Friday's Sports in Brief
PRO FOOTBALL
Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said he hadn't decided whether to actually discipline players who protest during the national anthem when he formally told the team that the demonstrations could be punishable.
''We were asked to submit a form to the NFL on our overall discipline policy prior to the start of the rookie report date,'' Ross said in a statement Friday, explaining why a one-sentence reference to ''Proper Anthem Conduct'' was included in the team's official discipline policy. ''The one line sentence related to the national anthem was a placeholder as we haven't made a decision on what we would do, if anything, at that point.''
President Donald Trump, a frequent critic of protesting players, said Friday that players should be suspended for a game for kneeling once, then suspended for the season with no pay if they kneel a second time.
''Isn't it in contract that players must stand at attention, hand on heart? The $40,000,000 Commissioner must now make a stand,'' Trump tweeted, referring to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Miami's policy was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press and listed anthem conduct under behavior that could be found ''detrimental to the club.'' It was the final bullet point on Miami's list.
BASEBALL
WASHINGTON (AP) Families fight, even on special occasions. Birthday boy Stephen Strasburg and Nationals ace Max Scherzer are leaving it at that.
Strasburg was batted around by the Atlanta Braves, then engaged in a heated spat with Scherzer in the dugout during the Washington Nationals' 8-5 loss.
The Nationals delayed opening their clubhouse to reporters after the game, and Strasburg then offered no clarification for the animated discussion between him and Scherzer.
''It's part of family, man,'' he said. ''You got to be in the family.''
The dispute occurred after Strasburg, activated from the 10-day disabled list earlier in the day and throwing on his 30th birthday, gave up six runs and eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. He walked into the dugout, got a pat on the back from Scherzer and sat down on the bench. They began barking at each other, then both quickly went off-camera by leaving the dugout.
Another reporter asked if the two pitchers spoke again after the initial tiff.
''You got to be in the family,'' Strasburg said forcefully. ''You're not.''
Washington, which has lost six of nine, fell to 48-49, six games behind Atlanta and 6 behind NL East-leading Philadelphia.
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader apologized to his team after years-old racist and homophobic tweets surfaced during the All-Star Game.
Hader spoke with teammates before a game Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the first action for the Brewers since the All-Star break.
''I just want them to know that I'm sorry for what I did back in the day and the mistakes that I made,'' Hader said, ''and that they are a family to me and that they (the tweets) aren't me and what I meant.''
Outfielder Brett Phillips said Hader offered a sincere apology. Manager Craig Counsell described Hader as emotional and remorseful.
Hader expressed regrets again during a news conference about 90 minutes before the game. Teammates filed into the Miller Park media auditorium as Hader spoke, with fellow All-Stars Jesus Aguilar and Lorenzo Cain among those who stood directly behind Hader.
CONCUSSION STUDIES
MORRISON, Colo. (AP) - All seven members of Don Schumacher's NHRA racing team have pledged their brains to concussion research as part of an effort geared to reach military members as much as racing fans.
Schumacher connected with the Infinite Hero Foundation, a nonprofit that works with the Concussion Legacy Foundation. CLF has received pledges of more than 3,500 brains to conduct post-mortem research on the effects of CTE - a disease linked to repetitive head injuries seen in football and other contact sports.
Most of the research has focused on football players. Schumacher Racing is the first professional team in any sport to have all its members pledge their brains.
CTE founder Chris Nowinski says there's an urgent need for more research of military members, and this project is a giant step forward.
HOCKEY
LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Vegas Golden Knights have resolved a trademark dispute with the U.S. Army over the NHL franchise's name and gold and black colors.
The hockey team said in a statement Thursday that an agreement with the Army allows the team to continue using the ''Vegas Golden Knights'' and ''Golden Knights'' while the Army can keep using the ''Golden Knights'' nickname and variations of it for its parachute exhibition team.
The Las Vegas team first unveiled the name and logo in 2016. The Army later filed a challenge to oppose the team's trademark, saying its parachute team has been nicknamed the ''Golden Knights'' since the 1960s.
Las Vegas team owner Bill Foley and U.S. Army Marketing and Research Group spokeswoman Alison Bettencourt said in separate statements that they were pleased they reached an amicable resolution.
FIGURE SKATING
MOSCOW (AP) - One of two men detained in Kazakhstan on suspicion of killing Olympic figure skating medalist Denis Ten has confessed, authorities said Friday.
Prosecutor Berik Zhuyrektayev said in a televised statement that Nuraly Kiyasov ''confessed his guilt in the presence of an attorney'' while being questioned over the 25-year-old skater's death Thursday in the Kazakh city of Almaty.
The prosecutor didn't give further details of what exactly Kiyasov had said.
Police have also detained 23-year-old Arman Kudaibergenov in connection with Ten's death, which has prompted national mourning. Authorities released a picture of the disheveled-looking man being held by masked men wearing body armor and camouflage uniforms.
Ten was stabbed after a dispute with people who allegedly tried to steal a mirror from his car in his home city of Almaty. He died in hospital of massive blood loss from multiple wounds, the Kazinform news agency said.