Arena League will pay tribute to fallen player

Thursday, April 14, 2005 | 9:29 a.m.

SUN WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK -- The Arena Football League is memorializing Al Lucas, the Los Angeles Avengers lineman who died after a game last Sunday.

A moment of silence will be conducted this weekend at all eight AFL games, beginning with three Friday. There also will be a moment of silence at all nine arenafootball2 games.

Players from every AFL team will wear a No. 76 helmet decal for the remainder of the season.

"The spirit of Al Lucas will always be wherever Arena Football is played," commissioner David Baker said. "We will constantly consider tribute activities and efforts that commemorate Al's love for our game."

The AFL trophy previously known as the Hero Award, given to the player who best exemplifies the AFL's mission on and off the field, will be renamed the Al Lucas Award.

The Al Lucas Trust Fund also has been created to aid his family.

Lucas, 26, didn't get up after a tackle during a kickoff return in the first quarter Sunday against the New York Dragons. He was pronounced dead at a hospital a short time later of a presumed spinal cord injury.

The Lucas family will hold a wake in Macon, Ga., on Saturday. Funeral services will be at Macon City Auditorium on Monday.

NFL

Kampman, a 6-foot-4, 284-pound defensive end with three years of experience, started all 16 games for the Packers last season, making 68 tackles and 4 1/2 sacks and developing a reputation as a hardworking, high-energy player.

The deal, which was completed at a closed meeting Wednesday between representatives of the team and the state, ends a months-long dispute between the two sides. It calls for the Giants to build a $750 million stadium and pay the state $6.3 million a year.

As the three other teams in the Meadowlands Sports Complex prepare to decamp for Newark and New York, the Giants have been at odds with the state over the terms of its lease, which runs until 2026, and the future of its 29-year-old stadium, which the team had argued was outdated.

Keisel, credited with six tackles last season as a backup, could see more playing time behind 34-year-old defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen.

The Steelers also signed special teams player Sean Morey and tight end Walter Rasby to one-year contracts, Morey for $455,000 and Rasby for $765,000 as well as third-string quarterback Brian St. Pierre, who played in one game last year.