Football
EMMITT UPGRADED: The Arizona Cardinals upgraded Emmitt Smith to questionable for Sunday's game against St. Louis after the NFL's career rushing leader went through a second day of practice Thursday.
"I'm getting back healthy and feeling pretty good about where I'm at," said Smith, who has been sidelined since breaking his left shoulder blade against the Cowboys on Oct. 5. Thursday's practice was his first in full pads since the injury.
FOX HIRES KEYSHAWN: Keyshawn Johnson has found another way to spend this Sunday afternoon.
No longer wanted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Pro Bowl receiver will be an in-studio guest analyst for Fox's weekly NFL pregame show.
The outspoken receiver, deactivated by the Super Bowl champions on Monday, will appear on "Fox NFL Sunday."
BRONCO SUSPENDED: The Denver Broncos suspended Daryl Gardener for one game Thursday for conduct detrimental to the team, four months after the defensive tackle tore ligaments in his right wrist in an altercation outside a pancake house.
Gardener will miss Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears.
A brief statement by the team did not specify what conduct prompted Gardener's suspension, and a team spokesman declined to comment.
COACH FIRED: Prairie View A&M fired first-year coach C.L. Whittington on Thursday after the Panthers went 1-10, including 0-7 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Athletic director Charles McClelland will handle football administration duties until a new coach is hired.
Hockey
MESSIER HOPING: New York Rangers forward Mark Messier plans to play in Saturday's exhibition game for former Oilers and Canadians but needs to get the final word from his coach.
"I'm not sure what Glen's decided," Messier said Thursday. "Glen's been talking to the league and trying to get some of those things settled, but other than that, I'm pretty optimistic."
Rangers coach Glen Sather declined to comment about the exhibition, saying he was concentrating on New York's game against the Colorado Avalanche.
The game will be played outdoors at Commonwealth Stadium, and Sather will be behind the Edmonton old-timers' bench. Messier, 42, said he wants to show his appreciation to Edmonton, where he won five of his six Stanley Cups.
Golf
LPGA SLIMS DOWN: Less is more on the LPGA Tour, which will take January off in 2004 and will stage four or five fewer events than it did at the start of the decade.
In his State of the Tour address Thursday, commissioner Ty Votaw described an LPGA Tour that gained fans and sponsors this year thanks largely to Annika Sorenstam's popularity. Votaw announced plans for the World Congress of Women's Golf next May, where more than a dozen associations will meet to discuss the sport's future.
That could include a worldwide ranking system, a tournament that would look like the Solheim Cup but would include non-Europeans, and an increased focus on cultural diversity.
Basketball
ASSAULT CHARGES FILED: Suspended Rockets forward Eddie Griffin was charged for fighting with a woman who says he beat her and fired a gun in her direction.
Griffin faces one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of assault with bodily injury, a Houston police spokesman said Thursday. Joann Romero accused Griffin of hitting her three times in the face and shooting at her as she drove away from his home in a gated community in southwest Houston on Oct. 25.
ABC, RIVERS TALK: Fired Orlando Magic coach Doc Rivers spoke with ABC Sports about working as an analyst on its top NBA announcing team.
"We're not at liberty to discuss what we've discussed with him," ABC spokesman Mark Mandel said Thursday.
After entering the season as the longest-tenured coach in the Eastern Conference, Rivers lost his job this week after the Magic fell to an NBA-worst 1-10. He was replaced by assistant Johnny Davis.
Tennis
FED CUP WINNERS: Lisa Raymond easily beat Kim Clijsters' younger sister, and Martina Navratilova improved to 38-0 in Fed Cup play with a doubles victory Thursday in the United States' 4-1 semifinal defeat of Belgium.
Raymond clinched a spot in the Fed Cup finals against France by defeating Elke Clijsters 6-2, 6-1. That gave the Americans an insurmountable 3-1 edge in the best-of-five semifinal.
Raymond then teamed with Navratilova, who's 47, to defeat Clijsters and Caroline Maes 6-1, 6-4.