 2.9 million registered vehicles, and the number is expected to reach 3.3 million by the Olympics, a 13 percent increase.
Pacers fire coach after missing playoffs
BY CLIFF BRUNT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
INDIANAPOLIS — Rick Carlisle was fired Wednesday after four tumultuous years as Indiana Pacers coach, following
a season in which the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
The Pacers finished the season 35-47, their worst since 1988-89. Indiana was 29-24 shortly after the All-Star break, but lost its
Carlisle's tenure was less about wins and losses and more about his struggle to manage a cast of talented, but volatile, characters. Carlisle always will be linked with Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson, the two most prominent players in
"He had a lot of ups and downs. With some of the problems we've had over the past few years, it's been tough on everyone."
LARRY BIRD Indiana Pacers team president
the 2004 brawl between Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans. That brawl started the unraveling of a team that was expected to make several title runs.
next 11 games to fall out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference. A loss to Detroit on April 3 clinched the Pacers' first losing season since 1996-97.
Team president Larry Bird said Carslile had
an option to return to the team in another capacity.
"We mutually agreed it was probably time for him to move on and us to move in another direction and put
this behind us" Bird said at a news conference.
"He had a lot of ups and downs," Bird said. "With some of the problems we've had over the past few years, it's been tough on everyone. He's been awfully good for this franchise."
In the Pacers' first year under Carlisle in 2003-04, they went 61-21 for the best record in the NBA, and the club reached the Eastern Conference finals. Indiana started the 2004-05 season in similar fashion, winning six of its first eight games.
Then came Nov.19,2004.
Artest went into the stands after a Detroit Pistons fan he thought doused him with a beverage, and some of his teammates joined in the melee. Artest was suspended for 73 games and the playoffs, and teammates Jermaine O'Neal, Jackson and Anthony Johnson were given shorter suspensions.
The remaining Pacers clawed their way to a 44-38 record and the second round of the playoffs, but Pacers fans were upset that Reggie Miller's final season ended that way.
Michael Conroy/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Former Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle talks about not returning as coach of the team during a news conference in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Carlisle coached the team for four seasons and compiled a 181-147 record. The Pacers missed the playoffs this season with a record of 35-47.
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