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A US destroyer intercepted a hijacked Israeli-managed oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden earlier today, freed the crew, and took the Houthi pirates into custody. My colleague Jeff Charles covered the piracy in this post, High Seas Drama: Another Israeli Tanker Seized by Unidentified Attackers Near Yemen.Shortly after dawn local time, the Central Park, a small Liberian-flagged oil and chemical tanker managed by an Israeli company registered in London, sent a distress call saying it was being boarded by armed men. The USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was operating in the area. According to reports, the Mason directed...

Edmonton Oilers coach Dave Tippett has said that forward Josh Archibald is out indefinitely after having been diagnosed with myocarditis.

A Texas police organization is demanding an apology from a former NFL player who reportedly claimed on social media that a cop put a gun to his face during a recent traffic stop — but the Pearland Police Officer’s Association said that dashcam footage shows the officer acting properly. The group claims that Lamar Lathon, 47, a linebacker who played for the Houston Oilers and the Carolina Panthers, lied about what unfolded in a Facebook post in which the former NFL player said that he was terrified and that he feared for his life, KHOU-TV reported. Footage from the September 1 incident,...

The topic of whether a gay player would be accepted in a NFL locker room is probably overblown. Players like teammates who can help them win. The rest is trivial. This is shown by the 1993 Houston Oilers. The Houston Chronicle ran a tremendous oral history on that wild season and team (it's excellent, check it out, as was the NFL Network's "A Football Life" episode on the '93 Oilers), and in it there's a revelation that the Oilers had at least two gay players.

He had a real name but nobody knew it. He was known universally as "Bum" Phillips and he was one of the best loved football coaches never to win a championship. Never, in fact, to play in one. His teams came close. They were one game from the Super Bowl in successive years. After the second loss, Phillips told fans of the Houston Oilers, “One year ago we knocked on the door. This year we beat on the door. Next year we’re gonna kick the sumbitch in.” Didn't happen. And he knew what to expect having observed, famously, that “There’s...

Bum Phillips, the folksy Texas football icon who coached the Houston Oilers during their Luv Ya Blue heyday and also led the New Orleans Saints, died Friday. He was 90. "Bum is gone to Heaven," son Wade Phillips tweeted Friday night. "Loved and will be missed by all — great Dad, Coach, and Christian." Phillips died at his ranch in Goliad.

Bum Phillips, who helped turn the Houston Oilers into a playoff team in the mid-1970s and was a beloved figure in the state of Texas, died Friday at the age of 90, according to his son. Wrote Wade Phillips, the Texans defensive coordinator, late Friday night: After coaching high school for many years, Phillips spent a number of seasons coaching in college, including apprenticing under Bear Bryant at Texas A&M before moving on to SMU and Oklahoma State.

CANES WIN CUP

RALEIGH, N.C. -- After this most bizarro of playoff wins, one might have expected the Carolina Hurricanes' dressing room would have been electric with euphoria, or at the very least, giddy with relief. Instead, there was quiet introspection. "What do you see in this dressing room?" defenseman Aaron Ward asked, gesturing to the oddly silent dressing room. "It's the knowledge that we absolutely escaped with a game, 100 percent by the skin of our teeth." Bruce Bennett/Getty Images Rod Brind'Amour's winning goal in the waning seconds was his second of the game on Monday night. A few moments earlier, Rod...

The Edmonton Oilers learned Monday what the rest of the NHL found out long ago. When you’re playing the Carolina Hurricanes, no lead is safe. Rod Brind’Amour scored into an empty net with 31.1 seconds to play after Oilers backup goalie Ty Conklin misplayed the puck behind the net, giving the Canes a 5-4 win in the first game of the Stanley Cup finals. Down three goals late in the second period, the Hurricanes scored four goals in less than 14 minutes to take the lead with 9:58 to play, and that was just the beginning of a wild third...

Hurricanes win Game 7, take series RALEIGH — Wherever the Carolina Hurricanes are headed, Rod Brind’Amour will lead them there. Thursday, he brought them to the brink of the Stanley Cup for the second time in five years. With a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Canes will host the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, four wins away from the Stanley Cup. Brind’Amour’s power-play goal with 8:38 to play put the Canes into the lead for good, completing yet another third-period comeback for a team that made a habit of them to...

Woman plays defense in men's game By KELLY KURT, Associated Press Writer January 29, 2005 TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Angela Ruggiero would be happy to put off her preparation for the next Olympics for another shot at playing in a men's professional hockey match. The two-time Olympian became the first woman to make more than a token appearance at a position other than goalie in a U.S. men's professional hockey game, playing defense and getting an assist Friday night for the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League. Ruggiero said Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in...

<p>Granted, there is upheaval in the world and there are battles where a great deal is at stake -- life itself. All the more precious, then, the minor skirmishes on the home front that mean a great deal in a small way and remind us of how lucky we are to feel innocent hatreds, from summer to summer, at the ballpark.</p>

You've seen them. Maybe down the street. Maybe across the breakfast table behind the newspaper. Maybe hogging the remote control for your new high-definition TV. You know them. You might work with one. You might live next door to one. You might even sleep with one. Cowboys fans. Like humidity, traffic and fire ants, they're a fact of life around here. Truth is, like cell phones, Dr. Phil and those incredibly annoying commercials for "Clarinex," you can't get away from them. Can't live with 'em. Can't spray something on 'em. They show up in the places you think would be...