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SPORTS^^e Charlotte $Oitt
Thursday, July 6, 2006
Panthers hire Gregory to NFL politcy bans amphetamines
run collegiate scouting
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Carolina Panthers last
week hired
Don Gregory
from the
Kansas City
Chiefs as their
new director of
college scout-
t I itig-
Gregory who
spent the last
five years working as the
Chiefs’ national scout,
replaces TDny Softh, who
recently was named vice
Gregory
president of player personnel
for the St. Louis Rams.
Gregory aloi^ with general
manager Marty Humey and
head coach John Pox, wiU
have a big say in whom the
Panthers select in future
NFL drafts.
“Don is a very experienced
and talented evaluator who
will fit in perfectly within our
organization,” Humey said.
“He will be a great addition to
what we feel hke is an
extremely talented college
scouting department.”
Gregory served as a nation
al scout in the South and
Southeast for the Chiefs.
Before joining the Chiefs,
he held the post of player per
sonnel director for the XFL’s
‘Las Vegas Outlaws in 2001.
Prior to the XFL, Gregory
worked as a scout for the San
Diego Chargers fi'om 1995-
99. A graduate of Whitworth
College, Gregory has also
worked in playm- personnel
for the CPUs Edmonton
Eskimos and Vfinnipeg Blue
Bombers.
INDEPENDENCE SOUVENIR
Continued from page 1C
coordinator, and wide receivers and quarter
backs coach at Albany State, and running
backs coach and offensive coordinator at
Jackson State.
Asberry was offensive coordinator at
Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale,
hftss-, before taking the offensive coordinator’s
job at NCCU two years ago.
“Offensively we’re going to score, score,
score”, said Asberry in describit^ his philoso
phy “I’m going to have my hands on every
thing. Eveiy time we touch the football, we’re
goir^ to try to score.”
Although this is his first head coaching job,
Asberry has served imder some legendary
“Coach John Shannon, WC. Gordon, Robert
Hughes and James Carson fall at Jackson
State) helped me be the coordinator that I am
today”, he said.
Asberry also worked imder Hampton Smith
at. Albany State for two years, helping the
Golden Rams earn their fifth consecutive SIAC
football championship in 1997.
Asberry acknowledged that although he has
WSSU aims to stay in D-I
Continued from page 1C
“an athletics president.”
He or she could decide that athletics is not
that important, i.e. Fayetteville State
President T.J. Bryan. Or they could look at
some HBCU history and question if it’s worth
it.
Think it can’t happen? Ask NCCU. The uni
versity left the CIAA for the MEAC in 1972,
then returned when things got too tou^ in
1980. NCCU Chancellor James Ammons came
fix)m D-I Florida A&M so you knew it was only
a matter of time for the Eagles to take the
plur^ again.
Savannah State, which moved up to D-I fiom
the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference three yearn ago, has become the
lai^hir^tock of D-I. Two years ago, the men’s
basketball program didn’t win a single game.
They did manage to win two last season.
The Tigers’ appfication for membership in
the MEAC has been put on hold. Not a good
sign. SSU should return to its SIAC roots, but
President Carlton Brown’s ego won’t allow
that. He’d rather be laughed at than be com
Go beyond the score
tlTIie Cliarlotte ^osit
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - The NFL has
toughened up its drug policy
adding amphetamines to the
list of banned performance-
enhancers starting this sea
son.
Amphetamines were previ
ously listed as a “substance-
abuse drug,” but are mow in
the same category as steroids
and other enhancers that
carry much stror^er penal
ties. This season wUl sawe as
a transition year, where a
first positive test would bring
a warning and put a player
into the dn^ program
But in 2007, amphetamines
will be tested for on a regular
basis. A first positive test wUl
result in a four-game suspen
sion, the same penalty now
levied for positive steroids
tests. Major League Baseball
also started testing for
amphetamines this season as
part of its steroids policy
Harold Henderson, NFL
executive vice president of
labor relations, said the
league and union worked
together to toughen the
penalties for amphetamines
after the Congressional hear
ings last year on drugs in
sports.
“We never looked at it as a
competitive issue for our
players, like steroids and
other things, but realized the
possibility that some players
would use it for a gameday
edge,” Henderson said
Ihesday in a phone interview
finm San Diego, where he
was attending the annual
rookie symposium. “The
union quickly agreed with
us.”
The two sides worked
together to hammer out a
deal to put into place as part
of the new collective bargain
ing agreement.
“We were all working
together during the
Congressional investigation,”
Henderson said. ‘We learned
about it, we wondered vrith
each other whether this was
an issue to be concerned
about. In the abundance of
caution, we probably should
be. We all imderstood we
needed to do something
here.”
In addition to the ampheta
mines change, the penalty for
a second positive test for per
formance-enhancing drugs
was increased finm six to
eight games. A third positive
test still carries a one-year
suspension.
Sports reporting you can put
your hands on
tKIje Cliarlotte
PHOTO/CURTIS WILSON
Charlotte Knights manager Razor Shines tosses a baseball to fans after stopping a foul ball
during the Knights’ 2-1 win over Norfolk Tuesday at Knights Stadium. Charlotte earned a split
in a doubleheader played before a franchise record 14,952 fans. The Knights are 55-30, good
for first In the International League South Division.
N.C. Central coordinator heads
across Triangle to lead Shaw
a short timefi'ame to get started, he won’t be
startup fi’om scratch.
“I got a chance to watch some film, and I saw
a lot of good things out there”, he said. “I saw a
lot of young men with a lot of character, and
I’m going to try and buff that and make it a lit
tle bii^tei’.”
Ii’onically Asberrys first game wfil be against
his old team when the Bears face the Eagles
Sept- 3 in Durham.
“North Carolina Central gave me an oppor
tunity to get back into a four-year system so
people could see my work,” he said. ‘T appreci
ate Coach Broadway giving me an opportunity
to come in and lead his team, but now it’s my
time and Shaw University will not be second to
any school in the CIAA as long as I’m head
coach.”
Although Asberry’s departure puts him in a
crunch, Broadway said he’s proud of his accom
plishment.
“It’s a good position to be in when you start
losir^ guys to head coaching jobs, that means
you’ve got good staff,” he said. “The timing is
bad, but you’ve got to be happy for him.”
H.L. McCrorey
Family YMCA.
petitive.
Then there’s Morris Brown. Their pitifial tra
vails since moving up to D-I was enou^ to
inspire a feature in Sports Illustrated.
The poster child for doing it right belongs to
Hampton. The Pirates have been quite suc
cessful on the D-I level, but that’s a rarity -
especially for HBCUs.
So Rams fans, don’t coimt those MEAC
chickens just yet.
‘Even though Dr. Martin is our leader and he
initiated the move, our decision to go to
Division I was an institutional decision. And
the institution must go on,” Athletics Director
Chico Caldwell said. “I think it will be kind of
a travesty for Dr. Martin, who has done as
much to this university as he’s done, that we
decide to go back. He set a vision and it’s been
good for the university It is in our best interest
to see that vision through.”
That vision could get blurry once a successor
is named.
BONITTA BEST is sports editor at The
Triangle Tribune in Durham.