Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Buccaneers kicker Connor Barth Will miss the upcoming season after tearing his right Achilles tendon while playing in a charity basketball game last week.

The Buccaneers quickly signed veteran Lawrence Tynes to replace him. Barth Will, 27, will be placed on the reserve/non-football injury list. Barth Will has already had surgery and will spend the season rehabilitating.

Los Angeles —- Just like he did with the Miami Heat, LeBron James went back-to-back at the ESPYS

Almost one month after leading the Heat to their second consecutive championship, James again won the ESPY for Best Male Athlete, topping Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera, Minnesota Vikings’ running back Adrian Peterson and Olympic champion swimmer Michael Phelps at the 21st awards show on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

James also grabbed ESPYS for Best Championship Performance and Best NBA Player.

The first of what’s likely to be many honors for recently retired Ravens star Ray Lewis comes on Sept. 22.

Lewis, who currently works with ESPN, will be inducted in the team’s Ring of Honor on that date during a Week 3 game with the Texans, according to the team’s website. Lewis retired at the end of last season after helping the team win its second NFL title. He played 17 years in the pros and ranks among the top linebackers in league history.

The team has already announced a statue in Lewis’ honor will be erected outside the stadium. But that won’t happen before the Ring of Honor. Also, Lewis is a certain to make the NFL Hall of Fame when he’s eligible in five years.

Lewis will join five other Ravens players in the Ring of Honor: Jamal Lewis, Matt Stover, Jonathan Ogden, Peter Boulware and Michael McCrary. Former majority owner Art Modell and eight members of the old Baltimore Colts team are also in the Ring of Honor.

American 100-meter record holder Tyson Gay has tested positive for a banned substance and says he will pull out of the world championships next month in Moscow.

Gay isn’t revealing the substance, but he says he was notified by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Friday that a sample came back positive from an out-of-competition test May 16. He says he will have his “B” sample tested soon.

The 30-year-old Gay fought back sobs in a phone conversation Sunday from Amsterdam, saying: “I don’t have a sabotage story. … I basically put my trust in someone and was let down.”

New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz has apologized for a message he sent on Twitter in the wake of the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.

He wasn’t alone in either his regret or his initial reaction. Other professional sports athletes took to social media after Saturday’s verdict. The results were a mixture of angry, surprise, regret and condolence. Cruz sent a series of tweets Sunday calling his message from a night earlier a “mistake,” adding that he “never will advocate violence under any circumstances.” The original message was deleted.

Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer, was acquitted late Saturday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin after a three-week trial in Florida. Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White also issued an apology Sunday for his angry and emotional comments.

After Saturday’s verdict, Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade raised a point many people were asking. Jonathan Vilma of the New Orleans Saints suggested an alternative to immediate violent reaction. Donte Stallworth of the Washington Redskins agreed.

A Washington radio station reported over the weekend that the teams medical people are astonished at how Robert Griffin, III completely smashes every test they give him.

The tweets sent by Chris Russell, the stations Redskins reporter, on Saturday afternoon painted a encouraging yet cautious picture of Griffin’s rehab from reconstructive surgery on his right knee.

Griffin has continually said he plans to be ready for the start of camp, which opens next Wednesday in Richmond, Va.

MALIBU, Calif. — Former Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen is being sued over a fight last month at an upscale Southern California restaurant that left a man injured.

The $4 million lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court says 49-year-old plaintiff Camran Shafighi simply asked Pippen for a photograph for his girlfriend’s 12-year-old son. Instead, the suit says, Shafighi got a “brutal and unjustified physical attack” that included spit in the face, a shove, and a punch that sent Shafighi to the ground.

Sheriff’s officials, who were still investigating the incident, said Pippen voluntarily came into a station to be questioned and was cooperative. He was not arrested and no charges have been filed.

The NBA has fined the Houston Rockets for making public comments on Dwight Howard during the league’s moratorium period.

The NBA free-agency period opens July 1, but the league undergoes a moratorium on trades and free-agent signings until July 10. During that period, teams are allowed to negotiate with free agents and speak among one another for trade purposes, but they are not permitted to make public comments.

Since Howard made his decision to sign a four-year, $88 million deal with the Rockets on Friday, the team has broken that code of silence multiple times. In particular, Houston general manager Daryl Morey has made multiple public comments—both on his Twitter feed and to media—after the offseason’s most prized target informed Houston he was headed there.

Ryan Braun, Alex Rodriguez, “along with as many as 20 players” will be suspended after the All-Star break for violating the league’s performance-enhancing drug (PED) policy.

These suspensions will be groundbreaking in MLB’s fight against PEDs. If they hold up under appeal, these penalties could prove to be the biggest deterrent yet against cheating. Thanks to the cooperation of Tony Bosch, the founder of the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic, and others, MLB has found a way to punish players for using PEDs without any positive drug tests.

In the past, all players had to worry about was beating the drug tests. Now, if players want to cheat, they have to worry about whether they can trust the people supplying them with the drugs.