Report: Irvin Wants Out of Dallas, Out of Spotlight

Dallas Cowboy receiver Michael Irvin, highly scrutinized through a year of off-the-field troubles, has asked to be traded, the Dallas Morning News reported Thursday.

The newspaper, which said it could not reach Irvin for comment, cited three sources it did not identify for the report.

“It’s a nonissue,” team spokesman Rich Dalrymple said. “That’s the organization’s response. [Cowboy owner] Jerry Jones refuses to comment because there’s nothing there.”

Irvin, 31, served a five-game suspension at the start of last season for conduct detrimental to the NFL. The suspension followed his no-contest plea for cocaine possession.

He also became the target of a murder-for-hire plot involving a Dallas police officer and was one of two players named by a woman who alleged that she was raped. The woman later recanted her story and is facing a perjury charge. There have been reports that Irvin is frustrated by public scrutiny related to the last year’s events.

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Quarterback Jim Everett was cut by the New Orleans Saints as Coach Mike Ditka moved swiftly to focus on youth with Heath Shuler in the position.

“It’s Heath’s job to lose--no question in my mind,” Ditka said. ‘It would have been unfair to bring Jim back. This is totally my decision. It has nothing to do with Jim or his football.”

Ditka said Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel is probably the backup.

Tennis

Showing signs of regaining the form that made him the world’s No. 1 player five years ago, Jim Courier defeated Switzerland’s Marc Rosset, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, to reach the Italian Open quarterfinals in Rome. Goran Ivanisevic, the highest remaining seeded player at No. 6, saved five set points in the first set and defeated No. 12 Boris Becker, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3. . . . Anna Kournikova, a 15-year-old Russian, defeated a player ranked in the top 10 for the first time when she upset Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, at the German Open in Berlin. . . . The UCLA women won their first-round match in the NCAA tournament at Stanford, defeating Tennessee, 5-0.

Jurisprudence

Arizona State fullback Jeff Paulk was arrested for aggravated assault in the beating of a man in a nightclub.

Paulk appeared in Maricopa County Superior Court later and was released on his own recognizance, pending a May 22 preliminary hearing in East Phoenix Justice Court.

A defamation lawsuit filed 2 1/2 months ago by Steve Garvey’s former wife against his second wife has been settled, a court clerk said.

Cynthia Truhan had claimed that Candace Garvey told several publications her split with Garvey, the former Dodger and San Diego Padre first baseman, was over fear of Truhan, and that she was “not going to be Nicole Simpson.”

Olympics

The leadership of the U.S. Olympic Committee voted unanimously against bidding for the Olympics in 2008, feeling it lacked the time to compete against an entrenched and growing international field.

Instead, the USOC’s ruling executive committee endorsed a bid for the Pan American Games in 2007, and asked its rank-and-file to think seriously about an Olympic bid for 2012.

Miscellany

Jeremy Williams (30-2) continued a recent string of early knockouts by flattening Jeff Lally with a big left hook 2:25 into their scheduled 12-round main event at Reseda Country Club to win the North American Boxing Federation heavyweight title.

Picabo Street, the two-time World Cup and former world downhill champion, and 1994 Olympic downhill champion Tommy Moe lead the 44-member 1996-97 U.S. Alpine ski team. Street, who had knee surgery in December, expects to be on snow by early summer. Moe, the only American male to win two ski medals at the same Olympics, is also planning to return after knee surgery.

A lawyer for Mary Slaney, the most prominent distance runner in U.S. history, confirmed that Slaney was being investigated for possible drug use at the Olympic trials.

The lawyer denied that Slaney used drugs and said she had passed three random tests since high levels of the male hormone testosterone were found in her system at the Atlanta meet last June.

Pacific’s Dan Reichert was selected by the Big West Conference’s eight coaches as the league’s pitcher of the year, and Andy Dominique, a third baseman, was chosen the player of the year. Long Beach State’s Dave Snow was honored as the conference’s coach of the year for the second consecutive season.

An official of the U.S. Taekwondo Union says he is confident an Internal Revenue Service audit of the organization’s finances will uncover no wrongdoing.